English Dub Season Review: Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Season One

The popularity of zombies as horror creatures has certainly fluctuated in the past few decades. They started out seeming fresh and new, then got played out, picked up steam again, and then became overexposed to the point most were sick of them. And yet their ability to encapsulate issues of whatever period they’re written in remains intact, so long as writers know what to do with them. Make them slow and lumbering, upgrade them to relentless hunters, or even turn them into fungus, but the iconography of a horde of mindless creatures surrounding and never ceasing until they get you will always last. On that note, we have Zom 100 – Bucket List of the Dead, which dares to ask the question “What if the Zombie Apocalypse happened…and that meant you didn’t have to go to work tomorrow?” Enough of this doom and gloom about the collapse of society as we know it, this story follows Akira Tendo, a disillusioned 20-something who has found himself in an abusive and overworking company until the zombies start biting, which gives him the golden opportunity to live the life he has always dreamed before he becomes one of the walking dead.

The first half or so of the first season is most definitely the show’s strongest. As we see Akira navigate this new horror movie world, we see also see his newly regained sense of optimism and wonder tested. There’s only so much smiling and laughing you can do in the face of societal collapse before you start looking deranged, but Akira quickly shows that he is not unaware of his circumstances. He still maintains his sense of self-preservations, even if he understands the world has become much more dangerous, but he’s just not going to let whatever time he has left pass him by, especially as he begins seeing people die around him. Along the way, he reconnects with his old college friend Kencho and meets pragmatic survivalist Shizuka and, later, western tourist Beatrix, culminating in Akira’s new friendships helping him to overcome a confrontation with his old boss. The second half, while still fun and exciting, doesn’t quite have that same narrative punch, focusing on Akira and pals going to his home village and fighting off some evil counterparts, which definitely wasn’t helped by the last three episodes taking months to come out. Still fun, it just definitely dropped off noticeably by the end.

But overall, I do think this is a pretty strong set of twelve episodes with a fresh and fun take on what could have been a pretty rote tread through a zombie trope checklist. If you got your life messed up by the pandemic, you might be able to relate quite a bit to what Akira’s going through (although ironically I know someone whose situation was so close that he actually refuses to watch the show, go figure), but it also helps if you’ve just had a bunch of things you have never gotten around to do but need the right push. Zombie stories often focus on how hopeless situations can get when a natural disaster or terrible disease gets out, but in the long run, they generally point towards a way things can get better, as long as you keep going. So, if you’ve got a bucket list of your own, don’t wait for zombies to start eating your co-workers, get on it now. As for me, I’m gonna try and carve out a makeshift bunker at my local Cost-Co whenever those zombies show up. He who controls the Cost-Co hot dogs CONTROLS THE WORLD! Oh yeah, and the Coke.