Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead recently ended and it’s one of the shows worth a watch last 2023 if you’re into the comedy, horror, and slice of life theme. Despite a show about zombies, the story telling is focused on the slice of life aspect in trying to live while surrounded by the dead.
This show was previously put on indefinite hiatus due to problems with production issues which were covered here. This delay was also the reason why I didn’t pick it up early when it was hyped for preferring to binged watch than wait weekly.
Plot:
Akira was a recent fresh grad who landed a job on an exploitative corporation where poor working conditions were a norm. Being overworked, exhausted, no vacations, sleep deprived and all the horrible experiences associated with having an unfulfilling job. He wakes up seeing the world fall into chaos due to a zombie pandemic but is overjoyed at the idea that he doesn’t have to report to work anymore.
This makes you wonder how much he has endured over 3 years of being a salaryman to get that abnormal reaction out but ok. So he decides to create a list of things he always wanted to do but couldn’t because his work prevented him from living before he turns into a zombie.
The Message:
You only have one life and you decide how to live it before you die. Carpe Diem or whatever.
The show makes these ideas the focal climactic point whenever the protagonist got caught up in a bind forcing flash backs and lessons to help them determining what they value most. The list is the corporeal representation on what they want to achieve and the experience gets better when it’s shared.
Zom 100: Bucket list of the Dead is a type of philosophical anime where it doesn’t sit you down in boring class teaching about life and pursuit of happiness. Maybe philosophical wasn’t the right term but this form of visual story telling is taking a leap to live and be happy amidst a world that reminds you of your own mortality. At its core, it’s a show that remind people that the pursuit of fun with others can lead to a fulfilling life and things don’t necessarily have to be figured out right from the start of the journey.
Characters:
It’s a shame that it’s not often do I encounter new shows that have good character development within a short amount of screen time but these people felt real due to how relatable their aspirations were. I’ll mention Akira, Tendo, Shizuka, and Beatrix here because that’s how easy it is to recall their names being impressionable characters. It’s hard for me to recall character names if there’s not anything remarkable about their archetype or play in the story. I’m not going to go into details but it’s easy to ride with their motivations.
You don’t often see an anime that focuses so much about characters driving the plot rather than the plot driving the characters. Western style of story-telling often emphasizes the individual motivations of a protagonist to progress the plot while Japanese style of story-telling puts emphasis on the plot or the circumstances the characters find themselves. The latter can be seen on Japanese horror shows where the monster or mystery is pushed to the protagonist and the protagonist has to react. While both forms of story-telling can overlap in one show, the dominant style will always be dictated by how much agency the characters have over the circumstances they are put it.
The pursuit of fulfilling the bucket list is derived from the internal motivations of each character and it has little to do with the world undergoing pandemic. They already wanted to do these things even without the pandemic. Something worth noting here is how each character reinforces one another’s will to live through fulfilling the items on the list while purposively adding more to the list. If you only had 30 things to do on the list before you turn into a zombie and managed to accomplished everything, adding more items extends your life but if these items were added by the people you care about, suddenly the goal post becomes farther but the journey makes it even more bearable than doing it all alone.
Some minor characters with a few minutes of screen time also had good character backstories which makes their loss more memorable. Even the passing antagonists had some believable motivation to screw everyone over. Despite the antagonist’s unjustifiable conduct, the show spent some considerable time building them up to be justly hated.
Animation and Music:
The opening and ending themes were sung in upbeat which contrasts the morbid mood of zombies. Even the choice of rainbow colors instead of the standard gory bloody red splatters clearly sells that this show isn’t meant to be taken in all dark. There are still themes explored that are dark but these moments were used to build tension and character building. Had Zom 100 ran with standard blood red splatters, the show would have been seen in a different impression because the subtle change in color just hits different. In some twist, it’s probably to contrast the dead theme but adding vibrant colors into the scene.
There's a live action for this by Netflix but I haven't seen it yet.
Conclusion:
I’m neutral about the idea of having a second season for this show. The first season doesn’t end with a cliff hanger and everyone already had their screen time for character development. It’s a show that I recommend for people that have lost track of what they want after being immersed in the daily grind for so long.
Thank you for your time.