Akira’s adventures continue in the next two episodes of Zom 100! There are about thirty entries on the bucket list so far. But Akira won’t be fulfilling them all by himself.

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Episode 3: Best Friend of the Dead

When the internet starts working again, Akira is able to contact his old best friend, Kencho. A year ago, the two of them went drinking, and Kencho did nothing but brag about his awesome life. He advised Akira to quit his job since it was overworking him. However, jealous of Kencho’s luxurious life, Akira got angry. The two friends both left the bar frustrated and stopped talking after that. But now, in the present, Akira rushes to Shinjuku to reestablish contact with Kencho.

Our protagonist quickly finds his best friend and apologizes for being angry and jealous in the past. Then zombies chase them up to the roof of the building, and there seems to be nowhere to go. However, Akira jumps a long distance over to the next building. Kencho isn’t sure if he can make the jump. Moreover, he apologizes for bragging about his life and admits he wasn’t truly enjoying it. What he has always wanted is to be a comedian.

With a little encouragement and help from Akira, Kencho makes the jump. For some reason, he throws off his clothes in midair (apparently it was supposed to be a comedy bit). Akira also gets naked – because it’s totally normal for bros to be naked together? And the two of them drink the night away. … That was pretty strange to me, since neither of the men seem to be gay. I guess when a culture like Japan is extremely homophobic, it sometimes goes full circle with its masculinity, inadvertently creating highly homoerotic scenes. If nothing else, it was amusing.

Shou, the charming manager of a Host Club in Shinjuku, was introduced in this episode. He’s desperately trying to keep the building secure so the survivors inside can stay safe from the zombies. Many of Shou’s men died and/or became zombies as they fought to defend the Club. The only reason Shou survived the day was because Akira’s distraction (taping a weight to a car horn) made the zombies leave him alone. They all went toward the loud noise.

Shou is extremely cute, and voiced by the ever popular seiyuu, Mamoru Miyano. So, I’m glad he’s still alive. I also like Kencho so far. Despite not having a lot of similar experience, I was able to relate to the feelings of Kencho and Akira on the rooftop. That means the anime is doing a good job with creating emotionally impactful scenes. On another note, I loved the music in this episode.

This episode also did a good job with the theme that friends are important and should try not to let disagreements get in the way. It’s another facet of the “carpe diem” idea that Zom 100 is trying to communicate. If the apocalypse suddenly started, would you try to make up with your old friends? Would you able to? It’s an interesting little thought experiment.

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Episode 4: Flight Attendants of the Dead

I’m not too happy with this episode, but let’s start with a recap before I get to my complaints. Akira and Kencho head to Ikebukuro to acquire a big-screen TV to use for gaming. It’s something on Akira’s bucket list. Once they hit Ikebukuro, Akira and Kencho head underground to escape a truck that was about to crash into them and cause an explosion.

In one of the shops in the underground mall, they find four survivors: three young women and one middle-aged man. The women are flight attendants. Although the survivors are scared and unhappy, they eventually settle down for a makeshift meal with Kencho and Akira. Since they are in a grocery store, there’s plenty to eat, plus lots of alcohol. Akira suddenly realizes that he is fulfilling another one of his Bucket List items: wine and dine with flight attendants.

Kencho proficiently flirts with one of the woman – Maki – and later goes to sleep with her. Akira doesn’t manage to score with any of the ladies, but he does have a meaningful talk with the quieter one named Yukari. They discuss work and personal dreams. Akira helps Yukari realize that she is living her dream. Unfortunately, the conversation is interrupted by the zombified middle-aged man. He had been hiding a zombie bite. The zombie bites Yukari, who tells Akira to run. As he leaves, Akira hears Yukari telling him that she hopes he can find his own dream.

Maki and the other woman (Reika) have also turned into zombies after being infected by the man. Kencho is forced to kill Reika’s zombie, which he feels terrible about. But not for long. As Akira rejoins Kencho, he sees the big man holding a box containing a big-screen TV. With the new television in tow, Akira and Kencho drive back to their camp on the building roof. Once they are home safe and sound, Akira adds a new entry to his bucket list – “remember my childhood dream.”

As for my issues with this episode, there are a few. It felt really cheap to create a bunch of potentially interesting and cute female characters just to have all of them die at the drop of a hat. This is really just a matter of preference in writing style, but I didn’t like it.

On a somewhat related note, the effects of these events on Akira and Kencho are difficult to believe. They are barely fazed at all. Akira shed a few tears and renewed his commitment to being fully alive. Kencho felt bad about killing a zombie but was fine three seconds later. Later, he made a joke that he’s now traumatized by flight attendants. Realistically, they should be struggling more with the deaths and destruction they’ve seen.

That brings us to the heart of the matter – why this episode didn’t feel right to me. The premise of this show is that it’s comedy and horror mixed together. That’s a fine concept, and I like it. But for some reason, the mixture doesn’t feel quite right in Zom 100. It’s a little unbalanced. I’m becoming very invested in Akira and Kencho, such that I almost forgot this was supposed to be a funny show at all. I started thinking of it as a serious show that should have more serious character psychology. The switches from violence and deaths to jokes and video games are not smooth.

I’m not confident enough to say that this is bad writing. It might actually be clumsy and unbalanced on purpose and I am just missing the brilliance of it. But for now it feels like the balance of humor and thriller/horror is not right in this show. That being said, I’ll definitely keep watching because the other elements have been good. One bad episode won’t make me quit when I already care about Akira and Kencho. Anyway, that’s it for today.

Thanks for reading~

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