"I'm just so happy to have a day off of work!" This would have been my anime of the year of season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen didn't come out the same year. This is actually perfect at what it is going for and I can't believe I haven't heard more people talk about it. It has everything going for it from the animation, comedy, voice acting, action, and especially the characters. This came out of nowhere on Netflix and I heard basically nothing about it until like a week ago, and I binged the entire thing as soon as it all got dubbed. Zom 100 is the story of Akira Tendo (Zeno Robinson) as he and three others create a bucket list of things they want to do during the zombie apocalypse before they eventually get turned into zombies. Akira is the greatest example of Japanese work culture being worked to death and basically being a zombie before the actual apocalypse occurs, and when it does actually happen he finally feels alive and cares about life. I absolutely adore the way this is illustrated in the first episode, creating one of the most visually appealing tonal changes I've ever seen. Along his journey he meets up with his college best friend Kencho (Xander Mobus), a girl he likes Shizuoka (Abby Trott), and a German girl who's a very big Japanese culture enthusiast Beatrix (Laura Post). The story follows these four as they travel around the zombie ridden world and do everything they've always wanted to do but never had the freedom or the gall to actually do it. It's an insanely feel good story that is wonderfully animated by the studio Bug Films, and it's also their debut anime which is crazy to me that it's so well done. It is filled to the brim with flair and color that really makes it stand out from the crowd. Just in the first episode when Akira is in his boring desk job its very dull and bland visually, but the second he realizes he's free there's this absurd amount of color that floods the screen and really shows the amount of fun he's having. This is also demonstrated with the zombies themselves, because the blood that comes from the zombies whenever they're killed is almost never red. It's a wide variety of different colors from pink, teal, purple, green, and orange. It's such a vibrant display that really makes it so much more fun to watch. It's also filled with some of the best comedy I've witnessed, if a series manages to make fart jokes and nude jokes funny again it has to be doing something right because there is no reason it should've been that hilarious, I genuinely couldn't not laugh every single episode. Also the fight scenes are beautifully animated, there's this one fight halfway through that had some of the most gorgeous visuals I've ever witnessed in an anime and I loved it, the way they animated the electricity and the water and the burst of color as the punch landed was amazing. This show also includes some of the coolest zombie archetypes I've ever seen, there's a literal zombie shark with legs in this and it's awesome. Overall Zom 100 is a blast and absolutely top three anime's of 2023 for me. It has the perfect mix of comedy, action, and seriously topics that make it super engaging and enjoyable to watch. I highly recommend this because it is equal parts the funniest thing I've watched in years and one of the most interesting things I've watched in years. Wonderful animation with really good characters and a great storyline to go with it. I don't think there's anything negative I can say about the show, in my opinion it is unequivocally perfect at everything it is supposed to be. Peak anime. (Also Bryce Papenbrook plays the main "villain" of he season and he was by far my favorite character and had the best design to him as well, plus his motivations and development made him a standout for me).
Review of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
