Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Bucket List of The Dead, Zombie 100: 100 Things I Want to do Before I Become a Zombie

Japanese: ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと～

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Oct 19, 2018 to ?

Genres: Action, Comedy, Horror, Supernatural, Suspense

Themes: Adult Cast, Survival

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Sunday Gene-X

Authors: Aso, Haro (Story), Takata, Koutarou (Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.65¹ (scored by 12,924 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2049²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #357

Members: 46,817

Favorites: 673

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Sep 16, 2021

obskyr

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Well-written

Preliminary (24/? chp)

Zom 100 has one of the best first volumes that I have ever read. I laughed out loud many times, and those laughs were interspersed with bursting out into tears – no exaggeration – as many as three times in the span of four chapters.

The first volume sets up a zombie apocalypse story like no other: it's unbridledly optimistic. Faced with the end of the world, our main character is overjoyed that he doesn't have to work anymore. With people scared and dying around him, he goes on foolhardy excursions with an unbreakable smile on his face. He's content with life as long as he ... can have a beer. He encourages his best friend to pursue his dream now that he's out of a job. The mix of overwhelming adversity, and then silly irreverence, cheerful optimism and the romance of the little things in life… It's truly special. I've never experienced a story quite like it – by eschewing zombie drama in favor of extolling the joy of life, it brings a refreshing, uplifting perspective that really resonated with me.

Alas, it wasn't meant to last. In volume 2 and on, the story turns into oil and water: it toggles back and forth between being a straight-laced B-movie-style zombie drama – angst, action, and astonishingly ludicrous villains – and having the main characters doing sundry activities with nary a zombie in sight. No longer are the two elements mixed and contrasted, but rather separate. Neither element is particularly interesting on its own.

After straying from its winning recipe, cracks start to show elsewhere. The characters' motivations turn to the more stereotypical “save the world”-type fare, robbing the story of its uniqueness. The manga is considerably “trashy” throughout – licentious and fanservicey – and with as low a tolerance for tastelessness as I have, the fact that I loved volume 1 despite this says quite a bit… but having lost that je ne sais quois, that starts to grate as well. Moments that focus on the bucket list are still occasional bright points, but by and large, the manga quickly loses its spark, loses its indomitable joie de vivre, and loses my enthusiasm.

Zom 100 won't stick with me as an incredible story, but I will keep volume 1 on my shelf as a token of the time I was reminded that even in a tired genre, there is always potential for a fresh, beautiful perspective.

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As an aside, the translation (by Nova Skipper; edited by Karla Clark) is absolutely stellar. I was taking notes; that's how good it is – absolutely buy volume 1, half because it's fantastic, and half to raise your bar for how natural and funny a translation can be while still maintaining accuracy.

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Oct 20, 2023

JohnTBrooke

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (56/? chp)

With a growing awareness of toxic work culture and a need for more humane working conditions globally, along with the ongoing reaction against the terrible and near inhumane work cultures in East-Asian countries like Japan and Korea, of course, a story like Zom 100 would emerge to become such a force among the anime and manga community.

Zom 100 is set during the onslaught of a zombie apocalypse. But not necessarily the kind of zombie apocalypse that you would find in a horror movie where nihilism and despair reign supreme. This one subverts that trope to show that perhaps, one's happiness can only come from ... being free, from the destruction of societal rules and norms as the zombie apocalypse rides on to completely overturn all the toxicity built by people and systems. That turns ordinary people into mindless beings made to work and work and work. We can see this in our central character, Akira who, before the zombie apocalypse was an office worker stuck in a toxic work culture, constantly plagued by the need to be productive and meet deadlines. But upon the destruction of society, as zombies overrun the streets, he suddenly finds himself free to pursue the pleasures of 'ordinary' life and find meaning in his existence.

This is clearly some form of critique of capitalism, of the system's explicit need to constantly strive for productivity and numbers in spite of human working conditions and suffering. It is only when this system comes crashing down that our protagonist can live life as a human being, to become someone he sees fit of being. It's kind of fitting that Zom 100 would take on such an angle especially when you consider how the advent of the zombie genre in popular consciousness, Romero's Night of the Living Dead has been reinterpreted into a grand social critique of capitalism, of the mindless, endless consumption that comes about from unbridled, unrestrained capitalism.

Unfortunately, apart from the opening chapter and an arc about 20 chapters down the line, the social critique, drops away for a more conventional comedy-action adventure where the mindset of 'YOLO' and 'Not giving up on your dreams' takes centre stage. As a result, while the first few chapters were enthralling and quite thought-provoking, the rest of the chapters end up feeling more like your typical Shounen series.

Humour definitely takes the front seat for the manga, with most of the zombies being played for comedy more than anything. As the story continues, this approach deepens greatly with the ways our central characters take on the challenge of zombies becoming all the more absurd. (Why does Kencho have to get butt naked? Why does that raise the zombies agro? Why is running away from a horde of zombies a recurring comedic gag?)

Yet, despite this emphasis on comedy above all else, the manga still has aspirations of drama and tragedy. Consider how much of the conflict in the story revolves around the threat of the zombies (zombies attacking a village, zombie bites, etc.). As the story bounces back and forth between treating the zombies as both comedy and conflict, where we see the characters take on the zombies in such absurd ways whilst still trying to impress on us how dangerous the zombies are, the tension surrounding zombies as a legitimate source of conflict becomes negligible. When a bad situation surrounding zombies pops up, you don't fear for the characters' survival or anything else. Just like how Kencho is able to run away from the zombies butt-naked basically all the time, you know that the main characters will always survive regardless of the zombie horde numbers that are thrown at them.

While this might be fine as superficial engagement for the reader when the manga pivots its intent and tries to deliver a dramatic narrative -- things like people losing loved ones to the zombies, it all just falls flat and doesn't have the emotional punch that the manga thinks it has.

Other conflicts that are not centred on zombies are also done with such an absurdist touch with the characters resolving the conflict through comedic ways (e.g. luring zombies by doing some kind of Buddhist chant). Be it other humans, or mutated zombie experimentations... as long as the central characters are tackling the conflict from a more comedic angle, regardless of how great the art is, or how great the action set pieces are, tension always seems to be lacking.

All in all, Zom 100 is an interesting work. The art is great, and the characters are quite endearing (though they do act a little too much like caricatures of themselves for comedy's sake from time to time), and the variety of scenarios that the gang gets wrapped up in is actually quite inspired and entertaining to see unfold. However, as you continue to read on, you'll eventually come to realise that there are no real stakes to this whole story. So, what's the point of reading on? If anything, the manga seems more like a platform for random educational facts and trivia that while intriguing, seem rather touch-and-go. They'll be unlikely to ever appear again in any other chapter other than the arc that they popped up in. It is also quite a shame that the more heady and intriguing social critique promised in the beginning has been left behind for something more conventional and typical of the demographic.

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Dec 27, 2023

Mackenchu

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (27/? chp)

It wasn't all that, people hype it up to where you think it'll be a absolute masterpiece with hidden meanings and exciting plot but its plain and average. It was okay at first but as i got deeper in the chapters felt repetitive and boring, I felt like I could be reading better stories. I may have judged it harshly mainly due to others reviews though, I read it and felt disappointed in what I received. What really gets me is the author tries hard to make it meaningful but all the lessons are so obvious that I feel nothing reading this, it's not funny ...

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Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
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Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no KotoZom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

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Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
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