Remembrance of Mortality Makes You Appreciate the Life You Have. — Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead First Impressions
During the first episode of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, a zombie apocalypse strikes Tokyo, and protagonist Akira Tendou’s sudden recognition of his own mortality is a great example of how the expression “Memento Mori”, from stoic philosophy, applies in real life. This realization empowers him to break free from his mundane and meaningless dead-end job and forces him to figure out what he wants to do before he dies.
Akira is a character with whom the viewer can relate, especially those part of a burnt-out “black company” workforce feeding the insatiable, bleeding jaws of capitalism, sacrificing their youth, energy, and time to the whims of uncaring managers and destructive corporate overwork culture.
Additionally, Akira is an example of how in Japanese corporate drone society, individual purpose, drive, and identity is lost when work subsumes all other aspects of life completely. Perhaps the zombies are a metaphor for how freelancers look at salarymen?
I love that the manga chapters and the anime episodes follow the convention of using the word “dead” in the titles, just like High School of the Dead did thirteen years ago.
The animation from new studio Bug Films looks excellent — from the contrasts in the colors used (depending on the mood of individual scenes) — to the background music that emphasizes the direction.
Additionally, I enjoy how we see Akira’s deranged perspective on how his newfound freedom feels, to the point he perceives blood as splats of multicolored painting everywhere he looks, while he’s experiencing an endorphin rush. It reminds me of Yuki Takeya in School-Live, how people tend to romanticize relations or situations as a self-protection mechanism.
Shizuka Mikazuki is a great supporting character who works as a catalyst to make Akira more self-aware about the zombie apocalypse, to make him react and detach himself from his romantic view of the situation. In addition, she is a practical badass who sets herself apart from Akira by establishing the difference between trying to survive the crisis, and accepting death. By focusing on her as a narrator for a while instead of Akira, her introduction becomes a wonderful way to foster empathy for her as an individual, rather than merely a companion. Furthermore, her level of awareness of the situation makes you question how far she has prepared in advance for Judgement Day.
Also, I have no issues with anime censorship because the exploration of the topics and the messages is the same as in the manga, which of course any self-respecting person of culture should endeavor to read!
Zom 100 deeply connects with me not only as a fan of survival horror, but also as a human who has experienced first-hand many times how hard it is to let go or say goodbye to a time in my life when everything went so well it felt like a utopian dream suddenly come true. I watched these times become a dystopian nightmare and could do nothing about it, back when “Hinamizawa Syndrome” was a thing all over the news.
First, I lost a job that I loved due to mental and physical exhaustion, not related to the intervention of Oyashiro-sama from Higurashi of course, but to the fact that my boss and coworkers saw me as a tool to let them slack off while I handled most tasks to the point that a vacation was almost forbidden. Then, my girlfriend and I went separate ways because our goals and objectives diverged. Finally, my job search was a rollercoaster between the good, the bad, and the weird — between transitioning positions and companies over a 3-year period (that felt much longer), and meeting people that frankly belonged in a mental hospital.
However, I have no regrets because I was able to do things like writing this article by pushing myself through those learning experiences, to think in English while writing, just like when I speak to salesmen, clients, or executives from other countries in my line of work, which is what Akira does with each item on his list.
