Akira Tendo is like a number of people: you work enough hours and obtain that dream job. On his first day there he is welcomed warmly, already finds himself infatuated with a gorgeous woman, and even heads out for drinks with his new co-workers. His enthusiasm and prospects for his new job are high. And then his co-workers, after they finish drinking, announce it’s time to head back to work. Akira is immediately puzzled.
He soon realizes his job is not the ideal one he hoped to join. All-nighters, long hours, no overtime pay, rare holidays off…everything you could think about an exploitative company, that’s where he’s at. By year 2, after experiencing his boss yelling at a co-worker and the woman he was hoping to get to know is getting known a lot more by the CEO (and he can hear them having sex too!), Tendo’s already hoping a missile hits his building. Year 3, he simply doesn’t want to go to work anymore.
But one day, before begrudgingly going, he has to pay for the bike rental space in his building. When he goes to see the landlord, the landlord is devouring a woman. Before he can question that and why the landlord looks all corpse-like, more corpse-like people appear and Tendo runs away. And just when you think he would process the situation that a zombie apocalypse is currently happening, Tendo instead says:
“What do I do? What do I do?! If I don’t get outta here…I’m gonna be late for work!!”
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is your typical zombie apocalypse manga where we don’t know how it happened, but zombies are here, slowly trudging their way around, and mucking life up. The atypical part is rather than this man attempting to survive or bother finding out why said zombie apocalypse is happening, he’s acting as if he’s experiencing vacation. So yeah, the hook is Tendo joyfully living his life after working under crushing conditions and creating a list of things he wants to do before turning into a zombie.
It actually works. The relatable part is there, as in working long hours with seemingly little reward for companies, but the idea of Tendo managing to live life so pleasantly while zombies roam Japan is one that could be called into question if this can work long-term. The fanservice (there’s one other woman Tendo meets at a supermarket, Shizuka, and a mostly naked zombie woman tied up in a bondage room at a hotel later on) could also be another thing called into question if it’ll be a consistent thing. It’s just that Tendo smiling while zombies chase him on a Harley he stole is entirely too wild and unexpected for me to not laugh it.
Other things occur that Tendo manages to roll with, like cleaning his junky room that he never had time to do before due to work while a bunch of undead roam around outside. Or him climbing down the building and asking the neighbors he runs into what they want from the store. Or him finally confessing to his crush from work that was the CEO’s side piece — said crush is a zombie. This by the way after he rugby-tackled his now zombie boss. I can imagine more hilarious scenarios occurring in future volumes, and I hope none of them actually explain how this zombie apocalypse began.
That likely will be the one thing moving forward to keep in mind about Zom 100. While Tendo takes care of his bucket list, we’ll likely get the reasons why zombies infested the world. It feels as if Shizuka works for someone important but don’t know who yet, and I’m confident she’ll see Tendo again. More characters will show up that’ll either entertain or explain the zombie situation. So it’s hard to say the manga can’t show us what led to this.
It’s just that I’m not sure I actually want to see it. Sure it’ll be weaved in as naturally as possible, but we can leave that to other zombie stories. Tendo wants to give an outdoor concert during a zombie apocalypse for some inane reason. He wants to give free hugs, I guess to actual humans and not zombies. Can you build a treehouse during a zombie apocalypse is worth finding out since Tendo wants to do that. And while there could be zombies walking around a bookstore this man wants to binge-read all 60 volumes of Three Kingdoms.
That is entirely crazy, but work has thoroughly driven his brain to mush and he wants to live it up. And with great art and comedic timing, I want to find out if he does any of these things and not whether this zombie apocalypse can be stopped. Zom 100 is certainly a good time that you won’t want to skip out on.