Zombies may have hit their last real peak between the early 2000s and the early 2010s – between Dawn of the Dead, Call of Duty: Black Ops, World War Z, Left 4 Dead 2, and countless other pop culture staples, the undead swarmed the cultural zeitgeist as much as the fictional globes they inhabited — but the horror subgenre has proved on more than a few occasions that it has some gas left in the tank in this day and age.
One of these occasions is none other than Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Netflix’s latest anime endeavor based on the Eisner-winning manga of the same name, whose crisp animation and cheeky-if-morbid humor (perhaps one of the finest tools in the zombie genre’s toolbox), ensures its place as one of Netflix’s finest imports of the year.
So, what’s Zom 100‘s deal?
What is the plot of Zom 100?
Zom 100 tells the story of Akira Tendo, a young office worker whose dead-end routine has dulled his enchantment with life to a dire degree, and who seems destined to live out the rest of his days as unremarkably as the days that came before.
But, everything changes when a bio-weapon makes impact with Tokyo, triggering a zombie apocalypse that threatens to swallow the country whole.
As it turns out, the looming threat of being eaten by zombies is one hell of a motivator, because the event was just the slap in the face Akira needed to make some change in his life. Joined by his friend Kencho, the two of them set off on a series of increasingly unhinged misadventures, desperate to knock as many things off their bucket lists as possible; – growing beards, being stand-up comedians, and acquiring a flat-screen television. All before inevitably falling victim to the horde of the undead.