Review of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
The first episode of this show was absolutely phenomenal. It's about the MC feeling overworked, exhausted and stressed out to the brink of feeling suicidal, all of this because he sees himself trapped in a toxic unfulfilling working environment. So when a world-ending event such as a zombie apocalypse proves to be a golden opportunity for our protagonist to free himself from the shackles of his workplace and start doing the things he always wanted to do, you know you're in for something special. This goofy idea combined with the silliness of the scenes where the protagonist comes out unscathed while he rides his bikeall giddy with excitement seemingly ignoring the hordes of zombies following him makes you expect a light-hearted comedy akin to Shaun of the Dead. The great visuals and animation combined with a nice soundtrack only increase the expectations for the following episodes.
Well, I'm disappointed to say that the show manages to shatter most of the expectations by the time you reach the fourth episode. Frankly, this anime loses its identity because it tries to do many things (sometimes contradictory things) while doing none of them well enough. It still tries to be "funny" but less than the initial expectations lead you to believe and the humor doesn't land most of the time, at least for me. It's still plagued by this thing where anime creators think their audiences are comprised of toddlers who think comedy is loud screaming and goofy faces. But to the show's credit, this thing doesn't even come close to being as obnoxious as in other shows like Demon Slayer.
Something I don't understand is the fact that this show sprinkle in moments that are supposed to be sad, dramatic or wholesome, which absolutely ruin the overall light-heartedness of the anime. Isn't this supposed to be a comedy? This moments alongside some scenes where characters talk about their view on life aren't even something particularly amazing if you consider them in a vacuum. They're done as well as any generic anime does it when it tries to be emotional.
The characters are serviceable except for a weeb who's introduced later in the show and can't shut up about how much she loves Japan and its culture, which really grinds my gears. Sometimes I wonder if anime was to be invented in some obscure country instead of Japan, like Moldova, would we have as many weebs that are obsessed with Moldovan culture?
This show sets the bar very high in the first episode only to subsequently deliver a mediocre experience that doesn't have a solid grasp on what main point it wants to accomplish while being often unfunny and straight-up boring to watch.