Yeah, I’m pretty much on the bubble with this one.  I like a good zombie comedy as much as the next guy, and there’s no denying that the premiere was a work of art.  And it’s not as if the two subsequent episodes have been bad, or anything.  But the magic hasn’t quite been there, either.  Overall they’ve been a mix of interesting elements and stuff that’s kind of annoyed me, and if that’s what the next ten weeks are going to be like, that’s pretty much the definition of a bubble series.

That description pretty much applies to Akira too.  On a basic level, I like the design of the character – a guy whose life was so horrible that this is an improvement.  He’s so out of it that his phone is full of LINE messages he’s only now reading, because he’s been in Hell for three years.  Among those are ones from rugby buddy Kenchou (Furukawa Makoto), apparently the only “friend” Akira took the time to meet after his ordeal began.  Unfortunately those meetings seemed to consist of Kenchou bragging about his life and encouraging Akira to quit (easy for him to say), and Akira getting increasingly resentful as he gets drunker.

Still – I guess this guy would count as the best friend.  As for Kenchou, he’s been trapped in the S&M room of a Shinjuku club for three days with only water (and a zombie who’s fortunately in bondage).  Also in Shinjuku we meet a host named Shou (Miyano Mamoru – a seiyuu who knows his way around zombies) who’s given refuge to a little girl, and seems to have formed a sort of anti-zombie militia.  He’s about to bite it (pretty literally) when he’s saved by Akira luring the zombies away with a car alarm and a booby trapped car.  I’m quite curious how Akira would have known that would work to draw the zombies away – it has a strong whiff of plot convenience to it.

Now, this is one of the issues I have with Zom 100 – and Akira.  He seems to be hit with a stupid stick when the plot requires at, and be weirdly clever at other times.  Him being physically capable I get – he’s a jock.  As for the car alarm trick that was not for Shou’s benefit but Kenchou’s, and it does allow the latter to escape the S&M dungeon.  But then Akira wastes about three minutes crying about what a bad friend he is at the top of his voice, which – duh – attracts the zombies back.  I get that he’s not the smartest guy in the room, but Akira having no sense of context gets seriously irritating sometimes.  That whole bit was just really dumb.

That was pretty much the turning point of the ep for me – everything before I liked a lot, and the rest of it fell flat (which Kenchou almost did).  Like, how did Kenchou’s clothes magically fly off him when he was jumping between buildings?  Yes, it’s a comedy, I know.  But a comedy has to have ground rules, just like any other genre – especially one driven by a plot like Zom 100’s.  And it has to choose what sort of comedy it is, at least to an extent.  A lot of stuff just seems to be happening for its own sake here, and that’s not a good look.

The next couple of weeks are probably going to tell the tale, but it’s looking increasingly likely that the brilliance of the premiere was a one-off.  But a show that has that in it always has the potential to repeat it, by definition – and that basically forces you to give it a longer leash than you otherwise would.  It’s the hope that gets you.