For the record I’m dropping Zom 100, and this episode was the clincher. I should probably just “drop” it at that, but my obsessive side won’t let me drop a show I’ve been covering for a month that without justifying it. Especially when the premiere was flat-out a banger. I kind of knew even then (as you could tell from my post) that it was probably fool’s gold, but a great episode is what it is. It demands your respect and commands your attention, because they’re hard to make.
The series has never come close to that level since, either in production or narrative terms. And there’s evidence of trouble already on the former front, with this episode being delayed a day in delivery to the streaming services. But that’s not a big part of the decision for me – it looks okay. The bigger problem is that I just don’t like the writing very much, and I don’t think it has the legs to carry off the potential the premise has. The black company stuff was really sharp and effective – the zombie stuff is just mediocre.
First off, Akira is an idiot. His actions are those of an idiot, and not a likeable one either. He seems to be surviving by pure luck, or by magical bursts of genius when the plot demands it (yeah, I get that he plays zombie shooters, yada yada). I don’t like Kenshou either, who’s just basically a shallow zaku with a weird dream. The logic of what happens is growing increasingly ludicrous, to the point where it doesn’t meet the threshold of plausibility demanded even by a satire. And the level of the humor is growing increasingly juvenile and sexist every week. Zom 100 is actually starting to remind me of Grand Blue, and believe me, I don’t mean that as a compliment.
That whole department store thing was the straw that broke the camel’s back. All the interactions were offensively dumb (as in, offensive and dumb) for starters. Then immediately after the girls they supposedly bond with (in Kenchou’s case I use the term especially loosely) get munched, the two asshats are laughing about the fact that they scored a cool TV? Why should I give a shit about people like that? Hey – she was a check-mark on his bucket list, guess that’s mission accomplished. Not to mention, why the hell isn’t Akira making it a priority to reach his parents and find out if they’re OK? Is the flight attendant thing more important?
So, in the end, there’s not much to care about here, really. Douchebags getting wasted in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and surviving by pure luck when they deserve to get eaten. Zombies behaving in ways which show no consistency and make no sense. Laughably false emotional moments. I never particularly like dropping a show I cared about enough to write about for more than an ep or two, especially one that was capable of a first episode as outstanding as Zom 100’s. But in the end this is a pretty easy decision.
R3rok
August 1, 2023 at 9:16 pmWhile I’m quite neutral on a show, I prefer this approach compared to mourning for a side character that we’ve just met which would detract from the personality the show has set up in the beginning. Though Yukari’s death did affect Akira, seeing how he was mostly silent, his aim being better in game and deciding to fulfill his childhood dream in honor of her. Maybe MC is type of person who can quickly move on from personal tragedy while others stay depressed for long and think deeply about it. I don’t think every series needs to make main cast conventually relatable or likable for people to care, same as the characters being charming doesn’t guarantee audience attention, in the end media being interesting is most important factor.
SeijiSensei
August 1, 2023 at 9:18 pmReached exactly the same decision as you after this episode. The leads are unlikeable, and the story is silly and at times offensive. There was a reason I started watching this series, but the current episode made me forget what it was.
Guardian Enzo
August 1, 2023 at 9:26 pmDat about sums it up.
Nicc
August 2, 2023 at 2:22 pmIndeed, there was a delay for streaming services and so I watched this on Monday. There were some nice moments and Akira has shown some character development, but I agree that the bloom is off the rose. So, Akira wants to get a big-screen TV (Personally, an 8K set is a waste as there’s so little content for it and nothing on physical media) and so now it’s time for a TV run. Another trucker wants to send them to some other world, but they escape to the underground and find some survivors there.
None of those characters were in the OP and ED and so I didn’t expect them to stick around after this episode. There’s a trio of flight attendants and a salaryman, I’m guessing. Akira looks like he has a chance to check off two items in his list (Getting the TV and dining with flight attendants). A mixer with the flight attendants is… close enough, I suppose. Kenchou gets lucky, Akira drinks too much, but gets a nice moment with one of the flight attendants… Until the salaryman turns zombie and eventually gets all of the flight attendants. The fellas escape with the TV and Akira shows a bit more character growth. But, yeah, there’s not much else to chew on. I’ll give this at least one more episode as I’m guessing that’s when we’ll meet the 4th member of the main cast and see if that helps the show. Thanks for the coverage and it’s a shame that the other episodes weren’t as good, but at least the premiere was a memorable banger.
toroidal
August 2, 2023 at 5:05 pmIt’s a bit of a weird comparison, but this show sort of reminds me of Wonder Egg Priority, with a spectacular opening episode and an eventual realization that they probably won’t be able to make good on the potential down the line. The sharp reduction in expectations came in the second episode of Zom100 while it was a bit more gradual for WEP, and of course what the shows were trying to do are very different, but part of that feeling of … oh, it’s not going to happen hits strangely similarly
Guardian Enzo
August 2, 2023 at 5:55 pmI think that’s a good comparison. I like the premiere even better here, actually.
Simone
August 2, 2023 at 10:15 pmI think the general vibe the show is going for is that the MCs have fully decided that everything’s screwed anyway so they might as well live in the moment as much as possible – kind of a nihilistic freedom moment. I get the philosophy, but if anything the show makes a case for why that would be a fundamentally impossible attitude to keep unless you’re a psychopath. First, because realistically it should have gotten them killed a long time ago, and second, because it leads to stuff like the aforementioned “hey the girls we just befriended got zombified – oh well, we all gotta go one day or another” which isn’t particularly sane. I suppose it could make sense if you’ve already checked out so much you consider yourself just a dead-guy-in-waiting too, after all the MC isn’t putting any effort towards long term survival and is happy to make his bucket list about things he wants to do BEFORE becoming a zombie, implying he knows he’ll eventually be one, but in reality all you’d get out of that is twenty really euphoric minutes, and then you’re dead.
I suppose the big problem is that this attitude prevents the show from saying anything about its actual theme. In real life, we don’t just eat shit and do boring stuff because society conditions us or some such – there are pressures, but most stuff we do because we know it’ll guarantee a more long term gratification. That’s not to say that we can’t let that long term planning take over so much we forget about the short term, but the flip side is that even in a zombie apocalypse, if you want anything resembling a half enjoyable life, you probably need to start by securing a food supply, fortifying your shelter, and so on. The MCs make it look like everyone’s just some kind of gloomy party pooper when the only reason they stay alive is plot convenience. So yeah, it ends up being more like a running gag than any kind of meaningful statement.
Yann
August 19, 2023 at 8:00 pmCouldn’t agree more… First episode looked great and was a lot of fun. This is basically a different show. It looks terrible, rings false, and doesn’t even try to make sense. Yuk.