The Extremely Graphic Netflix Anime That’s Perfect For Zombieland Fans

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 16 seconds ago

When you love anime, one of the hardest things is sharing your passion with other people. Sure, you can hop online to dish about your favorite shows with fellow fans, but it can be hard to get the normies in your life (friends or family) to give an animated show a chance. Because of this, I often try to compare my favorite shows to their favorite movies; “if you liked X, you’ll love Y,” and so on. It’s an effective strategy, and it helped me get a couple of friends to check out a killer show once I compared it to their favorite film.

2023’s Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is more or less perfect for anyone who loved Zombieland. Like that film, the show follows a young man whose life was disrupted by a zombie apocalypse, but he tries to have fun and make the most of this brave new world. In this case, anime protagonist Akira has a titular bucket list of things he’d like to do before he dies, and thanks to the zombies, he no longer works at his dead-end job. That’s right, kids: in addition to appealing to Zombieland fans, Zom 100 (now streaming on Netflix) is perfect for anyone who’d rather be eaten than clock in on Monday.

The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life

The premise of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead will most certainly resonate with fans of Gen X movies like Fight Club and Office Space. Like the protagonists in those films, young Akira Tendo works at a dead-end job that he hates, and he worries that the rest of his life will be nothing but bleak 9-5 days working for people he despises. When a zombie apocalypse hits Tokyo, he decides to start working on his bucket list before he joins the walking dead. Linking up with several unexpected allies, he embarks on a bizarre quest to get the most out of life while everything around him is falling apart.

For me, the plot of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is great because it mashes together two insanely different genres: the tired “zombie invasion” genre and the wired “workplace satire” genre. We’ve had countless movies and shows where characters are left without a purpose once the dead start coming back to life, and we’ve had countless movies and shows where characters are left without a purpose once they attain a stable-but-soul-crushing job. To the best of my knowledge, though, Zom 100 is the only media where a character hates his job so much that he welcomes a zombie uprising as a chance to finally enjoy life. 

I Was Born A Shambling Man

Trust me: if you’ve ever had a job so bad that you’d rather die than work another day, you’ll vibe with Akira. Plus, his particular strain of optimism is weirdly infectious, and it contributes to the delightfully bizarre tone of the show. Instead of leaning into dreary survivalism a la The Walking Dead or stark horror a la Dawn of the Dead, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead leans into hopeful characters and weird comedy. This is basically a “wacky road trip with the boys” style show that just happens to take place during an undead apocalypse. 

The relentless optimism and weirdly effervescent joy of the show also influence the aesthetics of the show. You know how most zombie shows and films portray the world as a grey blur of dystopian decay? In Zom 100, the characters and setting are surprisingly colorful, with neon colors as bright as Akira’s optimism. There are scares and violence, of course, but even fight scenes are colorful and stylized (especially once blood starts spraying). This, along with the big personalities of Akira’s crew (wannabe comedian Kencho is particularly hilarious), makes this the prettiest and downright happiest show about the end of the world.

The End Of The World Has Never Been So Pretty

For all of its humor and wacky cheer, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead also brings moments of painful and poignant sincerity. Personally, I thought these moments hit that much harder because they were (especially after the show’s more saccharine shenanigans) so unexpected. It’s a difficult trick to pull off, but Zom 100 finds the perfect sticky/sweet balance, especially when Akira and other characters get philosophical about what they want from life. After watching these characters find purpose and embrace joy amid all the chaos, you might start wondering who’s the real zombie the next time you clock in, convinced that a paycheck equals a purpose.

Obviously, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead isn’t a perfect anime. Sometimes, the tonal shifts between laugh-out-loud comedy and cry-along drama are a bit sudden, and because of this and other factors, the pacing is sometimes off. On balance, though, it delivers a remarkably high ratio of great episodes to bad episodes. Plus, there are only 12 episodes, so you can knock this show out over the weekend. That’s great if you’re someone who is intimidated by shows with an endless amount of episodes (looking at you, One Piece!). Short, sweet, and utterly hilarious, Zom 100 is definitely worth your time.

The End Of The World Will Be Televised

It’s an open secret that the zombie genre is usually just as tired and rotten as its decaying villains. But every now and then, a new movie or show comes along that (ironically enough) breathes new life into this shambling genre. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, like Zombieland before it, is filled with colorful characters who refuse to let the end of civilization keep them from having a good time. If you want to have a good time, you don’t have to break out your own bucket list: all you have to do is grab the remote and watch the quirkiest undead anime ever made, now streaming on Netflix.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Score