Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 7 [Truck Stop of the Dead]

Welcome all, to another episode of Zom 100! Enjoy it, because it’s two weeks before our next, and then another three after that I think. Man the production behind this show must be falling apart. That or they are putting a lot of care into it. Still, this is anime production, which do we really think it is? Enough with that though, on with the show!

So to be frank, part of what made this post take so long was just how dull I found this episode. As a metaphor for how soul crushing and downright abusive corporate life can be, how modern corporate values affect families, how many in positions of power do not actually deserve to be there, just the whole package about how corporate culture has sucked the joy out of life, it worked. That was all successful. No question. But as a piece of entertainment, as something that was meant to be enjoyable to watch and make me feel something? It just didn’t. There was some disgust, sure. And some small vindication at the end. But as a 23 minute experience? It was more depressing and unsatisfying than anything else. At least for me.

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Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 6 [RV of the Dead]

Zom 100 is back everyone! After some production delays, which reflect in the show itself as well, we’re back with another episode. This week Shizuka join the team proper, though I kind of thought she did that last time, and immediately get into trouble with the gang. Is it any good? Well lets dive in and find out.

Getting right into it, overall I thought this episode was on odd one. With two clear halves, one comedic and the other serious, both of them solid on paper in their own right, Zom 100 fails to find a good balance. One moment we are joking around about our favorite RVs and zombies, the next we’re having abuse-based PTSD induced panic attacks. The tonal whiplash between these two was just… It wasn’t great. I feel that the episode would have been better spent making the entire thing comedic and then ending it on a sort of cliffhanger at what is currently the half way point. Give us a clear delineation between the two tones, let us see that playtime is over and give us an episode break to get mentally prepared for what is honestly some kinda traumatic shit. Don’t understand what I mean? Well lets dive into details.

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Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 5 [Hero of the Dead]

Welcome all, to another week of Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead! This is a late post no doubt, just a bit of a downer week for me. I’ll catch up eventually. Or burn out in a ball of fire. Whichever comes first really. Regardless, on with the episode!

First up we have some sad news, as Zom 100 is taking a break after this week. Most likely there are some production problems going on behind the scenes, schedules running amok, the usual anime thing. What’s interesting about that though is that this weeks episode is easily the best looking one since the premier. From a purely technical standpoint, this is the first one in almost a month to really move. From Akira running around in his super sentai shark suit to the shark itself barreling through the aquarium, the episode was filled with fun scenes. It’s the most fun I’ve had with the series in weeks, right down to the actual narrative of it as well. Part of it is that our leads seem to be on the move again, rather then stagnating on a rooftop, which is nice. But the production certainly helps too!

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Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 4 [Flight Attendant of the Dead]

Welcome all, to a tremendously late episode of Zom 100! Sorry for that, turns out I got Covid at Otakon and that’s kinda fucking me up. Don’t expect anything to be on time this week, or even necessarily coherent, cause I’m currently sitting here unable to feel my throat. Enough about me though, let’s shift from talking about one deathly disease to another, zombies!

Starting off, this episode was all about Kencho and Akira really spending some time together. Talking about their dreams, being open and honest with each other, and really just rebuilding their friendship. In that sense, it was quite nice. I like that Zom 100 is giving them time to just hang out and establish their relationship before introducing more characters. There’s no big overarching “save the world” plot nor is some kind of super serious survival thing. Hell the premise of the entire episode was going out to get an 80 in flat-screen TV to play games on! And that’s nice! Zom 100 has this levity to it that, when the serious bits do kick in, you aren’t suffocated by them. It’s a nice dichotomy, and one we see in this very episode.

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Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead – 3 [Best Friend of the Dead]

Welcome all, to episode 3 of Zom 100! This week introduces a new cast member and devotes its entire run time to his relationship with our lead, Akira. All things considered it was pretty good! So without further ado, lets dive in.

Early on I was actually a little concerned about this episode. I was afraid that Zom 100 was starting to take itself a tad to seriously, that it was leaning to much into the serious zombie stuff. Like it would transition into a legitimate horror, or that it would let Akira’s friend die and use it as a “Shock” wakeup moment for him to take the whole thing more seriously. To my pleasant surprise though, neither of these things happened. Instead it turned out the “Serious” stuff was just a background plot of an actual zombie movie, used as a joke more then anything else. And as for the friend? He survived, reborn, and is now joining Akira! It’s funny how much a change of hair color does, because I actually didn’t recognize him from the OP/ED, so this was nice.

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Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 2 [Bucket List of the Dead]

Welcome all, to the last of the new shows I will be covering this season: Zom 100! I couldn’t let it go by without talking about it, so here I am, once again taking to many shows in a season. So without further ado, let’s jump into it!

Starting off, as far as how it compares to it’s premier, I think this episode of Zom 100 is a bit of a step down. And that’s fine! Zom 100’s premier was fantastic, with some very strong visual story telling and some very striking imagery. It’s the kind of premier meant to hook you early. And it’s not like this episode looked bad either. There was some nice animation, nice shots, good story telling. It just didn’t “wow” me the same way, you know? Part of that is no doubt due to just how energetic Zom 100’s premier was, going from a dull office day job to literally blowing out the black wide-screen bars in joy at the zombie apocalypse. That kind of shit was always going to be hard to match. But I think it also had to do a bit with the episodes subject.

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Isekai Ojisan – 6 [So They Threw Me into the Basement of a Freak Show…]

Welcome to another week of Iskeai Ojisan! A bit of a slow post on my part, grad school makes my schedule difficult. Don’t you worry though, I’m not stopping anytime soon! So without further ado lets just jump into this weeks episode.

In general I think this week was strictly fine. There were some decent, and not so decent, jokes. A bit of a lore dump and even some Uncle history dropped in. But those last two are more concerning than you might think. Because while they seem innocuous, to me they indicate that Ojisan is listing dangerously close to becoming that which it is mocking. Take last weeks joke about his “gift” from God being useless for instance. Turns out? It’s actually just as OP as any other “gift”, allowing him to use magic more quickly and at a level no one else can match. The supporting cast of women, previously lampooning Isekai casts? It’s just a harem now. Being thrown in jail, getting payback, and looking like a rapist? Well now this is just Shield Hero. Considering we are only halfway into the season, this makes me very concerned.

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Isekai Ojisan – 5 [That Reminds Me, I Almost Got Assassinated Once]

It’s back everyone, Isekai Ojisan is back! It’s been to weeks without the seasons premier comedy. And what happens on it’s first week back? Well… It falls a little flat if I can be honest. Lets dive in and talk about why.

So like I said, I’m pretty mixed on this weeks Ojisan. On the good side, the jokes were mostly fine. Baseball terminology being scary, Mabel’s return, the ring joke again, etc. Even a complete repeat of making a girl fall for him, with a melting sword/heart metaphor in the background, only to completely undercut it with his own stupidity. Making her go from rejecting him to thinking she was rejected herself. It’s all strictly fine. I wish that Ojisan had some more original material this week, stuff like the Youtube ad crisis was absolutely hilarious. But this isn’t the worst rut to be stuck in I suppose. Sadly however, these were not all of the jokes in the episode. In fact there was one in particular that kind of put me off the whole thing: The rape joke.

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Isekai Ojisan – 4 [You Helped Me Through Tough Times]

Hello, and welcome to another week of Isekai Ojisan! Apologies for the delay on this, its Otakon weekend which makes for a busy time for me. This was another decent week for Ojisan, a lot of the comedy still worked, but its a definite step down compared to the last episode. Why? Well lets dive in and talk about it.

Starting off, I think this was a decent week for Ojisan. Not as funny as last week sadly, mostly do to it’s overuse of the elf gag, but still solid. The issue is just that we’ve seen her so much by this point that we have gotten a handle on their relationship. It doesn’t feel like there is much left to learn about them, so unless Ojisan starts to progress it in a meaningful way than it’s just going to feel like its repeating itself. Only each time with slightly higher stakes and sexual tension. Is watching him completely miss the point and accidentally lead her on still a little funny? Yeah, it still gets a chuckle. But not as much as it did the first time. Or the time after that. Basically the joke is becoming rote, and that’s not good for a comedy.

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Isekai Ojisan – 3 [I’m Your Un―…Aunt, Dear]

Welcome back everyone, to another week of Isekai Ojisan! This week we have more subversive isekai humor, vtubers and… wait a second. Is that a joke about the 2018 Youtube ad revenue change? And… and wholesome interactions? Oh no… I think this episode might be good. How about we dive in and talk about that?

So like I said, this episode was actually really funny for me. This is, without question, the most an anime has made me laugh in a long time. Not ironically, not because the contents were so bad it was good. The jokes were just legitimately well crafted. You know last week when I said that Ojisan’s humor was going to get old fast if it didn’t do something? That subverting modern Isekai expectations and making the same gag about the lead having magic in the real world would get old? Well it seems that the author of Ojisan had always figured that out. Because not only did it make some new jokes, though many of the old staples were present as well, but it went deeper with them than I could have ever imagined it would. Like seriously, who makes half an episode about the 2018 Youtube Ad Revenue change?

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