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.
To be positive for a moment, I would say the most interesting/affecting part of the episode was just Shizuka’s change throughout it. How she watched Akira and began to relate to him, seeing him as more than just this goof barely getting by. I think instead she began to see someone who had started to live for themselves, rather than a boss or anyone. Someone who had resolved to truly live. And that resonated with her in a really satisfying way that, by the end, made her a full member of the group rather than just a tagalong. Even with how it paid off though, the way it was presented primarily through flashbacks while she lounged around the camp didn’t make for a very interesting episode.
Meanwhile on the Akira side of things, he mostly spent the episode doing odd jobs and getting yelled at. Yeah we got this for a full episode in the pilot, but the context there is different, as the episode was establishing the entire show and was honestly shot much more interestingly. Sure, similar to the pilot the most interesting part was the end with Akira pushing back and the entire camp basically ditching the boss as they realize he’s a piece of shit. That was cathartic. I just wish how we got there had been a bit more… creative? Use some of the same techniques we saw in episode 1, the black and white with splashes of color, the sharp contrast. Really get us inside Akira’s head and set the tone. Anything would have been better than what we got.
So yeah, all in all I wasn’t particularly enthused with this episode of Zom 100. The content was fine, hell the payoffs were good. But I didn’t enjoy actually watching it. It’s like… It’s as if the story of a book was incredible, all the plot details were there, the hooks and twists were well written, but then it read like a thesaurus. There was no passion to it, no energy, nothing for me to latch onto. It was, in a word, dry. If that wasn’t the case for you I’d love to hear why in the comments down below, maybe I’m missing something important. But if this is what Zom 100 is going to be like, even with all these production delays, than maybe it’s starting to run out of steam.
