I guess this is going to be a season where I watch anime I have already read the manga for. That’s a very new experience for me. But I couldn’t possibly skip ZOM 100. I love the manga and this is one of my most eagerly awaited adaptations. (With the Apothecary Diaries!)
There’s always a risk when you’re looking forward to something so much, you know?
One thing you’re likely to notice pretty quickly about this post is that there is no shortage of screencaps. I took all the screencaps and when it came time to narrow them down, I realized they were all good. So much visual diversity in this episode. And I absolutely loved what they did with the colours. I don’t know if this is going to be a consistent trend in the season or if it was just in the first episode to mark the transition but either way, it looked fantastic.
Everything looked great really. I even liked the CG. It was a little jagged and I have a feeling my motion sickness-prone readers might have had a tough time with it but considering the context, maybe we were supposed to feel a little queasy. It’s augmented storytelling. How else would you feel with a horde of zombies chasing you!?!
The setup, showing us how miserable Akira is at his company, felt much more visceral in animation form. It also seemed longer to me but that might just be because I was breezing through the pages. In both cases though, for anyone disillusioned with their job, this part is almost uncomfortably relatable and sort of miserably comforting. Like yeah, everything does suck a lot but at least you’re not alone… ha…ha…
Should I have put a spoiler warning? I feel like the fact that there are zombies in a show called ZOM 100 shouldn’t be a surprise reveal. Ok, so everything leading up to the invasion is just perfectly heavy and hopeless. Exactly like I envisioned it!
You gotta love those colours. And honestly, the bright clownish hues just made everything more gruesome as far as I’m concerned. I can’t quite explain it. Maybe it’s just the jarring effect of seeing neon green when your mind is telling you it should be ark red. Or maybe I’ve just grown a little numb to traditional gore but the simple addition of colours made these scenes both captivating and oddly disturbing for me. And I loved it! That’s exactly what I was hoping for!
I did notice the black bands creating a widescreen effect. That’s also not in the manga by the way. It makes it look like everything that’s happening is in a movie! Nice touch.
I looked it up and BUG FILMS which is producing this season doesn’t have any other full credits to their name. A couple of OPs and EDs, some key animations here and there but this is their first full series and so far, I am liking what I see. You can sort of tell they have done a lot of OPs from some of the action scenes but it works really well.
One of the things that originally made me like ZOM 100 is that it’s not a parody. It really is a straightforward zombie apocalypse story with all the traditional tropes and settings of the genre. The twist comes in how the characters take in this very classic zombie apocalypse. It’s all a matter of perspective. And Akira has a great perspective. Because you spend so much time relating to his misery, you can’t help getting swept up in his glee. Rarely has a tale of gruesome death and possible complete annihilation left me feeling so optimistic. The last time was at least two weeks ago!
all in all, I had a great time with this episode. Part of me wonders if my love for the manga might be clouding my judgment but I guess we’ll see as the season goes along!
