Friends are important! You probably all knew that already but I find that as time goes by, friends become more and more important. And I’m someone who found the past few years of confinement and isolation to be perfectly lovely in that regard.
Point is, if you’re going to ride out a zombie apocalypse and try to do as much as you can before they get you, it’s way more fun with a friend around!
For a second there, I thought I had clicked on the wrong show by accident. Not only did I not recognize any of the characters onscreen but the art style seemed quite different to me. It’s a tribute to my laziness that I didn’t pause the show and check… I was wrong, it was indeed ZOM 100 all along! And the slight subversion of having a host with a heart of gold was sweet. It’s little moments like this that make ZOM 100 just a bit more fun for me.
Ok, so tell me, guys, is not being able to grow a lush beard an issue for you? It’s an issue for a lot of my friends and I’m thinking there might be some sort of untapped market there. Sadly it seems that Sharpies aren’t the answer.
It’s the end of the world and suddenly Akira is missing his friends. That’s a pretty normal reaction I think. I do like the continuity here. In the first episode, during his work introduction, Akira mentioned that he played football in school. It’s just a throwaway line and no one comments on it. But now it’s brought back as a concrete setting for Akira and Kencho’s friendship. These type of details that stay consistent through the episodes makes it feel like Akira is an actual person rather than just a flat character, you know? It’s good writing. You gotta set up your stuff!
We get a pretty good idea of who Kencho is through that flashback as well. He’s the big dawg on campus. Popular and athletic but still fun to be around. And after school, he went on to have a very successful and high-paying career. He’s a golden boy. It can be tough sometimes to be friends with a golden boy and Akira did feel that pressure. But in the end, the reason this story can happen at all is because Akira is a bright-side sort of guy. Naturally, he’s not going to let a little misunderstanding ruin a friendship. He’s not even going to let the end of the world interfere!
have to admit, being a salesperson sounds awful. And I know some fantastic people in sales but for me, it would be a job likely to send me into a depression just like Kencho. Not that I think you absolutely have to lie to people to be good in sales but you do have to be a little fake, just like in most jobs for that matter of fact but slightly more. Because you’re trying to convince people to give you money and people generally don’t like giving up their money.
It feels like Kencho went through an entire character arc in a single episode. Sadly, we didn’t know him enough to really appreciate it but it’s a nice way to introduce a character. It gives him a bit of variety. And I,m rooting for him now.
Is being naked really a joke? We see it a lot in anime. I have no issue with it. I will say that Kencho’s stripping jump gave me a very Kill la Kill vibe. I think it has something to do with the shape of the star they used for censorship. As far as I know, Trigger has nothing to do with ZOM 100 so it could just be a coincidence. Even more likely, I could have imagined it. In any case, making that connection in my head made the scene instantly funnier for me!
There was also something just deeply soothing about two friends having a beer naked on a rooftop safe from zombies for the evening. It was…cozy?
Previous episodes
I think I’m starting to shed what’s been bothering me about the show and I’m starting to enjoy it more. I might get to the end of it after all and have a good time. We’ll see.
It’s interesting that you were reminded of Kill la Kill; I didn’t see the connection, but it definitely makes sense. I did think, this episode, that the show feels very… Gainaxy? And Trigger happens to be a Gainax offshoot. I just looked through the personell but couldn’t find a connection (not that I know any names beyond the very famous ones).
As for beards: shaving them is a pain, so I wouldn’t mind if the hair just stopped growing their. Ever noticed that’s the one place where most non-human apes grow less hair? What’s with this reversal? Can you imagine a chimp with a ZZ Top beard? Humans are weird.
Trivia question (I don’t know the answer): How long after zombification does hair still grow?
As for the sudden mid-air strip: I wondered what happened. I didn’t even get that this was intentional until the scene made it seem so. For a moment I wondered if he’d just shoddily dressed and lost his clothes through wind-friction through the speed of the jump. I found it more confusing than anything. In any case, I’m not sure about naked bonding but this may be a thing in cultures with public bathing. I’ve heard it’s not unheard of in ancient Rome either, though I never checked the source (and it’s too late now as I don’t remember). It makes sense along the naked=vulnerable=trust lines, I’d say. While I do enjoy friendship, I tend not to click with grand gestures, so I wasn’t really that into the scene, though I was perfectly fine with it. (I wouldn’t expect a similar cross-gender scene, to be clear. This doesn’t strike me as a show that’ll desexualise nudity much.)
In any case, expanding the roster is good for my enjoyment of the show, and I love that our protagonist has unwittingly saved a refuge for the time being (with a rather clever use of a melon, I might say).
Cosidering the cessation of cell metabolism pretty swiftly after death hair (and nail) growth stops rather quickly after death as well, not even half a day in. However, that also depends on the type of zombification any given fiction presents (magical/what type of magic, fungal, recursion, etc.). ZOM uses a somewhat “generic” zombie style of “Gauß-Voodoo-Magic driven bacteria-nano-monsters controlling the nervous and muscular systems” aka “Lyssa on crack”, meaning some sort of continuation during the decay process keeps partial cell metabolism going though in a suspended state. No matter the magical properties of our fictitious bacteria, a day at the latest after death the aforementioned growth(s) will stop either way for a lack of properly controlled energy transfer (ATPases require interactions too complex for something otherwise already decaying) not to mention regular decay processes.
Thanks for coming to my ZOM talk.
Also beards are rather annoying, agreed. Especially when one’s beard does never grow past two centimetres and then just starts itching until the damn wires have been cut. They just grow inward/into thickness rather than length from that piont onward on me. It’s so annoying. I feel like one of those custom-grown poodles.
(That process doesn’t just ‘stop’ unless the core of it has been eliminated, like with laser or chemicals; there were records (no links since otherwise my post will not show up again) of Aztec people applying almost boiling water with lime to their young children so that they don’t develop body hair, but that’s both weird, dangerous and depending on the type of lime also potentially the opposite reaction.)
Bonding while naked works the same way as while clothed. Those folks with too strict social regulations however consider it a more deeper kind of social bonding. (Compare Slavic and Finnish saunas – often mixed and of course naked – with overly faux-Christianised western toilet customs – violence is okay but don’t you show skin or non-sexualised privates!; those (missionarised customs) were also the reason why the former group started being more prudish in the past.)
A couple of guys after my own heart! I loved how Akira just joined right in.
If there were a zombie apocalypse, I’d probably be nude 24/7, weather permitting. Who’s going to complain? And why so many zombies in underwear?
You haven’t really ridden a motorcycle until you’ve done it naked. 😁
The whole naked thing came out of nowhere, defied the laws of physics (doing that in midair), and wasn’t really funny. It only made sense to me if I thought of it as symbolizing him casting off the shell of his pretend self, but I have a suspicion this is not the last time he’ll be baring it all.
I really want to see the host and the people he and his buddies were protecting all safe and sound, but, this being a zombie apocalypse, who knows if we’ll ever see any of them again?
Nice