Cover Image: Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Vol. 3

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Vol. 3

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

Still fun and bloody and in some ways relate-able. Always interested in seeing where it goes next. I plan on reading on.

Was this review helpful?

The 3rd in the series and it is still funny. I did like the other 2 volumes better but it was still a fun read.

Was this review helpful?

Vol 3 sees Akira try to escape Tokyo, and face off with his ex-boss. Darker than other volumes, hopefully Vol 4 will get this series back on an upwards trajectory.

Was this review helpful?

ZOM 100: Bucketlist of the Dead (ZOM 100) has easily become one of the most relatable and hilarious manga out right now. Filled with well-done fanservice, zombies, and a level of banal absurdity that hits too close to home, readers have been following Akira as he tries to complete his bucket list while a zombie apocalypse rages around him. A former wage slave, he finally has hope in life again, and it only took the end of the world. While the first two volumes have been focused on the light side of things and shown us an Akira who has all the power to be a superhero in a shark suit, ZOM 100 Volume 3 is a very different affair.

ZOM 100 Volume 3 is written by Haro Aso and features art from Kotaro Takata. The series is published and localized in English by VIZ Media through its Signature imprint. The volume features translation by Nova Skipper and features touch-up art and lettering by Vanessa Satone. In this volume, Akira faces his first real hurdle since he began checking his dreams off of his bucket list – his old boss.

With the situation getting worse in Tokyo and power going out, Akira and Kenichirou make the decision to travel to Gunma, Akira’s hometown. The two meet back up with Shizuka, and the three decide it’s beneficial for them to all leave to Gunma together. But while they’re on the road, Akira’s old boss emerges as the leader of a group of survivors blocking their path. Akira has to find the will to not go back to his submissive self and prove that he’s grown beyond taking his boss’s orders.



ZOM 100 Volume 3 is packed with the chaos of zombies and dark humor that has pushed the series forward over the last few volumes. But, this volume does a lot of work to add depth to characters within the story, allowing the narrative to take a serious and somewhat somber tone that stands in stark difference to the last two volumes. This tone is pushed by Kenichirou being injured, Akira becoming a wage-zombie again for his old boss, and more importantly, readers get a look into who Shizuka is beyond a character put in there for romantic tension with the lead.

I’ve loved how ZOM 100 Volume 3 has used fanservice in a way that doesn’t sacrifice the story. While this happened in setting and background characters, it also has been front and center with Shikuza, a character who does all of her survival in a sports bra. Sure, Shizuka is Akira’s crush, but we’ve also gotten the chance to showcase she is a survivor through and through and definitely more capable than Akira. In Volume 3, though, we get her backstory. Pushed into being perfect by her father, Shizuka’s cold responses and determined attitude make sense. Fun wasn’t ever on the agenda for her. In fact, it was ripped from her.

That said, the beauty of ZOM 100 Volume 3 is the balance that happens between Shizuka and Akira, specifically how she pushes him to break free of his boss of his own accord and not because of zombies.

Overall, ZOM 100 Volume 3 is great, just great. The series is proving to be a must-read for zombie fans while also bringing characters that offer heart to the story. Humor, action, and a sense of depth, I can’t recommend this series enough.

Was this review helpful?

Akira is slowly making his way through his bucket list when he runs into a former boss of at a soul crushing job he used to work at. It seems Akira is falling into trance of his time at the job and his friends are going to try to help him break out of it.

Love seeing each new adventure Akira makes as he strikes another thing off his list. This time we got to meet his jerk of a boss and unfortunately see Akira deal with the abuse of his employer turning him into some mindless robot. He'll pretty much do anything for his new and old friends and it was interesting seeing them try to break him out of that spell.

Was this review helpful?

As the story progress I feel as if each manga gets better and better. For me personally, I feel as if there’s some rough spots in the plot where I can find myself reading it just to get through the story. Yet those small spot that don’t happen that much don’t even matter compared to the humor and over poor of the story. The characters become more and more lovable as the plot goes on. There was one moment in this volume where it did feel a little too coincidental to be believable but I did really love the over all plot and character progression it caused. The author does a great job in slowly letting you understand and figure out more and more about the characters. This is a manga I will definitely recommend to readers.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to Netgalley and Viz Media for providing a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Vol. 3 was another fun addition to the Zom 100 series. This installment marked a change of pace for the series—character development was prioritized over direct plot movement, and I enjoyed that. Readers learned a little more about the emotional stakes involved in the zombie apocalypse and new characters were introduced. I'm looking forward to volume 4, and I've been enjoying the series so far.

Was this review helpful?

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Volume Three gives some much needed character development for both Akira Tendo and Shizuka Mikazuki.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Volume Three
Written by: Haro Aso
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: August 17, 2021

At the end of Volume Two, Akira made a comment about going to see his parents in Gunma. However, when Volume Three opens, they haven’t quite left Tokyo yet. The volume starts with Akira achieving one of the items on his bucket list: getting a solid gold watch. But considering most of humankind has been turned into zombies and no one’s working at the stores anymore, getting that solid gold watch was a pretty easy feat. It’s after this that Akira and Kenichiro lose power in the apartment, and Akira comments on going to Gunma and seeing his parents.

However, as they start to head out of Tokyo, Akira decides it’d be better to ride in style across a zombie wasteland in an RV. As we later see, traveling in an RV is on Akira’s bucket list, and I’m sure that’s why he brought up this idea. When they go to a dealership to look at RVs, they come across Shizuka, who is also trying to find an RV to travel in. Akira invites her to join them, but she refuses, as usual. However, she critiques the various RVs the guys are admiring. But the zombies find them, and Shizuka is forced to travel with Akira and Kenichiro in order to survive. Nobody really gets the RV that they want, but they have to grab something quick in order to escape from the zombies.

There’s an interesting conversation between Akira and Shizuka as they drive in the RV. They talk about the zombie infection, and how it has spread even more rapidly than Ebola or the Spanish Flu. They then talk about if it’s a virus, and how an analysis the outbreak and its transmission could help find a countermeasure… and one of the things they talk about is creating a vaccine. In the pre-COVID world, this would have just come across as something scientific they were talking about. But reading this during the COVID pandemic, this dialogue had more of an effect on me as a reader. Of course, I couldn’t help but have this snarky thought: even if this is a virus and you could come up with a vaccine, good luck getting people to take it. Considering the reactions and hesitancy I’ve seen about taking the COVID vaccine, it’s not surprising I would have thought of that.

But then we have an interesting twist. The group is stopped by a spike strip, and Kenichiro (who was riding the motorcycle), is hurt. It turns out that Akira’s former boss, Gonzo Kosugi, is now running a truck stop with supplies. However, he forces people to work for him and keeps them there. Here, we see how much Akira was unable to stand up to his boss when he was in the workforce. Kosugi wears him down to the point that they make an “oral contract” where Akira will work for him for two days so their RV can be fixed and Kenichiro can get treatment.

The rest of the volume focuses on this plot point, and this is where we get the character development for both Akira and Shizuka. Through flashbacks, we see that Shizuka’s father was a terrible person, and how he treated Shizuka since childhood. He would always tell her what she would need, rather than letting her do what she wanted. She couldn’t hang out with friends, because they were beneath her station. She couldn’t keep a stray dog… and her father went so far as to call animal control and have the dog put down when she wasn’t around. Through these flashbacks, we finally get to know more about Shizuka and why she acts the way she does. But through reliving these experiences, she sees that Kosugi is treating Akira the same way that her father treated her. When it seems like Akira is going to completely crack and cave in to Kosugi’s demands to stay and work for him forever, it’s Shizuka who helps him snap back to his senses. But Kosugi gets an unexpected surprise concerning zombies… and we see that Akira may not be happy with Kosugi, but he’s still willing to try to save his butt. It was great to see Kosugi get his comeuppance though at the end of this ordeal.

Right at the end of the volume, we see a sign for Gunma Prefecture, so it looks like Akira and the others will finally make it to their destination in Volume Four. I have to admit that I thought we were going to hit this point during Volume Three, but when the storyline about Kosugi came up as I read this volume, it became clear that reaching the destination wasn’t going to happen.

The strongest part of this volume was the character development we received for Shizuka, and I came to like her as a character. Prior to this volume, I really didn’t know much about her, so I couldn’t really form an opinion. But it appears Shizuka is going to serve as the “realist” of the group, while Akira is going to be the one to jump into situations without really thinking about them. Kenichiro kind of falls in between the two of them. But I think that Shizuka’s realism is going to be a good asset for Akira and Kenichiro, because it should help to keep them out of trouble more than if they were traveling without her. It’s going to be interesting to see just what kind of an influence Shizuka is going to have on the other characters and on the overall story.

After reading Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Volume Three, I’ve truly become interested in this series and I want to find out what happens to these characters as their story continues. I think that readers who have read the first two volumes will enjoy Volume Three as well.

Was this review helpful?

“It may be time we start taking this seriously.”—from Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Vol 3

Akira Tendo is still trying to finish his list of a hundred (more or less) things he wants to do before becoming a zombie. But first, he and his friend, Kencho, must leave Tokyo when both the lights and the water in their home fail. On the way to Akira’s hometown, they meet Shizuka, Akira’s love interest.

“Third time’s the charm! We’re meant to be! This is fate! I’m sure of it!”

All three team-up in an RV. That’s the good news. The bad news is that also find Chief Gonzo Kosugi, Akira’s old exploitive boss. And he forces Akira to work for him. For two days…

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Vol 3 only has one story but it’s great. Akira gets to cross off three items on his list. I like where this manga is going. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to VIZ Media and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

I am glad I stuck with this series, each volume gets better. Unlike the first two books this one is more serious as Akira re-unites with someone he had thought he’d never have to see again. That storyline, along with backstory for one of the other characters takes up most of this instalment.

While this book wasn’t as fun as the previous ones it developed the characters, giving context to actions and in Akira’s case making him more likable.

Was this review helpful?

I absolutely love Zom 100! So cute and fun. A new and fun direction for the zombie survival story. So many stories exist to attempt to humanize the zombie apocalypse and I love this humorous take. The characters are funny and interesting and the art is fantastic.

Was this review helpful?

This felt like a filler volume, with the cast finally gelling together and the main character exorcising one of the demons of their past. It just wasn't as inventive as the previous two volumes and the main character is not as interesting when he is not living life to the fullest. Hoping the next volume is as cheeky and interesting as the first two.

Was this review helpful?

"It may be time we start taking this seriously." It's refreshing to read a zombie title that's not so bleak or focused on gun culture. In this volume, Akira decides to travel to his parents in Gunma but ends up in a detour where he has to work with his former boss, the man so toxic that a zombie apocalypse felt like a refreshing vacation. This detour also leads to Shizuka remembering how her father affected the person she turned out to be. We've got some sweet character development in this volume and I'm looking forward to what's next. (I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.)

Was this review helpful?

This lacks the fun and whimsy of the first two in the series. It's not bad by any means-nice to see Akira get some much needed closure. But I really miss the silly hijinks of the past.

Was this review helpful?

I’m loving the parody elements of The Walking Dead. This series doesn’t fail to make me laugh.

This arc was a depressing one. Just when you think they are free from the drudgery of their old lives and working restrictions, a blast from the past shows up and forces our cast into servitude that brings back bad memories for everyone.

It was great to finally get more back story on our characters. It’s strange to see all of the pressures and problems they went through in their old lives, and how much those pressures don’t matter when the world has gone to the zombies. It says a lot about the heavy expectations we place on people just to achieve things that don’t seem worth it now the circumstances have changed, but it also shows how difficult it is to break away from those mentalities when it’s all people know. But when you see them stand up for themselves and make their own choices, it was such a great moment.

I can’t wait for volume 4.

Was this review helpful?

Akira and Kencho decide to leave Tokyo to go to Akira's hometown of Gunma. They decide to take an RV to Gunma. While procuring one, they run into Shizuka again and convince her to come with them. On the road, they run over a spike strip placed by Akira's former boss. Kencho is hurt badly. In exchange for fixing their vehicles and patching up Kencho, Akira's boss asks him to work for him for two days. Akira is again sucked into his boss's thrall. We also learn more about Shizuka's past.

Was this review helpful?