And, after a great start, the second book of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is unfortunately a disappointing follow-up! There are two storylines here: Akira and Kencho go looting for a new giant TV to game on and get locked up with some flight attendants - and one of Akira’s items on his list just happens to be to wine and dine a flight attendant (why flight attendants - is this a Japanese fetish?!). The other involves Akira following his dream of becoming a superhero - with inevitably whacky results.
It just comes down to me not being that interested in either storyline. The flight attendant story was like a hundred other zombie stories where the characters are trapped in a mall and have to figure out what to do - there wasn’t anything that special or brilliant about seeing that cliche play out here. The realistic superhero story had better story beats because it was less worn territory though there’s a bit of Kick-Ass here as Akira dons a special aquatic outfit.
I liked the zombie shark with the zombie legs of its victims sticking out of its belly so it could walk on land - it was both so silly and nightmarish, it looked like something out of a Junji Ito manga! Also Haro Aso kept me guessing with the fate of Shizuka - given how he treated a potential love interest for Akira in the earlier storyline, I wasn’t sure which direction this story would go. Like the book overall though, Shizuka also turns out to be a bit of a bore after appearing so mysterious and cool in the first volume.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is like a lot of mangas in that the concept and story is good for a cracking single volume but doesn’t have the legs for a series, gets forced into one anyway and the end result is nearly always underwhelming - so it goes with Volume 2. I hope I’m wrong and the third book is a return to form but we’ll see - fans of the first book, if you’re gonna check this one out, lower them expectations!
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