Studio BUG Movies could not have been round for lengthy, however they make an enormous impression with “Zom 100,” significantly the premiere, which is likely one of the finest first episodes of an anime in years. The episode begins shedding shade and changing into increasingly static as Akira turns into an organization drone, however the second the zombie apocalypse begins, the display screen goes full technicolor — a implausible riff on zombie apocalypses post-“The Strolling Lifeless” being moderately grim and monotone.
On high of that, Akira fairly actually rips the black bars off the display screen and expands the side ratio simply as his thoughts is increasing to embrace life for the primary time in three years. It’s a sensible piece of visible storytelling that absolutely makes use of the medium of animation to increase on the supply materials — a manga of the identical title by Haro Aso.
One small means by which “Zom 100” feels refreshing in in the present day’s saturated zombie market is that the characters are absolutely conscious of what zombies are, which implies we do not waste time re-discovering the principles.
Although the anime focuses on Akira as he begins to dwell life to its fullest, it manages to search out time to discover small vignettes in every episode that showcase totally different zombie survival tales. In episode three, we meet individuals from a Host Membership who defend their sanctuary from a horde of zombies. This helps paint an image of the bigger world exterior of Akira’s story, just like “World Struggle Z,” however these extra somber tales additionally function nice parallels to Akira’s cheerful journey. It’s outright spectacular how a lot the episodes pack in such a brief runtime, from increasing the world to fleshing out new characters you care about, all in simply over 20 minutes.