Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead was one of my favorite anime series of 2023. It’s a unique series that speaks to widespread feelings of work burnout while also being one of the funniest, most colorful, and joyful takes on the zombie apocalypse in existence. BUG FILMS delivered us some gorgeous animation, too.
It feels dishonest to talk about Zom 100 without conceding it has some cringe moments (there were certain camera angles on certain flight attendants that were not necessary). But I’d still argue that Akira—in his quest to escape out from under the thumb of a toxic work environment, in his self-inflicted pressures of feeling he needs to give back to his parents somehow—represents one of the more empathetic adult heroes in modern anime. We so rarely get protagonists in their 20s and 30s, anyway.
Season one ended with Akira and the gang heading back out on the road, vowing to somehow find a cure for the zombie pandemic. They even said where they’re going next: north, towards Hokkaido. And so the inevitable question arises: when and where is season two? Assuming a season two is coming?
What’s BUG FILMS up to?
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead was well-received, with a growing fanbase. When I went to the Zom 100 panel at Anime NYC in 2023, that room was almost full. Plus, it’s based on a manga by Haro Aso, who’s behind another well-known series: Alice in Borderland.
So you’d think the studio behind Zom 100‘s anime adaptation, BUG FILMS, would rush to renew the show. It was the first series they fully produced in-house, after all.
Well, I have some bad news which is cloaked in good news, but could still be received as bad news. At Anime Expo 2024, BUG FILMS revealed that they’re the studio behind the ridiculously highly anticipated anime adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier. The Witch Hat anime is slated for 2025.
Kazuki Kawagoe, the director of Zom 100, was at the panel—because he’s the one who directed that jaw-droppingly gorgeous trailer. All of the footage was taken from the actual series, which has a different director, so it’s not that he’s moving on to another project entirely. But it does mean, for better or for worse, he had some free time in his schedule.
Why season one’s delays might be a reason for hope
Zom 100‘s first season famously incurred production delays. A few mid-season episodes got pushed back a week, and the dominos ultimately resulted in the final three episodes of a summer season show premiering at Christmas. What’s more, the OP wasn’t fully finished until mid-way through the season. The finished OP is hands-down one of the best of 2023, joyful and delightful and funny. Give me dancing zombies any day.
My personal (and optimistic) take on the delays is that they were the result of BUG FILMS not wanting to over-exert and burn out their workers. BUG FILMS does excellent work and is full of industry veterans. The studio itself has provided animation to other studios’ productions before they kicked off Zom 100, the first series they produced themselves. Because it was their first series, and because the delays almost certainly positively affected the working conditions of the people making the show, I’m more than willing to forgive the delays.
That being said, I’m sure BUG FILMS doesn’t want production delays and a half-finished OP to happen again with a series as highly buzzed as Witch Hat Atelier. And that might be exactly why we haven’t heard anything about Zom 100‘s second season yet.
After all those delays, BUG FILMS is probably hyper-conscious about not overpromising and not overloading their plate. They probably want to make sure that Witch Hat Atelier is out the door before they publicly announce any other projects—like a second season of Zom 100.
That Zom 100 director Kazuki Kawagoe was free to direct the Witch Hat Trailer, but seemingly not otherwise connected with Witch Hat, is a good sign that he’s still connected to Zom 100. So it might be a while before we hear about season two, but BUG FILMS has exciting developments happening in the meantime. And there’s always Haro Aso’s manga in the meantime—the series covers up to chapter 21.
Still, hopefully, we can eventually cross a season two announcement off our lists.
Published: Jul 17, 2024 05:00 am