dragynfaerie
USA
Warning: Anime Onlies Stay Back!
Right off the bat let me just advise those that are watching the anime and have not read the manga to skip this movie. Aside from the fact that more than half of the movie is a spoiler, there are many differentiations. I have not read the manga. Kept saying I was going to and never did. I don't know which adaptation is closer to the manga if either are. However, there were scenes I was looking forward to that were skipped and character changes that are unclear to me. l will probably make some slight comparisons to the anime without giving details. If that's ok with you, read on.
For those who have no clue about Zom 100 here's a better synopsis: Akira Tendou graduated college and lands a job in his dream company. Unbeknownst to Tendou-kun, this dream company is a exploitive and treat their employees horribly. A year later the once effervescent, happy go lucky Tendou is but a shell of his former self. Without the courage to quit he lives each day dreading his job until one morning a zombie apocalypse hits and while people are running in fear Tendou is running with joy in his heart because he never has to report to that job again. The now happy Tendou has a new lease on a life and begins his bucket list of things to do before he becomes a zombie. That's it in a nutshell.
Although the anime is only on episode 3, I admit I think it's better than this movie. The movie tries to pack in too much information and moves too fast. Because of this I think little things are lost, especially some of the laughs. For instance Tendou and Kencho's escape from the roof is cut. It's completely different and no where near as amusing as it is in the anime. A few of the characters have been tweaked and or changed for reasons unknown. Honestly, I thought the Zom100 live action was a series not a movie. I would never have watched it. Even as a movie it shouldn't have outpaced the anime the way it does. They should've either held it's release or made a 2 part movie. The production quality was ok for Japan. One day I have hope that they will stop their traditionally bad habit of filming through yellow lenses. To me it cheapens their movies. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Japanese directors that can command the budgets to film how they want and the director of Zom100 is not one of them. The makeup and special efx were pretty good. The ending was little too condensed for lack of a better word. (To be true there are a plethora of better words but at 2:30am my brain is refusing to tell them to me.) It's as if the director is saying 'we're hoping for a part 2, but if not at least it's an ending.' The thing is Zom 100 is still being published. No one knows the ending except the mangaka, maybe.
The cast was good enough...I guess. To be honest I don't feel like we got to know them well enough. Don't get me wrong Akaso Eiji was very good as Tendou, but I just didn't care about his friends. They didn't give us the backstory or the development needed to care about them. Had they not changed the end of how Tendou and Kencho escape the zombie's we would have had more background on Kencho and learned much more of his personality. At the end when Kencho reveals his dream, it comes out of no where because they skipped everything that would have let the viewer know this fact about him. Make sense? (Sometimes not using spoilers is a difficult thing.) Here's one thing that was just asinine: they changed the college sport Tendou and Kencho played in college from rugby to American football. No offense to Akaso, but he's way too scrawny to be a lineman. My grandma could blow him away and she died 30 years ago. It made me chuckle when he said it and it really made me giggle when they showed a flashback. Little leaguers are more buff than Akaso. Mind you there's a tackle scene that looks pretty damn good, but it's obviously a stuntman. Granted, rugby probably wouldn't have worked either due to this actor's build. They probably should've changed the sport to hockey, soccer, or flag football maybe.
The music is eh. It wasn't used as artfully as it could and should have been. I have no intentions of watching this again. I may re-watch a scene or 2, but there was nothing in this that excited me and made me want to see it again.
If this was a theatre, I'd tell you save your money. Since it's on Netflix, all I can say is watch the anime. Three episodes of the anime are more entertaining than 2 hours of this movie. At least wait so you don't spoil things for yourself. As an adaptation of a story I'm enjoying, this movie gets a 4.5-5. As a stand alone movie. I'd say 6 to 6.5 and that's generous.
For those who have no clue about Zom 100 here's a better synopsis: Akira Tendou graduated college and lands a job in his dream company. Unbeknownst to Tendou-kun, this dream company is a exploitive and treat their employees horribly. A year later the once effervescent, happy go lucky Tendou is but a shell of his former self. Without the courage to quit he lives each day dreading his job until one morning a zombie apocalypse hits and while people are running in fear Tendou is running with joy in his heart because he never has to report to that job again. The now happy Tendou has a new lease on a life and begins his bucket list of things to do before he becomes a zombie. That's it in a nutshell.
Although the anime is only on episode 3, I admit I think it's better than this movie. The movie tries to pack in too much information and moves too fast. Because of this I think little things are lost, especially some of the laughs. For instance Tendou and Kencho's escape from the roof is cut. It's completely different and no where near as amusing as it is in the anime. A few of the characters have been tweaked and or changed for reasons unknown. Honestly, I thought the Zom100 live action was a series not a movie. I would never have watched it. Even as a movie it shouldn't have outpaced the anime the way it does. They should've either held it's release or made a 2 part movie. The production quality was ok for Japan. One day I have hope that they will stop their traditionally bad habit of filming through yellow lenses. To me it cheapens their movies. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Japanese directors that can command the budgets to film how they want and the director of Zom100 is not one of them. The makeup and special efx were pretty good. The ending was little too condensed for lack of a better word. (To be true there are a plethora of better words but at 2:30am my brain is refusing to tell them to me.) It's as if the director is saying 'we're hoping for a part 2, but if not at least it's an ending.' The thing is Zom 100 is still being published. No one knows the ending except the mangaka, maybe.
The cast was good enough...I guess. To be honest I don't feel like we got to know them well enough. Don't get me wrong Akaso Eiji was very good as Tendou, but I just didn't care about his friends. They didn't give us the backstory or the development needed to care about them. Had they not changed the end of how Tendou and Kencho escape the zombie's we would have had more background on Kencho and learned much more of his personality. At the end when Kencho reveals his dream, it comes out of no where because they skipped everything that would have let the viewer know this fact about him. Make sense? (Sometimes not using spoilers is a difficult thing.) Here's one thing that was just asinine: they changed the college sport Tendou and Kencho played in college from rugby to American football. No offense to Akaso, but he's way too scrawny to be a lineman. My grandma could blow him away and she died 30 years ago. It made me chuckle when he said it and it really made me giggle when they showed a flashback. Little leaguers are more buff than Akaso. Mind you there's a tackle scene that looks pretty damn good, but it's obviously a stuntman. Granted, rugby probably wouldn't have worked either due to this actor's build. They probably should've changed the sport to hockey, soccer, or flag football maybe.
The music is eh. It wasn't used as artfully as it could and should have been. I have no intentions of watching this again. I may re-watch a scene or 2, but there was nothing in this that excited me and made me want to see it again.
If this was a theatre, I'd tell you save your money. Since it's on Netflix, all I can say is watch the anime. Three episodes of the anime are more entertaining than 2 hours of this movie. At least wait so you don't spoil things for yourself. As an adaptation of a story I'm enjoying, this movie gets a 4.5-5. As a stand alone movie. I'd say 6 to 6.5 and that's generous.
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