ZOM 100: Bucket List of the Dead had its world premiere at VIZ Media’s industry panel at Anime Expo this year. Fans got treated to a sneak peek of Episode 1 with Special guest Kotaro Takata, (ZOM 100 Manga illustrator) & ZOM 100 English cast members Zeno Robinson, Abby Trott, and Laura Post.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is an adaptation of the manga with the same name. The manga is written by Haro Aso (Alice in Borderland) and illustrated by Kotaro Takata. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is now available to stream on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Netflix.
LIVE ACTION ADAPTATION
Additionally, Netflix announced the first teaser trailer of the upcoming, Live-Action adaptation of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead starring Eiji Akaso (Kamen Rider). The film is set to premiere globally on Netflix on Aug 3, 2023.
The film is an adaptation of manga volume 1-3, and like many live action adaptations, the film does not follow the manga exactly. The film’s synopsis is as follows,
Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso) works at an exploitative company where he suffers endless hours and harassment from his boss. He spends his days feeling more dead than alive. One day, the town is overtaken by zombies and Akira gets excited for he doesn’t need to go to the office anymore rather than facing the fact he has to survive the zombie apocalypse. Akira comes up with a bucket list of 100 things he decided to accomplish before he becomes a zombie and makes his bucket list checked traveling with Shizuka (Mai Shiraishi) and Kencho (Shuntaro Yanagi).
EIJI AKASO INTERVIEW
I had the opportunity to sit down with Eiji Akaso during Anime Expo 2023 and ask him about his experiences while filming the live-action adaptation of Zom 100,
Krystal: This movie is based on a manga, was it hard to portray Akira from a manga in live-action?
Eiji Akaso: If acted as a cartoon character, that would make me a little unnatural as a human, so I want to give Akira a human trait. So I had to be careful with body actions and little subtle facial expressions to show emotion. That’s what I spoke about to Yusuke Ishida (the director) before I began acting.
K: What were some of the challenges that you faced while portraying Akira?
E.A.: There are lots of scenes where I was chased by zombies, which is the worst thing that you can imagine in real life, but Akira had to enjoy being chased by zombies, and I had to always put a smile on my face with zombies behind me. That was difficult because I would be so scared myself If I were chased by a zombies in real life, but Akira on the other hand, enjoyed being chased, so that was a challenge for me.
K: What was it like being on the set of ZOM 100?
E.A.: We filmed the movie in different locations and one place was in Nagoya, Japan, and we had to close the entire road to film the scene where Akira was riding the motorcycle. There’s also like a Red District called Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo, We had to recreate, Kabukicho as the backdrop of the set. It was a huge production every time we filmed the movie, it was a huge production, and that was really impressive.
K: It sounds like this was like a full Hollywood production here; what was one of your favorite scenes that you filmed?
E.A.: I enjoyed every location for the filming, but if I had to choose one, that would be the one we filmed at Kabukicho set, Where Akira went to help Kencho when he was trapped. For that was the scene we began filming from the night to the following morning. The scene had to be filmed at night, so we had to finish before dawn. Because of time constrictions, everybody was so nervous in that situation. However, I really enjoyed making the scene.
K: On the topic of Zombies, Do you have a favorite zombie movie?
E.A.: …Biohazard (Resident Evil)!
K: Any final messages you’d like to leave our readers with?
E.A.: This is a zombie comedy movie that no one could imagine, after seeing this movie, I think everybody will feel so uplifted, and might encourage them to quit a job they don’t like and do what they want to do.
The film is directed by Yusuke Ishida, and stars Eiji Akaso as Akira Tendo, Mai Shiraishi, Shuntaro Yanagi, & Kazuki Kitamura in undisclosed roles.
Make sure to catch the live-action adaptation of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead premiering on Netflix on August 3rd. You can start diving into the zombie-infested world with Akira by reading the manga or streaming the anime available on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix.
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