Während der Zombie-Pandemie reisten Akira und seine Freunde nach Shikoku, um die Pilgerreise mit einer Gesamtstrecke von 1.300 km anzugehen. Bei einer spektakulären Rettungsaktion kommen die Lehren des Buddhismus zur Anwendung. Als nächstes wird die Gruppe auf einen Luxuskreuzer in Japans mediterranem Seto-Binnenmeer eingeladen. Das von Zombies isolierte Schiff ist ein Paradies auf dem Meer, in dem Nacht für Nacht Sex-Partys stattfinden!
I was getting bored of this series so I set it aside for a while. That strategy seems to have paid off as I enjoyed this entry with our group of survivors completing their religious pilgrimage despite some outside interference and then boarding a party boat where a little romantic tension came to the fore as the orgy atmosphere caused some tension.
Oh, and zombies ate people too.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: 39. Pilgrimage of the Dead (2) -- 40. Pilgrimage of the Dead (3) -- 41. Cruise Ship of the Dead (1) -- 42. Cruise Ship of the Dead (2)
Well this story did a complete 180. Starts off with everyone on the pilgrimage, a journey of enlightenment with 10 big no-nos, number 3 being "commit no licentious acts". Then once that little adventure is over, our protagonists hop on a party cruise full of nymphomaniacs. I'm with Shizuka, I'd hate being on that boat.
As the gang continues their spiritual pilgrimage, they bump into some shady types who conveniently violate all of the pilgrim teachings and get punished for it. Then, to make up for its ascetic aesthetic, it goes cruise ship horny and then some.
There are few things as frustrating as an uneven manga series and this one makes wobbly about as charitable a comparison as saying the Leaning Tower of Pisa is mildly off its base. And this volume really leans into that lurch.
This pilgrimage arc is pretty decently done - I especially liked the way it conveys the distance and the effort our heroes are covering, but it also doesn’t project the tedium that watching somebody walking would otherwise inflict on the audience.
I’m often hardest on series that ebb when they have been quite good in the past and that’s why I do wish Zom 100 was overall more consistent. There is a great moment here where Bea recites the tenets they’re meant to be following and Kenichiro starts breaking several of them in rapid succession, which is very funny.
Would that it managed to stay that way. Bea getting kidnapped and threatened with sexual assault because she’s the person who started this journey so therefore she’ll be the one to remind our villain of his lapsed faith is pretty trite, if I’m being generous.
Karma was brought up a lot in the previous chapters of this arc, but the thieves are laid low from a plan concocted by Shizuka and not any divine intervention, honestly. And our villain is betrayed by his fellows more than given an actual comeuppance. If they were hitting the spirituality button that hard then it might as well have gone the whole way.
As redemption arcs go, it’s okay, but it’s also an incredibly naive story that suggests the religious piety of offering your food in the face of starvation and an apocalypse is going to pay off, which I genuinely can’t get behind.
Don’t worry though, we swing from the pleasures of good living to the Lust Boat pretty soon, as if in apology for only having Bea’s bosoms bouncing boisterously during the previous predicament. It’s a real flesh-a-palooza.
Basically, a bunch of horny bros and a cadre of women who want to just sex the zombie plague away go cruising around on a boat. It’s as intolerable a depiction of human nature as it sounds, eschewing nuance for nudity.
And, yes, sex equals death was a horror trope before most readers were born, but man is this chapter annoying. For one, the mangaka can’t actually draw convincing women, so everybody looks… bulbous… except for Shizuka, who’s actually fit.
Anyway, what really damns this story for me above all else is how dumb it is about zombies. There’s a locked door on the yacht that nobody has opened yet and it never crosses anybody’s minds it could be zombies!? (They must be those stealth zombies I read about in Scientific American) I allow for narrative shortcuts, but that not one single person thinks this might locked for that reason is crazy.
Also, yes, it’s zombies, so the boat idea goes under because people wanted sex that bad and one woman (who also functions as some full breast nudity for no real reason) tries to put the moves on Akira and he says no because of Shizuka, who happens to walk in on them naked and then gets her nose in a bunch, in case you were worried this might have a shred of originality in it.
So, no, I wouldn’t call this the creative apex of the series. Nor would I even say it has the best fan service. It’s just another bump on the road and not a great one. It’s serviceable if you don’t dig into it, but it’s got outdated ideas and really heavy reliance on tropes without adding anything or using them skillfully enough.
And that scene where the boat females are all catfighting? Just… so… bad.
2.5 stars - there are some flashes of what I like about the series, yeah, so pity points awarded, but it doesn’t really do itself any favours this volume. If this was the first volume I doubt very much if I’d be giving it a second one.
The pelgrimage continues, a mob dude gets his due, and oh yes, a fun cruiser (what could possibly go wrong?). This was a fun volume!
I was able to get this volume for Christmas (along with a few others), sometimes you got to treat yourself with fun books! I just love that this series keeps on going and that it stays fun. Some series just lose their momentum or just go boring, but this one? I look forward to each new volume!
Well, OK, the pelgrimage arc that started in the last one wasn’t entirely to my liking. I mean, I get why they did it and it was very satisfying to see them complete their journey + the temples we did get to see where stunning and pretty, but it just a bit much of the same even though we don’t get to see all the temples (lord, can you imagine if they had done that). But it was still too much for me. And seeing Bea go so into it, was just a bit too much for me. Plus, last time we saw some mob guy and I just wasn’t into that as well. He comes back in this volume again and does some bad things, and apparently he has a whole sob story and we are supposed to suddenly care for him. Well, heck no. I was glad when both that and the pelgrimage were just done and over with.
The next arc with the cruiser was just way more fun because I already had an idea how this would end/how this would go. I mean, I have read plenty of zombie books to know some tropes, and when that locked door was mentioned? I was just waiting for someone to be dumb enough to open it up. Teehee. I did love that people on the boat had such a good time, yes it was very sexual in nature, but with the end of the world I don’t blame people to go wild and have some sexy times. I mean, you never know when you will die in this world. I wouldn’t have minded some blissful moments with sexy men and women for a bit. I loved seeing how each of the characters react to the situations. Our two girls of course are not overly fond of it. Kenchou is 100% in it and it looked at times as if he was always there with how he acted and immediately seduced women left and right, haha. Akira was unsure how to feel, you could see he liked it but he is of course also still in love with Shizuka. Takeru was just doing his thing.
The ending had me both going OMG NO and rolls eyes I mean, Shizuka I get it, but you and Akira aren’t together yet. And please just listen before running off in a huff. If there is anything I HATE in romance books it is characters not giving the other a moment to explain.
I cannot wait to see what is next because I am sure this is going to get fun/exciting. I do hope that it brings Akira/Shizuka together a bit more (and that she chills out a bit more).
I will be getting volume 12 for my birthday (Feb 5th), I cannot wait to read on~ I would HIGHLY recommend this series to all! Be sure to check it out.
Continuando con el peregrinaje del Henro, el grupo se encuentra con algunas dificultades... y, después, encuentran un crucero lleno de gente dispuesta a pasárselo bien.
Sé que he dicho antes que me encantan las historias cortas de Zom 100, pero he de decir que echo mucho en falta un arco más largo que 3 capítulos. ¡Eso no quiere decir que no me esté gustando! Solo... siento que deberían darle más tiempo para desarrollar bien todas las ideas que tienen.
En este caso, me ha gustado el protagonismo de Bea y todo el tema del buen peregrino y lo que se puede aprender siguiendo estas lecciones. Es una visión muy bonita de la vida y, no voy a mentir, me ha dado algo de ganas de hacer un camino de peregrinaje.
Lo que me ha sorprendido más ha sido el arco del crucero. Una vez más, se me ha hecho corto, pero honestamente no me esperaba que tratase el tema del sexo y la intimidad tan... bien. Me dejó pensando un rato y me ha gustado bastante, la verdad.
Ahora parece que por fin vamos a ver progreso con la relación entre Akira y Shizuka, tengo ganas de ver qué cocinan. Es de las pocas veces que el cliché de no poder escuchar la explicación de alguien tras un malentendido tiene sentido, así que a ver qué hacen en el siguiente tomo.
This volume was unfortunately a dip in quality for me. The one thing I did enjoy about this volume was the crew just being on Shikoku and doing the pilgrimage. It brought me back to my time on the island and certainly had me thinking about how I want to return there someday. The plot for this stretch was unfortunately kind of simple and not that engrossing. Bea gets kidnapped and then they save her from the villain whose kindness had been taken advantage of and that's why he became a villain. The temples were fun to see throughout the chapter though.
The second arc, a sexy cruise ship, was not good. It was a horny free for all, with ideas about sex being used by these people as a sole means to fill the void in their hearts. Even the mistaken affair that Shizuka walks in on was lame.
Artwork in the series still seems to work well, though it was an egregious error for the artist to give the women nipples and skip out on the men's nipples.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
One of my eccentric millionaire ideas (I have many) is to create a walking pilgrimage in America like this. I love this shit, like when you have to walk towards a rock with a hole in it, eyes closed, and see if you can put your walking staff through the hole without looking, or legends about what happens if you do or don't see your face in a reflection pool.
Some of the features of my trail:
-A heavy stone to attempt to lift as a test of strength. -A wishing well that only accepts 20-dollar bills. -A part that requires crossing a somewhat challenging creek, a rite of passage in rural America. -Probably a danger zone where you try to navigate a roundabout on foot (I don't have strong feelings about roundabouts, but I feel like Americans...let's say they're not at their best in roundabouts). -A lot of pizza places along the way.
Back in Volume 5 or so, the author set out to show that just because you have a "tragic backstory" doesn't always mean that the audience will sympathize with that character. In this one, he does the opposite, ie a tragic-flashback-for-bad-guy-character, just to prove that he can, in fact, write one. And while she could just be caught up in the Buddhist pilgrimage fervor, our resident German weeeaboo shows us how good a heart she has by looking past the meanness and gives her kidnapper a 2nd chance. ... THE REST OF THE BOOK IS NOW SHELVED UNDER "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT HENTAI!" GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY! THE LEWDNESS ESCALATED LIKE A ROCKET!
This manga never disappoints, and it's always so informative while being hilarious. I love it so much.
This volume has the perfect mix of a Buddhist pilgrimage at the beginning of the story, followed by a raunchy yacht party in the second half. I think this may be the most nudity I've seen in Zom 100 up till now (and Kencho doesn't count). Poor Akira finds himself in a bad position at the end of the volume, but can we talk about how ripped he is now? Love it.
Los chicos se han convertido en peregrinos, sin embargo el peligro no es solo encontrarse a los zombies, sino a las personas que se han perdido de su camino del bien.
Un crucero ideal para Kencho pero no para los demás, provocará problemas entre los chicos sobre todo malentendidos entre Akira y Shisuka
Okay, so its weird, this series has been very PG-13 for the most part, and this arc takes a sudden turn into more R rated material. That said I am really enjoying where it ended and want to see what happens!
You forget that this book occasionally has nudity in it. Then you get hit by the most nudity possible in one chapter. Also, I know it’s a different culture, but trying to put a humorous slant to attempted rape is kind of hard to get my head around.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Pretty good volume, had some great character moments. It also makes me question the age rating system for manga. This volume is absolutely packed with nudity and sexual themes, and it’s only rated for older teens, which is just bizarre to me.
This one was not great. The pilgrimage storyline ends okay but it was somewhat uneven but the sex yacht story totally lost me. Super sexed up and ridiculous.
wtf ce tome (la deuxième partie) en vrai la relation entre Shizuki et Akira qui avance <3 avec un quiproquo assez marrant bref assez marrant même si on avance assez peu dans la trame principale