“After spending years toiling away for a soul-crushing company, Akira’s life has lost its luster,” reads Zom 100’s synopsis. “But when a zombie apocalypse ravages his town, it gives him the push he needs to live for himself. Now Akira’s on a mission to complete all 100 items on his bucket list before he…well, kicks the bucket.”
We’ve seen Zom 100 really blow up. As goofy as the show can be, that overall message is so touching and even more relatable after the pandemic since everybody put their lives on pause and this is saying, “Hey, go out for it. Chase your dreams.” How has it been seeing the fans really come out and show their support? The show came out of nowhere to this huge hit, and it’s on Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll.
I do. When I got the word from the studio, we recorded here at Bang Zoom! Entertainment from casting director, Mami Okada — thank you Mami. When I heard, I started reading the manga immediately just so I could get a feel of Akira. I wanted to have an idea of what I wanted his voice to be. By the time we got down to recording the trailer, I wanted to already come in with ideas of who he was, who I thought he was, and how he should be played. I wanted to know his journey.
One of the great parts of Zom 100 is that friendship with Kencho. Can you speak to that relationship? It’s great to see your character bring his friends along and help them get a new perspective on life. Man, I want to learn the piano. [Laughs]. And hopefully, it won’t take an apocalypse to do that. Learning the piano, I want to make a video game, I want to make a manga. A lot of my bucket list items have to do with creating. I’d love to swim in like a really beautiful foreign oasis — I think that sounds really cool. Learn another language, paint … I think those are a few things on my bucket list.