Drink Like the Zombies Can't See You

What are the odds, he asked sarcastically. Like saying, 'one of those fish that likes water.'

The first volume of Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata's Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead lays the premise out very neatly. Tendo has spent the last three years steadily killing himself working ridiculous hours at an ad agency. His apartment, in the scant pages shown of it, is piled with trash and entirely dark other than the light of the TV Tendo watches with vacant, glazed-over eyes while slurping cup ramen. 

He wakes up one day to find the zombie apocalypse has kicked during his brief, blessed hours of unconsciousness. Now he doesn't have to go to work! He can do all the things he's been wanting to do for so long! But first he needs some beer.

The bucket list comes into play halfway through the volume, after Tendo encounters a young woman at the convenience store. The woman (who gets a chapter of her own at the end where we learn her name is Shizuka Mikazuki) is there for specific, useful items like batteries and bottled water, while Tendo just needed more beer. So she declines his attempt to exchange contact info on the grounds he lacks any capacity to plan and steals his bicycle.

Shizuka's shown keeping her own list of how not to be killed, as well as maps and a treadmill she uses to keep in shape. As opposed to Tendo, who seems to be skating on being in shape from playing rugby in school (even though that was 3 years ago and he's been living like a troll ever since). I do question how smart she can be when she seems to wear the same sports bra and running shorts all the time. You could definitely find something that still lets you move but provides some protection from zombie bites (in volume 2 Tendo goes to the extreme in that regard.) 

But Kotaro's art is heavily male gaze when it comes to any female character. I could argue this is a reflection of Tendo's being horny/desperate for love*, except that really shouldn't factor in to Shizuka's chapter, since Tendo is barely present.

Anyway, Tendo grabs a moped, then a big Harley motorcycle, and decides he should make a list of the things he wants to do. While "grow a cool beard" is a bust, his desire to reconnect with old friend Kenichiro goes better, as he rescues him from a sex hotel or something. So it may be that Haro and Kotaro are aiming to have Tendo slowly reclaim the person he wanted to be, or could be, now that he's freed of his horrible job. He and Kenichiro last parted on poor terms, so Tendo being willing to apologize and admit he misses his friend could be a big step.

The story likes to play the contrast of Tendo's cheerful attitude with the actual situation. Tendo pedaling down the street, shouting about using all his saved-up vacation, while a horde of zombies chase him. His neighbors downstairs panicking in their apartment while he shimmies down the drainpipe and asks if there's anything they need from the store. The touching moment brought on by Tendo's full-page, tearful apology to Kenichiro is interrupted by all the zombies who heard him shouting. There's nothing I would call laugh out loud funny, but there are some parts that use the absurdity of their situation well.

* He decides early on he needs to confess to the cute coworker he liked, only to find she and their boss are both zombies. After, Tendo reflects that at least he, 'got to see her tits.' Tendo might be a psychopath, where his job has burned any capacity for empathy from his self.