The fourth volume of Zom 100 ended with Akira finding his way back to him home village and seeing his parents for the first time in years, and more importantly the first time since the zombie apocalypse started. There was also a threat that the safety of the village was going to be short-lived, which is exactly where volume five starts, with Kanta, the mirror opposite of Akira, getting a brief introduction.

Before the apocalypse Kanta’s life hadn’t amounted to much, he was unemployable, a loner and hadn’t achieved much since collage. He longs for the days of summer holidays and hanging out at the local pool with his friends, like when he was in school. He sees the apocalypse as an excuse to do whatever he likes, and like Akira, he starts to write a list of all the things he wants to do while waiting to be turned into a zombie. Unlike Akira’s list, Kanta’s is filled with mean and malicious things and one of those involves destroying the local village and turning them all into zombies.

The first chapter of this volume shows the group of heroes settling into village life, and how that differs to the big city of Tokyo. There’s a community, that is deeply missing in the crowded city, and everyone is helping one another. Kencho finds a little girl, whose parents were killed, and sets out to make her smile. Shizuka finds that she is fascinated by the non-technological ways of survival outside of the city.

Like the previous volumes, there’s a good amount of social commentary about the way our modern lives puts pressure on us, with this volume focusing on how isolating big cities are, despite all the people around you. The themes of the story are a small portion of the manga, with most of it focusing on the zombies, and comedy we’ve come to expect from the series. It’s not the funniest addition to the manga, but it’s still entertaining. Once the zombies do start attacking, the pace picks up and doesn’t stop until the final page, where once again the series is left on a massive cliff-hanger for volume six. It’s a tense story, and one that looks like it’s only going to escalate soon.

With this volume, every chapter is a continuation and not just stand-alone adventures of the main characters. It’s one complete story that picks up where volume four ends and will continue beyond into the next book. It feels like the story of Zom 100 is in full swing and it is a blast to read. The characters are excellent, and the art style is great, clean and easy to follow. One of the best ongoing manga series at the moment and seems to be going from strength to strength. Can’t wait for volume six.

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