Haro Aso

You'd think traveling the length of a country overrun with zombies while trying to tick off entries on a bucket list would be dangerous and difficult, but no, it's all "super easy, barely an inconvenience" as Akira Tendo and his friends blaze through a sake festival and dinosaur fossil excavation. The stakes seem even lower as they've brought along a robot butler from the luxury hotel from last volume.

Just as I was getting tired of the whole concept, the author anticipated me and had a show more chapter on boredom that has zombie stand-ins for Blaise Pascal and Martin Heidegger talk Akira through his sudden ennui about the zombie apocalypse. That's enough to keep me rolling through the next couple volumes I have on hand from the library. show less

A fairly exciting exploration of the deadly games and closed circle tropes made popular in recent years by Hunger Games and Squid Games with a heavy escape room vibe to boot. A group of high school buddies see some unusual fireworks late one night, black out, and awaken in the Borderland, a ruined and nearly deserted version of the Tokyo they know. To stay alive, they need to compete regularly with and against the other unwilling inhabitants in games with life or death consequences. show more Characterization isn't real deep -- we have the street smart guy, the tough guy, and the goofball -- but things keep moving fast enough that that's not a problem.

I unknowingly read two books by the same guy, Haru Asu, back to back this week. His Zom 100 is also fast-paced, gory, and good but with a darkly humorous bent that contrasts nicely with the grim seriousness of this series. I'm going to keep on with both and keep my eye out for anything else he does. And apparently, when I'm ready, there's also a Netflix series based on "Alice" that I can check out. show less

Akira Tendo has been living his best life since the onset of the zombie apocalypse, but a figure from his past threatens to hurt him more than any zombie could. And we get part of the secret origin of Shizuka Mikazuki.

With all the serious stuff -- even the fan service is put on hold! -- is this title in danger of becoming just another ordinary zombie adventure? Well, there's a homage to Negan of The Walking Dead at least.

Another mixed volume in this uneven series. The first half is pretty good as the confrontation against the King of Clubs involving the main characters has some real ramifications. But the second half introduces 20 new characters for a new game that might be interesting if it involved anyone I cared about. As it is, the deaths are fast and meaningless and fairly boring. And unfortunately this game continues over to the next volume, so I'm not particularly eager to grab that book right now.