It feels like anything can happen in the world of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. In fact, it’s safe to say that just about every zombie-like scenario has occurred in Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata’s story. Hell, we just had the undead in outer space, for Pete’s sake! So where should Zom 100 go in search of new and unique material? In its nineteenth volume, it finds its answer: the animal kingdom!

In order to make plenty of vaccines, Dr. Tsuru needs eggs. And there’s no other bird in the world with bigger eggs than the ostrich. Fortunately, this lines up with one of Akira’s bucket list objectives: to ride one of those oboe creatures! But it won’t be easy, as even the most guarded zoos have their fair share of zombified animals.

Perhaps that’s why the first zombie animal introduced is a hoot: the honey badger. Even when undead, the honey badger don’t care! It takes fear and dives headfirst into it, a fact that terrifies everyone in the group. That’s when they meet Nora and her pet tiger, Yudemochi, and seek shelter deep within the zoo. The more they chat with Nora, the more it’s clear that she couldn’t care less about the fate of humans.

One can understand why Nora’s got this disdain for her fellow meat bags, and why she prefers the accompaniment of animals. After all, animals don’t judge, and most don’t have the opposable thumbs to tweet nasty comments. But thankfully, Akira and the gang are not like that. Instead, they show their kindness and enthusiasm, even giving Nora a helping hand with the broken fences, in exchange for the ostriches. But first, they have to deal with some of the most out-there zombie animals imaginable.

Sloths, shoebills, pottos, and even capybaras are now members of the undead. And unlike their alive counterparts, they all run like nobody’s business! (Okay, the capybara is still chill, thankfully.) But when even the slowest animals are this dangerous, one can only imagine what it’s like to deal with undead cheetahs, lions, and rhinos. However, in the most dire of situations, Shizuka combines a snake and a porcupine to craft the most bat-shit crazy weapon imaginable!

When the ostriches finally appear, it’s a moment of triumph and hope. While just about every scenario in this “Safari of the Dead” narrative is kooky, it never loses the focus of the main objective: to find a cure for the zombie virus. And with some familiar faces joining Dr. Tsuru in the lab, there are enough test subjects who are willing to try to save the lives of every survivor remaining. Yes, most of this volume is silly, but it’s the kind of silly that’s made Zom 100 a joy to read.

However, what’s not funny is how Volume Nineteen ends. An island of survivors is in danger of being wiped out, and there aren’t enough test vaccines that have been made to save them. There is a beacon of hope tossed in via the final two pages, but even then, the outcome of this next quest doesn’t seem to be clear. Could the next mission in Zom 100 end in the gang’s first failure? Because it’ll take a miracle of sorts to make it all work out in the end.

Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.