Akira Tendou

Akira Tendou (天道 輝) is the main character of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. He is a former employee of a black company and the original author of the Bucket List.

Appearance
Akira is a fit young man with short scruffy black hair and matching color eyes. He wears a green jacket over a white long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and multi-colored shoes.

Personality
Initially, Akira was very optimistic, with dreams and bright world views. After years of working in the black company, he has become highly stressed and tired, nearly suicidal. When the zombie apocalypse started, he experienced a great sense of freedom and tried to experience everything life had to offer with childlike optimism.

Knowing that the end of the world and that of his life might be around the corner, Akira has pulled out all the restraints that his former life placed on him, letting out all the feelings and desires he had been repressed throughout his abusive, exploitative work life. Therefore Akira, is a man who lives for the moment, making decisions that are not optimal, inefficient, or otherwise suicidal in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, but that let Akira experience the many joys in life he was previously unable to.

Abilities
Being a former rugby athlete, Akira is in peak physical condition, being able to easily outrun a pack of zombies, and jump obstacles without losing momentum. He is easily capable of climbing down buildings with little to no injury. The anime goes further and has him able to jump from several stories high, something that would kill most people, while sustaining no injury, albeit by being cushioned by trees, and still descend with enough force to break part of the ceiling he fell on while crushing the zombies underneath.

When confronting his former, zombified boss who had become extremely bloated, Akira was able to tackle him with such inhuman strength, he was able to push him while plowing through the door behind with the momentum catapulting the former human through the window frame and plummeting all the way to his demise.

Akira serves as one of his group's main fighters; By donning a special aquarium suit made to resist bites from sharks, he can engage in close quarter combat without the risk of ever getting infected. The suit isn't entirely foolproof, however, as while the zombies cannot penetrate it, the force of the bites and other means of attack can still hurt Akira. Nonetheless Akira has shown impressive duress, being able to take the brunt of the attacks of the Zombified Shark whose body mass would make those attacks extremely dangerous and still survive the ordeal without lasting injuries.

Story
Akira started as a chipper young man and he was really excited to work for a big company, he then met his branch leader, Gonzou, who happily greeted him, he was then shown to his desk where he bumped into Saori Ohtori and was instantly infatuated with her, he helped her pick up her paperwork and then they parted. Later that night, Akira was at his welcome party and he told everyone that he was a pro Rugby player, one of the guys asked did he have a girlfriend and Akira told them he did not, the guy responded with how he is such a hunk, Akira laughed, Akira then walked around pouring people drinks and getting to know them, but after the party all him team turned into Zombies (not undead) and said back to work.

Akira then had to work for three days straight with no sleep, he was then let home, He woke up and perked up and told himself not to let it get to him so he left full throttle, sadly Gonzou continued to break him. Saori was kind to him, but he then noticed her having sex with his boss in his office, hurting him more. Akira was so drained that he walked in traffic trying to die but failed, he tried to throw himself in front of a train but the bollard stopped him, he was so drained that he apologized to a mailbox for bumping into it.

The next morning, Akira found a notice that he hadn't paid for his bike parking. He decided to pay on the way to work, he went to his landlord but nobody answered. He then noticed that the door was open and he found his landlord now munching on a woman, the zombie then turned to Akira and pounced. But Akira was too fast and the zombie got its head stuck in some railings. Akira ran but then found a horde he kept running upwards and then crashed into a door, cracking his head, but he got up and kept moving. He was able to avoid the zombies due to his pro rugby skills.

Akira then went to a convenience store and took a notebook so he could write a bucket list, and his first task was confess to Saori. He cycled all the way to her apartment avoiding many zombies, he arrived to find his boss had turned and tried to rush him but all the blood made it so that the zombie had no footing. So Akira took his chance told his boss that he quits and rugby tackled the zombie, sending it plummeting to its death. Akira then went to find Saori but it was too late, as she had been bitten and was in the middle of changing but trying to fight it. Akira then told her that he loves her and then the zombified Saori charged at him but Akira ran away too fast.

The next day, Akira cleaned his room ticking another item off his list, he then wrote and lazed around drinking beer, but he only had three cans so he ran out and panicked. Akira then said he would rather be zombie food than not complete this task. on his way out he met his neighbors, Mikio and Sumire Kousaka. He asked them if they needed anything and they told him what they needed. Akira then went to a convenient store loudly singing about getting beer, not knowing that sound attracts zombie. He then heard something and went to see and he found a beautiful girl chugging a bottle of water. Akira decided to make small talk, but the girl told him that he has no survival instincts. He was loudly singing that alerts zombies he left his home just to get luxury items and not essentials so she would not partner with him as he would lower her chance of survival. Just then, zombies entered the building. Akira tried to shield the girl, but she pulled him to the ground and got on top of him to cover him as a truck driven by a zombie crashed and killed the horde. Akira was impressed but then horrified when the girl stole his bike, Akira got on a moped and drove off but then got on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Akira then found that the Kousaka residence was destroyed and he was sad that they died, but however they escaped.

The next day, Akira wanted to meet his best friend, Kenichirou Ryuuzaki, and to catch up, he called him. Kencho told him that he was in a love hotel with a zombie and that he had eaten nothing for three days, and only had bottled water. Akira set off an alarm that lured the zombies away and then he apologized to Kencho way too loudly, which alerted more zombies so they had to run away to the roof. Akira jumped the building but Kencho told him that he couldn't but Akira gave him a pep talk and he made it.

The next day, Kencho cooked a delicious meal for them and Akira praised him. Kencho told him that is the reason why Akira is a virgin and why he will never get a girlfriend. This annoyed Akira and he said that he will. They decided to grab a large Plasma TV, they set off to Akihabara and found a zombie fireman blocking the way, Akira then heard a petrol truck with a zombie driving it, but Akira noticed a staircase to an underground mall so he managed to avoid the collision, killing both zombies in the process. They then found a horde so they ran and slid into a big supermarket and encountered 3 women named Reika, Maki, and Yukari, who were hiding along with a businessman. Reika asked had they been bitten Akira and Kencho proved that they weren't so they sat and had a drink. Akira was overjoyed to hear that the girls were cabin attendants so he could tick another off his bucket list. Akira saw Maki and Kencho getting to know each other well and he tried to talk to Yukari, but was too blunt and straight up asked if she had a boyfriend, proving that he doesn't think things through. Yukari angrily shot him down and he fell into despair but decided to chug tequila which amused Reika. Later, Maki and Kencho left to find the bed section and Akira went to the bathroom to vomit. Whilst emptying his stomach, Yukari showed up and rubbed his back. Meanwhile, the businessman had become a zombie and killed Reika turning her into one too. Kencho heard the scream, but Maki told him to dismiss it and go another round. Yukari sat on a flight of stairs with Akira talking about dreams, but sadly this was short-lived as the zombie had found them and pounced on Yukari. Akira pulled it off of her and punched it down a flight of stairs. He realized that Yukari had been bitten, Yukari staggered to her feet and embraced Akira. She told him that he needs to live and find her boyfriend and tell him what happened to her, all with a smile on her face. Akira ran whilst hearing Yukari's screams as she was killed, he found Kencho who had killed a zombie Reika and was running from Zombie Maki but he had a TV they wanted,

Back on their rooftop, Akira was playing a zombie shooter on the new TV and was thinking of Yukari and when he died in the game he clicked the continue button showing that he will not die easily.

Akira was seen having a dream of his childhood where he defended a kid and his puppy from two middle school bullies. Akira then awoke and decided that he wanted to be a hero. Kencho questioned this as how can he be a hero like Spiderman or Batman, and Akira stated that it is his dream so Kencho went with it. On a bike ride to an aquarium, Kencho asked what sort of hero he wanted to be and Akira gave a generic answer. Whilst inside the aquarium he found a shark and a diving suit. Kencho told him that if sharks can't bite through that neither can zombies. At that moment, Akira heard screaming and saw a bus being attacked and lots of civilians were running away. Then a school girl was running from some sprinting zombies who had seemed to have retained their athletic abilities even after being turned. The girl tripped but Akira, in his suit, tackled the zombie and saved the girl. He then saw the girl from the store run past but then the sprinter zombie returned and bit him. But Akira said it wouldn't work but the then realized that he would still feel the pressure from the bite and then he got dog piled. Akira then begged Kencho to save him. Kencho said that there was only one suit so he can't. Akira luckily broke free and reunited with Kencho and then met the girl again. Kencho told him to talk to her, so he did but was verbally berated for his lack of sense and risk assessing. A zombie shark then appeared and attacked, the girl explained that the shark ate zombies so that allowed it to sprout legs. Just then the school girl ran in screaming and pushed the girl to the ground, causing her to be locked out of the safe room. Inside the room, Akira realized that she was gone so he went to save her. Whilst protecting her, she told him of a strategy to stop the shark. Akira distracted it whilst she looked for some batteries and Akira's suit was a perfect conductor, but they couldn't get an opening so Kencho showed up and acted as bait allowing Akira to kill the shark with an electrified punch.

Outside, Akira and Kencho asked why the girl left the group and she answered that she hates large groups and also she wanted to be far away from the girl who nearly got her killed, she then gave Akira her ID number revealing her name as Shizuka Mikazuki, Akira then said he saved her because she is precious to him causing her to blush.

Kenichirou Ryuuzaki
Akira and Kenchou were friends from high school when they joined the same club.

Shizuka Mikazuki
Akira first met Shizuka when he ran to gather supplies in a nearby minimarket. The stoic lady seemed distanced and uninterested in Akira, but when she noticed that he is about to be crushed by truck she pushed him away from the danger.

He considers her "the woman of his dreams".

In Chapter 57 of the manga, he and Shizuka confess their feelings for each other and passionately kiss as they are surrounded by zombies.

Teruo Tendou
Teruo is Akira's father. He was concerned when he learned his father got a terminal illness.

Akiko Tendou
Akiko is Akira's mother.

Yukari
Akira met her in a mall when hiding from Zombies, they had a rough start as Akira bluntly asked if she had a boyfriend and she shot him down, but after drinking too much Yukari came to rub his back whilst he vomited in a toilet, After this, they sat on a flight of stairs and became friends fast and talked about their dreams. Unfortunately, a Zombie attacked Yukari and bit her. Akira pulled it off her and punched it down the stairs, After that Yukari hugged Akira and told him to live whilst the Zombie came back.

Yukari's death haunts Akira as he always thinks about her and wished that he had the Vaccine back then

Saori Ohtori
She was Akira’s first crush and was only reason why he didn’t quit his job earlier. She kindly treats him better compared to the other workers like Gonzou Kosugi though her as the Chairman’s mistress did hurt a bit. He bravely confessed his feelings to her while zombified even though it meant nothing now.

It is unknown if she felt the same way back or how she felt about him as she was zombified before she could reply to his feelings.

Later on it was revealed her being zombified had some impact on Akira as he recalled her as one woman he loved lost to the zombie apocalypse such as when Shizuaka gotten bitten or him confessing to her later on reminded him of Ohtori.

Etymology

 * The name Akira means "brightness, radiance, shine, sparkle, gleam, twinkle" (輝).
 * Akira's surname Tendou means "sun, heaven/way of heaven, providence, destiny, divine justice/divine guidance/divine intervention, fate, fortune, chance, predetermination, lot" (天道).