ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead star Zeno Robinson about the popular new anime. Robinson discussed starring in the show, his work on Digimon, and more.
“After spending years toiling away for a soul-crushing company, Akira’s life has lost its luster,” reads Zom 100’s synopsis. “But when a zombie apocalypse ravages his town, it gives him the push he needs to live for himself. Now Akira’s on a mission to complete all 100 items on his bucket list before he…well, kicks the bucket.”
Tyler Treese: I love your character, Akira. Zom 100 has such a fun premise — he finds purpose in his life and excitement from the zombie apocalypse because it gives him that unexpected time. What about the character were you able to sink your teeth into and appreciate about Akira?
Zeno Robinson: What I really was able to sink my teeth into when it came to Akira was … I want to say almost everything about him. Down to his personality, his work ethic, [and] the way he looks at life. I know it’s through the lens of the zombie apocalypse, but the show opens and it’s evident that he’s a very hard worker. He has all these dreams and all these things that he wants to accomplish, and I relate to that heavily.
And about working hard, working yourself to the bone, working yourself until you’re exhausted, ’till you can’t work anymore in the pursuit of something that you want to do. But then when the zombie apocalypse happens and his outlook on the world changes, even the way that he looks at the world, his realizations of like, “There’s never enough time to do everything that you want to do in life, so why wait? Why let anything stop you from doing what you want to do? Even a zombie apocalypse, right?” Following your dreams by any means necessary.
The way he looks at his own mortality and the mortality of the people around him throughout the course of the show has really, really resonated with me. The way he connects with others, the way he wants to find his friends, his community, and down to like, even … Episode 5 and having this dream of wanting to be a hero and wanting to help people and wanting to save people — I’m going on this journey with Akira and I deeply and emotionally am with him every step of the way, because something he says has related to something either I’ve felt or I’m currently going through.
We’ve seen Zom 100 really blow up. As goofy as the show can be, that overall message is so touching and even more relatable after the pandemic since everybody put their lives on pause and this is saying, “Hey, go out for it. Chase your dreams.” How has it been seeing the fans really come out and show their support? The show came out of nowhere to this huge hit, and it’s on Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll.
Yeah, it’s been great seeing the fan responses. When we did the first panel at Anime Expo, I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as the fans. I didn’t know how many people knew of the property or read the manga. But man, we did a panel to a full house. That was really, really indicative of how much people, even before the show had come out, were fans of the property and of the title that the incredible creators have made. Then the show came out and people were praising the animation. I watched it and I was blown away.
I was like, “Man, Studio Bug, they went above and beyond anything anybody was expecting from a fun zombie apocalypse show.” They really blended the action and the humor and the animation and the colors really, really well. I think it really went over well with fans. I’m really, really happy about that.
You mentioned Zom 100 is based off a manga. I was curious, because I’ve talked to a few voice actors and it differs a lot — Do you actually read the manga before these roles? What’s your approach?
I do. When I got the word from the studio, we recorded here at Bang Zoom! Entertainment from casting director, Mami Okada — thank you Mami. When I heard, I started reading the manga immediately just so I could get a feel of Akira. I wanted to have an idea of what I wanted his voice to be. By the time we got down to recording the trailer, I wanted to already come in with ideas of who he was, who I thought he was, and how he should be played. I wanted to know his journey. I wanted to know where he starts and where he ends up currently. That way, I can illustrate that journey artistically in the performance as accurately and as honestly as possible.
It’s been great seeing your growth as a voice actor. Over the past couple of years, you’ve had so many standout supporting roles, and now you’re getting lead roles like in Zom 100. How exciting is it to get this backing from the studios and seeing all your hard work pay off?
It’s an incredible blessing. I’m incredibly honored and thankful to be entrusted with this role and any lead role in anything. It’s an honor to be entrusted because, sometimes, it’s work. You’ve got to step up to the plate. Especially that first episode was a lot of loops, and it was my first time doing so many. I am just very thankful to my directors and to the casting directors. It’s directed by Bill [Millsap] and me and Bill just went in the studio and really worked hard on making this as best as we can make it.
I have nothing but gratitude for everyone because it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while and something that I felt like, in my soul, that I can do and I can deliver on. So I’m glad to have an opportunity to begin to fulfill that promise to myself and to people who watch our dubs and things like that.
One of the great parts of Zom 100 is that friendship with Kencho. Can you speak to that relationship? It’s great to see your character bring his friends along and help them get a new perspective on life.
Yeah, I think it’s a great commentary on how we are socially sometimes. We can be so inundated with work and all these other busy things that, sometimes, the people around us are the people that suffer the most. Our relationships are the things that suffer the most. That’s illustrated in the episode with Akira and Kencho when they get into this argument and they don’t speak for three years because they get so caught up in their own lives and in their own worlds. I just love that episode because there was so much symbolism going on when Akira had jumped to the other side and it was light, right? And Akira was literally telling Kencho to come to the light and really be himself, and he rebirthed himself into wanting to be this comedian and doing what he wanted to do.
And they reconciled because what else can help you reconcile with things that don’t necessarily matter, you know? They had an argument, but sometimes it’s petty stuff that won’t matter in a year or won’t matter in three years. What matters is the connection and the bond that you have with this person. And they reconcile that in the wake of the zombie apocalypse — it has a real knack of putting things in perspective. I think their friendship is so incredible. Sometimes you just need someone else to help make things like the zombie apocalypse bearable, right? And I think that’s what’s also a beauty about their relationship.
Hopefully, it won’t take a Zom 100-esque zombie apocalypse for this to occur, but what are some items that are on your bucket list?
Man, I want to learn the piano. [Laughs]. And hopefully, it won’t take an apocalypse to do that. Learning the piano, I want to make a video game, I want to make a manga. A lot of my bucket list items have to do with creating. I’d love to swim in like a really beautiful foreign oasis — I think that sounds really cool. Learn another language, paint … I think those are a few things on my bucket list.
I love it. You mentioned video games — you got the voice DJ in Street Fighter 6. That’s such an iconic character. How exciting was getting to put your own stamp on this character that’s been around for decades?
Man, never in a million years did I think I would ever be in Street Fighter. [Laughs]. As a general fan of the franchise … sometimes, as an actor, you know that these things come around, but you never know if you’ll ever end up in any of it, right? So I grew up playing Street Fighter with my friends, and being a part of it as a core character is an absolutely mind-boggling experience. I’m so grateful for Capcom for allowing me that opportunity and affording me that opportunity. It’s just been a really cool dream come true.
I feel like you’ve had a lot of those kind of “pinch me” moments lately, like voicing Tai in Digimon. How wild was that? When I was growing up — and we’re about the same age — Digimon was so huge. That’s such an iconic role, and you got the voice him.
I didn’t even know that we were going to dub it. I had known a new Digimon had come out and it was a reboot series. I didn’t know that we were even going to dub it. Then even in the dubbing of it, I didn’t know that they were going to have a new cast for this one. There’s an established voice of Tai, Joshua Seth — that’s the Tai I grew up with, right? So when I auditioned, I didn’t necessarily know if it was Digimon or not, but I pretended like it was.[Laughs]. Then it ended up being Digimon. But I didn’t even think I was going to book it.
My voice wasn’t to par, where I thought it would go well with the casting directors. I was either sick or my voice was recovering from another thing. So I asked for a couple extensions and on the last extended day that I could do it, I did it. And I was like, “Dang, I didn’t get that because my voice hasn’t fully recovered.” And then I got an email, or I got a call from my agent not too long after that, and he said that I got Tai and I did not expect … out of all the characters that I auditioned for, Tai wasn’t the one that I was expecting to get. It was just super crazy. Just super, super crazy.
You have Persona 3 Reload coming up. Junpei’s such a bro and is great comic Relief. What does it mean to have that character? He’s such an icon of Persona 3, and that game is so beloved.
Absolutely. There needs to be a new word that I can use other than “mind-blowing” or “crazy,” right? I played Persona and Persona 3 was my personal favorite. So playing Junpei is like … I went on Junpei’s journey with Junpei at the same time he was going on it. So it was very serendipitous and it was very divinely intentioned and timed, and I’m incredibly grateful. Like Valerie [Arem] over at PCB Productions where we record the game, I think she sort of had me in mind for it.
I’m really thankful that she gave me that opportunity. Junpei was one of my favorite characters in P3 because his story is so deeply layered and nuanced and incredible, and I was deeply, deeply touched by and moved by Junpei’s story. So getting to be able to tell it is an incredible honor. Thank you to Atlus and Sega and like everybody who took that chance on me and let me be able to tell that story, because that whole game in its entirety is a hard act to follow. So I’m just hoping I did it justice at the end of the day.
