Don’t set up a redemption arc for your abusive asshole character unless you’re willing to really put in the work folks.
Zombieland Saga is a show that probably does require a bit of introduction, so let’s start with what it is. There’s a subgenre of anime know as Idol Shows, that exist as a sort of cross-promotional effort to advertise and build up the backstory/mythos for an actual singing group. Building into the real-life decline of the Idol business in Japan, or at least it’s diffusion and mutation into new forms, Zombieland Saga’s Franchouchou uses an extreme gimmick: each of the 6 performers in the group are dead, zombies raised by their manager to become the saviors of the Saga Prefecture, plagued by an aging populous and declining tourism. And so each of them are legends within their field; the founder of a biker gang, a courtesan from the Meiji era, a Showa era singer, the leader of a turn of the millennium Idol group who was struck by lightning and died mid-concert.
And then there’s our lead character Sakura. The show opens with her taking an acceptance letter for tryouts for an Idol group, practically leaping out her front door, declaring good morning to the world… and is promptly hit by a truck and killed. Sakura is a well realized character who I like a lot but also the focal point for everything that keeps me from really embracing Zombieland Saga. The intro here covers a lot of it: the show is completely unafraid to embrace the undead nature of its cast for extreme physical comedy and I can’t think of a single instance it worked for me. And more importantly a lot of instances where the violence was just uncomfortable. I dunno that I have anything eloquent to say here: I don’t like seeing girls decapitated for comedy. Sorry.
More than that is Sakura’s role as the focal point of manager Kotaro’s behavior. This guy is a fucking asshole, openly abusive of his charges, and Sakura is always front and center in most of his scenes. His catchphrase may as well be “DUMBASS ZOMBIES”. And here’s the thing. Both overtly and covertly, Zombieland Saga faces the sheer grind and unseemly facts of the Idol life. There’s an argument to be made the comedy is more meant to derive from the sort of “if you didn’t laugh you’d have to cry” nature of a lot of it, and creating a cast of heroines that can withstand it and rise above, turning the tragedies of their deaths into a source of strength as zombies, is sorta the point. But you lose that thread pretty badly at a certain point.
Weakest Episode- It’s Zombiemental Saga. This forms a bit of a two-parter with episode 6, and honestly it’s just kinda a dull episode unto itself. But it’s the first signs of the “oh but actually the complete asshole really cared all along and just wanted to motivate you!!” aspect to Kotaro’s character, and ergggghhhhhhh.
No mistake, the final reveal is worse, but… when they hint that his motivation is directly tied to Sakura in episode 11 it’s also in context of Sakura finally pushing back against his abuse, deflecting some of the implications a bit, and in the (season?) finale when he turns out to have been a classmate of hers who hid his identity with a fake name after resurrecting her, it’s a two second flashback that’s not commented on and the rest of the episode is reasonably strong. I guess the actual reveals of his background don’t really matter at this point, but the overall softening of his character without typically adjusting his behavior or showing a meaningful backlash, pushback, or comeuppance over it… it really kills the vibe on a show that mostly coasts on character beats and generating cast empathy.
Bad as all that is, it didn’t manage to completely kill my enthusiasm for the show, and what works her works too well.
Best Episode- Though My Life May Have Ended Once By Some Twist of Fate I have Risen, and If Song and Dance Are to Be My Fate, Then Carrying the Memories of My Comrades in My Heart As I Sally Forth Shall Be My Saga.
What the hell’s normal supposed to be?
There’s a subtlety to this one I dig a lot, and why I want to start talking about the good parts here. Saki’s solution to the mess she finds her old life in is fascinating, because it amounts to recreating the circumstances of her death and that seems to have been the plan. Her reaction to Reiko clocking her square in the jaw is to smile and tell young Maria ‘looks like your mom is plenty tough, maybe just prove to her you can keep up’. While keeping her old gang alive was appealing, her main goal was always to make sure her best friend could keep that normal life she’d wanted, despite still not seeing the appeal. And honestly I get the sense that, in part, she felt Reiko *deserved* to clock her one. For dying in the first place, I imagine.
It’s also one of the funniest episodes for my money. Girls armed with chainsaws step up to Saki for interfering. Saki does a barest glance in their direction, the screen freezing into sketch art for an instant, and immediately they back down, knowing she’s far out of their league. And if I have anything to say about it the Dorami Gang’s awkward stalk shall live forever.
There’s plenty of small moments between the cast of course. Many belong to Saki (“Who cares what kinda junk she’s got!” indeed), but part of the main thrust of the season is the growing sense of camaraderie within Franchouchou and as such our lead character Sakura is often at the forefront. Indeed, until earning Saki’s respect via rap battle in the second episode, Saki was pretty much content to just be a shiftless rebel in her undead life. And to some extent a show that’s just small moments and girl bonding time is something I really appreciate right now, if I’m honest.
Rating- 6/10. I watched this in shifts, and if I’d gone all the way up to Episode 12 without knowing the final reveal on Kotaro I’d probably have rated this a bit higher: being cued in that it was coming got me to notice the gradual shift towards more sympathetic characterization for him a lot more. But yeah, that really sours what until then was more of an 8. Blargh.
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