Zombie Land Saga Episode 3 Review: DEAD OR LIVE SAGA

After this episode you realize that Zombie Land Saga is just another idol anime, but way more legendary. Even though the concept and general idea are already put out there, it doesn’t stop the show from being funny and entertaining.

Plot

After the latest successful performance of the girls, Kotaro makes plans for a guerilla live, without, of course, giving them more than one day to prepare for the whole show. The girls start practicing the dance and the song, but before doing so they decide to rename the group themselves and end up settling on the name Franchouchou. Most of the members are motivated enough to practice their routine overnight except Ai and Junko who remain reluctant about the whole ‘idol’ situation. The next day, the girls go in Karatsu station to perform and they start without Ai and Junko’s participation. As the performance runs into trouble, because Sakura forgets her lyrics, the two girls come to the rescue and put their idol skills to use and manage to attract the attention from at least one young girl.

Episode Highlights

Kotaro is hilarious: First of all, he killed me when he said to Sakura: ‘Yo, your rap – good vibes, good rhymes – yeah!’, the way he talks is just so funny to me. Plus when he tried to write down ‘guerilla’ and didn’t know how to spell it was probably the best scene of the episode.

Saki will be the best leader: When she was giving her ‘speech’ to convince the rest of the girls in becoming the team leader and started yelling, you honestly thought that she was an announcer at a bike rally. Her spelling of the names was also hilarious, trying to write everything in kanji and ‘Franchouchou’ ended up as ‘Rotten Chaos Stank Bang’. Genius!

Tae-chan steals the show: Whatever she does, she always manages to grab my attention. At the opening scene when she was lying on the floor while the rest of the girls were sitting down, when she started sucking the marker and oh my god, when she started dancing I was like: ‘How the hell is she able to follow their dance routine?’ Oh yes, my bad. She is legendary that’s why.

Themes & Trivia

Tae-chan is legendary after all: It is finally confirmed that Tae-chan is voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi. If you are not familiar with her work, she is the voice of Sailor Moon herself, Misato in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Boa Hancock in One Piece. Roles that make her, indeed, legendary. Kotaro surely knows what he is talking about!

The group names that failed:

The Mibu Wolves: The Shinsengumi (新選組, ‘New Selected Group’) was a special police force organized by the military government during Japan’s Bakumatsu period in 1863. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when a controversial imperial edict to exclude foreign trade from Japan had been made and the Chōshū clan had been forced from the imperial court. They became known as the ‘Wolves of Mibu’ (in reference to the town of Mibu, in southern Kyoto, where they were based), and they inspired as much fear in civilians they were meant to protect as they did in their enemies – arguably more so.

Jeanne d’Arc: Joan of Arc, nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” (French: La Pucelle d’Orléans), is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.

Framboise: Is the French word for raspberry.

Comments

I am not a fan of idol shows but I am aware that most use CGI when it comes to the performances. I have to say, even though the CGI made me cringe a little bit, it was not as bad as I would expect it to be! It was actually quite decent compared to other shows that are way bigger production and still manage to use really bad CGI, *coughs* Overlord *coughs*.

One more thing. Is there only one damn policeman in the whole Saga? How can that guy be in every place they go? It gets ridiculous after a while, but what am I saying, that’s the whole point of the show!

One for zombies! All for zombies!

I was so wrong for the episode title reference, but oh well. The next one is definitely referencing to The Walking Dead but with an onsen twist to it. Can’t wait to see what other brilliant jokes will come our way.

NEXT TIME: Warming Dead SAGA