This week’s episode of Zombie Land Saga was focused on Sakura-chan and I have to say it gave many clues for interesting theories.

Plot

The girls are scheduled to hold a concert at a venue in Arpino and after visiting the space, Sakura feels like it might give her clues about regaining her memories. After getting too excited for the show, Sakura seems to getting ahead of herself and cannot properly practice with the others. Kotaro witnesses the situation and decides to send them to the mountains as part of their training. Sakura becomes annoyed that everyone is more focused on wilderness survival than practicing for the show and things start to become awkward between her and the others. After trying to get herself together, she observes the others’ teamwork and realizes she was acting very selfishly. As the date of the concert in getting closer, Sakura gets hit by a truck again, causing her memories to revert back to when she was still alive.

Episode Highlights

About Sakura-chan: Okay, after watching this episode, I am pretty sure that Sakura did not die by that truck when it first hit her. This is only a theory but judging from the preview for the next episode and her behavior when they were in the mountains, Sakura seems to be very hardworking but gets easily disheartened when things don’t go her way. She probably worked really hard to get into an elite school when she was alive but for unknown reasons (maybe because she helped an old lady or she just failed the exams) she didn’t get into that school. She then sees Iron Frill on the TV and decides to become an idol but she gets hit by a car that most-likely just injured her heavily and didn’t kill her. As her injuries were too severe to pursue her idol career, she decides to give up and commits suicide (hence the bathroom scene in the opening of the show). And that’s the reason why Kotaro treats her ‘better’ than the others. At least this is what I have speculated so far.

Courtesan on the premises: Damn, that Yugiri slap was amazing. Although she seems to be doing them only for dramatic effects (because people usually think the same way as she does but they just don’t get the time to phrase it), she actually cares for the people around her and she seems to be the most observant one out of the whole group, maybe because of her age.

Themes & Trivia

Nijinomatsubara: Once again during the intermission screens they like to advertise various places in Saga. Nijinomatsubara (虹の松原) is a 360-year-old pine forest in Karatsu, Saga. It has a width of 400 – 700 metres, a length of about 4 km, and a total area of 240 hectares. It was also referred as The Black Pine Forest of 1 Million Trees, however this name is uncommon today. The forest was originally planted by the feudal lord Terazawa Hirotaka as a counter-measure against the strong winds and tides in Karatsu Bay. Today it is a popular tourist spot, and on a list of the 100 most beautiful places in Japan.

Sazae: What the girls eat during the first intermission screen are sazae, aka turbo cornutus, common name the horned turban which is a species of sea snail. Sazae is enjoyed as a delicacy in Japan. After cooking, the corkscrew-like animal can be drawn out of its shell using its hard operculum, or hard, rocky lid, to which it is firmly attached.

Comments

Come on let’s be real, we all knew that the truck scene was going to happen the moment Ai warned her about the traffic. There are two major things that I really want to learn more about; Kotaro’s deal in all this and Tae’s past. Why does he want to save Saga so much and how did he turned the girls into zombies? Who is Tae and why is she legendary? My theory for this is that she was probably a convict or something like that (that’s why she is wearing the prison pajamas) and was killed in a way that somehow messed up her voice chords. She is legendary for the things she did before going to jail or because Kotaro revived her as zombie 0 first and that’s why he considers her legendary.

Be careful of the traffic.

I am very excited to learn more about Sakura’s story but since the show is coming to an end soon, I hope that we will get the time to learn more about the rest of the characters as well. If not, then maybe we can have a second season for this? If there is enough material to animate of course, or else just do some special bonus episodes so we can quench our thirst for more!

NEXT TIME: A One-of-a-Kind SAGA

Zombie Land Saga

Fall 2018 | Anime Info | Simulcast