Anime Spotlight #11: Zombie Land Saga

 Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Last-Minute Animeister

Before I began writing this, I had it stuck in my head that I had already done a Critical Quickie-length review of the first season of today's Spotlight selection, and I was planning on doing something like I did with Fire Force and Soul Eater last week. But I didn't even have anything started in my offline files, let alone a posted review to work from. So this is all fresh!

In the spirit of today's content, I recently went to a local school surplus sale and bought a new desk (plus all of the unused stationery and plastic organizing trays that were left in the drawers) for twenty dollars. Which means it's used, but it's new to me. One of the drawers needs to be repaired with wood glue, but this thing is of a quality you just don't see anymore: dovetailed construction, thick bolts and screws, solid-wood components.... You can't get a pressed-wood desk one fifth the craftsmanship of this desk for less than sixty dollars. And screw actual solid-wood furniture nowadays. You have to special order that shit from Amish wood-workers for prices in the thousands. Anyway, it's a good piece of furniture that I discovered during an act of impulsive charity and compulsive desire, and plan to repair and use to great personal benefit.

But what does this have to do with Zombie Land Saga? What even is Zombie Land Saga? If you want to find out, go watch it on Crunchyroll for a modest subscription fee, and then come back to read this post. There isn't much to spoil here, but what there is to spoil is mind-blowing, so, yeah. Go watch it if you like zombies and pop idols. Or even just one of those things. It's good. Here's the break:

Zombie Land Saga (REVENGE) is one of the few anime out there to have started life as an anime instead of being adapted from a manga. There is a manga now, of course. But this is the Anime Spotlight. So...anime! It's also kind of a same-world isekai, which I find interesting. An aspiring pop idol with an unfortunate past, two former professional idols, a transgendered former child star, a geisha, a girl who is legendary for some reason, and an infamous biker chick are assembled by a sadistically obnoxious makeup artist and his rabid, shapeshifting poodle to become a new idol group and save the small Japanese community of Saga from…not having an idol group? Based on my repeated use of the word, “idol,” you can rightly assume that Zombie Land Saga is an idol anime, complete with an ongoing group-building plot and awkward CGI musical performances every episode or two. The twist, you can probably guess from the title (which makes it sound like another money-sucking mobile game that King cooked up in whatever Maltese den of iniquity serves as their evil lair these days), but if you don’t care, I’ll spoil it for you: the seven leads (and the rabid, shapeshifting poodle) are all zombies, six of whom have “awakened,” and so possess sentience along with their human personalities and memories (except for the main, main character, Sakura, whose human and zombie memories are separate for most of the series). The pilot episode was brilliantly jarring, the character focus episodes were heartfelt, the other episodes were the right balance of smart, dramatic and funny, the character designs were cute, the characters themselves were mostly endearing, and the soundtrack was all kinds of ear-bending, motivational, sugar-coated hype. But like most series of its length (at least, from the perspective I had in the first season), Zombie Land Saga spent too much time being episodic, which made the final three episodes feel like a rushed climax full of juicy, but unfulfilled promises. The second season builds or delivers on some of those promises, like having more exchanges between Sakura and Kotaro (the aforementioned, obnoxious makeup artist), adding dramatic depth and importance to his character, continuing the subplot with the reporters investigating Franchouchou's (yes, that is the group's name, and yes, they came up with it because of a misunderstanding and a sneezing zombie) true identities, and new takes on the recurring gag between Sakura and the generic bicycle cop that keeps running into her without her makeup on. Most of the second season is about Franchouchou (bless you, Tae Yamada!) gearing up for their "revenge" concert after the disappointing returns of their first season finale concert. But it also boasts the series' first multi-parter: a flashback origin story arc focusing on Yugiri (the geisha, and fish-out-of-water/den mother of the group) that starts out looking like one of those Saturday morning time travel episodes where everyone's ancestors look like them to save on the animation and casting budget, but proves to be more compelling and karmically significant to the story (and the Saga prefecture itself) than expected. And just when you think Franchouchou's revenge concert went off without a hitch and Zombie Land Saga REVENGE is going to end the series for good on a triumphant, happy note of prosperity and zombie acceptance...suddenly ancient curses and aliens. The End? And also,

So, I definitely want a third season of Zombie Land Saga. Idol shows aren't normally my cup of anything, but if you are a long-time visitor of this blog, you know I have an appreciation for zombie-related media, especially if it does something fresh with the concept. I know zombies and freshness are almost mutually exclusive, what with the whole rotting flesh aspect, but Zombie Land Saga is zombie-fresh, funny, and compelling, with music that I didn't expect to like and an unflinching ability to not just push the envelope, but make sure it ends up on the floor, folded into an origami jellyfish, and forced to skydive into Area 51 while on fire.

I feel like I forgot to explain what repairing and using an old desk that I bought with a small charity donation has to do with covering covering cute zombie girls in make up and turning them into a pop idol group, but I trust my readers (and hopefully, followers? Commenters, even? Please!?) to be intelligent and figure that out for themselves.

Also, I'll have a Just the Ticket review of The Black Phone up later this week, so go watch it on Peacock if you haven't already, and stay tuned for next week's Anime Spotlight on a pair of really good time-travel anime.

Animeister,

out.