Night Of The Loving Dead: Part 1 (Zombie Land Saga) [1.4]

(Continued from 1.3)

Part 4: RIP, Our Insecurities, Our Fear Of Failure, And Our Karmic Destiny Which Curses Us With Eternal Bad Luck! 

Well, here we are. The beginning of the end of our look into Zombie Land Saga's first season. We've covered lots of the zombie girls in depth, learning the traumas of their deaths and the pain and loss their loved ones were burdened with in the intervening years. Even so, we haven't talked about three girls in any real detail. Yugiri is basically sort of there and the "mom" of the group, and her big backstory about the trauma of her death and what she left behind is going to be written about at length when we come to Season 2. Tae Yamada's just a stereotypical groaning zombie, As A Joke. (There is one big thematic resonant exception to this that we'll get to later in this very post.) That leaves Sakura. Over these 9 episodes, Sakura has been many things. A flustered nervous middlewoman in between all the other conflicts and crises we've been discussing, mostly. Throughout the show she's still been struggling to remember her past, only able to get those brief glimmers of witnessing an idol show somewhere. It's when those glimmers get stronger that we get the big issues, and get to really delve into Sakura's issues. Let's heal the heart of this dead idol. Let's talk about Sakura.

Night Of The Loving Dead: Part 1 (Zombie Land Saga) [1.3]

(Continued from 1.2)

Part 3: RIP, The Lack Of Closure Our Loved Ones Struggle With As They Process The Pain And Loss Of Our Untimely Deaths!

Wow, there was a lot going on in that last bit, huh? All that business with Ai and Junko and needing to come to terms with the strange new world they were revived in. Still, they managed to grow and heal from it... but the zombie girls aren't the only ones who feel the hurt of being out of time. The next big arc of Zombie Land Saga, episodes 8 and 9, focuses on the people the girls left behind. The people who had to soldier on and live with the loss of these people who were close to them. It's heavy, it's heartbreaking, and it made me cry. Solid stuff to cover on this blog... and boy howdy does episode 8 deliver on that. Let's dive right on in.

Night Of The Loving Dead: Part 1 (Zombie Land Saga) [1.2]

(Continued from 1.1)

Part 2: RIP, Our Idol Industry Differences, And The Traumas Born From Our Deaths!

As we said last time, Zombie Land Saga's 12 episodes can be split up into discrete little arcs. We passed out of the first, and here we're going to cover the second and the third. Really, we're going to cover the third in-depth. The second little arc which spans episodes 3, 4, and 5 of the show is mainly fun fluff of the week as our zombie idol group continues to take steps to becoming a legitimate force in the pop music sphere. It's all very important stuff and not "filler" in any sense of the word, but you'll forgive me if I want to fast-forward a bit to the more emotionally resonant stuff. We will talk for a bit, though, on these episodes. Episode 3 concerns the girls performing a guerrilla performance, in which they just head out into a town square in Saga and sing and dance. There's a bit of tension where Ai and Junko still aren't entirely on board with the project, but they cut in to help at the last minute and the guerrilla show goes as well as it could have. Episode 3 also finally has the girls decide on a name for the group, inspired by Tae's zombie groaning/sneezing: From here on, the zombie idol girls are known as Franchouchou. Saki also takes on the role of the group's leader, so to speak, so things are getting more organized.

Night Of The Loving Dead: Part 1 (Zombie Land Saga) [1.1]

(Here we are again, like two months later, with the good stuff! Sorry it took so long, but you know what I'm like. An impending trip I'm going on at the end of the month turned out to be the deadline fire I needed lit under me. Hey, the last minute bullshit worked for Douglas Adams, and he came up with some brilliant results under a burst so close to a deadline. Douglas Adams this is not, but it is my usual on-brand bullshit and I hope you rejoin me here in the metaphorical coffee shop for it! 

Oh yeah, spoilers for Zombie Land Saga. There will be spoilers. This particular first section only covers the first two episodes, so if you decide this is the kind of show you want to see, here is a link to episode 1 via Crunchyroll. All the screencaps here are from my DVD copy of the show, which I'm fairly certain is the translation used there. I also hear the dub is very well-done, but I've only seen the show subbed because that's the way I am. Enough preamble. Let's talk about some zombie girls.)

(Continued from Introduction)

Goodness, I made some bold claims at the end of that intro, didn't I? Can there be a show with zombies that really lives up to all that beauty and more? Over the next god knows how many words because I haven't written them yet, we're going to argue that yes it can. We're going to talk about 12 episodes and just under 5 hours of animated television that put all that perceived nihilistic bullshit about zombies back into the dirt where it belongs. The steps Zombie Land Saga takes are in the wake of George Romero's legacy, as we've discussed, and some of them are more beautiful and wonderful than he could have ever imagined. All of them are better than anything Zac Snyder, Robert Kirkman, or a horde of other stock zombie apocalypse fiction writers could even begin to imagine. Sorry. There was a little nihilistic zombie fiction shit-talking left in the tank. Forget about all those folks. We're going to talk about anime zombies from now on. Let's shift into gear. Refill your warm drink, get comfy in your chair... and let me tell you all about anime zombie girls.