2.5: RIP, Our Physical Home After An Apocalyptic Disaster, But Also The Final Barriers Keeping Saga From Uniting Together!
Here we are. The final stretch. I am both elated and terrified. What's coming is a big storm, both literally in the show and metaphorically for our girls, but also metaphorically for you and I. We are going to deal with some of the highest utopic highs possible as Saga itself gets that little bit closer to being "saved", but there's something looming on a high mountain peak that we have to climb in order to make it out of this project alive. This is probably going to be a long one, so why don't we just dive in? To recap, a four-episode stretch was just spent on two showing how people react to learning Franchouchou are zombies, and two detailing the sad sad incident of Yugiri's death and the last attempt to save Saga. Taking all that together, on to the present, right?
Well, wrong. Episode 10's first half decides to focus itself on an extended flashback. The show has decided to spend half an episode showing us the cooldown from the end of the last season, and the leadup to Kotaro's hasty decision to immediately book the EFS show as well as the disastrous bomb the show ended up being. I don't want to hang around here too long, as we know the outcome... but there are a few emotional beats of note. Like Ai's initial reaction to learning where they're playing. You see, the EFS isn't going to be called the EFS until February. At this point in time, in mid-January of 2019, it's called the Best Amenity Stadium. This venue is the very place where Ai's life ended, struck by a bolt of lightning and fried before a crowd of thousands. This show just took on an extra-personal level of revenge. Hey, they defied fate at the Arpino, right? They've got this.
There are reservations, of course, for a still-small group like Franchouchou trying to pull in a crowd of thousands when they only just did a 500-person show. Kotaro rebuts, asking if Franchouchou really isn't as good as Iron Frill was like 20 years ago. They're Franchouchou. They can accomplish anything, their legend will blow up, and Saga will be saved! It would be inspiring if we didn't already know that this was a huge disaster, but that's what makes it compelling. We know it's going to end with egg on their faces, but despite their hesitations and worries Franchouchou take it in stride. They talk to each other about their worries, they share their anxieties, and they're there for each other to give pep talks and work on their routine. They're all revved up, ready to go, stick a thumb in the eye of fate and all that. As we know, it does not work. Kotaro moved with too much haste, too much overconfidence. He didn't do any pre-booking, believing simply that they could prove to the world Franchouchou had risen. It's a humbling failure, and as Kotaro descends into the bottom of a bottle of sake the girls are left millions in debt. What the hell are they going to do now without him?
Well, that's where they vow to enter the workforce and pay off their debt, learning not to rely too much on their manager and to gain some sense of agency for their own afterlives. That puts us back where we begun to end this little side flashback. Back in the present, we're still vowing to do better and be stronger: Ai notes that she still hasn't gotten her own personal revenge at the EFS, overcoming the venue of her own death. This is how Franchouchou rolls; they got defeated, they fell back down into a living death of true despair... but they are determined to climb back out and get their revenge. That's why the story of how they failed had to be told as the opening half of this episode. As we go into the second half, back to the present finally, Kotaro proves he's learned and grown too. He admits that one year prior he made a mistake with the EFS show. It was a total failure on his behalf, and for that he apologizes. Over the last year, Franchouchou has grown back their profile. From clawing their way to being heard at a heavy metal club, to opening for Iron Frill, to being acknowledged as talented rivals by Iron Frill, to all sorts of other things. Franchouchou's profile has been growing. They all have been growing as individuals. As such, it's time. March 8th, 2020. The one year anniversary of their EFS bomb. The stage is set, the venue is booked. At long last, it is time for their revenge.
And then, as Kotaro overlooks the empty EFS, pondering the future of his zombie girls and their grand counterattack... who should appear but Ookoba? He's finally tracked down the enigmatic manager of Franchouchou, and he doesn't waste any time in beating around the bush. He presents his well-gathered evidence. He knows. We made a big deal last time about Itou's spiritual connection to Ookoba, and Itou's cynical jaded nature. Itou was a twisted barbaric hired killer of the Empire incapable of growth and change, so therefore the rest of Japan was just as vile as he and deserved the justice of the end of his katana. Ookoba is not as twisted and bitter as Itou, but he is still an ideological opponent to Kotaro, Franchouchou, and the utopic ideal. It's important to highlight what his objection is, though... so let's look at it.
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Ookoba's objection is not the type of anti-zombie shit I've been railing against in mainstream movies, but it follows in a similar vein. He sees Kotaro as some sort of necromantic puppetmaster, desecrating the dead and turning them into show-stopping spectacle for profit. He'll even yell later on that Kotaro has to stop turning the dead into entertainment. For Ookaba, this is exploitation and desecration. It's important to note that the real Japanese idol industry is hardly wine and roses, either, and there's dark shit happening there in real life that people like Ookoba should expose constantly. Now, he hasn't fallen into the same trap as any other mainstream zombie movie antagonist of seeing the dead girls as inhuman things that should not be, but he's fallen into a trap not quite unlike that. They aren't your ordinary (unfortunately) exploited idols. They aren't mindless zombies paraded around for entertainment and to line Kotaro's pockets. Our girls have feelings and dreams and desires all their own. They have agency. Ookoba will learn this lesson soon enough. Kotaro tells him straight-up about the EFS revenge show, and Ookoba is shocked by it. Not because of the exploitation angle, but because he thinks it's a reckless idea. What in the fuck is the point of re-enacting that disaster? He doesn't understand the very real heart and soul of Franchouchou. He will, though, and unlike his spiritual successor from a century prior he won't need to die to figure it out. Regardless, Ookoba storms out, determined to publish the truth and prevent this revenge show from happening.
Oh God. So we're here now, are we? Kotaro is having a drink with the old man bartender, chatting about how someone actually found out about this scheme and could ruin it all. The old guy's words are quite telling, and shed some light on how these two came to know each other. He refers to Kotaro as a gloomy half-crazed kid he met 12 years ago. Kotaro refers to his unbelievable story, about fighting a curse that's been in this land for thousands of years, being immortal, reviving the dead... Look, at this point I'm putting pins in everything. This is part of the brewing storm. Especially the bullshit the old guy is about to say. At least Kotaro got what he wanted, he says. Kotaro shakes his head. He still has to prevent... the prophecy.
Killer line at the end from Kotaro there, but what the holy fuck is all this about? A curse? The girls killed by the curse who would have brought glory to Saga? Our girls? A cataclysm on the horizon? What in God's name are you talking about? I told you. I warned you about the storm. I can't talk about it right now. We have to focus on what's ahead... and what's ahead is the literal storm. As Franchouchou tuck in for the night, it's getting quite stormy and pouring down rain. Ookoba has finished his grand expose of Franchouchou, but just as he's about to publish it the power goes out. The old guy at the bar starts feeling pains, just like he did when Itou quelled the revolution a hundred years hence. It's begun again. The storm rages through Saga, knocking out power and doing god knows what. I'll just say it. It was a hurricane or typhoon of pure cataclysmic proportions, and Saga has been utterly fucked up in a material way in the wake of it. That material reality of destruction and devastation is one we'll deal with right now, as we go into episode 11.
Well, Sakura wakes up the next morning to find her balance off. Why's that? Oh, their house just got washed out to sea, that's all. Adrift for a bit, they at least go to do their own makeup while we see the extent of the damage to Saga. Cell phone lines are down so Ookoba can't get through to anybody, but he's still doing okay. Better than Kotaro and the old guy, who are trapped in the bar. The old guy goes on about how this is part of that curse, all because they couldn't settle things in the dying embers of the Heisei era. Oh, and the bar's flooding. Not great. But hey, at least the house floated back onto the beach so the girls can get to dry land! Junko manages to take out her tools for dollmaking, but just as the girls all get out the house collapses into a heap of rubble. All their instruments, their costumes, their very home has just been destroyed before their very eyes. Also all of the makeup. They applied their own so they still look deathly pale like they did at the start of the season, but this is a rough position. No home, no makeup, no Kotaro to guide them... what are seven undead girls to do now?
Thankfully, some of the factory workers from Ai's job find them and help direct them to a makeshift shelter for the hundreds of now-displaced Saga residents who have nowhere to go after the flooding and general devastation. They even manage to give the girls their own little private space upstairs, given that they're the local idols and all. It also helps for any zombie-related matters. With everything going on, and seeing all the people in need displaced and in need of somewhere to stay at the shelter, our zombie girls step up. By day, they help out in any way they can, be it serving food or helping to clean things up. By night? Well, one night Saki's doing some light work related to construction clean-up when she hears a bunch of kids crying and wanting to go home. Cue Lily coming in with her little bebop jazz dance to lift their spirits. The rest of them follow suit soon after, performing little song and dance shows by night to give the kids and their parents some entertainment with their skills, a little light of joy to get them through the rough situation they've all found themselves in.
I haven't mentioned it yet, but the makeshift shelter itself has a wild metatextual echo to it that blew my mind when I realized it. It's a shopping center. Let me frame things a different way here. In light of widespread crisis all over Saga, a disparate group of people with nowhere else to go take refuge in a shopping center that's no longer open due to the aforementioned crisis. They band together, helping to get things necessary for comfortable living with each other in said shopping center, doing what they can to assist one another. Also, there are zombies. It feels like a riff on Dawn Of The Dead. This time, though, the zombies are helping to make things better and doing their part to make real material change by doing chores and uplifting spirits. This master class of a show is taking aim at one of the all-time greats of the zombie genre and remixing it in a new way to show that we can do better. If we can do better than outdated zombie apocalypse thinking, then surely we can change the mind of one jaded reporter, right?
That's right, Ookoba is also here in the shelter, and he notices that Franchouchou are present and currently giving an interview to a news crew covering the crisis. They explain everything they've been doing, helping out by day and singing and dancing by night, and that enthusiasm makes Ookoba reflect on what he said to Kotaro. Still, Kotaro has managed to be rescued after three days and escapes the bar to head his way out into the ruined Saga. Everything is going fine, right? Sure, the situation sucks, but Franchouchou and everyone else are making the best of things. All they have to do is hunker down until the repair crews get the physical Saga back in shape and it'll all be okay, yeah?
That's when Sakura's makeup begins to crack. In fact, everyone's makeup is finally flaking off after being on for three days straight with no chance at touchup. As they try and figure out what to do, trying regular makeup on Sakura to no avail, Ookoba happens to be around and eavesdropping, catching his first glimpse at what they truly look like in their zombie form. Curiously, though, he doesn't get the whole "cop's eye view" we kept getting in season 1 of the hyper-realist horrific corpse with wrinkles and all that. He sees them like we see them, just blue girls with some scars. Very curious. Junko has an idea, though, and uses her dollmaking skills to craft some makeshift masks out of clay and paint them. At the very least they can hide their faces for their nightly show with the kids. They go ahead with it, hopping on stage with their masks on as Ookoba facepalms. Do these girls have any idea of the inherent risks at play here? One slip-up, one misstep, and the whole facade could be revealed to an entire crowd!
OH SHIT OH FUCK OH DEAR GOD WE HAVE HIT THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO!!! ABANDON SHIP, ABANDON SHIP, THE ZOMBIE LAND SAGA PROJECT IS OVER! AN ENTIRE FUCKING CROWD OF PEOPLE ARE FACE TO FACE WITH THE MATERIAL REALITY THAT THEIR BELOVED FRANCHOUCHOU ARE THE WALKING DEAD! SAKI HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE ON A PENITENT STANCE, BOWING AND APOLOGIZING FOR HIDING THAT THEY WERE ZOMBIES THE ENTIRE TIME, AND--
That last screencap is one of the most moving images this show has conjured up for me. This whole sequence is. You're not zombies. Zombies are scary. You're Franchouchou. In their own way, they just bared the very essence of their true selves on stage, beyond any song and dance metaphor, and their crowd accepted them. Hell, look at it another way. They came out there with masks on. The mask dropped, revealing their true selves. They were accepted nonetheless. There's something to be said about parallels to idol culture and the inherent duality and performativity of having a stage persona like that; the whole show has been doing it in its own way with the zombie metaphor. To have that mask be dropped and to still be accepted by their fans is a dream for many idols. With the zombie metaphor, it shifts even further into brilliance for me. It's a thing of beauty that again cuts against every stereotype, and it's enough to make Ookoba realize that it's not about exploitation of the dead. It's about them. They risk more than he could ever imagine every time they take the stage, all for the sake of conveying how they truly feel. All for the sake of being idols, not because some dumbass revived them and ordered them, but because they want to. Said dumbass appears right before Ookoba to hammer the point home, and to ask Ookoba for his help. This disaster that's befallen Saga isn't going to hamper the show. Quite the contrary. It's why it needs to happen. Saga needs Franchouchou, and he needs all the help he can get. Reuniting with his zombie idols, Kotaro reapplies some fresh makeup and gives them a pep talk and a challenge. In 16 days, they're taking the stage. No rehearsals, no practice, the chips very much against their favor... but they can do it.
There's a lovely scene to close the episode where Sakura thanks Kotaro for never giving up on her and letting her become an idol, interspersed with silent flashbacks of Kotaro (as Sakura's classmate, Inui) remembering her in life as well as when he learned of her death, also finding her audition letter for idolhood. A picture's starting to form of how this all came about. The old guy was babbling about curses, but all that is a side effect of what Kotaro's motivation was. Be it a curse, or bad luck, or whatever... some force took Sakura's life before she could live her dream. All he wanted to do was give a big flying "FUCK YOU" to that force and give her that second chance to do it. Sakura found a reason to live her new undead life, new friends, and a way to inspire countless others like Maimai as Ai inspired her in life. For that, she thanks Kotaro, and we roll into our final episode. It is, at last, time for revenge.
Well, revenge starts with Kotaro bursting into a government disaster relief meeting like the complete madman he is. The plan has grown beyond just Franchouchou's comeback, though. What was to be their revenge show is now a charity concert, a larger-scale version of what the girls have been already been doing in the makeshift shelter. Singing and dancing to boost the spirits of those displaced by the natural disaster. Reassurance for the hearts of all the wounded folks of Saga, a show to unify every resident so they can tackle the disaster together. Kotaro believes Franchouchou can do that, and begs the governer to prioritize getting the infrastructure back up to make it a reality. Ookoba is in on the plan as well, having headed to another part of Japan and on the phone with Kotaro. He doesn't fully trust Kotaro yet, but he's willing to do what he can to help and let God sort out the rest. Kotaro's simple reply: I'm not leaving anything to God, not after all this time.
As the girls rest and take turns having a makeshift bath in a big barrel, Saki realizes that oh shit isn't today our radio show? They've already missed one due to being cooped up in this mall, and Saga needs their presence on the airwaves! As they rush over there, whoops, they got the days mixed up. But since they're all here, and they're only giving out news updates anyway with short staff... they may as well go on. Remember way back at the start of this, when we talked about Saki inheriting this show from White Ryu? A place for the lonely people of Saga to call their own in the late night hours? With the disaster at hand, it's not just the lonely late-night people being reached out to now. It's everyone. As Saga listens, all folks in need of something in this dark hour, Saki does for the folks of Saga what White Ryu did for her 30 years ago:
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And, of course, she lets everyone listening know about their show. She's honest and explains how their greatest failure was on that very stage, but they'll still be trying their best for both themselves and the crowd. They'll put on the greatest show ever, and hope to make people smile just a little in this crisis. That, for Franchouchou, is what being an idol is all about. So it is, then, that we come to the day before the show. With infrastructure in Saga still utterly fucked, the girls have no choice but to pack their things and walk to the EFS for a day. Seven zombies walk through the wasteland of Saga post-disaster and witness the destruction first-hand. It's almost as if they're walking through the post-apocalypse itself, and isn't it funny that our perspective is on the zombies walking through that and not the noble people with a gun ready to shoot the bad people in the head?
Okay, yeah yeah, I know. We're almost through this, I'll save my bitterness towards traditional zombie media for the end. After their long walk, it's time. March 8th, 2020. Seven zombie girls look forward at the EFS, the scene of their greatest failure. The psychogeographical energy of dread and trauma is palpable, but the girls march on in anyway. Nobody's here yet, but that isn't stopping Sakura. Right there, on the very stage they failed, she vows never again. Sakura vows never to give up, again no matter what. Even if God or the devil try to stop them, to push them back into the peat of the grave, they will endure. They'll get their revenge. At that point, here come some people. It's the two metalheads from the very beginning. Franchouchou's first fans. It's fitting that they're here, but they're not alone. Everyone is here.
All the people Franchouchou directly helped, inspired with their words, made into better people via their songs and dances... they're all here. Takeo Go, the man who learned to love TV again after the death of his daughter, clears the way to the venue with his massive strength. Maimai Yuzuhira, latest in a chain of idol inspiration that goes back at least 20 years from Ai's inspiration to Ai to Sakura to herself, leads a crowd with a rallying cry. The news crew who interviewed Franchouchou in the shelter are also overhead, reporting to their viewers about the massive turnout. This has blown up beyond just Saga, thanks to the news report. Ookoba used his press connections to promote the event in newspapers all over Japan, using his reporting skills for the good of Saga and burying his cynicism in the grave. Social media is all abuzz about Franchouchou thanks to tweets from Shiori and Light, who are proudly marching into the stadium as well to see what our girls have got. It isn't even just news in Japan. Countries from all over the world are offering aid, thanks to White Ryu. This simple act of healing for one sleepy little prefecture in southwestern Japan has brought everyone together.
This is just another facet of what saving Saga is. People in crisis, united by one common goal. People in need of healing, here to get away from their material struggles and have their spirits bolstered. Entire groups who were inspired and helped in their lives by this one band, now banding together with what influence they have to return the favor for the good of Saga. Does this look like a twisted and barbaric country that can't learn and grow for the better, Itou? Because it doesn't to me. It looks to me like the utopic ideal, a place of personal growth and understanding wherein we all become just that little bit better. It looks like a wonderful place to be, and your spiritual successor believed in it after seeing what seven zombies risk every day in their quest to bring it about. This revenge isn't about them getting a redo after one bad show. It's revenge against those very cynical ideas themselves, against the idea that better things aren't possible. With that, in front of a cheering crowd of thousands... a victory lap.
The second half of the episode is just a Franchouchou show. As I write this I'm blaring the song that plays during it, "Revenge". The song they were supposed to play one year ago as their encore, but didn't due to the failure. The song they began their journey of revenge and rebirth with as a metal club devolved into a full-on brawl. Now, at the heart of the utopic ideal with a cheering crowd of thousands, they get their revenge. They pull it off. The song's a hit... but they're not done. Tae gets a great bit where she groans into the mic a bunch and it's a call-and-response. Kind of like she's Freddy Mercury at Live Aid, if you've seen that. It's very cute, and it's also Tae. You know, Usagi. It's after the second song that Kotaro talks with the girls backstage. At first he tries to do his usual "oh don't get full of yourselves, Saga isn't saved yet" shit. When the girls agree and say they'll keep fighting and never give up, he replies by falling to the ground and weeping openly at how far they've come and how proud he is of them. I'm proud of them too, you big dummy. Saga ain't the least bit saved, so get back out there. It's here we have to deal with the first specter of what is yet to come. Kotaro rises from the ground... and wipes out a bloodstain with his foot. From the way he was positioned, he had to have coughed it up. Is he dying? Who knows? I sure don't.
What I do know is that, at the end of this show, our girls play their final song as we see the restoration of Saga progressing, the people united stronger than ever thanks to Franchouchou. Lily's dad works on building the girls a brand new house, people are giving out food to those in need... there's a long way to go in saving Saga, but this is the least that the people of Saga can do for their idols. With the end of their song, Sakura is hugged by her bandmates as she's moved to tears, the crowd giving uproarious applause as our world fades to white. That's Zombie Land Saga Revenge. That's the end of this grand project, this Night Of The Loving Dead which has lasted for half a year in my internal psyche. What a journey. What a show.
I love it more than I ever did when I was just watching casually for Halloween blog research. Revenge specifically is a wonderful season of the show which puts our girls on the back foot, but gives them new challenges to overcome. I gained new appreciation for my girl Junko, I learned about the old utopic ideal of Meiji-era Saga, and I learned that people can come together in a crisis, united by song and inspiration. Sylvester McCoy, in the final episode of classic Doctor Who, mentions "people made of smoke and cities made of song". With Zombie Land Saga Revenge, Saga fits the latter category now. There's a song in the heart of every Sagaite, and a song in my heart that plays on its hopeful harmony that better things are possible. That is what "saving Saga" always was to me: proving people like Itou or Zac Snyder wrong. It's a beautiful show that uses music and song to prove that utopia is possible, doing it through the lens of the zombie and subverting all that cynical bullshit about them being monstrous inhuman things that need to be shot in the head while cackling. Maybe one day, in the future, the girls won't need to wear makeup. If people like Maimai and Ookoba can accept them as zombies... maybe better things are possible. That's a fine sentiment to end on, I think.
If only I could end on it. Instead, we finally have to confront the worst ideas I've been keeping from you all of this time. The fade to white isn't how Zombie Land Saga Revenge truly ends. I will show you how it truly ends. I am not embellishing or abridging these screencaps in any way. This is how the last moments of televised Zombie Land Saga, as of this writing, actually end.
Oh my God. Next time... we deal with all the shit I didn't say.
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