Zombieland Saga Revenge

Zombieland Saga is a show that you wouldn't think twice about girls that have passed away in one form or another, and then given the Jesus Christ "resurrection on the Third Day" treatment as zombies to save a land that's largely been purged and disappeared since time millenia...by being an idol show with much of the hysterity. And look how far we've come into the 2nd season of the show, dubbed "Revenge", because literally, it's that and much more.

With that said, GOOOOOOOODA MORNIN' ZOMBIES, LET'S BEAT THE LIVING **** OUTTA THE **** WACK TO SAVE OUR ****ING MOTHERLAND, SAGA! GODDAMMIT YOU FRIGGIN MAGGOTS!

To come back ... almost 2.5 years since Season 1 that slowly usurped the throne as the dark horse of Fall 2018, director Munehisa Sakai and his production team at MAPPA have been slowly concocting another marvellous follow-up season to continue where the story of SAGA is left behind with the epic bomb and failure that is the less-than-desirable 10,000-people concert crowd at the huge EFS stadium arena...and carry on IT DID. Other than the attention-grabbing promo poster of Kotarou along the seabed with his signature move, as is with kickstarting this year right with Season 2's main PV on January 1st, 2021 (in Japan), if you've watched Season 1 back in the day, you know that this series is anything but typical. And with the in-your-face "Revenge" theme being a centralized topic, this journey to exact revenge will be a tough one for the zombie girls of Franchouchou and their wack manager Kotarou (God I still LOVE Mamoru Miyano's voice).

As is of the story (or most appropriately character-driven) narrative of Zombieland Saga, each girl has their own story to tell, and since Season 1 covered the biker girl Saki, the Truck-kun-ed Sakura and the LGBT representative Lily's backstories, Season 2 tops that up with the rest of the girls that haven't had their backstories foretold...plus even down to Kotarou himself, and how and why Saga is a place that should be left preserved and brought back to its former glory: TO SAVE SAGA. Not gonna spoil anything, because secrets are the charm to this magnificent and tightly-paced show! This time, nothing was left untouched, and to that effect, Season 2 ups the ante of which Season 1 had already solidified its foundations with, and with a huge impact (just like how Kotarou becomes a cussing Eren *WHOOPS*). Franchouchou has largely stayed the same from Season 1, so you can easily expect a lot of the usual enjoyable and hilarious hijinks that this show has to offer up from these zombie girls that the general public hasn't caught onto them being legit zombies (close, but not close enough). This is a family bond so strong that as time passes, SAGA becomes all the more important, more than just an ingrained dream for the girls of Franchouchou and wacky Kotarou to see the light of day in saving SAGA. Glory, glory to SAGA!

Everything else is what you should expect and more coming out of Season 1: from story and characters (that are given a HUGE upgrade), and even right down to the visuals and music, which are still the *chef's kiss* excellente pairing of Franchouchou songs with MAPPA's constant and consistent greatness. While the OST this time isn't as bedazzling and bombarding as the prequel, it's still great to hear the comeback of this fully zombie girls idol group that immediately raises nostalgia for how much time has passed since then.

BLOODY HELL, if you made it all the way through this review, I should raise the question: "Have you watched Season 1? If not, then WHY THE **** are you reading this review!? Go back to Season 1, finish that, then come back here to experience somemore, you friggin' maggot!"

This is one fine outstanding sequel in the world of zombie girls and idol music of a big-brain mish-mash-ing potato.

The highly anticipated sequel to Zombieland Saga not only lived up to the hype, it exceeded all expectations. Cementing itself among the best idol series in recent memory.

The original Zombieland saga made waves with its unique ensemble premise and cast, promotion of a somewhat unknown area(to foreigners) of Japan, and incredibly well executed humour. Season 2 does a great job of building upon the already established characters. As with any idol series, Zombieland Saga Revenge dedicates several episodes to each character’s development, bringing us even closer to the girls we know and love. In contrast with season 1, however, Revenge takes a darker approach to ... storytelling. While there are definitely still plenty of hilarious moments throughout, there’s much more of a focus on genuine serious issues this time around. Several episodes had me genuinely in my feelings because of how well they were pulled off, particularly Saki, Junko and Ai’s backstories. While we got introduced to all the girls in season 1, we didn’t really get a whole lot of development. Season 2 solves that issue and by the end, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been right there along with the girls.

The more mature story combined with good old humour and ridiculousness we’ve come to expect from Zombieland Saga, made Revenge an absolute blast to watch. As with any idol show, however, it’ll be judged on the quality of the music produced. I personally think Franchuchu’s music this time around was even better than season 1. I would’ve liked for the girls to get some more solo songs a la love live, but the group performances and finale were phenomenal.

The CGI for the performances was about what you’d expect from an idol show. Definitely noticeable, but didn’t negate my experience overall. For the rest of the series, you’ve got the usual MAPPA quality art and animation.

Overall, Zombieland Saga Revenge takes everything that made season one such a fun and unique time, and improves it by adding a more mature story, improved character dynamics and development as well as offering a satisfactory conclusion to the cast’s story arc. While I’m not sure if we’ll get more of these girls in the future, I definitely think Zombieland Saga has the potential to expand into a legitimate idol project with a wide variety of cast members. Only time will tell.

Zombieland Saga Revenge gets 10 Mics out of 10.

I’ve really missed this series.

Yes it is the return of of perhaps the only idol anime I care about watching, Zombieland Saga: REEVVEEEENNGE. And it has been a while since the first season aired (two and a half years to be exact), so waiting for me to see what happens next with these zombie idols left me feeling a bit anxious to see if they could capture the magic that made season one such an enjoyable surprise. Would it be as unconventional as before? Would the songs be able to top season one? WOULD THE LEGENDARY TAE YAMADA WAKE UP THIS SEASON? Well from ... the word go really, I knew it would relive the charm of this series and we would be in for another wild ride.

Sit back, relax, get your necromancy books out and sing to your hearts content as I present to you the anime review for Zombieland Saga: Revenge. Let’s begin.


THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS


Story: 8/10

After ending the Arpino show on a high note, Franchouchou’s next plan was performing at EFS (Ekimae Fudosan Stadium) to let Japan know that Franchouchou is here. However, it bombed. Quite spectacularly as they were only able to attract 500 people in a 25,000 capacity stadium. Crashing down to Earth and in massive debt, this is the story of how our group of idols get back on their feet, get back at the world for not acknowledging them and to let them know they are still here. This is their REVENGE.

That’s the main theme surrounding this new season of Zombieland Saga. “When we hit rock bottom, how do we pick ourselves up again?” Throughout this season, we see how our characters try to get back their lost momentum and get back to the point they were at the end of season one and then some. It definitely does still do some unconventional things rather than just strictly singing and still has some whacky s**t to keep the viewers entertained but also has plenty of heart to it to help get attached to the characters even more, helped by the fact that they each get their own time to shine to make you love them even more. It is done effectively so it doesn’t feel hollow and we do get to know about their backstory and thought process more this season. So it doesn’t feel like reusing stuff we already know but actually give us new stuff to learn more about them.

The humour is also on point once again as well with plenty of humorous scenes on par with season one (anything with Tae is pure gold). As well as the zombie aspect plays a part in it as well with one of the subplots and the comedic gags with it are still funny. Although, there is a suspicious lack of horror spoofs to make it even more funny. Then again, Franchouchou’s faces are more well known now, so I get their absence. But still, they were comedy gold and I do miss them.


Characters: 9/10

The characters haven’t really changed much, which by no means is bad. They are still the lovable characters we’ve come to root for. Koutaro is still best boy and Saki remains my favourite girl of the bunch. Like I said, similar to last season, they each get their own time to shine to get better attachment to them. They get a similar situation where we see what happens when their back is against the wall? We see them all tackle back to back situations and how they would tackle them and they were enjoyable to see them unfold. My favourite one is how Lily overcomes her situation and how she copes. The results from her actions makes for one of the best moments from the entire series.

Now this season actually addressed one of my criticisms from season one and we actually got a backstory for Yuugiri as well as finding more about the history of the Saga prefecture. Honestly, I do appreciate that we get to more about Yuugiri because with the attention more focused on the other girls, Yuugiri felt more and more like a background character. Getting her own two dedicated episodes makes us appreciate Yuugiri even more as a character and proof that all these girls are special in their own way. You remove one and it would feel like something is missing. Unfortunately though, no backstory episode for Tae Yamada, but she does get her own dedicated episode this season that shows her at her best and why we love her.


Animation: 9/10

There isn’t a lot to say here, the animation for season two has been consistent with how good the animation was in season one. Of course, that was back before MAPPA jumped into the general public’s conscience as one of the best studios in the industry. Although the most notable thing is that when it comes to Franchouchou’s performances, there is less use of CG and more use of rotoscoping. There is still some CG use so it’s not been completely replaced but at least it does not look bad although the CG animation when using a guitar could be better.


Sound: 9.5/10

Same goes with the sound department. There are some songs that return and the background ost remains the same from season one, but the new songs are just as notable. Lily’s solo performance at the end of episode 5 was the resident unconventional song from this season, similar to the rap sequence from last season although not as memorable but still good. I also loved the song played during episode 4 which would transition into what would be now considered Franchouchou’s signature song now.

The opening is something of note as well. It was going to be hard to top “Adabana Necromancy” from season one and its absolute craziness. And while not being as crazy as season one’s opening, season two’s opening, “Taiga yo Tomo ni Naitekure” is in my opinion, better than season one’s OP. It mainly comes down to the animation which is simply superb and feels like one big flex from MAPPA and their production quality (Yeah, I saw what you did there MAPPA). Song as well being catchy as hell with an excellent performance from Franchouchou and being just as good as Adabana Necromany. This would probably be my choice for OP of the season. I think it’s that good. Seriously, that animation is gorgeous to look at it unfolding for your eyes.

The ending though is nothing of note here. It’s the usual calm song with still images. Nice looking images but one I didn’t particularly keep watching after a couple of times.


Conclusion

Zombieland Saga: Revenge continues to be the one and only idol anime I’m willing to watch and acts as a great follow up of one of my favourite anime from 2018. It keeps the momentum going while tackling new challenges and situations and still keeping the charm of the series. It’s story is still unconventional but effective, it’s characters are still great and the production quality is still top notch. It is more of what made Zombieland Saga great in my opinion with a couple of improvements with some focus on characters that weren’t really focused in season one. It is still an excellent anime that improves on a couple of things from season one to make it even better. So I think it was worth the wait.

My Personal Enjoyment: 10/10


Overall Score: 9.1/10 Recommendation: Go F**king Watch It