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This is my 3rd review! I appreciate all who take the time to read my reviews. (Please check out my other reviews!). There were a lot of surprise shows this season, and Zombieland Saga was definitely one of them. I knew kind of the deal going in, but it wasn’t anything I expected!
Let me say that I haven’t watched any idol show (Love Live! IDOLM@STER, etc) ever because I’m not too interested in the genre. This one kind of fooled me, and probably many people thinking it was a full-on parody or satire of the genre. At first, it definitely felt like it was. I ... knew a few viewers who were intrigued by it, however as the show went on, some of them felt disappointed as it did turn out to be an ‘idol’ show.
But I stayed, simply because I liked the characters and wanted to know more about them! I guess I can say I was fooled into watching an idol show, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not just about to go watch Love Live! Or another idol show because of this though.

Story: 8/10

A girl named Sakura suddenly dies and is revived as a zombie, along with other girls. They all seem to be affiliated with idol or some important culture/background. You find out the man behind all of this is Koutarou Tasumi. His goal is to revive the city of Saga with an idol group. At face value the plot does seem a little dull, however as the story goes on each character’s history expands on the main plot. This is what made me appreciate the show a lot. All the girls are dead, and they are revived for a reason. Some stories made me smile, laugh, and even tear up. That’s enough to say it’s a great story. It wasn’t breathtaking but definitely enjoyable. Each episode or two had a little variety which made me curious as to what was coming next week (obviously besides from the ending credit previews).

Character: 8.5/10

Each character was distinctive from the beginning. Their looks and their personality. I really didn’t have a favorite though as all the girls weren’t super interesting to me. What I really took from them was their story and how they became zombies in the first place. I think that history is what made me like each character more in the end. I think they all meshed well together even with how distinct each character is. They all work together, which makes a good group. There were some quality of life side/support characters that reappeared which I thought was neat.
However, I think the sole character that carried the show was definitely Kotarou-san. He himself made this show push the extra mile. He is what made this show interesting and hilarious. Mamoru did an excellent job and I feel like the voice director just told him to go wild. He’s one of my favorite voice actors. Steins;Gate is my favorite show so just the craziness and wackiness of his voice really upped the game for me. His funny English and random outbursts made me laugh too many times watching this. He actually gets a whole point for his performance. This ties in with the sound which I’ll cover later.

Art: 7/10

I’m actually not a big fan of CG, even if it is an ‘idol’ show which has CG, it really just doesn’t vibe with me at all. It’s just so eerie to me so having to watch it was a pretty big turn off. However, I do like each character’s designs, and the art style and techniques I actually liked quite a bit. Each character was distinct and they wore different outfits here and there. Just going back between CG and non-CG was just too much of a juxtaposition. In the end it was a really colorful show and I enjoyed that. But what really kept this score in tact was the opening cinematic. Holy cow! It’s so different I love it. The song is okay, but just what they are doing is awesome!

Sound: 9/10

Voice acting was amazing. You already know how much I praised Mamoru for his performance with Kotarou. Even with how stupid Tae and the police officer sounded, it just went along with the silly tone. Saki with her slang, Yuugiri with her old era tone, each voice was unique. And to be honest, I thought some of the performance songs were catchy. Like I’ve heard Love Live! songs and with how many there are…I think I like one or two, so it’s hard to get my attention with idol songs. I didn’t add them to a playlist or my music library or anything, but they good enough for me to enjoy the performance. Especially Junko’s singing, jeez, that’s a singing voice that I like. As mentioned, the opening and ending songs are forgettable. I think the rap battle in the second episode was definitely one of my favorite episodes that I’ve seen in a while. Sick bars. This episode solidified that I should keep watching. However I was a little disappointed that nothing really got up to this caliber, but it wasn't bad by far.

Enjoyment: 8/10

Whenever we got history on a character or when Koutarou was talking, I really loved it. When there was CG or some drama between the girls, it was definitely a turn off. But it wasn’t enough for me to really dislike the show a lot. I got so caught up wondering how each girl died, and when it’s enough to make me tear up or be surprised, it carries the enjoyment score up. Especially the glimpse of something in the last episode. It literally made me stand up and look wide-eyed to my girlfriend who watches this show with me. I think it was very entertaining and I had a good time watching this show.

Overall: 8/10

For my final thoughts I think it’s a very good show. It’s not bad for what it is. It’s definitely an idol show, but with what I like, it was good enough for me to enjoy it. I’d say give it a shot. I had no experience with an idol show so this was a good first one for me. It’s silly, dramatic, and heartwarming. Adding the score total up it comes to 40.5 out of 50, which is an 8/10 really in the end!

Thanks for reading! I’ll try to put some more out when I can. I appreciate it!

Hi MAL. Surprise! That’s my reaction to watching this show, but also only my second review. I've been meaning to type more reviews, but time just slips by and I feel like it’s too late sometimes.

I want to preface (similar to my first/previous review, I highly suggest reading the beginning of that review so you get a feel of my background) that I do not watch a lot of anime like many users here. I tend to pick a couple shows from each season that I actually deem interesting and see if I like it. When I do a season preview with my friends, this ... show barely made it to the surface since there was quite a bit of shows that peaked my interest.

I also want to note that most of the shows I watch with my significant other, however this one I watched by myself. I believe that watching anime with more people can affect experiences and feelings. She was not interested but I still was, and oh boy I glad I stuck with it.

I think the biggest thing to take from this is that, when people try to explain what this show is like, a common thing is “Oh it’s like if Bakemonogatari and Oregairu had a little baby”. The thing is, I haven’t watched those. Like I always say, comparing anime to others anime make reviews and discussions a crap shoot, so that’s probably the last thing you’d hear me talk about. Obviously, it’s even tough for me to keep that factor out of my head when watching/reviewing a show. I strongly believe that watching a certain genre or style of anime for the first time captures your mind more than it would the second or third time. When I recommend an anime to someone, I ALWAYS ask what shows they like or what they have seen. Anime is not one single entity of medium/genre. So, if you go to the MAL page of this show, scroll to the bottom and see the recommended shows; if you aren’t interested in those shows or haven’t seen them, you probably won’t enjoy the show, but that’s probably. Maybe this will be the first one from that list. One last thing is that if you have seen those two shows, you will most likely enjoy this show unless you’re one of the people who thoroughly believe that once you’ve seen it, it’s unacceptable to see it again. Not everyone has seen everything. Enough about that, you can probably see what kind of reviewer I am now, let’s move on.

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Story: 9/10

Fantastic story. It’s not quite perfect, but that’s why it’s a 9. They leave some out to add on with an OVA/movie, but we’ll get on to that later. Curiosity was the main feeling watching this show. My first reaction going into this show was a simple synopsis: a boy named Sakuta who was the only one able to see this girl, Mai, wearing a bunny suit in public. That’s it. That’s all I knew. If that doesn’t peak your curiosity, I don’t know what will. I was just like “why?”. I know many friends who were like “what is this show about?”. People were expecting some kind of typical harem/ecchi show, but I can definitely say it is far from that. I think they did an amazing job luring people in and making them stay. We were all in the same boat. It slowly progresses more towards why Mai has this problem and that other characters are going through the same ‘syndrome’. While Sakuta is helping them, he is trying to help himself because he too is affected by the syndrome. I won’t spoil anything because it all makes sense when you watch and listen to this show.

However, I really want to point out that the first 3 episodes of this was one of the best rides I’ve been on watching an anime in a long time. That 3rd episode really solidified my thoughts on where the show was going and I’m glad I was able to experience those 24 minutes.

Character: 10/10

I absolutely love the relationship between Sakuta and Mai. Their exchanges and feelings towards each other are enough to outshine anything else in this show to make it a perfect 10/10. Sure, the other characters pretty good, but seeing the two on the screen makes my heart happy. When it comes to like shonen shows, people like personality or physical development. Like say a character gets a new power or something. However, that could take tens of episodes or a whole arc. You think that 3 episodes would be a joke for development, but this rapid development between the two like I mentioned earlier was breathtaking. My eyes were wide open and maybe some tears even came out just from sheer joy. I have a bias when it comes to relationships since I’m a sucker for romance, which this show entails. And not like little implied romance- actual boyfriend/girlfriend romance (see many of my highly rated shows). So, I have to say many of this show’s ratings might be bumped up by a half to a full point just because of it. I will bring this up again later.

The only thing I can really take away is that the characters fall into typical tropes but I feel like some are needed in this show. They don’t make it blatant (well except one, but it makes sense in the end). Like I said, I’m not going to really compare this to other stuff. They’re just common trends/tropes in most anime, but it’s portrayed very well and honestly doesn’t affect the outcome at all. In Anime and a high school setting, some of these devices need to bet set in order to lay a good foundation. That’s what this show did. They really don’t throw it in your face but when you get to know a character you go “Oh they’re this kind of character”, but obviously each one has a reason for it, not just because ‘the show needs this kind of character’. Get what I’m saying?

Art: 8/10

There’s not much to say about the art except that it’s pretty nice to look at. It doesn’t awe me, but the character animations are pretty smooth and I like each character’s design. Everyone feels unique or stands out which is good in this type of show. They make each character rememberable. I enjoy their school uniform design and I appreciate the attention to detail on some shots or scenery. Minor CG for crowds/background characters but it’s not so bad it’s distracting (I can just point it out). I mean Cloverworks (The A-1 rebranding/branch) is still pretty new, but I think they did a great job.

The thing that stands out the most to me is that when the characters are out of uniform or in their weekend outfits, they actually have different clothes on every other time. I really appreciate when artists or the design team put work and effort into this. I think when it comes to this kind of show it makes it stunningly more relatable and feels like you’re there with them. It’s not an easy task to do.

That brings up this topic, which also related into sound, is the ending of each episode. Them changing girls or singers every couple episodes is ASTOUNDING. It’s what made me want to watch each one. I adore when studios do that. Definitely brought up half a point at least for that alone.

Sound: 8.5/10

The voice acting and dialogue carry this show so hard. I usually rate my sound just on music and voice acting. As mentioned, I like the endings. The ending song is okay, not something I would want to add to my playlist of songs, but it’s good enough to listen to when I watch. However, I’m not a big fan of the opening. It’s a little annoying besides from the memes I’ve seen about the song name and how it’s sung. Let’s say I always skipped the intro after seeing it a couple times, but I watched every ending.

The background music forgettable. The voice acting is good, sometimes great.

Back to the dialogue. Seriously probably the biggest and most pivotal reason on why this show is good to me. I love a good conversation. Maybe it’s boring to some, since it’s not a shonen or action-based show, you have to pay attention, and it rewards you. I can’t get enough of Sakuta’s smart ass remarks or comments, but I’m always itching to see how Mai reacts. They’re actually in a relationship, which I rarely see in anime, but those scenes/lines sky rocket to the top of my list if I see it. There was so much in this show that’s why I like it so much. A little obsessive but you know when Dexter says “omelet du fromage” and those girls by him just melt. That’s what happens to me whenever I hear Mai talk. I’m sure Sakuta felt the same way.

Enjoyment: 10/10

And now we’re here. Definitely a show I enjoyed from start to finish. Had some huge spikes of enjoyment, but that’s how the episode formula works if you know what I’m talking about. I had many laughs, a few tears, and a lot of smiles. That’s a 10/10 for me. I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest bit. I couldn’t watch for each episode every week!

Overall: 9/10

Adding the scores up, it comes up to about 89% which I round to a 9/10. The show itself is lacking the full story (since they made a movie/OVA with the remaining stuff), but just from it alone is enough to make an amazing anime.
Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think, I might type more reviews.

Hi all, this is my first review on MAL. Please bare with me, but I feel like I should share my opinion on this and why I gave it the score I did. I wouldn't say I'm the most hardcore anime fan, but I have definitely seen my fair share of shows and am pretty much a typical anime viewer. I review anime in my mind pretty differently than others. Note, there may be a lot of extra information that is unneeded for this review, but I really want to put my perspective on this as much as possible. If you don't care, just scroll ... down to the three hyphens.

Just to get things out of the way: this score deserves a 10 not necessarily for its metrics per se, but for the fact that for people who like anime in general it is a show that needs to be seen.

What I'm sick and tired of lately, which will probably never be stopped, is reviewers or fans comparing shows to other shows. It's a huge anime circlejerk that people are really adamant about. Honestly, it could be said about a lot of things. Video games are a very good example, but that's for another time.

Let's start off with my initial reaction. I usually pick a few shows to watch each season and continue from there. When I watched the trailer, I was immediately reminded of KonoSuba. It wasn't off putting, but I was just surprised to see an almost identical setting so soon. Of course, people are using 'isekai' as a description, but I never really heard of that until recently. Where a character gets transported into a world, etc...

I ended up only watching the first half of the hour long opening due to time constraints and it was kind of a "whatever" show to me. Big mistake. I took this for granted and ended up with friends on social media blabbering about the show weeks later. Around episode 14 or so.

I asked one of my good friends, who I'd actually say is pretty hardcore into anime (he's been using MAL for years and has a very strict rating guideline and watches almost every show that releases), what the concept of the show was. Remember, I didn't bother to look into this show at all. He basically just told me what happened at the end of the second half of the season premiere and I totally regretted my decision that night. I'm a sucker for that device- being able to start again or go into the past. I may have a bias on that genre (please don't look at my favorite shows... :) ), but this show executes it very well. I ended up binge watching until 15 and it was totally worth it. Since then, I've been trying to make the first thing I do every Sunday morning is watch Re:Zero.

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Story: 10/10

Beginning with the story; it is wide and vast, but at its core a very deep, and emotional heart string puller. I'll say it here: I read a bit of the web novel a few weeks ago because my mind could not wait. I do like to spoil myself sometimes, but that's exactly what this show made me do. I did the same with Erased, and Shingeki no Kyojin. Why? Because there was so much information I wanted to know that I feel like the show could not explain with a few episodes left. And albeit it is disheartening that they exclude some crucial information regarding characters or story, it does not take it away from the show at all. That's why I said it is wide and vast.

At initial glance, it seems as a very typical "otaku/neet character gets transported into a different world..." (as mentioned earlier), but it gives it a twist with strong character development along the way, which I will explain later. Being able to "start again from zero" is a common trend recently, but I honestly will never get tired of it. We all wish to be able to time travel or start things over, and it fills my need by watching these shows. This executes the concept incredibly well. It's hard to talk about the story without the characters, because they really are the backbone than the story rather than the lore of the world.

The main protagonist is Natsuki Subaru, and it's very much his story. I hate him. I hate him a lot. Many people actually do, but it's not a bad thing. Why do we hate him? Because he makes horrible decisions and does things we do not want, at all. He is...very real. Many viewers and other anime fans like characters who have crazy magic powers, look super cool, wields some badass sort, or something along those lines.

There's nothing special about Subaru. He's definitely no Sora from No Game No Life. He also didn't have the luxury Kazuma Satou (KonoSuba) had being able take Aqua with him and join a guild/get a job.

We hate this guy. He's a crybaby and practically useless. However, that is what drives this show. We get to see him evolve into a better person. He treats his adventure like a game, and gets punished for it. We realize the struggle he goes through, and that is what we would go through if we were transported into a world like that. We play it off like a game that we see or know, but it's not a game, it's very real.

Subaru doesn't start off as some overpowered character that can trump the bad guys or continuously one-up them. He literally dies- over and over again. And he still doesn't learn his lesson until he deals with love. The love for Emilia. When it gets that deep, we're already attached. He'll do anything for her, and makes us feel the same way. Also, he doesn't automatically attract this "harem" that people seem to think he has. He earns it. He gave up blood and sanity to learn these people and they became a part of his life in this world.

For 25 episodes, we don't see the finish line straight ahead, but we wish we could see the course from above. Obstacles have been overcome, but there are a more to come, and some block in the roads as well.

Character: 9/10

There are many characters to love in this show, hell, Rem is already tons of people's waifu. What makes her that though? Her personality and determination is what all of us want, but not Subaru. She is everything to him, yet he stays faithful to Emilia. A lot of fans also have this as a reason to hate him; rejecting the perfect girl for someone who doesn't even feel the same way for him.

What is the fun if everything went the way you wanted? Of course- that's what we want in our heads, but not doing what we want creates tension, which is completely fine for this kind of genre. The last thing you want to think about is that it is a silly harem/comedy. It really isn't. It has twists, turns, loops, you shouldn't be wanting something, you should be wanting to know what direction is coming ahead.

Let's talk about the cast in general. It's great, just like I rated it. It's hard to find a perfect set, but they're close to being one. Everyone that gets air time, for the most part, has a developed background and importance in the show. They all mesh well together and have some sort of connection to Subaru. Characters that simply might be thought of "side characters", may have more than a meaning than you think. The feeling this show makes when Subaru gets so close to someone and have them dying off, and seeing them in a different timeline alive again is eerie as hell. You feel the realization that they were just dead- you became really close to them, and now you are back at the point where you just met them. There are some characters who get a decent amount, but are still unexplained in the show, but will be eventually...hopefully.

You want to look through the eyes of Subaru when looking at the cast, since this is his story. There are people you are going to hate and it's perfectly acceptable, because Subaru hates them as well. The same goes for being attached. That's why this is such a great cast. And People hating Subaru? That is fine too, because he shows that he truly hates himself throughout the entirety of the show. He wants to do better and you want him to do better, but keeps doing worse, and worse. He then realizes his faults, and so do we. When he develops, we develop.

People would say, why wouldn't he just do or say this? We need to realize that he portrays a neet or otaku and thinks it's a game. He thinks he can get away with what he knows about that culture, but is completely wrong. His method and thinking is not the same as ours watching. Being there is entirely different and that's the way he went through with it. He thinks he's Kirito, but obviously he's just a random neet stuck in a fantasy world. He doesn't have good social skills. He's awkward and cringey.

But his willingness to learn and his determination he promised since episode 1 is what makes him strong. He does get it over his head, way over his head, but he learns and realizes his mistakes, which makes him an amazing character. Not many characters these days accept their faults and mistakes. They're just already the best person in the universe and can overcome anything. We see why Subaru is able to do that in the end.

I can go over the other main characters or lead support characters just as much as Subaru, but I'm just going to shorten it here and say that Emilia is the X-Factor of the show. She pretty much preemptively decided Subaru's fate. I mean, she IS the main female protagonist. Rem and Ram help build his character, and I say this in the least descriptive way possible to keep this review shorter so I don't bore you with reading. They are the main support characters. And to make it generic, they support him pretty damn well.

The other characters, they beat him up (both mentally and physically), but he learns and builds from it. Every character he has a moment with is important to him. He learns to use his past knowledge about people to help him get through the world. They're not just people to him. As mentioned, at first, he completely naive, and we hate it, but we should stay in our seat and watch as his flaws become traits.

Art 8/10

No need to get into too much detail about this. The design and visuals great, but the random CG background characters really take it away from me to be honest. Like especially when there are drawn background characters mixed in with CG background characters.

The character designs aren't anything to be in awe about. I mean, Subaru is in a track suit for Christ's sake. Emilia's outfit is cute, Rem and Ram are just in kind of skimpy maid outfits. I do like the outfits the knights have.

The settings and locations are incredible though, like the city, mansion, forest, and open fields. Great variety colors. I'm not too keen on art, but in the end, it's all great except the super obvious CG.

Sound: 10/10

The background, fighting, and setting music aren't really memorable to me, but they're not bad whatsoever. There wasn't a time where I felt as if the music was off or anything, so it was just fitting.

However, the openings and endings I really enjoyed. At first I thought the second opening song was a little odd, but it really grew on me and I actually ended up wanting to watch the opening every time it came on, so that's good new. Myth & Roid is cool.

The second ending is fantastic. Like, when the episode would end and that song would play without the actual ending being played. It's kind of a slow and sad sounding song, so during intense moments it really brought out my emotions even more.

The voice acting, oh let me get started on the voice acting. So there's this bad guy named Petelgeuse/Betelgeuse. Just look up some clip and try to guess who the voice actor without looking him up.

-Yeah, it's Matsuoka. The guy who voices Sora, Soma, and Kirito. He does an AMAZING job differentiating his normal tone and voice. Even Subaru's voice actor does a breathtaking job. You can feel the anger, angst, and struggle with his voice. He's portraying an insane villain and has some crazy lines and phrases that are unforgettable.

Enjoyment: 10/10

Uh, maybe by this review and its score you can tell if I enjoyed it or not. :) I binged this show like 15 episodes straight and was wanting more every week. I could probably say I enjoyed it, a little. It's a ride that I want to keep staying on. Ups, downs, loops, turns, jumps, you name it.

Overall: 10/10

With the individual scores, it comes to about a 95%, which I rounded up to a 10/10. So in actuality, this show is a 9.5. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

However, the only thing I would have to say is that I'd only recommend this show for people who have already watched a few shows already. I wouldn't say it's a good first show to watch if you're just new into anime, as good as it is. You kind of need to have background knowledge of other shows. Even though I say not to compare, but to just be aware and see the difference it really has to other shows, or that it takes in different aspects and genres to create this wonderful show.

Thanks for reading guys.