Where have you been all my life?
Zombie Land Saga is the first case in anime I find to be an underrated gem. When you first look at the name, you may be expecting this to be just another horror show, but then you jump into the first episode and see that the zombies are the protagonists of this anime.
First, I really love the word play with this title. Saga is a synonym for story, but it's also the name of a prefecture in the Kyushu region of Japan, which is where Zombie Land Saga takes place in. The story is centered around seven girls, who have met an unfortunate demise, resurrected as zombies by an idol producer, whose intention is to revitalize the prefecture. I am fully aware that lots of people are not fans of the idol / show business theme when it comes to anime. I personally never go out of my way to get into it, but the second I feast my eyes on the banger that is the opening scene, I just know I'm going to have fun with this anime. When it's said that the idol producer's intention is to revitalize Saga, he really means it. The prefecture just seems to appear to not have anything outstanding and its existence is on the verge of fading from memory. Zombie Land Saga isn't just about these girls becoming popular idols in Saga. It's an epic quest to save the prefecture.
The characters are a strong highlight for me. The seven girls all came from different eras and have different backstories creating a fun and diverse cast to watch and listen to. First, we have Sakura Minamoto. She may be somewhat clumsy, but she is very optimistic and cares for the other girls. Second, there is Saki Nikaido, who was a member of a girls-only biker gang that successfully took over Saga during the 1990s. First impressions of her may be scary, but she's actually a polite person on the inside. Third, my favorite character who I quoted at the beginning of this review, Ai Mizuno. She was once a member of the idol group Iron Frill ten years ago, making her the most experienced of the zombies. I also like the fact that out of all the zombie appearances the girls have, Ai appears to be almost completely covered in bandages making her look more like a mummy. The fourth character is Junko Konno, an idol from the 1980s. Back then, fans' accessibility to meet up with their favorite idols up close in-person was not a thing, and Junko intends to stick to that old tradition. Our fifth character is Yuguri, who is said to be a legendary courtesan from one hundred fifty years before the events of Zombie Land Saga. Unlike Junko, Yuguri is quick to adapt to the modern era. Next is Lily Hoshikawa, a child prodigy actress from seven years ago. She is extremely happy to have become a zombie because she views it as a means to never get older. Finally, we have the legendary Tae Yamada. What's her backstory? We don't know, but we do know for a fact that she stands out as the only zombie to not fully regain consciousness. While she is still in the state of a brainless zombie, she does have some amount of awareness of her surroundings. It's also worth mentioning that Tae's voice actress is Kotono Mitsuishi. It's truly astounding that the person known for saying "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!" is the one making all these incomprehensible zombie noises for Tae.
Together, these seven girls make up the idol group called Franchouchou. To reduce the chances of anybody recognizing them, they go by numbers instead of their actual names, with Tae being Number Zero for some reason. Before going out in public, their idol producer, Kotaro Tatsumi, utilizes a special make-up on them to make them look perfectly like regular living humans because zombies don't have a place in society. Kotaro is just freaking hilarious. He is voiced by the same man who voiced Rintaro Okabe from Steins;Gate. He also voiced Light Yagami from Death Note, but the voice for Light doesn't even come close to either Rintaro nor Kotaro. Oh... I just realized Rintaro and Kotaro rhyme with each other as I'm typing this trivial information. Well, back to talking about Kotaro. He comes off being very strict towards the girls, but he actually does care for their well-being, especially towards Sakura. I've seen some people not like him, but how could you not enjoy some of the lines he says such as "Music, come on!" or "Nice bird!" or my personal favorite: "Kicky blammo!" Just for clarification, he doesn't actually say the last one in English. I just laughed so hard when I first read it in the subtitles. Throughout the whole anime, Kotaro never ceased to entertain me.
Since Zombie Land Saga is categorized as an idol anime, that means there are going to be a lot of songs in it. While Franchouchou isn't my go-to choice to listen to all the time, they have plenty of good songs under their name. Their most common song that's inserted into the anime is called Awaken Returner. It's a good song, and I don't mind it being the most performed song. Franchouchou also sings the opening and ending songs. The opening song, Fruitless Necromancy captures the allusion of Zombie Land Saga sounding like a horror anime before gradually changing its tone to fit an idol anime. The ending song, Into the Light is one of the most calm and peaceful themes I have ever listened to. It really does tell the viewer that despite the fact that the girls are now zombies, they are enjoying their second chance to the fullest.
So far, I've come to enjoy the story, the characters, some of their voice actors, and the music. What exactly made Zombie Land Saga an underrated gem? It all comes down to the animation studio that created this anime: MAPPA.
The artstyle is fine and the animation outside of some performances are done correctly. Mind you... I said outside of some performances. Things like the funny rap battle between Sakura and Saki and the cute little commercial for Drive-In Tori are well animated. It's the concert performances where haters like to bully Zombie Land Saga over. We can all collectively agree that MAPPA is not good at utilizing Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI). The song Awaken Returner was introduced in the third episode where the girls do a guerilla performance. This is the first instance we see the slow and clunky choreography because of the bad CGI, and this does happen quite a few more times throughout the anime. That being said, it's literally the one and only flaw with Zombie Land Saga and yet, just that one flaw is why there is a faction of people who think negatively of the anime to an extreme extent. I can understand if they are also not fans of other elements. If you don't have any other problems besides the CGI, then that's just a -1 at best and a fall to the Mixed Feelings range at worst. Not an instant 1/10. By the way, I'm not talking about the negative reviews on MyAnimeList. I'm actually talking about the comments I've seen on websites where I watch anime on.
If MAPPA had some members experienced at making good CGI, Zombie Land Saga could've reached a perfect score. Other than that, people focus way too much on this one element over the several other elements I personally find the anime to do just right. Zombie Land Saga did a good job demonstrating how these zombie idols live their lives and the importance of not getting exposed as zombies. As said at the end of the previous paragraph, the bad CGI is at best only a -1 penalty to my rating, so that means it's a 9/10.
To end off, I really love Ai Mizuno's philosophy on how to improve. That quote of hers I put at the beginning of this review is worthy of a pure platinum metal. Well, that settle it. Ai Mizuno is officially one of my favorite characters. Man, it's about time I finally add a second character onto my list on my profile page after half a year of just having Princess Euphemia from Code Geass. I'm sure she's happy to have some company now.
