Zombie Land Saga tried something different this week and gave us a look at the real emotions of the band. Dropping the jokes and focusing on the characters, surprisingly, worked exceptionally well.
What IS An Idol?
It’s important to remember that Franchouchou is made up of idols from various different time periods. As a result, some members aren’t used to the way things work nowadays. For instance, Junko believes that idols are supposed to be god-like, people you go to see and aspire to be.
However, the reality is that a huge part of an idol’s life in modern times involves interacting with fans, whether it be online, or more traditional meet-and-greet events. In episode six, this led to disagreements with the rest of the band, and created the first real drama we’ve seen so far. It’s fine for bandmates to disagree creatively in private, but the problem is when this spills over into their performances.
Thunderstruck
We also found out a little more about Mizuno. It’s all but confirmed that Sakura used to be a fan of hers, but until now, we never knew how she had died. It turns out that Mizuno was struck by lightning mid-performance – as far as deaths go, it’s pretty spectacular, but she now has an entirely justified fear of lightning.
This looks set to cause some major problems in next week’s episode. The group are to perform at Saga Rock festival, on an outdoor stage. Here’s issue number one: if it rains, there’ll be no hiding their true appearances. Issue number two: Mizuno is likely to freak out. Issue number three: Franchouchou have never played such a big event before, and there’s very little time left to practise.
Where Is This Going?
Perhaps we were all mistaken about Zombie Land Saga. It’s not really a zombie show at all; that’s merely an aspect of the characters, so really, the show could have been named “Girl Land Saga” or “Idol Land Saga”. Really, this anime is about the girls, their performances, but most of all, their desire to continue being idols even in the face of overwhelming odds.
We’re at the halfway point, and there are no details regarding how they became zombies, who Kotaro is, or why they were really brought back. Here’s the thing: these are secondary issues, and not really what Zombie Land Saga has been focusing on. It looks unlikely that we’ll have any further information on these plot points, but really, does it matter? The band are where they are, and we’ll just have to wait and see if they’re able to make it work.
