×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Zombie Land Saga (TV) (all seasons).


Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 9:31 am Reply with quote


Season 1 - Zombie Land Saga (TV)
Season 2 - Zombie Land Saga Revenge (TV) (discussion starts here)

Genres: comedy, horror
Themes: idols, life after death, zombies

Plot Summary: In 2008, high school student Sakura Minamoto is on her way to audition for an idol group when she is killed in a traffic accident. Ten years later, she discovers that she, along with six other "legendary" girls from various eras of Japan's history, are resurrected as zombies by Kotaro Tatsumi to save Saga Prefecture as the all-zombie idol group Franchouchou.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Ahoshi



Joined: 02 Jul 2018
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:10 am Reply with quote
My thoughts in the opening scene.
Oh sh*t!!! Is this what we're doing. Well I'm gungho. Let's go!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:15 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

Oh my god, I did not expect that. I am kind of reminded of School Live, and recall the feeling of so happy I did not look anything up. The twist being that this looked like it was going to be a total horror, comes in brutally with the main character hit by a truck in the first minute and a half, and after looking like it is a horror alike some others, it drops. It is a total comedy, a black comedy where some mad scientist guy seems to have got a group of zombies together so that they can be an idol group. While a certain show played up some cuteness to make the horror stand out more, this is using the horror to play up the comedy when it goes oh so wrong.

For a first episode, I like how it had me kind of trying to put things together that someone seemed to have bandaged her, but strangely not her head despite that she should have received some head wound. Just as she was meeting the police officer, the lack of other zombies had me wonder if she herself was a zombie, right as the officer starts to freak out, and there is the reveal of what she looks like. That felt pretty well done, and felt just the right amount of pacing, especially in figuring things out in this episode, which is why I am reminded of School Live.

And then there is the doctor/manager, coming in cheerfully as total tonal dissonance of Sakura semi freaking out yet possibly getting used to the situation of pretty much being in a cage with roaming zombies. Him being totally unhelpful for really explaining why this was done. And timing like Sakura pointing out that Tae had been biting her several times. I guess it won’t be for everyone, but I found this first episode to be pretty fantastic in execution, I am in.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:26 pm Reply with quote
What's up with hip-hop in anime this year?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pharmboy23



Joined: 05 Oct 2018
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 9:52 am Reply with quote
I have to admit the throw-down at the end made me laugh. And the ridiculous Bros. And the unexpected return of several characters from the first episode that I thought would never be seen again.

Manager was mostly funny, minus some borderline abusive bits at the start. The group’s constantly rotating name is pretty fun.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 3:26 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

Yeah, I suspect that they are going to probably keep changing their names, perhaps as they change genre. All the hip-hop and rap in this episode totally made me laugh, first the total bizarreness of a trio of guys apparently roaming the streets while rapping, in rural Japan. And then Sakura starting to rap, feeling totally out of character, but showing that she has spunk. The show in general makes me laugh, like when Saki mourned that her Tamagotchi is likely dead, saying something about her time period, and the humour of a delinquent being into Tamagotchi. Freaking out that same police officer, Tae's perpetual zombie character is also great at this point. Also, the opening, it is pretty crazy, with them all as super sentai rather than idols, and really everything with Tatsumi, from the OP, to everywhere else, claiming he knows everything about Saga before ranting about not being Wikipedia when asked what the population is.

The preview looks like it may be actual idol stuff next time, including a quick shot of a Love Live like performance. I have to assume something weird is going to be involved, at this point they cannot do a straight idol thing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:32 am Reply with quote
Episode 3

I think that my favourite part of the episode was when Sakura was about to give a "lets not give up" speech, before she gets slapped, followed by having the speech done to her and everyone assuming she was about to give up.

I think that the episode was meant to be a Love Live parody, after all there was the CGI dance scene that I mentioned from the preview, and the episode called "Dead or Live Saga". Whether it did anything interesting, there could maybe be how stiff they looked at times, this being relevant as them being zombies and amateurs in this particular case, rather than just bad CGI, and maybe the fact it actually being a bit of a failure with the song really being support. The dance did have some nice moments in the second half, but I think the frame rate was a little low. But for a parody, if it was one, Anime-Gataris kind of did it better, they even had a chance to do the same thing with a "Last time on Zombie Land Saga" when they did a segment at the start of the episode.

So far it has looked like the two previous idol girls have been a bit hard to join in, because they are likely afraid of failure. They spent their time on careers while alive, only for it to end, and have been afraid to pick it up again. Surprisingly the Legendary Yamada Tae was well behaved, performed to her ability, and did not attack the audience, a single young girl. Her chasing after Junko earlier, is still funny. And sucking on a marker.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
pharmboy23



Joined: 05 Oct 2018
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:43 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
Episode 3

I think that my favourite part of the episode was when Sakura was about to give a "lets not give up" speech, before she gets slapped, followed by having the speech done to her and everyone assuming she was about to give up.


For me it’s either that scene or the ridiculously janky driving of the manager trying to “escape” after the act.

Not being as familiar with the ins and outs of idol culture I mostly saw the performance as distractingly bad CGI. I would feel much better learning that it was a parody Razz.

Some funny parts, and I do love the characters and the designs, but I found this the most traditional and predictable of the episodes so far.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:19 am Reply with quote
pharmboy23 wrote:
Not being as familiar with the ins and outs of idol culture I mostly saw the performance as distractingly bad CGI. I would feel much better learning that it was a parody Razz.


A bit of their movements at the beginning looked pretty stiff, in a way that would be pretty unnecessary for what this sort of CGI can do, but not so much that it seemed like the characters were purposely playing up the zombie thing. And of course her being smacked was also supposed to play up that even the always optimistic main character in this sorts of shows often need to be reminded around this part.

A thing about Love Live, though, is that it was not immune of doing its own parodies and self awareness, that makes it a little more than simply banking on cute characters, which many can assume from first appearances.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 5:37 am Reply with quote
Episode 4

Hot spring episode, but unlike normal anime, there is not going to be much of overt fan service. If anything, it did put some nice focus that all of the girls are on the same page, where they can bond. The Climax of the episode was the accidental scaring the daylights out of a perfectly nice old lady, which sounds like it should be getting old news, but feels like a nice reversal of being in the know compared to Sakura being freaked out while they were all in zombie mode in the first episode. The Legenday Yamada Tae, of course has to make weird, for some reason doing a spider walk, for no reason other than it would look freaky.

The manager might be annoyed because they spooked the entire memory of a deal he made out of a possible sponsor, but he still comes across as the bigger idiot that he seemed to have really bad money plans that he seemed to think running out of money now was unforeseen. It also feels like it is standing out more, commentary on the idol industry that he represents, such as talking about shelf life for idols, and calling them brain dead. A good point that Japan supposedly cremates bodies, but somehow he managed to get them intact. I did see a rumour somewhere that he could be related to Sakura, she has lost her memory, but the name is different.

Looks like next week is a baseball episode. So random it might just work.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
#ShinyBD



Joined: 19 Jun 2018
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 7:37 am Reply with quote
Hm, haven't seen it yet. I guess I know what I gonna do this weekend. Zombies are cool!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 8:33 am Reply with quote
Episode 5

This episode felt like a real return to quality of the first two episodes. No real singing genre change, but they managed to fit in two events, with them doing a chicken restaurant ad, and a open to public game event with mud. Baseball played like no part in the game, except for Koutarou being an ass with stretched metaphors, and a part of some great on screen chemistry that his character has grown to have with Saki, which is her hitting him back for being an ass.

At this point, there is some wonderful character groove, that was shown well in this episode. Especially with Saki, Koutarou, and of course Tae. The three of them can be strangely unpredictable, with Saki switching between tough and kind of adorable, plenty of the antics of Koutarou, and of course the Legendary Yamada Tae. Of course trying to control Tae in the chicken ad was going to be hard, but not disappointed over her keep trying to go after the guy in the suit, who was strangely drawn cartoonish not like a guy in a suit. And Tae eating the raw chicken, which was paired with my favourite part of the episode, that had him pulling the same thing he did with the old lady previously in seducing her, but now with some dude.

Someone at least saw it coming that it was a dumb idea to rely on t-shirts with their group name on the front to advertise, when they would be falling into their mud face first. But more surprised that none of them saw coming why it would be a hazardous situation where their makeup would come off.

Next week does look like it will be more plot centric, and possibly drama. Wonder if they can pull it off.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
pharmboy23



Joined: 05 Oct 2018
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 8:42 am Reply with quote
This episode was pretty zany and I mean that in the best way possible.

Agree that it was back to the standards of the earlier episodes. It’s hard for the girls to get time to shine, individually, but I felt incredibly bad for the group after the mud event. The capper to the t-shirt jokes with the reveal at the end was a great callback to the first segment.

I’m glad the girls are abusing their manager Razz.

Tae is an unsung heroine of these episodes. When they kept cutting back to the girls covered in mud and she was eating or drinking something different it was just the best.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Treeborn



Joined: 30 Mar 2013
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:09 am Reply with quote
So I checked out the ZLS dub, and, to my great dissapointment, Funimation chose not to dub the rap between the girls in episode 2, but did dub the rap bits in the earlier parts of the episode with the cop and hooligans.

I remember hearing in certain Funi commentaries that dubbing full songs is something they typically tend to avoid, but will attempt to dub small jingles and things like that (as they did in the Soul Eater NOT! dub). So it seems strange that they chose not to dub the rap, considering it was rather short and meant to be ridiculous; all they needed to do was make Brina put the smallest bit of rhythm in some laughably terrible lyrics. It just totally hits the ear wrong when the Japanese immediately comes in, since they're essentially just speaking in their normal voice, but a bit faster.

What are the odds of this changing in a future Blu-ray release?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9117
Location: Bedford, NH
PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:34 am Reply with quote
Just probably wasn't enough time to get anything done. that also requires a Music and Effects track, which might not have been available on such short notice. They got rhymes in for the cop because that was just plain old dialogue, no M&E needed. Several of the actresses have expressed their desire to dub that and other parts, but permission is needed from japan to be able to do that, so we just have to wait and see
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next
Page 1 of 5

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group