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EP. REVIEW: Zombie Land Saga Revenge [2021-04-24]


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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2459
PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:32 am Reply with quote
jenthehen wrote:
It's weird to me that people aren't into the songs ... the songs are always amazing.


Granted I'm not into idol music in general. I like both OPs and liked Junko's rock song from this season, and that's about it. Mezame Returner has the emotional weight of being their first (iirc) guerrilla performance and then going electric zombie too, but it's not really the kind of song I'd listen by itself, and most others I just blank out while they're playing. I literally just alt tabbed during most of this last episode because it was just songs being performed and I felt like I had better things to be paying attention to
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:10 pm Reply with quote
jenthehen wrote:
It's weird to me that people aren't into the songs ... the songs are always amazing.

I didn't skipped every time their presentation began, but half my attention vanishes automatically as soon as I notice that it'll start. I just don't like all about this idol thing and everything involving the industry. It's so soulless and artificial and false and forced... I hate! hate! hate! hate! hate! hate! hate! hate! hate it!
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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:46 pm Reply with quote
I'm not an idol fan, but I am a Franchouchou fan, I guess.

The deal with the songs this time, I think, were the lyrics. Most of the lyrics were spot-on descriptions of the situation the audience and Saga were in, struggling to recover from a natural disaster. As a result, I thought the songs had a great deal of impact.

I guess I wasn't that interested in the music itself, so I paid attention to other things, like the lyrics. Also, it was nice to have moments where one could hear each character's voice distinctly (for one thing, hearing Junko's singing voice is always a surprising contrast to her speaking voice).

Now, the one song I'll return to a lot is the song at the end of the two-episode arc about Yugiri. That one is stunning.

I'm guessing Franchouchou turns the final few seconds into another electric light show.
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Key
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:26 pm Reply with quote
dm wrote:
The deal with the songs this time, I think, were the lyrics. Most of the lyrics were spot-on descriptions of the situation the audience and Saga were in, struggling to recover from a natural disaster. As a result, I thought the songs had a great deal of impact.

Agreed. Anyone who either skipped over the performances or didn't pay attention to them should go back and watch for the song lyrics. They are, essentially, the summation of the series to date.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:34 pm Reply with quote
I did pay attention to the lyrics because I assumed they had to be extremely relevant (always have been) but... even if relatable to the present situation, they were still pretty vague and generic, way moreso than previous songs. And to make it worse the performances were nowhere close to bombastic and had no gimmicks like deviating the genre to something not "generic idol" or giving the spotlight to any given underused character or doing something physically weird.

We had an arch of escalating danger, a threat of things getting worse and a series-long promise of saving Saga that culminated into... three middle of the road songs. That's it. Nothing narratively interesting, and nothing remarkable about the songs themselves.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:26 pm Reply with quote
jenthehen wrote:
It's weird to me that people aren't into the songs ... the songs are always amazing.
dm wrote:
Most of the lyrics were spot-on descriptions of the situation the audience and Saga were in, struggling to recover from a natural disaster. As a result, I thought the songs had a great deal of impact.
Ok, full disclosure, I have a Franchouchou T-shirt that I wear when I watch ZSR and this last episode gave me goosebumps because of the message in the songs. I can understand Yuvelir's aesthetic sense and if I were to wax critical I would agree but I think there is a wider dimension to the show that the songs enhance. If you can listen to the songs without them speaking to you, sorry but they speak to me and others of like ilk. And they say the same thing that Zombieland Saga says as Key mentioned and is I think, a most satisfying conclusion to the series to date. I believe this was a "send off" and didn't need to overplus the bombast or genre deviations as those were already presented earlier. Every series ending needs to let the fans down gently and wrap the story up to be satisfying and I think this was the best way for this one.

Even a parody or extrapolation needs to be recognizable as a version of the subject and this is an IDOL show after all, so the songs and performance need to be present. To be a good representation, they need to be at least good and while not likely to be featured at the Budokan, I think they are so and do serve a narrative purpose even if some might think they do so roughly. While I'm not a LGTBQ supporter per se I support the idea that people are different and embracing those without violence make a better society, so when Lady Lilly sang "you can take pride in what makes you strange" I about cheered. Same for The Legendary Tae Yamada being accepted by the crowd. "We're all in the same boat anyway, so let's head there together"

This Ep minus the Epilogue brings the overarching plot of saving Saga by bringing it to the attention to the nation so as not to be forgotten to a complete close. Everything in the story was to that end from the beginning and was never about "roasting" the genre, just poking fun at some things, making pointed commentary about others and sometimes celebrating what good the genre fosters. It succeeds in all areas and while it could be dismissed as a "feel good" end, one should notice that a disaster doesn't end it. I think the Epilogue was a goofy message from the production crew that the story is over, it has no more to say and if there is an S3 it will be much different. I would full-heartedly hope that is the case...


Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:58 pm Reply with quote
That the story should end with a song was a given, they're idols so if they have to save Saga in any way it should be through a performance.
That it should be protrayed in the most milquetoast way possible wasn't.
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Key
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:04 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
That it should be protrayed in the most milquetoast way possible wasn't.

Guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on that last point, as I felt those were pretty strong performances.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
...That it should be protrayed in the most milquetoast way possible wasn't.
I would agree that if a possible S3 were to be a continuation of this SAGA they should have done just what you implied earlier to make it better, though I can't think of how they could have amplified over previous highs. I think the crew didn't intend to do that though which is why the Ep is the way it is.
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Yuvelir



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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
Yuvelir wrote:
...That it should be protrayed in the most milquetoast way possible wasn't.
I would agree that if a possible S3 were to be a continuation of this SAGA they should have done just what you implied earlier to make it better, though I can't think of how they could have amplified over previous highs. I think the crew didn't intend to do that though which is why the Ep is the way it is.

I'm completely disregarding the epilogue and the chance of a S3 tbh. Just that im the context of the season itself is bland as hell and doesn't live up to the buildup, or measure up to previous performances.
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meiam



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:49 am Reply with quote
Personally I watched the show as a comedy/slice of life show so I find the song extremely boring, generic with awful animation (on the best of day, I hesitate to call the earliest performance "animated") and aggressively skip them all. But at the same time it's pretty clear it's an idol show so I can't really blame them for ending the series with a bunch of them in a row, but it does mean that finale was unmemorable for me.
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Willo567



Joined: 14 Oct 2020
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:08 am Reply with quote
Are you all seriously complaining that the idol show ended with an idol concert that's been hinted at since the very first episode?

And the three songs were great, powerful and touching, especially when combined with the visuals and knowing the story of these dead girls.
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Yuvelir



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:09 am Reply with quote
I think a way to summarize it is that Zombieland Saga stood out for having a wide appeal that crosses genres. But this finale decided to appeal to the fans of one specific genre exclusively.

And although I've enjoyed a few idol shows in the past, usually I actively avoid them so...

Quote:
Despite my indifference to the concert as a whole, Tae steals the show and delivers my favorite scene of the episode halfway through their performance.

Yeah, that scene alone made me not despise the episode as a whole. Tae is indeed legendary Laughing
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Willo567



Joined: 14 Oct 2020
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:35 am Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
I think a way to summarize it is that Zombieland Saga stood out for having a wide appeal that crosses genres. But this finale decided to appeal to the fans of one specific genre exclusively.

And although I've enjoyed a few idol shows in the past, usually I actively avoid them so...

Quote:
Despite my indifference to the concert as a whole, Tae steals the show and delivers my favorite scene of the episode halfway through their performance.

Yeah, that scene alone made me not despise the episode as a whole. Tae is indeed legendary Laughing


I agree that ZLS has a wider appeal than other idol shows and that it's delved into other genres before (such as period drama this season), but the show has always been about idols first and foremost, along with comedy and heart.

And did you not watch the stinger, because shit like that doesn't happen in idol shows
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:20 am Reply with quote
Willo567 wrote:
I agree that ZLS has a wider appeal than other idol shows and that it's delved into other genres before (such as period drama this season), but the show has always been about idols first and foremost, along with comedy and heart.

And did you not watch the stinger, because shit like that doesn't happen in idol shows

Honestly? The stinger felt cheap. I've seen stuff like that in dozens of shows, and in this case it's not real "content" as it's (almost) completely unrelated to anything before: only the promised destruction and that the landscape they show belongs to Saga. The characters and the story don't interact with it in any way, you could remove or replace it with something else and not only would be unnoticeable, it wouldn't change or recontextualize anything of what came before. And as a surprise or something outrageous or comedic... it's not particularly funny either. It has the quality of a jumpscare.

... but thinking twice, I think it did affect me: I spent half of the episode wondering how they were "saving Saga" from the curse and the imminent total obliteration that would erase Saga in the advent of the Reiwa era with that concert, when they were going to do something noticeable toward that end, when they'd follow on Koutarou's knowledge and that blood. And this stinger was the answer to that: they weren't, and they didn't. They failed.
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