Episode 3

Dead or Alive Saga is the third episode of Zombieland Saga.

Synopsis
As Kotaro makes plans for a live flash mob performance, the girls try to decide on a name for their group, ultimately settling on the name Franchouchou after the sound of Tae's sneezing. While the others motivate themselves to practice their routine overnight, Ai and Junko remain skeptical, leading the others to begin the performance without them. The performance runs into trouble after Sakura forgets her lyrics, but Ai and Junko step in to save the show, managing to attract at least one fan.

Plot
Back at the mansion after the performance at Saga castle, Kōtarō congratulates the girls for their impressive and intuitive performance. But then Kōtarō makes plans for another task: a "Guerilla Performance" --- where the girls will perform a show in a public area. He schedules them to perform at Karatsu station tomorrow morning. But the girls say they cannot train in less than a day to prepare, but Kōtarō does not care and suggest they train all night.

Prior to the girl's training routine, Lily suggests that the girls elect a leader among them so that they can be in charge everyone in the group. Saki stands up and boasts out to be their leader as she has experience being the captain of her former biker gang. Though speechless over over Saki's unnerving attitude, the girls decided to let Saki be their leader. Lily then suggest that they come up with a new group name, as she says that Kōtarō's given ones are too bland. The girls come up with suggestions, but are currently in a disagreement. As everyone is lost in thought together, Tae starts sneezing and interrupts the girls.

Lily gets an inspiration from Tae's sneeze; she suggest that they should be called Franchouchou. Impressed with the originality, the girls all agree and so from now on they shall be call "Franchouchou." With all necessities settled, the girls now proceed with training.

Later that night, the girls are at the park taking a break from training and Sakura, Saki, Lily, and Tae are spinning on a carousel while Yūgiri is standing about. Sakura is currently lost in a thought worrying about their upcoming performance and hasty experience. As she continues thinking about herself, she ends up getting launched off the carousel by Tae. Sakura is sent flying into the air, where she suddenly gets a reminiscent of jumping off a stage to her delight, before crashing down.

Sakura emerges back up. She comes to realization and professes her determination to see through her role as an idol even if they're zombies. But the girls already get the point and doesn't need her sympathy to get motivated, much to her confusion from having her spotlight stolen. Meanwhile, Ai and Junko wait for the girls to return, where they are worried they might not be able to put up a show. The rest of the girls return and to continue training.

The girls practice dancing and form, but run into erratums. Ai leaves everyone slightly upset, seeing they're going nowhere. Junko follows quietly in suit. Outside, Ai and Junko encounter Kōtarō where, seeing the two are trying to give up too soon, ushers them to continue. Ai tries pointing out the difficulty of becoming idols, and still doesn't believe they'll succeed because they're zombies. So Kōtarō rebukes them by pointing out to the other girls, who still show determination trying to live much as they could. As he walks away, he questions them if they're going to live or not, leaving the two girls speechless.

Daytime arrives and the group arrive at the station. The girls disembark, but Ai and Junko stay behind still feeling skeptical. As the rest of the girls get ready, they have no choice but to continue without them. The girls take positions and Saki gets everyone's attention to begin their public performance.

So they begin, and start performing.

But suddenly, they begin to fumble and the show is ultimately faltering, causing everyone to lose interest. Despite this, Ai and Junko eventually join out of worry and the girls continue the show inspire of the lack of audience. As the show ends, the girls were able to attract attention of a little girl, to Sakura's relief.

The performance concludes, and the girls suggest that they leave. So after Saki gives her closing statement to the empty audience, she runs up to the girl and promises they'll do better next time. The girl smiles at her gladly, and later gets escorted away by her mother. The little waves goodbye to the girls as the two leaves.

Suddenly, the girls are approached by a policeman walking in casually to stop the girls from disturbing the peace. Kōtarō arrives and shouts at the girls to leave right now. The gang all get back into the van and they all drive away from the area.

The girls return to the mansion at night, where Ai and Junko reflect on themselves. Sakura comes in. She wanted to express her gratitude for helping to keep the show intact. But she also tells them that even if they're zombies, she will continue to believe everyone will work hard pursuing their dreams as idols, then takes her leave. Junko commented that even today was still a disaster, she was happy to feel the difference performing as a group. Then she leaves.

After reflecting both of the girls' words, Ai decides to motivate herself that she's "starting over."

Appearances

 * Sakura Minamoto
 * Kōtarō Tatsumi
 * Saki Nikaidō
 * Ai Mizuno
 * Junko Konno
 * Yūgiri
 * Lily Hoshikawa
 * Tae Yamada
 * Romero
 * Policeman A

Kotaro's diary synopsis
The event in Saga Castle, as they thought, would generate a lot of hype. Sakura and Saki's couldn't contain their excitement, the gutsy Yūgiri and Lily worked on building the hype, and Tae was doing her own thing. Even though they don't act like idols at all, they tried to really make themselves feel like real idols. But with the experience of Ai and Junko in the mix, everything should be fine. One for zombie, all for zombie!