Episode 5

"Nice Bird."

”The Nice Bird SAGA In Your Heart” (君の心にナイスバード SAGA Kimi no Kokoro Naisu Bādo SAGA) is the fifth episode of the first season of the Zombieland Saga anime, and is the fifth episode overall.

Synopsis (Kotaro’s Diary)
''They go beyond my imagination. The opportunity for the link with the pharmaceutical company was completely eliminated. However, there is this producer Kotaro Tatsumi, this time I got the comercial appearance right of a super famous company that everyone knows. "Franchouchou" will make its fame roar throughout Saga. The phoenix covered in mud flaps into the sky.''

Plot
After the incident at the ureshino hot springs, kotaro mentions that they will go to Drive-in Tori, to which Saki gets up and gets excited, and then give us a flashback of her and her gang after a race going to eat at that restaurant where she is seen eating wildly and Sakura mentions that she was very wild, Saki mentions when they are going to go and kotaro says that already and they both scream with emotion.

When they arrive it is seen that Saki is quite excited and then the owner of the Drive-in Tori to greet the girls And excited Saki continues screaming, so it is seen that she was a fan of that restaurant, later they are seen eating chicken and Tae in her own, Kotaro yells at them to hurry, the owner tells him that they can wait, Kotaro puts his hand on his chin and looks him in the eye as if he could control his actions, maybe he is only very attractive, the girls act in a commercial for the Drive-in Tori fried chicken restaurant, which at first for Tae does not go well but then with the help of Sakura the commercial goes well, is edited with images of Tae trying to devour the company mascot.

Then the commercial is seen in different places, and a journalist appears and seems to recognize one of the girls. Later, Kotaro appears with a baguette and a French accent, he tells Ai that if it is a Saga jeune, to which she nonchalantly affirms, and kotaro hits her, but Ai returns the blow with the bread, kotaro mentions that now they will go to the gatalympics and Saki jumps again with excitement, Junko is seen with her head down, perhaps out of pity.

The girls participate in Kashima Gatalympics while wearing Franchouchou promotional t-shirts as a publicity stunt, Junko mentions that once she participated in a swimsuit contest, Tae breaks her shirt and Sakura puts another on her without knowing it was a drive in tori shirt.

The journalist appears and begins to be suspicious, because it seems that he recognized a girl, The girls participate in a bicycle race and all fall enthusiastically, mud without their shirts being washed, but they are forced to stay dirty to prevent discover their zombie appearance because the makeup fell silent which ruins their advertising.

It is seen that Kotaro participated in the same exercise but he is more shy than normal, even though the girls wanted him to shut up, he manages to pass the test without problems.

Now they participate in a rope game where the one who jumps the most and with style wins, Tae wins the first prize because the others did not achieve much, Sakura remembers giving her a spare shirt and tells her to take off her dirty clothes, just to Discovering that the clean shirt underneath is actually for Drive-In Tori.

Meanwhile, a journalist named Okoba recognizes Junko, says he remembers her because he says he remembers something, their relationship is unknown or if they had one and he decides to investigate it.

Characters

 * Kotaro Tatsumi
 * Romero
 * Franchouchou
 * Sakura Minamoto
 * Saki Nikaido
 * Ai Mizuno
 * Junko Konno
 * Yūgiri
 * Lily Hoshikawa
 * Tae Yamada
 * Police Officer
 * Shinta Ookoba (debut)
 * Dorami Biker Gang (debut)
 * Reiko Amabuki (flashback)
 * Drive-In Tori staff (debut)
 * President of Drive-In Tori
 * Coco

Locations

 * Saga Prefecture
 * Abandoned Mansion
 * Drive-in Tori (debut)
 * Ibaraki Prefecture (debut)
 * Kashima City
 * Gatalympics Arena

Songs

 * “Drive-In Tori jingle”

Trivia

 * The president of Drive-In Tori in this episode is voiced by the actual president of the yakitori fastfood chain.
 * It is revealed that Yugiri is shown to be quite athletic, this may stem from her being an entertainer from when she was alive.
 * The line in Kotaro’s diary synopsis for the episode, “The phoenix covered in mud flaps into the sky”, foreshadows how the girls are going to help shoot the commercial for Drive-In Tori as well as participate in the Gatalympics.
 * Despite being charismatic and visibly narcissistic, Kotaro is revealed to have stage fright, or, is at the very least, afraid of public speaking.
 * The title Nice Bird is due to the phrase said by Kōtarō (nice bird/good birding) and because Drive-in Tori is mentioned throughout the episode. The part of the title "in your heart" is for two reasons: the first is the shirt that Tae has under Franchouchou's full of mud, when showing Drive-in Tori's shirt it can be taken as an allegory to open his heart. The second reason is that from that moment Franchouchou enters the hearts of the fans, especially Tae who is called Cocco-chan.

Dub Differences

 * This is the only time wherein the word SAGA is not the last word of an episode title in the English dub, but is instead put somewhere in the middle.
 * In the original, Kotaro describes how he is “collecting dirt (off the ground)” after he is consecutively striked down to the floor by Saki and Ai after physically assaulting them. The bit about collecting dirt is a reference to the commonly known ritual for the loser teams to take the dirt from the baseball field in Koushien games in Japan.
 * And because this was difficult to explain in English, they simply changed his line to him explaining that he is simply “sweeping up his dignity”.
 * Kotaro exclaims how the gang is missing the energy that is akin to the “crow of a chicken (on a burning grill)” during their shooting for the commercial whereas in the English dub, he tells them to “Cok-a-doodle-do (their) job”.

Cultural References

 * Drive-in Tori is an actual restaurant located in the Saga prefecture.
 * Additionally, The Gatalympics is also a real-life event.
 * The voice actors of the main cast have also participated in the real-life Gatalympics with Minami Tanaka, Lily’s voice actress, winning the bike race.

Continuity

 * Kotaro knowing French is brought up more prominently this episode.
 * This is the second time Kotaro is seen using his charm to distract the person he is talking to.
 * In this case, he does this to stop the president from finding out that Tae eating raw chicken would not affect her negatively since she is already dead.
 * This is the first time Ookoba takes notice of the girls from their commercial shoot for Drive-In Tori. Particularly focusing on Junko.
 * This is the fourth time the police officer who shot Sakura in the first episode is seen in the same setting as the girls. Although, he does not interact with any of them in this episode.
 * The girls once again forget that they are undead, so they warn Tae about how eating uncooked meat is bad for her.
 * This is the third time the Death Metal fans are not present during either of Franchouchou’s performances within the episode.
 * This is the first time Tae yells out her signature chicken squawk.
 * This is the first of many times that the Drive-In Tori commercial showcasing the girls is shown.
 * This is the first of many times that the president of Drive-in Tori is shown to spectate Franchouchou’s performances.

Errors

 * The colors of the girl’s eyes in their human disguises are washed off alongside the mud, despite the colors being a part of their contact lenses.