Zombies

This page contains speculation and some other theory that has enough evidence to be plausible, do not take this to be true until it is shown in the show

Everything that is known about zombies in the zombieland anime saga

Characteristics
The zombies in this series are the seven girls who have been revived after death by Kotaro for his Zombie Land Saga Project

Zombie skin color is turquoise, red eyes and a hollow around the eyes. Scars are everywhere on the body, sewn or bandaged, with occasional crunching noises.

Initially, they had not awakened and wandered moaning, but by giving a stimulus, they could "wake up", that is, regain their "ego". Sakura was the first member to wake up, but she did not fully recover her memory from when she was alive, and only recovered them in episode 11 in exchange for her memories as a zombie, at the end of the series she gets her entire memory.

Other members (except Tae) woke up to the appearance of Death Metal Live in Episode 1. Although she doesn't wake up immediately, her zombie "ego" increases as the story progresses, Tatsumi's special makeup makes him look just like before and removes grinding from the joints, but the makeup will fall off if it gets wet with water, except her uses shoe spray as in Saga rock

Cremated corpses
How did Kotaro get ahold of the girls’ bodies, anyway? Some of them (Yugiri especially) died long before he was presumably born. Even for those who died during Kotaro’s own lifetime, the dead in Japan are normally preserved only with dry ice to keep them reasonably fresh for the few days until they’re cremated according to Buddhist custom. There shouldn’t be anything left of them to zombify, unless their earthly remains were somehow transported across time and space before this could happen.
 * While this has yet to be explained, this sZombie1.gifg contradiction is acknowledged in Episode 4, indicating that an answer may yet lie in wait.
 * Apparently the mysterious bartender is behind these robberies, but that implies that they were not the only bodies that robbed him and that he possibly did it for a reasonable time to know how to resuscitate them.

Zombie body
Their its body is abused or hit hard, it's joints and even it's eyes may come loose, but it can connect them again. Can resists violent movements in live performances, is not damaged even when electrocuted by lightning, and displays an electronic voice singing performance while discharging. Since they have no body temperature, they should pay attention to freezing

They have an appetite, they can eat and drink, and they have a flavor. Basically it has the same functions as humans, like sweating and crying, but the body is more prone to dismemberment

Bandages
How does Ai manage her extensive bandaging? We've seen several times that she still wears her bandages beneath her make-up after it gets washed away but would they really be so immobile that they wouldn't interere with her make-up on their own? (Making cracks etc.) Also, does she bathe with or without them? We saw her seemingly just returning from washing up in Episode 3 with them on. There was no indication that anyone helped her and it seems like it would be ridiculously hard to put them back on herself, least of all as skin-tightly as the make-up conundrum makes her wraps out to be. Note: We've also been led to believe that she does not stink, so she must be washing adequately... How does she do it!?
 * ...Kotaro is a really good make up artist. It isn't the only weirdness surrounding their bandages, Sakura's pretty much wearing a skirt of them, which completely disappears whenever she's wearing her idol gear.

Mysterious appearance
What's the deal with Romero? Sometimes he's cute, sometimes he's drawn realistically horrifying. Is that an actual change thats happening in-universe, or some kind of audience visual filter?
 * Likely the latter, to show that everyone sees him as cute until they remember "Yeah...he's a zombie."
 * Like the girls really. I mean even as zombies they're kinda cute and adorable, but when we seem them from the perspective of outsiders we're reminded that they're a bunch of rotting corpses.

Makeup
So Kotaro Tatsumi puts the make-up on the girls, right? I assumed it would only be the parts not covered by their clothes, like faces, necks, arms and legs. But since they wear short skirts, he must have gone all the way up to their thighs and lower buttocks. And later in Episode 4, we see he did their bellies and backs too. Did this man maybe do like a full body-paint on the girls? Would they even be okay with that, and why?
 * Well the make up is clearly ludicrous anyway (how do you get Ai and Junko looking presentable, considering the condition they're in?) but if I was to make a serious guess... maybe the girls do each other, and let Kotaro do only the more visible areas? Though honestly Ai, Yugiri, Lily and Junko are professionals and are likely used to being dressed and made up, I must admit I don't see Kotaro getting anywhere near Saki without her applying a baseball bat to his skull. At least Kotaro isn't a pervert (in fact he's never shown legitimate interest in anyone), just a wierdo.
 * If it's enough for him to just trowel make-up onto their faces like we saw him do with Sakura in Episode 2, I honestly don't think it would be much of a stretch to say the girls don't need to be particularly amazing at make-up to handle areas like those which would need less detail than their faces anyway.
 * There's a scene in the theme song—after all the nonsensical Tokusatsu stuff—where Sakura sits up in a bath, and she's in her makeup. Maybe the girls soak in some pinkish liquid, and the makeup applied is just ordinary blush and whatnot to cover the scars after they've been turned pink?



Zombie eyes
Zombie eyes are abnormally bright, glowing deep red in areas of complete darkness.

At the beginning of the series, the girls' eyes only emitted a white color but after they waking up it began to shine with the characteristic red color, according to popular beliefs that the eyes are the window of the soul, it can be intuited that it is the soul of the girls what causes this

Contact lenses?
How the hell and why do their eyes even change colour? Do they wear some contact lenses? And if so, where do they come from and where do they suddenly dissapear whenever their zombie nature is revealed/concealed? Just to give an example: In Episode 5, after they all have fallen into a mud after bicycle racing, they have normal eye colour. They go wash themselves, wash off their make-up along with the mud, and their eyes change colour to red, as their zombie skin is exposed. Afterwards, they once again fall into a mud, and since their zombie skin is once again covered, their eyes change colour again.

Zombie magic
One thing about the magic of necromancy is evident: it is currently active in their bodies. This is supported by the fact that all of their organs can function normally. Their hearts are beating because we can see them blush, just like Lily's heart really beats. They also don't smell. They can breathe, eat, and sleep, but they don't need to, because magic would keep them alive anyway. But then, why don't they bleed out when the body parts break? Necromancy magically connects everyone if their body parts, even when they are not physically connected. This is supported by the fact that dismembered heads can speak without lungs and headless bodies can move normally without being connected to their brain. Magic could also prevent them from losing blood because they can no longer do more.
 * Magic not only brought them to life, it constantly keeps them alive along with other things. magic forced each and every one of its cells to come back to life. "Bound" because they are not really alive, as they cannot be divided. This explains why they don't grow or age, and why their skin is discolored, because cells that divide and die are a critical part of how the skin works. This is probably also related to how their skin works differently with regard to absorption of medications (patches) and moisture (hot springs). (If this is true, it means their hair is not growing either.)

Speaking of parts breaking, this shows that their bodies are still very fragile due to being dead for a time. With any amount of force, the parts break apart with a clean "hit", which means the magic probably keeps them together constantly and keeps them alive. This means that Junko would probably fall apart without this magic. Still, their bodies are strangely tough, as they never bleed or bruise, despite being hit hard enough multiple times. Sakura and Junko went down (for the most part) being hit by a truck. Saki and her explosive bicycle accident. Ai had her brain impaled and was completely unaffected, aside from some trauma. They all brought down a lightning bolt.

Another interesting thing that Is that they are very strong. Neither of them has really realized it yet, but each of them possesses almost superhuman strength, probably due to the effect of necromancy magic on their muscles. If the cells are constantly kept alive, the muscle fibers cannot break, which means they can use 100% of their strength at all times. Sakura rammed a heavy poker through Ai's skull by accident. Junko completely jumped the front door with a jump. Saki dropped a man's gorilla with an attack. Yugiri's slaps seem especially powerful. Tae has jumped through the glass multiple times, in addition to spinning the thing in the yard fast enough to throw Sakura, as well as stop her completely with just her arms.

It is no coincidence that necromancy magic covers practically everything that cannot be hidden with makeup. Obviously this is so they can make more compelling idols, Kotaro urged an especially powerful necromancy magic so that each of them, specifically Sakura, so that they could live normally. Sakura didn't even realize she was a zombie until she saw herself. The ultimate purpose of this specific brand of necromancy magic is to make Sakura happy. we don't know what Kotaro had to do to obtain such magic, but it certainly wasn't easy.

As zombies, they are still aware of how they died
Yugiri is trying to place his head on a chopping block Ai walks to the center of the stage Junko would be screaming through the plane window
 * Which would indicate that she was beheaded by a sword
 * What she did before her shocking death

Saki is grabbing the motorcycle handles and Lily thinks her dad is on the other side of the door.

General speculations
Zombies and other paranormal things are known to be real in this world. One of the things that keep girls going is music. There are more zombies in Saga prefecture. The girls actually eat brains. Their zombie bodies are not their original bodies. Makeup is actually the key to awakening zombie consciousness.
 * It would only make sense for zombies to be known to be real things for people to see girls and freak out. Otherwise, it would be much more likely that the police, the hot spring lady, etc., assumed that the girls only wore some type of costume, stage makeup and accessories.
 * The important thing to keep zombies going is a heartbeat. This simulates the heartbeat. Music that has a beat does this pretty well; things like "melody" or "harmony" are not necessary. Rap provides this very well.
 * Hence, why Kotaro sums up his zombie idol plan to "save Saga". There may be a real zombie outbreak in the past, with the country successfully blocking the Saga prefecture, because there are still zombies there. The zombie girls could be the first group of zombies to regain their humanity and personality, and Kotaro is part of a group that aims to restore the zombie citizens of Saga in a more acceptable state.
 * In a short image from the first episode, the map of Japan is red, while the rest is green.
 * Squid brains, to be precise. And the rest of the squid really. It prevents them from coveting human flesh.
 * After being cremated (or simply lost to the natural decomposition of time), the girls' bodies should no longer exist. Kotaro retrieved their souls and placed them in bodies that he made to resemble their original bodies.
 * Tae is actually a legend and therefore has no specific soul/memories to put into the body. So, she is learning to be human instead of waking up like the rest.
 * This theory got a bit of a boost at the end of Episode 12, where the reporter says he's getting less and less convinced every day and notes the photos of Ai, Junko, and Lily before and after death.
 * When Sakura woke up, she had makeup on. The other girls awakened their consciousness later after they had their first performance, in which everyone put on makeup.

Chinese zombies
Chinese revived corpse. Why did they choose a confusing nickname: zombie? Does the notion of zombie include the undead?

They are more likely to be Jiang shi or literally "rigid corpses" Chinese zombies, known in the West as Vampires or Chinese Zombies, than revived bodies.

The jiang shi are usually people who have died violently or unnaturally, or whose soul has found no rest at the time of death.

Zombies