Zombie Land Saga (Anime)

”Zombie Land Saga” (ゾンビランドサガ Zonbirando Saga), also spelled as ”Zombieland Saga”, is an anime created by the collaboration of Cygames and Avex Pictures animated by MAPPA. It currently has two seasons, with season one having aired from October 04, 2018 to December 20, 2018 with a total of 12 episodes. Season 2 is slated to be released sometime in 2021.

Plot
Main Article: Episode Guide

In 2008, Sakura reached the second year of high school, To go find Tokyo audition to become Idol, as soon as she leaves home trying to go to school and audition, she would be hit by a van resulting in her death.

In 2018, Sakura wakes up with a memory loss, in a certain western-style house, and is suddenly attacked by zombie girls and escapes outside, but finds that she also turned into a zombie. A young man, Kotaro Tatsumi, tells us that he was revived as a zombie for the local idol project "Zombie Land Saga Project" that raises awareness about Saga prefecture. Sakura formed the idol group "Franchouchou" with 7 members, Saki Nikaido, Ai Mizuno, Junko Konno, Yugiri, Lily Hoshikawa and Tae Yamada, who revived as zombies.

Main Cast

 * Kotaro Tatsumi by
 * Mamoru Miyano (Original)
 * Ricco Fajardo (English)
 * Sakura Minamoto (Zombie #1) by
 * Kaede Hondo (Original)
 * Brina Palencia (English)
 * Saki Nikaido (Zombie #2) by
 * Asami Tano (Original)
 * Caitlin Glass (English)
 * Ai Mizuno (Zombie #3) by
 * Risa Taneda (Original)
 * Bryn Aprill (English)
 * Junko Konno (Zombie #4) by
 * Maki Kawase (Original)
 * Amanda Lee (English)
 * Yugiri (Zombie #5) by
 * Rika Kinugawa (Original)
 * Stephanie Young (English)
 * Tae Yamada (Zombie #0)  by
 * Kotono Mitsuishi (Original)
 * Dawn M. Bennett (English)
 * Romero by
 * Yasuhiro Takato (Original)
 * Alejandro Saab (English)

Major Supporting Cast

 * Death Metal fans by
 * Mitsuaki Kanuka and Setsuji Satō (Original)
 * Cris George and Mike McFarland (English)
 * Police Officer by
 * Hiroyuki Yoshino (Original)
 * Austin Tindle (English)
 * Shinta Ookoba and Inuhashi by
 * Tōru Nara and ??? (Original)
 * Kent Williams and Aaron Dismuke (English)
 * President of Drive-In Tori
 * Iron Frill
 * Takeo Go by
 * Tsuyoshi Kuyoma (Original)
 * Christopher Sabat (English)
 * Reiko Amabuki and Maria Amabuki by
 * Komina Matsushita and Aoi Koga (Original)
 * Colleen Clickenbeard and Madeleine Morris (English)
 * Bartender by
 * Hochu Otsuka (Original)
 * ??? (English)

Supporting Cast

 * Pharmaceutical Agency founder
 * Drive-In Tori commercial director
 * Gatalympics host
 * Takeo’s co-workers
 * Truck Driver (Episode 10)

Concept and Creation
About four years before the broadcast, Nobuhiro Takenaka from Cygames came up with the idea for a zombie idol anime because the character of Rita, a zombie girl who appeared in "Kami no Bahamut GENESIS", was cute. The project started by telling MAPPA that a dead person could make a drama in which they really lives like an idol. The working title was "Idol Zombie". However, when he couldn't go through Cygames' internal approval, they asked for an anime to be made in Saga prefecture, the birthplace of the president of Cygames Koichi Watanabe, so it was decided to set the stage for Saga.

Production
The title changed completely because they were trying to establish Saga as the location where the anime would take place. staff members visited Saga many times to get context of the location. Takenaka said, "Our president was involved in the location." At first, they were quite concerned about how to combine Saga prefecture with idols. So they went to Saga prefecture and felt that "the story we were thinking about coincides with Saga prefecture more than we expected. "The hardest thing was when they went to Jofuku Chojukan. People in the memorial hall started climbing mountains to get excited and come up with ideas."They said he had a pretty rough experience climbing the mountains". This was mentioned in an interview in February 2019

The planning of this work was carried out in cooperation with the Saga prefecture. A person in charge of the public relations audience section in Saga said, "I really don't care about idol stories. The production committee will be three companies, MAPPA, Avex Pictures and Cygames." 30 minutes × 12 episodes.

It also reflected a large amount of information that they obtained from the location on the stage. "" It is information that we cannot obtain by ourselves. Even if people in Saga watch, it's often a manic place, so much of the information from the anime was pulled directly from the people of Saga.

Mamoru Miyano, who plays the role of Kotaro Tatsumi, was decided by the sound production staff's proposal. The idol seiyus were selected by audition, except for Tae Yamada.

The other members had a clear personality and were easy to imagine, so it was decided without problems. On the other hand, the selection of the role of Sakura was difficult, and finally Kaede Hondo was named as the role of Sakura. Hondo is from Nagoya and has never used a dialect, and this was the first time this work appeared in a work that used a dialect. Looking back at the event, he enjoyed the fun and tenderness of the dialect through the careful instruction of the native dialect. Maki Kawase, who plays the role of Junko, and Rika Kinugawa, who plays the role of Yugiri, also talk about the fun of the dialect during the recording.

Mimi Tanaka, who plays the role of Lily, imagined a serious anime because of the content of the script approved at the audition, but when she read it, she felt that she had been deceived with an unexpected joke and she looked at the script again, in an interview with Animate Times Tanaka said, "Because Lily is the youngest and the height is low, I think it's okay to do it freely," they said, "Please do it lively," and I convinced myself, "Oh, I'm so free." She said she is trying to feel like flirting with other members.

Kotono Mitsuishi, who plays the role of Tae Yamada, and Yasuhiro Takato, who plays the zombie dog Romero, were named after Sakai. Regarding the reason for hiring the two veteran voice actors, Sakai said, "Because neither Tae nor Romeo can speak, I think expressive power is necessary. I thought it would be difficult unless there were veterans." It was initially concealed that Mitsuishi was the voice actor in charge of Tae, but it was first revealed in the closing credits of Episode 3. In an interview with Animate Times, Mitsuishi said that he was aware of foreign zombie movies when playing and he acted with the intention that it would be a humorous anime. looking back and regarding the intention to act,

Takato, who plays the role of Romero, said: "Of course, it makes a difference between real and ordinary Romero, but I think it is better to say" Hehheh "according to the story, so it is better to do" Gaugau "so I do with instinct and intuition. " Talk to the director, but in the end it seems that Romero seems to think nothing.

Several voice actors were named as the sub-character, of which Hiroyuki Yoshino, the role of Police Officer A, was decided from the start. Regarding the scene where Police Officer A raps in the second episode, Asami Tano, who plays Saki, said: "That scene was not written in the script at the beginning. It is probably a rap battle. He said : "That was what you did, it was improvised"

Produced by Cygames, in collaboration with Avex Pictures and MAPPA studios


 * Director: Munehisa Sakai.
 * Screenwriter: Shigeru Murakoshi.
 * Character design: Kasumi Fukagawa.
 * Art director: Kazuo Ogura.
 * Director of photography: Takashi Yanagida.
 * Color designer: Azusa Sasaki.
 * Publisher: Masahiro Goto.
 * Soundman: Dogout.
 * Music Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi.

Music
Yasuharu Takanashi was in charge of the music for this work. The director, Munehisa Sakai, hoped that Takanashi liked Death Metal and that it was possible to balance the cute part with the rock part of the characters who live a rock life. in an interview with Animate Times. Cygames' Nobuhiro Takenaka said: "Idol activities are at the center of the story, so linking stories and songs is the easiest thing to convey. In that sense, there are more messages behind the songs."

Both “Adabana Necromancy” and “Hikari e” are performed by Franchouchou (Kaede Hondo, Asami Tano, Risa Taneda, Maki Kawase, Rika Kinugawa and Minami Tanaka). The anime began airing on October 4, 2018 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, Sun TV, BS11, Saga TV, and TVQ, was also licensed by Crunchyroll.

Broadcast History
MAPPA recalls in an interview with "The Animate Times" that he had the greatest difficulty in constructing the story. talking to various stage writers so far, but they've all respected George A. Romero and presented a good stage. Shigeru Murakoshi was appointed. Because he thought that Shigeru Murakoshi, who had been involved in MAPPA's work, could do a good job and comedy with experience in series composition.

Since this work is about death, it was decided to form a group of idols who lived at different times to portray different opinions. In addition, the idea of ​​giving each member a kind of legend was also adopted.

Cygames said, "They were thinking of waking up one at a time,  said the cygames director, but in the end it was decided to wake everyone up and leave Tae not awake.

In the promotion, the principle of secrecy for the content of the work was fully implemented. From the production announcement to the start of the mainstream, information on the story was hidden, except for the slogan "New zombie-feeling anime." The promotional video also appeared to be a true zombie horror job. At a screening for the general public in Tokyo, the audience was asked to submit a promise of confidentiality. This is because it was intended to surprise viewers, and because there was a possibility that viewers would be limited if they appeared to be idols.

The production of the second season was announced at the event "ZOMBIE LAND SAGA LIVE ~ FranChouChou Minna from Orabou! ~ !" held on July 27, 2019.

Reception
The following reports have been made on the impact on tourism and industry in the prefecture of Saga, which was the setting for this work.


 * On November 25, 2018, the "Old Main Building of the Karatsu Branch of Mitsubishi Joint Stock Company" (Karatsu City Museum of History and Folklore) was opened to the public, which is where the model of the residence of the girls, and more than 1,000 people visited the place. This facility has been closed since 2003 due to deterioration, and is open to the public every year in conjunction with the "National Public Launch of Modern Heritage." The number of visitors the previous year was 300 in two days.
 * Muraokaya, which makes the Japanese confectionery "Saganishiki", has launched a collaborative package version of the same product, "Zombie Land Saga". The factory is said to be fully operational with sales 1.5 times higher than initially anticipated.
 * The "Drive-in Tori" is based in Imari, Saga, it appeared in Episode 5 of the series and after the broadcast of the episode its numbers of visitors increased like foam
 * On January 14, 2019, TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting will host a special program "Zombie Land Saga Holy Land Pilgrimage Tour-We Want to Live", featuring the locations where the series was made, etc. showed up at work. I wanna go! SAGA ~ ”was broadcast with Kaede Hondo, who played the role of Sakura, was in charge of the narration.
 * July 26, 2019: As of November 4, as a collaborative project between the city of Karatsu and JR Kyushu, Saga trains (Kiha 125 type 1 wagon) began operating on some of the Karatsu and Chikuhi lines in Saga prefecture with anime images. The original schedule was until October 31, but the service was expanded in line with the "Saga International Balloon Festa 2019".

Trivia

 * Some very big names from the Japanese voice-acting industry are involved in this series, like Mamoru Miyano as Kotaro and Kotono Mitsuishi voicing Tae.
 * Unlike most other anime, Zombie Land Saga’s official manga was released only four days after the anime began airing.
 * The Saga Prefectural Government in real life was involved with the production of the show, and saw the benefits of anime tourism as a result.
 * Episode 5 did this for Drive-in Tori, a real-life chicken restaurant with a real jingle that the girls perform. After the preview dropped, swaths of commenters came to the company's videos to point it out.
 * Franchouchou's mansion is actually based on a preserved building in Saga. When it was opened for the public on November 25, the management didn't expect to have 1000 visitors in just one day.
 * After the airing of the final episode of Season 1, the actual Arpino crew wrote an actual apology for structural damage after the major snowstorm.
 * In an interview with the head of CygamesPictures in the February 2019 issue of Megami Magazine, he said they'd been overwhelmingly pessimistic about the show's prospects before it aired, and weren't expecting it to become as popular as it did.
 * With that in mind, they had planned to reveal Yugiri and Tae’s backstories as part of the season finale, but since they would not have fit with season one’s story, they have decided against it and have instead delayed it for a future season.
 * After the airing of the first episode, the producers of the anime, Cygames and Avex Pictures, have gotten this reputation, presenting the anime's premise like a typical Zombie Apocalypse when it's actually a parody of the Idol Singer genre with a mix of Horror Comedy, with all of the footage suggesting a violent and gritty series coming from a five-second video Kotaro shows the girls about what would happen if they're caught. Suffice to say, it's actually worked.
 * Since Tae only growled during the early episodes, not saying a word, her voice actress remained a mystery during pre-air promotions, interviews, and even when the anime started airing. In the credits of the first two episodes, her actress is only credited as "????" and it wasn't until Episode 3 aired that it was finally revealed to be Kotono Mitsuishi.
 * When Mamoru Miyano introduces the voice actresses of the main cast in-character as Kotaro, there is a seventh slot marked only with question marks in place of Tae's voice actress. He does attempt to speak the name, but it comes off as a random mumble instead.
 * A group picture of the voice actresses and some staff members was posted to Twitter on October 4, 2018, but Mitsuishi's face was covered with an icon of her character's face.
 * There is a Mandela effect to the name of the series, many people call it "Zombieland Saga" instead of "Zombie Land Saga". This false memory is produced by the American movie "zombieland" and it is such a common mistake that even anime pages and critics websites make this misspelling.