Ai Mizuno

Ai Mizuno (水野 愛 Mizuno Ai) was a popular idol in the early 2000s from the idol group called Iron Frill who died in 2008 when she was struck by lightning during a concert and a member of the idol group Franchouchou.

She is titled as the Legendary Heisei Idol (伝説の平成アイドル, Densetsu no Heisei aidoru)

Ai Mizuno
Iron Frill had just started to take off when Ai died, so those who remember her for something other than her death largely remember her as a rising star who could have triumphed had she lived.

At the beginning of the story, she is highly critical of the Zombie Land Saga Project, which she feels is doomed the moment she finds out. She begins to see promise in her fellow zombies after a few episodes, but is still the first to remind them how hard they will have to work to achieve it, showing that she is more realistic than cynical, and given the superficiality with which Kotaro pitched his idea, their skepticism is not completely unwarranted.

After Police A almost shoots her, she realizes she really has nowhere to go and resigns herself to staying at the mansion, feeling too discouraged to act again. She begins to recover after she and Junko have to save her guerilla performance after Sakura messed up some lyrics, as she considers starting her career over with Sakura and company.

Throughout the entire series, Ai is notably the team member who is least amused by Kotaro's antics, and doesn't share a single moment of camaraderie. That said, she doesn't seem to find her PR method invalid either, and talks about her merit while filming the Drive-In Tori commercial.

Sakura has lost most of her memory in her life, and forgets that she once yearned to be like Ai and (though she didn't strictly debut) she was the catalyst to become an idol, but now she's only familiar with her face

She tried to escape to Tokyo without success after meeting Police Officer A.

Human appearance
Ai has short, dark, slate blue hair with two yellow flower clips. Her bangs are bunched up, and she has light red eyes. Ai sports a rather very slim and slender figure which is proportionally identical to those of Junko Konno, with only slight differences in sheer numbers.

Her casual outfit consists of an idol-style school outfit: a navy blue jacket over a pale yellow top with a blue plaid skirt and bow. She also wears dark gray socks and light brown school shoes.

Zombie appearance
Like the other zombies, its skin is grayish-blue and most of its body is covered with bandages, somewhat like a mummy.

Ai's bandages cover her almost completely, except for her eyes. Since she died from being struck by lightning that charred her corpse, the bandages are likely not only to help her stay together, but also to cover the massive burns all over her body.

Idol appearance
As an idol, Ai wears a light blue shirt with a "3" written on it, wears a turquoise skirt, and has more flowers in her hair.

Character concept
It was popular at the time of design, so a "short" hairstyle was wanted to be incorporated. The feeling of "legendary idol" was expressed by the blooming flowers on her head. When the design was presented they said, "What is that?" but they were happy to make use of a strange addition to the design.

Personality
When she was alive, Ai displayed a cheerful and determined personality, but after turning into a Zombie, she became quite skeptical and suspicious. As she gradually begins to warm up to her group, she begins to act like herself before her untimely death. She has shown a supportive side by helping the other members with their idol experience. Because of how she died, she is afraid of lightning.

She is the most responsible so far for the girls' training exercises, teaching newcomers the basics of the business, and is the one who speaks the most about the way of thinking with which they should approach their shared goal. When a member is in trouble or has a particularly important role to play in a new song, she trains them directly by way of example and takes it upon herself to review the songs as a whole when the whole band is in trouble. Also, while she always strives to be constructive and is generally no less sincere than the rest of the group, she firmly believes that they will get nowhere "just playing with friends all the time."

Ai trains quite a bit in rehearsals, and is paired on songs with Junko, for her incredible talent in singing, dancing, and choreography, as well as possessing such a skill for musical arrangements that at one point she was able to identify and alter properly the harmony of a song to avoid being continually confused by Tae.

The hot and cold sides of Ai's demeanor are dictated in large part by her perception of the other girls' work ethic, rather than a simple emotional tease like many classic tsunderers. She is very kind and supportive of each of the girls under any ordinary circumstance, but although she never resorts to violence unless she is directly attacked (as by Kotaro in Episode 5), she will become almost militantly severe in her expression if she feels that someone is not well. take your gang duty seriously or conscientiously. This is most prominently shown in her confrontation with Junko in Episode 6 and, to a lesser extent, in her lectures to Sakura in Episodes 10 and 12.

Ironically, he spends the first few episodes refusing to work, but once he starts, his work ethic becomes very clear. She is almost always the first to address practical concerns about her careers, she becomes absolutely furious when she feels Junko is intentionally letting the team down, and when her arms and legs break after a prolonged session of choreography practice and claims this it's not unusual for her.

Her great fear
Contrary to her clear personality, she is particularly scared of thunder, which is the cause of her death, and was afraid of the camera flash and the sound of thunder. She received a second shock during the Saga Rock live performance (and this time it was so big that the stage was destroyed and all the girls were hit by it), but the performance continued because she realized that as a zombie she cannot affect now.

However, this did not mean that she did not have trauma yet, but it turned out that the poker Sakura nailed in the first episode is now a new source of trauma for her.

At that time, her face was so scared that her gums could be seen and the wrinkles on her face were highlighted, it is said that as a former idol she had some kind of martial arts training demonstrated when she hit Kotaro with the baguette.

Junko and Sakura were shot by Police Officer A in the second episode, so when Police Officer A appeared at the Gatalympics in Episode 5, her face showed fear and concern.

Sakura Minamoto
Sakura did not remember her at all, but if she was familiar, although at first they did not get along due to her mistrust, little by little they become closer, establishing a friendship, after she recovered her memories it is revealed that she was her biggest fan in life and was the main goal of his new dream until truck-san

Saki Nikaido
At first they are not so connected but after she tells her the cause of her death there is a deeper connection with Saki, to the point where she asks if it is okay to train so much

Junko Konno
In episode 3 she refuses to go to the guerrilla concert because she thinks it will not work but when Sakura forgot the lyrics, she goes in to help Junko, in episode 6 she had an ideological war with Junko to prove her point that idols they must not be perfect all the time

Kotaro Tatsumi
Distrusting him and his project because she thinks it will not work because the others have no experience but little by little she seems to adapt.

Etymology

 * Ai (愛) means love in Japanese.
 * Mizuno is a residential name that means "field of water", from a town so named in Owari (now part of Aichi prefecture). The surname is found mainly along the east coast and on the island of Okinawa.

Trivia

 * Ai was only 16 years old at the time of her death.
 * Ai died in 2008, only 4 months after Sakura Minamoto was struck and killed by a truck.
 * Ai has better kinetic vision and hearing than the other girls in the group.
 * Ai has same cup size and body type as Junko Konno, together having one of most slimmest figures in group.
 * She died in the stadium of Tosu, Tosu city

Gallery
Image gallery


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