Kotaro Tatsumi/History

Kotaro Tatsumi is the energetic producer of the idol group Franchouchou. He was the one who resurrected girls from different eras as zombies to become part of his group of idols.

Early life
There is but little history about Kotaro, except at one point he was classmates with Sakura and the rest remains a mystery. The only info known is that Kotaro is versed as an idol producer with an eccentric demeanor.

Currently, his goal in mind is to "save Saga" by forming a group of zombie idols. He started by somehow bringing various girls back to life as zombies: Saki Nikaido of the Kyushu region, Heisei idol Ai Mizuno, Showa idol Junko Konno, Meiji courtesan Yugiri, child prodigy Lily Hoshikawa, and the "legendary" Tae Yamada.

Season 1
After Sakura died, Kotaro revived her as a zombie and took her in as part of his "zombie idol" project. After forming his idol group, he sent the girls into various events with little regard to dignity in order to increase their public figures. Though he may come across as farfetched and reckless, his ideas allowed him to take up more opportunities with more fittingly idol activities.

Soon after the girls finally hit stardom, he began showing more professionalism and started engaging in formal business opportunities to maintain the girl's careers. Over the course of management, he gave girls useful advice and did all in his power to maintain their feelings by complying to many of their needs.

Especially at the beginning of the story, it is usually by force, and it always tells them where and what to do on the day of the event, just before the event, it makes them practice dancing and singing for just one day, and still Sleep, normal human beings could not, but zombies could. He had a too hasty and improvised schedule in the first chapters because it seems that he is not planning to make a first concert at Geils' house, Solo Sakura just woke up and nothing is organized, but according to the purpose of the event It seems that they are preparing songs death metal style and preparing accordingly.

In fact, he respects girls' autonomy after they feel comfortable as idols. Even when a problem arises in Franchouchou, members tend to attach importance to "choosing of their own free will and winning with their own power." In episodes 6 to 7, which is an intermediate stage, he persuaded Junko, who was concerned about the disparity between the Showa era and the image of current idols, to "pass the idol character Showa."

Even in the first 10 episodes, he is trying to indirectly guide them by giving them special training in snowy mountains, reflecting the current plot situation of Sakura. It seems that direct intervention by yourself to solve the problem is positioned as the last resort after waiting until the last minute. It seems like he usually uses brute force, but he actually cares about the limbs.

It doesn't say anything about why he's trying to save Saga and why he chose the idol business as a means to do so.

He says "Save Saga!", but he was not sure if he was a citizen of the saga (however, he also speaks in the Karatsu dialect, indicating that he is from that city).

Perhaps due to confidentiality, he has almost no colleagues. In other words, he is the only person carrying out "Project Zombie Land Saga." Therefore, organizing Franchouchou's activities, such as gathering people and locating places, sales that receive orders, and advertising what he plans and sells goods and financial management of other projects.

It is not known if the bartender who knows about the project helps him in any way, but presumably he is the one who indicates the optimal places to go. He looked like he was super human because of that, but in the manga version, it is seen that he was sick due to exhaustion and stress due to hard work, which caused an upset stomach.
 * Basically, Kotaro is in charge of doing everything related to idols and the progress of events all by himself.

In the present day, Kotaro resurrected six girls from different eras as zombies. After one of the zombies ran away from his mansion and was shot by a police officer, he rescued her by hitting the policeman with a shovel.

Kotaro explained to Sakura that she and the other girls are currently zombies, and are now part of his idol group in hope of resurrecting the regional idol trend as well as saving the Saga prefecture.

He booked the girls' first performance in a death metal festival, stating that this is the only show he can get them in.

Episode 1
In the present day, Kotaro resurrected six girls from different eras as zombies. After one of the zombies ran away from his mansion and was shot by a police officer, he rescued her by hitting the policeman with a shovel.

Kotaro explained to Sakura that she and the other girls are currently zombies, and are now part of his idol group in hope of resurrecting the regional idol trend as well as saving the Saga prefecture.

He booked the girls' first performance in a death metal festival, stating that this is the only show he can get them in.

Episode 2
Kotaro informs the girls that they will be performing at Saga castle. Displeased with their situation, Ai and Junko attempt to leave in secret, a worried Sakura follows after them. After a near miss with a trigger happy policeman and a group of rappers, it was revealed that Kotaro was watching from the shadows the whole time.

During the performance at Saga castle, things get heated between Sakura and Saki accumulating into a rap battle with Kotaro providing the music by beat boxing.

Episode 3
Kotaro made plans for a live flash mob performance in front of Katasu Station.

After the performance was over, he revealed his terrible driving skills after attempting to turn around in a rush and somehow ending up on the pavement.

Episode 4
With their budget running out, Kotaro sends the girls to perform at a hot spring resort in Ureshino in an attempt to earn a sponsorship deal with a pharmaceutical company.

Despite saying he was going to sight see whilst they practiced (much to their chagrin), it was revealed that he was actually building relations with the pharmaceutical representative at the time.

Episode 5
Although upset the girls ruined his paid sponsor opportunity for them, Kotaro apathetically decides to increase the girls' publicity despite their recent setback. They give them a commercial acting job at Drive-in Tori. Then he sets the girls to compete in the Gatalympics while wearing their group T-shirts—Although he never realized the girls must stay muddy to cover their zombie identities. Regardless, the games went on normally but hardly any publicity to their group.

Episode 6
It is revealed by Kotaro that the girls will be performing at the Saga Rock Festival and that Junko and Ai will be performing a duet, causing the group to feel uneasy.

Episode 7
Junko refuses to practice and locks herself way in a room in the mansion, barricading the door. Kotaro destroys the barricade stating "Zombies belong on the other side of the barricade!" but after realizing he'd accidentally knocked out Junko he quickly settles down.

He explains to Junko that she does not need to follow the modern standards of the idol industry and that she can be her own type of idol, convincing her to rejoin the group.

Episode 8
After finding out that Lily Hoshikawa was born a male, the girls confront Kotaro about it who reveals that he knew all along and didn't see why it was an issue. After rebuking the girls, he throws them out of his office and slams the door.

Episode 9
Kotaro warns Saki about interfering with other people's lives after she had died.

He later turns up at the cliff to pick Saki up after she won the chicken race.

Episode 11
Kotaro is seen talking to a someone at a bar pub where he and the barman talked about the Zombie Land Saga Project. The barman warns him not to have any funny ideas with Yūgiri. It can be theorized the barman is a zombie himself, judging by how he discusses owing Yugiri "a hell of a lot" and the focus on him eating dried squid, one of the first things Kotaro introduces to the idols.

He saves Sakura again from the policeman that shot her and listens to her complaints on how no matter what she does, she always ends up failing. Even after Sakura Minamoto regained her memories and refused to perform, Kotaro refused to give up on her and rebuffs that he has what it takes.

Episode 12
It is revealed that Kotaro used to be Sakura's classmate under the name of Inui, where Sakura couldn't recognize him as he got older and it is possible that "Kotaro Tatsumi" is an alias he used in the entertainment industry.



Kotaro and Sakura
It is confirmed in the final episode that Kotaro was actually called inui and that he met Sakura in high school, possibly they were classmates for many years and he fell in love with Sakura during this time.
 * It is also possible that he was also unlucky and took Sakura as an example to follow.

Confirmed
Kotaro was in love with Sakura

Kotaro seems to be well informed of the other idols and women who might have been idols if the concept had existed in their time. He looks relatively young, so it could have been a partner for Sakura. It is not far off to say that he could have watched a potential idol if Sakura had done something before her accident to start her career. Alternatively, he might have learned of his idol aspiration at his monument. This could also explain her Tsundere-like tendencies towards Sakura, with her conflicting feelings that she was never able to become an idol, and why he calls all the other girls legendary while making a point that Sakura is not. Kotaro was Sakura's classmate when she was alive.
 * Hinted at during the brief flashback in Episode 12.

First, Sakura's profile says that she died ten years ago, at the age of 17. If he hadn't died back then, he would have been 27 years old today, which seems like a good setting for Kotaro's apparent age. However, what really ties this theory together is Yugiri's comment that Kotaro seems to be "especially nice to Sakura". While this may seem strange at first, it makes sense considering that it could have been his schoolmate. His outbursts directed at her are simply the result of him being used to her being slow to the point, or simply the frustration of remembering what Sakura really was like compared to the idealized memory she would have accumulated in the years after her death. Interestingly, it would also explain why he chose to put her on the team: "Alright, I almost have my entire zombie-idol group, I just need one more member. But who? I know! That friend of mine who got run over me ten years ago ! I remember that she wanted to be an idol, so I might as well help her make her dream come true. I AM SO GENIUS!
 * Confirmed in Episode 12

To the fret
Kotaro is the brother of one of the girls, possibly Sakura or Ai. Kotaro was the one in the truck that hit Sakura.
 * Or possibly even Tae, which could explain why his legend was not explained to the public from the start.
 * He was very close to his sister, but when she died, Kotaro vows to make his sister's dream of becoming an idol come true.
 * There are four pairs of shoes at the entrance to Sakura's house in Episode 1: his, business shoes (dad), women's sandals (mom), and sneakers (brother?).
 * If it's Sakura, it would also explain why he often highlights her when he criticizes the group - the brothers just can't help but mess with each other after all.
 * Sakura didn't recognize him after retrieving her memories.

Either for two reasons:
 * He rammed her by accident and the reason he revived her was because he feels guilty for ending his life. He is trying to fulfill his dream of being an idol as a way to apologize for the accident ...
 * Or he did it deliberately to acquire a new member for his undead idol group project.
 * This seems unlikely, as the idol group project didn't start until ten years after Sakura's death. Unless Kotaro has been working on this for a very long time ...
 * We actually see Sakura being hit by the same truck again at the end of Episode 10, and the driver is clearly not Kotaro.
 * If you look closely at the two trucks, you will notice that they have different plates. And even if it was the same truck, it's been 10 years since Sakura was hit. It is not unreasonable to assume that the truck may have had a different driver during that time.

Future speculations
Kotaro's plan involves a discreet ship for Sakura and Ai.
 * During the brief flashback hinting at his high school connection to Sakura, it seems like we're shown dropping an Iron Frill CD in front of Sakura with a sad face that Sakura doesn't seem to notice; A scene that literally resembles every anime scene of a character who discovers her love interest is in someone else. We know that the only person who stayed on Sakura's mind at all after losing all other memory I have had is Ai Mizuno, the Iron frill center that Sakura has clearly stated that she finds to have a "dazzling smile". I recklessly suggest that in that scene, "Inui" discovered that Sakura had gone crazy for Ai and sometime thereafter she began to plan her plan, choosing to sacrifice her feelings for her for to make their own feelings towards Ai possible.