Franchouchou

"“Each girl is a unique and shining star I’ve hand selected for the mission of saving the Saga prefecture. And with you, we’ve finally assembled the perfect group.”"

Franchouchou (フランシュシュ Furanshushu), formerly known as Death Musume then Green Face, is an idol group made up of seven legendary zombie girls resurrected by Kotaro Tatsumi.

His goal is to save the Saga Prefecture and revive the trend of local idols in the process, via the Zombie Land Saga Project.

Overview
Because they can be persecuted when their real identity is exposed, they are presented with their aliases in public. Because they do not all come from the same era and some are unaware of the contemporary, they tend to show a conservative and old-fashioned stance. Tatsumi's original idea is to "support everyone's feelings beyond the ages" as a reason to collect members from different ages together. At the beginning of the story, Sakura was the first to awaken her senses; then the others except for Tae Yamada, awakened her senses after the first presentation. The group's names were provisionally "Death Musume" and "Green Face" respectively in their first two performances; but at the decision of the members of the group it was changed by "Franchouchou".

For all of them it is possible to eat and drink normally like a living human being, but because they are zombies, their bodies have injuries, scratches and stitches wrapped in bandages that would reveal the cause of death of each one in addition to having red pupils. When their bodies come under too much pressure, they cause their joints to click and loosen, causing eyeballs to open, limbs, torso, and head detach from the body.

When performing as normal idols, they take on an appearance no different from normal people thanks to Kotaro's abilities, however, being makeup, it comes off easily with water or rain. In addition, in their current state, they are unharmed by serious and fatal injuries such as gunshots, lightning or traffic accidents.

The work that Tatsumi offers them always wears them down because they are from one day to the next and two of the seven maintain a relaxed attitude. They practice singing and dancing in a studio located in a western-style house.

Goal
After being revived, the girls become idols under the pretext of making Saga popular, however the group's true goal is to defeat the curse of Saga that also killed the girls when they were about to bring prosperity to Saga. By making Saga have something that cannot be forgotten and cannot die, the curse attempts are ineffective against them and thus they can be safe on their way to save Saga.

Real Life
The seiyu of the girls (Kaede Hondo, Asami Tano, Risa Taneda, Maki Kawase, Rika Kinugawa and Minami Tanaka) have made various presentations at various anime events in Japan, in which they stand out by wearing the clothes and things used by their alter egos in anime.

Tourism in Saga Prefecture actually saw a surge during the anime's run, with the Abandoned Mansion in real life attracting a thousand visitors in a single day, more than triple the number! expectations of the staff!.

The fact that it came out of nowhere to become one of the hottest anime of fall 2018. The week of vol. 1 Blu-ray released in Japan, it sold around 12,500 copies, which easily put it ahead of the other Fall 2018 anime Blu-ray released alongside SSSS.GRIDMAN in second place with approximately 8,000 copies.

During the second season, the success of the second season positively affects Saga and its economy, it is not only popular among the Saga population and among fans, Saga companies have collaborated with the anime and their products sell out quickly as soon as they are promoted in the anime.

Members

 * Sakura Minamoto (Zombie #1) - The first zombie to wake up among the group of girls. She was confused as to Kotaro's plan, but she has accepted it and is currently following Kotaro in hopes of becoming an idol and finally living her dream in the afterlife.
 * Saki Nikaido (Zombie #2) - A former member of the girls-only motorcycle gang located in Saga named Dorami. After accepting her death and resurrection, she decides that taking over Japan by becoming a famous idol group is not as bad as it seems, she becomes the leader of the group and with the help of Ai guides the group towards a new future.
 * Ai Mizuno (Zombie #3) - The former lead singer of Sakura's favorite pop idol group Iron Frill. At first, she was against Kotaro's plan and she wanted nothing to do with him, but since then she relented and decided that she is now willing to start her career from scratch. After the failure of EFS, Ai is more willing to have her revenge in the same stadium that she died 12 years ago.
 * Junko Konno (Zombie #4) - Similar to Ai, she was also a pop idol in her time and was against Kotaro's idea of reviving Saga. After her eyes were opened to the reality of her current situation, she finally gives her plan a chance and becomes an essential member of the group when Ai is away.
 * Yugiri (Zombie #5) - A former courtesan from the 19th century who has been resurrected in modern Japan. She has decided that being confused about everything would not help matters and has agreed to simply go with the flow of the group. She in the past she made a promise to Kiichi Momozaki that she would see the Saga that Kiichi would create.
 * Lily Hoshikawa (Zombie #6) - Formerly a child prodigy, she got into television for the sake of her father's happiness. Unlike Ai and Junko, she is not against Kotaro's idea and happily follows his plans in order to enjoy her immortal status and that she will never grow old.
 * Tae Yamada (Zombie #0) - The only legendary girl whose title and cause of death have not been revealed. Despite not having the ability to communicate properly, Kotaro and the others still invite her to her group activities with welcoming arms. In the past, she owned the girls' house and belonged to the Saga Sagako Busters group that fought against Saga's curse.

Allies/Companions

 * Kotaro Tatsumi - The energetic founder and producer of the group and Sakura's former high school classmate. He is also the one who provides the girls with a place to stay and acts as her escort. Another reason he started the project was to help Sakura live her dream of becoming an idol and making Saga popular by fighting the curse.
 * Romero - Kotaro's pet zombie poodle and the group's pet. He gets along quite well with the group and is constantly on the lookout for the girls' safety.
 * Jofuku - The bar master and the one who revived the girls in the first place for Kotaro's plan, knows that they were killed by the curse and calls the idol plan completely insane. But since he has no more time to save Saga, he reluctantly accepted this way of saving Saga.
 * Maimai Yuzuriha (Number #7; temporarily) -The eighth member and temporarily part of Franchouchou who asked to join after Kotaro indirectly knocks her unconscious and takes her to the mansion to revive her, she leaves the group days later because she realized that she does not belong because she still has a life ahead of her.

Supporters and Rivals

 * Skull and Bull - The first group of fans of the group who since then have attended all their concerts and defend Franchouchou from any danger.
 * Drive-In Tori president - can be seen attending their concerts following their successful commercial shoot for his business.
 * Takeo Go - Like the president of Drive-In Tori, he can be seen attending the group's concerts following the time Lily sings him a song they wrote for him, which gets him back to watching television without any regrets.
 * Dorami Biker Gang and Korosuke Biker Gang - The two rivaling biker gangs have started watching their performance following the biker gang feud Saki intervenes with to save Maria from risking her life over a bet.
 * Reiko Amabuki - After Reiko witnesses Saki's intervention with the two biker gangs, she joins them in becoming new additions to Franchouchou's growing fanbase.
 * Little Girl and her Mother - The little girl was the only one who stuck until the end of the girls' guerrilla performance in "Episode 3". She and her mother continue to support Franchouchou by attending their concerts from their debut episode onward.
 * Arata Ookoba - Although at first he was against Kotaro's plan to use the dead as entertainment, he realized that he was wrong and agreed to help Kotaro to do a benefit concert in Saga but still mistrusts him.

Temporary Supporters

 * Public relations manager of the Hisanaka Pharmaceutical Company - she was excited to have the girls help advertise her product. She became traumatized and had her memories of the event in episode 4 wiped due to shock from witnessing the actual identities of the idol group.

Notable Rivals

 * Iron Frill - As of "Episode 15", Iron Frill has been classified as Franchouchou's main rival group during their concert at Saga Arena, but after the event both groups are on hand and it was Iron Frill who assisted in the Ekimae Fudosan concert.
 * Light Oozora - Lily becomes a new rival to Oozora during her performance in the talent show, Japanese Got Performance in "Episode 17". At the end of the episode, the two become friends and Light supports Franchouchou at her revenge concert.

Outfits
Casual Outfits - T-shirts with each number that was used from the beginning of the series until the middle of it. Designed by Kotaro, No. 2 (Saki) and No. 5 (Yugiri) are written in Chinese numbers, No. 6 (Lily) is written in a flat pseudonym, No. 0 (Tae) is written in Katakana. There are other shirts designed by Kotaro for advertising and sales, but most of them look pretty ugly.

Idol Outfits - A modern idol outfit consisted of a red jacket with a plaid decoration, a skirt with the corresponding color for each girl with cotton inside, and knee-high boots. They were prepared by Kotaro when he participated in the big stage of Saga Rock in Episode 7.

Saga Jihen Outfits - The costume used in the MV for the new song Saga Jihen. Yugiri, the center, is a Kakai costume, and the six girls have clothes reminiscent of the first students of the Meiji era.

Living Space
Kotaro and the girls live in an old and abandoned mansion located outside of Karatsu, in the past this mansion was the headquarters of Saga Sagako Busters to fight Sagako, the mansion is quite spacious and although this old one can still be used without problems for your practicing. Unfortunately the house was destroyed by a storm but in the prologue of the last episode it is being rebuilt by the people of Saga in gratitude for the help of the girls.

Transport
Their only mode of transportation is Kotaro’s van, which transports the girls to their concerts and helps them bring their props and other equipment. The van is a 5th generation Toyota HiAce, which has been in production since 2004. The taillights, door handles, wheels, headlight location, and back mirror are modeled accurately. Even the curves of the windows were replicated. The light bus versions also have 1-2 seat configurations, as shown in the show.

Merchandise
Their first article of merchandise is revealed to be, according to Lily, “the ugliest T-shirt (she) has ever seen,” as shown in Episode 5. Despite making the girls wear it during the Gatalympics, Kotaro himself does not wear it during his turn in the mud biking round. Their next wave of merchandise is shown in Episode 6, which includes a custom-tailored face towel with a chibified Romero on it. It is also revealed that Kotaro designed and written all their merchandise and songs as he is responsible for their budget.

Among more merchandise shown in the second season, the album of "Franchouchou The Best" is shown to have been recorded at the end of 2019 in real life but in the anime it was recorded at the beginning of 2018. It is also shown that there are also Romero keychains that Ai she uses for her work.

Trivia

 * Their first temporary name, Death Musume, literally translates to Daughters of Death.
 * Whereas their second temporary name, Green Face, refers to the color of their skins without their human makeup.
 * In Episode 3, Sakura insists on a group name that starts with "Fran-, “ then adds Tae's sound effect while sneezing. "Fran" is likely a reference to Frankenstein, as the girls share physical characteristics with the movie's appearance of the iconic monster, especially Junko, who appears to have been stitched again.
 * Additionally, the “chouchou” part of their group name is pronounced the same as the Japanese onomatopoeia for the kissing sound.
 * The name is also a play on the Japanese phrase Furanshūshū (腐乱臭衆), meaning "Decomposing Smelly Group."
 * Tae's seiyuu was credited as "???" During the first two episodes, Kotono Mitsuishi was subsequently credited in Episode 3.
 * In addition, Kotono is the only one who does not appear during live performances.
 * Tae, at 29 years, would be the oldest amongst the girls in terms of their ages of death. In comparison, Lily would be the youngest, at 12 years.
 * Conversely, Yugiri would be the oldest in terms of the girls’ chronological ages, with Lily still being the youngest, at 19 years.
 * Franchouchou’s most performed song is “Mezame RETURNER,” with the song currently having four variants, with the first being “Electric Returner,” the second being Ai’s solo from “Episode 15”, the third being “Electric Returner (Type “R”)” from “Episode 16” and the fourth being Maimai’s cover from “Episode 19”.
 * Both of Franchouchou’s rivals so far all hail from Tokyo.
 * As of Episode 19, the group has a total of eight members. With Maimai Yuzuriha being their latest, albeit temporary, addition who went by Number #7.
 * Throughout the series, we are given a few songs that focus on particular characters. Some characters like Saki and Ai get their songs based on the type of music they enjoy the most (Saki favors the punk-rock genre; Ai is part of a J-Pop idol band). However, Lily and Yugiri's own songs have two genres that are more like who they were, rather than their own favorable music genres.
 * Lily's song is performed in the style of a Broadway-style ballad number (like the song "Tomorrow" from the Annie musical) as it fits who Lily was as a child prodigy actress, working on many hit dramas before she passed away. Naturally, her connections to her work on drama shows and the way she performs as an idol shows that her genre of choice is "show-tunes" rather than anything else.
 * Yugiri's song begins with an intro that matches the traditional folk music of 19th century Japan, which would fit Yugiri, but follows the main genre of her choice: jazz. While Yugiri died shortly before jazz was invented, she particularly prefers this genre as she fits into her original lifestyle of being an adult artist (i.e. an Oiran) and how the human life of she was scandalous. Thus, this song works in tandem with Yugiri's upbeat, dark, and secretive personality.