Sagako

"Sagako: Symbol of the end of Saga"

- Anna to Higashino, about the curse

Sagako (サガコ Sagako) are malevolent curses that appear during the Sagako Outbreak in the 1980s', an event covered in the Gaiden: The First Zombie manga.

They made their debut in the spin-off manga, Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie, and are currently manga-only characters. Although, their manifestations are also hinted at throughout the anime, albeit going unnoticed.

Appearance
Sagako's appearance can vary depending on who is attacking first, a Sagako cursing a shop camouflages itself with the environment so as not to be easily identified by Saga's inhabitants, or uses existing things to camouflage itself with the naked eye.

One thing is clear, if some prosperous place suddenly starts to decline, a Sagako is hidden somewhere. Rather than causing the problems they are associated with, the Sagako take the forms they do as a reflection of underlying social problems.

Defeating a particular Sagako might provide immediate relief to an issue, but it doesn't address the underlying issue that caused Sagako to manifest in that form to begin with, so to effectively defeat a Sagako it must purify itself via onions.

The Sagako can vary in shape and size depending on the power of each one, from time to time an event happens in which several Sagakos merge to form a type of Sagako Kaiju that can be several meters tall.

Its non-physical manifestations are difficult to see, but most are natural disasters that affect hundreds of people or bad luck which demotivates the people of Saga to continue with their dreams. Curses can be the size of entire areas like typhoons or disease, and although they are not as powerful in this way, they can cause many deaths if not intervened in time.

Origins
The Sagakos according to the words of Magatsuhi, are castaway children born from the Gods of Saga and whose source of power is human hatred, their goal, is to make Saga disappear.

The first Sagako of the modern era of Saga was born in the late '60s as a result of a baby discovered by Tae's parents, a baby who had strange properties and they were in charge of raising it.

When it was finally born, it murdered Tae's parents and multiple people at the same time, leaving Tae traumatized. The huge Sagako subsequently disappeared and appeared when Magatsuhi regained its former power.

The exact origins of these creatures are still uncertain, but several clues have been given as to their origin and how they manifest in the human world. These curses are not directly intended to cause harm to humans and instead serve a much greater purpose, the Sagakos take the form of living things around their area of manifestation, because they come to earth for a specific purpose, a purpose that Yuko is willing to know through the sealing that she does, which purifies the souls of these Sagakos and makes them lose their power.

Manifestation
During 1989, Saga's curse materializes in the physical forms of Sagako that manipulate and terrorize the residents of Saga. Although all Sagako are antagonistic to The Prosperity of SAGA, the exact manifestation of each individual curse varies in appearance and method depending on where they manifest. As such, the Saga Sagako Busters individually track, fight, and purify Sagako. The purification process is done by sealing the sagako inside an onion grown on the Hyodo family farm. When a Sagako's container is destroyed by means other than onions, the souls are not purified and instead return stronger.

Although they are usually imperceptible to the untrained eye, they can cause great damage if they manifest themselves physically to the point of murdering important people who bring prosperity to Saga. Their non-physical form continues to be the same or more lethal than their physical form, during their non-material existence they have caused wars, diseases and natural disasters in the history of Saga that are not attributed to something supernatural to the public eye. Saga's war that nearly caused Jofuku's death was due to one of these curses that swayed people's minds and caused Saga to disappear for several years.

If many Sagakos gather in one place and receive a powerful enough energy source, this group will merge into an advanced form of the individual Sagakos that compose it, in this form they can be controlled by Magatsuhi as if they were an extension of his own body.

Sealed
Using onions grown with love, Sagako's curses are properly sealed by making them lose their power through the purification of the Misogi ritual. By purifying them they become harmless and according to Yuko Hyodo, it would be possible to communicate with them to learn more about the world they come from and stop the outbreak at its root.

Inappropriate Sealing
Using other means to seal the Sagako may be a temporary solution, but in the long run it will end up causing much more damage to the prefecture. If a Sagako is killed, its container as a body will be destroyed, but its soul will not be purified and upon rebuilding, the power of the curse accumulates and strengthens. That is why Higashino's savage actions caused great damage to Saga and Jofuku, by killing several egg-shaped Sagakos in a matter of several days, he caused these curses to multiply absurdly and cause even more damage than a single one would.

Abilities

 * Element Manipulation - The Sagakos are able to control the elements in the places where they appeared and use them both in defense and attack.
 * Resistance - More specifically to conventional low caliber ammunition.
 * Limb Extension - Limbs can be extended at will but this depends on the type of Sagako.
 * Reality manipulation - It also depends on the location, but they are able to distort reality to their liking.
 * Emotional manipulation - They are also able to manipulate people's emotions and thoughts so that they fall under their control.


 * Mind Control - Sagako can control people directly if they come within a certain radius where they can be easily affected.
 * Possession - It has been implied that they can possess the people of Saga if they reach a certain level of power.
 * Bad Luck - When hidden in plain sight they can generate bad luck events at different levels to demotivate those trying to bring glory to Saga. In fact, it is a Sagako who is responsible for Sakura Minamoto's miserable life by constantly giving her bad luck until she discourages her and finally kills her with a truck.
 * Multiplication - An indirect consequence of not sealing a Sagako properly, these curses are not purified and instead become stronger or multiply causing more damage.
 * Fusion - One of the direct consequences of multiplication is when a group of Sagakos from the same group are given a sudden burst of energy, which fuses their bodies into one enormously sized creature.

Weaknesses

 * Onions from the Hyodo Farm - Grown with the love of their landowners, the onions from this farm contain within them part of the power of Saga's prosperity and along with this power they can also eradicate the curses that affect Saga's population.
 * Firearms - In physical form they are vulnerable to common attacks and have been shown to be killed if shot with a pistol. But this is only a temporary weakness and using firearms is a bad idea.
 * Perimeter - A weakness that is a product of being a descendant of Saga's power. As the curse is confined only to the land of Saga, all the entities that live on its borders will remain intact and active as long as they do not cross an invisible border that separates Saga from other prefectures. If an entity, such as a Sagako, crosses the border, it will immediately explode into a rotten black mass.

Etymology

 * The name Sagako comes from the union of the words Saga (サガ) and Child (コ). Which can be translated as: "Children of Saga".

Trivia

 * In general, the Sagako are neither good nor bad; they have a somewhat unique existence based on the "Kami" in Japanese culture an intangible spirit in nature. Without that kind of cultural awareness, it makes this manga look more like Ghostbusters than it is.
 * Although, they are neither good nor bad according to this perspective, since they are curses from Saga's curse, their task is dictated by this superior force and therefore they must prevent Saga from being recognized.
 * The Ureshino hotel had a Sagako infestation and it would explain why the pharmacist lady came out so scared, the legends of beings that roamed the place inflicted greater fear on the poor lady.
 * The Hyodo farm has the power to seal and defeat the Sagako through a power granted by Saga's prosperity.
 * In the first opening of the anime, "Adabana Necromancy", and during one of the chapters of the original manga, a giant monster appears, possibly the Sagako that tormented Sakura in life.
 * Though, before the release of the Gaiden manga, it was only ever portrayed as a metaphorical monster.
 * While the end of the second season makes it seem like aliens are invading the planet, the answer is simpler. Since Franchouchou made Saga popular and revitalized the prefecture after the flood, both the prosperity and the curse (two sides of the same coin) gained enough power to re-spawn supernatural events in Saga and thus, a Sagako manifested as a giant UFO destroying a city.
 * Without being aware of it, Tae's parents raised the father of the Sagako. Who, in its early stage, resembled a baby with strange properties. This is why Tae is so vindictive towards these creatures.
 * It is revealed in the spin-off manga that if a Sagako were to be taken outside of the Saga Prefecture's borders, it will explode, resulting to its demise.
 * Similarly, this is also hinted to be the case for Zombies in Kotaro Tatsumi's dialogue in “The Acoustic SAGA of Love and Youth” about rejecting work for Ai Mizuno that involves going outside of Saga.
 * Yuko Hyodo, alongside, Tae Yamada, are the only humans to have been fused with Sagako.
 * In her case, she was unintentionally fused with the Pine Sagako after she sealed it away in an onion whilst sacrificing her own body. After being released from the onion, she is revealed to have absorbed the antlers of the Pine Sagako.
 * Whereas Tae willingly fused with Magatsuhi after reaching an understanding, which also led to both her and the Sagako's demise.

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