Sakura Minamoto

Sakura Minamoto (源 さくら,) is the main protagonist of Zombieland Saga. Before becoming a zombie she was an ordinary girl who faced various misfortunes. She died in 2008 getting hit by a pickup truck on her way to an idol audition. She's also a member and the center of the idol group Franchouchou and is known as Number 1 (1号).

Appearance
Sakura has straight, dark rose-pink hair with a section of it brought up with a blue and pink bow and some hanging over her shoulders, her bangs are brushed to the left side, and blue eyes. Like the other zombies, she has grayish-blue skin, red eyes and a large scar across her face.

In her casual human form, Sakura still sports what would have been her school uniform: a navy-blue and white dress, white socks, and brown school-shoes. As an Idol, she wears a pale pink top with "1" written on it, along with two hearts. Sakura also wears a hot pink skirt with white frills.

Personality
Sakura is shown to be an energetic girl when she was still alive. However, that spirit seemed to turn into confusion, worry, and slight fear after she regains her consciousness as a zombie. However, she becomes very passionate whenever she is singing as an Idol.

When she regains her memories of her life but loses her memories of her Zombification, Sakura becomes very defeatist and detached due to the failures she kept facing in life no matter how hard she tried. After she regained all of her memories and with the encouragement from her friends she regains her confidence and love of performing.

== Curiosities<!--

Episode 1
After getting hit by a pickup truck and dying, Sakura wakes up 10 years later in a mysterious mansion. While exploring a little bit she is attacked by a zombie. When she flees into another room, several other zombies surround her. But she eventually escapes the mansion. While outside in the pouring rain, she finds out that she is in Saga, and soon comes into contact with a policeman. When he inspects her, the policeman reels back in shock and points a gun at Sakura. Confused, she turns around and sees herself in the traffic mirror, and discovers that she's a zombie.

The policeman shoots her through the chest and Sakura collapses. She then sees the policeman knocked out with a shovel and Sakura passes out. When she comes to, Kōtarō Tatsumi approaches to comfort her and introduces himself in an eccentric manner. He wants Sakura to become an idol to save Saga Prefecture, along with the other six zombie girls. He then immediately takes Sakura and the girls to their first performance at a metal concert club, to try and give the girls 'stimulation' to wake them up.

During their first performance, Sakura has her doubts about Kōtarō's choice of venue and as she is the only sane zombie as of the time, and has no idol training. Despite this, the performance was a success with only headbanging and screaming. During said performance, Sakura regained bits of her memories.

The next day most of the other girls have regained their sanity, Sakura proceeds to greet all of them with a good morning.

Episode 2
Sakura still remains proactive helping with Kōtarō Tatsumi's goal, but she notices that the rest of the girls -- most who've regained their senses -- do nothing. She then has to settle coping with their various personalities, including obliviousness, rebelliousness, and reluctance. But one personal goal that Sakura had in mind, is to recover the memories that she lost after she had died.

Sakura and the girls eventually get a real performance opportunity at Saga castle. During said performance, Tae Yamada instinctively goes after a dried squid in the audience, but Sakura tries to stop her. She accidentally knocks off Tae's head and almost compromised the girls' human disguises. As Sakura tries to maintain their façade, Saki Nikaidō repeatedly pushes Sakura aside and plays around with Tae's head in front of the audience. Sakura then loses her cool and slaps Tae's head away from Saki, then verbally fights with Saki in a rap battle manner where she ultimately triumphs. Her hip-hop in-fighting with Saki impresses the audience and Saki respects Sakura for having the guts to stand up against her.

Episode 4
Taken to a hot springs where Kōtarō Tatsumi will be negotiating for additional budget, Sakura decided to follow instructions to maintain their disguises despite having the opportunity to visit a proper public bath. The girls then go sightseeing around the city where they take the opportunity to know more about each other.

After their sponsored performance, Sakura ends up being invited by Saki Nikaidō to sneak into the public bath against Kōtarō's instructions, to her worry. Junko Konno ends up hearing their conversation and she expresses interested to join them, to Sakura's dismay. So after they take the time to renew in warm bathwater, the girls encounter their sponsored executive, where Sakura loses her head in front of her and the girls end up being discovered in their zombie identities, leaving the executive terrified.

Sakura is left mortally embarrassed having to see their incident reported on the news, believing it to be their fault.

Episode 6
Sakura tries to help Junko Konno make up with Ai Mizuno by comforting her at the beach

Episode 7
Sakura is seen trying to practice with everyone but expressed worry on how Junko isn't participating. Before they were about to leave for their first concert performance, Sakura mention a sense of deja vu when Kotaro accidentally hits Junko with his car after Junko suddenly attempts to stop them so she can join them. Sakura immediately express her joy when Junko decides to join them. During their concert where it started to rain, she showed concern when Ai started to quiver over the sound of thunder. After Junko starts supporting Ai, Sakura along with everyone else started to do a better performance. Even when lighting struck them, they came out unharmed and were able to end their performance brilliantly. Their marvelous result brought Sakura tears of joy as Junko and Ai comfort her.

Episode 10
After Franchouchou became scheduled to hold a concert at local performance venue Arpino, Sakura came to believe it might help her to regain her memories. However, this causes her to overwork herself and messes up her rhythm with her teammates. Noticing this, Kōtarō Tatsumi sends them on survival training in the mountains to improve their teamwork, but it instead only caused Sakura to become irritated as her teammates put survival over the performance (even though the former was clearly the more pressing issue).

Upon returning from the mountains, Sakura's rhythm with her teammates was even worse, which she believed to be because the others were not trying hard enough. However, after observing the others pull off the performance flawlessly without her, she realizes she was the one at fault and apologizes.

With just a week left before the concert, Sakura goes out jogging when she is suddenly hit by a truck again. This causes her to finally regain her memories from when she was alive, while in turn losing her memories of being a zombie.

Episode 11
After getting hit by a truck again, Sakura is taken inside where she wakes up late at night and panics when Tae jumps at her. Similar to the first episode, she becomes scared and runs around the building where she soon runs into other zombie idols who were sleeping and accidentally wakes them up. Upon their awakening, Sakura attempts to defend herself, but then collapses and becomes depressed, saying how everything she does is pointless and loses consciousness when Tae pounces on her.

When the others realize that Sakura has her old memories back but lost her memories as a zombie, Sakura is left alone with Ai who then explains everything to Sakura when she wakes up. While shocked at these revelations, and being told of their upcoming performances at Arpino, Sakura insists that they practice and perform without her. Sakura would then lock herself up in a separate room from everyone else. Worried about her, the zombies girls individually start attempt to cheer her up. After Saki, Junko, and Lily failed to cheer her up, Sakura ends up running away before Yugiri attempts to cheer her up.

As Sakura walks aimlessly away, she looks back at all the various misfortunes that constantly happen to her where no matter what or how hard she tries, it always ends terribly. Her past then reveals that she started to change after seeing Ai Mizuno saying on TV that failures can help someone become their best selves. Sakura's flashback ends where she meets the Policeman A again at the park as she sits on a swing. Despite Policeman A once again panicking over Sakura's zombie appearance, Sakura didn't show any resistance. Kotaro saves her again, saying that this isn't where she belongs.

Kotaro takes her to a viewing place where they discuss her issues and she reveals more of her past to him. Sakura reveals how she became a fan of Ai Mizuno and attended one of her concerts in Arpino where the moment inspired her to become strong and decided to give herself one more chance at trying to do something. This leads to the events at the beginning of the first episode where Sakura decided to attend an idol audition but is then killed after getting hit by the truck. Sakura continues her conversation with Kotaro on how upon learning her tragedy made her believe that she's truly hopeless. Sakura questions him why she is brought back as a zombie to become an idol to save Saga despite her horrible luck and declares how everyone should continue without her. Just when Sakura thought Kotaro gave up on her, he immediately rebuffs all her problems, claiming that he will never give up on her which baffles her.

Episode 12
After Kotaro shout at how he never intends to give up on her, Sakura returns to the other zombies. However, she continues to isolate herself from others as they continue to practice for the upcoming Arpino event. Tae attempts to reach out to Sakura by imitating the Drive In Tori commericial she did with everyone but Sakura brushes it off. As Sakura watch the other zombies practice, she begins realize her familiarity with them. When doing a handshaking event, Sakura ponders and ridicules herself on what she was thinking before regaining her original memories. She was taken back when two fangirls complimented her and looked forward to her performance in Arpino. Despite all the supports, Sakura continues to be cynical as she recalls how every time she had her hopes up, misfortune would then fall on her.

The next day, Tae once again tries to interact with Sakura by showing her news of them doing the Saga Rock event together but Sakura swats away the news magazine while crying she didn't know or care about it. Later at night, Sakura locks herself up while Tae once again tries to contact her. Sakura is then dragged to the practice room by Tae who snapped after being ignored by Sakura many times. Sakura questions Tae's actions until everyone else comes into the room and realizes Tae is trying to show what Sakura meant to her and everyone else. Despite this, she simply replies how idiotic it was for them to be so worked up on something she doesn't even remember and planned to excuse herself. Yugiri slaps Sakura on how she should stop running away and that she has a responsibility to be with through the end. It was from there that everyone's words started to reach Sakura as and when Sakura warned them how their performance will most likely end terribly, they replied they stay with her no matter the results. Sakura finally complied and decided to practiced with everyone again.

During practice, despite Sakura continuing to doubt herself everyone still persist and went as pushing their own luck, surprising her. --> ==
 * The name Sakura means "cherry blossom" (さくら).
 * Sakura's surname Minamoto  (源) means "source, origin".
 * Sakura's surname (Minamoto) is also one of the three most prominent clans in Japanese history. It is listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.
 * According to Sakura's horoscope, she is an Aries.
 * Sakura's forehead scar was caused by her apparent cause of death, a head concussion.
 * This is also the reason why she had an amnesia of her past memories.
 * Sakura died five days after her seventeenth birthday.
 * Sakura is the only member of Franchouchou to not have a "Legendary" title.
 * Sakura is one of three with most curvaceous figures in group. Sharing same cup size and body type with Tae Yamada and beaten only by Yugiri.

Trivia
"Could you  try  to hide the fact that we're zombies!? You're not even trying to hide it! What kind of idol's head comes off?! How could we possibly be human!? What kind of human can do that?! Is your brain rotting too,  you stupid zombie!? "
 * Action Survivor: Before the rest of the girls (sans Tae) awaken in Episode 1, she is able to fend for herself against them well enough to make an experienced  Resident Evil  protagonist proud. Indeed, if Our Zombies Are Different was not so heavily at work, then she would have actually re-killed Ai.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance: Played with. While Sakura had forgotten her constant bad luck and the specifics of her death, she remembered being motivated by Ai and was just as cheerful as she was in her introduction. When Sakura regained her memories of her life and learned how it ended, she also lost her memories of afterwards becoming a successful idol with friends who'd catch her if she fell, and her learned helplessness returned with a vengeance. By the end of the season, she regains all her post-mortem memories, giving her a full perspective on her identity.
 * Amnesiac Hero: Has no recollection of her past life prior to her death and reanimation as a zombie. She gets it back in Episode 10, but then loses all of her recent memories as a zombie. By the end of the season, she finally gets all of her memories back.
 * Ascended Fangirl: Sakura was a huge fan of Iron Frill, particularly Ai, and was planning to submit an audition application on the day she died. Being an Amnesiac Hero, she doesn't remember any of this even though she is now living her dream; alongside Ai herself, no less, at least until the end of Episode 12.
 * Audience Surrogate:
 * She's the most normal out of all the zombies, being an Ordinary High-School Student rather than a Living Legend at the time of her death. The first episode also has her just as confused as the audience over the ridiculous premise of the series, so she spends a time asking a lot of questions, making her an audience surrogate for those who don't know much about the idol industry.
 * After regaining her memories, it's also revealed that Sakura aspired to be greater and made many attempts but was plagued by bad luck and had lost motivation at one point in her life. These made Sakura an audience surrogate for the tried-but-failed overachievers, especially those who had exprienced Depression.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: She spends the entire series trying to get her memories back and finally does so at the end of Episode 10 after getting hit by a truck. However, she loses all her  recent  memories with Franchouchou, and worse, it makes her resume her deep depression over her constant misfortune. She manages to come out of it with a lot of help from Kotaro and her bandmates, finally getting  all  of her memories back both pre- and post-mortem.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Just because she's nice and somewhat naive doesn't mean she's a complete doormat either. In Episode 2, after getting fed up with Saki, Ai, and Junko's behavior during their performance, she doesn't hesitate to slap Tae's head out of Saki's hands and verbally rips into them in the form of a rap. In Episode 10, Sakura finally loses her patience with Kotaro's insane ideas and lashes out on him after her encounter with a wild boar in the snowy outdoors and then towards her group mates for seemingly goofing off. Then in Episodes 11 and 12, after she regains her pre-mortem memories at the expense of her post-mortem ones, her depression makes her so moody that she snaps at Lily and Tae for trying to help her when she just wants them to leave her be.
 * Big "WHAT?!": Her reaction in the dub after finding out Lily's true nature.
 * Boobs of Steel: Has a very visible bust (in fact, Episode 1 even shows a little bounce) and has proven herself to be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, fending off the other zombie girls as an Action Survivor in Episode 1 and then laying one down on Saki by Battle Rapping.
 * Boom, Headshot!: Thinking she was fighting for her life, she scored one on Ai in Episode 1 that would make a seasoned zombie-hunter proud.
 * Born Unlucky: Her opinion on herself before her death due to a string of bad luck, such as rehearsing for the lead role in a school play but coming down with mumps on the day of the show, or studying to get into the best high school in the prefecture, then on the day of the exam running into  multiple  old ladies in trouble, getting to the exam just in time, taking her test in a panic, and failing to get into the school. The trope gets deconstructed when she remembers that her final attempt to do something with her life ended in her death and forgets what came after, sending her into a massive Heroic BSoD. Just to drive the point across in Episode 12, a mirror spontaneously cracks just from Sakura being in front of it.
 * Break the Cutie: Life was not easy for Sakura before her untimely demise. No matter how hard she tried to reach for greatness, she would always be hit with bad luck and her attempts would end in failure. Episode 11 finally has Sakura trading her recent good memories for all these bad ones and along with them her grief, making her lose the will to (un)live.
 * Broken Ace: In her Episode 11 flashbacks, Sakura is shown to have a great potential in sports and academics, having trained enough to be the fastest runner in her age group in preparation for a relay race (one of her friends mentions that she was quite good at sports in general) and managed to score very high grades during mock exams for the best high school in Saga. Unfortunately, her efforts have been spoiled by a series of misfortunes striking at the most inopportune moments, leaving her jaded and apathetic about the possibility of ever realizing her dreams before Iron Frill came along.
 * Broken Bird: Episode 11 reveals that for all of her hard work, she's been down on her luck since she was a kid, and it carried all the way through high school. Despite seeing Ai as her source of inspiration, she gets hit by a truck anyway, and after she recovers her memories but forgets her experiences as part of Franchouchou, she gives up on (un)life. Seeing the others persist on with a concert in the face of a snowstorm spurs her to stand up and join them, rediscovering her hope and determination.
 * Butt-Monkey: Poor Sakura usually gets the shortest end of the stick in most of the comical scenarios, to say nothing of how she died. And then we find out how much hardship she experienced back when she was alive, with every one of her attempts at making a name for herself backfiring due to bad luck.
 * The Caretaker: Sakura took the time to look after Tae, teaching her moves, dressing her up, and interacting with her the most out of the entire cast. Unusually for this trope, this has few, if any, negative implications for Sakura, and Tae is shown to be extremely appreciative of Sakura's efforts in the season finale when she attempts to drag Sakura out of her own depression.
 * Catchphrase: "What do we do, what do we do?"
 * Cherry Blossom Girl: She hits quite a few points for this trope; her name is Sakura, she has pink hair, her assigned color is pink, her birthday and her date of death are in early April (the period of time when cherry blossom season typically takes place in Japan), she serves as The Heart of the group, and she's associated with death and rebirth since she died and was "reborn" as a zombie.
 * Corner of Woe: Sakura is trapped in one throughout Episode 11 and 12, where upon finally regaining her memories of her time when she was alive, she becomes deeply depressed over how much misfortune her life was plagued with and is determined that every one of her attempts to become something greater will result in failure.
 * Cranium Chase: In Episode 10, Sakura gets decapitated by a wild boar and her head ends up being caught by Saki while her body flung elsewhere. Later on however, her now headless body walks over and retrieves her head.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In spite of her apparent clumsiness and pushover nature, she can  tear  you a new one in a rap-battle if you push her. Additionally, Episode 11 shows her to have rather superlative ability in both athletics and academics when she's motivated.
 * Cry Cute: Near the end of Episode 7, she visibly cries Tears of Joy at the end of their first major outing in a public concert, with Ai and Junko comforting her.
 * Cute Clumsy Girl: Deconstructed. Her self-admitted clumsiness is what leads her to run headlong into the street without regard for traffic, leading to her death by truck collision. Episode 11 furthers the deconstruction by showing that a continued streak of misfortune all but extinguished her sense of self-esteem and motivation.
 * Cynicism Catalyst: Remembering how bad luck screwed her life again and again to culminate in her getting hit by a truck the day she was going to audition to become an idol, along forgetting her experiences as a zombie, makes Sakura jaded, pessimistic and bitter. She absolutely refuses to participate in Franchouchou's concert because she's convinced her bad luck will ruin everything again, but her friends motivate her to not give up.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: In Episode 11 we finally get a peek into Sakura's past life, and it's one long train of misfortune.
 * Determinator:
 * Episode 10 focuses on this trait of hers, particularly on how it becomes a flaw when working in a group: she gets so enthusiastic about something, she races ahead without stopping to consider anybody else, and if she can't see how what the others are doing is directly relevant to what she's doing, she thinks they're goofing off, missing any hidden lessons there might be.
 * There is a major contrast between her life before and after death on how the plot handles this: While alive, she was determined to succeed, until one bad day too many sucked what was left of her optimism and she just gave up on life in general. Once her original memories returned, it drove her into a depressive state after finding out she died and became a zombie. In her undead life, she refuses to give up even if she fails an outing. Once she's motivated by something, she won't let it stop her.
 * Dies Wide Open: How she expires at the beginning of the very first episode.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: After being dead for at least ten years, coming back to life as a zombie, and then falling into a depression after regaining her pre-mortem memories at the expense of her post-mortem ones, at the end of the season Sakura finally realizes that she is truly living her dream of becoming an idol and that she has friends who will stick with her through thick and thin, having regained her self-esteem and confidence along with  all  her memories.
 * The Eeyore: Once she remembers her life and forgets her experiences as a zombie, Sakura turns into a total pessimist who believes even trying isn't worth it since it will all end in failure and disappointment so it's better to stay sulking. The support of her friends pulls her out of it.
 * Extreme Doormat: Unlike the other girls who get fed up with Kotaro's treatment, Sakura tends to submit and let him yell at her while remaining polite to him. Sakura is shown to have her limits, though, finally snapping at Kotaro in Episode 10 after he forces them to spend days camped out on a mountain.
 * Fatal Flaw:
 * One that was actually fatal: being a Cute Clumsy Girl costs her her life.
 * Less literally, when she gets focused on a goal she forgets to pace herself and loses track of her surroundings. Her impatience in Episode 10 develops due to wanting to regain her memories, causing her to rush through practice and conflict with the rest of Franchouchou when Kotaro sends them to the mountain to clear their heads. Her reminiscing about her life in the next episode reveals that she'd stay up late practicing, both for the school play and for the relay team, only for the health consequences of going weeks without enough sleep to invalidate her efforts.
 * First Episode Resurrection: Opens the series on her way to apply for an idol tryout... and instantly gets hit by a truck as she's leaving her house. She suddenly comes to, seemingly normal, but finds herself in a spooky-looking mansion filled with zombie girls. No sooner does she escape it and get shot by a panicky police officer than she discovers she herself is a zombie.
 * Ghost Amnesia: After coming back as a zombie, she can't remember any specific details about when she was alive apart from her familiarity with zombie movies, although she has occasional flashes from one of Iron Frill's concerts that she can't clearly recall. She gets her memories back at the end of Episode 10.
 * Giving Up the Ghost: Did this after finishing the exams for her preferred high school, since she'd taken them in a panic and kept making mistakes.
 * Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted, technically, but in spite of the great results her hard work legitimately produced, something always nullified her efforts in practice.
 * The Heart: Sakura serves as the emotional anchor that keeps the group together, such as convincing the rebellious Saki to stay onboard with Kotaro's schemes despite their shared misgivings, inspiring Ai and Junko to restart their careers after seeing her determination to succeed despite her inexperience, and being a shoulder for Lily to cry on as she comes to realize that her father truly loved her even after unintentionally neglecting her. Yugiri explicitly calls this out in Episode 12, declaring that without Sakura the others' strong wills would have made the group fall apart long before.
 * Hero-Worshipper: Sakura adored Iron Frill, and particularly Ai, in life. Episode 11 reveals that this is because Ai's never-say-die attitude as well as her performances snapped Sakura out of her learned helplessness when life kept getting her down. When that same helplessness returns with a vengeance in the season finale, Ai's words prove critical in getting Sakura back on her feet.
 * Heroic BSoD: After regaining her pre-mortem memories at the expense of her post-mortem ones in Episodes 10 to 12, Sakura's learned helplessness, born from a string of misfortunes that plagued her, returns, causing her to slip into a deep depression from which she only recovers after much effort from Kotaro and the other girls, as well as being forced to rejoin the group's make-or-break Arpino performance in the middle of a snowstorm.
 * Hidden Depths: Despite being a Rose-Haired Sweetie, she proves to be a natural rapper.
 * History Repeats:
 * The series opens with her meeting her demise by getting struck by a truck and later being revived as a zombie with Ghost Amnesia. Episode 10 has her repeating almost the exact same scene, walking out of the mansion and getting struck by yet another truck, only this time it restores the memories of her past life but gives her amnesia on her time as a zombie.
 * It continues in Episode 11. Sakura wakes up looking alive and finds herself in the mansion with no memories of how she got there. She explores the place only to be seemingly attacked by a ravenous zombie, her attempt to escape lands her in a room full of even more zombies, and she picks up a poker to defend herself as they awaken and move towards her. Upon finally leaving the mansion, she runs into the Policeman she met the first night who gets terrified of her appearance as a zombie, before Kotaro comes to her rescue by knocking him out.
 * Humble Hero: Despite the success Franchouchou achieved following their electrifying performance at Saga Rock, Sakura remains down-to-earth and does not let the fame get into her head, much to Kotaro's annoyance.
 * Idiot Hair: She has one coming from the side of her head.
 * Image Song: Sakura Minamoto doesn't have an image song of her own throughout Season One, but in the "The Best of Franchouchou" album, she gets her own specific solo song known as "Sensei! ALIVE Sensation". This song focuses on her own goals in the 'afterlife', backed up with a upbeat feel to it, which wouldn't sound out of place for a 'slice-of-life' anime opening theme.
 * Innocent Blue Eyes: Her usual eye color is blue, and she's extremely pure-hearted and clumsy.
 * It's Not You, It's Me: Her standoffish attitude towards her fellow idols throughout Episodes 11 and 12 is just as motivated by her fear that her bad luck would rub off on them as much as it is fueled by her depression and a fear of being disappointed again. The rest of the girls assure her that they'd much rather fail with her than succeed without her.
 * Jade-Colored Glasses: After she regains her pre-mortem memories, it is revealed that Sakura used to be a Wide-Eyed Idealist as a child, but a series of setbacks gradually wore down on her optimism over the years, made worse by the fact that her efforts to overcome said setbacks were constantly spoiled by her supernaturally horrible luck. Hearing stories of Ai's rise to stardom briefly restored Sakura's optimism, only for her to be killed by a speeding truck on the day she was about to apply for an idol audition. As a result of regaining these memories, while losing her post-mortem memories of success, Sakura gives up all hope of trying anything at all out of fear of being disappointed yet again. However, successfully managing to pull off a concert in the face of a destructive snowstorm helps restore her optimism and hope, and her more recent memories with them.
 * Jerkass Ball: From Episodes 10 to 12, Sakura becomes more selfish, irritable and impatient compared to her usual self. In Episode 10 she's so determined to continue practicing as a way to regain her memories, she falls out-of-sync with the rest of the group. Then zigzagged in the last two episodes, when her pre-mortem memories of hardship and failure return at the expense of losing her post-mortem ones of success, causing her to become such a pessimistic shadow of her former self that not only does she refuse to participate in further practice sessions, but even lashes out at the other girls when they're simply trying to reach out to her.. On both incidents she apologizes in the end, when she realizes that the group isn't just goofing off during their mountain trip, and after regaining her post-mortem memories.
 * The Lancer: While Saki took up being The Leader, Sakura acts as a foil by holding the team together as the Team Mom.
 * Look Both Ways: Her manner of death at the start of the very first episode, where a truck slams into her as she runs out for school. It happens  again  at the end of Episode 10.
 * The Lost Lenore: Episode 12 implies that she was an old friend of Kotaro.
 * Mic Drop: She throws the mic after her rap battle with Saki.
 * Motor Mouth: Mostly in the "previous episode" summaries, where she'll slip in some blink-and-you'll-miss-it silly comments such as a tiny gang leader threatening her "because she might be too cute".
 * Murphy's Law: She nearly has it as bad as Milo Murphy, minus his optimism. Being Born Unlucky made her rather pessimistic. Kotaro seems to weaponize this since whenever the girls perform under bad weather, it  often  destroys their stage, but he's ready to get them going again and have them incorporate whatever happens into the show.
 * Never Be Hurt Again: Part of her moodiness and standoffish attitude towards her friends in Episodes 11 to 12 upon regaining her pre-mortem memories at the expense of her post-mortem ones is fueled by her fear of being struck with ill fortune yet again. Her friends uplift her by assuring her that they'd stick with her through thick and thin.
 * Never My Fault: In Episode 10, after she ends up getting out of sync with the rest of the group, she sullenly says that she's not at fault, but  they are  for not practicing while in the wilderness. After she watches the others practice without her and realizes the purpose behind the trip, she apologizes.
 * Nice Girl: Besides being the emotional anchor of the group, and despite having grown slightly world-weary over her situation, Sakura is also the most openly kind-hearted member of the group, often trying her best to be nice to everyone and play peacemaker whenever tension simmers between them (such as Ai and Junko).
 * Odd Friendship: With the hot-blooded Saki, by way of proving to the latter her competitive side and the fact that they're both natives of Saga.
 * Only Sane Woman: Well, sort of. She's a bridge between Kotaro's eccentricities and the other girls' varying degrees of reactions to their new lease of (un)life; on one hand, she acknowledges the ridiculousness of the situation, but on the other, she also points out that none of them can exactly change it, so they might as well make the best of their situation.
 * Ordinary High-School Student: What she originally was before being killed and revived as a zombie for an idol group.
 * Pinball Protagonist: Downplayed. On one hand, she seems submissive enough to allow herself to be pushed around by Kotaro and his antics, creating some friction with her fellow zombies (especially Saki and Ai); on the other hand, she's acutely aware of how shifty he is, and is only following along in the hopes of regaining her memories along the way.
 * Protagonist Without a Past: We're introduced to her as an Ordinary High-School Student aspiring to be an idol... and that's all we really know before she gets hit by a truck and killed before getting revived as a zombie. Due to the nature of her death Sakura has a case of Ghost Amnesia and doesn't remember any of her past life. It isn't until Episode 11 that we finally get to find out about her life prior to the start of the series.
 * Rage Breaking Point: Sakura has her limits where she releases her anger:
 * When Tae gets hungry in their second concert, she tries to control the situation by telling the (rather old) audience that it's All Part of the Show. Saki however makes the situation worse by repeatedly taking off Tae's head, to which she  absolutely loses her shit  to the point of tuning her inner Kotaro:
 * She chews out at Kotaro for sending them to the mountains when they should be practicing. This is one of the few surprising moments where Kotaro loses his nerve.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the climax of Episode 2, Sakura, fed up with Ai and Junko's lack of motivation and Saki's antics threatening to blow their cover, rips onto them in an argument that somehow segues into a rap battle.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: She hits many notes of the Red Oni in her dichotomy with Blue Oni, Ai.
 * Rose-Haired Sweetie: Her dark, rosy hair reflects her normally cheerful demeanor. Her cheerfulness doesn't last long after she gets turned into an amnesiac zombie, however. Episode 11 reveals that during her life, she had so many of her accomplishments ruined by bad luck that she became quite cynical and depressed before being inspired again by Iron Frill.
 * Scars Are Forever: Has a large gaping scar on her forehead, from having struck her head on a truck's windshield on the day she died.
 * Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: She makes this plainly clear during her rap battle against Saki, calling her, Ai, and Junko "losers" for giving up on life and not making the most of what they have just because they're dead. She also declares that just because she's following along with Kotaro's game, that doesn't automatically make her the goodie-two-shoes tool they think she is.
 * Inverted later when she regains her memories of her life but loses her memories of her undeath, while everyone else is trying to motivate her again.
 * Smarter Than You Look: Despite her outward naivete and general lack of a backbone, Sakura immediately recognizes Kotaro as a shady fellow who has her wrapped around his finger, only following along with his ridiculous demands as a way to regain her memories.
 * Sour Outside, Sad Inside: After remembering a life full of disappointments at the cost of her memories as a zombie, the resulting depression causes the usually cheerful Sakura to become an embittered pessimist who pushes away her forgotten friends. She gets better when she accepts her friends' support.
 * Supporting Protagonist: On stage, Sakura usually performs this role to Saki as well as Ai and Junko. She is otherwise the driving force of the story.
 * Surprisingly Sudden Death: She's spontaneously hit by a truck with no warning mere moments after running out the door for school.
 * Swapped Roles:
 * After Sakura spends most of the series as The Heart and helping her friends back on their feet when they're down, in Episodes 11 it's her turn to be consoled by each of her friends when she plunges into depression after regaining her memories.
 * Episode 12 goes even further. Firstly, Tae has a display where she tries to teach Sakura a routine that Sakura had previously persistently taught to Tae. Then the rest of the girls of Franchouchou all lampshade that since Sakura had their backs the whole time, it's their turn to pay her back now that she's in trouble.
 * Sweet Tooth: Her profile lists her favorite food as "All types of sweets", and also mentions she was fond of making desserts as a hobby.
 * Tareme Eyes: To highlight her niceness and kind-hearted personality.
 * Team Mom: Due to being The Heart of the group, Sakura constantly looks out for her friends and will often try to console them when they are in trouble.
 * Tender Tears: At the end of Episode 7 she starts crying in relief after the group finally manage to make their first successful live concert against all odds, with Junko and Ai comforting her.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: In Episode 1, she thinks she is a normal girl trapped in a mansion full of zombies (and the animation depicts her as the normal girl she thinks she is). Once she escapes, she finds out that she is one of the zombies herself. It happens again in Episode 11, except this time it's Ai who tells her what she is.
 * Took a Level in Cynic: She starts the first minute or so of the series as a typical Rose-Haired Sweetie, but getting killed, losing her memories, and being thrust into bizarre situations with an overbearing manager quickly makes her equal parts perplexed and resigned. Ironically, however, she still remains the most vocally optimistic out of the zombies. She takes another level in cynicism when she gets her old memories back in Episode 11 at the cost of her more recent memories, as it's revealed that a string of constant failures throughout her life actually made her quite cynical and defeatist before Iron Frill—and Ai—got her to believe in herself again. By the end of Episode 12, she appears to have lost that additional level thanks to successfully pulling off the concert and regaining her post-mortem memories.
 * Unmoving Plaid: The polka dots on her hair ribbons are this depending on the amount of detail put into the scene.
 * What Have I Become?: When her second round of amnesia kicks in, the discovery that she died just as things were finally looking up for her again and returned as a walking corpse cements Sakura's descent back into misery, angrily telling Kotaro that she didn't ask to be brought back as a zombie.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Her default state. After getting broken by her failure to get into the high school she sacrificed her middle school social life studying, watching an interview with Ai was able to restore her confidence. It's only after losing her memories of success that she breaks down again. This is a deep contrast to the post-zombification amnesiac Sakura after her death before Episode 11, as she's fully willing to try harder rather than give up.


 * Yes-Man: Saki accuses her of being this to Kotaro, due to her being the only one who follows his crazy instructions. Because she awakened later, she is unaware that Sakura thought his plan was absurd just like her, and only goes along with it to get her memories back.

Character concept
According to Sakura's designer Kasumi Fukagawa, she said that her vision for Sakura was that everyone loved her and would be the "ideal girl for a boy."