Episode 2

I love Hip Hop SAGA (stylized as I♡HIPHOP SAGA) is the second episode of Zombieland Saga.

Synopsis
The girls have regained their senses, and Kōtarō announces that they will be making their official debut at the annual Saga Castle performance. Though Sakura doubts, she must work alongside the other girls who deal with their personalities and morale in order to fulfill her dream as an idol.

Reunion
The girls, now (mostly) regained their consciences, gather underground from the mansion where Kōtarō comes to greet all the girls now that they have regained their senses. To begin their journey as idols, he first informs them that they are zombies and instructs them to never be seen by people in their zombie appearance, as they would be stereotypically treated as monsters seen in many zombie horror media. Above all, he enthusiastically trusts the girls who will become idols to save Saga's idol entertainment.

Kōtarō informs them that they will debut at  Saga Castle, where the venue will hold an annual contest that will feature various performances, then give them idol training to prepare them for the event. Sakura is the only member who remains pragmatic with Kōtarō, as she watches the rest of the girls loaf around. As the girls rest, Sakura confronts Saki, the rebellious leader of the motorcycle gang.

The escape
She verbally scolds Sakura taking the idea of ​​"zombie idols" very seriously as they are already dead, then leaves unhappy with her own current state. Sakura decides to go to sleep. But then, she realizes that Ai was not here; where she decides to go and escape from the mansion, fearful of her zombie status.

She tries to get out the front door, but Romero is outside near the door and tries to jump towards it, scaring Ai. She leaves through the back door, where she ends up tripping over Junko, also intending to leave. Sakura finally catches up to them. She tries to convince them to come back and try to become idols even when they are technically dead, but they still refuse and leave the mansion.

Sakura hesitantly follows them still trying to convince them.As the girls head through the city, Ai asks Sakura why she is taking Kōtarō's idea of ​​becoming zombie idols seriously.

Sakura confesses that she admits that she never thought about it, but she has the feeling of remembering who she was before dying every time she did idol activities. She then decided on her own that she would continue her career as a zombie idol, only to feel that moment of nostalgia again, then the girls meet a group of three rappers, who start to get close and flirt with the girls with their freestyle.

But the girls ignore them and leave. Later they meet another passer-by and try to evade them, but the girls find a dead end. As people get closer to the girls, the lone passer-by identifies himself as a policeman, that Sakura recognizes. The police watch the rappers and taunt them while he approaches.

Ai then tries to ask the police for help by approaching him. When the police and rappers see Ai and the girls' zombie appearances, the boys are terrified. Then the police take his gun and shoot the girls, but he finally misses them. They all scream in panic; rappers approach the cop in horror. In beckoning chaos, the girls take this opportunity to escape, while a hidden Kōtarō watches the girls flinch as they flee. The girls immediately return to the mansion, where Ai and Junko are mortified to receive a shot.

Scares that give pleasure
Everything becomes normal since nothing happens where Sakura continues training with idols with Kōtarō, but she still sees the rest of the girls doing nothing. Sakura then sees Saki staring at her coldly during her training, then leaves. Sakura takes a breather on the front porch of the mansion. Then Saki appears and confronts her, criticizing her seriousness in her role as zombie idol again. Kōtarō now takes the girls to the Saga Castle for the event. First he gives them makeup to disguise the girls as humans. Then the girls wait in the backstage for their turn, now they are "Green Face", since Kōtarō has decided on the official name of their group.

The battle has already begun in a very square world
The girls take the stage and make their formal idol presentation to the audience, then start acting on the cue from the music, but Tae realizes that an old man in the audience eats a whole squid and she immediately runs Sakura stops her and tries to drag her back onto the stage, but in the process she accidentally throws her and Tae's head falls. Worried that her identities as zombies will be discovered, Sakura tries to calm the situation by reassuring everyone and returning to Putting Tae's head on, Saki, however, decides that her performance is going nowhere and constantly separates Tae's head to make fun of everyone. Sakura tries to stop her, but Saki rejects her and knocks her down. Eventually, Sakura becomes upset with Saki because he ends up hitting Tae's head away from Saki's hands. She furiously picks up a microphone and starts rapping and insulting Saki for her stubbornness.

Saki defends himself in the same verbal way, resulting in a rap battle. Lily and Yūgiri Take advantage of Sakura and Saki's internal struggles and team up as background rappers, where Sakura finally confronts Saki and pushes her aside and throughout the rap.

The rap battle impresses the audience and the girls were praised for their performance, much to their surprise.

After the show, Saki confronts Sakura again and tells her that he respects her for having the guts to confront her, and is interested in the concept of Japanese idols.

To herself, Sakura noted that her performance was not very "idol", but she was happy to be able to act in a real show.

The episode ends with Kōtarō smiling at the girls, impressed with her performance.

Appearances

 * Sakura Minamoto
 * Saki Nikaidō
 * Ai Mizuno
 * Junko Konno
 * Yūgiri
 * Lily Hoshikawa
 * Tae Yamada
 * Kōtarō Tatsumi
 * Romero
 * Policía A
 * Fans del Death Metal

Synopsis according to Kotaro's diary
With the zombie gang finally aware, Sakura seems to be finally calm.

At last, they can start working as an idol group!

First of all, they must ensure that no one discovers that they are zombies, causing massive terror.

The group is also trying to change its name to "Death Musume (Temporal)", although it seems that everyone is leaning towards that title, and nobody can think of anything else.

Then the idols prepare for a proper debut.

There has to be an event that's great for them!

Trivia

 * Saki mentioned the "old Geezer" from her "Tamagotchi" could be a reference to Tamagotchi's main character, Oyajitchi.
 * Tamagotchi existed during the 1990s, including Oyajitchi, and has been a staple in the franchise ever since.


 * After spending most of the episode being insulted by Saki and causing Ai and Junko to ignore her advice, Sakura finally reaches her limit, takes Tae's head out of Saki's hand and begins an improvised rap battle just to tell those three exactly why they suck. This is also seen as a totally incredible In-Universe by Saki, who scores 180 on his behavior with Sakura out of respect for her guts.
 * Special props to Yugiri for, though she doesn't have time to prepare, being a fish out of the water and having almost no concept of what a rap battle even is, providing one of the sickest clues to rap battle, while it seems to come as naturally to her as breathing.

Funny information

 * While the other zombies get strong, the bold kanji who declare who they are, Sakura gets skinny, scribbles kanji, and according to the latest episode of Kotaro's declaration, they don't call her legendary.


 * Kotaro, somewhat fed up with Ai asking him about the current situation and population of Saga prefecture, yells that it's not Wiki *** ia, with a censorship sound effect.


 * In one scene, Junko is trying to prevent Tae from biting her by running around Lily, begging her to know what Tae wants. Lily is completely indifferent about it, casually reading a heavy machinery magazine.


 * So we have three rappers approaching the zombie girls, all while improvising their Rhymes in a rap. Policeman A (from Episode 1) arrives on the scene, and also responds with his own rhymes!


 * There is a brief moment when the girls turn to look at a window shot by cop A, and watch a last piece of glass break. A heartbeat of total silence ... and then a continuous reactive scream. It is darkly funny.
 * Sakura is desperately trying to have a normal idol performance while Tae falls apart, in a literal sense. This is not helped by Saki and Lily messing with the body parts in fascination; Saki, in particular, continues to pop out of Tae's head in awe, frustrating Sakura even more, until she literally slams Tae's head out of Saki's hands and ends up starting an impromptu rap battle with her.
 * Apparently, Sakura spent so much time with Kotaro that she even calls Saki an idiot zombie.
 * Speaking of Tae, the moment she sees an old man eating dried squid, she tries to get to the package the old man was holding. Sakura tries to hold her back, only to have her arm drop and hit the ground, and her head pops out to be sent flying, then she bites the man's arm until she gets a squid. Note that she was very indifferent about it.
 * Even more fun about how Sakura ends. She does a literal microphone drop by throwing it to the ground.
 * Yugiri calmly begins to accompany the rap battle.
 * Lily takes a while to figure it out, but once she does, she hits Tae's head again, and Tae bites into the microphone. The girl is shocked for a moment, before she smiles almost as if she's watching a kitten play with a cat toy. It is both adorable and hilarious.
 * In the dubbed version of the rap battle, Sakura addresses Junko and Ai as "Tweedlefortune & Tweedlefame" when she calls them.

Comforting

 * Lily and Yugiri really complement each other after Kotaro finishes putting on makeup. There is a brotherly feeling about the whole thing.
 * The sight of the old man cheerfully giving dried squid to Tae Yamada's detached head, undeterred by the fact that he's holding a zombie head, despite all the other old men being shocked to see him.
 * In their performance at their second concert, it looks like the zombie girls have already won over their dedicated fans, the two death metal fans who even decide to see them inside a room full of old men. Even if they stand out from the rest, they don't mind as long as they can see their idols.

Source of nightmares

 * Kotaro shows the girls a quick sequence of shots involving horribly killed zombies. Not only is it bloody, the artwork is surprisingly realistic and haunting. This is a deliberate nightmare fuel on his part, trying to show the girls the real risk of being a zombie; Suffice it to say that for Sakura at least it worked quite well.
 * Sakura's brief trip out of the mansion with Ai and Junko is quite scary. The startling instance is haunting, the girls react with surprisingly realistic fear of strange men approaching them in the middle of the night, and again their attempt to get help from an authority figure is undermined by their terrifying appearance leading to a gun fired at them.
 * A photo of that scene, only in the dubbed version, makes the girls appear in the light with their creepy zombie appearance (to the human eye). What makes this more terrifying in the dub is that Ai says "HELP US". in the most chilling way imaginable, while she says nothing in the original Japanese version.

You will cry?

 * Ai and Junko's understanding in the second episode that there is no place for them in society anymore. The way they turn on themselves and turn off for the rest of the episode just makes you want to hug them.

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Image gallery

I ♡ Hip Hop SAGA