Ai Mizuno

""I don’t think of mistakes or failures as bad things, that’s not how it works.""

{{Character Infobox Physically Chronologically Ai Mizuno (水野 愛 Mizuno Ai) was the former lead singer of the idol group, Iron Frill. After being resurrected from the dead, she becomes a member of the zombie idol group, Franchouchou.
 * title1 = Ai Mizuno
 * image1 =
 * fullname = 水野 愛
 * romanized = Mizuno Ai
 * english = Ai Mizuno
 * aliases = Number 3 (3号) (San-gō) Tweedlefame {by Sakura) Lady Ai (by Yugiri) Sanko Tatsumi (work alias)
 * title = The Legendary Heisei Idol (伝説の平成アイドル, Densetsu no Heisei aidoru)
 * birth_date = March 7, 1992
 * date_of_death = August 4, 2008 (Butsumetsu)
 * age =
 * 16 (as of 2008)
 * 26 (as of 2018 onwards)
 * 27 (a month before “Episode 13”)
 * blood_type = B
 * height = 160cm (5'3")
 * weight = 42kg
 * b/w/h = 81/56/80 (B)
 * hobbies = *Idol research
 * Collecting freaky but cute mascot merchandises
 * favorite_foods = Yakiniku
 * disliked_foods = Carbs
 * favorite_color = Blue
 * voice_actor = Risa Taneda
 * english_voice_actor = Bryn Apprill
 * gender = Female
 * Death_cause = Struck by lightning
 * Type = Zombie (Active) Human (Deceased)
 * caption1=
 * occupation=
 * Zombie 3 of Franchouchou (Currently)
 * Lead Singer for Iron Frill (Formerly)
 * Kojima Food Factory employee (Part-Time)
 * eyes_color=
 * Red (Zombie)
 * Garnet Red (Human) }}

She is titled as The Legendary Heisei Idol (伝説の平成アイドル, Densetsu no Heisei aidoru).

Personality
When she was alive, Ai displayed a cheerful and determined personality, but after turning into a Zombie, she became quite skeptical and suspicious. As she gradually begins to warm up to her group, she begins to act like herself before her untimely death. She has shown a supportive side by helping the other members with their idol experience. Because of how she died, she is afraid of lightning.

She is the most responsible so far for the girls' training exercises, teaching newcomers the basics of the business, and is the one who speaks the most about the way of thinking with which they should approach their shared goal. When a member is in trouble or has a particularly important role to play in a new song, she trains them directly by way of example and takes it upon herself to review the songs as a whole when the whole band is in trouble. Also, while she always strives to be constructive and is generally no less sincere than the rest of the group, she firmly believes that they will get nowhere "just playing with friends all the time."

Ai trains quite a bit in rehearsals, and is paired on songs with Junko, for her incredible talent in singing, dancing, and choreography, as well as possessing such a skill for musical arrangements that at one point she was able to identify and alter properly the harmony of a song to avoid being continually confused by Tae.

The hot and cold sides of Ai's demeanor are dictated in large part by her perception of the other girls' work ethic, rather than a simple emotional tease like many classic tsunderers. She is very kind and supportive of each of the girls under any ordinary circumstance, but although she never resorts to violence unless she is directly attacked (as by Kotaro in Episode 5), she will become almost militantly severe in her expression if she feels that someone is not well. take your gang duty seriously or conscientiously. This is most prominently shown in her confrontation with Junko in Episode 6 and, to a lesser extent, in her lectures to Sakura in Episodes 10 and 12.

Ironically, she spends the first few episodes refusing to work, but once she starts, her work ethic becomes very clear. She is almost always the first to address practical concerns about her careers, she becomes absolutely furious when she feels Junko is intentionally letting the team down, and when her arms and legs break after a prolonged session of choreography practice and claims this it's not unusual for her.

She made it clear that she doesn't need to have friends to succeed but after getting to know the rest of the girls she would rather be with friends. She is quite a selfish person when it comes to achievement. Her posture is the most antagonistic to Saki; who gets her trust through her comrades. In the end, Saki proves to be right (main point of why she is perfect to be the leader) and loosens her work obsession to the point that she constantly respects and consults her before demanding from others. Ai works as a second in command, after Arpino.

Human
Ai has short, dark, slate blue hair with two yellow flower clips. Her bangs are bunched up, and she has light red eyes. Ai sports a rather very slim and slender figure which is proportionally identical to those of Junko Konno, with only slight differences in sheer numbers.

Her casual outfit consists of an idol-style school outfit: a navy blue jacket over a pale yellow top with a blue plaid skirt and bow. She also wears dark gray socks and light brown school shoes.

Zombie
Like the other zombies, Ai's skin is grayish-blue and most of her body is covered with bandages, somewhat like a mummy.

Ai's bandages cover her almost completely and bear witness to third degree burns on her body, the lightning burning her skin until it was brown, except for her eyes. Since she died from being struck by lightning that charred her corpse, the bandages are likely not only to help her stay together, but also to cover up the massive burns all over her body. Unfortunately for Ai that was not the end since she died minutes later in the ambulance that took her to the hospital.

Idol
Ai's idol outfit changes throughout the series: On episodes 1-6, Ai wears a light blue T-shirt with the word "3" written on it, along with an blue skirt with white ruffles. Using makeup, she and the other zombies make their skin look like a normal human. Ai also wears contact lenses to achieve her red eyes that she had as a living person.

After Saga rock, her idol outfit changed to a red jacket with a plaid decoration, blue skirt with cotton inside it and knee-high boots.

Skillset

 * Musical Talent - Ai was the lead singer of her group Iron Frill back when she was alive and continues to showcase this amazing feat even during her afterlife.
 * Dancing - As a member of a pop idol group, not only is she gifted in musical talent but she can also move fluidly to the beat of any song.
 * Moped-driving - From Season 2 onwards, she drives a moped on her way to her part-time job at the Kojima Food Industry.
 * Hula Hooping - Ai and the rest of the girls are able to perform while twirling hoops made of electricity during their performance in “Episode 16”.

Natural Abilities

 * Non-senescence - As a zombie, Ai is granted the ability to remain the age at which she died forever without any physical change after the resurrection process, as well as immunity against death. As she, along with the other girls, is able to endure circumstances that human bodies normally cannot handle, like the lightning bolt in the seventh episode, and instead of suffering a third degree burn, the girls end up becoming luminous and self-possessed. - tuned voices.
 * Detachable Limbs - As a zombie, she also have the ability to detach and reattach parts of her body from their sockets with little to no effort, either intentionally or accidentally. This is demonstrated in episode 7 where due to stress her body collapses causing her limbs to fall off.
 * Phosphorescent Vision - Gain dark red eyes that can glow in the dark after resurrecting into a zombie.
 * Element Absorption - Their zombie bodies can speed up the process of absorbing chemicals like those seen in Episode 4 by instantly absorbing the medicinal patches causing their muscles to relax and not be as stiff, in addition to their subsequent concerts and practices continue to use the patches. In Episode 7, their bodies demonstrate a similar capacity to batteries by receiving an electrical discharge from lightning and glow a pale blue, as well as releasing laser beams with their fingers.

Unique Abilities

 * Enhanced Vision - As shown in the 10th episode, she reveals that she has sharper vision compared to the rest of the group and took it upon herself to search for food.

Etymology

 * Ai (愛) means "love" in Japanese.
 * "Mizuno" is a residential name that means "field of water", from a town so named in Owari (now part of Aichi prefecture). The surname is found mainly along the east coast.



Trivia

 * Staff has commented that, because it was a popular hairstyle at the time, they wanted to incorporate a "short" haircut in a design. Furthermore, Ai being a "legendary idol" was through the blooming flowers on her head.
 * According to the official art book, zombie girl bandages are like body tattoos, so they will never be removed. This explains why Ai can speak without any problems, despite having bandages on her mouth
 * Ai died in 2008, only 4 months after Sakura Minamoto was struck and killed by a truck.
 * She died in the stadium of Tosu, Tosu City.
 * Additionally, the numbers depicted on the license plate of the truck that hits Sakura in the tenth episode are Ai’s date of death.
 * Ai has better kinetic vision and hearing than the other girls in the group.
 * Ai has same cup size and body type as Junko Konno.
 * Because of her cause of death, she has developed astraphobia alongside PTSD, in her afterlife. She overcomes her fears when performing at Saga Rock during a lightning storm.
 * When asked if Ai and Junko have the possibility of developing a romantic relationship, the crew responded that they did not think of the two as such outside of just "An idol from the Heisei Period and another from the Showa Period."
 * As of “Episode 13”, she works part-time as an employee of the Kojima Dried Squid Factory, under the alias "Sanko Tatsumi."
 * The work alias Ai uses, Sanko Tatsumi, is a combination of her order in Franchouchou as Zombie #3 (San-gō) alongside the last name of Kotaro’s alias, Tatsumi.
 * There are currently four episodes that focus on her which she shares with Junko. The episodes being “Episode 6”, “Episode 7”, “Episode 15”, and “Episode 16”.
 * With both “Episode 7” and “Episode 16” being direct continuations of their previous episodes.