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."

- Kotaro to Sakura, about forming an idol 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 of 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 provisional names were “Death Musume” and “Green Face” respectively in their first two performances, but at the decision of the members of the group it was changed to “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 reveal the cause of death of each one, in addition to having red pupils. When their bodies are put under too much pressure, it causes their joints to pop and loosen, causing their eyeballs to open, and limbs, torso, and head to detach from their bodies.

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 come out unscathed from serious and fatal injuries such as gunshots, lightning, or traffic accidents.

The work that Tatsumi offers them always wears them down by rehearsing daily, 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, which 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 seiyū 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 of staff expectations!

The fact that it came out of nowhere to become one of the best anime of fall 2018 was something that no one expected. The first week since the first Blu-ray went on sale, it sold around 12,500 copies, easily putting it ahead of the other Fall 2018 Blu-ray anime released alongside SSSS.GRIDMAN in second place with roughly, 8000 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 toward 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 where 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 his 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 simply agreed to go with the flow of the group. 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 her father's happiness. Unlike Ai and Junko, she is not against Kotaro's idea and happily follows his plans 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 their 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 bartender and the one who revived the girls in the first place for Kotaro's plan. He 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.

Notable Supporters

 * Skull and Bull—The first group of fans of the group that since then has attended all their concerts and defends 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 rival biker gangs have started to become fans of Franchouchou after the biker gang feud with which Saki intervenes to save Maria from risking her life for 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 fan base.
 * 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

 * P.R. manager of the Hisanaka Pharmaceutical Company—She was excited to have the girls help advertise her product. She became traumatized and had her memories 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. After the event, both groups are on hand, and it was Iron Frill who assisted in the Ekimae Fudosan concert to help Franchouchou.
 * 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 their revenge concert.

Idol Outfits
Prototype—The prototype T-shirts Kotaro designed, which Lily calls “the ugliest thing (she) has ever seen.”

Guerrilla—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, and No. 0 (Tae) is written in Katakana.

Saga Rock—A modern idol outfit consisting 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 they participated in the big stage of Saga Rock in Episode 7.

To My Dearest—The girls wore baby blue colored puffy short-sleeved tops during their performance in Episode 8.

Special Attack Dance—Dark red biker jackets the girls wore during their performance in Episode 9.

Saga Jihen—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, abandoned mansion located outside Karatsu. In the past, this mansion was the headquarters of Saga Sagako Busters to fight Sagako. The mansion is quite spacious and although it is old, it can still be used without problems for their practices. 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 Commuter with a low-roof and second facelift model, released in 2014. 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 wrote all their merchandise and songs, as he is responsible for their budget.

Among more products shown in the second season, it shows the album “Franchouchou The Best” which was recorded at the end of 2019 in real life, but in the anime, it was recorded at the beginning of 2019. It also showed that there are also keychains of Romero that Ai 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 seiyū 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 among 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 show 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 her human life of her was scandalous. Thus, this song works in tandem with Yugiri's upbeat, dark, and secretive personality.