Sakura Minamoto/Relationships

Saki Nikaido (Zombie #2)
"If you can’t take this for real, then you’re the zombie whose deal will be head trauma that don’t heal!"

- Sakura to Saki,

After gaining consciousness at the end of the first episode, she sees Sakura as one of her, if not, the easiest targets to pick on. Threatening to kill her or do worse whenever she feels like Sakura was messing with her, which was never the case.

Sakura finally has enough of playing hot potato with the severed head of Zombie #0, which then culminates in a rap battle between the zombie with amnesia and the zombie who was a former biker boss. After dishing out their lines, Sakura earns not only the applause of the retirement home, but also Saki’s respect.

In the third episode, Saki tells Sakura to think of their group name because “she told her to”. In the fourth episode, Saki invites Sakura over to take a quick trip to the baths whilst the majority of the hotel was either asleep or doing errands elsewhere. Sakura refuses her offer at first, but after a little persuasion, and being beaten 2 to 1 on terms of zombies who wanted to try out the spa, she finally gives in. As they got into the spa, they see the lady of the pharmaceutical also stepping into the water, as Saki ordered Sakura and Junko to go underwater, Sakura’s head misses the water by a few centimeters and instead hits a rock which then bowls her head over to where the old lady was. This pisses Saki off as seeing Sakura’s decapitated head started a scene, Saki and Junko quickly grab Sakura’s head and body as they try to run back to their hotel room as the rest of Franchouchou unintentionally scares the living daylights out of the old lady. The following morning, they read a report about a “severed head like a bowling ball” found in the hotel’s hot springs, to which Saki exclaims that she would kick the press’ asses for the unnecessary report.

Additionally, Saki also teasingly calls Sakura an egg-head, referring to her as one of her Tamagotchi from back when she was alive.

In the eighth episode, Saki is the first to alert Sakura about the mysterious man, thinking he had malicious intentions with Lily. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Saki and Sakura, alongside the rest of Franchouchou, help Lily write a song for her father. In the tenth episode, she sarcastically congratulates Kotaro for finally pissing Sakura off.

In the eleventh episode, she starts to get annoyed with Sakura, as she had been sulking in her depressive state for quite some time now. She and the rest of Franchouchou try their best to get Sakura back into her senses and into their idol group as well, since Sakura was the most excited about the event, out of the rest of the girls. That night, Saki comments on how gross and sweaty she was and excuses herself from their bedroom to confront Sakura. Telling her to snap out of it, since this jaded attitude of hers is starting to upset her.

In the twelfth episode, Saki and the rest of the girls all huddle close together, surrounding Sakura in their sleep as their way of showing her that they all have their support.

In Revenge, Sakura accompanies Saki on her quest to prevent White Ryu from withdrawing from his show. She later comforts Saki when the latter is heartbroken and cries after realizing that she doesn't grow up sucks, only to start sobbing hilariously in front of Saki.

Ai Mizuno (Zombie #3)
Sakura discovers Ai Mizuno from her pop idol group, Iron Frill, from when they were both still alive. At the time, she has spiraled into depression after all her attempts at success have been unluckily thwarted by fate. She hears Ai’s response to an interview, saying how her failures make her stronger and that was what pushes her forward to doing better. This inspires Sakura to do the same, which is when she develops her dream of becoming a pop idol similar to Mizuno. Throughout her time as a zombie, she had always felt something familiar about Mizuno, but since she had amnesia after getting hit by a truck, she can only remember bits of her memories from before. She holds on to what is left of her memories as her driving point of keeping up with Kotaro’s plan to save Saga with the seven undead girls via the power of music.

After the rest of Franchouchou’s awakening at the end of the first episode, she spots Ai and Junko attempting to escape the abandoned mansion, stating how Kotaro’s plan was crazy and how it would never work out. Panicking, Sakura tries to convince them to come back, as they would get shot or worse when exposed to the public without their make-up on. This makes Sakura accidentally pull off Ai’s arms from the rest of her body. After her failed attempt at getting the two former idols to get back to the mansion, she follows them in her pajamas, hoping to change their minds, only to be greeted by a group of shady men and the same policeman from before. This experience drives some sense into Ai and Junko, with the three fleeing back to the mansion afterward.

In the third episode, she suggests Ai to become their group leader before immediately being cut off by her saying there was no way that was happening.

In the sixth episode, she tries to break up Ai and Junko’s fight, but to no avail.

In the tenth episode, she worries Ai and the rest of Franchouchou after Sakura gets hit by yet another truck. Franchouchou then proceeds to try their best to cheer her up and bring her memories back. In the eleventh episode, Ai was the one to explain Sakura’s current situation to her, hoping to help her regain her post-death memories.

In the twelfth episode, Ai alongside the rest of Franchouchou, all huddle up close to Sakura, surrounding her in their sleep, showing her that she has all their support.

At the events of Drama CD 1: Secret Before Christmas SAGA, which take place on December 23, 2018. Sakura is very excited to see Ai, her idol from the past, so much so that she begins to behave in an extravagant way in front of her, making her a little uncomfortable because she speaks in front of her face. These remnants of the behavior can be seen during Revenge episode 2 when Sakura gets jealous when Ai talks about idols having affairs.

Junko Konno (Zombie #4)
Despite not knowing much about Junko’s time as an idol, she still has high respect for her. The two are on good terms, despite them not having as many interactions as Sakura does with either Kotaro or Saki. After the rest of Franchouchou’s awakening at the end of the first episode, she sees Junko and Ai try to escape the abandoned mansion by jumping over the fence. Sakura tried to stop them and get them back but to no avail, this prompts Sakura to follow the former idols into the city in the midst of the night only for the trio to get confronted by a group of shady men and the policeman from before. This incident is what wakes Junko and Ai up regarding their current situation, forcing the two to go back alongside Sakura.

In the fourth episode, Junko overhears how Sakura and Saki were planning to sneak into the baths, which she shyly asks to join in on. After the whole incident involving Sakura’s head coming off, she and Saki quickly grab Sakura’s head and body and quickly head for their hotel room while the rest of Franchouchou unintentionally scare the living daylights out of the old lady.

In the fifth episode, Sakura compliments Junko, saying how she looks great in Drive-In Tori’s chicken costume, to which she responds with “Please, don’t lie to me.” In the sixth episode, she tries to mend Ai and Junko’s relationship after their disagreement regarding what their relationship with their fans are supposed to be. After finding Junko to herself by the beach, she attempts to fetch her straw hat for her after the wind sweeps it off her head. This leads the two to have a talk, which is also how Sakura and the audience find out about Junko’s cause of death.

In the seventh episode, Sakura shows her concern for Junko as it has been weeks since Junko has locked herself up in a separate room, away from Kotaro and the rest of Franchouchou. After Junko regains her willpower after being confronted by Kotaro, she decides to join the rest of Franchouchou at the last minute. As a visibly saddened Sakura looks off to the mansion just as the van door closes, Junko runs in front of the van, hoping to make Kotaro step on the brakes, stating how she changed her mind about not joining them for their performance, but instead gets hit by Kotaro, to which Sakura exclaims how this particular moment gives her déjà vu somehow. In the eleventh episode, Junko and the rest of Franchouchou try their best to cheer Sakura up and help her regain her memories from when she was a zombie after Sakura gets hit by another truck. That night, she exclaims how she could not sleep, so she excuses herself to go out to “listen to the sounds of nature”, and heads for the same room she isolated herself in back in the seventh episode to confront an apathetic Sakura. Hoping to get Sakura back, she tries to strike up a conversation, only for Sakura to snap back at her and make her cry.

In the twelfth episode, Junko, alongside the rest of Franchouchou, huddles close to Sakura together, surrounding her in their sleep, showing her that she has all their support. During the events before Saga Arena, a nervous Junko goes up to the roof of the mansion to play a song that manages to reassure her about everything that is happening. Sakura climbs after her and is very emotional by how Junko sang about her, so much so that accidentally her body stumbles and falls to the ground, except for the head that Junko grabbed. In a scene reminiscent of episode 6 of the first season, Junko tells Sakura about her fears and some of her past life as a singer. This calm lasts for a short time, as both girls witness how Shiori tries to make Ai change groups which makes Junko very nervous since she was not prepared to deal with these problems, Sakura tries to console her by doing a cheap imitation of Ai and trying to convince her that everything will be alright.

Yugiri (Zombie #5)
As the mother figure of the group, Yugiri tries to calm Sakura whenever she feels as if any of the other members of Franchouchou are tense. The two are on good terms, but since Yugiri tends to have her reactions to things be delivered rather late, she often gets into misunderstandings with Franchouchou and Kotaro. This is first shown in the third episode, as she shamelessly slaps Sakura straight across the face, thinking Sakura was still at the point wherein she still has not thought of practicing harder. This only elicits a confused “okay” from Sakura.

In the tenth episode, Yugiri tries to calm a fussy Sakura down by telling her they have all the time to practice after they gather the things they needed for survival up a mountaintop first. After returning from the snowy mountains, Yugiri pays a visit to Kotaro, who is currently at their local bar. Yugiri talks to Kotaro about their trip, pointing out how she has figured out that the entire trip was his way of helping Sakura snap back into her senses, and comments on how she has a soft spot for people who cannot express their feelings straightforwardly. Her tendency to have a late reaction is shown again when she slaps Kotaro across the face, thinking that he does not have any faith in Sakura, when he just outright said so. After Sakura comes to her senses and apologizes to the rest of Franchouchou, Yugiri is happy to see the result and tells Kotaro how she is glad that his plan somehow worked out, to which he responds by acting like he has no clue what she was talking about. In the eleventh episode, Yugiri shows her concern by suggesting slapping the post-zombie amnesia from Sakura. That night, unlike the other girls, she did not make up any excuse to go see Sakura, getting to the point and stating how she has no choice but to bust out her “preparation”. Moments later, she comes out of their bedroom, all dressed up with dyed hair, heading towards the room Sakura locked herself in, only to see that she was no longer there. Later on, she has had enough and slaps Sakura a second time, reprimanding her for her negative attitude and telling her how they would rather fail together than succeed without Sakura.

In the twelfth episode, Yugiri and the rest of Franchouchou huddle close together, surrounding Sakura in their sleep, showing that she has all of their support.

Lily Hoshikawa (Zombie #6)
"You have a smile that could bright up a room!"

- Sakura to Lily,

Sakura and Lily are on good terms as Sakura treats her as a younger sister figure, despite the two also having little to no one-on-one interactions. In the eighth episode, Sakura and the rest of Franchouchou find out about Lily’s past and her cause of death. After confronting Kotaro about it, they all help Lily write a song for her father after they have cleaned up their misunderstanding with the man.

In the eleventh episode, Lily was arguably the most distraught over how Sakura has no recollection of her time with them as a zombie after getting hit by yet another truck. That night, she exclaims how she wanted to go stargazing since she could not fall asleep. She heads over to where Sakura was and tries to have a one-on-one talk with Sakura, reminding Sakura that she was the one who told her that her star was cute and that she had a smile that could brighten up a room. Sakura snaps at her, scaring Lily off and making her cry.

In the twelfth episode, Lily and the rest of Franchouchou gather around Sakura and huddle close together as they all fall asleep, showing Sakura that she has their full support. They develop an episode 8 sisters dynamic as the latter goes through emotional turmoil meeting her father for the first time in years as a zombie, with Sakura there to provide comfort and support. This is briefly seen in episode 4 of Revenge when they are happy about how the Saga Arena concert ended.

She continues this attitude in episode 5 of Revenge as she goes out of her way to support Lily's performance on the talent show. Even knowing what Light is like, she behaves maturely by understanding Lily and telling her that she should be careful with her arrogant opponent. At the time of doing her Skatman performance of her, she is the first to rise to support Lily.

Tae Yamada (Zombie #0)
Tae is the first zombie Sakura meets, as Tae was the one who headbutts her way into the hallway Sakura was in the first episode, effectively scaring Sakura into running away from the mansion. After she gains consciousness, she once again finds out that she has somehow returned to the mansion. Kotaro then introduces Tae alongside the rest of Franchouchou to her, but after getting to Tae Yamada, Sakura asks Kotaro confusingly as to what made Tae legendary as he had no description for her. This pisses Kotaro off and tells her that Tae is legendary just because she is.

Tae and Sakura are on good terms since Sakura is the one who pays the most attention to Tae, which helped her gain Tae’s loyalty and affection.

In the first episode, she exclaims how Tae has bitten her at least fifteen times that day only.

In the second episode, she and Saki fight over Tae’s head after it gets dismembered in front of their elderly audience.

In the third episode, she shows her concern for Tae after she sticks her mouth onto the tip of the whiteboard marker, exclaiming how ingesting the ink would be bad for her, forgetting that they were all dead which would be ineffective regardless.

In the fifth episode, Sakura tells Saki to cut it off as Saki demanded Tae to “sing properly”, telling her she knows fully well Tae was incapable of doing so. She instead tells Tae to do the “Cock a doodle doo” at the end of the commercial song. In the second segment of the fifth episode, Sakura helps Tae get her Franchouchou shirt on and was the one who thought of making Tae wear two sets of shirts, hoping she could still help advertise their idol group regardless if she accidentally tears open the first shirt. Unbeknownst to Sakura, she mistakenly got Tae to wear the order of the shirts wrong, making her tear apart the Franchouchou shirt instead, which ended up gaining more traction to Drive-In Tori rather than Franchouchou despite Tae’s win in the Tarzan Swing activity. In the eleventh episode, Tae is shown to be one of the girls who was heavily affected by Sakura’s depression after once again getting hit by another truck. She and the rest of Franchouchou try their best to cheer her up and bring her memories as a zombie back, unsuccessfully. The rest of the group takes notice on how Tae was “crying” for Sakura, only to realize that the drops of water weren’t her tears, but rather, her overflowing plethora of saliva with the camera panning over showing how Tae has enough, which sends her to a brief psychotic episode and crashes into the same room Junko locked herself in via the windows. Effectively scaring her, she drags Sakura back to the rest of the team to try to get her back for good.

In the twelfth episode, Tae and the rest of Franchouchou snuggle closer to Sakura while they sleep, showing Sakura that she has their full support.

During the chapters of the manga, Tae's attention to Sakura causes her to awaken her hunting instinct and save Kotaro and Sakura from a fall that would cause them to discover that they are zombies, she saves them both but clearly has a preference for preserving Sakura.

By the time of the second season, Sakura and Tae seem to have a very close relationship, and Tae is often seen lovingly chewing on Sakura's head, which Sakura always accepts and is very casual about it.

During the second season, Tae and Sakura usually go together to prevent Tae from doing crazy things or exposing that they are zombies. Both girls practice together when necessary and just like a dog, Tae follows Sakura's orders and even goes after her when she asks her company for some drinks for the other girls. Sakura cares a lot about Tae because she knows that some of her actions can lead to them finding out that Franchouchou are zombies, but it doesn't work out due to her own clumsiness causing Arata to take a picture of Tae's head when it flies out of her body during episode 6 of Revenge.

After the flood of Saga, Tae sneaks out of Franchouchou to go for food that was being given to the refugees from the flood, being zombies it is not necessary to eat and therefore Sakura tells her not to eat that.

Maimai Yuzuriha (Number #7)
She is a huge fan of Franchouchou, especially Sakura. The two have a lot in common, and Sakura inspires her to become an idol one day. She acts like one for Sakura. They are both clumsy, but enthusiastic and determined to succeed, and Maimai admires Sakura and Franchouchou in the same way that Sakura once looked at Ai and Iron Frill. The difference, of course, is that Maimai is still alive—her motivation is simply to live her life to the fullest, while Sakura's (and the other zombies) motivation is to make up for the fact that their lives were shortened, and they never could. develop their potential.

She is lovingly sweet and friendly. She also incredibly accepts Franchouchou as the undead, something that would have elicited a more terrified response from other characters. Unsurprisingly, she is quick to bond with Sakura because of her similarities in both storyline and awkwardness.

In the end, thanks to Sakura's speech about overcoming herself after having bad luck all her life, it is that Maimai decides to withdraw from the group because she knows that they are girls who could never achieve their goals in life, while she still has a life ahead of her.

Kotaro Tatsumi
"Why does he...have squid in his pocket...?"

- Sakura mentally to herself,

Even though the other members judged that Kotaro's idea seemed crazy, it appears that the reason she obediently follows his plan from the start was because she hoped that doing so would help her regain her memories from when she was alive.

As Yugiri points out in the eleventh episode, she is treated differently from the rest of Franchouchou, specifically, how, he is “especially nice” to her. This is evident by how he always consults her for her opinions regarding his plans before asking the rest of Franchouchou.

Though Sakura seems either intimidated or clueless as to what his motives are most of the time, she occasionally follows his orders with little to no question, respectfully calling him sir and trying to get the rest of the girls to cooperate to not upset him. She is also often the only one who sees through his unpredictable behavior and knows that deep down, he can and would be of help to them when needed. Even though Sakura is often intimidated by him, he is not always above her in terms of authority. This is shown in the tenth episode when she finally has had enough of his antics of bringing them to a mountaintop for “no apparent reason”, where she draws the line and reprimands him for doing so.

After Sakura regains her memories after getting hit by another truck, she spirals into a depressive state and decides to avoid Franchouchou alongside Kotaro and Romero. Kotaro later finds her sulking by a swingset, being confronted by the same police officer from before, to which he responds by launching Romero at him which effectively knocks him out a second time and takes her to a cliffside with a view of the prefecture to give her a pep talk. After hearing her side of things, he tells her all of it is not relevant and that it does not matter to him if she does not think she herself has what it takes as long as he has what it takes, he promises her that he would never abandon her. This finally gets Sakura to give everything another chance, which brings her back with the girls as Franchouchou.

In the twelfth episode, it is revealed that the two were classmates in high school, though the extent of their relationship is unknown. As Kotaro reminisces over this particular memory, he takes off his sunglasses, looking away from the camera to silently cry. In Chapter 20 of the manga, Sakura notices that Kotaro has become somewhat depressed, so she follows him to the top of a small tower. She reveals herself from hiding as she rushes towards Kotaro, hoping to stop him, thinking he was going to commit suicide by jumping off. But because of Sakura’s horrible luck, she trips over a raccoon rushing in the opposite direction, making her bump into Kotaro and making them both fall over the building.

She is one for Kotaro. They were apparently close in high school, and her death hit him hard enough that he decided to revive her years later. Although he's still a jerk to her, he believes in her dream of becoming an idol and does everything he can to help her succeed.

Unlike the other girls who get tired of Kotaro's treatment, Sakura tends to submit and let him yell at her while still being polite to him. However, Sakura is shown to have her limits, finally attacking Kotaro in Episode 10 after he forces them to spend days camped out on a mountain. This slowly disappears in Revenge, where now that the two have established a stronger familiarity and trust, she is more willing to call him out when things get out of hand. During the first episode of Revenge, Tatsumi's negative attitude contrasts with Sakura's attitude today, Sakura is disappointed that everything he told her about “never abandon her”, that she decides to leave him drinking at the bar and go with the other girls to celebrate their anniversary concert. After the disastrous event, she is glad that the mad manager is back to his old practices with Franchouchou.

In the eleventh episode of the second season, a flood left Saga destroyed and Franchouchou living in a shopping center. After Kotaro's arrival at the Kation and applying makeup to their faces, Sakura decides to go talk with Kotaro alone about everything she has been through recently. After more than a year of becoming an idol, inspiring people like Maimai to follow her path and inspire the people of Saga. Sakura decides to thank Kotaro for turning her into an idol, this phrase leads to Kotaro having flashbacks of his past when he was Sakura's partner and almost makes him cry for the memories, but Kotaro did not allow himself to be consumed by tears and aggressively launches towards Sakura telling her that he will have what it takes for the dream of the 7 Franchouchou girls to be immortalized in Saga's history, Kotaro will always have what it takes for Franchouchou, Kotaro will always have what it takes for Sakura.

Romero
Sakura was first afraid of Romero as she has seen it morph into its scarier form after she sees it feed on the squid Kotaro rewards him for the first time. Though, as the series goes on, the two are shown to have been on better terms.

This is evident in the tenth episode as she invites Romero to her morning walk when he is normally almost always seen with Kotaro or Tae. After getting hit by another truck, Romero quickly scares off the driver. With no one else to help, Romero barks up a storm, prompting Sakura to get up as he continues to show his concern by whimpering loudly.

Police Officer
Sakura first meets him during her getaway attempt in the first episode. Not knowing she herself is now a zombie, she approaches the man, hoping to get some help from him. As he drags his bike and gets closer to Sakura, he threatens to jail her if she loiters around during that time at night any longer. After taking a good look at her, he drops his bike in fear and shoots her in the chest, he is then knocked out by Kotaro with a shovel.

Not long after, during the second episode, she bumps into him again, but this time alongside Ai and Junko. He stops the shady group of men from confronting the girls, only to find out that they were zombies. His lousy aim ends up targeting the glass window behind the three, which then scares them enough to run away from the scene. In the third episode, the policeman confronts Sakura about having a guerrilla concert in the middle of the public train station. She immediately gets nervous after he tells her how she looks familiar, this then prompts Kotaro to get Franchouchou in the van and drives off before things could escalate any further.

In the eleventh episode, he sees a depressed Sakura sulking by a swingset and threatens to jail her for loitering yet again. He doesn’t get too far with this, since Kotaro ends up launching Romero at him, which then knocks him out a second time.

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