Sagako

Sagako (嵯峨子 Saga ko) are malevolent curses featured exclusively in the spin-off manga, Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie.

Material
Sagako's appearance can vary depending on who is attacking first, a Sagako cursing a shop camouflages itself with the environment so as not to be easily identified by Saga's inhabitants, or uses existing things to camouflage itself with the naked eye. One thing is clear, if some prosperous place suddenly starts to decline, a Sagako is hidden somewhere. Rather than causing the problems they are associated with, the Sagako take the forms they do as a reflection of underlying social problems. Defeating a particular Sagako might provide immediate relief to an issue, but it doesn't address the underlying issue that caused Sagako to manifest in that form to begin with, so to effectively defeat a Sagako it must purify itself via onions.

Not material
Its non-physical manifestations are difficult to see, but most are natural disasters that affect hundreds of people or bad luck which demotivates the people of Saga to continue with their dreams. Curses can be the size of entire areas like typhoons or disease, and although they are not as powerful in this way, they can cause many deaths if not intervened in time.

Description
During 1989, Saga's curse materializes in the physical forms of Sagako that manipulate and terrorize the residents of Saga. Although all Sagako are antagonistic to Saga's blessing, the exact manifestation of each individual curse varies in appearance and method depending on where they manifest. As such, the Saga Sagako Busters individually track, fight, and purify Sagako. The purification process is done by sealing the sagako inside an onion grown on the Hyodo family farm. When a Sagako's container is destroyed by means other than onions, the souls are not purified and instead return stronger.

Although they are usually imperceptible to the untrained eye, they can cause great damage if they manifest themselves physically to the point of murdering important people who bring prosperity to Saga. Their non-physical form continues to be the same or more lethal than their physical form, during their non-material existence they have caused wars, diseases and natural disasters in the history of Saga that are not attributed to something supernatural to the public eye. Saga's war that nearly caused Jofuku's death was due to one of these curses that swayed people's minds and caused Saga to disappear for several years.

Abilities

 * Element Manipulation - The Sagakos are able to control the elements in the places where they appeared and use them both in defense and attack.
 * Resistance - More specifically to conventional low caliber ammunition.
 * Limb Extension - Limbs can be extended at will but this depends on the type of Sagako.
 * Reality manipulation - It also depends on the location, but they are able to distort reality to their liking.
 * Emotional manipulation - They are also able to manipulate people's emotions and thoughts so that they fall under their control.


 * Mind Control - Sagako can control people directly if they come within a certain radius where they can be easily affected.
 * Possession - It has been implied that they can possess the people of Saga if they reach a certain level of power.
 * Bad luck - When hidden in plain sight they can generate bad luck events at different levels to demotivate those trying to bring glory to Saga. In fact, it is a Sagako who is responsible for Sakura's miserable life by constantly giving her bad luck until she discourages her and finally kills her with a truck.
 * Multiplication - An indirect consequence of not sealing a Sagako properly, these curses are not purified and instead become stronger or multiply causing more damage.

Weaknesses

 * Onions from the Hyodo Farm - Grown with the love of their landowners, the onions from this farm contain within them part of the power of Saga's blessing and along with this power they can also eradicate the curses that affect Saga's population.
 * Firearms - In physical form they are vulnerable to common attacks and have been shown to be killed if shot with a pistol. But this is only a temporary weakness and using firearms is a bad idea.

Trivia

 * In general, the Sagakos are neither good nor bad; they have a somewhat unique existence based on the "Kami" in Japanese culture an intangible spirit in nature. Without that kind of cultural awareness, it makes this manga look more like Ghostbusters than it is.
 * Although they are neither good nor bad according to this perspective, since they are curses from Saga's curse, their task is dictated by this superior force and therefore they must prevent Saga from being recognized.
 * According to Yuko Hyodo, the Sagakos are not born to do evil but take the form of living things around their area of manifestation.
 * The Ureshino hotel had a Sagako infestation and it would explain why the pharmacist lady came out so scared, the legends of beings that roamed the place inflicted greater fear on the poor lady.
 * The Hyodo farm has the power to seal and defeat the Sagako through a power granted by Saga's blessing.
 * In the opening "Adabana necromancy" and during one of the chapters of the original manga, a giant monster appears, possibly the Sagako that tormented Sakura in life.
 * While the end of the second season makes it seem like aliens are invading the planet, the answer is simpler. Since Franchouchou made Saga popular and revitalized the prefecture after the flood, both the blessing and the curse (two sides of the same coin) gained enough power to re-spawn supernatural events in Saga and thus, a Sagako manifested as a giant UFO destroying a city.

Sagako