Tae Yamada

Tae Yamada (山田 たえ, Yamada Tae) is a mysterious girl with an unknown past. She's the only zombie who hasn't awakened. She's also a member of the idol group Franchouchou.

She is just titled as The Legendary Tae Yamada (伝説の山田たえ, Densetsu no Yamada Tae).

Tae Yamada
While most zombies have details about their past lives (Yugiri is an exception, as we only know about her occupation and apparent ties to Kotaro's well-known waiter), Tae is so far the only one whose details are still largely in the dark. The only clue available is her profile, which lists her hobby like visiting different travel agencies. According to the staff, she has a backstory but it wasn't shown in the first season because it was still unnecessary.

It starts out as a wild animal that attacks and bites people. Little by little she becomes a little more civilized, being able to understand human language and communicate through moans or gestures, showing curiosity about the world like a girl would and imitating the dance movements of the other girls. She's even capable of imitating a rooster crowing for the Drive-In Tori ad. Later, she begins to mimic the expressions and speech of the other girls (albeit in a rather confused way) and acquires a sufficient theory of mind to attempt to lie. On episode 11, she is emotionally aware enough that Sakura's current situation hits her hard, sending her into a corner of grief; she spends the first half of Episode 12 trying to lift Sakura's spirits by doing dance moves and showing her the article about her performance at the Saga Rock Festival. Eventually, she got so fed up with Sakura's abandonment that she drags her back to the dance studio and tries to recreate a training lesson Sakura once gave her.

Sakura had previously acted as her caretaker, so she didn't end up biting people, and had also taught her to pay attention and dance, earning her immortal loyalty. So when Sakura locks herself in the attic, Tae tries her best to get in and drag her to the dance studio to try and refresh her memories. Once Sakura's memories come back and mingle with her past memories, Tae happily bites into her head.

Although Tae can't speak properly, she obviously remembers their interactions and the frustration in her eyes is clear.

In the introduction given by Kotaro, it is only mentioned that she is legendary and a full description is not given, and it is completely unknown who she was during her lifetime. There are many elements that remind us that there is something else, such as the fact that she is significantly different in age compared to the other girls (29 years old), and that she is assigned a special number "No 0".

Human appearance
Tae has long, straight dark plum hair with two parts that stand out slightly with her bangs, they are also straight with a piece that runs down her face and is reddish-brown. Her normally baggy clothing hides a very well-endowed and curvaceous figure which is proportionally identical to those of Sakura Minamoto, with only slight differences by sheer numbers mostly due to Tae being much taller. However, her idol outfit her impressive proportions are much more noticeable.

Zombie appearance
From what you can see under her clothes, everything except her face and hands is covered in bandages.

Tae typically has bandages on her neck, chest, head, and upper leg with a loose black dress tied with a white rope. She also has gray over the knee socks with black shoes.

Idol appearance
Her idol outfit changes throughout the series: As an idol, she wears a long-sleeved purple striped shirt and a purple skirt with white ruffles.

Wear a sweater with sleeves that is too long during your first public performances.

Character concept
They wanted Tae's image to be "sexy onee-san who comes for your blood." Give the impression of a beautiful long-haired Japanese horror character. They thought it would be cute if the hair moved like dogs' ears and could move independently, they also enjoyed designing the clothes, choosing prisoner style shirts and pajamas that they really liked.

Personality
Tae is the only one of the girls who hasn't fully regained consciousness, so she's still a mindless zombie. As such, Tae is unpredictable and driven by sheer instinct, doing things like biting the other members and throwing herself into the crowd. However, she seems to have some semblance of a conscience, at least being able to understand the members to some degree and be cooperative enough to participate in the practices and performances. She also seems smart enough to have a caring side for her fellow zombie idols.

As the only zombie that hasn't awakened, she makes little contribution to the team and often gets in the way of their attempts to bite people or when her head falls off. On the other hand, it is surprisingly useful in times of a pinch, such as when she bites into one of Maria's buns when trying to threaten Sakura and Lily, and scares a large boar after it attacks the girls.

Tae's zombie antics and girlish demeanor are often sources of comedy. However, on Episode 12, when Sakura, blinded by depression, vehemently pushes her away too many times, Tae reaches her Breaking Point of anger and shows that even if she is ultimately a harmless zombie, she can actually be quite scary when she's really mad.

Episode 5 in particular shows her extreme appetite, going so far as to attack a guy in a chicken suit because she thinks he's a real chicken, not to mention swallowing a whole plate of raw meat before this, and a plate of eels on a stick (including plate) followed by five eel sticks later

She tends to bite and gnaw on anyone or anything she can get her hands on, including her own hair. However, according to Kotaro, she is totally harmless.

Voice actor
The voice actor in charge was hidden until the second episode. An interview with the Animate Times suggested she was "an amazing person who was playing that person," but at the time he was almost whimpering, so it was hard to predict.

Meanwhile, at the end of the third episode, it was announced that the voice actor in charge was Kotono Mitsuishi. Fans were in awe of the reveal of a well-known Sailor Moon legend. There was also anticipation for the opportunity to see Tae sing in the first season but it never happened.

In an interview shortly after the series, she said that the first emotion that was born in Tae's heart was Love for Sakura, plus she found her own "ego" (consciousness) in episode 11, when Sakura suffered amnesia.

Etymology

 * Her first name, Tae, is written in hiragana (たえ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (多恵), it could possibly mean "many, much" (多) (ta) and "blessing" (恵) (e).
 * Tae's surname Yamada means "mountain" (山) (yama) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (da).

Trivia

 * Up to the third episode, Tae's voice actress was credited as "???"
 * Tae is the only member of Franchouchou who hasn't done any lead songs as she's unable to properly speak.
 * Tae's hair resembles a squid, which is fitting as her favorite food is squid.
 * In Episode 9, Tae chews on Maria's Odango hair.
 * The former's voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi's breakout role was Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon, who actually wore buns in both her civilian and Sailor guise.
 * Along with Yūgiri, Tae is the only zombie whose cause of death hasn't been revealed yet.
 * By actual age at death, Tae is the oldest of the girls as she died at the age of 29.
 * Tae's Outfit if we take her name to translate as Blessing of the Mountain, closely resembles Buddhist Motsuke Koromo style robes.
 * Tae is one of three with most curvaceous figures in group. Sharing same cup size and body type with Sakura Minamoto and beaten only by Yugiri.


 * One of the foods that she likes the least (Takoyaki), it was created in 1933 in the Showa era so she can only come from a nearby time.
 * Or as a zombie she taste the food and do not like it, and as a curiosity the Takoyaki contains octopus.
 * The foods that are related to Tae are seafood, so she probably would have lived near the coast in her life.