Episode 1

"I am Sakura Minamoto, and today I enter second grade of high school"

~ First sentence of the anime.

Good Morning Saga is the first episode of the Zombieland Saga anime.

Sipnosis
Sakura is a young woman with a dream of becoming an idol. Dream which is taken from her after dying in a traffic accident. Wake up as a zombie only to discover that she must become an idol to save Saga along with 6 other "legendary" zombies.

Traffic accident ... 2008
Sakura Minamoto is a normal girl starting her second year of high school, hoping to change her life, Sakura plans to apply to be an idol, plans that end when she is hit by a van as she leaves her home.

Zombies
Disoriented, Sakura wakes up alone in a gloomy looking room, when a mysterious girl ( Tae ) comes out and attacks a frightened Sakura out of nowhere, and after narrowly escaping, she hides in a room. Unfortunately, she stumbles upon a corpse, awakening 5 more zombies. After stabbing one in the head ( Ai ), Sakura runs out of the mansion.

Outside the mansion, Sakura reassures herself that she is safe and discovers that she is currently in Saga prefecture, far from her home. Then a policeman appears and Sakura, relieved to have found someone to help her, asks for help. But after seeing the police officer's shocked reaction when looking at her, he looks in a mirror and realizes that she is also a zombie. Surprisingly, Sakura looks down to see that she has just been shot in the chest and falls to the ground. However, before passing out, she sees a mysterious man standing on her. Sakura wakes up again in the mansion and immediately looks at the mirror to confirm that she was not dreaming of looking like a zombie. Moments when the mysterious man suddenly appears next to her and introduces himself as Kōtarō Tatsumi., and confirms the fact that she died 10 years ago and is currently a zombie.

Sakura was taken to a cell-like room to be introduced to the other girls who still act like mindless zombies. Kotaro tells Sakura that the girls will become local idols to save Saga prefecture; calling it the "Project Zombieland Saga". He also assures Sakura that they will regain sanity once they wake up with some stimulation.

Death Metal
Later that night, at a death metal festival, the girls do a death metal performance on stage as a group called Death Musume (working name). Despite Sakura's obvious misgivings, the girls quickly react to the music and manage to get through the performance only with screaming and head banging, during which Sakura recalls some of her memories of when she was alive, though the performance chaotically ended with girls attacking the crowd, the concert itself was a success.

The next morning, Sakura is sitting on the porch of the mansion remembering how she enjoyed her time on stage, only to suddenly hear a scream from within as the other girls (excluding Tae) regained consciousness and Tae scares them. Sakura then greets you all with a very strong good day.

Appearances

 * Sakura Minamoto
 * Tae Yamada
 * Ai Mizuno
 * Yugiri
 * Saki Nikaido
 * Lily Hoshikawa
 * Junko Konno
 * Police A
 * Kotaro Tatsumi
 * Romero
 * Death Metal fans

Synopsis according to Kotaro's diary
''~ A walking corpse wakes up sinisterly in a strange western-style mansion. ''

''Knowing nothing, neither her identity, nor where she ended, she can do nothing but wander aimlessly. Eventually, a horrifying reality is unveiled before the undead eyes of the zombie, as its fate is shown.''

''Wearing a liar mask, she can do nothing but walk in the dark. ''

Then, as the zombie bathes in the light of the sky, she hears the noise of other people.

A scream resounds in the middle of a great chaos.

That is a cry for destruction.

Trivia

 * The zombies are mostly young girls, their deaths must have been a horrible experience for all parents. Sakura's parents had to find their daughter hit by a truck just outside her home, and since Sakura announces that she is leaving, it is very likely that they have heard the accident. In the scene where Sakura puts her shoes on for school, a pair of men's office shoes were also on the shelf ready to wear, so her father was likely at least at home at the time..
 * This is partially confirmed from Ep 8, with Lily's father still suffering 7 years later. Also, even though they are not her parents, Saki's best friend who saw her death 21 years ago has not fully recovered from the trauma.
 * And then there is a clear possibility that Ai's parents saw her die live on stage.


 * The story begins on April 7, 2008, the day Sakura dies, to revive 10 years later (2018).
 * The provisional name of the band "Death Musume" can be interpreted as "Daughters of Death".
 * The mansion where the episode takes place is the Karatsu City Museum of History and Folklore


 * The audience may not realize that Sakura is already a zombie upon waking up in the "haunted mansion" as she looks like a human. But there are hints throughout the entire sequence: The ankle shows that she's bandaged, accidentally stumbles while running away from Tae and feels no pain, and her face remains in the shade after going out in the rain until later. Kotaro applied makeup to Sakura just before she woke up, and the rain washed it away completely, revealing her zombie appearance. Kotaro even later mentions that she woke up and got scared ... although being Kotaro, he mostly seems baffled by her reaction.


 * When Sakura is hit by a truck, we get the staffl credits with the Death Metal tune. This is actually the next thing she hears before she wakes up as a zombie, as evidenced by zombies having an inherent connection to the genre, and the rest of the band woke up after hearing it too (except for Tae). Kotaro must have exposed her to music first, and after it worked, she arranged the first gig at a death metal venue to wake up the rest.


 * Sakura might be the only amnesiac zombie as a simply natural consequence of the way she died: massive head trauma.


 * This is a bit sad and terrifying, all mixed up in one given the circumstance, but it is possible that Ai grabbed Sakura for protection because she feared thunder.


 * To a lesser extent, the rest of the zombie group is wanting to get Sakura's attention, despite the fact that everyone is rotting and unable to utter a single word due to their state of mind. Since most zombies are reaching out to Sakura, they might have been waiting for her to help them. Especially when you realize that Junko was dead for more decades, and Yugiri died over a century ago.

Funny information

 * The opening scene where Sakura is unceremoniously hit by a truck is one of those rare moments that gets more fun every time you see him.
 * In particular, the VA themselves admit that they never tired of that scene.


 * When Kotaro introduces himself to Sakura, who is currently trying to figure out his situation, the zombie girl thinks there is something wrong with him. Her inner thoughts then end with "Why do you have squid in your pocket?"
 * In the manga version, she specifically asks "Why do you have tentacles growing out of your pocket?"


 * As shown here, Kotaro flips the board in the room to present his "Zombie Land Saga Project" to idols (i.e. just Sakura), and the text has been upside down since he wrote it to the right back of the board. A few minutes later, he realizes the error and takes a very subtle double take, after which he flips the board before anyone notices.


 * In the first basement scene, the awake zombie girls wander aimlessly just as Kotaro enters. The manga adaptation does the same thing, but with each girl having a squid in her mouth as they do so.


 * Kotaro rewards Romero with a squid. When he gets hungry, a fun text appears with captions that says don't feed the squid with dogs. In the manga, Sakura makes an internal comment about it.


 * Kotaro introduces Sakura to her potential co-stars, giving each of them a dramatically appropriate snippet and dubbing each of them legendary. Then it comes to Tae ... who is simply THE LEGENDARY YAMADA TTTT-TAE! There are no further explanations. Sakura asks why she is legendary, and Kotaro asks why Sakura is legendary. Then he calls her the only non-legendary.


 * In the manga adaptation, Kotaro's phrasing of "You [Sakura] were fine after a little stimulation" causes Sakura to freak out and demand proper context, until she realizes that he mentions hosting a concert and doing the same with the other girls.


 * Kotaro gives Sakura an encouraging speech before the show, telling her that she can absolutely go out there and surprise the crowd. The music swells, we have a brief approach to her teary eyes, she says her name:
 * Sakura: (actually) I can't do it.
 * (Blow of the total silence of the sound track)
 * Kotaro: (clapping) Okay! Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!


 * The first reaction from death metal fans when Tae unexpectedly jumps towards one of them.
 * I can't believe they started trying to mosh ...
 * That girl is actually a bit brutal.


 * Sakura remembers how the concert ended, with the girls awake attacking the crowd. Remarkably, even as a mindless zombie, Saki is still a jerk, kicking a speaker into the crowd.


 * The last scene of the episode has a fun Background Event involving two small birds (who were shown singing on the front porch) ... Romero eats them off-screen. It's confirmed by a "blink and you'll miss it" shot of Romero smacking his mouth, with some feathers right next to him.

Comforting

 * Though it doesn't exactly work, Kotaro's enthusiastic speech to a clearly dubious Sakura before her first performance is especially poignant for any new artist who has had trouble setting foot on the door.
 * Kotaro: No one in that crowd expects a damn thing from you all. That goes for me too. Not even a little bit.
 * Sakura: So—
 * Kotaro: AND THAT'S WHY! That is why you have to blow up your expectations! Everyone will convert Saga ... No, they will turn the whole world upside down!


 * A subtle one is Sakura's treatment of the other zombies after she is returned to the mansion. Sure, they scared her and they're still mistaking the corpses that make her uncomfortable, but she goes from shrugging to actively calming them down with squid when they go out before a show, and even tries to introduce them all and keep them out of trouble. She continues in the second episode where she is seen spreading blankets, trying to keep Ai and Junko safe, and raising Tae's hand in an attempt at joy.

Source of nightmares

 * Sakura finds herself alone in a strange dark mansion and is chased by zombies after waking up. Sure, it turns into a horror comedy not long after, but for a viewer who doesn't know it yet, the scene can be legitimately terrifying, especially for those who saw or performed horror titles that focus on being confined to dark rooms with malevolent entities, such as Corpse Party.
 * Also, when Sakura comes face to face with her future zombie friends (shortly after escaping from a wild Tae), you can see Junko, Yugiri, Saki, Lily and Ai (in that order), in their awakening phase Complete with dramatic and horrible close-ups of them. Yugiri and Lily seem to have the most terrifying faces in the group, with Yugiri's fucking and horrible expression when both hands get close to Sakura; and Lily making a whimpering moan while apparently drooling in a way that's not far from how a zombie would drool in a real horror movie.


 * The whole scene with the police. The moment Sakura comes forward to ask for help, we see a close-up of the policeman's face, who at this moment, is completely insane. After a dramatic build-up, we see Sakura's zombie appearance for the first time, as lightning strikes come to extreme close-up on her hideous and rotten face, with Sakura giving an expression of utter despair. Then she is shot, flips back in bewilderment, and falls to stare at the sky, before passing out.


 * The audience at their first concert is amazed that they are able to go to extremes. One comments that it is as if their necks were broken. than a side shot of Sakura's head to show that that's exactly the case. Complete with the slightest sound of bones breaking.

You will cry?

 * There is a time when Sakura realizes that she is a zombie, and she just ... freezes. She is shot, feels the hole in her chest, and collapses bewilderingly on the ground, staring into the rain with dead eyes. Given all the excitement she's had so far, it's a pretty bleak point for her.