Zombie Land Saga (Anime)

"Zombieland Saga" (ゾ ン ビ ラ ン ド サ ガ Zonbirando Saga) is an anime co-planned by Cygames, Avex Pictures, and animated by MAPPA. The first season aired on AT-X from October 4 to December 21, 2018. An original anime depicting girls who have revived as zombies, led by a producer and acting as local idols named Franchouchou and his Zombieland Saga project to save the Saga prefecture.

The second season "Zombieland Saga Revenge" was announced on July 27, 2019, giving a teaser trailer and a promotional image, even without a release date.

Argument
In 2008, Sakura reached the second year of high school, To go find Tokyo audition to become Idol, as soon as she leaves home trying to go to school and audition, she would be hit by a van resulting in her death.

In 2018, Sakura wakes up with a memory loss, in a certain western-style house, and is suddenly attacked by zombie girls and escapes outside, but finds that she also turned into a zombie. A young man, Kotaro Tatsumi, tells us that she was revived as a zombie for the local idol project "Zombie Land Saga Project" that raises awareness about Saga prefecture. Sakura formed the idol group "Franchouchou" with 7 members, Saki Nikaido, Ai Mizuno, Junko Konno, Yugiri, Lily Hoshikawa and Tae Yamada, who revived as zombies.

Planning
About four years before the broadcast, Nobuhiro Takenaka from Cygames came up with the idea for a zombie idol anime because the character of Rita, a zombie girl who appeared in "Kami no Bahamut GENESIS", was cute. The project started by telling MAPPA that a dead person could make a drama in which they really lives like an idol. The working title was "Idol Zombie". However, when he couldn't go through Cygames' internal approval, they asked for an anime to be made in Saga prefecture, the birthplace of the president of Cygames Koichi Watanabe, so it was decided to set the stage for Saga.

The title changed completely because they were trying to establish Saga as the locality where the anime would take place. staff members visited Saga many times to get context of the location. Takenaka said: "Our president was involved in the location."

It is mentioned that they visited the Jofuku Chojukan, and that the experience of climbing the adjacent mountain is quite harsh. Sakai, who accompanied him, commented: "They took me to a very deep mountain, but it was a good experience" This was mentioned in an interview with staff members in February 2019.

The planning of this work was carried out in cooperation with the Saga prefecture. A person in charge of the public relations audience section in Saga said, "I really don't care about idol stories. The production committee will be three companies, MAPPA, Avex Pictures and Cygames." 30 minutes × 12 episodes.

It also reflected a large amount of information that they obtained from the location on the stage. "" It is information that we cannot obtain by ourselves. Even if people in Saga watch, it's often a manic place, so much of the information from the anime was pulled directly from the people of Saga.

Stage
MAPPA recalls in an interview with "The Animate Times" that he had the greatest difficulty in constructing the story. talking to various stage writers so far, but they've all respected George A. Romero and presented a good stage. Shigeru Murakoshi was appointed. Because he thought that Shigeru Murakoshi, who had been involved in MAPPA's work, could do a good job and comedy with experience in series composition.

Since this work is about death, it was decided to form a group of idols who lived at different times to portray different opinions. In addition, the idea of ​​giving each member a kind of legend was also adopted.

Cygames said, "They were thinking of waking up one at a time,  said the cygames director, but in the end it was decided to wake everyone up and leave Tae awake.

Art
In design, the policy was to keep it cute and creepy, but not to become a moe, since there were strict rules against moe, and Kasumi Fukagawa was appointed as the designer of the characters. In this work, all anime fans are represented in franchouchou's audience members

Music / sound
Yasuharu Takanashi was in charge of the music for this work. The director, Munehisa Sakai, hoped that Takanashi liked Death Metal and that it was possible to balance the cute part with the rock part of the characters who live a rock life. in an interview with Animate Times. Cygames' Nobuhiro Takenaka said: "Idol activities are at the center of the story, so linking stories and songs is the easiest thing to convey. In that sense, there are more messages behind the songs."

Promotion
In the promotion, the principle of secrecy for the content of the work was fully implemented. From the production announcement to the start of the mainstream, information on the story was hidden, except for the slogan "New zombie-feeling anime." The promotional video also appeared to be a true zombie horror job. At a screening for the general public in Tokyo, the audience was asked to submit a promise of confidentiality. This is because it was intended to surprise viewers, and because there was a possibility that viewers would be limited if they appeared to be idols.

The production of the second season was announced at the event "ZOMBIE LAND SAGA LIVE ~ FranChouChou Minna from Orabou! ~ !" held on July 27, 2019.

Casting
Mamoru Miyano, who plays the role of Kotaro Tatsumi, was decided by the sound production staff's proposal. The idol seiyus were selected by audition, except for Tae Yamada.

The other members had a clear personality and were easy to imagine, so it was decided without problems. On the other hand, the selection of the role of Sakura was difficult, and finally Kaede Hondo was named as the role of Sakura. Hondo is from Nagoya and has never used a dialect, and this was the first time this work appeared in a work that used a dialect. Looking back at the event, he enjoyed the fun and tenderness of the dialect through the careful instruction of the native dialect. Maki Kawase, who plays the role of Junko, and Rika Kinugawa, who plays the role of Yugiri, also talk about the fun of the dialect during the recording.

Mimi Tanaka, who plays the role of Lily, imagined a serious anime because of the content of the script approved at the audition, but when she read it, she felt that she had been deceived with an unexpected joke and she looked at the script again, in an interview with Animate Times Tanaka said, "Because Lily is the youngest and the height is low, I think it's okay to do it freely," they said, "Please do it lively," and I convinced myself, "Oh, I'm so free." She said she is trying to feel like flirting with other members.

Kotono Mitsuishi, who plays the role of Tae Yamada, and Yasuhiro Takato, who plays the zombie dog Romero, were named after Sakai. Regarding the reason for hiring the two veteran voice actors, Sakai said, "Because neither Tae nor Romeo can speak, I think expressive power is necessary. I thought it would be difficult unless there were veterans." It was initially concealed that Mitsuishi was the voice actor in charge of Tae, but it was first revealed in the closing credits of Episode 3. In an interview with Animate Times, Mitsuishi said that he was aware of foreign zombie movies when playing and he acted with the intention that it would be a humorous anime. looking back and regarding the intention to act,

Takato, who plays the role of Romero, said: "Of course, it makes a difference between real and ordinary Romero, but I think it is better to say" Hehheh "according to the story, so it is better to do" Gaugau "so I do with instinct and intuition. " Talk to the director, but in the end it seems that Romero seems to think nothing.

Several voice actors were named as the sub-character, of which Hiroyuki Yoshino, the role of Police Officer A, was decided from the start. Regarding the scene where Police Officer A raps in the second episode, Asami Tano, who plays Saki, said: "That scene was not written in the script at the beginning. It is probably a rap battle. He said : "That was what you did, it was improvised"

Produced by Cygames, in collaboration with Avex Pictures and MAPPA studios


 * Director: Munehisa Sakai.
 * Screenwriter: Shigeru Murakoshi.
 * Character design: Kasumi Fukagawa.
 * Art director: Kazuo Ogura.
 * Director of photography: Takashi Yanagida.
 * Color designer: Azusa Sasaki.
 * Publisher: Masahiro Goto.
 * Soundman: Dogout.
 * Music Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi.
 * Soundtrack
 * " Adabana Necromancy "  (徒花ネクロマンシー Adabana Nekuromanshī / Necromancy without fruits")
 * " Hikari e "  (光へ/ "To the light")

Both songs performed by Franchouchou (Kaede Hondo, Asami Tano, Risa Taneda, Maki Kawase, Rika Kinugawa and Minami Tanaka). The anime began airing on October 4, 2018 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, Sun TV, BS11, Saga TV, and TVQ, was also licensed by Crunchyroll

Impact on tourism and industry in Saga prefecture
The following reports have been made on the impact on tourism and industry in the prefecture of Saga, which was the setting for this work.


 * On November 25, 2018, the "Old Main Building of the Karatsu Branch of Mitsubishi Joint Stock Company" (Karatsu City Museum of History and Folklore) was opened to the public, which is where the model of the residence of the girls, and more than 1,000 people visited the place. This facility has been closed since 2003 due to deterioration, and is open to the public every year in conjunction with the "National Public Launch of Modern Heritage." The number of visitors the previous year was 300 in two days.
 * Muraokaya, which makes the Japanese confectionery "Saganishiki", has launched a collaborative package version of the same product, "Zombie Land Saga". The factory is said to be fully operational with sales 1.5 times higher than initially anticipated.
 * The "Drive-in bird" is based in Imari, Saga, it appeared in Episode 5 of the series and after the broadcast of the episode its numbers of visitors increased like foam
 * On January 14, 2019, TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting will host a special program "Zombie Land Saga Holy Land Pilgrimage Tour-We Want to Live", featuring the locations where the series was made, etc. showed up at work. I wanna go! SAGA ~ ”was broadcast with Kaede Hondo, who played the role of Sakura, was in charge of the narration.
 * July 26, 2019: As of November 4, as a collaborative project between the city of Karatsu and JR Kyushu, Saga trains (Kiha 125 type 1 wagon) began operating on some of the Karatsu and Chikuhi lines in Saga prefecture with anime images. The original schedule was until October 31, but the service was expanded in line with the "Saga International Balloon Festa 2019".

Songs

 * Youkoso Saga e


 * Adabana Necromancy  (Album ver.)
 * Dead or Rap!!!
 * Mezame Returner
 * Drive-in Tori (Franchouchou ver.)
 * Atsuku Nare
 * Mezame Returner (Electric Returner)
 * To My Dearest
 * Jihen Saga
 * Tokkou Dance ～ DAWN OF THE BAD ～
 * Yomigaere
 * Flag wo Hatemekasero
 * Kagayaite
 * Hikari e
 * Fantastic Lovers
 * Jellyfish
 * Saga Arcade Rap
 * To My Dearest ～ Lily's practice singing ～
 * Sensei! Alive Sensation (Bonus)
 * Zombieland DEMPA

Main characters

 * Sakura Minamoto
 * Saki Nikaido
 * Ai Mizuno
 * Junko Konno
 * Yūgiri
 * Lily Hoshikawa
 * Tae Yamada
 * Kotaro Tatsumi
 * Police Officer A
 * Romero

Secondary characters

 * Takeo Go
 * Reiko Amabuki
 * Maria Amabuki
 * Police Officer A
 * Death metal fans
 * Shinta Okoba
 * Shiori
 * First Captain of Korosuke
 * Barmaster

Franchouchou

 * Kaede Hondo (Sakura)
 * Asami Tano (Saki)
 * Risa Taneda (Ai)
 * Maki Kawase (Junko)
 * Rika Kinugawa (Yugiri)
 * Minami Tanaka (Lily)
 * Kotono Mitsuishi (Tae)

Related to Franchouchou

 * Mamoru Miyano (Kotaro


 * Yasuhiro Takato (Romero)
 * Tsuyoshi Koyama (Takeo)
 * Komina Matsushita (Reiko)
 * Aoi Koga (Maria)

Others

 * Hiroyuki Yoshino (Police A)
 * Mitsuaki Kanuka,  Setsuji Satō  (Metalheads)
 * Tōru Nara (Okoba)
 * Sora Tokui (Shiori)
 * Yoshitada Otsuka (Master)

Second season
Confirmed during the concert "ZOMBIE LAND SAGA LIVE ~ FranChouChou Minna de Orabou! ~ ", Held on July 27, 2019 at the Arpino center, in Saga, was released on the second season broadcast titled " Zombieland Saga Revenge! "(date not kept so far).

More data from the series

 * Events

Zombie Land Saga

Zombie Land Saga