Zombieland Saga is given credit by some as the best anime of the winter 2018 season. The first season of twelve episodes just finished airing on tv, and naturally people have a lot of opinions. Zombieland Saga is based off of the manga written by Megumu Soramichi and the recent anime adaptation was produced by Cygames in collaboration with Avex Pictures. This anime could be considered one of the strangest combination of genres as it is part of the horror, comedy, and idol genres. In fact some call it the “gateway to idol anime”, which describes a kind of anime that follows a young group, usually girls, trying to form a musical group and become famous. This particular anime sneaks in the idol element and keeps it amusing with the pure silliness.
The story follow the main character, Sakura Minamoto, voiced by Mamoru Miyano, who is hit by a car and passes away in about the first few minutes of the first episode. But not to worry, this is actually where her journey begins. She comes back as a zombie ten years later with several other girls with some kind of talent, and their manager who brought them all back somehow explains they will become the idol group that brings popularity to the town of Saga. At first it all just seem like pure comedy, but later on when it get more serious I actually found myself really routing for these girls. The music this group makes isn’t the standard cute pop songs, instead they incorporate a lot of different elements and actually a bit of rock. The standard idol group faces the problem where all their songs end up sound like the same cute nonsense, but all their songs are genuinely unique and nice to listen to. Also, I love how this anime structured itself in a way where almost each girl got an episode to themselves of character development, rather than being just flat, not offense, cute characters. They all had their own struggles that shaped who they were when they were alive and now the audience just wants to see them succeed and resolve emotional baggage now that they’re undead.
The manager character Kotaro Tatsumi was voiced by Mamoru Miyano, who did an outstanding job. He sounded like he was having fun delivering each line and that’s what made the character so funny and great. If one is trying to decide to watch the Japanese version with subtitles or the English dub, it is highly recommended to watch the subtitled version even if it’s just for his voice. But all the other girls did a great job as well maintain certain accents and delivering the lines in a convincing way. Besides the voice acting, the animation/art is so creative and stunning. The opening sequence is the perfect example with the combination of more dark illustrations to fit in with the horror theme, then transitions to look more like a comic book or older anime with the use of shading. The animation during each episode is so vivid it catches the eye immediately. Also, each member has a color that represents them as a character. For example, Yugiri is represented as red to reflect her passion. Sakura on the other hand is represented by pink since she’s the bubbly and optimistic girl in the group.
With lovable characters, good unique music, visually stunning animation, and excellent voice acting, Zombieland Saga is worth watching. As an audience member, I found myself really excited for these girls to achieve something great together. Just the right amount of comedy elements keeps it interesting while simultaneously actually developing the characters. I highly recommend this to all fans of anime.
Rating: Good, Good
Really great post! Strong title and clear evaluative tone all the way through. Would have liked to see some more about thematic assertions, but great crediting of artists. Very precise look at what made this show a good one!
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