Zombie Land Saga S1E4: “Warming Dead Saga”
After the "last time on," we open on Franchouchou getting yet another patience-trying briefing/scolding from Dickface in his basement. Surprisingly, he's in better spirits than they are after their guerilla performance's relative failure. Then again, he didn't just spend a full day and night working himself past the point of human exhaustion for no good reason like they did, so maybe it just evens out.
And...okay, his mood is always kind of hard to gauge to be fair.
The conversations that Dickface had with interested parties after the rap battle haven't yielded fruit just yet, and their disappointing guerilla show hasn't helped hasten it along. In the meantime, their budget has run dry (squid, makeup, gas for his pedovan, etc), and they'll need more if they're to make any further steps on their own. That said, he's managed to get in touch with a locally based pharmaceutical company, Hisanaka Pharm, who are scrambling to find a quick replacement for the musical entertainment they booked for their executive retreat today.
The band they were expecting couldn't make it for some reason. I completely expect them to turn up in Dickface's laboratory sans internal organs by the end of the episode, if not the midpoint.
So, they do the show for the pharma bros, they get paid, they maybe even get a company face contract or something if the bros like it enough. Once again though, it's incredibly short notice. When asked why all their performances have to be so extemporaneous, Dickface condescendingly tells them that idols have a short shelf life these days, so he needs to use them as much as he can while he can still do it. And also that, well,
He continues laying on the charm when he explains that they'll be performing at a scenic hot spring resort, and that he absolutely will not allow any of the girls to enjoy the hot springs for fear of their nature being revealed and also because he doesn't plan to give them any free time anyway. Even though the company is putting them up overnight at the resort.
That's finally enough. Saki does what I wished someone would do from the second third of the pilot onward.
Better late than never.
As he's gasping in pain, Sakura asks him what this company sells exactly anyway, assuming they have a specialty within the very broad category of "pharmaceuticals." After he recovers, he (without any sign of ongoing pain, distress, or anger; I guess he actually got the message and realized he needs to back off for a bit) tosses Sakura a box of some product called Saganship Z. The framing seems meaningful, like I'm supposed to know what this is, but all google will give me are Zombie Land Saga related links so I guess not. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the "Z" is because this company is just randomly marketing zombie-focused products, even though zombies aren't known to exist. That would fit the show.
Roll OP. We're off to a good start, with the girls starting to finally show some backbone. Even if it's really just Saki picking up the slack for the others.
After the OP (no changes to it that I can notice, btw. Maybe I was just imagining things before...) we reopen on Dickface dropping the disguised girls off in front of the hotel and telling them which room is theirs and when they need to be ready by.
His bullying sounds much more halfhearted than usual, and he basically leaves them unsupervised while hollowly instructing them to obey and then shoots away in his van in a manic rage. He's definitely been shown that there are boundaries. The girls all take note of this. Nice shooting indeed, Saki. Buy yourself a new Tamagotchi, you've earned it.
Sakura is the only one who wants to actually just sit around inside practicing, and tries to convince the others to do the same. I'm starting to actively dislike Sakura and wish we were following Saki or Ai instead.
The others eventually convince Sakura to lighten the fuck up. Cue montage of the girls wandering around the resort, petting cats, lusting after desserts they can't buy, and generally being cute. We then shift over to Dickface, who has concluded his sightseeing (if he ever actually did any of that) and is having lunch with one of the Hisanaka Pharm executives. Despite her being kind of creeped out by his background personality and mannerisms, he does a good enough job at suppressing them to slowly charm her. Eventually, he gets her to consider sponsoring Franchouchou to help market their products to the younger demographics, as much as those exist in modern Japan. Hey, the show itself made a joke about that two episodes ago, it's fair game!
Just as he's telling her that the girls are practicing like crazy for tonight's performance as they speak, he sees a group of them meander by outside the window. To prevent the boss lady from also seeing that, he...starts...trying to seduce her? Maybe? I'm not sure how to read this other than that.
Dramatic cut away before we can see what he rolled on his seduction check. It pretty much has to be either a nat20 or a nat1 for the joke to happen, but we won't know which until the eventual reveal. For now, we return to the girls. They're enjoying a foot bath (the most they can use of the hot springs without ruining their "alive" makeup) and getting into some existential talk about who and what they are, particularly the details of how each of them died at a different time in the modern-ish era (with Yugiri being much older than the rest; she in particular has been low-key marveling at modern technology and social order).
This also gets them to wondering about how exactly Dickface reanimated them; they haven't seen him do anything obviously magical since they reawakened, so if he's a necromancer or whatever he must either have a very limited powerset or be keeping the rest close to his chest. Also, generally speaking the Japanese cremate rather than burying their dead, and none of the girls know why exceptions would have been made for them. The necessary backstory is getting weirder the more they think about it. For now though, Saki decides that they should focus on more immediate concerns. To learn the truth they'd probably have to beat it out of Dickface, and now is not the opportune time for that sort of drama.
Also, I didn't notice it until I paused to take this screenshot, but the transparent bangs are a very weird stylistic tic. Don't think I've seen that in anime before. Can't say I'm a fan. Maybe this is meant to be a parody of Instagram filters or something.
The topic turns to the more relevant question of how they should impress the pharma guys this afternoon. After some tiresome and repetitive "do you think we can really be idols?" shite from Sakura that the other girls kinda just humor for a while, they muse on how to customize their act for this crowd. Yugiri makes a comment about "pleasing" them that might just sound bad in modern Japanese, or may be meant to imply that she was geisha-adjacent in her past life; either way, it makes the others uncomfortable. Finally, they decide to look into that Saganship Z product and see if they can do a kinda sorta advertisement for it as part of their show. That'll definitely show some initiative in advertising a mutual beneficial relationship between the company and Franchouchou.
They resolve to go back and try on Saganship Z right now so they'll know how to push it.
...
Making a prediction. It's zombie makeup. As in, for zombie costumes, Halloween makeup type thing. This will end with the girls realizing they can just dive into the hot springs after all, wash off their human makeup, and then perform as their actual selves while falsely claiming to be wearing Saganship Z. They get the contract, and the metalheads start obsessing over them even harder. Dickface malds over their disobedience, but can't actually complain about success.
That's my prediction. We'll see how close I am.
...
Turns out I was wrong. It's not a cosmetic thing at all, it's an off-the-shelf medical treatment for back pain and muscle cramps. Just these skin patch things you stick onto the sore joints. It turns out they work really well too, even on the undead.
I didn't think they could experience muscle fatigue in the first place, but okay lol.
Anyway, Ai and Saki seem to have some inspiration for how they can use this in their act.
No input from Sakura. Honestly, I wouldn't still be complaining about this if the camera and script didn't keep favoring Sakura so heavily. This show would work a lot better if it embraced the ensemble cast instead of continuing to try to push Sakura as a designated protagonist. Even in this scene, where others are doing most of the talking, thinking, *and* acting, Sakura gets disproportionate camera time that she doesn't do much of anything with. She definitely has her moments to shine (when they're doing improv stuff, or when the topic of wanting to be an idol for its own sake comes up, etc), but not moreso than the others, so the show should stop pretending otherwise.
Regardless, we cut from Saki having another eureka moment to the performance beginning at dusk. During a short break in the music, some of the girls run around the music hall and slap Saganship Z patches onto the audience members, which they appreciate after their long day of sitting in conference chairs poring over laptops. I have a feeling this is going to backfire, attaching them so liberally and haphazardly to living humans who lack their undead fortitude, but we'll see. For now, the execs are all getting into the show.
Well, if there are consequences to that reckless patch application, they don't kick in immediately. After the show, Dickface is relaxing in the hot springs, seeming quite pleased with himself. Most of the girls are in bed, doing whatever sleep-adjacent thing they apparently still do sometimes. No complaints or medical emergencies from the patrons. As Sakura squees into the mirror over their first real success as a proper idol band, Saki comes up to her and says they're going to hit the hot springs for realsies now. And also gets sort of handsy, like she might be coming onto Sakura or something.
Despite her reservations about getting exposed, Sakura lets Saki talk her into it. They're also joined by Junko, who turned out to not be asleep like the others and overheard them. Saki is afraid that the bigger the group, the higher the chances of someone seeing them, but three should still be okay. They hit the hot springs, letting the hot water and steam wipe off their makeup and removing their clothes to reveal the scars, sutures, and bandages that hold their bodies together.
For how little ability to feel pain they seem to have, the girls are awfully able to enjoy tactile things like skin patches and hot springwater.
This obviously can't go on for too long without having a payoff, of course, and it does in the form of the exec lady who Dickface had lunch and maybe possibly made out with coming out for a late night dip by herself. The girls try to hide in the mist, but she hears them and asks who's there.
They decide to try and wait it out underwater until the woman's back is turned and they can slip away. They don't need to breathe, and the steam should create a concealed escape vector sooner or later.
But then, somehow, Sakura manages to bang her head against the rock as she submerges. Hard enough to knock it clean off. It floats through the water right into the Hisanaka Pharm executive's line of sight. She screams. The girls panic and reflexively bolt up out of the water.
Pharma Lady flees the pool and runs into the hotel. Unfortunately, the screaming has roused the other Franchouchou members from their pseudo-sleep, and they're all stumbling groggily through the halls trying to figure out what's going on. And, of course, there had to be a power issue right then, causing the hotel lights to do a creepy flicker as she runs into them at just the right angle to recreate the second memeiest shot from "The Shining."
Alright show, you did it again. I lost it at that part. Not literally rolling on the floor howling, but still enough to make my fiance ask me what the hell I was laughing so hard at.
The girls probably could have saved this situation by just trying to calm the lady down and speak to her like normal people to try and explain the situation. However, they're too panicked to do that themselves, and their frenzy to scramble out of the woman's sight and minimize the damage just makes them seem even spookier and more animalistic. With the exception of Yugiri, who ALONE tries to talk to her in a dissonantly calm, oblivious voice that just makes everything else seem creepier, because she's from the early nineteenth century and also kind of oblivious and dumb.
The next morning, Dickface tries to close the deal with the lady, but finds her in no condition to be able to do so.
She's too traumatized to remember anything from the last day or so, let alone to talk business. This sudden mental break has also thrown the company leadership into disarray, so no new contracts right now.
Dickface manages to keep calm and murmur a suspicious "sorry" before going home and taking the girls with him. He gives them the cold, interrogative glare, but they don't confess to anything and he knows he can't prove it, so it's just an unhappy, high-tension return to the status quo. They got paid for their performance, but still have no longterm solution to their budget problem. After Dickface leaves them alone, the three midnight bathers sort of limply apologize to the others and promise it won't happen again, and hey at least they managed a successful and profitable one-time performance right?
I'm not sure how I feel about Dickface having been right in this episode. But then, like I said earlier, they probably could have salvaged that situation and possibly improved their own situation if they'd just kept cool and used diplomacy from the beginning. Too bad Sakura the quick-thinker wasn't able to act there, due to her disabling being the catalyst of the whole fiasco. Ah well. End episode.
My assessment is pretty much unchanged. It's a good show to watch, but a bad show to review. It tries to be funny, and mostly succeeds at being funny. That's it. Maybe someone with more background knowledge about the music industry could get more out of it, but I'm not that person.
One thing that disappointed me a little is that the show seems to have abandoned the early pattern of playing with a different music genre in each episode. I dug the death metal and rap episodes one after the next, but with two just normal idol music eps following them the trend is no longer extant. There's still plenty to enjoy, but I'd been looking forward to seeing more of that thread in particular. And on the bright side, at least one of them finally decked sensei in the face and had it actually make a difference in his behavior.
Zombie Land Saga has my recommendation, but I think it would be a waste of everyone's time for you guys to commission more of it unless it becomes a very different kind of show after this point.
