Zombie Land Saga


Zombie Land Saga is an anime television series produced by MAPPA, Avex Pictures and Cygames. The series aired in Japan between October and December 2018. A second season titled Zombie Land Saga Revenge aired between April and June 2021. An anime film project, titled Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise, was released in October 2025. A manga adaptation that loosely follows the events of the anime, ran on Cygames' Cycomi website from October 2018 to June 2021; a spinoff series which focused on Tae's exploits during her previous life, titled Zombie Land Saga Sidestory: The First Zombie, ran in Ultra Jump magazine from May 2021 to November 2022.

Plot

In the year 2008, high school student Sakura Minamoto is abruptly killed by a truck on the morning she plans to submit an idol application. Ten years later, Sakura, along with six "legendary" girls from various eras of Japan's history, are brought back as zombies by a man named Kotaro Tatsumi, who seeks to revitalize Saga Prefecture by putting together an all-zombie idol group that would become known as Franchouchou.

Characters

Franchouchou

Franchouchou is an idol group founded by Kotaro Tatsumi and composed of seven legendary idols from different time periods that he brought back to life as zombies with the goal of reviving Saga's declining idol business. Because of the possibility of being persecuted should their identities be exposed, they perform using aliases and hide their zombified states using makeup.
;Sakura Minamoto
;Saki Nikaido
;Ai Mizuno
;Junko Konno
;Yugiri
;Lily Hoshikawa
;Tae Yamada

Timeline


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PlotArea = left:100 bottom:100 top:10 right:80
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1860 till:01/01/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:alive value:blue legend:Alive
id:dead value:red legend:Dead
id:zombie value:black legend:Zombie
id:reiwa value:purple legend:Reiwa_Era
id:oldSaga value:yellow legend:Saga_Prefecture_incorporated_into_Mizuma_Prefecture
id:newSaga value:green legend:Saga_Restoration_as_an_independent_Prefecture
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3
ScaleMajor = increment:10 start:1860
ScaleMinor = increment:5 start:1860
BarData =
bar:0 text:"Tae Yamada #0"
bar:1 text:"Sakura Minamoto #1"
bar:2 text:"Saki Nikaido #2"
bar:3 text:"Ai Mizuno #3"
bar:4 text:"Junko Konno #4"
bar:5 text:"Yugiri #5"
bar:6 text:"Lily Hoshikawa #6"
bar:7 text:"Maimai Yuzuriha #7"
PlotData=
width:13 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:0 from:01/01/1960 till:01/11/1989 color:alive
bar:0 from:02/11/1989 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:0 from:28/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:1 from:02/04/1991 till:07/04/2008 color:alive
bar:1 from:07/04/2008 till:26/04/2018 color:dead
bar:1 from:26/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:2 from:15/05/1979 till:30/08/1997 color:alive
bar:2 from:30/08/1997 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:2 from:27/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:3 from:07/03/1992 till:08/08/2008 color:alive
bar:3 from:08/08/2008 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:3 from:27/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:4 from:02/09/1964 till:09/12/1983 color:alive
bar:4 from:09/12/1983 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:4 from:27/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:5 from:23/11/1863 till:28/12/1882 color:alive
bar:5 from:28/12/1882 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:5 from:27/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:6 from:06/10/1999 till:30/11/2011 color:alive
bar:6 from:30/11/2011 till:27/04/2018 color:dead
bar:6 from:27/04/2018 till:end color:zombie
bar:7 from:24/08/2003 till:end color:alive
LineData =
at:18/04/1876 color:yellow layer:back
at:18/04/1883 color:green layer:back
at:01/05/2019 color:purple layer:back

Supporting characters

;Kotaro Tatsumi
;Romero
;Police Officer A

Related with Franchouchou

;Skull and Bull
;Takeo Go
;Sachiko Go
;Reiko Amabuki
;Maria Amabuki
;Arata Okoba
;Xu Fu
;Maimai Yuzuriha
;Kiichi Momozaki
;Shojiro Ito

Media

Anime

announced the series, in collaboration with Avex Pictures, on July 5, 2018. The series is directed by Munehisa Sakai and written by Shigeru Murakoshi, with animation by studio MAPPA. The series' character designs are provided by Kasumi Fukagawa, Kazuo Ogura is the art director, Takashi Yanagida is serving as director of photography, Azusa Sasaki is the color designer, and Masahiro Goto is editing the series. Yasuharu Takanashi is composing the series' music, which is produced by Avex Pictures, while dugout is producing the sound. The opening and ending theme songs respectively are "Adabana Necromancy" and "Hikari e", both performed by Franchouchou. The 12-episode series aired between October 4 and December 20, 2018, and was broadcast on AT-X, Tokyo MX, Sun TV, BS11, Saga TV, and TVQ. The series was simulcast outside of Asia with Japanese audio and English subtitles by Crunchyroll and with English audio by Funimation. An uncut version of the dub that translates the main songs from the anime series was eventually released by Funimation at the end of 2019.
Medialink licensed the first season in Asia-Pacific, and streamed it on Netflix, Aniplus Asia, and Bilibili, while Muse Communication holds the distribution rights to the second season.
The opening and ending themes were both released as singles paired with "FANTASTIC LOVERS" and "Jellyfish" on November 28, 2018, and they charted at #13 and #19 in the Oricon Singles Chart on December 10, while the opening theme single topped the Billboard Japan Download Songs chart on the same day.
On July 27, 2019, it was announced that the series is getting renewed for a second season, titled Zombie Land Saga Revenge. On February 27, 2021, it was revealed that MAPPA would animate the new season, which aired from on April 8 to June 24, 2021, on AT-X and other channels. Tatsuro Onishi and Momoko Mifune replace Kazuo Ogura and Takashi Yanagida as art director and director of photography. The remaining cast and staff return to reprise their roles. The opening and ending theme songs respectively are "Taiga yo Tomo ni Naite Kure" and "Yume o Te ni, Modoreru Basho mo Nai Hibi o", both performed by Franchouchou. Crunchyroll streamed the series with subtitles, and Funimation stream the series dubbed in English.
On October 17, 2021, it was announced that the series would be receiving an anime film project. The film, titled Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise, was released on October 24, 2025.

Manga

A manga adaptation by Megumu Soramichi began serialization on Cygames' Cycomi website on October 8, 2018. An anthology manga featuring chapters by various artists was released on April 7, 2021. A spinoff manga series focusing on the past of Tae Yamada, illustrated by character designer Kasumi Fukagawa, was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from May 19, 2021, to November 17, 2022.

Other

A stage play based on the first seven episodes of the anime, Zombie Land Saga Stage de Do-n!,
was performed on September 4 and 5, 2020; it had been scheduled for March 11 to 14 before being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.
In June 2021, the mobile rhythm game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! held a collaboration event with Zombie Land Saga. The partnership included a special story and themed cards for the in-game band Pastel＊Palettes, who also performed a cover version of "Adabana Necromancy". Fellow band Poppin'Party covered "Taiga yo Tomo ni Naite Kure". Kotaro makes an appearance in the event, for which Miyano reprises his role.
On December 28, 2022, a special program was aired on TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting, featuring Roland touring the locales and special places that were featured in the anime, along with narration by main character Sakura's voice actress, Kaede Hondo.

Reception

Critical response

In Anime News Network's previews of the fall 2018 anime season, Zombie Land Saga's first episode received overall positive responses, with most critics praising the premise and darkly comedic tone. James Beckett expressed that he appreciated the variety teased in the core cast, and found little to critique. Theron Martin, Paul Jensen, and Nick Creamer all gave similarly enthused praises, with generally shared praises for the cleverness of its genre fusion of idol anime and comic horror. Jensen described the episode's early moments as somewhat tonally confused, but stressed that the remainder of the episode was excellent, and described the dialogue and characterization of Sakura and Kotaro as exceptional. The reviewers all gave scores of 4 out of 5 stars, with the exception of Rebecca Silverman, who gave the first episode 3.5 out of 5 stars and characterized it as "off-putting and very morbid," as well as criticizing the show for its excessive use of loud vocal performances and flashing lights, which she said could potentially upset some viewers. Despite these criticisms, Silverman said that Zombie Land Saga was "worth checking out" for the originality of its premise. Writing for Anime Feminist, Vrai Kaiser generally praised the series, saying that while it did not make any "focused" social commentary on the negative aspects of the Japanese idol industry, it was enjoyable for its unconventional premise and sincere storytelling. Kaiser also criticized Kotaro's character, who they said "breaks apart on the lightest scrutiny" due to the disconnect between the "asshole" and "well-meaning, extremely extra uncle" aspects of his character, though they appreciated Mamoru Miyano's vocal performance.
The character of Lily Hoshikawa has received substantial praise from critics and audiences as a positive example of transgender representation.