English Dub Review: ZOMBIE LAND SAGA “Because It’s Sentimental SAGA”

“If you wanna be in a real idol group, you have to leave your fear behind.”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The girls of FranChouChou sneak online during Koutarou’s nightly bath and discover a rock festival that looks interesting. Ai tells them that they aren’t ready for such a momentous event, however.

Later on, they go to a meet-and-greet with fans. They’ve got a good number now due to the drive-in commercial, so Koutarou sets up a photo op where fans can buy merchandise in order to get their picture taken with one of the girls. Unfortunately, Junko isn’t up to the task.

Our Take:

After working their tails off for that drive-in chicken commercial, it’s good to see the girls getting some solid recognition in Because It’s Sentimental SAGA. Even if the photo op didn’t turn out exactly how Koutarou wanted it to, the press will still be nice to have, and the fans that did wind up with photos will certainly be spreading the word amongst their friends and family.

Speaking of spreading the word, did anyone else find it odd that the girls’ online presence is so low? If Koutarou is serious about making FranChouChou a major idol group to revitalize Saga, why doesn’t he have a functioning website? The group’s web page only shows a few photos from past events they’ve participated in! (My guess would be that he designed it himself because he’s too cheap/proud to hire an actual web developer.) You’d think he would at least make the girls sign up for social media profiles, right? Guess he’s too busy bathing with his sunglasses on. I’ve seen people comment online about how there must be a plot-related reason for why he never removes them, but I’m not convinced. It’s probably just because it’s a funny gag!

Junko’s struggles with being a current-day idol occupy the majority of this week’s plot, so I definitely want to dig into that. I thought her reluctance to shoot photos might be due to some personal issues with her body or something, but it turns out that she’s from a time when idols weren’t so up close and personal with their fans. This makes sense and is an interesting way to differentiate Junko from Ai, the other former idol member of the group. I have to say, though, getting to know these two better has made me question the timeline of the show. I assumed that all the girls had died a long time ago, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Ai’s old band is still going strong! This just opens up a lot of weird questions… like what happens when someone recognizes her?

We get TWO how-I-died stories this episode, and neither is pleasant. Junko was heading to one of her first major concerts when her plane went down. Ai’s tale is even crazier – she was in the middle of a performance on center stage when a bolt of lightning struck her and turned her into a mess of fried human flesh. (Can you imagine being a fan in the front row for that show? Holy hell!)

The dub is solid this week. I think I liked it better because there were no songs to miss dubbing. Saki had a fun observation about how Junko and Ai were acting: “If this was my old gang, I’d beat both their asses.” I appreciate the wordplay in the English script, like how Koutarou calls performing at Saga Rock a “once in an after-lifetime chance”.

The sixth episode of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA is just fine. It didn’t really stumble in any big ways, but it didn’t really excite me, either. I feel like they may have dialed back the humor of last week’s episode in order to focus on more of Junko’s story. That’s fine and dandy, but I just don’t feel very invested in her as a character right now. (I’m not really into any of the girls except Sakura, Saki, and potentially Lilly based on what I’ve heard about a certain upcoming episode.) At least we got some insight into Junko and Ai’s past lives, as well as a tease for the upcoming rock festival!

Score
6.5/10