English Dub Review: ZOMBIE LAND SAGA “DEAD OR LIVE SAGA”

Their bodies may fall apart, but their hearts stick together!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After a narrowly successful rap battle in last week’s episode, the zombie idols of Saga set their sights on a new goal: executing a successful guerilla performance. Despite all their differences and the setbacks they face as zombies, the group practices their hardest. When the big day arrives, the group (re-christened Franchouchou) puts on a song and dance performance for passerby at the train station. Though there are a few big mishaps, they come out the other side with the drive to keep improving their craft.

Our Take:

Plenty of shows place a recap at the beginning of every episode, but few do it as well and to such comedic effect as Zombie Land Saga. Sakura’s spitfire retellings of the past episodes are always good for a laugh.

Another thing that I continue to find funny is just how unprepared these girls are for being idols. In this episode, they finally start putting in actual practice time – but it really isn’t much considering they had less than 24 hours to learn the lyrics and dances. They haven’t even selected a leader or real band name yet – something young Lily assures everyone is a must have for an idol group such as theirs.  In a surprise twist, they don’t choose to elect Sakura to the position, instead of voting rock rebel Saki the head point of the group. At least they don’t let her pick the name, which is eventually chosen by Lily after interpreting Tai’s sneezing noises as French words. (Though Saki does get to offer her trademark wisdom: “A badass logo is half the battle.” They have been officially dubbed as Franchouchou.

By now, Sakura and Saki are fairly well known to us, but I’m still very curious about Ai and Junko, the former idols in real life who are the only ones who know what they’re doing – even though they have no inclination to participate beyond offering the bare minimum of effort. Is there some weird memory of their past that prevents them from throwing themselves into the gig? Also, there’s Koutarou. What is his deal? He has no fear of the girls despite their status as the living dead. At times he seems oddly protective of them, while at other points he’s insulting them with nicknames like “Lonely little loser”. He’s clearly delusional. But even delusional people offer wisdom at times, like when he guilts Ai and Junko by telling them: “You’re dead, but at least the others are trying to live.”

The English dub this week had some very nice dialogue that takes the Japanese script and puts it into a completely different language while also retaining the zombie-fied humor in lines like “Snap those necks back around to what’s in front of you.” We hear young Lily for the first time, and though her voice is certainly audible as a woman trying to assume the vocal range of a tiny child, it’s not as annoying as it could be.

DEAD OR LIVE SAGA puts the girls in a new situation and tests all of their inner strength. Especially Sakura, who has a breakdown where she forgets the lyrics and is saved only by Ai and Junko deciding to jump in and rescue her. No matter how their shows go in the future, we can count on them putting their hearts (or what’s left of them) into it.