English Dub Review: ZOMBIE LAND SAGA “Good Morning Again SAGA”

During their final performance, Franchouchou’s show falls apart – literally!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sakura still isn’t quite over her blues. While she seems to have come around to life as a zombie, she still can’t bring herself to throw her lot in as a performer. Despite everyone’s best efforts, she remains withdrawn and low-energy.

It takes a group pep talk to bring her to her senses. Ai, Saki, and the others let her know that they don’t care if they fail – so long as they fail together! Going into the big show, Sakura has even remembered her dance steps. Things start falling apart as the show progresses. But even if the stage has collapsed around them, the members of Franchouchou keep the show – and Saga – alive!

Our Take:

Coming off of last week’s episode, when Sakura experienced the biggest bought of self-doubt that a zombie has ever gone through, we start this week’s episode off in a bit better place. No longer trying to escape, she’s resigned to her fate of participating in the show. She doesn’t have any enthusiasm and keeps insisting she’ll only mess things up, but at least she’s coming around to the idea. This Sakura really is a total 180-degree turn from the usual Sakura. Even exaltations from her friends don’t seem to help her break free of her cycle of self-doubt and fear.

Of course, when there’s a problem, the members of Franchouchou band together to make sure things turn out all right. It’s really sweet to see Tae trying to play a big role in convincing Sakura to return to her senses. The most zombie-like of them all considered Sakura one of her most loyal helpers, and it’s nice to see how special their relationship was to the stiffest member of Franchouchou. Still, it doesn’t actually do much for Sakura, since the girl doesn’t even remember Tae’s name, much less their previous history together. It takes a group pep talk for Sakura to finally see the light. Yuugiri makes a point to tell her that if she has to choose between succeeding without Sakura, or failing with her, she’d rather take the loss and be together. Everyone else agrees, forcing Sakura to consider giving their performance a real try.

The performance itself is certainly one of the bigger spectacles the show has tried to pull off.  In spite of the roiling weather, familiar faces fill the crowd. The two punk rockers are in the house, as well as Lily’s dad. I’m always a sucker for returning characters coming back at the end; it really helps the ending feel like an ending, and it makes sense that everyone would want to come to Franchouchou’s biggest show yet. I still think the CGI-animated dances look a little strange sandwiched between the traditional 2D look, but I have to admit the choreography is impressive here.

The English dub had some nice lines in this final episode. I especially laughed when one of the girls observed Tae’s reaction to being unable to get through to Sakura: “She’s crying! Wait, I think that’s drool.” Yuugiri was never one of the featured characters, really, but I almost like that it’s she who delivers the convincing line to Sakura: “I’d much rather than seven of us fail together.” I have to throw in one last quote from Shades, obviously: “It’s like the finale of some feel-good friendship show!” His plan to save the prefecture still hasn’t really panned out, but there may still be time, considering the episode ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger.

Good Morning SAGA finishes off this first season in an adequate, if not spectacular, manner. The first half is mainly just everyone trying to get through to Sakura, which is necessary for the story but doesn’t make for exciting viewing, really. The girls’ performance is one of their grandest, and I liked how, even with all their bad luck, they still managed to pull together and finish off the show with a bang.