English Dub Review: ZOMBIE LAND SAGA “Though My Life May Have Ended Once by Some Twist of Fate I Have Risen, and If Song and Dance Are to Be My Fate, Then Carrying the Memories of My Comrades in My Heart As I Sally Forth Shall Be My SAGA”

Saki rides in to help repair the bond between a mother and daughter.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After running into a small bike gang during a dance lesson with some old folks, Franchouchou is warned to stay away from their territory. Saki isn’t one to take orders, however, and she gets her nose involved with gang business when she gets them out of a physical confrontation with a rival gang. But ending the conflict is easier said than done, and Saki soon has to deal with another problem: the breaking bonds of a mother and daughter who are being torn apart by the young girl’s involvement with the Dorami gang.

Our Take:

The girls of Franchouchou set to learning the Kashima dance and quickly find the elderly grandparents have more groove than they first assumed. Unfortunately, a three-strong gang of biker gals pull up to the scene and tell Franchouchou to get moving… they’re on the turf of the Dorami biker gang!

The gang turns out to be all talk and little action, though. I just love how they leave Lily alone, agreeing that it would be plain rude to mess with a little tyke like her. Only one of their members seems to even enjoy being a Dorami crew. When they’re confronted by a rival gang, Saki even has to step in to save them from themselves.

This poses a problem in the second half of the episode when the rival gang returns and challenges Dorami to a fiery, explosive challenge. The new group leader of Saki’s old gang is the daughter of her former close associate. The girl clashes with her mother over her involvement with the Dorami gang, and this is where things get really interesting. You see, Saki died in a fiery explosive biking incident, and her last words where that she definitely wouldn’t die. This memory haunts her friend and impacts the way she’s raising her daughter now. I predicted that Saki would wind up being the girl’s mother, so this realization was a nice turn of events that took me by surprise.

This week’s English dub really hit home! “Wow, Saki 2.0!” Sakura comments, after being confronted by the leader of the Dorami bike gang. (Also, Lily’s reaction to the whole affair is simply calling it ‘awkward’, which is adorable. Summing things up for the dub, my favorite Koutarou moment so far may have to be the high-pitched, utterly unearthly scream issued by him upon learning Saki has jumped out of the moving van.

The eighth episode of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA continues the trend of recent episodes that explore a person or memory from each zombie’s past life in the living. Saki and her biker pals are fun to watch and remind me a lot of characters from The Rolling Girls (a great show that doesn’t get enough love). While I would’ve liked to see a bit more development of the relationship between Saki, her former gang member friend, and her friend’s daughter, what we did get is pretty badass stuff.