Fanfic / Franchouchou feat.

"The saga of the dead is just beginning...but when a secret is exposed, will Franchouchou still be standing by the end of it all?"

— Official Summary

Franchouchou feat. is a Zombie Land Saga fanfiction by fyras14, taking place a year after the events of the anime's first season. Now that Sakura's memory has been restored, Franchouchou struggles to stay together when their secret is slowly found out by more and more people, including someone from Sakura's past...

The fanfiction can be found here and here.

Note: The series is currently on hiatus due to the author planning to rewrite the story to include elements from the second season of the anime and the manga, mainly Yugiri and Tae Yamada's backstories.

This fanfiction assumes you have seen the first season of the anime, so beware of spoilers.

This work contains examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: The fanfiction gives more backstory into the lives of Sakura, Ai, and Tatsumi (aka, Inui):
  • Sakura's family life is explained here, including how her parents were divorced and how she was living with her father before she died, while her brother lived with their mother and had a strained relationship with the family.
  • Flashbacks show Ai's relationship with her mother and the effects her death had on her.
  • Inui's backstory explains how he had a crush on Sakura and was devastated greatly by her death. After picking up his skills in Hollywood and taking on the name of Kotaro Tatsumi, he would meet the Bartender, who heard his wish to see Sakura again and showed him how to reanimate the dead in exchange for giving Yugiri another chance at life, allowing him to put his Zombieland Saga project in motion.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Sakura’s depression continues to linger for a while even after the Arpino concert. She has to take some time to treat herself and work through her emotions.
    • Not knowing what became of her family weighs heavily on her.
  • Junko’s parents died not long after her fatal plane crash, leaving her devoid of any remaining family. She breaks down behind the scenes of a photo shoot with Ai there to comfort her.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Several characters from the anime have had their backstories changed. Justified as it was all written pre-season two.
  • Downplayed in regards to Franchouchou’s deaths which have received sampler detail changes that aren’t present in the anime.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Kotaro can sometimes be a lot harder to handle than even his anime depiction.
• Alternate Continuity: Because most of the fic was written before the second season aired, some major events like the EFS failure haven’t occurred here and several backstory points for the cast have been written from scratch.
• Ascended Extra: Shinta Okoba, the Intrepid Reporter from the anime, continues his investigation into Franchochou's identical appearance to the deceased, leading him to discover they are the deceased in question and sharing this discovery with the girls's families.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Genji finds out his sister is a zombie, he subconsciously takes a step back, making it seem like he'll panic and reject her as Sakura expects him to. Instead, he just hugs her and tells her how much he misses her, proving that he still loves her no matter what. This happens again when Okoba, Aoi, Takeo, and Reiko see Franchouchou's true appearance as zombies. The girls expect that they will be rejected as well by their loved ones, but are instantly proven wrong when Aoi runs up to and hugs Ai.
• Bears Are Bad News: A bear is frequently mentioned throughout the story before it finally appears and attacks Sakura, Genji, and Renoir. This bear is revealed to be a zombie..
• Bloodier and Gorier: Sakura’s death is described in much more graphic detail than what was shown in the anime, including her head splitting open and the rest of her body being mangled beyond repair.
• Butt-Monkey: It seems Sakura is not the only one with bad luck. Ryu "Renoir" Suzuharu is shown to have his fair share of misfortune, even getting on the bad side of the same gangsters twice.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Genji tends to smoke to calm himself down, much to Sakura's annoyance.
• Cool Big Sis: Sakura is this to Genji, even when he acted nasty towards her as a child. Genji is shown to miss Sakura greatly after her death, and finding out she's a zombie does nothing to destroy their sibling bond.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Kotaro Tatsumi remains this to the girls and also becomes one to Genji. Sakura's brother blatantly dislikes Tatsumi for raising his sister and her friends from the dead, making it clear he's only around for the girls's sake while getting into childish squabbles with him.
• The Glomp: Aoi does this to Ai after seeing her true zombie appearance face to face, proving that, zombie or not, she still loves her daughter.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Okoba goes through a brief moment of this when he realizes the girls in Franchochou are zombies.
• Heroic BSoD: Kotaro Tatsumi of all people goes through this when Franchouchou's secret is discovered by their friends and family with the help of Shinta Okoba. He spends a few chapters refusing to get out of his office, thinking that the Zombie Land Saga project is finished. The Bartender has to be the one to snap him out of his depression.
• How We Got Here: The fanfiction starts with Sakura going to meet someone who has discovered Franchouchou's secret, with the rest of the story taking 16 chapters to reach that point and revealing that someone to be her brother.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The girl's human supporters Renoir, Tatsumi, and Genji respectively have this dynamic. Renoir is the most friendly between the three, Tatsumi still remains his usual Mean Boss self, and Genji is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is supportive of the girls while being obnoxious to Tatsumi the most.
• Original Character: Several, including some that exist to build on the members of Franchouchou’s backstory.
• Secret-Keeper: Genji and Renoir end up becoming this once they find out the girls' secret. Later, Okoba, Aoi Mizuno, Takeo Go, and Reiko and Maria Amabuki become this as well.
• Raising the Steaks: It turns out the bear that's been attacking people is a zombie raised by Sora Akamiya, who has been raising animals from the dead to create a zoo. He gives Sakura an undead lion as an apology gift for the bear's attack, with the lion taking a liking to Sakura.
• Reflexive Response: This is how Aoi tricks Ai into blowing her cover, leading to Franchouchou's identities being exposed. Aoi mentions this is usually how she caught Ai unawares when she was still alive.
• Relationship Upgrade: Ai and Junko become a couple sometime before the story begins.
• Ship Tease: Sakura and Yugiri have moments of these throughout the story.
• Sleepy Depressive: Sakura, still feeling a good chunk of her depression from the last season, becomes very lethargic after performing and has to rest up a lot, often going to bed straight after a rehearsal or live performance.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Koji Kaneda, Yugiri's Stalker with a Crush. If he had not tried to make moves on her and stabbed Sakura when Yugiri rejected his advances, Okoba would never have found out that the girls of Franchouchou are zombies, leading him to tell the girls' families about his discovery.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Only replace the "boyfriend" with "family". When Genji discovers that One is indeed his sister and that she's been raised from the dead as a zombie, Sakura worries that that Genji will panic just like everyone else did. Instead, he hugs her and tells her just how much he misses her, leading to Tears of Joy from both siblings. A similar occurrence happens later when Aoi, Takeo, and Reiko see the girls without their makeup. especially with Ai, Lily, and Saki respectively, who are afraid they will be rejected. While they are horrified to see the girls as they are now, it doesn't do anything to turn away their loved ones at all, with Aoi even being the first to react by running up to and hugging her daughter.
• Why Didn't I Think of That?: A non-verbal example. When Sakura tries to get Tae Yamada to behave herself and not chase the guy in a chicken suit when they have to do another commercial shoot for Drive-In Tori, Genji asks why didn't they distract her with dry squid. Sakura can only face-palm herself, clearly thinking "Why didn't I ever think of that!?".

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