Kotaro: Sightseeing.
(Beat)
Kotaro: GOTTA SEE THEM SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!!! (Cartoonish-ly drives off into the distance)
The one where Franchouchou utilizes the power of pharmaceutical strips for their personal gain as they attempt to use them for advertising...oh who am I kidding, this is technically a Hot Springs Episode when you think about it.
It's the morning after the guerilla performance, and Kotaro greets Franchouchou as usual for the next mission briefing. Kotaro is quite impressed with the girls settling down on their own group name...and by that, he downright mocks the name for being too cutesy and French-sounding.
Despite all that mocking, he is legitimately impressed at Franchouchou for improving their teamwork skills overnight. However, he states that from this day on, the things Franchouchou will be doing will put them to the ultimate test. While Saki is fine with this, Kotaro asks Lily for her opinion...and shuts her up immediately with "GREAT!" (that's two episodes in a row that has Kotaro harassing Lily, hooray!)
Kotaro then gives Sakura his permission to throw an idea out for what Franchouchou could do next. Sakura suggests the idea of making their first full-ledged studio album, and while Kotaro loves the sound of that idea, he literally screams back at her with the fact that he doesn't even have the budget to do such a thing yet. With one last yell of him calling Sakura a dumbass zombie, he returns to his post to continue his mission briefing.
And what's the mission this time, given that Franchouchou is currently poor? Make some money, duh! Kotaro managed to get a sponsor from a pharmaceutical company known as "Hisanaka", and with them allowing the girls to promote their new product for the young, hip consumers, they shall be performing for them. Well, given that they were a last-minute substituted gig, of course. Next stop, the Ureshino Hot Springs!
The idea of a hot spring resort hotel venue for Franchouchou's next gig is very enticing (especially for Junko), but unfortunately for them, they're zombies. And their make-up would melt away in the high temperature sauna water. Sucks to be them, because Kotaro gets to relax as usual while the girls do whatever it takes to practice, on top of making sure they don't cause trouble at the hotel. Saki then throws a gut punch at the idol producer due to his obnoxious way of speaking to them, which he kind of deserves from all that self-gloating.
But what kind of product are Franchouchou promoting? Well, it's a brand of pharmaceutical strips known as "Saganship Z". And it could very well help them in the long run...
During the day, we see our girls arriving at the hotel, with their room number booked as "606" (scary!) and with the performance starting at 6:00PM (even more scary!). Sakura then questions Kotaro a logical question: what is he even doing while the group rehearses? Well, he's going to see some sights. Simples.
As he drives away like a cartoon character, our girls then decided to not rehearse for the time being, given that they've been locked up in Kotaro's mansion for several weeks since their revival. This not only allows some of the girls to get some fresh air in their dead lungs, but it allows Yugiri and Junko to explore the modern era world for the first time. They then explore the vicinity of the area, as they go visiting a shrine, and do some sweet window-shopping.
Meanwhile, Kotaro is at a meeting with the CEO of the Hisanaka company that Franchouchou are sponsoring with. While Kotaro manages to assure the lady that his girls will bless the new fangled teens with her company's products alongside Franchouchou gaining traction from it, he catches them walking by the café that Kotaro is currently at. Uh-oh. While the CEO attempts to see what's going on, Kotaro distracts her with his trademark charm.
Back to the girls, and we see them all at the foot spa area. Now that Franchouchou managed to take a breather for once, they begin to wonder about certain things. Sakura brings up the fact that despite almost all seven of them being from different points in time, they consider themselves very lucky to be part of an idol group that's comprised of talent from all sorts of areas. They also discuss that the girls would've been cremated long before they were even revived (given that Japan cremates peoples' bodies after they've died, with the very few exceptions at the Foreigner Graveyards located in Tokyo, Hakodate, Kobe, Nagasaki and Yokohama)...but no-one, not even Sakura, knows how Kotaro was able to bring these girls back from the dead despite that.
Sakura then asks Ai some very important questions: Does the group stand a chance of becoming a full-on idol group in Saga? And not just any idol group, but an idol group that's dedicated to making people happy? And most importantly, if they work harder together, will they even achieve such a dream?
These questions all manage to puzzle Ai for a moment, as she moves to the table nearby the foot spa. One by one, the rest of Franchouchou join her, as they tell Ai that they're ready to tackle on a such daunting, but not impossible, task. While Ai has her doubts on that, Sakura thankfully reassures her that they won't mess up that dream. With the seven of them now completely able to work together as a team, they decide that its best to get ready for rehearsing, but not before they try to figure out what the heck they're even doing with the Saganship Z product, first.
Back in the hotel, we see Franchouchou examining the pharmaceutical strips up close. Without even batting an eye, Saki slaps that shit onto Sakura's back, causing the latter to pleasurably moan in excitement from the sudden shock of the product (And whatever you do, don't pull this off at home. It can actually hurt you).
With these straps allowing the girl's joints to feel less fatigued (which is due to the fact that their moist corpse-y bodies absorb stuff faster), they can be able to rehearse their routine at a much better pace. And given that they were sent a truckload of these straps, they are able to use them whenever they can. But the group then wonders if they're able to try slapping some straps on the audience for their performance...this catches Saki's attention especially, and the team gets to work on their gig for tonight.
During the evening, Franchouchou's performance of "Mezame RETURNER" goes off without a hitch in the slightest, for once. In fact, it's their first performance ever that doesn't rely on them causing havoc in some capacity. Well, unless you count the fact that Franchouchou slaps the Saganship Z strips onto the audience's backs...but they don't seem to mind, as this turns out to be a successful way to promote the new product.
Later that night, we see the group getting ready for bed at their hotel room. Sakura is attempting to wash her make-up off, but then Saki comes up with a mischievous idea of sneaking off to go in the hot springs with Sakura, given that their zombie bodies could use a little bit more cleansing. Just as Sakura was about to dismiss Saki's idea, Junko comes in, who was listening to the two girls' conversation. Junko, being a fan of the idea, decides if they can let her join in. With a huge ass smugly smile from Saki, she declares to Sakura that they'll be sneaking off to the hot springs. Despite the worried look from Sakura, the three decide to do just that.
With their make-off (and clothing!) removed, the three zombies decide to relax in the revitalizing hot springs. But as time passes, they have their relaxation time ruined by the CEO of Hisanaka, who decides to relax in the water as well. The zombie trio decides to sneak away from the lady, as they attempt to dive underwater. As Sakura begins to dive, she bumps her head off very literally. And this manages to catch the attention of the CEO...and when she pulls away one of the Saganship Z strips that fell off Junko earlier...she sees Sakura's decayed, rotting head beneath it. Along with her decayed body floating next to it.
The CEO screams bloody murder, but unfortunately for her, Kotaro is busy in the sauna room, who's practically wearing nothing but a towel...and iconic shades, for some reason.
As she heads back into the hotel, the CEO notices that she woke up the other zombies. As the lights begin to erratically flicker, a young little girl teleports closer and closer to her. It's Lily, and she gives the CEO a cold glare from her, thanks to her sleepy time being ruined. Tae then falls off the ceiling and crab-walks away from the CEO, which freaks the lady out even more. And then out of nowhere, she runs into Ai, as they both scream at each other. With nowhere to hide, she runs some more and spots a nice looking lady from the back, and quickly asks her for help. That nice looking lady, by the way, is Yugiri, whose just as decayed as the rest of the girls. Again, this freaks the CEO out.
We then cut to the trio, with Saki holding Sakura's head and Junko holding Sakura's body in tow, as they all attempt to rush back to their room for the night. Unfortunately, they don't even know that the CEO is just around the corner, and is currently holding Junko's strip of Saganship Z, in which she tosses onto the ground. She manages to get away from the zombies...but only for a small moment, as Saki accidentally steps on the strip, which gets her sliding across the hallway...right onto the CEO herself. We then fade to white.
The morning after, we see Kotaro bidding the CEO of the company one last goodbye before he and Franchouchou leave the resort, and stating that he's ready for further collaborations with Hisanaka. But, due to the CEO's fiasco with the random female zombies she saw last night, her memory of that entire whole day are now gone forever. With a sudden confused look at Kotaro, we cut back to the girls reading up on the local Saga magazine (called Sagazine), with an article about 'zombies running amok in the resort hotel' as it's main story for the issue.
Kotaro, who is beyond pissed at this point, gives Sakura a very clear warning to never do that again, and leaves Franchouchou be for now. While their mission was an absolute failure, it wasn't a total loss, as they managed to retrieve an entire after-lifetime's worth of Saganship Z for their troubles, ensuring that Franchouchou will do better with their rehearsals from now on. At the end of the day, the girls all managed to improve on their friendships, and that's all that matters.
Tropes
- All for Nothing: Kotaro’s plan to net Franchouchou a sponsor completely falls apart when the company president is terrified into a unresponsive state and can’t follow through on their deal. He is rightfully pissed. The girls at least see a silver lining in that the pre-incident hanging out allowed them to grow closer to each other.Assistant: “Oh sorry about that. Turns out she had some kind of big scare last night. The shock’s caused her to forget everything that happened yesterday.”BeatKotaro: (Forcing a smile) ”What?”
- Don't Try This at Home: When finding out what Saganship Z is that is to say dermal patches, Sakura mentions that putting them on someone else counts as practicing medicine and shouldn't be done, Saki does it anyway as they're zombies and probably wouldn't count as people and just slaps one on Sakura. Immediately following is a huge disclaimer on top stating "Administrating dermal patches to people who aren't zombies is considered practicing medicine. Please don't try this at home".
- Foreshadowing:
- Sakura’s Determinator tendencies make her push the others to work instead of relax. Episode 10 explores the extreme of this.
- The others assume Sakura must know something about Kotaro’s true nature. Unbeknownst to them (Sakura included), she and Kotaro knew each other in high school.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Three of the girls sneak out at night without make-up to enjoy the hot springs. This leads to a run-in with the pharmaceutical president who is terrified into an unresponsive state.
- Hot Springs Episode: The latter half. Saki, Sakura, and Junko sneak out at night to enjoy the hot springs. Unfortunately things spiral out of control...
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No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Parodied Trope.Lily: "You know, they say there's no such thing as bad press. But this is pretty bad." - Product Placement: In-Universe. Franchouchou integrates their sponsor’s product into their performance.*
- Slice of Life: The first half of the episode has the girls going on a daytrip through a small part of Saga, bonding over the experience.
- Trauma Conga Line: The pharmaceutical president's experience with Franchouchou at the inn.
- First she discovers Sakura's disembodied head floating in the hot springs.
- Then Saki and Junko emerge looking like swamp monsters, with water gushing out of their mouths.
- Lily flickers into her view in a dark hallway, followed by Tae who crab walks around her like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl.
- She and Ai scream hysterically at each other, Ai looking inadvertently more terrifying to her.
- She pleads for help from Yugiri, who turns around creepily to reveal her zombie features.
- And finally Saki and Sakura slips on a dropped medicinal patch, causing to slide down the hall into the poor woman, right as the screen fades to white.
