Tear Jerker / Zombie Land Saga

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Sometimes even zombies could do with a hug.

It's not easy, being green...or grayish blue, as the case may be in Zombie Land Saga.

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In General

• The ending theme, "Hikari e" ("Into the Light"), is a moving ballad sung by the girls from the perspective of dying and departing for the afterlife. For a series filled with so much goofiness, it's a very melancholy note to end each episode on. As a testament to how sad it is, the album cover◊ showcases all seven girls holding each other on the verge of tears.
  • Brina Palencia said that next to the rap, this was the song she was most proud of adapting the lyrics for.
• The general premise of the series, if you think about it. All of the girls died tragically young and before they were able to realize their dreams, and their nature of zombies means it's impossible for them to reunite with their loved ones (if they are even alive) or maintain close connections with others. And while some of them are content with no longer having to grow up like Lily,^* She wanted to remain small and cute forever and was horrified at the idea of puberty, not helped by being a transgender girl meaning she had to worry about facial hair, the first of which appearing aiding in giving her a fatal heart attack. others are forced to acknowledge that, as zombies, they can now never grow up regardless of whether or not they want to, like Saki.^* After meeting the man she had a crush on when alive, he tells her she's too young for him, but he'd be willing to get together when she's older, leading her to breakdown in Sakura's arms when they're in private while lamenting she'll never get to grow up.

Season One

Episode 1 - Good Morning Saga

• There's a moment where Sakura realizes she's a zombie, and just... freezes. She gets shot, feels the hole in her chest, and unnervingly collapses to the ground, staring up into the rain with dead eyes. Given all the emotion she's gone through so far, it's a pretty bleak point for her.

Episode 2 - I ♥ Hip Hop Saga

• Ai and Junko's realization in the second episode that, no, there isn't a place for them in society anymore. The way they turn in on themselves and shut down for the rest of the episode just makes you want to give them a hug.

Episode 3 - Dead Or Live Saga

• Ai and Junko's Heroic BSoD continues through most of this episode. It certainly doesn't help matters when Kotaro, of all people, points out how the others are trying their hardest to be idols despite having no experience. He even leaves them in the van without a word.

Episode 6 - Because It's Sentimental Saga

• Ai and Junko's argument over Idol styles in the sixth episode is heart-wrenching, given how much respect they've had for each other prior, and how much it tears the group apart to see them fighting. It isn't even resolved properly by the episode's end.
• Junko's inability to interact with her fans stems from the belief that idols should be perfect, an ideal she worked toward her whole life. She can't understand how anybody would follow a celebrity that was not an absolute ideal, and thinks her inability to adapt means she must leave the group for its own good.
  • If you really think about it, Junko's fears in regards to getting up and close with fans and wanting clear boundaries are completely justified. Nowadays, Japanese idols are commercialized, objectified, sexualized, and made to be something fans feel they can own. Idols aren't expected to really have agency or humanity, and are prohibited from doing things like get into romantic relationships for the sake of being pure and keeping up an illusion of purity. Just look at all the news stories where idols get harassed by fans for daring to do things normal people do, like get a boyfriend. The current idol industry tends to exploit young girls for profit to project an image of sanctity and fulfill an abstract demand of being available for everyone. If Junko really did get to live to be an old lady, it'd be safe to say she would NOT be happy with how the idol industry evolved over the next few decades.
• When Sakura finds Junko on the beach and asks about her being from an older generation of idols, Junko replies that she should be "an old lady" by now. It's a small detail that drives home that all of the zombie idols died very young, and makes you wonder what sort of lives they'd have had if they'd lived.
• Ai's death was this in universe. Watching a beloved idol suddenly be struck dead on stage in the middle of a concert was so traumatic that it's still sadly remembered by fans and her old group ten years later. It's even more saddening to see Ai's reaction to the news as she realizes that the joy she brought her fans in life—the one thing she wanted to be remembered for—was vastly overshadowed by her sudden and brutal death.
  Saki: Holy crap, girl... [Your death was] actually legendary.
  Ai: That's really not the kind of legend I wanted.
  • It gets so much worse if you work out the details of her death mechanically to avoid leaning on Artistic License – Physics. One of the articles she pulled up online indicated that she did not die instantly on stage, but on the way to the hospital. Lightning bolts can reach temperatures five times that of the sun's surface but still are often survivable and can even be minor depending on period and path of exposure. Ai appears to have been hit by "high-current lightning", also known as "hot lightning"; a sustained arc known in reality to be able to utterly carbonize large objects. Given the degree of exposure she sustained, even if she wasn't killed outright, she would, no question about it, have been instantly rendered unconscious at a speed she could not have perceived and consequently, would not have had presence of mind to develop her reflexive phobia; she would not have known to. The only way she could have acquired it is if the poor girl, knocked out instantly and nearly carbonized, somehow held on to life hard enough to regain consciousness in the ambulance where she would have laid helplessly in absolutely unthinkable agony while watching the paramedics simply going through the motions for whatever period of time it took for her to finally let go, all knowing she couldn't be saved. So far in the show, all the other girls appear to have at least had quick and relatively painless deaths, but Ai would have suffered horribly.
  • Ai is caught in a storm, and her perfectly justified fear of lightning has her curled up and unable to move in the middle of a road. Even after Saki finds her and gets her inside some playground equipment, she's still visibly terrified.

Episode 7 - But It's Zombiemental Saga

• Ai reveals that she died just when her group's CD became a bestseller, feeling like she died just when her career was taking off. Echoing Junko's words last episode, that she just became the idol she wanted to be when she died. It really shows how Ai and Junko died far too young.
• Ai, who was until recently the most resistant to the idea of performing with Franchouchou, suddenly becomes the most driven of the whole group to make the Saga Rock performance succeed. Why? Her reading on the internet all but spelled out that her death was a deep nail in the coffin for the popularity of idols in her era. In essence, to her, the end result of her career was the death of the hopes and dreams idols represented in her time, the furthest thing from what she ever wanted. Mark her line from the previous episode "That's really not the kind of legend I wanted" and you can easily conclude that her newfound zeal is directed at turning the result of her tragedy around.
• When Iron Frill performs, we get a flashback of Ai with Iron Frill and it seems like none of the members from Ai's time are still with the group (proven in a CD booklet that named both sets of members). It's a good show of how much time has passed.
  • While it's probably because real-life idol groups tend to cycle out members as they age out, it's also possible that they never moved on from Ai's death. Those girls were more than her teammates but her friends and the thought of continuing singing without Ai was too much to bear.
• Just as Franchouchou has to perform, it starts to rain. Ai is shaking with fear and desperately tries to sing as lightning starts to hit.

Episode 8 - Go Go Neverland Saga

• The whole tragedy between Lily and her father, Takeo Go, centered around the misunderstanding of why she started her television career and how he chose to support her. Even years later, both are clearly torn by what happened and unable to move on. Is it worse for Lily, for whom her death was essentially a few months ago and still very fresh, or for her father, who has lived with the thought that his less than sensitive last words to her might have caused her death for the last seven years?
  • What happened was upon Lily going into showbiz when she was still alive, Takeo quit his job and became her manager. Takeo was too focused on her career to the point that Lily thought he didn't care about her, and tried to forget about him after she was resurrected. Takeo did still care about her, however, but couldn't tell her, and following Lily's untimely heart-breaking death after an argument, his regret overwhelmed him. Based on Takeo's flashback, he was so ashamed about letting her down in life after she died that it drove him to reject watching TV.
  • To elaborate how heartbreaking his flashback scene was, when Takeo Go watches TV alone, he suddenly hears the voice of his child calling him, just like when they watched TV together. When Takeo turns to find out that he was actually alone in the sofa, he breaks up in tears, later exploding in rage because of his inability to forgive himself for what happened to Lily.
  • Then there's why Lily wanted to become a TV star - because Takeo was a big TV fan, and she wanted to make him happy from inside the TV. Instead, becoming a star ended up wrecking their relationship, and they never got the chance to fix it before she died, leaving her dad with regretful memories of the things he'd loved.
• At the present time, Takeo happens to see an article about Franchouchou's performance at Saga Rock and decides to check it out, under the impression Lily's actually an Identical Stranger, but gets mistaken as a stalker due to his oversized body and him touching Lily's shoulders (which isn't allowed) during the meet and greet session. He then turns up a second time to apologize for the first, during which he unintentionally reveals he really did love her and was crushed by her death, and finishes by telling her he won't be coming again.
  • It's very clear that Lily remembers her father, knowing his shirt size and almost letting slip her pet name for him before quickly correcting herself when her father visits for the second time. The fact that she has to hide who she is, to his face, while he is clearly still in mourning, leaves her quite distraught.
  • Later on, once the group decides Lily needs a break, Sakura and Lily have a chat. Distraught by the above, Lily suggests it might have been better if she came back like Sakura, with no memory of her past life. Sakura disagrees, since it's because Lily and her dad both remember each other that Lily finally understands his true feelings for her. Lily agrees, bursting into tears while Sakura comforts her.
• The group comes together to write a song specifically for Lily to sing to her father. They go to the effort of inviting him with a cute letter... and, initially, he leaves it to a co-worker to throw away. Lily is left staring into the crowd, wondering if he will come... and he shows up running at just the last moment.
  • Of course Lily can't reveal her identity directly, so the song she sings hints that she also loved him and regretted having to leave him. At the end, both father and daughter are smiling, almost certainly at each other. He gets over his hatred of television afterwards as a sign he's moving on with his life.

Episode 9 - 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

• The oft-mourned tamogatchi of Saki's? She handed it off to Reiko, her best friend, moments before performing the daring act that killed her. More than two decades later, it's still a Tragic Keepsake held next to the key to Reiko's old motorcycle.
• Saki remembers her old friend well enough to recognize her eyes in her daughter Maria. Throughout the episode she takes the time to give Maria warnings not to get into things she can't handle, something that Saki knows from a very brutal experience.
  • Kotaro warns Saki that violence is not an option for her, since it will reflect poorly on Franchouchou. Later that very night, though, Saki remembers that Maria is going to be facing the rival gang, and nearly rushes out before Kotaro catches her. Thankfully, she comes up with an alternative plan.
• Poor Reiko is put through the wringer in this one. It's bad enough that she's lost her daughter's respect, bad enough that she can't stop Maria's pathetic attempts to intimidate a legitimately dangerous group, bad enough that she can't even get talk to the girl without being shot down. But then, one night, she finds a letter daring her daughter to go to the exact same place her best friend died, for the exact same reason...
  • She doesn't even bother trying to get Maria to back down. She knows her daughter won't listen to her. Instead she debases herself by begging the rival gang member to stop the madness, only earning her daughter's ire.
  • When Saki shows up, there's a moment, a brief moment, where Reiko recognizes her and calls her by name. Saki has to take a bit to come up with a reply, pretending to be confused at her reaction.
  • She gets to see somebody who looks exactly like her dead friend perform exactly the same stunt and cause exactly the same explosion that killed her. It's clear from her first few hesitant steps that she does not want to believe that it all happened again.
• In a way, the destruction of Reiko's motorcycle could qualify. She might have put that part of her life behind her, but it was clearly a well loved and respected machine. Having it blown up in a plan to save her daughter's life and mend their relationship is something of a poetic tragedy.

Episode 10 - No Zombie No Idol Saga

• Sakura's eagerness to perform turns into frustration with the rest of the girls, to a point where she can't get in sync with them and fails to realize she's the issue. The trip to the mountain is just filled with the other girls trying to get through to her, with Junko's talk about fishing and contemplation and Saki's talk about survival first just flying over her head.
  • There's a scene where Kotaro is drinking at some bar, and Yugiri comes in to talk with him about their trip to the mountain. She confirms that the whole point was to teach Sakura a lesson... and Kotaro feels a little let down that she didn't pick up on it. Perhaps more than a little, given that he's in a bar.
  • Fortunately, Sakura does realize her issue and apologizes, promising to work with the rest of the group more closely... just in time to run out and get hit by a truck again. On the plus side, she regains her memories of her past life, like she's wanted the whole series, but she's forgotten all her memories of Franchouchou and has no idea where she is. And the big show is only a week away...
  • From what we see from the glimpses of her memories, fate had always failed Sakura. When she was in grade school, she got the main role for the class drama. She trained hard, only to get sick at the day of the performance. In her middle school, she studied for an exam only to be late because she helped an old lady on her way. She grew depressed for her repeated failures, but Iron Frill brought her spirit up and inspired her to be an idol. She died before she could even send off her audition paperwork.

Episode 11 - One-of-a-Kind Saga

• When Sakura is terrified of all of the other zombies, a particularly hard-hitting moment comes when she drops her weapon in defeat and says that even trying to fight is pointless. She's returned to her depression to the point that even trying to defend her own life isn't something she's willing to do.
• Sakura's amnesia hits the other girls hard, with most of them aside from Yugiri not taking it well - not even Tae, who sits in a Corner of Woe.
  • Lily in particular is saddened that Sakura doesn't remember her. Sakura does try to be gentle with her, both immediately after coming to and during Lily's attempt to cheer her up, but her blinding depression eventually causes her to snap at the girl, leaving her in tears.
• It turns out Sakura has too many memories of her pre-zombie past that led her into self-deprecation, and all of them can be summarized as either being due to insane bad luck, or like a person being a Cosmic Plaything by not getting what you deserve despite the sheer amount of time and effort and time you've put through. As such, it hits close to home for achievers, athletes and/or academics who failed to accomplish some of their dreams.
  • Sakura was chosen to be the lead in a "Snow White" play in third grade, but because she got sick on the day of the show, she missed her chance.
  • She got leg cramps every time she joined the relay/marathons in her school, despite having trained assiduously to the point where she had the best lap time in the school.
  • She decided to aim for the best high school in the prefecture, giving up all of her extracurricular priorities to focus on her academic ones, even staying up late reviewing for the exams. She did get the best score on the mock exams, but during the actual entrance exams, she chose to help numerous elderly women on the road. Having managed to make it just in the nick of time, she started panicking and making mistakes, eventually Giving Up the Ghost, and of course, she failed to make it into her preferred school.
  • Just as she'd finally set her sights clear on becoming an idol ten years ago, a certain truck came by... And the rest is history.
  • What makes these scenes even more relatable is Ai's life advice in the TV interview during Sakura's flashbacks, stating that "mistakes and failures are not bad things"... which is a pretty realistic message coming from a Horror Comedy anime.
• Sakura mopes in the playground without any makeup on and has yet another run-in with Policeman A, who tries to shoot her upon seeing what she looked like. Only this time Sakura is so depressed that she isn't even fearful of her own safety, telling him to go ahead and do it. Anyone knows that when you're depressed you can also be suicidal, meaning Sakura could be contemplating suicide upon being unable to go on with her (un)life.

Episode 12 - Good Morning Again Saga

• Tae has rare moments where it's easy to sympathize with her. She tries to lift Sakura's spirits by showing her their successes as a band, only to get yelled at to get lost and rejected each time. Another noticeable case is when she tries to get her attention in the attic, and the girls immediately notice she's actually feeling sad before it turns into anger.
• We finally see a glimpse of Kotaro's past: he was once someone a then-living Sakura knew at the time, and gave her an Iron Frill CD. If you look at her birthday, she died less than 5 days after turning 17, meaning that Iron Frill CD was the last birthday gift Kotaro gave her before her untimely death.

Season Two

Episode 1 - Good Morning Returns Saga

• A month has passed since the first season, and we quickly find out it was not a pleasant one for Franchouchou. Despite a promising string of concerts, everything goes to hell at a concert at Ekimae Real Estate Stadium, which ended up being a disastrous flop due to a myriad of circumstances beyond the team's control. In an instant, all of Franchouchou's popularity evaporated and they've become widely known as the biggest joke in Japan.
  • Kotaro in particular wound up so broken by the concert's failure that he essentially locked himself in New Jofuku for the past month, getting piss drunk while bemoaning how hopeless his mission to restore Saga has become.

Episode 2 - The Saga of an Almost-Broken Radio

• In an overlap with Heartwarming, we get to see Saki's past before forming her gang. She believed that the whole world was against her and wanted her gone, and that constantly fighting was the only way to prove she existed. And that was when she encountered White Ryu's program; he reassured her that even if she's torn up from not knowing where she belongs, she would meet someone like her, and that by just being able to hear him she wasn't alone. Those words changed the way she looked at life, and sure enough she got to meet Reiko afterwards, and then the rest of Franchouchou after becoming a zombie. It proves how just a few encouraging words can turn things around for someone as lost and bitter as Saki was, which is why she's so against him leaving the program and no longer helping people like he had for her, and why she had fallen in love with him outright.
• After White Ryu entrusts her with his radio show, Saki confesses her feelings to him before he leaves and gets turned down, although he does tell her to look for him after she's grown up into a fine woman. The next morning, Saki can't hold back her tears because she knows her undeath prevents her from becoming older. It's a harsh reminder that no matter what they do, the girls are all still zombies, and that any chance of a normal life is out of the question for any of them.

Episode 3 - The Acoustic SAGA of Love and Youth

• Junko's tearful reaction to witnessing Shiori ask Ai to join Iron Frill and leave Franchouchou, and Ai not instantly rejecting it, is utterly heartbreaking to witness.

Episode 4 - Pure-hearted Electric SAGA

• Junko and Ai's argument is this, particularly as it ends with Junko running off to the beach to break down over her fears of Ai leaving her and the band, made worse by flashbacks of her and Ai playing as she runs.
• Happy tears will be shed once Junko and Ai reconcile at the end of the episode.

Episode 5 - Little Bodda Bope Saga

• It's small, but during her talk to Light Oozaru after their performances, she mentions that "You have something that I could never have". Light took this to mean that she was talking about his talent, drive, and/or similar... but as we all know, Lily actually means that he'll get to grow up, and live his "Life" however he wants to. Even though Lily is happy with her unlife, she can't help but feel a little wistful for her fellow performer who'll get all these other chances, and it comes off as her asking him to pursue them in her place.

Episode 7 - Maimai Revolution Saga

• Minor, but while at school, Sakura tells Maimai about how she used to be "dead on the inside", and how from there, she got inspired by Ai to become an idol (then subsequently died). During this talk, we see a brief flashback of Sakura practicing in the classroom for the idol audition over ten years ago... and in the present, Kotaro silently lingers besides that same classroom. Even though they've both seized new chances, it's clear that the past is still a bit of a sore spot.

Episode 9 - The Saga Incident, Part Two

• Itou's betrayal. Kiichi is too late to save the men he inspired to bring back Saga when they set out to spark a rebellion, and discovers his friend surrounded by their corpses. Itou tells him firsthand that his real job was to monitor potential rebel threats, which Kiichi had unwillingly become by inspiring rebels. After being saved by Yugiri, Kiichi undergoes a Heroic BSoD, feeling utterly broken for having led a group of men to their deaths for the sake of his dream, at the hands of someone he considered a close friend at that.
• Itou himself qualifies. Even though betrays Kiichi, slaughters his followers and was about to do him in as well, he truly did care for Kiichi as a friend. All along, Itou's attempts to get him hitched with Yugiri was a ploy to make him give up on his dream before he got marked for death at Itou's hands. He even does believe in his friend's dream, but unfortunately goes after his friend anyway because he genuinely doesn't know a life outside of his current "twisted and barbaric" one, in a parallel to Yugiri at that, who was similarly inspired by Kiichi's dream after finding her life to be without purpose. Ultimately, he lets Yugiri win their Single-Stroke Battle out of the shame of betraying Kiichi. His last moments are in Yugiri's arms, expressing hope that Kiichi really would go on to create the Saga of his dreams.
• Yugiri's last moments with Kiichi are extremely bittersweet. While Kiichi would be able to garner support to create a new Saga, Yugiri ends up willingly accepting the blame for Itou's death and the insurrection, and gets executed as a result. Even after Yugiri is resurrected a zombie, it's clear that her and Kiichi will never be able to see each other again due to the latter being from an era long past. To make matters worse, Kiichi likely never knew she had died, due to Yugiri asking Jofuku in her letter to tell him she made it out of Saga alive. And just to rub salt in the wound, there is the note that unilateral executions were abolished less than a year after Yugiri was beheaded, meaning she was this close to surviving the Saga Incident (though she likely would have spent the rest of her life in prison). All Yugiri has left of him in the present is the comb he gifted her, Jofuku's century-old photo of them together with Itou, and the memories of him between her and Jofuku.
• As spectacular as "Saga Jihen" is - being a catchy 1930s jazz number - its lyrics have a rather somber meaning when you realize its about Yugiri's life in Saga, feeling empty and without a purpose until Kiichi came into her life. Between the reference to Mitsuse Pass and Tawarazaka, which was the route she had specified for him to escape on, and pleading with a lover to visit her even in hell, a nod to how she was executed as a criminal, its obvious that the lyrics were written with Kiichi on Yugiri's mind, and how she longs for him even in her undeath.
• Seeing Itou and Kiichi dancing together during Yugiri's song "Saga Jihen" is heartbreaking. While the two were divided over political issues, the two were still friends in the end. Itou was secretly supportive of Kiichi's idea to restore Saga, while Kiichi never wanted a rebellion in the first place and only wanted to help bring back Saga out of respect for Xu Fu. With Itou dead before Kiichi was ever able to restore Saga, it's hard to watch "Saga Jihen" without thinking of Itou and Kiichi.
  • Worse still is that while everyone from Yugiri's life is dancing along to the song, Kiichi and Itou are specifically replicating Fanchouchou's choreography, giving the impression that it's Yugiri's imagination of a life where the tragedies of the Saga Incident never happened, and the three of them were still close friends.

Episode 11 - All It Takes Is for You to Be There Saga

• The mansion ends up collapsing due to the structural damage that was caused by the typhoon. Although Franchouchou weren't harmed, and the building was already fairly run-down to begin with, it was still their home for the past two years, and seeing such an iconic location reduced to a pile of debris is devastating.
• Kotaro's song's lyrics are about pursuing one's far-off dream even through despair and the threat it will fall apart. It's obviously representative of his dream to save Saga and let the girls, particularly Sakura, live the lives they never could.
• When Sakura gives Kotaro her heartfelt thanks for making her into an idol, he nearly becomes overwhelmed with emotion. He then has a flashback to Sakura thanking him back when she was alive, and remembers when he had learned Sakura died. In a Monochrome Past, we see Kotaro standing dejectedly at their school in a Gray Rain of Depression, slamming his fist into a wall in frustration, and finally, his hands trembling when holding her talent agency application. And during these scenes, there are notes of his thoughts where he resolves to find a way to bring Sakura back so she can fulfill her dream, no matter what. When considering Jofuku's previous comment - how he first met Kotaro as a depressed and outright half-maddened young man 12 years ago, which would have been following Sakura's death - it's easy to picture just how devastating her passing was to him, and why it drove him to resurrect Franchouchou's members in the present.
  No matter who hates me for it
  Even if it means taking on God or the Devil
  I will do it!
  • When she first regains her memories, Sakura thinks that she died without ever having made an impact, but that flashback shows a multitude of students being distraught over her passing, and that people - including pretty much everyone in her class - really did love and care about her despite her poor self-image.
    • Worse still, the saddened students all have the same haircuts as a group of small children around Sakura during her flashback as a small child, meaning that these were Childhood Friends of hers. And then you recall a boy with a tie whose head is out of the frame, which could have very well been Kotaro given he too wears a tie in the present. The two of them weren't just friends in high school, but lifelong friends since childhood. It's just one more factor behind why Kotaro is so driven to help her become an idol, even if it meant resorting to necromancy after her death.
  • The scene of Kotaro holding her application becomes much more heartbreaking when you remember that he had loaned her his CD for Iron Frill, the group that inspired her to audition as an idol and ultimately die on the way to the agency. It wouldn't be unfounded to say that Kotaro felt that he was to blame for the death of his friend, or maybe even the girl he loved, by inspiring her to audition and then die when she was about to do so.
  • Right before his speech to Sakura, Kotaro seems to barely stop himself from telling her that he was really Inui-kun, Sakura's old friend from before her death. It most likely hurts something terrible for him to be forced to keep his real identity a secret from the friend, or possibly old crush, whose death spurred him to find a way to raise the dead just to see her fulfill her dream.
  • After he starts to leave, Sakura can only watch him go with speechless wonder, and the scene lingers upon a still-frame of the two. Regardless of Kotaro's exact feelings for Sakura, and Sakura being unaware that he is her old friend from school, it perfectly hammers home the history and sheer bittersweet emotions involved.

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