Kotaro: Starting today, you're called Green Face!
Sakura: Mr. Kotaro...!
Kotaro: Listen! You get out there...and show these people the GRRREEN FACE OF YOUR HEARTS!
Sakura: But what does that mean-?
Kotaro: OKAY!! GO NOW!!! GO, GO, GOOOOO-
Sakura: Mr. Kotaro...!
Kotaro: Listen! You get out there...and show these people the GRRREEN FACE OF YOUR HEARTS!
Sakura: But what does that mean-?
Kotaro: OKAY!! GO NOW!!! GO, GO, GOOOOO-
The one where we go from a death metal idol performance...to a rap idol performance. Did we mention that these girls have never performed one pop song yet? (The opening theme isn't even a pop song at all, mind you!)
Full Recap
With six of our seven rotting girls fully awakened, Kotaro can properly re-introduce himself to the soon-to-be-famous idol group based in Saga (who has yet to even have a proper group name. Death Musumenote didn't stick). With his fully awoken zombie girls by his side, they shall become the number one idol group in Saga Prefecture and make Saga itself a recognizable location nationwide. Not that anyone else cares, not even Tae (who's chewing on her own hair).
(Cue glorified opening sequence that would make a Super Sentai fan tear up in awe)
Saki is very unpleased at the idea of Kotaro making her and the rest of the zombies take over Saga...by singing and dancing as a group. Kotaro gives them a clear reminder that they've all died, and were only given a second chance on his behalf. That being said, the girls have to focus on their goal, and that's that.
Kotaro then gives Sakura a tiny pop quiz: "What's the first thing you shouldn't do as a zombie?" Sakura answers wrongly with the idea of biting people, and Kotaro gives Sakura the correct answer... and the very harsh truth. He then shows off a quick video that showcases five zombies in horror films, all being brutally slaughtered in quick succession. This causes Sakura to start tearing up, and how.
Because of how most of society treats zombies as actual threats (if they were to be in public sight), the girls are restricted from going outside, not without permission and definitely not without their make-up on.
During this whole debacle, Ai brings up the fact that she wasn't even a Saga citizen to begin with, which causes Kotaro to give Ai a lil pop quiz on Saga. She guesses right, and she tests the smug idol producer to try and guess the population of Saga. He only replies with "It's very small", which isn't good enough for Ai... and Kotaro begins ranting again.
Despite all that, he mentions that they pulled off a successful performance at the death mental concert last night (if it can be called a success, that is), but unfortunately, the awakened zombies besides Sakura do not remember that happening at all. The group is then dismissed... to a forced rehearsal by Kotaro.
Later on, Sakura decides to try and speak to Ai, given that she seemed familiar... perhaps Ai was one of the girls who appeared in that vision she had? Unfortunately for her, she's interrupted by one Saki Nikaido, who rudely asks what middle school she went to. Regardless of Sakura's amnesiac state, Saki doesn't take nothing for an answer, and tries to reason with Sakura so she can leave Kotaro and join Saki's ongoing quest to dominate Japan (which wouldn't really work nowadays given that Saki was dead for a decade or so). Sakura is too scared to say anything, and Saki just leaves the scene frustrated.
Sakura then notices Ai's absence within the mansion's main living room (i.e. the room where the girls can all sleep and relax in), and we see Ai making an attempt to escape the mansion...but not before noticing the zombie dog Romero, whose guarding the entrance. Ai decides to find an alternate exit upon seeing the very detailed Romero slamming onto the door window, but we then see his cuter looks as he desperately seeks for attention.
Ai manages to exit through the back door, as she continues to find a proper way to leave the mansion. Sakura calls out for Ai, but she ignores Sakura...and then bumps into Junko while she was sneaking through the grass. Cue the screaming.
Sakura then meets up with the two veteran idols and asks them to stay inside, given that Sakura was shot by a policeman before. It's clear that she doesn't want Ai and Junko to meet a similar, if not, worse fate than she faced back then. Ai and Junko continues to ignore her, even though Ai falls down from climbing up the mansion gates, which results in her eyeballs popping out of her sockets, to Junko's horror.
Cut to the three in public, and while Sakura really wished they didn't escape, Ai and Junko do not care in the slightest. They're just homesick from all these years of...well, being dead. Sakura then attempts to reassure them that she wants Ai and Junko to be part of the group, because of what she saw in the vision just might become a reality one day, be it a past memory or otherwise.
And then, out of absolutely nowhere, some wild rappers appear. This spells trouble.
As the three young rapping dudes attempt to freestyle their way to the girls, the three zombies try to get away from them as much as they can. That is, until they realize that they've ran into a dead end. And to make things go from bad to worse, the local policeman is back again, only for him to start his own freestyle rap to try and stop the rappers from 'harassing the girls' (even though the rappers are actually kind-hearted and just wanted to rap for fun).
Without even thinking twice, Ai attempts to ask for the policeman's aide (much like what Sakura did back in the first episode), only for him to see not just one, not two, but three rotting zombies under the light. This brings out his zombie PTSD, and the rappers cower in fear as well. The policeman shoots, but misses the girls...but with that unlikely warning shot, everyone starts to scream at each other.
Another missed shot at the girls, and the three zombies start racing back to the mansion, while our local policeman and those three rapping dudes begin to huddle up with them crying for mommy. All of this happened and no one realized that Kotaro himself was watching this scene play out from start to finish...
The following morning, we see Sakura rehearsing with Kotaro's assisting. Ai and Junko, however, are still traumatized from last night's encounter. With Ai's lingering thought of the fact that society does not want zombies out in the public, she starts to regret her afterlife. Meanwhile, Saki is still very unsure about Sakura remaining loyal to Kotaro's silly idol plans, and while Sakura wants to befriend Saki, the latter zombie ain't having that crap.
Later during the day, the zombie idol group arrives at their second gig, located in the Saga Castle. The girls will be performing as part of the "Shachi-no-mon Public Concert". That being said, the only fans they've gotten so far are those two metalheads who had hopes for them during the metal performance back then.
With the group getting their make-up on, we see Yugiri and Lily befriending each other right off the bat (which is funny since they're both polar opposites when it comes to their eras). We also see Saki trying to loudly exclaim that they all look alive again, much to Sakura's worry- and Saki declares that she looks "friggin' sexy" with Kotaro's Hollywood-tier make-up skills applied on her (yes, he learnt how to do such skills, don't ask how and why).
When the host comes up and calls out the group's name, Sakura tries to correct him that it's still known as "Death Musume", but due to a last-minute change by Kotaro himself, the group is now (tentatively) called "Green Face"note . Sakura attempts to know why, but she obviously asked the wrong person for such knowledge, as Kotaro yells at the group to get on stage immediately.
On the stage, and we see that the audience is compromised of old retired folks...and two metalheads sticking out like sore thumbs. Sakura then introduces herself and the others (but only referred as 'numbers', given they cannot let the public know about their true identity, obviously), as they shall use their 'green' (i.e. novice) skills to do their best. Cue the music!
We hear an awesome pop song beginning to play, but unfortunately, Sakura is the only one who bothered to rehearsed the entire song and dance. Tae doesn't mind dancing, if you can call it that. Yugiri even joins in on the fun! Albeit, she is sticking to what she knows about dancing from her era, not the modern era. The performance starts to collapse when Tae notices some dried squid being eaten by a random old man, and this causes Tae to make a move for some free snacks.
Not even a full line into the song, and Sakura has to stop performing as she pulls Tae back up...but this time, it doesn't work. Instead, she pulls off her arm, and Tae falls onto the ground, with her head popping out of her.
Tae clamps onto the old man, and begs for some of his dried squid. The old man thankfully gives her some, and as Tae happily chews away, Sakura attempts to cover up Tae's antics with the excuse that it's all just undead magic. Sakura then throws the head to Saki while the former retrieves Tae's headless body that's running around the stage. Saki then realizes that she and the others cannot even feel physical pain from losing limbs...
While the audience are entertained by this sudden shift of events, Saki attempts to sabotage Sakura's help by giving the audience what they want. This infuriates Sakura enough to have her slap Tae's head away, and she yells right at Saki's face to not reveal the secret of them being zombies. But before everything crumbles from that statement...she begins dissing Saki. With rap.
Kotaro then has a sudden eureka moment. If Sakura learnt how to rap from the events that played out last night, then he should pitch in to help her rap to victory, and he does just that by giving some beatboxing to back her up. Saki then goes all out with her rapping skills too, as the two zombies begin the most epic rap battle of zombie history. Yugiri and Lily also pitch in by providing with more instrumentation (with the former playing on her shamisen, and the latter allowing Tae to make vocalized grunts with Lily's mic...that Tae managed stuff in her own mouth).
Eventually, Sakura wins her rap battle, but not before going in for a second rap verse where she disses on Ai and Junko for not trusting her enough and foolishly using their past stardom as an excuse for doing whatever they want. She finally ends the rap with one last verse addressed to the senior citizens watching the performance. With her dropping, no, slamming the mic down onto the ground, the rap number is over...and the entire audience goes wild with applause.
Sakura (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the group that isn't Ai and Junko) managed to provide an out-of-nowhere act that literally impressed everyone, even the metalheads themselves! Of course, this not only surprises Sakura, who manages to get a familiar feeling from that vision she saw, but this also surprises Saki as well. As the group gets ready to leave for the day, Saki acknowledges Sakura's brave attempt at proving her guts to the tomboy zombie. With that out of the way, Saki finally decides to make amends and become pals with Sakura, and accepts the crazy idea of conquering Japan with the power of singing and dancing...even though Sakura thinks that's not entirely the point of becoming idols. Sakura does get a smile from Kotaro though, as he's proud once again for her insane act.
Although, it’s implied the real reason behind Saki befriending Sakura is that she reminds Saki of the egg Tamagotchi that she attempted to raise when she was alive.
(Cue glorified opening sequence that would make a Super Sentai fan tear up in awe)
Saki is very unpleased at the idea of Kotaro making her and the rest of the zombies take over Saga...by singing and dancing as a group. Kotaro gives them a clear reminder that they've all died, and were only given a second chance on his behalf. That being said, the girls have to focus on their goal, and that's that.
Kotaro then gives Sakura a tiny pop quiz: "What's the first thing you shouldn't do as a zombie?" Sakura answers wrongly with the idea of biting people, and Kotaro gives Sakura the correct answer... and the very harsh truth. He then shows off a quick video that showcases five zombies in horror films, all being brutally slaughtered in quick succession. This causes Sakura to start tearing up, and how.
Because of how most of society treats zombies as actual threats (if they were to be in public sight), the girls are restricted from going outside, not without permission and definitely not without their make-up on.
During this whole debacle, Ai brings up the fact that she wasn't even a Saga citizen to begin with, which causes Kotaro to give Ai a lil pop quiz on Saga. She guesses right, and she tests the smug idol producer to try and guess the population of Saga. He only replies with "It's very small", which isn't good enough for Ai... and Kotaro begins ranting again.
Despite all that, he mentions that they pulled off a successful performance at the death mental concert last night (if it can be called a success, that is), but unfortunately, the awakened zombies besides Sakura do not remember that happening at all. The group is then dismissed... to a forced rehearsal by Kotaro.
Later on, Sakura decides to try and speak to Ai, given that she seemed familiar... perhaps Ai was one of the girls who appeared in that vision she had? Unfortunately for her, she's interrupted by one Saki Nikaido, who rudely asks what middle school she went to. Regardless of Sakura's amnesiac state, Saki doesn't take nothing for an answer, and tries to reason with Sakura so she can leave Kotaro and join Saki's ongoing quest to dominate Japan (which wouldn't really work nowadays given that Saki was dead for a decade or so). Sakura is too scared to say anything, and Saki just leaves the scene frustrated.
Sakura then notices Ai's absence within the mansion's main living room (i.e. the room where the girls can all sleep and relax in), and we see Ai making an attempt to escape the mansion...but not before noticing the zombie dog Romero, whose guarding the entrance. Ai decides to find an alternate exit upon seeing the very detailed Romero slamming onto the door window, but we then see his cuter looks as he desperately seeks for attention.
Ai manages to exit through the back door, as she continues to find a proper way to leave the mansion. Sakura calls out for Ai, but she ignores Sakura...and then bumps into Junko while she was sneaking through the grass. Cue the screaming.
Sakura then meets up with the two veteran idols and asks them to stay inside, given that Sakura was shot by a policeman before. It's clear that she doesn't want Ai and Junko to meet a similar, if not, worse fate than she faced back then. Ai and Junko continues to ignore her, even though Ai falls down from climbing up the mansion gates, which results in her eyeballs popping out of her sockets, to Junko's horror.
Cut to the three in public, and while Sakura really wished they didn't escape, Ai and Junko do not care in the slightest. They're just homesick from all these years of...well, being dead. Sakura then attempts to reassure them that she wants Ai and Junko to be part of the group, because of what she saw in the vision just might become a reality one day, be it a past memory or otherwise.
And then, out of absolutely nowhere, some wild rappers appear. This spells trouble.
As the three young rapping dudes attempt to freestyle their way to the girls, the three zombies try to get away from them as much as they can. That is, until they realize that they've ran into a dead end. And to make things go from bad to worse, the local policeman is back again, only for him to start his own freestyle rap to try and stop the rappers from 'harassing the girls' (even though the rappers are actually kind-hearted and just wanted to rap for fun).
Without even thinking twice, Ai attempts to ask for the policeman's aide (much like what Sakura did back in the first episode), only for him to see not just one, not two, but three rotting zombies under the light. This brings out his zombie PTSD, and the rappers cower in fear as well. The policeman shoots, but misses the girls...but with that unlikely warning shot, everyone starts to scream at each other.
Another missed shot at the girls, and the three zombies start racing back to the mansion, while our local policeman and those three rapping dudes begin to huddle up with them crying for mommy. All of this happened and no one realized that Kotaro himself was watching this scene play out from start to finish...
The following morning, we see Sakura rehearsing with Kotaro's assisting. Ai and Junko, however, are still traumatized from last night's encounter. With Ai's lingering thought of the fact that society does not want zombies out in the public, she starts to regret her afterlife. Meanwhile, Saki is still very unsure about Sakura remaining loyal to Kotaro's silly idol plans, and while Sakura wants to befriend Saki, the latter zombie ain't having that crap.
Later during the day, the zombie idol group arrives at their second gig, located in the Saga Castle. The girls will be performing as part of the "Shachi-no-mon Public Concert". That being said, the only fans they've gotten so far are those two metalheads who had hopes for them during the metal performance back then.
With the group getting their make-up on, we see Yugiri and Lily befriending each other right off the bat (which is funny since they're both polar opposites when it comes to their eras). We also see Saki trying to loudly exclaim that they all look alive again, much to Sakura's worry- and Saki declares that she looks "friggin' sexy" with Kotaro's Hollywood-tier make-up skills applied on her (yes, he learnt how to do such skills, don't ask how and why).
When the host comes up and calls out the group's name, Sakura tries to correct him that it's still known as "Death Musume", but due to a last-minute change by Kotaro himself, the group is now (tentatively) called "Green Face"note . Sakura attempts to know why, but she obviously asked the wrong person for such knowledge, as Kotaro yells at the group to get on stage immediately.
On the stage, and we see that the audience is compromised of old retired folks...and two metalheads sticking out like sore thumbs. Sakura then introduces herself and the others (but only referred as 'numbers', given they cannot let the public know about their true identity, obviously), as they shall use their 'green' (i.e. novice) skills to do their best. Cue the music!
We hear an awesome pop song beginning to play, but unfortunately, Sakura is the only one who bothered to rehearsed the entire song and dance. Tae doesn't mind dancing, if you can call it that. Yugiri even joins in on the fun! Albeit, she is sticking to what she knows about dancing from her era, not the modern era. The performance starts to collapse when Tae notices some dried squid being eaten by a random old man, and this causes Tae to make a move for some free snacks.
Not even a full line into the song, and Sakura has to stop performing as she pulls Tae back up...but this time, it doesn't work. Instead, she pulls off her arm, and Tae falls onto the ground, with her head popping out of her.
Tae clamps onto the old man, and begs for some of his dried squid. The old man thankfully gives her some, and as Tae happily chews away, Sakura attempts to cover up Tae's antics with the excuse that it's all just undead magic. Sakura then throws the head to Saki while the former retrieves Tae's headless body that's running around the stage. Saki then realizes that she and the others cannot even feel physical pain from losing limbs...
While the audience are entertained by this sudden shift of events, Saki attempts to sabotage Sakura's help by giving the audience what they want. This infuriates Sakura enough to have her slap Tae's head away, and she yells right at Saki's face to not reveal the secret of them being zombies. But before everything crumbles from that statement...she begins dissing Saki. With rap.
Kotaro then has a sudden eureka moment. If Sakura learnt how to rap from the events that played out last night, then he should pitch in to help her rap to victory, and he does just that by giving some beatboxing to back her up. Saki then goes all out with her rapping skills too, as the two zombies begin the most epic rap battle of zombie history. Yugiri and Lily also pitch in by providing with more instrumentation (with the former playing on her shamisen, and the latter allowing Tae to make vocalized grunts with Lily's mic...that Tae managed stuff in her own mouth).
Eventually, Sakura wins her rap battle, but not before going in for a second rap verse where she disses on Ai and Junko for not trusting her enough and foolishly using their past stardom as an excuse for doing whatever they want. She finally ends the rap with one last verse addressed to the senior citizens watching the performance. With her dropping, no, slamming the mic down onto the ground, the rap number is over...and the entire audience goes wild with applause.
Sakura (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the group that isn't Ai and Junko) managed to provide an out-of-nowhere act that literally impressed everyone, even the metalheads themselves! Of course, this not only surprises Sakura, who manages to get a familiar feeling from that vision she saw, but this also surprises Saki as well. As the group gets ready to leave for the day, Saki acknowledges Sakura's brave attempt at proving her guts to the tomboy zombie. With that out of the way, Saki finally decides to make amends and become pals with Sakura, and accepts the crazy idea of conquering Japan with the power of singing and dancing...even though Sakura thinks that's not entirely the point of becoming idols. Sakura does get a smile from Kotaro though, as he's proud once again for her insane act.
Although, it’s implied the real reason behind Saki befriending Sakura is that she reminds Saki of the egg Tamagotchi that she attempted to raise when she was alive.
Tropes:
- All Part of the Show: When Tae's head comes flying off, Sakura insists it's all just a special effect designed for the show. Strangely enough, the audience buys it, even as one of them feeds squid to Tae's removed head. Later, when Sakura and Saki start arguing onstage, it segues into a rap battle while Kotaro and the other girls (save for Ai and Junko) provide beatboxing and background music to disguise it as part of their performance.
- Battle Rapping: Sakura and Saki have an enthralling rap battle that salvages the group's otherwise disastrous performance.
- Broken Pedestal: Sakura admired Ai deeply when they were both alive. Unfortunately Ai's hostile and cynical behavior towards Sakura due the stress of their situation gets to the her, and she later delivers a brutal callout in the form of a rap performance. They don't fully patch things up until next episode.
- Call-Back:
- Zombie Land Saga E01
- Ai, Junko, and Sakura almost have a repeat of Sakura's run-in with Policeman A. Thankfully he misses his shot this time and the girls manage to escape.
- Kotaro applies the girls' makeup in his van like he did last episode. Being fully awakened now, the girls (save for Tae, who is still a mindless zombie) take the time to admire his handiwork.
- Zombie Land Saga E01
- The Dog Bites Back: After spending the whole episode at the receiving end of her abuse, Sakura lays into Saki during their live performance.
- Establishing Character Moment: As all the girls save Tae have fully awakened now, they’re now properly characterized as people and not mindless zombies.
- Saki is looking around the room with a pissed-off expression, as if a brawl is about to occur at any second. She’s quick to resort to intimidation when she doesn’t get the answers she wants from Kotaro and Sakura.
- Ai sternly observes the situation, looking ready to ditch if anything goes awry. She tells Kotaro during their meeting that his plan to make zombies into idols is stupid and nigh-impossible.
- Junko shyly withdraws into her seat as if not wanting to disturb the girls next to her. She's also the first girl besides Ai to run from the project, but out of fear in her case.
- Yugiri is relaxed and smoking from her kiseru, seemingly indifferent to the bizarre situation she’s in.
- Lily is cheerfully adjusting her bow and doing her best to look cute.
- Eye Scream: Ai falls onto her back, causing her eyes to pop out of her head.
- Foreshadowing:
- The song the girls were set to perform — ヨミガエレ note — returns in the season finale as one of their biggest performances yet.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Defied. Sakura's able to prevent what could've been a disastrous slipup that would have outed the girls' zombiehood.
- She frames Tae's head popping off like it's a magic trick which escalates into a back-and-forth routine with her and Saki reattaching and removing the head form the body.
- She then almost lets slip that the girls are zombies while reaching her limit with Saki, then the two somehow turn that into an epic rap battle.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Both Saki and Ai make a point of calling out Sakura for jumping on board with the idol project without much thought. Saki because she doesn't trust Kotaro and thinks idol work is beneath her, and Ai because of the sheer difficulty of trying to become an idol while hiding their identities as zombies. Though by the end of the episode Sakura manages to change both of their minds when she shows she shows she's willing to accept the risks.
- Jerkass Realization:
- Seeing Sakura's resolve on becoming an idol for real, Saki reconsiders her behavior towards her and decides to abandon her plan to ditch becoming an idol herself.
- Ai looks noticeably pained as Sakura tears into her behavior, implying she realizes Sakura is right about her.
- Mic Drop: Sakura hurls her microphone into the ground after delivering a very intense freestyle rap.
- Off with His Head!: Tae's head pops off her body mid-performance. The girls have to quickly frame it all as an elaborate magic trick.
- Oh, Crap!: The girls when Tae's head pops off at a live performance.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sakura's rap battle with Saki escalates into this as she uses the opportunity to call out her band mates on their crummy behaviors.
- She accuses Saki of being a coward and hypocrite for trying to run away from being an idol since that undermines the latter's principle of completing what she sets out to accomplish, something unbecoming of a legendary biker.
- She accuses Junko and Ai of resigning themselves to a hopeless state instead of trying to make the most of their of their new lives as zombies. Considering how Ai stated it was impossible for Sakura to be an idol, Sakura showing both the skill and drive to be one puts Ai in her place.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ai and Junko are both set ditching the Zombie Land Saga Project, the former believing it to be an absurd pipe dream of Kotaro’s, and the latter out of fear at the other zombies (particularly Tae for biting and chasing her). Neither of them make it far though and turn back once they almost get shot by Policeman A.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The seniors at the show are weirdly casual about seeing Tae's head pop off and move around.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Ai's plan is to escape Saga and return to Tokyo, her home prefecture. She soon realizes it's impossible since she'll be hunted down if exposed as a zombie. The realization hits her hard.
Saki: Idols, huh? That's not a bad way to take over Japan, I guess...
Sakura: Wow, Saki...(in her thoughts)...I wouldn't call today an idol concert, though.
Sakura: Wow, Saki...(in her thoughts)...I wouldn't call today an idol concert, though.
