History YMMV / ZombieLandSaga

** The debut of the show came just as the [[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/10/12/national/crime-legal/family-seeks-damages-suicide-16-year-old-member-agriculture-promotion-idol-group/ suicide of a 16-year-old regional idol]] (from Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku) made the news when her parents sued her management for abusive behavior, including for extortionate threats when she decided to leave the group. With that, Kotaro's constant physical and verbal smackdowns of the girls--PlayedForLaughs almost exclusively--may become harder for viewers to swallow.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Kotaro is either loved for his hamminess and HiddenDepths or utterly hated for his sociopathic tendencies and general unpleasantness.

* GatewaySeries: The anime has led a number of Western fans to take an interest in other idol series. [[WebVideo/MothersBasement Geoffrey Thew]] actually stated in his review of season 1 that it inspired him to take another look at Franchise/LoveLive and Franchise/TheIdolMaster anime series which he originally panned.

*** In the film, Bill Murray uses his Hollywood makeup skills to blend in with the zombies. Now in the show, Kotaro uses his Hollywood makeup skills to make the zombies blend in with the humans.

*** And it all finally comes to fruition, as the Japanese release of ''Zombieland''’s sequel is being promoted… with the help of ''Zombie Land Saga''. To the point where they made a special version of the movie poster, with the zombies replaced with all 7 members of Franchouchou.

* UncertainAudience: The GenreRoulette aspects of the series make it unclear for some who the target audience is meant to be. In the first few episodes, there are plenty of moments that go fairly hard on the inherent Horror theme of zombies being gross, decayed corpses, yet an equal amount of moments frame the fact comedically; so the initial impression of ZLS was that it aimed to be horror-comedy. The showrunners also went deep into the Idol parody aspect, where the girls participated in a litany of musical genres including heavy metal and rap music with very comedy heavy episodes framing these events. But then that mostly disappears aside from various gags in future episodes. Said aspect is what initially drew in most viewers, but many were surprised to see the show start taking it's role as an Idol anime more seriously as it went on. Of course, some still enjoy the show for its unique mix of all the above, but others believe that not sticking to one direction over the other weakens the experience.

** Creator/RiccoFajardo's work as Kotaro is frequently praised as one of the best English performances, making almost every line of his an abosulute riot to listen to.

* BrokenBase: Downplayed. For a small, non-vocal percentage of watchers, the Yugiri two-parter flashback in ''Revenge'' is considered out-of-place/too much of a GenreShift (from an idol show to a semi-political PeriodPiece). Some have claimed it breaks suspension of disbelief, makes viewers wonder why they're supposed to care for these new characters, and/or that the supposed ZLS girls' lookalikes are simply a cheap way to remind viewers what show they're watching.

** Junko's shy, social awkwardness makes her very endearing to fans due to the humor that's derived from it. She also has a some very sweet interactions with those closest to her like Ai and Sakura, especially the former.

* UncertainAudience: The GenreRoulette aspects of the series make it unclear for some who the target audience is meant to be. In the first few episodes, there are plenty of moments that go fairly hard on the inherent Horror theme of zombies being gross, decayed corpses, yet an equal amount of moments frame the fact comedically; so the initial impression of ZLS was that it aimed to be horror-comedy. The showrunners also went deep into the Idol parody aspect, where the girls participated in a litany of musical genres including heavy metal and rap music with very comedy heavy episodes framing these events. But then that disappears aside from one or two gags in future episodes. Said aspect is what initially drew in most viewers, but many were surprised to see the show start taking it's role as an Idol anime more seriously as it went on. Of course, some still enjoy the show for its unique mix of all the above, but others believe that not sticking to one direction over the other weakens the experience.

* UncertainAudience: The GenreRoulette aspects of the series make it unclear for some who the target audience is meant to be. In the first few episodes, there are plenty of moments that go fairly hard on the inherent Horror theme of zombies being gross, decayed corpses, yet an equal amount of moments frame the fact comedically; so the initial impression of ZLS was that it aimed to be horror-comedy. The showrunners also went deep into the Idol parody aspect, where the girls participated in a litany of musical genres including heavy metal and rap music with very comedy heavy episodes framing these events. But then that disappears aside from one or two gags in future episodes. Said aspect is what initially drew in most viewers, but many were surprised to see the show start taking it's role as an Idol anime more seriously as it went on. Of course, some still enjoy the show for it's unique mix of all the above, but others believe that not sticking to one direction over the other weakens the experience.

** Tae's already awake and is either pretending to be unawakened, or was that way even when alive, possibly because she originally came from prehistory.
** The wild theory that ''Tae has the brain of a dog'', or part of one, based off of her InterspeciesFriendship with Romero and her sometimes-animalistic, dog-like behavior. Some even thought that perhaps her brain and Romero's were switched around somehow during the zombie-making process, though Yugiri's backstory episodes disprove this; [[spoiler: Romero was around as a zombie dog well before Tae was even born]].

** For some, the implication of Kotaro's [[AmbiguousSituation (potential)]] romantic feelings toward [[spoiler:Sakura]] are uncomfortable to think about, even though he doesn't seem to be trying to pursue them. While [[spoiler:the two did know each other while Sakura was alive]], presently she's physically a teenager in undeath while Kotaro is at least a decade older than her. That's not to mention how Kotaro is her ''boss'' which creates a problematic dynamic.

* HypeBacklash: Downplayed, as the series hasn't become unpopular. When Zombie Land Saga first premiered, it was met with universal praise, acclaim and interest from anime fans who were drawn to the interesting concept and the rather unique spin of starring zombies as the protagonists as a parody of an Idol group. This popularity escalated after episode 2, where Sakura and Saki engaged in their [[SignatureScene iconic rap battle]]. But for some, when the show began to slowly become a mix of parody elements and conventional Idol anime elements - if still with zombie aspects as well - they began to lose interest.

** For some, the implication of Kotaro's [[AmbiguousSituation (potential)]] romantic feelings toward [[spoiler:Sakura]], even though he doesn't seem to be trying to pursue anything of the sort. Them [[spoiler:knowing each other while Sakura was alive]] aside, in the present day she's physically a teenager in undeath while Kotaro is at least a decade older now.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Misa has had only two episodes with extended screentime, only having about eight minutes or so of any focus. Yet many like her, finding her design and attitude cool, and she receives a respectable amount of fanart and fanfic focus, a lot of which fleshes out her dynamic with Maria.

** Lily being a trans girl attracted attention from members and supporters of the LGBT community who overlooked or were unfamiliar with the series after it was revealed in Episode 8.

** The wild theory that ''Tae has the brain of a dog'', or part of one, based off of her InterspeciesFriendship with Romero and her sometimes-animalistic, dog-like behavior. Some even thought that perhaps her brain and Romero's were switched around somehow during the zombie-making process, [[spoiler:though Yugiri's backstory episodes disprove this; Romero was around as a zombie dog well before Tae was even born]].

* HypeBacklash: Downplayed, as the series hasn't become unpopular. When Zombie Land Saga first premiered, it was met with universal praise, acclaim and interest from anime fans who were drawn to the interesting concept and the rather unique spin of starring zombies as the protagonists as a parody of an Idol group. This popularity escalated after episode 2, where Sakura and Saki engaged in their [[SignatureScene iconic rap battle]]. But for some, when the show began to slowly become a mix of parody elements and conventional Idol anime elements - still with zombies - they began to lose interest.

* {{Woolseyism}}: In episode 4 of ''Revenge'', Ai opens up a boxed lunch Sakura made for her and finds the word "kaba" ("hippo") spelled out in ''nori'' katakana. Then she notices some more ''nori'' suck to the lid of the lunchbox, and realizes [[SignsOfDisrepair the full message actually reads]] "ganbare" ("Go for it!") In the English version, the subtitles translate the incomplete message as "YOU SUC" and the full thing as "YOU'LL SUCCEED".

** The wild theory that ''Tae has the brain of a dog'', or part of one, based off of her InterspeciesFriendship with Romero and her sometimes-animalistic, dog-like behavior.

** White Ryu reacting to Saki's confession by [[JailbaitWait telling her to try again once she's grown older]] rather than dismissing her outright. Leaving aside the fact that Saki is technically in her forties and the fact that she ''can't'' grow older, for a fifty-something man to say that to a girl who (as far as he knows) is in her teens is... questionable.

* GatewaySeries: The anime has led a number of Western fans to take an interest in other idol series. [[WebVideo/MothersBasement Geoffrey Thew]] actually stated in his review of season 1 that it inspired him to take another look at Franshise/LoveLive and Franshise/TheIdolMaster anime series which he originally panned.

* GatewaySeries: The anime has led a number of Western fans to take an interest in other idol series.

* UncertainAudience: The GenreRoulette aspects of the series make it unclear who the target audience is meant to be. In the first few episodes, there are plenty of moments that go fairly hard on the inherent Horror theme of zombies being gross, decayed corpses, yet there's an equal amount of moments where their zombie qualities are framed comedically. This gave the initial impression that ZLS was going to be more of a horror comedy. The showrunners also went deep into the Idol parody aspect, where the girls participated in a litany of musical genres including heavy metal and rap music with very comedy heavy episodes framing these events. But then that disappears aside from one or two gags in future episodes. The parody aspect is what initially drew in most viewers, but many were surprised to see the show start taking it's role as an Idol anime more seriously as it went on. Of course, some still enjoy the show for it's unique mix of all the above, but others believe that not sticking to one direction overall the other weakens the experience.

* UncertainAudience: The GenreRoulette aspects of the series might not not completely sell the series to some. On one hand, there's plenty of moments that go fairly hard on the inherent Horror theme of zombies being gross, decayed corpses, yet there's an equal amount of moments where their zombie qualities are framed comedically, all while leaning into the Idol aspects as well (both conventional and parody). Some enjoy the show for it's unique mix of all the above, but others believe that not sticking to one direction over the other weakens the experience.

* BrokenBase: Downplayed. For a very small, non-vocal percentage of watchers, the Yugiri two-parter flashback in ''Revenge'' is considered out-of-place/too much of a GenreShift (from an idol show to a semi-political PeriodPiece). Some have claimed it breaks suspension of disbelief, makes viewers wonder why they're supposed to care for these new characters, and/or that the supposed ZLS girls' lookalikes are simply a cheap way to remind viewers what show they're watching.