YMMV / Zombie Land Saga

• Adorkable:
  • There's no denying how effectively endearing Sakura is able to make herself. She is clumsy, constantly anxious, and a has a tendency to overexcite herself. But is also incredibly kind, passionate, and a loving and loyal teammate to the very end.
  • Saki, while a confident badass and cheeky troublemaker, is also a huge dork. She gets sentimental over tamogatchis, acts like a starstruck fangirl in front of her favorite celebrities, and comes to approach idol performances with utmost passion and intensity, often to her groupmates' joy and/or bemusement.
  • 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.
  • Revenge introduces Maimai, an incomparably upbeat, klutzy, and sweet girl with a massive admiration for Franchouchou. Even the reveal that her idols are zombies isn't enough to sway her sheer glee upon meeting them.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Junko only against meeting fans face to face because that's not how they did things in her time or was her shyness the real motivator? Adjusting from having clearly defined lines to pictures and handshakes being a big jump, but there are many other aspects of Franchouchou that break idol norms that Junko never comments upon.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Drive-in Tori, the fried chicken restaurant the girls help promote in Episode 5, is a real-life restaurant, and the jingle they perform is the actual song. The same goes for the Kashima Gatalympics in the same episode.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: This was actually the consensus for the anime staff. Before the anime came out, the staff didn't think it would be as popular as it is.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Out of all the girls, Yugiri is the most unfazed by the fact that she's not only undead, but also living in a totally different time period from the rest. She explains in Episode 6 that just rolling with whatever comes her way is more productive than spending all her time being confused by everything. This kind of attitude she has is most likely there because she was the only member of Franchouchou that was willing to accept her death without any issues whatsoever.
  • Saki seems more annoyed about being a zombie than anything, mostly voicing her annoyance that her Tamagotchi is long dead. Even when Episode 9 focuses on her past, she takes it in stride and even repeats the very stunt that killed her in the past with gusto. The only time she ever expressed even the slightest bit of angst about her situation was learning that Not Growing Up Sucks in Season 2 Episode 2, and even then she refuses to let it keep her down, instead using her feelings to push herself further in (un)life.
  • Policeman A plays the trope straight. He has numerous encounters with the living dead, sometimes in short order, and is totally scared out of his wits, but every time he returns he seems completely fine and unfazed. This is in stark contrast to people like the pharmaceutical company president, who was so traumatized by the girls that she remained in total shock the next morning.
• Applicability: A number of reviewers have argued that the story is about how different kinds of femininity (like Saki's Hot-Blooded-ness, Yugiri's openly sexual lifestyle, as she was a high-class prostitute, and Lily's trans identity) should be accepted and celebrated in the Idol industry, opposing its usual Contractual Purity.
• Awesome Music: There are so many amazing songs, as befitting a genuine Idol Singer anime, that they needed their own page.
• Base-Breaking Character: Kotaro is either loved for his hamminess and Hidden Depths, or utterly hated for the general unpleasantness he puts on as a manager.
• Crazy Is Cool: Kotaro. He raises the dead, acts as if it isn't anything special, and plans to save Saga by creating an idol group out of the undead. Totally crazy? Definitely. But both Mamoru Miyano and Ricco Fajardo's incredibly hammy performances are just too much fun to watch no matter the context, and Kotaro being a Renaissance Man on top of that means he is always surprising the audience in one way or another.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Misa has had only two episodes with extended screentime, only having about eight minutes or so of any focus. Yet she has many fans, the majority of whom find her design and attitude cool, and she receives a respectable amount of fanart and fanfic focus, many of which flesh out her dynamic with Maria.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Exactly why did Kotaro resurrect Sakura, who isn't famous in any shape or form? When Yugiri talks to him in Episode 10, she picks up how he has a certain fondness for Sakura, and he avoids answering her concerns, claiming that saving Saga is what's important. Some fans think he's the truck driver who hit Sakura by accident, and is trying to redeem himself by helping her accomplish her dreams as an idol. Another theory is that he's someone Sakura knew, or at least that he knew her, since he looks to be in his 20s, and Sakura died ten years prior. In any case, this brings some interesting topics for the two. (It turns out he knew Sakura while they were in high school, and his name was originally Inui.)
  • An alternative possibility that got suggested, based on her profile being left largely blanked out for most of the series, was that Sakura actually survived her initial accident and became a famous idol, only to die for real at some point. The last two episodes reveal that no, this is not the case or else Sakura might not have considered herself such a failure.
  • In related speculation about Kotaro's connections to the girls, why is Tae "Zombie 0", and why exactly is she legendary? One theory is that Tae was someone important to Kotaro in life, and when she died she became his first candidate for resurrection.
  • The wild theory that Tae has the brain of a dog, or part of one, based off of her Interspecies Friendship 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; Romero was around as a zombie dog well before Tae was even born. The end of Gaiden muddies this with the reveal that the real Tae's personality is likely dead for good, as her undead body is now possessed by the spirit of her dead sister, resulting in zombie Tae's animalistic behavior.
  • An early epileptic tree, before Lily and Saki's deaths were revealed, was that Kotaro was somehow involved in all the girls' deaths, even the ones that didn't match up with his apparent age, like Junko and Yugiri. Immortality or Time Travel were favored explanations.
  • The conversation between Kotaro and the Bartender in the first episode of Revenge mentions that the Zombie Land Saga project has a limited time or a deadline. It quickly spawned a lot of fan theories revolving around what would happen if the time is up, ranging from; the girls permanently reverting to zombies, permanently dying, or if there would be an actual zombie apocalypse in Saga. Another theory suggests that Kotaro is probably using his own life force to keep the girls alive. S2's finale only adds to the speculation when Kotaro is seen wiping what seems to be his own blood after a speech, which wasn't there beforehand.
  • In episode 6 of Revenge, Tae (followed by Shinta Okoba) briefly visits a graveyard on her way to shopping. After she's left, the camera lingers upon the two family graves of Minamoto and Yamada, opening up all kinds of theories about how - barring it being a massive coincidence - Sakura and Tae's families have been/are familiar with one another in some fashion.
• Fanon:
  • That Lily's dad Takeo was a construction worker before leaving his job to become Lily's manager, based on her love of heavy machinery magazines and his flashback to them sitting in a power shovel. In S2's finale, that's shown to be the case in the present day, as he's hard at work re-constructing a new mansion for Franchouchou, since the old one collapsed during the flood.
  • This very wiki appears to have spawned one particular piece of fanon - namely, the mention on the Funny tab that kiseru were used to smoke opium has led to speculation that Yugiri's constantly stoned on the stuff.
  • Given that her favorite and most hated foods are grilled meat and carbs respectively, some fans interpret Ai as to having been on an extremely restricted diet in her lifetime, by either her own volition or manager's orders. Considering the idol industry's nasty track record with this sort of thing, some fans present this as a fact.
  • Some of Junko's headcanons:
    • Many fans speculate that Junko was much more outgoing prior to her death due to stills of her in the 80's always showing her to be very happy, even backstage.
    • It is widely agreed upon that Junko's plane crashed landed into a mountain. There is nothing in the show to support this but Junko's death seems to be heavily inspired by the crash of Japan Air Flight 123 and when keeping with the Bagua philosophy theory, Junko most closely fits mountain. However, the article on her death in Revenge Episode 7 reported something from the plane was on the coast, and the Japan Coast Guard was responsible for recovery efforts, pointing to it having crashed into the sea.
    • Junko being a closeted lesbian and an even more closeted romantic; her reactions to some of her groupmates like Ai and Yugiri border on Lesbian Subtext. And the few times the girls talk about romance like in episode 2 of Revenge, she gets hilariously flustered like she's just learned what sex is.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Calling Lily a crossdressing boy is a surefire way to piss off fans, in light of confirmations that she is a transgender girl.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Kotaro has been called "Necroducer" or "the Necrom@ster" due to his position in the girls' idol group.
  • Sakura is referred to as an egg due to Saki likening her to her late Tamagotchi in Episode 2.
  • Some fans call Ai "Cornflakes", due to the shape and color of her hair decorations. HawkAi is also gaining some traction already after Episode 10 shows her using a bow.
  • Like the others above, Junko is referred to by fans as "Cotton Candy" for her poofy hairstyle and to complete the food nickname trifecta Sakura and Ai first set up.
  • Other popular food-related nicknames are "Onion" for Ai (for the in-between card in Episode 2), "Mushroom" for Junko (for her hairstyle and the mushrooms growing from her head in Episode 7) and "Chicken" for Saki (for Episode 5). Unsurprisingly, those names and Sakura's "Egg" have become very useful for naming some of the more popular ships.
  • "Rainbow Dash" and "Flat Chris" for Saki and Junko, after their resemblances to said characters.
  • On Season 2 Episode 1, the viewers quickly named Kotaro as "Eren" or "Kotaro Yeager" because his depressed, long-haired appearance is very similar to Eren Yeager. Both this show and the final season of Attack on Titan are animated by MAPPA, so the association easily happened.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Magical Girl Site of all things, due to having its anime come out the same year and both having a positively-written trans girl.
• Gateway Series: The anime has led a number of Western fans to take an interest in other idol series. Geoffrey Thew actually stated in his review of season 1 that it inspired him to take another look at Love Live! and The iDOLM@STER anime series which he originally panned.
• Gotta Ship 'Em All: Sakura, Saki, and Ai have all been shipped with each other, and each has at least one unique ship to themselves. Ai gets paired with Junko most frequently, Saki and Reiko are speculated to have been together (and might even still hold a torch for each other), and Kotaro is often assumed to have been an old boyfriend of Sakura's from before she died. Tae is also sometimes depicted as being romantically fond of either Sakura or Junko, but not being able to express it properly. And finally, we have Yugiri being shipped with her potential love interest Kiichi, as the two had their moments during Yugiri's character arc in Revenge. The only zombies who aren't shipped as of this writing are Lily and Romero.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The debut of the show came just as the 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—exclusively Played for Laughs —may become harder for viewers to swallow.
  • Kotaro's managerial techniques, in light of the revelations about Studio Mappa's issues with brutal crunchtime and extremely low wages.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A 2012-2013 TV series was proposed for the similarly titled Zombieland film, but the idea was rejected by fans. Years later, there now exists a TV series with "Zombie Land" in its title, and it has proven to be a huge Sleeper Hit.
    • 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.
    • A sequel to the film was announced in July 2019, catching a few fans who were hoping for a sequel to the anime off-guard… only to be happily surprised a couple of days later, when the anime actually did get a sequel announced.
    • 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.
  • Cygames' version of Jeanne d'Arc has been re-used a lot in many of their related media and gacha games, to the point where some fans joked that she would appear even in non-Medieval fantasy Cygames IPs because she's a Series Mascot for the company. That fan joke is technically true even in Zombie Land Saga because her name is mentioned instead as one of Saki's proposed names◊ for their idol group.
  • Cygames and MAPPA had an anime character (Rita) who's a female zombie with detachable limbs, sunken eyes and pale skin, who still retains her original personality after being zombified. These tropes are also common to the Franchouchou of ZLS, but it's also interesting to point out how both series tend to Hand Wave the unnatural things related to zombies.
  • Tae Yamada is an example of an unfortunate name if you know the meaning of "tae" in Filipino.^note It means "poop". This would also give a literal denotation of the "Your Waifu Is Shit!" meme.
  • A Robot Chicken sketch from the season 1 episode "The Deep End" features a spoof of American Idol called Zombie Idol. ZLS is basically this.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Junko/Ai has 16x19 (their ages), though JunAi (which is both a Portmanteau Couple Name and a pun) is more popular.
• I Knew It!:
  • Though in general many people predicted correctly at least the gist of how most of Franchouchou died in life, the biggest reveal so far that was popularly guessed came in the first season finale: Kotaro knew Sakura in some way, having attended the same school.
  • Ever since the last episodes of Season 1, a popular fan theory suggests that the zombification backstory and the New Jofuku Bartender are derived from the Chinese court sorcerer Xu Fu (a historical figure who tried to search for the elixir of life). It was expected that Xu Fu (or "Jofuku", as spelled in Japanese) plays an important role in this anime's setting; perhaps he might be referenced directly, he is probably connected to the Bartender, or perhaps he is the latter's real identity. Most of these theories were proven true when Episode 8 of Revenge credits the role of the Bartender's voice actor as "Jofuku".
• It Was His Sled: The Reveal of Lily being a trans girl in Episode 8 spread like wildfire within hours of its airing.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Episode 2's Rap Battle was what pulled in a lot more fans who had not yet joined in from the initial airing.
  • Many viewers, especially fans of Mamoru Miyano, admitted that they watch the show for the chance to hear his over-the-top hammy performance again.
  • 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. And she's continued to be a really popular and fundamental character to the series and longevity, and someone that a lot of trans people find validation in (also because she lends really well to anti-transphobia memes).
• Les Yay:
  • Ai and Junko receive a ton of this in Revenge, having a two-episode arc that focuses on their relationship with heavy romantic undertones.
  • After the Gaiden manga suggested that Tae was a lesbian, it puts a whole new spin on her trying to nibble the other members of Franchouchou.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • The Reveal of Lily being transgender in Episode 8 was warmly received by the LGBT community, as was her peers’ acceptance of her, praising its subtlety and considering it to be a respectful depiction of a trans person.
  • The show has drawn in a lesbian fandom partly for its appealing mashup of genres and aesthetics, and partly for having a likeable female cast who all (un)live and work together. Saki in particular gets ID’d as butch due to her rough and ready attitude, her relationship with Sakura, and her past with an all-female biker gang.
  • Some have speculated that Saki’s old friend Reiko is bisexual, based not only on her very deep friendship with Saki (despite later getting married and having a daughter), but also the color of her hair back then◊ resembling the bi flag.◊
• Memetic Badass: The "Legendary" Tae Yamada. Whereas the other girls’ titles explain why they’re legendary (“Legendary Biker Boss: Saki Nikaido”, “Legendary Heisei Idol: Ai Mizuno”, etc.), Tae's does not. Thus, viewers take her and every little thing she does to simply be legendary. Adding fuel to the fire was the later revelation that she is played by a real-life legend in the anime industry, Kotono Mitsuishi, who voiced the title character of the ground-breakingly popular Sailor Moon series.
• Memetic Mutation: Enough to have its own page.
• Moe: Even as zombies, the main girls are still very cute and huggable. Even the rough Saki and then feral Tae occasionally have their moments of being adorable.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Junko's deep singing voice is this for many, judging by the comments.
  • Contrasting with Junko's amazing (and also rough-sounding) vocal talent, some fans have really appreciated Yugiri's smooth, buttery singing voice. Her signature song, "Saga Jihen", takes this trope up to eleven due to her amazing performance.
  • Ricco Fajardo's work as Kotaro is frequently praised as one of the best English performances, making almost every line of his an absolute riot to listen to.
• Narm Charm:
  • While the CGI is incredibly distracting for some, others find that it better enhances the Zombie Gait that they incorporate into their dance routines, particularly Tae, who already moves the most awkwardly out of all the girls.
  • Ai's High-Voltage Death is treated very seriously for the profound psychological impact it had on her. However, the actual presentation of the death—her running out stage and getting burnt to a crisp on stage by a freak lightning bolt—makes it look like something out of the Looney Tunes, making it harder to take seriously. However, Word of God said that the girls’ death scenes had intentionally ridiculous elements added to them so they wouldn’t detract too much from the show’s comedy.
  • The song the group sings in Episode 8 in order for Lily to get some much-needed closure with her father isn’t the most professionally-written one out there; in the first verse, there are many words awkwardly crammed in, to the point that it's almost in spoken word rather than song. Still, it's likely that this was intentional, and it's also both genuinely heartwarming and tearjerking since Lily finally gets to tell her father she's sorry about the argument they had before she died, and she still loves him.
• Older Than They Think: While the series is often credited with boosting tourism in Saga by taking place in a largely overlooked prefecture, it isn't the first anime to attract fans there: Yuri!!! on Ice, which came out two years earlier, has also managed to draw tourists to Karatsu since Yuri Katsuki's hometown of Hasetsu is heavily based on that city. Also, while Zombie Land Saga provided a major Colbert Bump for the restaurant Drive-In Tori, Yuri!!! on Ice also had advertisements for the restaurant hidden in the background during the first episode.
• One True Pairing: After their mini-arc in season 1, Ai/Junko exploded in popularity and is easily the largest ship tag related to the series on Pixiv. A lot of fans have grown attached to the pairing due to their contrasting attitudes and synergy when performing together. Once they became popular together, a lot of official art with the two was released. Season 2 certainly continued the trend and episode 4 is pretty much nothing but Ai/Junko pandering.
• One True Threesome: Ai, Junko, and Sakura have all been shipped together in varying pairs, but also as a single throuple. Ai and Junko already have a strong established connection in canon which has spurned a ship between them, and Sakura's admiration for Ai gets played up as a crush by many fans.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Several:
  • Junko/Ai: JunAi, or what the portmanteau would mean in Japanese, Pure Love.
  • Sakura/Saki: SakuSaki
  • Sakura/Tae: SakuTae
  • Koutarou/Sakura: KouSaku
  • Koutarou/Junko: KouJun
• Ship Mates: Saki/Sakura and Ai/Junko fans tend to overlap. Sakura/Tae also have several supporters.
• Signature Scene:
  • The opening scene wherein Sakura excitedly narrates about wanting to become an idol before stepping outside and immediately being hit by a truck, firmly establishing the Black Comedy that would drive the story right out the gate.
  • The unexpected Rap Battle between Sakura and Saki in Episode 2. It’s often cited as the reason why people gave the anime a chance.
  • Lily revealing herself to her bandmates as Transgender and their ultimate acceptance of her, which was warmly received by the LGBT Fanbase.
• So Average, It's Okay: While not completely terrible, the song "Butchakete For You" is considered the most lackluster of Franchouchou's songs due to it being something of a cookie-cutter idol group song as opposed to the "death and rebirth" and "Screw Destiny" themes the rest of their discography tends to have.
• Special Effects Failure: The third and fourth episodes of Season 1 feature the earliest uses of computer animation for idol dancing, where the movements are very stiff and the facial expressions are somewhat off. Thankfully, future dances improve from this as the show goes on.
• Spiritual Adaptation: It can be viewed as an idol anime spin-off of Death Becomes Her, especially the premise and its shared lore revolving around the living dead amongst an entertainment industry, the aspect of make-up applied to the zombies to appear alive and the source of the necromancy implied to be a result of one's quest for immortality.
• Squick:
  • White Ryu reacting to Saki's confession by 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. Granted, it could be mitigated by the fact that he probably didn't have any expectations for a relationship and treated the Celeb Crush for what it appeared to be.
  • For some, the implication of Kotaro's (potential) romantic feelings toward Sakura are uncomfortable to think about, even though he doesn't seem to be trying to pursue them. While 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 would create a problematic dynamic.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • “Tokkō Dance” seems to take some cues from Kishidan’s “One Night Carnival,” particularly with the “woo-hoo” bits.
  • In "Pure-Hearted Electric SAGA", as the girls leave the stage after electrocuting themselves, a parody of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" plays.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Episode 4 has Franchouchou shilling a pharmaceutical company's product at their retreat. The episode seems to be setting up some hijinx where the product interferes with their unusual zombie body chemistry during the live performance, but nothing happens at all and it goes off without a hitch.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The girls are walking corpses who have remained dead for a lot of time, including one who died in the 19th century, but that doesn't stops them from having their charm and cuteness, even when they behave like your typical mindless zombies.
  • Romero. He's a zombie dog who develops a fierce expression when he eats, but most of the time, he has a cute appearance proper for a small dog.
• Uncertain Audience: The Genre Roulette 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 its 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.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the first two uses of CGI for idol dancing were a case of Special Effects Failure, starting from the third time it was at bare minimum decent, and each successive dance got increasingly better animation, including smoother movements and more well-done facial expressions. By the time of Season 2 the dance CGI has gotten good enough to be nearing stuff like Love Live! in quality, with it only getting better as newer dance sequences are made.
• Watch It for the Meme: The truck scene from the first minute of Episode 1 and the rap scene from Episode 2 have drawn in a lot of watchers from meme communities, further making those the most-watched and most-memed clips from this anime.
• The Woobie:
  • Sakura gets unexpectedly killed, terrorized by the other girls as unawakened zombies, discovers she's a zombie herself, gets shot, realizes she's lost her memory, finds herself having to put up with Kotaro’s lunacy, gets terrorized by Saki for being a pushover, then gets shot at again… suffice to say, she doesn't have a very fun first couple of episodes. Then come the final two episodes of the season, as it's revealed how a life of having her best efforts continually thwarted by bad luck left her depressed about ever actually achieving anything, and the knowledge that her last try at something in life left her dead results in her finally surrendering and giving up on (un)life, verging on the suicidal and being a Jerkass Woobie due to being more moody and bitter. It’s only thanks to Kotaro and the others’ extraordinary efforts, and their refusal to give up on her, that she manages to rediscover her hope and optimism.
  • Neither Ai or Junko take being recruited into Kotaro’s project well - Ai can't take the insanity, Junko can’t take being terrorized by Tae, and both of them are struggling to cope with their situation - and discovering how much people are scared of them in their current condition only makes it worse. As a result, they’re left isolated from the others, unwilling to join in, until they’re spurred to save the failing guerrilla performance. Then comes their shared mini-arc at Saga Rock, as Ai reveals she’s still very much traumatized by the way she died, left trembling and curled up into a ball, and Junko's alienation from the modern idol industry and the difficulties she has with public interaction result in her withdrawing into the attic for weeks. In the end, they both find ways to deal with their respective issues, with Saki and Junko supporting Ai in the face of her Trauma Button, and Kotaro encouraging Junko to be herself and arranging things so she doesn't have to deal with the public.
  • Lily had a happy relationship with her father Takeo, but wanted to make him happy from inside the TV... and it inadvertantly wrecked their relationship, as he became more interested in her career than her personal life and she became increasingly overworked. Then she discovered she'd started puberty, and her terror as a transgender girl at the thought of ending up with a male body was the final straw, the culminative mental stress from everything in her life triggering a fatal heart attack. Her realization that Takeo still loved her after all this time, and of her true feelings for him, hurts.
  • Takeo qualifies too, as we see just how much losing Lily traumatized him, haunted by the fact he might have unintentionally caused her death, and unable to watch the TV he'd once loved because it had too many painful memories. Both of them manage to find some measure of closure after Episode 8, however.
• 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 stuck to the lid of the lunchbox, and realizes 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".

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