Zombie Land Saga Revenge

KANLen09★ 9

Zombieland Saga is a show that you wouldn't think twice about girls that have passed away in one form or another, and then given the Jesus Christ "resurrection on the Third Day" treatment as zombies to save a land that's largely been purged and disappeared since time millenia...by being an idol show with much of the hysterity. And look how far we've come into the 2nd season of the show, dubbed "Revenge", because literally, it's that and much more. With that said, GOOOOOOOODA MORNIN' ZOMBIES, LET'S BEAT THE LIVING **** OUTTA THE **** WACK TO SAVE OUR ****ING MOTHERLAND, SAGA! GODDAMMIT YOU FRIGGIN MAGGOTS! To come backalmost 2.5 years since Season 1 that slowly usurped the throne as the dark horse of Fall 2018, director Munehisa Sakai and his production team at MAPPA have been slowly concocting another marvellous follow-up season to continue where the story of SAGA is left behind with the epic bomb and failure that is the less-than-desirable 10,000-people concert crowd at the huge EFS stadium arena...and carry on IT DID. Other than the attention-grabbing promo poster of Kotarou along the seabed with his signature move, as is with kickstarting this year right with Season 2's main PV on January 1st, 2021 (in Japan), if you've watched Season 1 back in the day, you know that this series is anything but typical. And with the in-your-face "Revenge" theme being a centralized topic, this journey to exact revenge will be a tough one for the zombie girls of Franchouchou and their wack manager Kotarou (God I still LOVE Mamoru Miyano's voice). As is of the story (or most appropriately character-driven) narrative of Zombieland Saga, each girl has their own story to tell, and since Season 1 covered the biker girl Saki, the Truck-kun-ed Sakura and the LGBT representative Lily's backstories, Season 2 tops that up with the rest of the girls that haven't had their backstories foretold...plus even down to Kotarou himself, and how and why Saga is a place that should be left preserved and brought back to its former glory: TO SAVE SAGA. Not gonna spoil anything, because secrets are the charm to this magnificent and tightly-paced show! This time, nothing was left untouched, and to that effect, Season 2 ups the ante of which Season 1 had already solidified its foundations with, and with a huge impact (just like how Kotarou becomes a cussing Eren *WHOOPS*). Franchouchou has largely stayed the same from Season 1, so you can easily expect a lot of the usual enjoyable and hilarious hijinks that this show has to offer up from these zombie girls that the general public hasn't caught onto them being legit zombies (close, but not close enough). This is a family bond so strong that as time passes, SAGA becomes all the more important, more than just an ingrained dream for the girls of Franchouchou and wacky Kotarou to see the light of day in saving SAGA. Glory, glory to SAGA! Everything else is what you should expect and more coming out of Season 1: from story and characters (that are given a HUGE upgrade), and even right down to the visuals and music, which are still the *chef's kiss* excellente pairing of Franchouchou songs with MAPPA's constant and consistent greatness. While the OST this time isn't as bedazzling and bombarding as the prequel, it's still great to hear the comeback of this fully zombie girls idol group that immediately raises nostalgia for how much time has passed since then. BLOODY HELL, if you made it all the way through this review, I should raise the question: "Have you watched Season 1? If not, then WHY THE **** are you reading this review!? Go back to Season 1, finish that, then come back here to experience somemore, you friggin' maggot!" This is one fine outstanding sequel in the world of zombie girls and idol music of a big-brain mish-mash-ing potato.

Marinate1016★ 10

The highly anticipated sequel to Zombieland Saga not only lived up to the hype, it exceeded all expectations. Cementing itself among the best idol series in recent memory. The original Zombieland saga made waves with its unique ensemble premise and cast, promotion of a somewhat unknown area(to foreigners) of Japan, and incredibly well executed humour. Season 2 does a great job of building upon the already established characters. As with any idol series, Zombieland Saga Revenge dedicates several episodes to each character’s development, bringing us even closer to the girls we know and love. In contrast with season 1, however, Revenge takes a darker approach tostorytelling. While there are definitely still plenty of hilarious moments throughout, there’s much more of a focus on genuine serious issues this time around. Several episodes had me genuinely in my feelings because of how well they were pulled off, particularly Saki, Junko and Ai’s backstories. While we got introduced to all the girls in season 1, we didn’t really get a whole lot of development. Season 2 solves that issue and by the end, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been right there along with the girls. The more mature story combined with good old humour and ridiculousness we’ve come to expect from Zombieland Saga, made Revenge an absolute blast to watch. As with any idol show, however, it’ll be judged on the quality of the music produced. I personally think Franchuchu’s music this time around was even better than season 1. I would’ve liked for the girls to get some more solo songs a la love live, but the group performances and finale were phenomenal. The CGI for the performances was about what you’d expect from an idol show. Definitely noticeable, but didn’t negate my experience overall. For the rest of the series, you’ve got the usual MAPPA quality art and animation. Overall, Zombieland Saga Revenge takes everything that made season one such a fun and unique time, and improves it by adding a more mature story, improved character dynamics and development as well as offering a satisfactory conclusion to the cast’s story arc. While I’m not sure if we’ll get more of these girls in the future, I definitely think Zombieland Saga has the potential to expand into a legitimate idol project with a wide variety of cast members. Only time will tell. Zombieland Saga Revenge gets 10 Mics out of 10.