Zombie Land Saga – Pinkie's Paradise

Pinkie Watches: Zombie Land Saga Episode 3 – Dead Or Live Saga

Yo Little Lights! It is time for me to watch anime again! I don’t know yet how to incorporate other anime in my blogging routine, but I am actually creating a pretty big supply of blogs, so expect them to return soon! In what shape way or form will remain the question! Today however we will continue with Zombie Land Saga! I will react to it as I watch! So let’s hope we will have a lot of fun like we did last week.

Idol Noises

The episode starts, with another pretty delicious recap! I do like text density into something silly like this. We hear more about the rap and like the episode we begin with another briefing of the manager. Which is about as annoying as you expect. He does give everyone an applause though so I don’t want to turn his head into mush as I kill him with my laser beams.. I just want to slap him in the face for shouting at Sakura like he does in the first five minutes, so she doesn’t get too full of herself after he complimented her.. that’s kinda cruel though! Like giving a dog a biscuit for being a good boy and then shouting at it for eating the cookie quickly! I don’t like it! He also scares number six.. whose name still doesn’t linger for me but perhaps as we go along!

The plot of this episode seems to be a Guerilla Live. Which is like a Flash Mob..for Idol Girls.. where you don’t tell anyone what you are doing and just try to gather a crowd. It reminded me of that scene in Now You See Me 2 , where the Four Horsemen do a magic show in several locations in London, I love that movie! Sakura is afraid the police might stop them but Saki waves her arm and tells her she won’t be scared of some pigs! Making all sorts of squishy rotting noises as her arm flails.. that is kind of a neat touch! We also learn that Junko has experience as a Solo artist.. the manager insults her by calling her a loner. Jeez… This guy!

Luckily he isn’t too much in the next scene! I finally found out the name of my beloved number 6! Lily! So cute! The group trains together but has no direction so Lily tells them they need a leader. Saki steps up and no one opposes her, and a name has to be chosen. Lily wants to name everyone after her while Saki wants a super edgy name! I really like that when she screams her voice seems to make bike noises. Much like that one episode in South Park.. but with actual Motor noises. It really shows you her origin and this is done repeatedly throughout, several characters, they all speak a bit .. extreme showing us who they are even if you don’t know them too well! I like choices like that. Especially in an idol girls scenario! Like I would be the moth girl. .if I was an idol girl! something with lamps or kaiju would happen! This is the way!

The Rise of Franchouchou

The naming skit continues with everyone pitching in showing their personality a lot.. Junko and Ai being much more in the background then Lily, Number 5, Saki and Sakura. Even Tae-Chan comes in and meddles with it.. mostly to eat the magic marker ! Sakura thinking eating pens is bad for you rips it out of Tae-Chan’s hands and it lands in Junko’s hands, so she is pestered by Tae-Chan again. Good , recurring jokes like this give it a bit of group dynamic. Look at Holo-Live EN. Kiara is into Cali and Gura and Amelia have this whole thing going on. Ina does more of her own thing..and while that is semi scripted it also makes them feel like a real group of friends with interaction dynamics. That happens here as well. It’s still in infancy.. but it is definitely there. Sakura is being consulted for a name and she says the name should be something like Framboise or Frangipane and gets stuck on Fran.. when suddenly Tae-Chan begins sneezing due to sucking out ink from the pan. Lily thinks it’s more than just sneezing she is actually pitching in and thus the name Franchouchou comes up! I love that name! I also love how the actual zombie took part in naming it!

Number five is revealed as Yugiri .. well at least to me! The name never stuck until the next scene for me.. which vastly confused me! It starts out with the girls going to practice a song and a dance for the Guerilla Live but no one has experience except for the two girls who aren’t motivated. The other girls are one one of those spinny playground rides I may have thrown up in once or twice.. you know one with a wheel that you turn like in the Disney Teacups and it makes the thing go round and round but just the teacup. Sakura gets launched out of it thinking about her idol experience and flies towards the sky crashing in the earth. She tells everyone she’s ready to practice again and will work hard and then she is slapped in the face by Yugiri who tells her not to give up and practice. Sakura tells her she is about to say that but everyone sides with Yugiri as if Sakura didn’t say anything of the likes. Did she dislocate her jaw or something from the crash and does everyone here do something else? I don’t get it!

The next scene is probably my least favorite scene and it’s about Ai and Junko not wanting to participate in all of this because it all seems so half-assed. I get that.. somewhere.. but at the same time.. it’s not like there is anything else to do and it’s not like they had issues being on stage with the awkward rap battle thing.. they looked bummed but they did it! So I don’t get why they are not invested here.. not really at least. I guess some of it may be idol pressure and perfectionism but they are dead and very much aware of it as per last episode. The manager actually gives them a great speech that he did not resurrect them for them to stay dead, the other girls are trying to live! I like that speech.. a lot.. but at the same time it kind of feels like he should not need to do that. It feels a bit odd in their situation with literally nothing else to do! That same perfection would make them not want to half ass this?!

The First Idol Song

The second half of the episode contains much less events as we move towards the Guerilla event. The girls finally get ready to sing their first idol song! Of course it is performed super tiny and the idol girl costumes are missing. I like how the build up is so slow in this series, we really see them become idols from the very bottom! The song is called Mazame RETURNER. While it isn’t as sugary as I would have liked to see I guess this makes sense as an amalgamation. The girls even get their weird 3d animation dance you see in a lot of Idol Girl anime! For the first time it feels like an actual idol show! That being said the 3d animation feels kind of laggy at times. As if I am watching a Bowling Alley Strike Animation. It takes me a bit out of it.. but because they are zombies it also feels .. somewhat accurate. I love how Tae-Chan is also being part of it and participating.. did she actually kind of awaken but not really?! She does react to the beat and the more tricky dances so there is something going on.

The act begins fairly well and the dance is cute! I really like the shuffling animation all the girls make.. but then Lily crashes into Sakura again and she falls. Since she is much younger Sakura is worried about her and forgets about the act. Thus the audience always walks. Junko and Ai watch this unfold and you can see them cringe at these rookie mistakes. As Lily gets up Sakura comes to a very text heavy part but seeing her audience walk away causes her to get so flustered that she completely loses focus and forgets her lines. Just as things seem to get worse and worse, Junko and Ai join the group and help them finish the song. While everyone is walking off they get an audience of one single girl who is absolutely loving it and that makes this worth it for them… and I LOVE that message. You can see the girl having such a great time and that is enough reason for these girls to continue. That is also a big goal for me! Even if just a single person enjoys your content that be it a song , a video or whatever that will be worth it. It really was such a heartwarming scene! Seeing Saki go to the kid and tell her, don’t worry next time we will do better. Super cute.

The epilogue was uneventful and mostly involved Ai-Chan and Junko talking about liking being an idol! The other girls had a few cute moments as well but it’s mostly those two the focus is on.. and again.. I am not sure if I like how reserved they are. A reveal at the end however might make it all a bit more interesting. It seems that Ai is/was part of that idol group that Sakura so adored but can’t really remember! I am not sure if that is correct but that’s what it seems like. Her reservations seem to originate from having to start up all over again..which I can see would be demotivating… however I still think it makes little sense from where they are currently at.. It’s not like there is anything else for them to do and that has been established. Also why did they get bathrobes?! The stinky question I had has been answered though! So props to them! I had a blast again!

Pinkie Watches: Zombieland Saga Episode 2 – I <3 Hip Hop Saga

Hiya! Sweet Little Lights! As a VBlogger .. a Kaijuman and and a Moth.. I have developed a bit of an unhealthy sleeping pattern.. actually it’s heart medication that kind of inhibits my ability to sleep but.. now that I am a virtual presence we glam that up a bit! It means I am not having a Saturday Morning.. so my anime block has been torn to shreds. So as a true VTuber..but for Blogging I decided to make reaction videos to anime I am watching. Not in any particular order either.. just kind in whatever order I feel like.. or at any time I feel like them. The Anime I chose to test this format with is Zombieland Saga Episode 2! I felt like something cute and silly..after those nasty thingies happened in America!

Annoying Guy..Funny Joke!

Okay so this is me reacting! To this episode! I notice that the title is I ❤ Hip Hop Saga. I do not like Hip Hop music myself… I oftenly don’t like the rhythm and the atmosphere. A lot of female Hip-Hop singers do what I call a lot of voice stunting…in changing the pitch of a tone while keeping it going. I do not find that pleasant.. like a flickering light! I don’t know wether to go or not! It confuses me and creates a bit of unrest! The episode starts with a lovely chaotic recap that I quite enjoy! I really do enjoy these 20 second blitz of information things! I have a good memory so a recap should be funny and this one nails that brief so yay!

We then get reintroduced to everyone again yet the names still do not stick to me! I am in awe by the design and the character quirks that shine through.. I know two names of the girls.. one of them being the main character.. the other being the one that is still zombified. The manager tells the girls his plans again and I must confess… I find him annoying! If I was a zombie I would probably bite him..he shouts at one of the girls for not reacting to him ..congratulating them for waking up… man. He is quite a bit of a Peepee-head. Kind of like this little kid with a Gigan-shirt I greeted recently… he just ignored me so my laserbeam put a hole in his shirt where Gigan (and kind of where his major organs) used to be… well now he has a reason to ignore me.

The opening that wasn’t in the first episode is not what I would have expected.. big Kaiju fights and Sentai stuff.. I assume that is a joke and it won’t be in here… could this show get any more awesome? I might die if it would be THAT awesome.. I am immortal now though so probably not! The music has a bit of a Jojo opening vibe to me.. the level of surrealism has that as well. The manager is too prominent in it though! I do like that very thick paintbrush outline though. This thing is my kind of jam! I do not like the slew of text at the beginning of the intro though it gives me One Piece trauma’s.. I stopped watching that show when half of each episode was the intro and all those maps and flashbacks! A pretty solid opening all in all but I don’t think it will stick in my head very well!

The manager continues to be super annoying and by now I would shoot a laser through his head.. but I would break my laptop .. but Oh my this guy is really vexing me! I do love how he is voice acted.. but the character is becoming annoying to levels that I actually am beginning to dislike this scene. He teases the characters about being a zombie and shows how they must keep the fact that they are zombies hidden. I wonder if all those humans have Anosmia or that zombies do not smell! They look fresh enough to smell.. but then again no one really says these rotting corpses stink.. so do zombies not stink?! I like how this anime brings up important philosophical questions like this. As the manager of a tropical resort most questions I get are all the same and with such obvious answers. Like “Can I leave my towel on a Poolbed in advance” or “Did you see my son.. he was wearing a Gigan shirt?”. I just wanna watch anime here and murder this annoying character manager guy!

Ai’s Great Escape!

The scene gets a bit funnier at the 5:00 minute mark. When a girl who I know is not named Saki or Sakura.. but the one with most of her face bandaged gets in an argument with Tatsumi! That is right I just learned the name of the manager. They talk about their knowledge of Saga and Tasumi tells he loves the region and knows everything about it.. when the girl insists he tells something he freaks out and tells her she should just use Wikipedia and that isn’t Friggin Wikipedia. He just wants to make them idols! I like how the girls can see through him.. but also how he brings in a fairly valid argument! I for sure am not very interested in factoids about the Saga region. The girls have to perform at Saga Castle the next day and now have to train! All the girls except Sakura think there is too little time.. but Sakura knows how this man works by now and she just agrees! He is just this odd! It was good for a chuckle!

Bandage face is called Ai! She is kinda cute! We do see her personality a bit more established in the next scene where only Sakura is trying to learn some dance poses.Saki just stares menacingly while the one who is still a zombie is biting white haired zombie girl’s foot! The blue haired girl has funny faces in the mirror and I just love her design so much! I want to hug her and possibly meet her during a speed date! She seems playful and well spirited. Ai however just stares intensely at Sakura. As we move to later we see the bitey zombie whose name I knew but forgot to bother white haired girl again while Ai hugs a pillow.. I hug pillows a lot! I relate so much! Saki the biker girl then has the greatest interaction with Sakura! She threatens her for not remembering who she is.. doing the whole High School gang skit! Bullying her for being a goody two shoes. It sells her character so well .. and we get a softcore Yare Yare Daze.. followed by.. I bet my Tamagotchi is dead by now! That made me laugh! The girl cares about her Tamagotchi even in this situation!

Ai chan and Juno which is the name of the White Haired girl.. try to escape the mansion.. which makes sense.. so would I.. well I would love to be an idol so maybe not!.. But well I expect a normal girl would behave like this.. the bitey zombie is named as Tae-Chan. We get a funny scene of Sakura trying to stop the girls and ripping Ai apart, her arms detaching like Legos and her eyes popping out! It looks so clunky yet very satisfying! Great scene! Sakura decides to go with them so she can convince them to go back.. but the girls just want to go back to Tokyo when they are harassed by a bunch of rappers. This is so silly but I love it! A cop would show up.. and wouldn’t you know it is the cop from the first episode. Ai steps into the light asking for help and reveals her Zombieness.. the cop shoots and for about three seconds the girls just stare at the window he just broke.. then everyone begins screaming in a hilariously timed scene! I love that comical timing! I am laughing so hard I nearly knocked over a lamp!

The second concert

Next we get the semi-emotional bit of everyone being bummed out being a zombie! Ai and Juno in particular, because they were just shot at. Sakura has a talk with Saki who wants to take over the world.. I am not sure if I like how overplayed her delinquent persona is. She wants to take over the entire country she says.. which feels like a really easy but cheap bridge for her to become an idol and take over the country. That way what annoys me more is that Sakura, when asked why she follows the sunglasses guy, doesn’t tell Saki anything. She told Ai and Juno earlier ..talking about wanting to see if her memory returns on stage. Saki can’t really object that even.. since she said Sakura SHOULD get her memory back.. it feels very weird that it is written this way! However we can’t linger too long as we move to the make up scene. Blue girls and ancient Japanese girls call each other by name.. but for some reason my brain doesn’t lock on! The names fade as soon as they come in! I do like how thick the make-up looks! I also like how the two Metalheads came back .. showing that Death Musume already has some fans! It feels slightly heartwarming and reminds me of my first followers Mallow and Emma!

As the concert starts the girls are surprised that their name has changed from Death Musume to Green Face. Well or at least Sakura is… is this going to be a thing that their name changes each episode?! Tae is still a zombie and is pretty much set on eating the crowd again.. when Sakura struggles to set up a show and the traditional Japanese girl just does some sort of fan dance everything seems super awkward.. but then a random element of the show is brought back.. if you pull to hard on an arm it falls of. So while Sakura tries to restrain Tae.. her hands some off and as she falls on the ground her head bounces off into the hands of a guy eating dried squid.. who feeds it to her with her eating it constantly! The girls play it off as some magic trick but Saki has fun with this chaos and wants to keep Tae’s head separated. She gets into a fight with Sakura which turns into a rap battle.. mostly because they start yelling insults and text to each other while Kotaro beatboxes over it.. caught by the rhythm the girls commit to this line.. while blue girl gets riled up and begins clapping and shouting YO YO YO YO! Traditional Japanese girl.. picks up an instrument I do not know the name of and plays some strings to give it a bit of a traditional tint… of course the crowd loves this and Sakura vents what has been bothering her. Even to the audience.

The concert is done and the episode is wrapping up! Just as i feared Saki’s way to take over the world is by becoming an idol.. but okay I guess I did not have to expect deep writing here! She has gained some admiration for Sakura who also explained her situation to the girl now and even if everything feels quite forced I had a lot of fun with it. I loved the jokes! There was so much humor that really worked. Saki bringing up the Tamagotchi even during the rap was a great callback and a lot of the humor is recurring. I really like that, it gives lines weight.. even though they are funny you can sense Saki is really annoyed that she lost her precious Tamagotchi! Her best comment was that she liked Sakura.. because her head was so egg shaped and she was a nice person so she reminded her of a Tamgotchi! The Tae-chan joke is used fairly well as well and even the little blue girl just fizzes with energy while Ai and Juno feel defeated so others can spotlight on stage.. it felt… Balanced and well thought out! I had a great time today.. BUT.. I also feel like this show won’t be funny for THAT long. I had a blast.. but it kind feels like a free fall ride. The first drop is super exciting but if it would go up again just to go back… each subsequent drop will feel less amazing.
Oh well! We will see that later!

Animini: Zombie Land Saga – Episode 1 – Good Morning SAGA

Greetings my sweet Island Guests, today’s cocktail is something new yet unexpected. One may find the taste a bit odd.. but it is pretty much in line with “me” as a brand! So I planned to start watching The Promised Neverland here! Unfortunately Crunchyroll turns out to block this for my reason due to licensing issues. So I found myself without a show to watch! I kind of wanted something weird or something Idol like.. so when I discovered this weird Idol show ( I did not know about it before) I was sure! Zombie Girls trying to be Pop Idols! Yes! Yes! YES!

The Summary

Sakura is a pretty girl who is about to start her second year in high school! She happily is watching an Idol-show planning to be an idol herself one day! Dreaming off the future she hops into her shoes and happily starts running towards school! Truck-Kun shows up however and we see the girl get ragdolled through the air. Heavy Metal music starts playing as we see her neck twist in an awkward position and the credits are presented in blood! Clearly this girl will not shrug it off. Yet the next thing we see is her waking up in a creaky old mansion. She has no memories of how she got here! While exploring this strange place she is attacked by a woman who looks to be a zombie! She flees into another room which is filled with other girl zombies! Scared for her life she flees the mansion. She first spots a sign showing she is in the fairly rural Saga Prefecture and then she sees a cop! When she tries to tell him of her distress, he is scared of her and even fires his gun at her! When she sees her own reflection in one of those traffic mirrors she is revealed to be a zombie as well. Confused, she collapses.. When the cop is about to finish her off he is whacked in the head with a shovel and Sakura passes out. Neat! I did not know zombies could pass out!

When she wakes up the guy, a man dressed in a vest and sunglasses tells her of the plot. He is a necromancer it seems that resurrected her and a lot of other girls who had an idol like function throughout the course of history. Calling her his number 1. Apparently she was the first one to awaken to a conscious, although she has no memories of her old life.. the other girls.. are still just regular zombies. When she asks what this “stimulated” thing is.. the man who introduces himself as Kotaro Tatsumi tells her it doesn’t matter and everything is like all that other zombie media. His plan for resurrecting these girls is that he wishes to return glory to the Saga District.. who once produced some great idols! This Idol Project he started is given a title that is quite similar to the title of the show! Would you look at that! Not quite but close enough! As Sakura is being nibbled on by one of the braindead girls Sakura asks how he plans to make them idols.. and he says he entered them in an open stage event Today!

Now in full mortal make-up Sakura discovers she has been signed up for a heavy metal open stage! This won’t go well, her new friends will surely eat the crowd. Tatsumi tells her she is responsible however .. and the performance begins. A nervous Sakura almost immediately gets booed off the stage and she narrowly avoids one of her fellow zombies to eat the audience. However when their new manager begins to play some metal music a few of the girls find themselves headbanging ..flailing their broken bodies around, as if their necks were broken.. impressing the metalheads. The blond zombie whose name I don’t know yet.. even though it was shown once.. finds a megaphone and begins screaming in it.. randomly.. it amps up the metalheads even more. Sakura sees this and just wails in the microphone as well and flails her broken body around to do some impressive headbanging.

The crowd goes wild and while staring into the stage light it seems as if Sakura remembers something.. an idol group of some kind! She is having a fun time and decides to stage dive…. which leads to the other girls following her example and munching on the audience. As Sakura remembers her first failed performance she also thinks back on those idols she met. Then a scream is heard from the house! She runs inside and finds out nearly all the zombie girls have suddenly awakened. She has an awkward talk to make.. she starts addressing them by shouting GOOD MORNING.

The Positives

Okay long Summary! But hey that is quite usual with first episodes! I had a great time with this show and it is a great show to watch in times like these. It’s super breezy and lighthearted but I also found the episode to be quite creative! The show is super self aware which gives it a nice and lovely tone. It doesn’t create false expectations, it will just give you a big stupid grin for being something so silly yet charming. I also like the visuals, it is bright despite also being washed out and zombie-like at the same time. It shows the contradiction between the world of zombies and Idols well. I also really like the voice actress so far! She just feels so right for the part and the stress and confusion in her voice can be heard when she experiences these emotions. There is a lot of colour in that voice and that is important for an Idol show I’d say! The design of the girls is all pretty amazing as well. I don’t know them much yet but I really love the bitey zombie! The Blonde and the Blue haired girl really appeal to me as well. I really like how the Blue one was depicted with a big heart on the outside. There is a lot you can do with this.

I also love how much contrast there is in this show. We see a super cute girl running out in the street.. then I see one of the most brutal truck-kun kills yet! Quite visceral! Mostly because we just see her head crack against the window and then ragdolled in slow motion as slowly parts of her body seize to function, letting go of her homework, her head falling back with eyes that grow more empty! Eek! The metal music playing with that.. while not a type of music I appreciate too much unless sung by Johathan Young, really helped this scene. The idea of cute girls singing metal on stage reminds me of the charm of BabyMetal. I like them as well… kinda! There is a constant balance between dark and somewhat edgy with ultra cute and I really dig that. I also like that the show knows you can’t really write this stuff well so they spoof it themselves, making a joke about not providing satisfying answers. I know I will not get those now.. and at least I can chuckle with it.

The Negatives

While I will not be terribly harsh on it, I do think the first episode misses a good song to bob to! Love Live had the amazing Start Dash, and while I might not expect Death Musume (Name Pending) to do the song.. perhaps a sweet idol song from future rivals or something would have been a good way to insert a bit more idol feelings. Have Sakura sing an idol song at the beginning of the show.. a song she was working on.. forgot and through the course of the show might be able to remember. In short I wanted a bit more of that “Pitch Perfect” Vibe. While I still got a very funny and colourful comedy, I don’t think it is that unfair to ask for at least a bit of music in an Idol show right?! A bit more background in Sakura’s idol dream could have done wonders! It’s good as it is but it is just something that could have been done better, in my humble opinion! Who knows maybe she will remember more later.

While I do love the idea of having a super vague story that is filled with plot holes that the characters just ignore, I do want to know more about how these zombies work, will they infect people they bite? Probably not.. given that they are dead people from across time I am 95% sure they were made by necromancy! I don’t think those zombies infect. It might be something we will see next episode! I also would not mind if the show leaned a bit more into that darkness. When we see the zombies attack the audience, show a bit of blood, confirm a fatality or something! I do like the mix between light and dark, but I feel the show could use a little more commitment to the dark aspects.. that being said I do think they will fade away a bit more as the girls become more aware so it is quite excusable! Though if that darkness DOES indeed fade away I think that would kind of be all the more reason to do it! So yeah.. again not so much a negative as it would be a point of improvement.

The Score

This episode is a clear Berry Good to me! It is a very personal Berry Good though because this show is weird and self aware . It isn’t very clean written, some things don’t make sense and there isn’t much depth. In fact if you would be able to talk to this episode and ask “Where is your Depth?” It would probably answer “Depth? Isn’t that that guy who got fired from those wizardy movies?… Oh hey look… a butterfly” So this is one of those shows that is very much not for everyone, yet I felt it is very much for me! It is also perfect for when you are feeling a tad blue, it is just cute but kind of twisted fun! I was in the mood for that so yay! It pretty much delivered what I expected from it! I really never heard of this before so I was happy to have discovered it!

I do not think this anime will enter in my top 5 anime anytime soon, though they are almost all exclusively weird shows so who knows! It might just get there.. I already rate it higher than Code Geass and Attack on Titan, so this is probably really a show for me! I hope it doesn’t go deep into lewding the Zombie girls, that would completely ruin this for me but I have no idea on what to expect! For now I kind of think it is anime junkfood. Sometimes you can appreciate that more than a gourmet meal, and while I am in lockdown, I am just a few cute songs shy of falling in love!