Zombie Land Saga (2018)

[ゾンビランドサガ]

Director: Munehisa Sakai
Studio: MAPPA
Starring: Mamoru Miyano, Kaede Hondo, Asami Tano
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
A girl who dreamed of becoming an idol singer is brought back from the dead as part of a zombie idol group that is supposed to save Saga Prefecture.

Impressions:
Like many people, I didn't know what I was getting into when I started watching this. I was expecting a zombie survival story and instead got an idol comedy. I've said numerous times before that I'm not big on the idol scene, but this is a rather entertaining series with a good cast of characters that have a strong synergy. I want to give particular note to Mamoru Miyano for his hilariously over-the-top performance as the group's manic manager. The first couple episodes made it looked like there was going to be a theme of exploring different genres of music, which I thought would be an interesting conceit, but once the gang gets on standard pop, it sticks. It felt a bit like a wasted opportunity, but whatever. The CG used for the dance numbers look like they come out of MMD, which may or may not amuse you.

No small part of the reason this series was made was to drum up tourism to Saga Prefecture, which is one of the lowest-ranking prefectures in Japan based on popularity, and it already seems to be paying dividends. Shoot, I'd like to head that way to eat at Dora-Tori myself.

I had fun with this and I can happily recommend giving this a watch.

Rating:
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