A love letter for Zombieland Saga

 

This season of anime has been one of the most technically impressive anime season for the last few years. From studies of tension like 86 and Vivy, to innovative concepts like Mars Red, and even the rich and realistic dialogue in Odd Taxi, I am basically having a field day every week just thinking about and dissecting these anime one by one. To which it will come to a surprise to me that out of everything, my favourite anime this season is Zombieland Saga.

I love Zombieland Saga. I love almost everything about it. From its quirky concepts and characters to its insanely hype performances. However if one would ask me what is the "best" anime of this season, I doubt I would answer with ZLS. The word "best" after all, reflects the idea of something that is a technical marvel, revolutionary even. Something that brings forth concepts that have never been seen before. Something that can spark an entire legion of fan arts or fan theories just on its story and characters alone. Something that truly challenges. ZLS just isn't something I would associate the term "best" with. After all, even if it has some great whacky ideas, its story and characters are still swimming comfortably alone stereotypes and established patterns. And at the end of the day, it is still undoubtedly an idol anime, something that even I didn't think I would enjoy till now. If I have to give a title to ZLS, it would be more of "a show with heart". To explain that today, I'll try my best to not just gush about how much I love ZLS, but to convey to others that may not have the same niche interest in idols like me, to why ZLS is still worth checking out. 

And of course, with me being who I am, I just love going into the technical aspects of why a show is great for being what it is.

The vision

Zombieland Saga is an anime about girls who become zombies, become idols as well. The intrigue for first-time viewers begun with just how ridiculous this premise sounds, bordering almost on parody. In fact the first two episodes, accompanied by their heavy metal and rap performances almost seemed to signal to everyone that this is indeed made to satirize the common troupes of idol anime. But I think ZLS's initial zombie plot twist wasn't even the most surprising fact to everyone. Its most surprising factor was that despite said zombie twist, it turned out to actually be said idol anime.

This was when viewers who initially thought they were in for a whacky ride begun to feel disappointment for the direction of the series. With some saying that the anime started strong but just became the typical idol stuff after the first two episodes. In fact, I was even said fan, someone who thought that episodes 1,2 and 5 of S1 were the best episodes with the rest just being something more generic; That was on my first watch through of the series however. Being intrigued by why the show seemed so disconnected on its initial premise of whacky parody, I did a few readings about ZLS's creation process and came upon what was described to be the true vision of this show.

When asked where the original idea of the anime came from, this was what Munehisa Sakai, the series director of ZLS said.

"This is a project that actually originated with the producer, and when I first got involved in the project all we had was “girls die, they become zombies, they become idols.” That was the basic premise that we had, and that’s really all we had to work on. So, as we were working with this idea, we realized that we could add on a lot of humor and a lot of gags, to make it even more interesting, and to really help engage the audience. We didn’t just want this silly, kind of off the wall series, though. What we really wanted to do was bring the story home with really deep emotion and give it that really human touch. Not just this fun, lighthearted gag anime, but really creating a mainstream animation that the fans could get attached to and emotionally invested in."

From the get-go, this was never even meant to be a dark comedy with an idol premise, but a true idol show with zombie gags. Idol shows' main appeal after all, are performers that we can emotionally invest ourselves with. It is when we can see cute girls dancing on the stage and yet understand that behind that superficial perfection lies emotional hurdles that we ourselves struggle with; It is finding relatability in our targets of admiration and adoration that we love.

When I learnt about that, everything ZLS did made sense; The multi-episodes of just us exploring the characters' backstories and struggles, the season 1 finale which was focused on Sakura's whole ordeal. And I made one of the mistakes I hate the most: To deeply misunderstand a series. And thus, with Zombieland Saga Revenge airing now, I decided that it was a great time for me to redeem myself. And I never thought that I was going to say this, but I told myself --

I was going to become an idol fan.

Made for the perfect rewatch

Have you ever thought about what makes an anime rewatchable for you? I think rewatchability is often not as simply associable to the quality of anime as we'll like to think. Heck, I love Hunter X Hunter 2011 but I would in no case call it a rewatchable anime. 

Rewatchable anime needs to have, funnily enough, predictability. In the anime community we would often call these shows "something of the week" as well, lending credence to its episode nature. When I was young, one of my favourite anime to watch is Detective Conan. It was so easy to get into because I knew exactly what was going to happen. Ten minutes in they will find a dead body, Conan will go around looking for clues, to which it will build up to the big reveal of "it was you". Simple, but back then it was enough to get my weekly mystery adrenaline pumping. This familiar pattern that the show has set for itself every week makes it easier to watch as I know exactly how to enjoy the show. I, after all, chose to turn it on to begin with. 

Another reason that lends the episodic structure its rewatchability is the lack of a myth arc. Myth arcs are the overall arcing story that underlies most shows. The myth arc for Re Zero is to defeat the Witch of Envy. However because that is the end game, Subaru will have to grow every arc just so that he can match the Witch of Envy in battle, ultimately making it a linear story. Episodic stories thus have to throw away the myth arc, in hopes that its audience will be able to jump into any part of the story without worrying about how we get from point A to point Z. 

This brings us to Zombieland Saga, which strangely does have a myth arc. ZLS's end goal is to save Saga, and with Revenge's episode 1 introducing a time limit on that goal, the concept of rewatchability may indeed be non-existent. However why will I still say that ZLS is extremely episodic and rewatchable?

First, the familiar structure is still there. It splits itself into mostly character arcs, with very episode following the basic:

Focal girl faces trouble --> Overcome it all with idol power and friendship --> Cue music performance.

With that, every arc retains that familiarity. However, if that is all I have to talk about, then I doubt this will be a very interesting point I'm making. The point that I do find interesting lies in that third part of the structure -- The music performance. If you will allow me to digress a bit, I want to talk about a few daily chapters from my own personal life. So every Thursday is when an episode of Zombieland Saga releases and I will always be there to catch it. I will laugh and sometimes I'll be urged to buy a hundred light sticks off of Amazon, but at the end of the episode I will always be reverted back to my normal human program. At this point for most anime, it is probably "see you next week" for your fans. However ZLS is special to me because my journey with the episode only starts there. For the next week I will start to listen to the new song on Spotify and I would often find the performances posted on Avex's main channel. Every so often I will find myself clicking on the performances to watch them again, and again, and yet again. That itself would not distinguish it from other anime, for example, when they have their cool fight scenes clipped onto youtube. But ZLS's performance is a lot more rewatchable as they are essentially an emotional summary of the whole episode.

Junko's arc was all about trying to overcome the rising expectations of her as the leader role of the group. Her performance perfectly summaries this emotional arc for me with the genre of music being rock and her basically slaying the guitar. And with it not only being a hype as shit song, the lyrics itself reflects her bravery and passion. The entire episode culminated in this climatic performance, which in itself summarises the character growth of Junko.

Additionally, ZLS's performance all capture their core characteristics well. With Junko's performance being her belting out her powerful voice, other performances like Saki's late 80s rock-and-roll, Lily's fairy-tale like narration and Yuugiri's sensual jazz all tells us all about who they are. At this point, I can even recommend my friends not the anime episodes but the character songs for them to understand the girls.

Thus, with the songs being the retelling of both story beats and character beats, the performance ends up substituting the entire episode. Now, I don't need to spend another 24 minutes on a rewatch, I get the same amount of enjoyment watching their 2 minutes performance for the 100th time. 

The nature of songs is also the perfect medium to recapture macro-emotions. Humans have such a huge emotional sensitivity to music that we can laugh or cry with just sounds alone. Everything from the instruments to the vocals can trigger memories of the episode, and this can happen even when you are rushing to work with no time to watch a 24 minute anime -- All you need is an earphone to relive it.

That to me, is rewatchability (or "relistenability") taken to its most beautiful conclusion.

The technical mastery of the performances

While everyone can agree that the 2D performances are great, I think it is much harder to convince someone that the 3D performances can hold their own, or if not even better in some cases. And I'm not just talking about the frame rate between S1 and Revenge (albeit it being one of the key factors). What I want to discuss is how the ZLS committee knows how to maximise both performances, 2D and 3D to the best of their abilities.

2D performances are authentic, often more so than their stiffer 3D counterpart. People applauded Saki and Lily for those same reasons. However I think they only work because the choreography planned for them are simple and a lot of time is spent more on the focus of a singular girl (with the awesome exception of Saki's "Do you hate windy days?"). But that itself isn't bad as the performance after all is meant to represent the emotional release of a character arc. You want to get close and intimate with the emotions portrayed and thus not having an impressive choreography is fine. However what happens when the episode's focus isn't on a singular girl but on Franchouchou as a whole? Well that is when the 3D kicks in. 

Like I have stated, ZLS is all about capturing the appeal of idols and thus a big part is about capturing the feel of real idol concerts. While not many people has been to one, I think most of us can at least attest to knowing the feel of an actual concert of any kind. The performance itself aren't the only thing that makes it grand; It is the stage, the scale; The raw feelings, when the dancers aren't perfectly synchronized but instead jams to the music; Even the atmosphere and the audience, when you feel "one" with hundreds upon thousands of fans. 3D performances are the only ways to capture such intensity and scale.

Notice how active the camera is; An example being this one shot that gave so much dynamic motion to the transition into the climax. Notice how Saki spinning into frame is in the opposite motion to the spinning of the camera, mutually emphasizing each other ten-fold.

I don't even know what kind of technique this is called in animation. But the testament to how even a pleb like me could notice how much more dynamic it is, speaks. Or the following shot of each of the girls dancing and yet aren't synchronized. The rawness of them just belting out the notes with their bodies bend makes for a much more lasting impact.

Now, what about the crowd shots during Junko's performance? 

Pans across the crowd to emphasize scale; An overhead pan from Franchouchou's POV, to the audience's POV, and finally into a close up of Junko's expression. Needless to say, I am still flabbergasted at how they managed to incorporate the 3D models of the girls with the zoom of the camera, and yet are able to incorporate the intensity of Junko's expression in 2D. I bet you didn't even notice that they hand-draw the faces of each of the girls didn't you? Cause I sure didn't for a long time and I am a fool.

I can go on and on, but I will just feel like I am gushing. Point is, there is a lot of effort that goes into the 3D performances to lend it the epicness of a real idol concert. And while season 1's 3D performances may lack in frame rates, I've still noticed a lot of these same elements in them. Thus the next time you watch both performances, 2D or 3D, don't watch it once and don't watch it twice.

Watch it many, many times and appreciate every second and detail that the animators and choreographers put into it.

Investment beyond just the anime

Zombieland Saga is the first time where I truly felt the power of the 'franchise'. Most anime IPs we see only branch out between light novel, manga and anime. More popular ones have a game which seemed to be the gateway for it to be considered a franchise. For someone like me who has only been interested to consume the anime out of all of them, I found myself sucked into ZLS's multi-varied franchise.

It has become such an enjoyable past time for me to just rewatch their voice actors' live concerts. One of my favourites being just watching Tano Asami absolutely kill her character song with absolute charisma. I was just thinking that maybe that is why people are so invested in the Type Moon Franchise. You get to enjoy your characters in fresh new settings and perspectives, just like how I feel so much joy seeing ZLS translate to real life.

And weirdly enough even the real life news about ZLS feels meaningful to me. As many of us may know, ZLS is also a promotional anime for Saga Prefecture. They are in-anime and in-real life, saving saga through idol power and tourism; An absolutely crazy idea for me. And just a few weeks ago it is announced that the city is now incorporating 14 manhole covers across their popular tourist attractions. 

Other than being the cutest manhole covers conceivable to man, these information makes me so much more invested as an anime fan. I attribute these feelings to be the same as watching the radios of your favourite voice actors or director talk about anime production. This makes the anime evolve pass just a piece of entertainment to a work of art, one created by the hands of many each with their own artistry and vision. With ZLS, it involves one entire city.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/anime-feature/2018/12/19-1/anime-vs-real-life-zombie-land-sagas-zombie-secret-revealed

Metacontextuality is when you derive a lot more meaning beyond just the original work. In many sense you can apply that to even the memes or essays made about an anime. For me, just seeing people make actual anime pilgrimages to Saga adds so much more context to every scene of ZLS now. I feel like I am watching something bigger than an idol anime, I am watching a small part of history being made. 

Now, I desire to make my own pilgrimage to Saga and I have never felt that sort of investment to a show before.

Zombieland Saga is made with a lot of heart

This entire essay sounded like me gushing more so than me analysing wasn't it? Well, I'm fine with it as I really do think this sort of enjoyment, of rewatchability and investment is something extremely personal. I do love me some anime that is "deep" and "special" like 86 or Odd Taxi, but at the end of the day, when something truly resonates with you, when the care and consideration of a show is palpable, it is then do you truly love an anime.

Watch Zombieland Saga, y'all. It's a show made with a lot of heart.