About

Zombie Land Saga (ゾンビランドサガ) is an anime series produced by Cygames and animated by MAPPA studios following a girl brought back from the dead in order to save the Saga prefecture by performing in an all-zombie idol group.

History

The series was announced by Cygames and Avex Pictures on July 5th, 2018. It is directed by Munehisa Sakai, written by Shigeru Murakoshi, and features music by Yasuharu Takanashi (trailer shown below). A manga adaptation of the series made by Megumu Soramichi and published by Cycomics began publication on October 8, 2018.^[1]

The series follows Franchouchou, an all-zombie idol group composed of members originally alive at various points in modern japanese history. The members were assembled by necromancer and manager Kōtarō Tatsumi, with the aim of saving the fading relevance of Saga prefecture by putting it on the map with the group's popularity. The story is told mostly from the perspective of Sakura Minamoto, a high school girl who died on her way to an idol audition in 2008. The series is cast on Crunchyroll and simuldubbed by Funimation.^[2] The first episode debuted on October 4th, 2018.

Online Presence

The series has a MyAnimeList^[3] page, where it has a rating of 7.38, as well as a TV Tropes^[4] page. A Reddit thread on /r/anime^[5] about the first episode gained over 2,000 points. A thread on /r/animegifs^[6] joked about how Minamoto was killed by Truck-kun, gaining over 80 points.

Rap battle

On October 11, 2018, the second episode of Zombie Land Saga aired. Towards the end of the episode, rising tension between Sakura Minamoto and her fellow group member Saki Nikaidou culminates in a rap battle between the two. The scene was uploaded to YouTube by Crunchyroll Deutschland^[7], receiving over 920k views as of December 24, 2018.

The scene stood out among fans, with various edits being made of it. Some of these include an edit featuring music by Eminem uploaded on /r/animemes^[8], receiving over 1,600 points, an edit by YouTube user Kurosai^[9] with music by Machine Gun Kelly, receiving over 470k views as of December 24, 2018, and a mashup by YouTube user Triple-Q^[10] combining the song with Interior Crocodile Alligator, receiving over 140k views as of December 24, 2018.

Crunchyroll Subbing Controversy

On November 22, 2018, the eighth episode of Zombie Land Saga was broadcast; in the episode, it is revealed that the character Lily Hoshikawa is a trans girl originally named Masao Gō before she died.^[11] Following the release of the episode on Crunchyroll, several Internet users claimed that the episode's subtitles may have been changed in order to push a pro-LGBT message which was not present in the original, as well as that the character was a trap rather than truly transgender. This claim spurred a movement in support of the character, including posts by the show's official English social media accounts.^[12] The claims have since been disproved by fans comparing the original japanese audio to the Crunchyroll subtitles, revealing that no specific details were fabricated by the translation, as well as by comments from the series' staff.^[13][14]

Search Interest

External References

^[13] The Daily Dot – Twitter is falling in love with this anime’s zombie trans girl

^[14] Blogspot – Andrea Ritsu – No, Crunchyroll Did Not Conjure Up A Trans Girl In Their Subs For Zombie Land Saga.