Zombie Land Saga Episode 1: An Instant Hit

Going into this season, Zombie Land Saga gave us almost no information about what it even is before it premiered. Watch our podcast previewing the new season and you’ll see Zombie Land Saga had an absolutely blank synopsis on anichart and we mention the trailer tells us nothing. Now that it aired, it became an instant hit with more momentum than a truck behind schedule.

Alright, that’s enough puns about the first minute. The show opens with the main character, Sakura, getting ready to mail in her idol audition when she suddenly gets hit by a passing truck right outside her gate. And then the OP begins, displaying various angles of Sakura flying through the air in slow motion with metal music playing. The initial shock of the truck shook me, but as the OP continued with each angle I couldn’t help but laugh more and more at how much they were milking this.

Once we’re introduced to the Manager, Koutarou Tatsumi, the story and the comedy kicks into high gear. We learn he’s trying to make an idol group out of zombies in order to save the Saga prefecture. Excuse me, what? He doesn’t explain anything about how there are zombies, aside from making a meta-comment on zombie movies (bonus points for naming his zombie dog Romero, after George Romero, the father of modern zombie films) and he doesn’t mention much about idols aside from the lack of competition in the prefecture. But his conviction in everything he says only makes you believe almost every word.

What makes the manager quite possibly the best character, aside from “The LEGENDARY YAMADA TAE,” is that they did a perfect casting for the voice actor. Mamoru Miyano, the voice of the great mad scientist Hououin Kyouma/Okabe Rintaro, was the best choice for this chaotic but very animated character. The comedic timing with the manager is on par (or better) with that of Konosuba in my opinion. I look forward to seeing more of the manager and I hope Tae never wakes up and remains a brainless zombie for the rest of the show.

I have high hopes for this show. It’s got a little of everything, it’s got zombies, it’s got idols, it’s got comedy. You name it, this show has it. Just based off everything I’ve watched so far, this will probably be my favorite this season if the quality holds up to what episode 1 has presented. I give this an “Okay! It’s a go! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!” out of 10 and you can catch it on Crunchyroll on Thursdays this season.