Zombies

**ANIMALS**

* Romero

**Zombies** (**ゾンビ**, *Zonbi*) are the main focus of the anime and are what the idol group, Franchouchou, is made up of.

Similar to their real-life counterpart, zombies are described to be corpses of deceased people whose souls are still, somehow, bound to their bodies.

## Appearance

### As Zombies

The zombie's skin color is turquoise, with deep-set red eyes that glow brightly in the dark. Wounds are commonly seen between them, as scars, stitches, or bandaged areas, except for Lily. Zombie bandages and scars act like tattoos; therefore they are part of their skin, so they will never fall off. Their bodies tend to creak when they are in stressful situations.

Although the girls are supposed to hide their undead identities from the public, this does not appear to be the case for Romero, as he can be seen with his head detached during the filming of the Drive-in Tori commercial in the fifth episode. During the second season, it was shown that Romero is an ordinary dog ​​in front of the inhabitants of Saga, showing that even he interacts with the inhabitants of Saga letting them caress him or carry him without any problem.

At the beginning of the series, the girls' eyes only emitted a white color, but after waking up they began to shine with the characteristic red color. According to popular beliefs that the eyes are the window of the soul, it can be intuited that it is the soul of the girls that causes this.

### Human Disguises

Being zombies, their skin is partially rotten, so they require makeup to go public, but not just any makeup but the one that only Kotaro can do using a perfect mix of ingredients that the girls don't know about. While their undead appearances have been shown to be terrifying, this may be an effect of the light they are exposed to, since Maimai and the shelter children from episode 11 had no problem with their real appearance.

It's also worth noting that Kotaro possibly has them wear contact lenses to cover their undead eyes. An example would be in Episode 5, when everyone has fallen in the mud after bike racing, they have normal eye color. When they go to wash up, they wash off their makeup along with the mud, and their eyes change color to red as their zombie skin is exposed. Afterward, they fall back into the mud, and as their zombie skin is covered again, their eyes change colors again. Tatsumi's special makeup makes them look like before and takes away the grinding joints, but the makeup will fall off if it gets wet with water, except if they use shoe spray like in Saga Rock.

## Description

### Necromancy

One thing about necromancy magic is obvious: it is currently active in their bodies.

Magic not only brought them to life, but it constantly keeps them alive, along with other things. The magic forced each one of their cells to come back to life forcibly because they are not really alive since they cannot divide. This explains why they do not grow or age, and why their skin becomes discolored, since cells that divide and die are a critical part of how the skin works. This is probably also related to the way their skin functions differently regarding absorbing medications (patches) and moisture (hot springs). (If this is true, it means that their hair is not growing either.) This is supported by the fact that all of their organs can function normally. Their hearts are beating because we can see them blush, just like Lily's heart really beats. They don't smell either, they can breathe, eat, and sleep, but it's not necessary because the magic would keep them alive anyway. But then why don't they bleed out when body parts break? Necromancy magically connects all parts of their body, even when they are not physically connected. This is supported by the fact that dismembered heads can speak without lungs and headless bodies can move normally without being connected to their brain. Magic could also prevent them from losing blood because they can't do it anymore.

It is no coincidence that the magic of necromancy covers practically everything that cannot be hidden with makeup. Obviously, this is so that they can resist the effects of the curse on their bodies, Kotaro insisted on especially powerful necromancy magic for each of them. We don't know what Kotaro had to do to gain access to such magic, but it certainly wasn't easy.

### Resurrection

The anime does not give direct indications of the resurrection process of the girls, but it does give crucial clues. Xu Fu was a Chinese alchemist, whom Emperor Qin Shi Huang sent to search the top of Mount Penglai for the Elixir of Immortality and the magician Anqi Sheng. Before that, the first Qin Emperor traveled to the east of China fearing death because he suffered several attempts on his life and spoke for three days and three nights with the magician, to whom he offered gold and jade. Anqi rejected the offer and went to Penglai. Years later, Qin sent Xu-fu, and he never returned to China.

According to archaeological archives found at Yoshinogari, Saga. Xu Fu (Now known as Jofuku) would have come to Morodomi city 2200 years ago and when he met the natives, they told him that there was a 1000-year-old hermit who had the remedy of immortality. Jofuku along with Otatsu and Genzo (his companions) went to Mount Kinryu and found a hermit who gave them the plant of immortality that was in a kettle.

In Chinese mythology, the island Anqi Sheng inhabited is often considered the seat of the eight immortals, or at least the place they travel to have a party with the magician Anqi Sheng. Supposedly, everything on the mountain looks white, with palaces of gold and platinum and trees that grow jewels. There is no known pain or winter on the island and the rice bowls, and wine glasses are never emptied, no matter how many people drink them. In Penglai magical fruits grow with healing powers capable of curing any disease, giving eternal youth, or even raising the dead. Although the anime has not confirmed it so far, it is the closest answer to the big question of the series.

It should be noted that the elixir of Jofuku is given by Anqi Sheng, the “immortal” Taoist, for the understanding of the Taoists. They are not exactly “immortal” as in the western understanding of “eternal” or “not aged” forever; instead, they would simply live an incredibly long life and eventually die of old age at some point (possibly inconceivably far in the future).

### Muscle Memory

Their bodies are capable of remembering past traumas or events, such as when Sakura lost her memory but could still do Arpino's choreography. The same goes for their past traumas, as demonstrated in episode 11 when Ai's instinct protects her head from the metal poker that Sakura took to defend herself from them.

Their behavior as zombies in Episode 1 is not erratic or random, they actually still remember their traumas and their bodies act as if this trauma never happened and was related to events that affected their bodies.

The reason their bodies have this behavior is due to their deaths being caused by tragic events, they were etched into their muscle memories and thus, have been conscious within their bodies. This behavior remains dormant within them and is only ever active when given the proper stimulus.

As shown in Episode 1, we see the mindless zombies (excluding Sakura by that time) wandering around the basement where their daily meetings are held. While it can easily be overlooked as aimless wandering as typical zombies do, it is worth noting that each member of the group is actually taking specific actions that are tailored to what happened to them at the time of their death.

* Saki, who was killed in an explosive motorcycle accident, extends her hands as if she is holding on to the handlebars.
* Ai, who died center stage during an outdoor concert when lightning struck her, tries to reach the center of the room as if to make her grand finale to the song she performed at the time of her death of her.
* Junko, who was fatally blown to pieces by a fatal plane crash, tries to hold on to the bars of the room's cell as if she is looking out of the airplane's windows.
* Lily, who died of a fatal heart attack due to stress due to her father (as well as the fact that she was about to go through the early stages of puberty) waiting at the door of the room as if she were waiting for her father to enter.
* Finally, Yugiri, is the only one without her arms raised with her head forward. This is actually a clue that she was beheaded by taking the blame for Saga's rebellion. This is because of how she places her head against the wall as if she is placing her head on execution (via beheading) and the marks on her neck only give a trace of her past.

### Awakening

The resurrection process is followed by the awakening process, where the subject regains consciousness after being revived. During the death metal concert, the girls moved erratically and screamed loudly, implying that loud sounds are where the stimuli are coming from, the death metal music that plays in the background when Sakura is run over would be Kotaro giving her a stimulus to wake up.

This makes clear something that many of us overlook; Kotaro tried different ways of awakening Sakura, when he saw that death metal was giving him the desired effect, he wanted to test it on a large scale on the other girls.

The other girls (excluding Tae) woke up to the exposure to Death Metal music in Episode 1. Although she doesn't wake up immediately, her zombie “consciousness” increases as the story progresses.

Tae could feel before episode 1, but only aroused more rational feelings from episode 11, 10 episodes later. Something to do with her head injury may be the answer, but it gives us a clear clue as to what part of the puzzle is missing here and whether Tae will eventually wake up or she's different from the types of zombies we know in the series.

They had not initially woken up and were wandering around groaning, but by giving a stimulus, they could “wake up.” Sakura was the first member to wake up, but she did not completely recover her memory from when she was alive, and she only recovered them in episode 11 in exchange for her memories as a zombie. At the end of the series, she gets all her memory after the Arpino concert.

When their bodies are abused, their joints and even their eyes can loosen, but they can connect again. They can withstand violent movements in live performances, are undamaged even when electrocuted by lightning, and display electronic voice performance while being discharged. Since they don't have body temperature, they need to pay attention to freezing.

They have an appetite, they can eat and drink, and they can taste. It basically has the same functions as humans, like sweating and crying, but the body is more prone to dismemberment.

Speaking of parts that break, this shows that their bodies are still very fragile due to being dead for a while. With any amount of force, the parts break with a clean “hit”, which means that magic probably holds them together constantly and keeps them alive. This means that Junko would most likely collapse without this magic. Still, their bodies are strangely tough, as they never bleed or bruise, despite being hit hard enough multiple times. Sakura and Junko fell (for the most part) being hit by a truck. Saki and her explosive bicycle accident. Ai had her brain impaled, and she was not affected at all. Apart from some trauma, they all withstood the impact of lightning.

Another interesting thing is that they are very strong. Neither of them has realized it yet, but each of them possesses almost superhuman strength, probably due to the effect of necromancy magic on their muscles. If the cells are constantly kept alive, the muscle fibers cannot be broken, which means that they can use 100% of their strength at all times. Sakura drove a heavy poker into Ai's skull accidentally, Junko jumped all the way out the front door, Saki dropped a man over six feet with a kick, Yugiri's slaps seem especially powerful, Tae has jumped through the glass several times, as well as spinning the thing in the courtyard fast enough to throw Sakura off, as well as stopping it completely with just her arms.

## Abilities

* **Immortality**—As zombies, they are immortal, as well as immunity from death. They are capable of withstanding circumstances that human bodies cannot normally handle, such as the lightning in the seventh episode, being run over repeatedly, large explosions, and beheadings.
	+ **Immunity**—Unable to die, the girls are perfect for Kotaro's plan to save Saga, as the curse cannot affect the girls since they are dead.
* **Detachable Limbs**—Like zombies, they also can detach and reattach parts of their body from their sockets with little to no effort, either intentionally or accidentally.
* **Phosphorescent Vision**—They get dark red eyes that can glow in the dark after being resurrected into a zombie.
* **Lack of Human Needs**—As zombies, it is not necessary for girls to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, or have any basic human needs. However, there appears to be a limit to which this works against them.
* **Elemental Absorption**—Their zombie bodies can accelerate the process of absorbing chemicals like those seen in Episode 4 by instantly absorbing the medicinal patches, causing their muscles to relax and not be as stiff. In episode 7, their bodies demonstrate a similar capacity to batteries by receiving an electrical discharge from lightning and glowing a pale blue color, as well as releasing laser beams with their fingers.
	+ **Energy Manipulation**—In the second season it is shown that they are still capable of using electricity to illuminate their bodies, and in addition to being able to use them as a special effect and are capable of giving their different shapes and colors to the energy rays that they give off when discharged.

## Weaknesses

* **Muscle Fatigue**—As seen in Episode 7, despite having superhuman physical resistance, their body is still susceptible to the load that is placed on it. Since they do not have a known regenerative capacity, their bodies are still fragile in certain aspects.
* **Hallucinations**—Due to stress they may begin to hallucinate with their way of death, this also causes them to react involuntarily to their hallucination.
* **Dehydration**—As shown in “Episode 14,” even though zombies still can eliminate bodily fluids, doing so has been shown to dehydrate them at a faster rate than any normal human. Seeing how Sakura's entire body dried up after she started crying uncontrollably.

## Trivia

* So far, only Sakura, Junko, Ai, Tae, and Romero have had their body parts detached on screen.
	+ Though, it is reasonable for Lily to not have her limbs come off, as her cause of death was more of a psychological cause rather than a direct physical one.
* Romero is so far the first and only zombie that has not shown his living appearance.
	+ Technically speaking, he is also the first to awaken and regain his consciousness (and the first and only zombified animal) among the eight zombies that Kotaro has resurrected. With Tae only being the first to wake up in terms of human zombies, and Sakura being the first human to gain consciousness.
		- It is worth noting that “awakening” for zombies means they wake up from just being inanimate corpses. Whereas, “gaining consciousness” means they regain their consciousness from their life before death (I.e. Regaining their thought process and ability to speak coherently, in human zombies' case). A zombie can “awaken” but remain “unconscious” (still speaking in incoherent zombie gibberish), such as the case with Tae.
	+ He is also the only zombie who does not have to hide his undead identity in public. Although, this was never explained why.
	+ As revealed in “Episode 20,” Romero has been around since the late 19th century, as he once belonged to the Momozaki Family. Back then, he was already living as a zombie dog, which implies that he is the only zombie in the project, so far, to be resurrected by Jofuku and not by Kotaro.
* The girls are more likely to be “jiangshi” (literally “stiff corpses”—Chinese zombies) known in the West as Chinese vampires or zombies, the bodies brought back to life. Jiangshi are usually people who have died violently or unnaturally, or whose soul has found no rest at the time of death.
* Aside from the specific date of death, Tae's places of death have also not been revealed. Though, her family graves are positioned right next to the Minamoto Family's as shown in “Episode 18”.
	+ Her death is the only one revealed through the spin-off manga, wherein she met her demise when fused with Magatsuhi.
	+ Whereas both Sakura and Lily died in the vicinity of their own homes.
	+ Yugiri's death was a private government event to conceal information about Saga's rebellion and, therefore, unknown to the general public.
* The zombie appearance of the girls seems to change depending on the context in which they are seen.
* It is revealed in the spin-off manga that if a Sagako were to be taken outside of the Saga Prefecture's borders, it will explode, resulting to its demise.
	+ Similarly, this is also hinted to be the case for Zombies in Kotaro Tatsumi's dialogue in “The Acoustic SAGA of Love and Youth” about rejecting work for Ai Mizuno that involves going outside of Saga.

## References

1. ↑ Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie manga