Episode 13

**Good Morning Returns SAGA** (**グッドモーニングリターンズ**, *Guddo Mōningu Ritānzu SAGA*) is the first episode of the second season of the Zombie Land Saga series and is the thirteenth episode overall.

## Plot

April 2019

A new day begins in Saga prefecture and Ai goes to hers… strange job? Inside the Kojima food company that produces squid? Sakura and Tae take care of the cows? Does Saki work at a construction site? Lily delivers milk? Does Junko paint traditional dolls? And Yugiri works in a bar? What is happening?

A month earlier, Franchouchou was at the height of their glory. Incredible CD sales, full concerts… yet one event turned everything upside down… Kotaro, the producer of Franchouchou, had managed to reserve Tosu's stadium abbreviated as EFS to produce an incredible concert. Unfortunately, only 500 spectators out of 30,000 potential attend this concert. It's a total failure, one of the worst idol failures in history. Their performance is also unsuccessful, and the girls cannot reveal the new song that they were going to sing after the encore. Due to this concert, the group is in debt and that is why the girls had to look for odd jobs to be able to pay their debt.

In any case, girls are always motivated to become great idols, but as for the producer of him… Kotaro couldn't stand the failure of the EFS and sank into depression. It has been more than a month since he did not return to the mansion, and he no longer takes care of Franchouchou. Sakura tries to make him see reason by going to see him at the bar where he spends his days drinking. She tells him the latest news, that the girls have brought more money than expected to pay their debt and that a new concert is soon scheduled at Geils Death metal, the hall where Franchouchou had produced their “first” concert in 2018. But Kotaro, an alcoholic, doesn't care and takes the opportunity to make fun of Sakura.

At the mansion, the girls wonder how to bring old Kotaro back among them. Ai thinks that Kotaro is not depressed because of debt but because of something else, that he seems to be rushing about something. The fact of wanting to organize a concert at the EFS made Ai uneasy. To find out why Kotaro is rushing, Lily suggests going to search his room.

The searches in her room are not fruitful, the girls do not find more clues, except a recording of the prototype of the song that was going to be sung after the cancellation of the concert at the EFS. They remember how passionate Kotaro was about what he did, which convinced Sakura to have to take Kotaro to her next concert at all costs so that he could find his passion again.

That same night, at the bar where Yugiri works, Kotaro bursts into this place and recognizes the young zombie, and he immediately fled the bar. She leaves her workplace to search for his producer, vomiting a few feet away. She comforts the young man, sick and crying, repeating over and over, “I was wrong.”

The next day, the girls finish their concert rehearsals at Geils Hall and Sakura wants to take Kotaro with her. However, the discussion between the two does not go well. Sakura wonders where the Kotaro who encouraged her when she recovered the memory of her human life, the one who had told her that he would never leave her, has gone. Despite Sakura's best efforts, Kotaro does not want to go to the concert and tells her that he is not so lucky. Sakura runs away furious from the restaurant and decides to do the concert without her producer.

At Geils Hall, the Death Metal festival is in full swing, and the Metal duo is present to support their favorite idol group. The atmosphere is bad, the audience doesn't seem to want an idol group at a Death Metal festival. Nobody seems to want to see Franchouchou.

Meanwhile, at the New Jofuku bar, the bartender and Kotaro have an argument about Franchouchou. We later learn that “Project Zombie Land Saga” is limited in time, a time limit that seems to strongly affect Kotaro and prevent him from returning to Franchouchou. Therefore, Jofuku tells him to abandon this project and the girls… which Kotaro refuses. He decides to join the concert of his idols at the last minute and runs as fast as possible in the city to join the concert hall.

Franchouchou's concert goes bad, the audience is not satisfied with the performance, and the girls are reluctant to leave the stage. Her new song would not be revealed yet… When Sakura thinks about stopping the concert, Kotaro comes into the room, exhausted, and yells “AGAIN.” The audience then begins to attack the young man, who continues to yell at the girls to sing.

The Metal duo joins Kotaro and also begins to fight with the public. Sakura decides to release Franchouchou's new song, REVENGE. The people in the room fight as the new song plays, but they finally calm down towards the end of the concert and applaud Franchouchou's return. The next morning, in the basement of the mansion, the girls argue about the concert the day before and are quite shocked because of the events of yesterday. During their discussion, Kotaro enters the basement and Sakura admires the return of her producer, who welcomes her idols with a “GOOD MORNING!”.

## Features

### Characters

* Kotaro Tatsumi
* Romero
* Franchouchou
	+ Sakura Minamoto
	+ Saki Nikaido
	+ Ai Mizuno
	+ Junko Konno
	+ Yugiri
	+ Lily Hoshikawa
	+ Tae Yamada
* Policeman A
* Dorami Biker Gang (non-speaking cameo)
	+ Maria Amabuki
	+ Mikigawa
	+ Sayawa
* Korosuke Biker Gang (non-speaking cameo)
* Skull and Bull
* Takeo Go (non-speaking cameo)
* Bartender
* Maimai Yuzuriha (non-speaking cameo)
* Machiko

### Locations

* Saga Prefecture
	+ Franchouchou Mansion
	+ New Bar Jofuku
	+ Geils Live House
	+ Kojima Food Factory (debut)
	+ Chinatsu Bar (debut)
	+ Unnamed pasture farm (debut)
* Arpino (mentioned)
* Ekimae Real Estate Stadium (debut;flashback)

### Music

#### Songs

* “Kojima Food Factory anthem”
* “REVENGE”

## Trivia

* This episode takes place in April 2019.
* The jobs that each member of Franchouchou takes are as follows: Ai works for the sole dried squid company in Kyushu, Sakura and Tae are responsible for maintaining the pasture of a nearby farm, Saki works as a construction worker, Junko works to paint display figurines, Lily works as a milkman, and Yugiri works as a bartender.
	+ It is also revealed that Ai has a keychain of Romero hanging on her work locker at the food factory.
		- The work alias Ai uses, San Tatsumi, is a combination of her order in Franchouchou as Zombie #3 alongside the last name of Kotaro’s alias, Tatsumi.
	+ Yugiri working as a bartender may be a nod to her connection with the old bartender.
		- It was announced on April 23, 2021, that Yugiri would be a VTuber from that point onwards, having her own streams at the Chinatsu bar. It can be found here on the Official Cygames YouTube Channel.
* It is revealed that Kotaro has been barhopping and has not returned home for over a month since he spiraled into his depressive state.
* It is revealed that the Death metal Fans can both fair well in a battle of fisticuffs, and that Metalhead A has done so once before, albeit long ago.
* It is revealed by Kotaro that the Zombie Land Saga project has a deadline. Though, not much else is revealed aside from the fact that they are running out of time.
* The scene wherein a disheveled Kotaro raises his arms to the sky by a cliffside with roaring waves is reminiscent of the official poster for the second season, with the only difference being that his hair was not as long in the official poster as to avoid spoilers.
* It can be assumed that Kotaro’s diary entry for the episode was written sometime between the girls’ encore performance at Geils, and after he decided to pick himself up again.
* The theory wherein Kotaro harbors good luck as opposed to the girls’ bad luck is slightly supported in this episode, as shown in the scene wherein all the pedestrian lights simultaneously went green amidst traffic just before he started running back to the Geils Live House.

### Cultural References

* During the scene wherein the girls are helping each other apply their human make-up, Junko can be seen vaguely resembling Roxxie, the Poison Type Gym Leader, from *Pokémon Black and White 2*.

### Continuity

* This episode has plenty of callbacks and parallels to “Episode 1” and “Episode 12.”
	+ The time both episodes take place in happen at 7:31 am. With the first episode’s time being shown on the small alarm clock in Sakura’s room, whereas this episode’s time being shown during Ai’s time-in at the factory.
	+ With Sakura’s first flashback showing the girls’ performance at Arpino hall in “Episode 12.”
	+ The mirror Sakura unintentionally broke (which Saki then exacerbated) in “Episode 12” has not been fixed since then.
	+ Franchouchou once again performs in the Geils Death metal Stadium, similarly to that of “Episode 1.”
		- Additionally, they are seen performing at the same event called “R.I.P. Nightmarefes” which is held every year on the 27th of April. The same date that the rest of Franchouchou gains consciousness in the previous year.
	+ It also went similarly as before, with Franchouchou performing somewhat badly at first, but then recovering their impression in a last-minute attempt.
	+ The songs the girls sing in the twelfth and this episode were regarding one to overcome their setbacks and to keep fighting for your goal, and with both performances receiving an “encore.”
	+ This is the third episode to have “Good Morning” in the title and the third episode to have someone yell “Good Morning” as a means to end the episode. With the first time being Sakura yelling “Good Morning” to the rest of the girls in “Episode 1”, and again in “Episode 12” but to their audience.
	+ Both the first well as this episode shared the same opening and ending sequence of an eagle circling above the Abandoned Mansion.
* Sakura recalls Kotaro’s pep talk to her in “Episode 11” when she confronts him in the bar.
	+ Albeit, in this episode, the roles of the two were swapped, with Kotaro being depressed with no sense of hope and Sakura attempting to reignite his passion and confidence. But in Sakura’s case, she does not do a double take and come back after Kotaro chases her off.
* The Bartender once again recalls the name of the “Zombie Land Saga Project” and the girls’ group name, “Franchouchou”, as two entirely different things. Albeit, this time, he does so deliberately in an attempt to make Kotaro gain his spark back.
* Kotaro’s flashback of the group’s performances include the following scenes: Sakura and Saki’s rap battle from “Episode 2”, their guerrilla performance in “Episode 3”, their performance at Saga Rock in “Episode 7”, and their performance at Arpino hall in “Episode 12.”
* During the fight scene in Geils Stadium, the part wherein Kotaro yells “Eat my foot. Boom!” while kicking an audience member right before cueing for the music to start is a callback to how he said something similar while kicking the door of the attic down in “Episode 7.”

## Errors

* Even though it has been stated twice that it has only been a month since Kotaro let himself go, his hair has grown long enough to reach his shoulders. Having one’s hair grows that long from his standard hairstyle would take at least a year or more.