Episode 11

**A One-of-a-Kind SAGA** (**世界にひとつだけの SAGA**, *Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no SAGA*) is the eleventh episode of the first season of Zombie Land Saga and is the eleventh episode overall.

## Plot

After being hit by a truck, Sakura wakes up with no memories of Franchouchou. Encountering the zombified girls, she staggers and then falls into despair, where she is revealed to be pessimistic. Although Ai explained everything that had happened after her death and before being hit by a truck the second time, Sakura feels sad. She believes that everything she does will tragically fail in the end.

While Kotaro talks to a mysterious bartender who seems to know his plan and wants Kotaro not to touch Yugiri.

The girls try to cheer Sakura up, but they can't. Lily, Junko, and Saki try to comfort her. But they only make them sad because Sakura doesn't care about them anymore. Later, she leaves the house, to everyone's dismay.

Sakura walks the streets alone and begins to remember her past. Many of her memories were filled with misfortune, as many roles that she succeeded in obtaining ended in bad luck and failure. Repeated instances of lousy luck, undergoing evolution to develop a pessimistic personality where she believes her life is a mess. As she continues to berate herself, she encounters a police officer pointing a terrifying weapon at her. But Kotaro rescues her by knocking him out.

Kotaro takes Sakura to an observation post and comforts her feelings. Even though she continues to detest herself and the misfortunes that happened to her, Kotaro remains adamant that he will never abandon her.

## Features

### Characters

* Kotaro Tatsumi
* Romero
* Franchouchou
	+ Sakura Minamoto
	+ Saki Nikaido
	+ Ai Mizuno
	+ Junko Konno
	+ Yugiri
	+ Lily Hoshikawa
	+ Tae Yamada
* Policeman A
* Bartender (debut)
* Iron Frill (flashback)

### Locations

* Saga Prefecture
	+ Franchouchou Mansion
		- Attic
	+ Niji No Matsubara Pine Grove
	+ Unnamed playground
* Bar New Jofuku

## Trivia

* The opening, “Fruitless Necromancy”, is played with more added sound effects in this episode.
* This is the first episode to focus on Sakura.
* That Tae is not wearing her pajamas indicates that she will most likely stay up all night waiting for Sakura.
* Sakura's backstory shows that she was “legendary” too, at least in her own school and neighborhood. Sakura is a legendary Jinx, a talented, intelligent and driving girl who never succeeds where she counts due to her bad luck.
	+ For this same reason Kotaro never called her legendary, she knew that if he told her that, and she remembered who it was, she would have recognized him.
* During the scene wherein Sakura is terrified of all the other zombies, a particularly forceful moment comes when she drops her weapon in defeat and says that even trying to fight is pointless. She returned to her depression to the point that even trying to defend her own life is not something she is willing to do.
	+ This is shown again during the scene wherein she sulks by the swings in the playground without makeup and has another encounter with the police officer, who attempts to shoot her when he sees how she looks. Only this time, Sakura is so depressed that she's not even afraid of her own safety, telling her to go ahead and do it. Showing that Sakura could be contemplating suicide by not being able to get on with her life.
* Kotaro’s diary entry for the episode is written sometime after Sakura gets hit by a truck a second time and before his pep talk with her, after finding out that he cannot sleep with their current situation on hand.

### Cultural References

* The bar where Kotaro goes is called New Bar JOFUKU, which according to legends was a Chinese alchemist who traveled to Japan searching for the Elixir of Immortality.
* The episode title is a reference to the song called *“Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” (“A Unique Flower in the World”)* by the Japanese boy band, *SMAP*, which Kotaro could have dedicated to Sakura, specifically the line: “It doesn't matter if you can't be number one, you were already someone special from the beginning.”
* The quote written on Sakura’s headband during her flashback, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, is a reference to the same quote made by Pauline Kael.

### Continuity

* This is the sixth time the police officer from earlier has come across Sakura or someone affiliated with Franchouchou.
* The scene wherein Sakura gets terrified of her group mates in the dark abandoned mansion, with her bumping into Tae first, parallels the same scene in the first episode.
	+ Additionally, Ai reacting negatively to seeing Sakura fend herself with a metal rod is also a callback to the first episode, wherein she stabs a zombie-conscious Ai through the side of her head with it.
* Yugiri recalls the events of the previous episode.
* Sakura retreating to the attic and putting up the same barricade as Junko did is a callback to Episode 7.

## Errors

* Lily’s star accessory is missing the smaller stars on it during her one-on-one talk with Sakura.