I feel like this is the first time i’ve come into the review with conflicted feelings. Usually I am just here ready to scream about how much I love this show and everything it’s doing, but perhaps it’s just because I never really got behind Sakura as a character or because I am afraid of where they intend to go with next episode. I just can’t sit and scream about how much I loved it this week, but that’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable. I laughed and it lightened my mood as it always does, so in those ways, Zombieland Saga absolutely did it’s job.
Kotaro tells the girls they have a new gig incoming, large stage where they will try to fill 500 seats. The venue is a place that has meaning to Ai, it’s the first venue she played in Saga. It also has meaning to Sakura, though she can’t put her finger on why. All she knows is that this place links to her past in some way and it hypes her up to practice. A little too much even.
She gets so fired up that she ends up moving too fast and not matching her pace to the others. She is only thinking of herself.
Kotaro being Kotaro, sends them up to the mountains for some reason. I mean, I basically know the reason was to try to get Sakura to slow down and there was also some kind of word play on Alpine and the Appalachian mountains. Still it doesn’t work as intended, she still remains selfish and moving with blinders on, as the rest of the girls sit and work together and struggle to survive on a snowy mountain, she stubbornly keeps practicing by herself.
Best part of the episode by far is after they get off the mountain, Yuugiri goes to speak with Kotaro at the restaurant he’s drinking at. She talks to him about Sakura and does that thing she does where she doesn’t really listen to what people are saying and tells them what they were saying anyway. Right along with smacking him across the cheek in glorious slow motion. “That’s what I was saying, you guys heard it right?” the just, absolutely confused and hurt tone that Mamoru delivered this line with was fantastic.
Sakura does eventually come to her senses after watching the other girls practice from the outside, seeing how in sync they are and how selfish she is being. I suppose it’s a pretty standard lesson and one that she did need to learn. So with that out of the way, the girls can get to training for their upcoming show! If only it were that simple, we knew it was coming. The minute the cheery background music paired with Sakura telling Ai that she was going out for a run, the moment we heard her inner dialogue mirroring the first episode. We all knew what was going to happen, as her and the zombie dog run out of the house. She is mowed down by a van, very similar to the one that hit her when she was alive.
As she hits the ground, she is knocked dazed and as she sits up she utters the most dreaded words as her memories return.
“Where am I?”
Oh dear, hopefully Zombieland Saga will find some way to take the amnesia plot and subvert it or make it comedic enough that I am not rolling my eyes out of my skull all next episode. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s come out of left field and surprised me by subverting the tropes i’ve become familiar with. I’ll just have faith in it, overall this wasn’t a stellar episode but it wasn’t a complete flop either, just a average episode in a not so average anime.
Say what you want about this episode (to be fair, I haven’t seen it yet), but Sakura’s freak out faces are a joy to behold, like her face last episode when Saki rolled out of the car.
Oh agreed for sure, this entire anime is a treasure trove of reaction picture screen shots and Sakura has some of the best. There is absolutely no denying that.