The staff members' extra effort came together to create "Zombieland Saga" Blu-ray Volume 3, and this is the staff roundtable discussion looking back on episodes 9 through the final episode!

Zombieland Saga" is spreading a zombie boom throughout Japan and the pandemic is spreading more and more; the live concert held in March was a great success and the momentum continues to build, and the third volume of the Blu-ray was released on April 26, 2019.

Volume 3 is the ninth episode of the series, which features homages to Yankee works and hot drama. Episode 10 was a dramatic turning point, with training in the snowy mountains and foreshadowing for the climax of the story. Kotaro's powerful line to Sakura, who regained her memory, shook everyone's heart in episode 11. The story came to a grand conclusion with the success of the live concert against all odds. It looked as if it was going to be a zombie story, but it was not. ......? The 12th episode of the series has a zombie-like aftertaste.

To commemorate the release of the third Blu-ray volume, Munehisa Sakai (director), Shigeru Murakoshi (series composition), and Nobuhiro Takenaka (producer) gathered to talk about the final episodes of "Zombieland Saga".

This interview was again overflowing with zombie love, and ended up exceeding 10,000 characters! Please take your time to read it.

⇒ Commemorating the release of "Zombieland Saga" Blu-ray Volume 2! A special round-table discussion of the divine episodes 5-8 with the main staff!

A look back at "Zombieland Saga LIVE: Franchouche Minna de Orabo! ～live event "Zombieland Saga Live: Franchou Minna Orabo!

Q: How was the recent live event "Zombieland Saga LIVE: Franchouche Minna Orabo! ～What did you think of the recent live event "Zombieland Saga Live: Franchou Minna Orabo!

Sakai: It was very emotional. I was deeply moved. I was surprised that they went this far.

Murakoshi It was more than I expected.

Takenaka It was fun. When we originally ordered the choreography, we said we didn't need to be able to dance. We might have live performances like in other content, but if we were concerned about that, the production would become too small. The girls tried to reproduce the choreography as faithfully as possible and practiced hard, so I was simply moved by the result. It was something that I thought could never be realized, so I felt that they had practiced hard. When I saw the dance video that was coming up on the way to the show, I wondered if we would be able to make it to the show. I wondered if I would be able to make it to the concert.

Some of us have been dancing for a long time, and some of us have not. And the practice times were all different, so just imagine how difficult it must have been.

Takenaka: I think that's why there was so much drama.

Sakai The greeting by everyone at the end was very moving.

Murakoshi If I had been alone, I would have cried (laughs). (laughs) But I held it in because everyone was next to me.

Asami Tano made a comment about the Nippon Budokan (laughs).

Takenaka What I want you to understand is that we did not say anything (laughs). (Laughs.) Certainly, at that time, I was not moved, but rather I thought, "What? (laughs).

(laughs). I thought, "They really did it!

But the audience was also very passionate and warm.

Takenaka: There was a feeling that could only be felt in that size of an audience. It was good because it was a standing concert, not an arena or a seated concert. And I think the live viewers also enjoyed it a lot.

Q: The performance was linked to the work, so I realized that people who really like the work had gathered there.

Sakai That broken stage set was also great.

Takenaka I think it was the same for us and the audience, but we had the feeling that we were watching Franchouche in real life.

Border I really felt like I wanted to support them.

Takenaka I made some mistakes in rapping at the night performance, but it was nice to see how everyone covered for each other.

Saka I thought it was amazing that they did that, and I thought, "This is the third episode! I thought, "This is the third episode!

Q: And now you are going to hold your triumphant return to Saga Prefecture at Alpino.

Takenaka: I wonder what will happen. I wonder if we can really do it.

Sakai What?　You mean, how far will you go to destroy it?

Takenaka That's right. We need to check how far we can tear it down. ...... (laughs)

Q: From the anime, it was a normal gymnasium, wasn't it?

Takenaka Yes, in fact it was. So I think there are a lot of issues to be addressed, including lighting and facilities. However, we knew that we would receive various opinions, and we felt that if we did not do it now, we would not be able to do it in the future, and we would not be able to move forward.

Episode 9 "This Life Once Exhausted, How Caused It to Rise Again, If It is My Fate to Sing and Dance, I Will Keep My Feelings for My Best Friend in My Heart and Stick to Them Until I Stick to My SAGA"

Let's talk about each episode now. 9 is Saki's turn.

Saki: That's what I meant when I said Saki.

Murakoshi: We had the idea of having a chicken race from the very beginning.

Saki That was the cause of death before we started. So it was a backward calculation.

Takenaka Also, we had to cut a lot of episodes from this episode.

Murakoshi It was very difficult. Takuya Masumoto was in charge of the script, but I think this episode was the one where I left most of the backgrounds of the characters to the audience's imagination.

Q: What was the most difficult part?

Murakoshi: It was difficult to decide which character's point of view to use in the story. At first, I tried to depict Saki and Reiko from Maria's point of view. But as I added all the details, such as how she learned about Saki's existence and that her mother was a motorcycle gang member, the story became more about Maria than I had anticipated. Then Mr. Sakai pointed out that the story seemed to be drifting away from the story of Saki and Reiko. From there, I thought about the balance and came up with the current form.

Sakaïa: I didn't want Saki to be an afterthought.

Saki and Reiko, Maria's mother, are best friends, and it's important that Saki can't say her own name when she meets Reiko.

Sakai So it could have ended up being a spin-off of Maria's story.

ーYou have a good story there, but I was also expanding the fan base of grandparents in the first half (laughs).

Takenaka: When we started thinking about what kind of idol growth curve we could come up with because we are Saga and not just a regular idol, we came up with the idea that it would be interesting to have idols where grandparents also come to the live shows (laughs). (Laughs.) But we really organized this episode.

Sakaibara You never explained how the chicken race, which was the cause of death in the first place, came to be in that situation.

Takenaka In the first script, there was a fight before the chicken race.

Q: In the recollection scene, the first president of Korosuke had an amazing bird hair style, didn't he?　What was that all about?

Takenaka That was a joke by the director, wasn't it?

Sakai That's right. The director, Takeshi Sato, said, "I want it to look like this. I thought, "What? I thought, "What?

Takenaka When I first saw the script, I wondered if there was anything like this in the script. I thought, "Well, that's fine. I remember saying, "Well, it's okay.

Q: It was also interesting that the ladies' team was named "Dorami" (Drami) and "Murderous Woman.

Murakoshi: The name Dorami was there from the beginning. I think the name "Kakumejo" was decided later on during the scenario.

Takenaka: Who put that one in?　Was it Masumoto-san?

Murakoshi I think so. Masumoto-san said "Korosuke" at first, and then someone else wrote the phonetic alphabet, and then we thought, "That's good! I think it was Masumoto who first said "Korosuke" and someone else wrote it.

Takenaka I don't remember why we decided on "Enrabi" at all.

Sakai I think it was when we were deciding on the character of the legendary suicide captain.

Murakoshi: The first character I was given was "Gachapin," I think.
(*After the interview, it turned out that the "Gachapin" was not "Gachapin" but "Gachamina". (The article is left as it was in the interview in order to reproduce the atmosphere of the interview.)

(Everyone laughed)

Sakai Is that right? I don't remember that at all.

Takenaka That's worse (laughs). But I guess they chose a girl's name because it's a ladies' name. Korosuke is a guy after all (laughs).

Q: According to the reaction on the Internet, there seemed to be a lot of people of that generation who didn't know about Yankee manga.

Takenaka That was simply because it was Saki's time, but those were the heyday of Yankee manga.

Q: And what came to your mind?

Takenaka: "Taku no Taku" (laughs).

Sakai Sato, the director, didn't know what "Taku no Taku" was, so he had to read all the volumes.

Takenaka Great!

I was wondering if that "! is that the same as the direction of the "!

Murakoshi That was already a magazine production. Yankee manga in the magazine, especially "Tokyu no Taku," had that image in my mind, so when the idea came up, I thought it would be interesting.

Takenaka I thought I would give it a try, but at first, the "! was very small at first.

Sakai When I looked at the "Toku no Taku" manga, I was surprised that they used a normal font, and when I first tried to use that, the impact was a little weak. So we decided to make it look bigger, and that's how we ended up with that style.

Takenaka: The sequence was interesting, so we thought it would be a good idea.

SakaiWe didn't know when to put it in, so we had to explore.

Q: Even if you didn't know the original story, it was interesting.

Sakaï Even if we put aside the parody aspect, I thought it would bring out the Yankee-like atmosphere. If you knew the story, you would probably think it was stupid (laughs).

Takenaka: But it's also nice that episode 9 is not an easy-to-understand emotional story. In the old Yankee manga, there was a kind of melancholy ending, wasn't there? I thought it was nice that it ended that way. Another memorable moment for me personally was the super throw when Maria and the others first appear in the scene!

Sakaida: It's a very difficult direction to do in animation, but Mr. Sato wanted to try it. He said, "Let's try it," and I said yes.

Takenaka: I saw the first take of the V version. I was like, "What is this? I was like, "What is this? (laugh). I didn't even know if it was meant to be funny or not. I wondered what the intention was. I wondered. In "Zombieland Saga," there are many new laughs in the V-section, like "What the heck is this? We put laughter in the scenario, but we didn't know how to make it funny. We put in the laughs in the scenario, but I imagine that additional laughs are created on the set.

Q: Also, the songs and background music in episode 9 were the most interesting. The BGM was like a certain movie.

Sakaida I thought it would be interesting to repeat the BGM, as if we were always going to include that BGM.

Takenaka That's true. I mean, we were replacing all of the songs with this one in the middle of the film.

And the last song, "Tokko DANCE ~DAWN OF THE BAD~" was really cool.

Takenaka: In the anime, it's pretty much cut off, but it's actually a hotter song, and I wanted to include it up to "Paralila, Paralila. I regret that we didn't include that part.

Sakai In terms of the live performance, I wanted the audience to sing and dance with stand-up microphones.

Q: The suicide uniforms are also nice, aren't they?

Staff: Mr. Tano really liked the tokkofuku, and while we were practicing, he said in a flirtatious voice, "We'll make it, won't we? During practice, he said, "We'll make it!" and that was the reason we made him a suicide uniform costume for the recent live event.

Takenaka: Tano-san is like that (laugh). But I knew from the moment the song came out that it would be a hit at a live performance, so I'm glad to see it live.

Sakaida: When you are told to "fly, fly, fly," you have no choice but to fly, right?

Episode 10 "NO ZOMBIE NO IDOL SAGA

The preview made it look like episode 10 was going to be Yugiri's episode. But it wasn't at all.

Sakai I didn't mean to make it look that way.

Takenaka No, I didn't!　I used a little more material (laughs).

Sakai That's right (laughs).

Takenaka Episode 10 was a difficult episode.

Q: Was it a bit difficult? A mountain retreat? I thought it was a mountain retreat.

Takenaka That's right. It's just a way of building up toward the end. It is an easy idea, but in order to become strong, you have to train, and training is a mountain! That's how I started. That's how I started the scenario.

Sakaida: I thought it would be interesting to make it a little surrealistic, and since episodes 8 and 9 were getting hotter and hotter, I thought it would be good to have a surreal story.

Takenaka: We also talked about how there wasn't much of a chance for everyone to do something together, like get out of the mansion.

Sakai Also, I felt that we needed to have a proper story with all the members here.

Junko's love of fishing came up.

Sakaishi Suddenly she became enlightened.

Takenaka But I don't remember how I came up with this story at all (laughs).

Murakoshi I think I was even more out of control during the meeting.

Ai's line, "I have good dynamic vision, so it's easy for me to look for prey," I thought it didn't make any sense.

Takenaka: And yet Ai's bow is mountainous. I thought it was going to go like a whirlwind, but it's a mountain? It was like that (laughs). That was the work of the director, Yasunori Goto, wasn't it? I hope they got that little joke.

I'm sure they got it. I was just poking fun at him. And then the parent boar comes out.

Takenaka I think it started out as a bear, too.

Sakaida Since we set it in the mountains in winter, we thought maybe it was hibernating. That's what we were talking about.

Takenaka That's right, it was a surprisingly common reason (laughs).

Saka But if you ask me if Uribo was there at that time of the year, I don't know (laughs). (laughs) Also, what I wanted to do in this episode was to make it interesting if the nama-neki got mad.

Takenaka That could only be done in this piece.

Q: There was also a slap on the wrist, wasn't there?

Takenaka: Yes, there was. It was funny, including Mr. Miyano's ad-libs.

He said, "That's what I just said, right, general? I said that just now. You added a new lip-sync afterwards, didn't you?

SakaiI added it, although I'm not sure what he was looking at.

Takenaka: The reason why the yugiri scene was included here is because there are no other yugiri scenes. I think I added those scenes in the weeks of the scenario meeting.

Sakai When I was thinking about the story between Yugiri and Kotaro, I knew it wouldn't fit in a one-court story, so I put that scene in because I thought that in that mood, I could include the story between adults that I had originally planned. But in the end, it ended with a slap (laughs). (Laughs.) Originally, Yugiri's position was to be a character who could talk with Kotaro as an equal, so I thought it would be possible to create such a scene here. So, I added it to the story. I thought it would be a good place to talk about Kotaro's thoughts and feelings.

Takenaka: I remember now!　At first, you said you were going to make a scene at a ryotei (Japanese-style restaurant), so that's why the shishiooshi (deer-stepping doll) is still there. I thought, "There's no place like this! I was saying "kakone" in a place like that.

Sakai Yes, that's right. It was supposed to be a ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurant), but I wanted it to have a more intimate atmosphere, so I changed it to an izakaya (Japanese-style pub). But we kept the deerhawks, which is a mysterious touch (laughs).

Q: Also, when Sakura realizes her mistake and apologizes, Saki responds rather calmly.　What kind of direction was that?

Sakaï I thought it would be better if she reacted honestly as Saki, so there was no need to be cold and dismissive, but I think she was a little disappointed, so I gave her that kind of atmosphere. During postrecording, I think I asked him to be a little more open.

Takenaka: I think I was trying not to make it sound too bad, like it was appropriate and without much emotion.

I see.

Takenaka: Also, as I recall, the subtitle was decided in the final stages of production. NO ZOMBIE NO IDOL SAGA" has no meaning anymore.

Murakoshi It's the most mysterious title. 10 had various candidates like "NO PAIN NO GAIN SAGA" or "NO PAIN NO IDOL SAGA. 9 had the lyrics in the Yankee's suicide uniform, so it was decided to use that form.

SakaiIt was decided in an instant for episode 9, but for episode 10, there were many candidates, but the one that made the least sense came out.

Takenaka I decided on this one just by the sound of it.

Q: And in the end, Sakura gets hit by a car and her memory comes back. In the scene when she was hit by the car, I couldn't tell whether Romero was cute or scary.

Takenaka He is talking now, isn't he? ......

Sakai The last scene is almost the only scene that I can say was the highlight of the film.

Takenaka I was a little sad when I was listening to the recording. I was sad when I heard the voice, and then I came back to myself when I saw Yasuhiro Takado alone in the booth with the microphone (laughs).

Episode 11 "The One and Only SAGA in the World

Q: Episode 11 is where things start to get really exciting, but it was subtitled "The One and Only SAGA in the World" (laughs).

Takenaka: This subtitle was decided in an instant.

Murakoshi It hasn't changed since the beginning. No one was offended, so we left it as it was.

Takenaka Well, it's not a lie.

Q: This is the story after Sakura's memories of her life came back, but she lost her memories after she became a zombie.

Takenaka I was very worried about episode 11. I asked Manabu Otsuka (president of MAPPA) several times if he was okay with this scenario. Sakai That's because of Sakura's tension.

Sakaire Is that because of Sakura's tension?

Takenaka I was more worried about various things. It was before the last episode. Also, there are a lot of lines. The tempo is totally different from the past, so I wondered if that would be difficult to direct. I wondered if it would be difficult to direct.

Murakoshi There is narration and text, so it is quite different from the other episodes.

Takenaka: So we were discussing whether we could really go ahead with this. Takenaka: So I asked him if we could really go for it, but he said he thought it would be fine, and we started to work on it. But the resulting storyboard and direction were wonderful!　There were very few cuts, but the experience was very short, and I thought it was wonderful. I remember feeling relieved when I saw the cutting*.

(*Editing: The editing process. (*Editing: The process of connecting the filmed data according to the storyboard, adjusting the length of each cut, and replacing the cuts themselves.)

Sakaide It is true that this was an important story before the final episode, but in terms of the scenario, I was absolutely sure that I could go through with it just because of Kotaro's line at the end. Of course, the way the story was presented in the middle was important, but when Kounosuke Uda* agreed to be in the storyboard, I was relieved and said, "Thank goodness! I was relieved. At first, I thought I would have to do the storyboarding and direction for episodes 11 and 12 myself, and I discussed it with him, but we agreed that it would be impossible due to our schedule! I was told that it would be too much for my schedule.

(*Editor's note: Kounosuke Uda is the director and producer of ....... He was the series director of the "ONE PIECE" TV series jointly with Director Sakai.)

Takenaka: It was wonderful. So I think I was driven by the feeling that something was missing, that maybe it would be okay if we made it into a 30-minute anime. I wondered if it would be okay for a 30-minute animation.

Saka Is that in terms of elements?

Takenaka Yes, that's right.

Murakoshi For me, I was worried about the tension because Sakura was depicted in such a way, but as you said, once the final exchange between Sakura and Kotaro was decided, I knew that the story could end. I thought, "This story will end well! I thought, "This story is going to end right!

I was really moved at the end. Was it decided from the beginning that Sakura was an unlucky character?

Sakai No, this came to me as I was thinking about the scenario.

Takenaka It wasn't like I came up with the idea at the end, but I came up with the idea during the first round of scenario meetings when we were finalizing episode 11. I went back and added elements from there.

SakaiI thought that if I was going to do this in episode 11, I should add this line in episode 1. I would go through the scenario once, and in the second round of meetings, I would go over the parts that didn't make sense or that I thought should have been done in the previous episode, and ask Murakoshi-san to sort out the details. During that first round of meetings, the words "Sakura doesn't have it" came up, didn't it?

Murakoshi: We had an idea of what kind of state Sakura would be in that would be interesting in episode 11, so we went back and reexamined everything from there.

Takenaka: The word "Sakura doesn't have it" was created and the work became tighter. The axis of the work was set. In terms of the scenario, we went through episodes 1 through 12 three times.

I see what you mean. Also, the conversation at the BAR New Jofuku was very meaningful.

Murakoshi: There is a bar in Saga called New Tokyo, and the "New" part was a bit confusing and interesting, so I thought, "I'll definitely use that! (laughs).

Takenaka: Saga is the new Tokyo! (laughs).

Murakoshi Ever since I saw the sign, I've been wondering what that New meant.

Border It's neither New nor Tokyo, though (laughs).

Q: What should I take from that conversation?

Takenaka: We thought about it a lot, and then put it there.

I'll just take it as it is. But it was worthwhile to consider, wasn't it? In the next few episodes, it only appeared in the ending, but hardly at all.

Sakai Master Yoshitada Otsuka was at the post recording, and one of the other cast members asked Yoshitada, "Are you coming back next week? He said "No, he's not coming," and the cast members were puzzled. I thought he would definitely appear in the last episode because he seemed so important, but he wasn't invited.

Takenaka: I was most annoyed by the fact that he hid his face in episode 11, but in the ending of episode 12, his face is clearly shown. Why did you hide your face in episode 11? I was like, "Why did you hide it in episode 11? Was there any point in only dragging it out for one episode (laughs)?

Sakaide: It would have been fine if we had left it hidden. (character designer) Kajun Fukagawa looked sad (laughs).

(laughs).

Takenaka: Ha-ha-ha (laughs). (laughs) If that's the case, I'll use that!

Q: I also enjoyed the story where each of you went to persuade Sakura.

Sakai That tendon sensation. They each make mysterious excuses to get to Sakura.

Takenaka That part was also decided early on. Like Junko who couldn't say anything.

I didn't understand what Lily meant either, and Saki's background music was also interesting.

Takenaka Saki also tries to solve the problem with violence.

Sakai It was interesting to see their heads go round and round.

Yugiri went there, but Sakura wasn't there.

Takenaka I thought that if Yugiri had met her there, they would have solved the problem.

Murakoshi I had to make a mistake there.

Q: So you saved that for episode 12. And then there was the last great scene.

Takenaka: That was Murakoshi-san, wasn't it?

Sakai When I first read it, I was impressed.

Murakoshi I was happy to hear you say so.

Takenaka I gave Mr. Murakoshi a very rough pitch. I asked him to make it convincing. Then it came out that way, so I said, "That's good.

Murakoshi If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to persuade Sakura, who had gone to such lengths. I was really worried about how to put them on the same playing field. I felt that I had to go for it not with logic, but with a passion that would not let her say whether or not she wanted to. I thought Kotaro could do it.

I thought that once Kotaro gave up on persuasion, he would be gone.

Sakaida: "You think so! That's right. He said he wanted to do it. I did the "I think so" stuff here, so I went back a few episodes and put it in.

Takenaka: Was it the part where you were talking with Lily?　It was in the classroom, wasn't it?

Murakoshi We did put it in once.

Q: That sequence of scenes was great, including the performances of Mamoru Miyano and Kaede Hondo.

Takenaka: When I heard Miyano-san's lines during the recording, I thought it was a super good story.

Murakoshi It was really wonderful. Also, who came up with the idea for the characters on the railing? It fits Sakura's feelings at that time, doesn't it?

Takenaka The characters actually existed. The director had decided to include them when he went there (for location scouting).

Sakaida: We also took pictures of it.

Q: You could read the letters quite clearly.

Murakoshi: I thought that was amazing. Of course, those notes were not written in the script, so I thought it was very good.

Takenaka: In terms of the pictures, the layout was almost entirely based on the director's photographs, wasn't it?

Sakai That's right.

Q: How was the direction of episode 11?

Sakaï I really left the direction of this episode to Mr. Uda. But for the scene where Kotaro is ranting at the end, in Mr. Uda's storyboard, I thought he would meekly turn his back at the end and say, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just asked him to confront the scene head-on, and the rest of the storyboard was done as it was. The flow of the story was to put Sakura back in the ring with Franchouche in episode 11, and then put her back in the ring with the idol in episode 12.

Takenaka It really was a model of how to direct a show.

Saka I feel that you showed everything correctly and made it interesting.