Welp. One more episode, fellas. It’s a big task for both Zombieland Saga and Sakura to give us one helluva send-off. After last week’s surprising surprise that wasn’t exactly the kind of surprise I was expecting (and poor Yugiri still can’t do her thing even in the last episode), they should owe us that at least.
Perhaps Zombieland Saga can pull off a production miracle and squeeze everything in twenty-four glorious minutes. Otherwise, this might give them a good reason to make those prized OVAs just so they can settle unfinished businesses, but who knows? They’ve already surpassed all my expectations and doubts back then when they managed to keep their weekly gigs as entertaining and fresh as they can be, but now that time is against their side, how are they going to conveniently wrap things up with their signature bang with just one episode left? We’re already at the penultimate and Tae hasn’t even reached her final form yet. Mayhaps they’ll give her the spotlight by revealing some connection she has with Sakura and/or Kotarou similar to how they did that stuff with Yugiri this last episode. Eitherway… it’s going to be difficult covering all of these grounds with so little time in their hands so meh.
Whatever the case is, I’m really looking forward to how they’ll handle this make or break climax. Given that Zombieland Saga has a penchant for the unpredictable, it’s always not a good idea to give up on our ragtag crew. After all, they’ve got quite a nice setup for the finale. Sakura’s plight of negativity may hit a few sore spots in a number of viewers as her situation sans all the absurdity is a story that’s generally the easiest to relate to out of everyone from the group. It may appear as if those “bad memories” of hers were trivial stuff that shouldn’t have escalated to this level of self-loathing, though it makes sense for her to be this smug given that her misfortunes also affected her relationship towards her friends/classmates and vice versa. While this kind of premise is relatable enough to catch most of our attention in time for the big event, it kinda puts Zombieland Saga in the pedestal again (the first time being Junko’s story). Initial surprised reactions from Sakura’s story aside, they’re now left with a rather simple premise to work with — heck, one can even argue that this ganbarimasu! trope is a staple in the idol anime genre — unlike with Saki, Ai, Lily etc. in which they have an already unusual setting they can use as leverage in playing with their character’s story arc’s resolution. Then again, while Sakura’s redemption is somewhat apparent in how it will turn out, developments that we think aren’t difficult to anticipate such as these are usually the stories that prove to be easier to twist into something imaginative.
Short thoughts:
- It’s either Sakura’s throwing arm is just really strong, or Lily’s star (whatever that is) is just very sharp. It’s one of those moments where it takes the “Huh, that doesn’t look quite right…” a few seconds to register in your brain.
- The dead puns certainly never get old. Especially Saki’s “I’ll kill you!” catchphrase.
- That part where Junko just sniffed from resignation was cute af.
- What if Kotarou’s the one who ran over Sakura and he’s doing this project to make amends to her?
Nichi Nichi-chan 