AKB48: "Sailor Zombie" drama- episode one recap

 Air Dates: April 18th to July 19, 2014 on TV Tokyo Friday nights at 12:52 am

Main Cast:

The AKB members

Nana Owada as Maiko

Juri Takahashi as Mutsumi

Rina Kawaei as Momoka

Plus the sub unit trio of Milk Planet who sing the theme song and introduce the episodes

The rest....

Rina Koike as Arina

Karin Aiba as Nakajima

Seira Maeda as Mao

Yumi Iida as Iori

Rika Kazami as Tabuchi

Reiko Fujiwara as Reiko

Kei Ishibashi as teacher Koyuki

Kazuyuki Aijima as the Principal

 Bit late in starting this series but better late than never. It's actually a trend for me as I seem to enjoy a drama more a few years after it's aired instead of trying to keep up with a current show. An episode is just a shade over 22 minutes in length so these recaps should be an easy read though this first post may be the longest of them all.

 No year was given so presume the series was set in modern times which would be 2014 when the show aired. Two months ago a Zombie epidemic began wiping out most of the world. A small group of humans have survived and are holed up at the Fujimi Girls High School in Fujimi. There's thirty people currently living at the school which so far hasn't been invaded by zombies, the group consists of a father with his two small boys, two teachers and the school's principal.
 The rest are female students whose total is about to increase by one. In the middle screenshot above you can see Maiko(Nana) who crashed her auto on the way to the school but she managed to elude the zombies and make it safely to the high school. That makes Maiko a transfer student who had originally hailed from Tokyo but it appears that city has been wiped out by the epidemic, quite a few of the world's problems are never discussed.
 Maiko's goal in life is to be an Idol but what's the point if there's only thirty humans left in the world? During her introduction to the class she did a short song and dance routine for the class which flopped badly, you can tell Maiko was cut out to be an AKB member! There's two other AKB gals among the main cast, a student who quickly befriended Maiko was Mutsumi(Juri). Through the first four shows she's the baddest of gals when it comes to killing zombies and she takes such pleasure at pummeling them with whatever weapon she has.

 Momoka played by Rina is sort of the tough gal in class but more with her words than action. She recently had been signed to be a magazine model but looks as though there are no readers left in the world, because of being a model she thinks she's so superior to others. All the main characters still have their dreams along with the other people living at the school, though the place is surrounded by zombies they try to live a normal life.
 When Maiko had managed to elude the zombies after her car crash it was due to the help of Mutsumi who just happened to be walking by(?), as mentioned to her nothing is more pleasurable than killing a zombie. Actually these zombies look very easy to kill, Mutsumi usually will use whatever she has with her such as a shovel or baseball bat. You wonder why then the whole world has been overrun by the zombies if it's so easy to kill them.

 There's also a spooked male teacher at the school named Daisuke, the girls have locked him up in a closet as he freaks out when he's released. Maiko didn't know that fact and let him out by accident, he ran bonkers around the school and eventually made it outside. There he was about to be attacked by a horde of zombies, luckily for Daisuke Mutsumi arrived on the scene and managed to kill a fair share of them.
 What helped her out was that the zombies started to dance and didn't notice Mutsumi about to kill them. For some strange reason that none of the students can figure out is that out of nowhere often music will start playing, there's some mysterious DJ named Maron whose music starts blaring over the school's speakers. No one knows who he is or why the zombies start dancing to the songs he plays but it usually happens when the zombies are attacking and the music gives the students a chance to escape or to kill them. With that final scene outside of the school with the zombies rolling about to the music this first episode ends.

 Hope all recaps are as brief as this one, all the main details were explained and it made no sense trying to stretch things out like so many other reviewers do. Will make it easier for you readers too as there's three more recaps after this one, there's a total of twelve episodes in all.
 The main star of the show is Nana and recall her getting a big push many years ago. Also recalled her in 'Majisuka Gakuen' and thought she did a superb job in that drama, kind of ironic she played Zombie in the fourth season. She graduated last year from AKB and don't know why as she was just eighteen. Perhaps Nana knows an Idol's career doesn't last forever and will be attending college, will look for some current info for some of the upcoming posts. Just did a quick check and she did a guest appearance on the "Cheer Dan" drama back in August.