Sunday, October 14, 2018

AKB48: "Sailor Zombie" drama episodes eleven and twelve 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 Terakawa
Kazuyuki Aijima as the Vice-Principal

 Episode titles: Youth and New World

 So little happened in the first fifteen minutes of the eleventh episode didn't take as many screenshots and thought it'd be better to combine the two shows into one recap. As mentioned in the above post it's the first series I've finished since my laptop was revived and hopefully it's the beginning of many dramas to complete, already have a few others lined up to view.




 The first fifteen minutes of this first show were just so slow moving and boring. The quartet are still roving the countryside but on foot now as the truck they were using to haul the trailer has bitten the dust. They do come up to the sea, don't think the town of Fujimi where the show took place is a real location so it's unknown where they are exactly. The girls kept reminiscing about their prior lives and wonder what's to become of them. They have an idea to have a 'time capsule' which is a video they take on a phone of what all four thought of what's going to happen and what their dreams in life are or were.
 While still at the beach the best scene of the show takes place as out of the ground zombie's appear! They manage to capture the nurse Midori and the defense soldier Aika, the zombies ruthlessly kill the pair and the killings were actually kind of graphic. Now it's down to just the pair of Maiko and Mutsumi, with no destination in mind they kept on roaming the countryside hoping for anything.
 In not a surprise happening the duo ran into Momoka who we really hadn't seen since the eighth episode, being one of the stars in the show meant we had to see her again. Momoka was the only other student to escape from the Fujimi high school when it was overrun by zombies, the girl Natsumi gave up her life to save Momoka plus the crazed teacher Nabeshima also helped her flee.




 The final scene from the eleventh episode segues into the final show. The trio of Maiko, Mutsumi and Momoka are traveling around the countryside when they hear some loud music. When they finally arrive at the source they find it's an abandoned amusement park but it's no longer abandoned. There are real humans walking around the park with a dazed look on their faces while there's zombies there too dancing to the music.
 At the park the girls finally meet the mysterious DJ who goes by the name of Marlon. The song he's played in so many episodes is called "Moon La Lu" and it somehow makes the zombies become defenseless and just start to do a silly dance. The trio are the first humans who have made it alive to the park in a very long time and Marlon wants to know how they figured out the song's clues. None of the girls had figured out the clues which gave hints of where the location of the safe park was as they just stumbled across it by accident.




 Yes, the living humans do have dead eyes and really don't act much differently than a zombie would. That was all explained to them by Marlon when the trio were presented with a huge feast and they hadn't eaten regular food for a while though they just nibbled on some delicious cake. Marlon told them the humans were sort of dead because to stay at the park they need to give up their dreams for the future which seemed to drain their souls. That's something Maiko, who wanted to become an idol and Mutsumi, who wanted to be a mother(?) wouldn't do as they still held out hope the world would return to being normal.
 However Momoka, who had been an up and coming model, said she would be willing to give up her future if it meant she could stay at the park. Momoka had always been a me-first person so her decision didn't come as a big shock to her two friends. Also on the scene was the girls ex-teacher Terakawa who had managed to solve the clues in the song. She's still a normal human though and a fairly attractive one too, she's now working as Marlon's assistant.
 There was one other pair of real humans in Marlon's headquarters who were the two small boys who had once stayed at the high school with their father. He's now dead as he wouldn't give up his future dreams, the young lads would like nothing more than to avenge that death. And with the help of Momoka they may be able to do that, she pulled a trick on Marlon saying she would give up her dreams as it would throw him off her scent as it let her roam around the building unguarded.




 With help of the two lads Momoka was able to obtain the pistols of the guards who were outside the transmitting room. As you can see above she went a bit ballistic and emptied both chambers into the music console which ended the music and the whole park was about to change because of that. Now that DJ Marlon's music wasn't playing the zombies returned to 'life' and came storming into the headquarters. There had to be hundreds of the zombies and no human was able to stand up to them as everyone in their path were quickly taken down including Marlon and the girl's teacher Terakawa.
 As you can see above the pair of Maiko and Mutsumi were tied up due to the fact they wouldn't give up on their future dreams. They were rescued by Momoka and the little boys and now the question was how to escape the zombies. Mutsumi, for perhaps her first time ever, had a brilliant idea and that was to play music to the zombies to make them defenseless again. But it was only the "Moon La Lu" song which seemed to have any effect but that was a clue which Mutsumi had hit upon.
 Mutsumi had told Maiko she would write her debut Idol song, she had based the chords off the 'Moon' tune and the three girls along with the small boys jumped on a stage outside of the headquarters and began playing the song. And that worked like a charm as the zombies once again began their loopy way of dancing which allowed the girls to escape. We're not sure if they ever did or what became of them as the episode sort of faded out at that moment in what was not a satisfying conclusion in the least.




 Will end up giving this series a grade of 7/10 which is like receiving a C at school, it may have gotten an 8/10 after eight episodes. The last 3-4 shows really dragged a bit though the stories seemed okay, what would have helped this series out more than anything else was just having it ten episodes. All in all it was an okay watch, wouldn't recommend it highly though if you're an AKB fan you'd definitely want to watch it.
 Up next though it won't be for about ten days will be recaps for the "Kakegurui" drama. Had watched the first two episodes and was enjoying the show but that's when my laptop went on the fritz. Wasn't planning on starting it over but had a change of heart and will be doing that soon, news has recently come out that there will be a second season next year. However won't be continuing the recaps for the Korean drama "Your House Helper". Still watching it but have viewed seven more episodes without taking any more screenshots. It's been about a month since the last recaps which is too long of a gap so will abort the show but it's still a highly recommended series, really didn't have the time to do another twelve recaps for the drama.



























No comments:

Post a Comment