The Japanese musical idol is expected to embody a sort of ideal. Idols are to be cute, energetic, innocent, friendly, feminine, cheerful. Purity and public image are emphasized to the point that idols are often outright forbidden from having romantic relationships. Their time may be so micromanaged that they have little or no opportunity to have a personal life. They're not supposed to make mistakes, except perhaps of the minor sort that's more endearing than damnatory. They are, in short, strongly pressured to live on a pedestal, and at least give the impression of a sort of perfection that simply isn't humanly possible.
Compare that to the members of FranChouChou. One has no memory and no experience, one was a thuggish biker better suited to intimidation than entertainment, one has developed a crippling fear of lightning, one is a timid loner who tends toward pessimism and struggles to adapt, one worked as a high-class prostitute, one was designated male at birth, and Tae is, well, Tae (and she can't even sing). Several come into the group with zero motivation or enthusiasm. None of them are what idols are supposed to be. And that's not even getting into the whole zombie thing!
Yet they find success anyway, not as what the world expects them to be, but as who they want to be. That, perhaps more than anything else, is what makes Zombieland Saga so compelling. And so the opening theme emphasizes rebelling against fate and defying expectations.
| Performed by: | フランシュシュ * | FranChouChou * |
|---|
| Japanese | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Intro, ~21 seconds. The anime intro sequence also includes a voiceover by Sakura: | ||
| 死んでも夢を叶えたい！ いいえ、死んでも夢は叶えられる！ それは絶望？それとも希望？ 過酷な運命乗り越えて、 脈がなくても突き進む！ それが私たちのサガだから！ |
Shinde mo yume wo kanaetai! Iie, shinde mo yume wa kanaerareru! Sore wa zetsubou? Sore to mo kibou? Kakoku na unmei wo norikoete, myaku ga nakute mo tsukisusumu! Sore ga watashi-tachi no SAGA da kara! |
Even after dying, we want our dreams to come true! No, even though we've died, our dreams can come true! Is that despair? Or is it hope? Even without a pulse, we'll overcome our cruel fates and push onward! For that is our saga! |
| (intro ends, singing begins) | ||
| 誰が弔う 死地は彼方 静寂を破り 芽吹いた夢を |
dare ga tomurau shichi wa kanata shijima wo yaburi mebuita yume wo |
Who mourns in yon place of death? A budding dream breaks the stillness |
| 誓え 穿て 重なる 屍 高みへ 届くまで |
chikae ugate kasanaru shikabane takami e todoku made |
Swear by it! Dig through! Until the mounting corpses reach to the heights! |
| 唸れ 徒花1 朽ち果てても進め 奪わせはしない 尊厳の愚弄に 飢餓を解き放て 枯れても走ることを命と呼べ 空に叫ぶ 脱・生存の定義 骨を斬らせて 闇を断て2 |
unare adabana1 kuchihatete mo susume ubawase wa shinai songen no gurou ni kiga wo tokihanate karete mo hashiru koto wo inochi to yobe sora ni sakebu datsu-seizon no teigi hone wo kirasete yami wo tate2 |
Groan, O fruitless flowers1, keep going even after you've rotted away! Unleash your starvation in a mockery of dignified refusal to let anything be taken Call it life to run even after you've withered! The definition of after-existence crying out to the skies Lose the war so you can vanquish the darkness2 |
| 雲間に光る 簒奪の勝機 覚悟を 宿命3に突きつけて 天下に狂い咲く サガ SAGA |
kumoma ni hikaru sandatsu no shouki kakugo wo sadame3 ni tsukitsukete tenka ni kuruizaku SAGA SAGA |
A subversive chance at victory shines through the clouds Stab your resolve straight at fate, a saga blooming out of season under the heavens! SAGA |
| brief interlude | ||
| 傷ひとつ無い 手など愚か 意思も自由も その身を投げて |
kizu hitotsu nai te nado oroka ishi mo jiyuu mo sono mi wo nagete |
Hands without a single wound? That's pure folly Throw yourself into it, will, freedom, and all! |
| 守れ 退くな 涙も 血も無い 神話を 築くまで |
mamore hiku na namida mo chi mo nai shinwa wo kizuku made |
Defend it! Don't shrink back! Until you've built up a legend with neither tears nor blood! |
| 燃えろ 修羅花 鼓動亡き世界で 摂理に抗い 天命も無礼に 腐鎖4切り抜けて 心を無くすことが死5と知れ 極めど儚い偶像の寵児 目には目を剥き 牙を剥け6 |
moero shurabana kodou naki sekai de setsuri ni aragai tenmei mo burei ni kusari4 kirinukete kokoro wo nakusu koto ga owari5 to shire kiwame do hakanai guuzou no chouji me ni wa me wo muki kiba wo muke6 |
Burn, O flowers of carnage, in a world without a heartbeat! Fight the natural order and divine will, and rudely break free of your rotten chains4 Know that it's not over5 until you lose heart! An idol on top of the world, oh so fleeting, bare your fangs, widening an eye for an eye6 |
| いつか誰もが散華する捨て石 輝け 刹那無限の火花 乱世に迸る サガ SAGA |
itsuka dare mo ga sange suru suteishi kagayake setsuna mugen no hibana ransei ni hotobashiru SAGA SAGA |
We're all pawns to be sacrificed in a blaze of glory some day Shine, O momenary, infinite spark, a saga gushing across troubled times! SAGA |
| interlude with choral zombie groans, ~20 seconds | ||
| 何が神の冒涜か 裁きなどさせない 希望 高らかに打ち鳴らせ 呼吸よりも生きた証 |
nani ga kami no boutoku ka sabaki nado sasenai kibou takaraka ni uchinarase kokyuu yori mo ikita akashi |
Blasphemy against the divine? We won't let them judge us Let your hope ring out loud! That shows you're alive better than breathing |
| 唸れ 徒花1 朽ち果てても進め 奪わせはしない 尊厳の愚弄に 飢餓を解き放て 枯れても走ることを命と呼べ 空に叫ぶ 脱・生存の定義 骨を斬らせて 闇を断て2 |
unare adabana1 kuchihatete mo susume ubawase wa shinai songen no gurou ni kiga wo tokihanate karete mo hashiru koto wo inochi to yobe sora ni sakebu datsu-seizon no teigi hone wo kirasete yami wo tate2 |
Groan, O fruitless flowers1, keep going even after you've rotted away! Unleash your starvation in a mockery of dignified refusal to let anything be taken Call it life to run even after you've withered! The definition of after-existence crying out to the skies Lose the war so you can vanquish the darkness2 |
| 雲間に光る 簒奪の勝機 覚悟を 宿命に突きつけて 荒野を駆ける 乱世に挑む 天下に狂い咲く サガ SAGA |
kumoma ni hikaru sandatsu no shouki kakugo wo sadame ni tsukitsukete kouya wo kakeru ransei ni idomu tenka ni kuruizaku SAGA SAGA |
A subversive chance at victory shines through the clouds Stab your resolve straight at fate, racing across the wasteland, challenging troubled times, a saga blooming out of season under the heavens! SAGA |
| closing, ~8 seconds | ||
1 徒花 (adabana) literally refers to a flower that fails to produce fruit (or one that blooms out of season, or one that barely even blooms before already losing its petals). It also figurately refers to a fruitless endeavor. Such as, perhaps, when someone gets hit by a truck and dies before she gets a chance to apply to the idol group she's dreamed of joining? Everything was in vain, nothing comes of anything, all hope is dead. And that's where the necromancy comes in...
2 This line plays with the saying 肉を斬らせて骨を断つ (roughly, "accept a flesh wound so that you can sever their bone", and loosely equivalent to "lose the battle to win the war"), replacing (your) flesh with bone, and replacing (their) bone with darkness.
3 The kanji 宿命 (shukumei, destiny) are given the reading さだめ (sadame, fate). They're near-synonyms, though I get the impression that sadame tends to have more of a general "law of nature" sense, whereas shukumei tends to be more personal (a destined romance, fated rivals, etc.).
4 The kanji 腐鎖 (rot+chains) are collectively given the reading くさり (kusari, chains). Note that 腐 by itself is typically pronounced くさ (kusa) already.
5 The kanji 死 (shi, death) is given the reading おわり (owari, the end).
6 This line. This line. Three idioms that are superficially related thanks to the words they use and not their meanings, all run together as if it made sense. Picking it apart, 目には目を (me ni wa me wo) is a straightforward translation of "an eye for an eye". 牙を剥く (kiba wo muku) is also fairly straightforward, and describes an animal baring its fangs, or to attacking or showing hostile intent in general. 目を剥く (me wo muku) is a bit trickier in that 剥く means to peel (skin, etc.) back from or off of something, but unlike the English expression about peeled eyes, it has nothing to do with observing anything. Instead, 目を剥く refers to eyes opening wide in fear, anger, shock, or a similar emotion. That all fits together... awkwardly at best.
* FranChouChou consists of 本渡楓 (Kaede Hondo) as 源さくら (Sakura Minamoto, stage name "#1"), 田野アサミ (Asami Tano) as 二階堂サキ (Saki Nikaido, stage name "#2"), 種田梨沙 (Risa Taneda) as 水野愛 (Ai Mizuno, stage name "#3"), 河瀬茉希 (Maki Kawase) as 紺野純子 (Junko Konno, stage name "#4"), 衣川里佳 (Rika Kinugawa) as ゆうぎり (Yugiri, stage name "#5"), and 田中美海 (Minami Tanaka) as 星川リリィ (Lily Hoshikawa, stage name "#6"). And also the legendary 三石琴乃 (Kotono Mitsuishi) as the legendary 山田 たえ (Tae Yamada, stage name "#0"), but Tae can at best barely vocalize and doesn't sing. Unless she's contributing background groans? I can also hear a baritone in the chorus and interludes, so presumably that would be 宮野真守 (Mamoru Miyano) as 巽幸太郎 (Kotaro Tatsumi).