The Zombieland Saga Season 3 release date has been pushed over the horizon now that a movie is confirmed to be in production. But could the TV series continue the story of the FranChouChou idol group after their theater premiere in the zombies versus aliens movie?
If you haven’t heard already, it’s been officially confirmed that there will be a Zombieland Saga Movie: Zombie VS Alien. The official announcement was made during a live concert on October 17, 2021.
Avex Pictures also teased the upcoming movie with a live-action promotional video called A Zombie-less Fight: Saga Revenge Edition.
The anime was animated by Studio MAPPA, which is known for anime such as Garo, Punch Line, Yuri On Ice, Kakegurui, Inuyashiki, Banana Fish, Dororo, Dorohedoro, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
In 2021, MAPPA was also working on a Chainsaw Man anime, Netflix’s Yasuke anime, the water polo anime Re-Main, the Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi manga adaptation, and the Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2 anime. The Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie release date is confirmed for late 2021.
The second season was helmed by director Munehisa Sakai (Sailor Moon Crystal, Koi to Producer, One Piece), who also served as the sound director. Writer Shigeru Murakoshi (Dororo, Garo, Kakegurui, Knights of Sidonia) handled the series composition.
Artist Kasumi Fukagawa (IDOLiSH7) was the character designer. Composer Yasuharu Takanashi (Sailor Moon Crystal, Fairy Tail, Log Horizon) wrote the music.
The Zombieland Saga Season 3 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
The Zombie Land Saga Season 2 OP (opening) was “O Saga, Cry With Me (Taiga yo Tomoni Naitekure),” while the ED (ending) was “Spending The Days With a Dream and Nowhere to Go Home (Yume wo Te ni, Modoreru Basho mo Nai Hibi wo).”
The second season’s finale, Zombieland Saga Revenge Episode 12, was released on June 24, 2021. The second season was released as three Blu-Ray disc volumes.
- Updated October 18, 2021: Zombieland Saga movie confirmed.
- Updated July 16, 2021: Added Zombieland Saga Revenge English dub release date.
- Updated June 29, 2021: Added Revenge Volume 1 sales data.
- Updated June 24, 2021: Added Zombieland Saga Alien art. Added LIVE event info.
This article provides everything that is known about Zombieland Saga Season 3 (Zombie Land Saga Season 3) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
FUNimation’s Zombieland Saga English dub release date
Here is the Zombieland Saga Revenge dub cast:
- Bryn Apprill as Ai
- Ama Lee as Junko
- Ricco Fajardo as Kotaro
- Sarah Wiedenheft as Lily
- Caitlin Glass as Saki
- Brina Palencia as Sakura
- Dawn M. Bennett as Tae
- Stephanie Young as Yugiri
- Cris George as Bulk
- Austin Tindle as Dirty Harry
- Alejandro Saab as Romero
- Mike McFarland as Skull
- R. Bruce Elliot as Xu Fu
The Zombieland Saga Revenge English dub release date on FUNimation was on Thursday, July 15, 2021.
Zombieland Saga origins
The Zombieland Saga anime (or Zombie Land Saga) is a collaboration project that was originally shrouded in secrecy before it shambled into the light during the fall 2018 anime season.
Cygames anime producer Nobuhiro Takenaka has previously worked on popular series such as Yuri On Ice, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, and the Made In Abyss anime (the Made In Abyss Season 2 release date is confirmed for 2022). Takenaka came up with the idea for a zombie idol anime when he thought that zombie girl Rita from Rage of Bahamut: Genesis was cute.
The Zombieland Saga project had a rough start. When the producer pitched the concept internally as “Idol Zombie” no one knew how they could translate the idea into an actual game. The Saga PR person even said, “I really don’t care about idol stories.” But they did know that MAPPA, Cygames, and Avex wanted to collaborate on an original anime story.
The setting for the story was placed in the Saga prefecture since the birthplace of Cygames president Koichi Watanabe. The story was said to be difficult to write and even the first season’s famous rap battle scene was improvised since it wasn’t originally in the script. The Death Metal scene was introduced in the first episode since they wanted to break the idol mold by doing something outside of the box.
Speaking of the script, some of the voice actors even thought the story was supposed to be more serious, not a comedy. And the project was created in secrecy since the goal was to surprise audiences with a zombie idol story, not a true zombie horror.
Zombie Land Saga Season 3 release date predictions: Sequel likely?
As of the last update, MAPPA, Avex Pictures, Cygames Pictures, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Zombieland Saga Season 3 release date. Nor has the production of a Zombieland Saga sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Zombie Land Season 3 release date will occur in the future.
The epic finale of the second season turned out to be teasing the Zombieland movie. But before that giant UFO started blasting away chunks of Saga it almost seemed as if the entire story was ending.
After all, by Zombieland Saga Revenge Episode 10 all of the cards were seemingly on the table. The second season wrapped up many of the major plot points and answered most of the unanswered questions from the first season.
The reporter knows the girls are zombies and was ready to reveal their secret. FranChouChou is acknowledged as the top competitor by the best Tokyo idol group Iron Frill and they’re about to get “revenge” on the failed event at Ekimae Real Estate Stadium from a year ago. Kiichi’s dream of revitalizing the Saga Prefecture in the past is the origin of the current conflict. Old man Saga is an immortal responsible for the zombie-raising, not Kotaro Tasumi. There’s a hard time limit for FranChouChou’s success and a killer curse. Sakura has discovered her reason to sing.
The official website even summarized Revenge’s story in a manner that reeked of finality.
“At the end of the last episode, Saga prefecture will have a new meaning. This is a revenge for fate. A battle to regain our dignity, which has been burned by the flames of irrational fate.”
On the other hand, in Zombieland Saga Revenge Episode 11 Kotaro literally laid out a roadmap for Zombieland Saga 3 that extends beyond both the EFS revenge show and the movie’s alien invasion.
“And as long as Franchouchou exists, I’m going to be someone who has it! And the truth is, Sakura, your dream doesn’t end with EFS!” Kotaro yelled. “Your… The dream of your entire group is to become eternal idols loved around the globe! And until the comes true, Sakura… I’m going to have it eternally.”
Of course, Kotaro may have been getting a little ahead of himself since after the successful EFS show in Episode 12 he also declared, “Just so you know, Saga’s barely even a little saved!” The girls agreed that EFS is nothing more than a milestone and that there’s much more for them to do.
Episode 11 also had the girls accidentally revealing their zombie secret and thanks to their fans it didn’t matter. The reporter also softened on his negative stance and even helped Kotaro arrange the charity concert in Episode 12.
Arguably, there is at least one unanswered question since the backstory and the cause of death for the Legendary Tae Yamada hasn’t been fully revealed. Episode 18 revealed that the Minamoto family grave (Sakura’s family) is positioned right next to the Yamada family grave. Cygames had previously discussed how Tae’s backstory had been originally planned for the first season’s finale, but they decided to push it back to a future season.
Some of the character story arcs could still use some development. Kotaro’s intentions and motivations have just begun to be explored with Episode 11 briefly teasing his backstory. Kotaro’s relationship with Sakura needs to be shipped resolved, especially after that wall slam (Kabedon) scene between the two characters.
More importantly, Kotaro went out of the way to hide from the girls that he’s bleeding. With a potentially deadly illness now revealed, it’s possible that the time limit he mentioned earlier is in regards to himself.
Regardless of the story itself, there is definitely a financial motivation for keeping the series going. Besides Avex Pictures and Cygames, Studio MAPPA stands to reap a lot more money in comparison to other projects where the company is just a contractor that’s not on the anime production committee.
(Having a seat on the anime production committee was probably a big part of the reason MAPPA agreed to do Attack On Titan Season 4.)
Besides being internationally popular on streaming platforms, the Zombieland Saga Blu-Ray sales in Japan for the first season’s Volume 1 were very high in comparison to most anime series.
With 20,917 copies sold in the first week, that’s about 10 times what is considered just average. All three volumes of the first season sold over 60,000 copies combined.
The Zombieland Saga Revenge Blu-Ray didn’t do nearly as well but it was still very good. In late June 2021, Volume sold 6,925 copies in its first week in Japan according to Oricon.
Hopefully, Studio MAPPA also won’t make us wait too long for the Zombieland Saga Season 3 release date. Stay tuned!