WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Zombie Land Saga Revenge Episode 8, "The Saga Incident, Part 1," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Meiji era courtesan, Yugiri, is the last member of Franchouchou to get her own spotlight story in Zombie Land Saga Revenge, and this story is going to take two episodes to tell. "The Saga Incident, Part 1" stands out from the rest of the show up to this point by being entirely one big flashback to Yugiri's lifetime, and a number of strange details indicate her story might be the key to understanding all of Zombie Land Saga's mysteries.
For one thing, every other member of Franchouchou is seemingly also around in 1881. Maybe the lookalikes of Sakura, Ai, Junko, Saki, Lily and Tae are just supposed to be their ancestors, but they look less like ancestors than exact clones. Are these cameos just a cute fan service joke? Is it a reincarnation/eternal recurrence scenario? Or is there something even stranger going on, with all of our favorite zombies' backstories going way further back in time than expected?
One character who's clearly playing into something big is Kiichi, an in-your-face energetic young man voiced by Mamoru Miyano who can't shut up about "saving Saga." Kichii at the very least has a lot in common with Kotaro, though he's more distinguished from his present-day equivalent than the Franchouchou girls by virtue of both having his own name and a slightly different character design that's an obvious homage to Himura Kenshin.
Unlike present-day Kotaro, however, Kiichi has a clear motive for wanting to "save Saga." Notably, Saga doesn't even exist on the map at this point in history; in the aftermath of the Saga Rebellion eight years prior, Saga has been taken over by Nagasaki. Kichii's grandfather, who looks identical to Kotaro's favorite bartender, is broken up over this, spurring Kichii's determination to save the land. His grandfather also claims to be able to raise the dead, and the zombie dog Romero also makes a cameo, so it's obvious all of this is connected in some way.
Kiichi is quite taken with Yugiri, as it seems a lot of people are -- she's so beloved as an entertainer that the prices for her services have become too expensive for anyone to even afford. She seems to like him in turn and is inspired to help him on his Saga-saving mission. Kiichi's shady friend Itou, however, is against the mission. Yugiri is certain to die in the next episode, but why and how is one big, nerve-wracking question.
New episodes of Zombie Land Saga Revenge premiere Thursdays on Crunchyroll.
