Day 4: Disabled, Decomposing: The Body Politics of the Girls of Zombieland Saga

Skin conditions are often stigmatized in anime and otherwise. This form of coding often marks villains like Freddy Kreuger, or even more often zombies. As animated corpses, zombies represent disability in a literal sense by having figuratively and literally decomposing bodies. Limbs falling off, skin discolored, stiff walking, and other features. This usurps the basic idea behind ability of what a basic human being behaves like and what they do. To see zombies become consistently transformed into villain bait is...decidedly unnerving for this reason. Works like Train to Busan, which highlight the humanity of those transformed into zombies, are a welcome exception. Works like Gakkougurashi strip identity markers off zombies, except for in

Zombieland Saga, MAPPA's surprising runaway hit of the Fall 2018 season, is here to set this record straight. The disabled, decomposing zombies are presented as beings worth of our love and respect, as main characters in a world that would see them as antagonists. Their bodies failing societal norms is commented on many times, by themselves, the jerk producer, and by others. Occasionally, when ableist jabs about decomposing bodies arise, this can cause wincing. It's hard to say if Zombieland Saga completely radically imagines the zombie as a new form of life because of this. But at the same time the difficulties the girls face as Zombies still speaks to broader truths about how disability is perceived. The show offers a template to reject tight norms around bodily existence, like keeping your head on your neck, and some fun shenanigans again involving Tae's disembodied head. This is a local moment of empowerment that can help usurp the ideas that animate society.

The series also explores how disability is often regarded as a template upon which to exact violence. The zombie girls face police suspicion and brutality on account of their appearance and have to endure several rounds of being shot at. They must wear makeup extensively to conform to expectations and to avoid physical violence. This, however, does not remove the metaphorical violence exacted on them as they live an undead life.That makes them all the braver.

The zombie girls, by facing such injustice, are clearly heroes we need, and whose songs we should accept.