It's a live-action TV series about life after a zombie apocalypse, but also a surprisingly likeable idol vehicle. I'd almost call it charming. The idol group is AKB48, although "group" is misleading since they're divided into several teams and sometimes have a three-figure membership. They're the seventh best-selling girl group worldwide. (NOTE: AKB48 is a Japanese idol girl group, while AK-47 is a Soviet assault rifle. There's no connection between them, or their names.)

This zombie series isn't scary. The girls are bubbly and engaging, but their acting flubs are when a scene calls for intensity. They can deliver dialogue quite well, though, despite often really being teenagers. They just lack the weight of mature actors, which sometimes makes a difference.

The storyline's split in two halves. At first, we're in a school where everyone's more or less safe. (There are also unexplained disappearances, but the girls seem to regard these as a fact of life.) The zombies can't break in. These episodes are low-intensity and can sometimes get a bit silly and pointless. (Shooting with your eyes closed in ep.5? Oi oi.) Zombie appearances get played for mild character comedy, or can even be cute as with those three pre-schoolers. The most interesting things in these episodes are their strange or even surreal aspects, e.g. the three magical narrator idols who discuss the action and sing the closing theme song, or the Titan Zombie who crushes houses underfoot and likes expensive brands.

Wackiest is the zombie dance routine. A particular song makes them dance. Play it over the school speaker system and the dead will all get choreographed and funky.

Halfway through, though, something extreme happens. The few survivors have to flee. No more school! My reaction to the "next week" trailer was "good grief, that actually looked dramatic". The show's second half is more like what you'd expect from a zombie series, i.e. a road movie with a rising death count. This is good. You care more. Favourite characters can die, or commit suicide-by-zombie. The girls face real danger. I got quite fond of them and even of that closing theme song.

It can still be whimsical. The oddest was ep.10, which returns to the now zombie-ridden school for the daily unlives of moaning, flesh-chomping schoolgirls. Subtitles translate their UUUUUUUUUUHs. That was quite funny, although unfortunately revealed to be a dream sequence.

My favourite was the ever-smiling and possibly mute Yuma Iida, who might be mentally abnormal, damaged by trauma or even perhaps part-zombie in some way. We don't know. She's fascinating and funny. I also liked Rika Kazumi as The Fat One (by Japanese standards), who's always loud, lively and fun. The Bitch Who Eventually Reforms saves the day in the end by... er, orchestrating a massacre. They're all good, though, except for those skirt-flipping small boys. That pair could sod off.

I enjoyed this show, but you couldn't call it noteworthy. It's neither scary, gory nor even (usually) dramatic. Its first half is lightweight, but even those episodes improve on rewatching because of the foreshadowing and because you'll have become fonder of the girls. I enjoyed the show's strangeness. An anime remake has been announced and I'm looking forward to it, although technically I think they're adapting the manga. I should also mention that this was the earliest Japanese live-action TV series I could find about zombies. Others followed, e.g. Tamagawa City Office of the Dead (which aired six months later from October), the long-running Love You as the World Ends (2021), What Six Survivors Told... (2022) and one-off TV specials like Koisuru JK Zombie (2016), Juken Zombie (2019) and I think Dead or Zombie (2022). But this came first. While also being light, whimsical and quite good.

Definitely one of the more likeable zombie series out there.