Nogizaka46: "Zambi" drama episode five recap

 Start Date: January 23rd on Hulu at 1:00 am
The following day it airs on NTV

Cast:

Asuka Saito as Kaede Yamamuro

Miona Hori as Minori Morodzumi

Manatsu Akimoto as Asumi Saijou

Yuki Yoda as Sei Kai

Mizuki Yamashita as Yui Kanenura

Ranze Terada as Sena Sakaki

Miria Watanabe as Suzune Sakura

Junna Ito as Rena Igarashi

Momoko Ozono as Yuzuki Sakikawa

Ayane Suzuki as Marina Fujusaki

Minami Umezawa as Kana Kiuchi

Kaede Sato as Azusa Seki

Shiori Kubo as Honoka Hanamura

Mai Shinuchi as The beautiful woman....

..... plus seven other third generation members.....

 Won't get into what happened in the previous shows as this may be the longest recap of them all. But where we stand is that the students attending the Freeasia Academy are turning into Zambis at a rapid pace. Going onto the third episode there was just one who was Kaede's best friend Asami, she had brought the curse of Zambi Village back to the school with her. Adding to the list there was Suzune who had been bitten by Asami plus Shiori who turned into a Zambi in episode four though not sure how that happened. The girls think Yui is to blame for Shiori's transformation but when they tested to see if she was a Zambi she cleared it and seemed to be a regular human.
 But we'll soon find out that somehow the test wasn't accurate and Yui is in fact a Zambi. Plus there may be a few more as so many students have been disappearing from the school. The unnamed teacher has said they all had to return to their homes due to emergencies but the trio of girls above aren't buying it. That teacher is a very suspicious person along with being such an oddball, wouldn't shock me if she was somehow wrapped up in this Zambi mystery.
 Above you can see that the Zambi hunting trio is sitting in front of a laptop, Hijiri had hacked into the school's security system and they are able to view the cameras that are seemingly mounted everywhere. That's when they discovered that Yui is now a Zambi, when one appears on a video or has their photo taken their faces turn out to be very distorted as in the 'Ring' movies. One other thing that took place near the beginning was the reappearance of a pinwheel that had been taken from Zambi Village. Kaede had burned it as she thought it was cursed, somehow it turned back up in perfect shape in the school's chapel.

 One good thing about this drama is that so many Nogi members who we don't see enough have big roles such as Ranze who plays Sena, she's in the second screenshot from the bottom. Her best friend Rin had gone missing and she pleaded with the trio of girls to help her find where she's disappeared to. The girls have discovered that while the pinwheel may be cursed it's also a tool to help them find Zambi's. When it starts spinning it means you're near one, the team brings it with them on their hunt for Rin. First place that was checked was the music room, they had seen Yui leave it and could that be the place where she may have bitten Rin?
 Doesn't seem so as the room was empty and the pinwheel had slowed down to a crawl when they entered. But in the room's piano the girls found a very sticky substance which you can see above, they and us viewers weren't sure what it was but it didn't seem to be the remains of a human. One place down as the hunt for Rin or really any other missing student continued. As the quartet are walking down the hall Sena heard some noises in the ceiling above them, against all better judgement she climbed up to see what the noises were.
 Huge mistake on Sena's part as the ceiling above them was occupied and who should be there but her best friend Rin. Sena's life as a human was at it's end as Rin quickly grabbed her, then bit her on the neck to also transform her into a Zambi. As Kaede, Hijiri and Minori stood gaping at the scene around the corner came a mass of students, all of the ones that had been missing. To the trio they should have stayed missing as all had been transformed into Zambi's and chased our heroines with the intent of capturing them while also turning them into Zambis too.

 Keep these recaps at three manageable segments so this is the final one. As the trio fled the scene from the attacking group of Zambis they got split up, Kaede was able to make it back to her room  with Hijiri but not with them was Minori. For now she's safe as she's hiding in the school's library though her friends don't know that and we don't see Minori for the remainder of this episode.
 As you can see above Kaede's room wasn't the safest place for her and Hijiri to hide as lurking under her bed was a Zambi, it's face was so deformed they couldn't tell who it was. The pair tried to battle it but seems as though a Zambi is a very strong creature and the duo was no match for it. However Hijiri as able to jump onto the Zaambi's back and was able to subdue it for a few seconds. She pleaded for Kaede to make her escape, of course she stood there wavering but finally decided to exit her room.
 Kaede ran down the hallways looking for any kind of help but there was none to be found, there weren't even any Zambis wandering around. That's when she heard the voices of a few students in the art room, with nowhere else to go she entered it. Inside were three students who appeared to be normal and they let Kaede join them. Shortly after there was a bang on the now locked door, the person who was doing the banging was Hijiri who was begging to be let in. Unknown if she would be allowed in as at that moment the episode came to it's close and once again there's a cliffhanger to end a show off.

 First two or so episodes were really just so-so at best. But the last pair of shows have really been much better and the sixth episode was also a winner. Since the level of horror and Zambis has increased so hasn't the quality of the drama and this could end up to be a solid drama if this pace keeps up. As usual have two recaps back to back which means the post following this one is for the sixth episode.