is a fictional character from the Japanese anime series Zombie Land Saga. She was created by the team at production studio MAPPA and in particular series composition writer Shigeru Murakoshi and producer Nobuhiro Takenaka, who developed her character. She is voiced by Minami Tanaka in Japanese and Sarah Wiedenheft in the anime's English dub and played by Riri Takanashi in the stage play of the series.
Within the anime's narrative, Lily is introduced as one of several deceased young girls who have been resurrected as zombies to form an idol group which aims to revitalize the declining Saga Prefecture. She is later revealed to be a transgender girl and former television child actor, who died at a young age from the shock of witnessing the prepubescent growth of facial hair on her body.
Lily's character has been well received by critics, who have praised her inclusion within Zombie Land Saga as a positive example of transgender representation. She has also appeared in internet memes, most notably a crudely edited image depicting her holding a gun which features the caption "Shut the fuck up TERF". The meme has been criticized and was notably publicly displayed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Fictional character biography
Lily first appears in the series' inaugural episode, "Good Morning SAGA," where she is introduced as one of several deceased young girls who have been resurrected as zombies in order to feature in the idol group Franchouchou which aims to revitalize the declining Saga Prefecture. Within the group, she is publicly known as , one of several number aliases used by the girls in order to disguise their true identities.
Her backstory is later explored in the episode ""Go Go Neverland SAGA", when she is recognized and approached by her father and past manager, Takeo Go. Lily was previously a child actor with the masculine name Masao Go, who, amidst her stressful television career and the resulting mounting conflict with her father, died from shock after finding a strand of facial hair growing on her body. The other members of the group respond supportively to Lily, all collectively affirming that learning of her transgender identity does not change her place in the group or how they treat her. Lily expresses that she is glad to have been resurrected as a zombie, as she will now never grow older and experience the gender dysphoria that puberty would otherwise cause her. Realizing how much Takeo cared for Lily, Franchouchou invites Takeo to a special concert where Lily performs a song to give him a proper goodbye.
Lily appears in a major role in the fifth episode of the series' second season Zombie Land Saga Revenge, "Little Bodda Bope SAGA", in which she competes on a talent competition television program against fellow child actor Light Oozora.
Development
In an interview with Mipon, producer Nobuhiro Takenaka and composition writer Shigeru Murakoshi said that they found Lily a difficult character to approach owing to the challenging themes of gender in her story, which they wanted to approach sensitively and with "a suitable balance of comedic and serious scenes." Owing to these considerations, many rewrites of dialogue relevant to Lily's character, in particular the line in which she openly rejected her previous name "Masao," took place during the voice recording sessions. Although they acknowledged that including transgender themes in the anime's story was not "absolutely necessary", and the difficulty could have been avoided by simply not featuring them, Takenaka said that they chose to do so as they desired to "challenge the conventions" so as to set the series apart from other idol anime.