First Impressions / Sankarea

「普通の…女の子…」 (Futsuu no… Onnanoko…)
“A Normal… Girl…”

Our cute and innocent Rea is finally a zombie… and with her transformation comes complications. We already got a sense of this from Baabu’s behavior last week; however we finally see the side effects on a human being. This isn’t very prominent until the final few minutes of the episode, but I like how the story actually revolves around the issues of being an undead and doesn’t simply use it as another plot device.

I figured that the story would not primarily focus on Rea and her family relationships. Although it adds an interesting aspect to the story, I believe that the bulk of the episodes from now on will focus on Rea and her wish of becoming a normal girl. That’s pretty ironic considering she has be a zombie to live a “normal” life. It’s obvious that she never went through a normal childhood growing up and now is the best chance for her to experience all these things with Chihiro. Terribly adorable if you ask me; their relationship really shines when they’re on screen together and I can’t remember falling in love with a main couple this quickly. Their conversations and interactions just seem to flow so naturally, and I’m sorry to all the Ranko fans, but I’m all for Rea!

Rea’s new body comes with a lot of limitations though. She can’t feel pain or heat and her body is slowly going through rigor mortis. She also seems to have a hunger that she couldn’t shake when she was with Chihiro. I’m sure this has something to do with the leaves that everyone seems to be snacking on periodically. Otherwise, I’m not entirely sure how Chihiro’s going to help fix her problems. Chihiro also pointed out that Baabu’s irises came back this episode, so does that mean Rea’s eyes will also return to normal later? (Her red eyes continue to spook me out…) There’s also the mystery of Jogorou and his own leaf-eating habits. I hope this isn’t a spoiler (since most people seem to be on the same train of thought) but are his lack of memories and spontaneity side effects of being… whatever he is, or simply due to old age?

This post isn’t complete without talking about Rea’s parents! Where do I even begin? Danichirou continues to be overly obsessive and in denial about his daughter’s transformation. I’m not entirely sure how he plans to win back his daughter from Chihiro, but I doubt she will go back home willingly, if at all anymore. His whole bathtub scene reminds me of what people do when they’ve experienced a bad break-up or something. Then there’s Aria… who screams for attention from her husband. I don’t agree with her way of dealing with her insecurities, although I do pity her. I wonder if their relationship was like this before Rea was born, or if it was an arranged marriage. Either way, now Aria seems to care more about her image (and position at the school), as opposed to where her daughter actually is. What a caring mother.

Next episode seems to deal more with Rea’s inability to move and I expect Chihiro won’t be hiding her in his room any longer (even though no one seems to realize she’s there). There’s also Ranko’s junior (who still remains nameless?) whom I see popping up randomly some more, along with Chihiro’s friends. I still know next to nothing about them, so I’m hoping future episodes will expand beyond the few 4-5 characters we see now – which I’m sure it will.

Full-length images: Here you go. This is off-topic, but I never actually believed people got nosebleeds until recently when I saw it first hand =\

 

Preview

52 Comments

  3. shipping cousins is weird haha. Ranko is also sort of annoying (she’s a good character though, I just think her role is to be the annoying one).

    Anyways, this is probably the episode that got me really excited for the rest of the season. I mean, I really liked the first 3 episodes too, but this one really caught my eye.

    james
    Reply

  6. Chihiro and Rea are pretty cute together, but I still find it disturbing that he finds her more attractive now that she’s a cold corpse with no pulse. That stitching scene sure knew how to tease viewers with fan-service but make it unsightly enough so that we’re conflicted on how to “react”.

    As for Jogorou, I’m pretty convinced that he’s a zombie himself (and drank the potion some time ago), since he’s incredibly senile, can’t taste food properly, and eats hydrangea to keep himself “alive”.

    Also, did anyone else notice Aria checking out Danichriou’s “package” after he stood up? Now if that wasn’t a clear sign that she’s an “unfulfilled” wife, I don’t know what is.

    Divine
    Reply

    1. I agree with all of your points, except that Jogorou is a zombie.

      He does not display the same strength as Rea, unrestricted by the limits of the brain. The fact that he still eats normal food is also different, since zombies have no functional digestive system.

      His chewing on hydrangea is probably just because he is senile. Or perhaps the poison from the hydrangea is what made him senile, and he just kept doing it.

      MasterDragonKnight
      Reply

      1. My take on it is that the leaves are what keeps things that should be dead, remain alive

        But in order to actually bring something to life, you need the WHOLE potion, not just the leaves

        James
        Reply

    2. Finally someone noticed Aria checking out her husband “Package”, what I think is that she still loves her husband and she wants him to pay attention to her. I hope they show us what happened between the two in the past even if it wasn’t related to the main story.

      Bankai000
      Reply

  9. This series has turned out to be a huge surprise to me. I expected another show combining zombies and random fanservice. Instead this may turn out to be the most tragic and emotionally involving show in a while for me.

    Rea is really sweet. It seems obvious to me that she can fend off rigor mortis by eating these leaves. But then again she can also choose to truly die once things get out of hand. Her time on earth seems limited to me and I really hope for her to experience some of the innocent romance she desires so much.

    jreding
    Reply

    1. She is sweet and naive and… a zombie. We will see what happens but the leaves do not prevent rigor mortis. Babu was already dead five days when he came back to life. He already went through his rigor mortis. A few hours after you die, you become stiff. In about two days, the rigor goes away. Actually, I’m not sure about other animals, their duration of rigor mortis may differ. Anyway, the show is interesting in that it deals with actual process of death. As Chihiro thinks, her body is that of a corpse. It will continue to decompose. Without any intervention it would turn to a skeleton. So he will need to come up with ways, natural and unnatural, to keep her body together.

      bertman4
      Reply

  10. The scene with the loofa was so much more hilarious in animated.

    I must salute DEEN for this one. They’re doing a very good job with this adaptation. My only worry is Show Spoiler ▼

    Also Cherrie, I was hoping you’d mention the scene where they almost kissed or is that really going to be a kiss?

    Nhelraios
    Reply

  11. Spring Anime 2012 forcing me to have a weird fetish for the undead/monster. So we have a sexy zombie, a hotter version of Senjogahara in a ghostly form, a super hyper Moe Cthulhu kid, some sort of an alien girl that spit weird stuff from her mouth, and a zombie with a nice ass.
    Before my initial reaction if I see a zombie is shotgun to the face, but now………

    Jhacks
    Reply

  16. Sankarea OP single is out and pirated… Thanks to Shin and them people from Nyaatorrents. *bows down*

    Love this episode. +3…. Hey what can I say? I am reading this. XD

    The Moondoggie
    Reply

  17. Pretty amazing that she has no heartbeat and her blood is probably blue-ish by now, but she sure can blush with the best of them.

    I’m glad someone else noticed her eye color change in the ED. I didn’t check to see if her skin was lightened up as well.

    7godeohs
    Reply

  19. Aria is actually stepmother to Rea. She sees (as possibly danichirou does) in her a shade of his first wife. Ouch!
    Oh ans Rea x Chihiro are one of the cutest pairs ever. Yup, Ranko gets sidetracked, badly.
    One of my RL anmimewatching friends had a cat that just died. You can imagine how he wished to have the potion…

    ewok40k
    Reply

  22. ok then yea look like things are now really so um like let see

    father killing daughter see rea ok but bloody yet no pulse goes NO!!!
    while he all WHY?! in tub with pics of rea (more messed-up in ways get strait-jacket).
    oh here drunk-stepmom & some hmm blah now father is back is now will hunt cat hair boy.
    meanwhile cat hair boy helping rea patch up give now she a zombie want do normal girl doings.
    oh here wanko still hmm being in pipe going after cat hair boy.
    while cat hair boy try explain then realize he got his dream a zombie girl.
    while rea taking a bath feel nothing & do we need see small old guy thong person?! (cue brain bleach for old guy).
    cat hair boy see rea not moving then realize must do best to protect her.

    looking next ep yea maybe cat out of the bag?

    CM_KLAC
    Reply

    2. Manga is ongoing with five volumes out so far that includes 24 chapters. Currently they are adapting at a rate of one chapter per episode. Anyone know how many episodes this show is slated for? Show Spoiler ▼

      bertman4
      Reply

  24. The only downside of the show is the future implications that will be left open-ended: Sure it will be a happy ending if Chihiro gets the zombie girl but what after Chihiro grows up and Rea still look like she is 14. But since this is a romantic comedy, I guess that will be left untouched…Or will it?

    Azure
    Reply

  27. am I the only one concerned about the fact that NO ONE is accusing the father of murdering his daughter?? True, there won’t be a “body” to show (a zombie, maybe), but at no point in time does it register with Chihiro that he just watched someone get killed by their own father (accidentally or not).

    Kethy-chan
    Reply

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