Sankarea - Ep12 End

This last episode ends up serving two purposes, the first is as an epilogue to everything that has happened. The second thing is the ending works nicely with a second season. In the beginning we see how Chihiro feels about officially having to take responsibility of Rea. How he should be happen but he can only feel the crushing weight of responsibility baring down on him. He feels that although his family may find this whole situation with Rea to be strange, they won't say anything because it wouldn't be polite. Although Chihiro's greatest concern is how will he preserve Rea's body. The problem is that there is no permanent way about doing that. Also all the ways that exist, revolve around the idea of destroying to body in some way. Which makes them unusable for trying to preserve a zombie.

While he is trying to find an answer to this problem, Mero ends up question on why he won't let Rea go to School. This result in him given a vague answer because Mero doesn't really believe that Rea is a zombie. However in an effort to make life a bit better for Rea, they plan to go to the summer festival. Although he feels that it was his fault that the festival got cancel because of the bad weather because the weather mirrored his mood. The next day Wanko approaches him about holding a small festival of their own at the temple. Which he agrees to because he feels that this way he can make it up to Rea.

Then when Wanko comes over she brings an extra Yukata for Rea to wear, and while she is up stairs dressing Rea. They end up clearing the air, where Wanko come strait out and says she is in love with Chihiro. Wanko follows this up by saying that since Rea is also in love with him that makes them rivals. That means that there is no reason for her to be so concern over her feelings. Also since she might not have that much time left, that is all the more reason to do what she wants to do. Once they come down they enjoy the night shooting some fireworks off. The night ends with Rea telling Chihiro how she like these smaller festivals to the Larger ones, which also reflects her feels towards families as well.

Then from her conversation with Wanko, Rea decides that she needs to go back to school. Since she feels that she can't be called a normal girl if she isn't going to school. Then to achieve this end, she has to return to her old home to get some of her things. Although she doesn't receive and direct interference from the maids, they do tell Aria that she is her. Which result in a little bit of a conflict before she leaves. Before they head back, they stop by the bowling alley where all of this began. Where he begins to tell her that they could have her wear a coat with dry-ice when she starts going back to school. Although because he back is turn towards Rea, he doesn't notice her change in behavior. Then the last episode ends with the start of her zombie like behavior.

Sankarea - Episode 11

We finally reach the resolution between Chihiro and Danichirou that the writers have been needlessly prolonging. Things start out with the maids following Danichirou with Chihiro strapped into the wheel chair. This leads Chihiro to believe that they have some sort of unspeakable torture planned for him before they execute him. However his belief proves to be unfounded because he finds himself inside a dojo. It seems that Danichirou plan was to have them dual to see who is best fit for Rea. Then while this is going on Rea rushes into her home ordering the maids to take her to her father. Although while she is focus on the maids the men that capture Chihiro use fishing nets to capture Rea.

Once Rea is lock-up and at the maids mercy, we focus back in on Chihiro who is about to have a dual with Danichirou. Then just as they are about to get started Chihiro rejects the entire idea because he has no experience in fencing nor any knowledge of any other martial art. Then further more he bring into question why they even end to fight to begin with, he major point is that Danichirou is abnormal or lusting over his daughter because of her genetic similarity to his wife. That his hobby of taking nude pictures of his daughter is beyond sick and wrong.

Then as this is going on we flash back to Rea being imprison by the maids until she has finally had enough, and she breaks free to find Chihiro. In her rush to stop what ever plans her father has for Chihiro, she doesn't change out of the bunny-girl outfit that the maids dressed her up as. Then just as she reaches the room where Chihiro and her father are having a duel. Danichirou stabs Chihiro straight through the chest.

Although the thing that surprises everyone is that Chihiro didn't die, when Danichirou question him on this fact. It take a moment to think on why he didn't, be he remembers that the previous night Rea was licking his wound. That at the time he must of gotten infected by her poison, and this allow him to become a half-zombie. That allows him to suffer a fatal wound and not die, but allow his heart to still beat. When Danichirou tries to follow up a finish Chihiro off by beheading him, Rea protects Chihiro by blocking her fathers strike. This leads to her telling him that if he wishes to continue the fight she will be his opponent.

This leads to Chihiro explaining the reason why Rea had to die. That when she was alive, she didn't have the freedom to be normal. However now that she is a zombie the furthest thing from normal, she can now have the life she was denied. The life of normal girl that Danichirou would never allow her to have, that she never want to be special to begin with. That in realizing the truth, he agree to allow Rea to continue living with Chihiro to have her normal life. However he tells Chihiro that this isn't going to be forever, just while he is away in America looking for a cure to Rea's condition. Things end with Chihiro collapsing from his wound, when the effects of Rea's poison wear-off. The episode concludes with Chihiro trying to recover at home in his bed.

Sankarea - Ep10

Although the story has return to focus in on Chihiro, it is mostly for creating tension. It almost as if they are purposeful trying to extent the series so that it ends with a confrontation between Chihiro and Danichirou. It appears that will have to wait for another time because this episode focus in on the back-story of Rea's mother. Then from her we learn that Rea's current mother is really her step-mom that her true mother die shortly after giving birth to Rea. This means that Rea didn't just want to escape from her father that was lusting after her but also from all the hatred that her mother had for stealing all of danichirou's affection. Under that sort of pressure it is completely understandable that Rea was willing to do anything to escape from all of that, even if that meant that she had to die to do so.

It turns out that the story goes all the way back to when he was a boy, it turns out that all the maids that work there come from the high class families but they don't come there to work but as future brides of the new head of the Sanka family. Although after awhile they began to believe that he just wasn't interested in women, but when Danichirou was in College was when Aria Rea's step-mom start to work as a maid there. She believe that it was possible for her to win him over because no other man has ever refused her.

However things didn't go as plan because later that year when a fencing tournament was held, and even before it start things were setup so that Danichirou would win. Although Danichirou didn't like the fact that he didn't win base on his own strength but on the strength of his family. However when a crippled 15-year-old girl approached him, and tolled him that even though it might have been setup by getting angry he is invalidating all of his hard work. Then at this moment he fell in love with this little girl because she was the only one to ever be real with him. Then shortly after this he ends up deciding to marry this 15-year-old girl. This you could say that this is his form of rebellion against his family, to choose someone himself and not someone his family choose for him.

However it is not something that was meant to last because shortly after giving birth, his wife end up dying. This seen him into a deep depression and it is Aria that supported him through this and ultimate results in him marrying her, but in reality it was a marriage of convenience because he only married her to satisfy his family. Although he was married to Aria he was still consumed by the shadow of his late wife, which ultimately lead to his unhealthy obsession with his daughter Rea. Given that she is the mirror image of his late wife. This leads to Aria hating Rea for stealing all of Danichirou's attention, and resulted her being stuck in a loveless marriage. Things end with Chihiro being brought before Danichirou, the question remains what does Danichirou intent to do with Chihiro.

Sankarea - Ep09

This episode they did something strange because in the last episode Chihiro got kidnapped by Dan'ichirou. Normally you would expect them to continue for that point but instead they have us focus in on Mero, who is Chihiro's little sister. It seems like they are almost intentionally trying to extent the length of the series. Anyway after a short scene between Mero and her father, the story moves forward to explaining what Mero's life is like at school. That apparently she is friends with two girls at school. The first one is Shinoda Ichie who is obsessed with the idea that zombies really do exist and it just the government is hiding this fact from the people. While her other friend Yasaka Miko, doesn't seem to care one way or the other.

This leads to Ichie telling them a story about there art teacher Yamanouchi, it appears that she has been feeding something that is living inside a bag. When Ichie mentions this, it cause Mero to recall that she has seen the bag moving and concludes that what ever is inside must be alive. Ichie declares that it must be a zombie, and decides that they must investigate. While investigating they get caught by their teach, and find out that she has been bring her pet alligator to school. Since it is late she decides to take them home.

The next day Ichie continues in her pursuit of zombies, and this leads to Miko telling her a story. It turns out that one day on her way home she notice something that smelt like burning bodies. When she follow where the smell was coming from she found a house that had a trash can fill to the brim with bone where it looked like the meat was freshly torn off. It turns out this horror story ended up having nothing to do with zombies that the couple that live there was making plans to open a ramen shop. This disappoints Ichie, but to cheer her up Mero tells her about the zombie that they have living with them. When ask if that is safe she tells them that she is a vegetarian zombie, and it is her brother that told her the she is a zombie. This totally destroys any hopes that Ichie might have had of finding a real zombie. Although this story was mostly pointless it was still nice in furthering the development of another character.

Sankarea - Ep08

Now that the focus of the story has return to Rea, it appears that she has settled in at Chihiro's home but Rea has an issue with Chihiro filming her. Then when he see babu spit up the leaves that he has been eating, he quickly focus in on Rea hoping that she spit up a ball of leaves as well. This ends up making Rea extremely irritated, that she will not allow him to film her anymore unless he is willing to do something for her. This something turns out to be a lot like a date, where they will spend the day at the mall the next day.

While at the mall early the next day, Chihiro has to put up with her going through dress after dress unable to pick anything. It seems her reasoning is that since Chihiro is going to be paying for it she wants it to be something that he will enjoy seeing her wear. Finally once she choose something, Chihiro compliments her. However is unprepared for her to question him on what he has said and wants him to repeat himself, it just because she wants to have him say it again. Before the move on to the next place she question him on what he bought but Chihiro refuses to answer.

This when Rea leads Chihiro to a haunted house, the surprising thing is that he is scared of the place. While Rea is admiring the stitching that they did on the attractions. However when they get out of there Rea ends up teasing Chihiro a bit about being afraid. Afterwords Chihiro pulls a coat out of the bag that he was carrying and explains that it is for dry ice because it will be getting hotter soon. That this will allow for her to out during the day. Rea is overjoyed by this gesture, that Chihiro is thinking this much about her. Once they have their moment they split up for Lunch.

This is the moment that Dan'ichirou thugs were waiting for to kidnap Rea, however before they can act Chihiro friend Yasutaku imposes in on Rea. After he gets done with his self-obsessed moment and see has cold Rea is, he process to try and drag her out into the sun. However, Rea refuse to go any further than the entrance to the mall. This is when Dan'ichirou's thugs strike, one takes out Yasutaku while the other two take her from behind. This cause Rea to Scream, but in doing so alerts Chihiro to the fact that she is endanger.

Then as she is struggling against her attackers, Rea manages to break free. Afterwords she latches onto a concert bench, which they try to pull her free of. This action cause Rea to break the bench off and start wildly swinging it around, which result in beating the men within an inch of their lives. However once Chihiro shows up he realize that Rea doesn't need any help at all. Although when Rea notices him she drops the bench immediately, and rushes over proclaiming that he save her. Then when Chihiro starts to question them, he realizes that they are working for Rea's father. This result in them kidnapping him instead, which end things on an unpleasant note for Chihiro.

Sankarea - Ep07

This time they get a little side-tracked by focusing in on Chihiro and Ranko relationship. In the Manga they do it a bit gradually, however one of the distinctions that they make it clear is that it is alright for cousins to marry on another. I don't know if this is really factual to Japanese society but it is very possible that to them it is acceptable because of clans. That with in a clan you were indirectly related to everyone, and by marrying your relatives you would keep the political power within the family. In the Manga there is a greater focus in on Ranko's mother trying to get a relationship started between Chihiro and Ranko. However from a western perspective this is seen as very sick because to use the idea of being in that sort of relationship that you have blood-ties with is sickening. Anyway enough with the reference from the source material.

Things start out with how Chihiro and Ranko first meet, it turns out to be the kind of place you would expect Chihiro to be. When they met as children Chihiro finds Ranko crying in a graveyard and he leads her out. This leads her to believe that he is her prince although later she is a bit disheartened when she finds out that they are cousins. What disappoints her even further is that he isn't interested in anything but zombies. However what disappoints her the most is that the person that she thought was courageous, is in reality nothing but a crybaby. However when she leaves to go home her first love is broken.

However two years later Ranko's mother decides to move the business near the temple where Chihiro lives. Then with this she also insists that Ranko try a get along with her cousin with Chihiro. Then one day when Chihiro comes over and Ranko is leaving him to his own devices, her mother question what she is doing. This leads up to Ranko taking Chihiro to a local video store to rent some movies, and to Ranko misfortune Chihiro goes through and check out some zombie movies. Then on the way home when they go back to Ranko's house they get attack by a dog. While initially Chihiro runs off to save himself, when he turns back and see Ranko is in trouble he tries to protect her. Then after this Ranko feels that she should at least try an understand his obsession with zombies.

This leads us up to current day where Chihiro is helping out at the restaurant that Ranko's family owns. Then while Chihiro is trying to cut some vegetables Ranko comes in a starts harassing him about how slow he is, then just as she says this she trips. Then before she can fall Chihiro catches her, this leads to Ranko's mother making some cat calls and implies that he should just marry Ranko. Once they get over the embarrassment, they head out together to do some delivers. While they are out doing this they end up running into his friends from school.

This leads to them jumping to the conclusion that they are out on a date, but Chihiro immediately denies it. Yasutaka starts complaining about how cruel the world is when a zombie-freak like Chihiro start getting all the girls, where he doesn't just have Rea but Ranko as well. Once they get away from his hormone obsess friend. Ranko realize that this touch on her greatest fear that Chihiro will end up with Rea because she is both a zombie and beautiful. This leads to Ranko shoving Chihiro against the wall and trying to kiss him. However gives up in the end because of his constant retreat, but this leads to them going their separate way since the delivers are done. Things end with the Harding of Ranko's resolve to win over Chihiro in the end.

Sankarea - Ep06

After Rea kisses Chihiro, Ranko starts in on questioning Chihiro on why Rea is in his room to begin with. Eventually she gets really worked up once she realize that the reason that chihiro never took her to the hospital with her serious wound is that Rea is actually dead. This leads her to believe that with his success in bring Babu back to life he went a step further and killed Rea so that he could turn her into his zombie girlfriend. However Ranko doesn't give Chihiro the proper opportunity to explain what actually happened to Rea to cause her to become they way she is. Ranko stops beating on Chihiro once they both realize that Rea has escaped, then with this Chihiro order Ranko to go get his grandfather while he goes after Rea.

While Chihiro is chasing after Rea across the rooftop of his house, he is caught by his father. This results in him getting questioned on why what is going on, he dodges the question by saying he chasing after babu. This result in his father telling just to get back to work. When Chihiro looks back to where Rea should be he finds that she is not there, but when he gets close to the edge he finds her. This isn't what surprise him but the fact that she is eating flowers. This cause him to realize that to keep the zombie potion in effect Rea has to eat the flowers every so often. Then at this moment Ranko brings his grandfather the creator of the potion, this gives us a more detail reason. That when the potion is losing its effect the higher reason skills are the first to go until the zombie become nothing but a corpus again. However the potion isn't perfect, even still it does slow-down the decaying processes.

This means that Chihiro has two major problems now. One no-mater what he does he will not be able prevent Rea from turning into dust, the other issue is that without the flower to maintain the effects of the potion Rea will stop being a zombie. This means that either way you look at it Chihiro is on borrowed time. Then as Chihiro is thinking over his grandfathers words, his father shows up asking Chihiro why there is a half-naked girl in their backyard. This leads to Chihiro asking his father to let Rea say here but he can't tell him her reason for needing to say here. Interestingly his father is completely alright with it, and doesn't give any resistant to the idea.

Now with the fact that Chihiro doesn't have to hide Rea, Chihiro gets started in getting her settled in. When Rea brings up the fact that she wouldn't mind sharing a room with him, Chihiro mentions that it might not be the best idea since they have already kiss. The thing that Chihiro finds surprising is that Rea doesn't remember kissing him at all, and believes the reason must be that the potion must have been losing it effect so that Rea wasn't herself. They end things with a late night walk, and during the walk Chihiro thinks about Rea situation. That once he got over the fact that Rea was a zombie and looked into the reality of her situation, he finds the truth behind a zombie to be very depressing. This leads to him wanting to help save or at least let her live out her dream of being an ordinary girl before she fades away.

Sankarea - Ep05

Things start in with what Chihiro going to do with Rea, because she is no-longer able to move because she has rigor mortis. This brings it home for Chihiro that she is really dead, it just that he didn't really notice before because she was so pale. This also means that if he doesn't find someway to preserve her body then in time there will be nothing but bones. That the best thing he can do for her is turn on the air-conditioning and give her his bed.

The next morning as he is woken by his father to start cleaning, he thinks that he needs to hide Rea in-case come decides to enter his room. He would find it a bit difficult to explain why there is a naked woman sleeping on his bed. This prompts him to prepare a futon in his closet, so that he can hide her while giving her some degree of comfort. Although moving her proves a bit more difficult than he initially planned on, with them enter into a compromising position during the endeavor. Once he feels that Rea is safe he ask his sister if he can borrow the book on embalming that she was reading, but Chihiro his a bit disappointed that his sister borrowed it from a friend. He just figures that he will have to come up with something later because there is not much he can do about it right now, with his father wanting him get started with cleaning.

While he is cleaning, his father stops him and start questing him about this cat that look like Babu that has been hanging around. Although his father does believe that Chihiro explanation that it is Babu brought back to life, and think that it just another cat that is like Babu. However this conversation gets his grandfather involved saying that both Babu and Sada are back from the dead. Although don't think it is the greatest vote of confidence to get your senile and crazy grandfather to back your story. However this leads to Chihiro finding out that his grandfather is the one that created the resurrection drug in the first place. Before he can get anymore information out of his grandfather like ways to preserve a zombie, he gets caught by his father for trying to use some lame story to get out of cleaning.

Then later Ranko comes by to check on Chihiro, because she believe that he might know what is going on with Rea. He manages to convince her that they have merely crossed paths a few times late at night, which in way in most true. Although just as she is leaving Ranko decides that she is going to borrow a movie from Chihiro. Then as she is looking around she finds a long strand of hair that there is now way it could be Chihiro's. While Ranko is thinking where this came from Rea attack her from behind causing Ranko to Scream. This leads to Chihiro rushing to his room where he finds Ranko struggling to get Rea off of her. However when Rea notice Chihiro, she kiss him full on the mouth while giving him a bone-crushing hug. Unfortunately, they finished off at the point where things were just getting good.

Sankarea - ep04

Summary

After Rea was resurrected as a zombie, it seems like the shock of the event was too much for her father this caused him to have a mental breakdown. In the wake of her death we finally understand why she wanted to die, she felt that if she were reborn as one of the undead than by no-longer being human it would allow her to be free of her father. Even-though she did get her wish of being free of her family by starting her life by living with Chihiro, this action has cause her father to go completely insane. Which ultimately caused him to believe that Chihiro seduced her, and he is forcing her to be with him. Also what is also interesting is that her mother is more concerned about the fact that she might loss her position at the school than the fact that her daughter ran away from home.

The story than has us transition to where Chihiro and Rea currently are. It seem like Rea is having to use her sowing skill in a way that she would never expect to use them by sowing up her own stomach. This I find is funny because it is the world first self repairing zombie, all jokes aside. It seems that Chihiro has some consequence that he must atone for because he ditched Ranko inside the pipe when she got stuck and he never did end up going back for her. However when she shows up at his house he panics and tells Rea to hide, and not to leave the room. While at the same time he feels that he needs to get Ranko as far away from Rea as possible so he tells her that they will have their talk outside.

After they leave the house he explain to Ranko that Babu doesn't look like he is going to attack anyone. Although this doesn't prevent her from get revenge on Chihiro for leaving her behind. After Ranko is satisfied, this allows the discussion to carry on to the fact will Babu remain that way forever. This also raise the question to Chihiro that if that is true about Babu, wouldn't also be true about Rea. However before the conversation could continue even further it get interrupted by Chihiro's friend Yasutaku, this ends up revealing that he is friends with Rea. This cause the fact that he might not be as interested in Zombie woman as he makes himself appear to be, but in the attempt to denies this fact something dawns on him. That he found Rea to be beautiful before, but now sense she is a zombie. She has unintentionally became his perfect woman.

While Chihiro is out, Rea get tried of waiting for him to come back. Since the house seems empty she decide to take a shower, although while she was in the shower Jogoro Chihiro's grandfather comes in shouting that she is Sada. This confuses Rea and she runs away which cause Jogoro to chase after her but he end up running into Mero who tells him that it not Sada but Kiyo and his wife has been dead awhile. It seems like Rea made it back to Chihiro's room without revealing that she was there at all. Then later when Chihiro come home he finds Rea laying naked on his floor, when he ask her why doesn't she get dressed. Rea tells him that she now unable to move, after cheeking her body it appears that rigor mortis has set in and that is why she is unable to move. This also reveals the fact that even though she can move around it still doesn't change the fact that she is dead. That means that things related to death like decomposition, that if he doesn't do something to preserve her body in about a month she will be nothing but bones.

Sankarea - ep03

Characters

Furuya Chihiro – He is a strange young man who is obsessed with zombies, he himself can't explain his love for them. However when his pet cat Babu get run-over, he tries to resurrect him with the potion that is written in this old book he found in his temple. Although he couldn't anticipate the effects that his actions would have on those around him.

Sanka Rea – She is from a wealthy family, and goes to an all-girls school across the river from Chihiro's all-boys school. Ultimately, she ends up meeting Chihiro by him over-hearing her screaming into a dry-well at the abandon building that Chihiro is working to resurrecting Babu. This leads them into entering into some sort of friendship.

Furuya Doun – He is Chihiro's Father, and also the head-priest at the temple that Furuya family manage. He doesn't play a particular big part in the manga so it likely that he is even less important in the anime.

Furuya Jogoro – He is Chihiro's Grandfather, and he is not all there. In truth there is a deeper reason for that, but the reality of that will be revealed in time.

Furuya Mero – She is Chihiro's little sister. Also for some reason she feels that she can't show any weakness.

Babu – He is a stray cat that chihiro has taken in and see as his own. Also when the cat dies, it fills Chihiro with the desire to bring it back to life because he can't accept the injustice that has been brought upon his cat.

Saouji Ranko – She is Chihiro's cousin, and they are fairly close to one another. In the manga there is a bit of a romantic relationship between her and Chihiro. The series even goes as far as mention some law about it is legal for cousins to marry one another. Whether they choose to go that direction in the anime is another question entirely.

Sanka Danichirou – He is Rea's father and for his own sick goals he seeks to control her life. The reason being is that he desires to be the only man in her life. That he is willing to go to any lengths to make sure Rea never loves anyone but him.

Summary

After a short recap of where they left-off last time, they continue with Chihiro celebrating his success of bring Babu back to life. Although his cousins Ranko is question his overall ethics on bring his cat back to life. However she doesn't doubt to fact since she felt like he was going to end up doing something this eventually. Disregarding his overall unethical decision to bring his cat back to life, is he certain that it will be unable to create a zombie epidemic since it is in-fact a zombie after all. That Ranko expects that he should know what zombie do with the degree of his obsession. Before Ranko can continue criticizing his ethical behavior Babu runs-off, and Chihiro is quick to pursue his way-ward cat.

Then while all this is happening, we see how Rea is doing after she realize that the potion that she drank last night failed to kill her. When she goes in for breakfast, her father scolded her for wearing her school uniform sense she isn't allow outside anymore. When her father's personal butler comes in, Danichirou has Rea leave. Even-though she does close the door behind her she listens in on the conversation, it appears that because he saw Chihiro giving her a lift home. In his pervert mind he believe that there is more going on, so to prevent Chihiro from approaching Rea ever-again he intents to castrate him. Realizing the danger that Chihiro is in Rea leaves to try and find him before her fathers men can because she feels guilty that his life is in danger for just associating with her.

In her search for Chihiro she first goes to his school because she believes that she will find him there. Interestingly enough the very boys she questions are Chihiro's friends, they informed her that he never came to school today. The old other option she feels that is available to her is wait for him at the abandon building that they are suppose to met at later for Babu's funeral. While this is happening Chihiro is chasing his cat through a tunnel, where interestingly enough it is head towards Rea's location. The reason is to eat the poisonous flowers that was use in the resurrection potion for some reason we have yet to find out.

While on the cliff towards the abandon building where she picked the flower, Rea unfortunately runs into her father. Who is trying to get her off the cliff, by offering her anything she wants as long as she come home with him. Rea slaps his hand aside and tells him that she wants freedom. Then he ask freedom to do what, she says that she wants freedom to do what every she wants just for today. After hearing this he assumes that she intends to met up with Chihiro, and he has no intent to allow for that to happen.

Then just as he is about to drag her home Babu appears and she realize that Chihiro really did succeed. While she is think about this Dan'ichirou is making plans to knock the cat down the cliff, but once Rea realizes what her father is trying to do. She jumps in-front of Babu to protect him, but her father realizes what she has done a little too late and cause her to fall to her death. While Chihiro is seeing this happen from below just as she lands at his feet, and he can't believe that Rea was murdered right in-front of him. Then just as he is contemplating potently reviving her like he did Babu, she raises from the dead.