Sankarea

Zach Goodier

Sankarea is a 12 episode (and 2 OVA) anime that follows Chihiro Furuya, who finds a journal that shows him how to raise the dead.  He has an obsession with zombies, which is one of the reasons he is so fascinated by the journal.  However, he does nothing with it for some time, until his cat is hit and killed by a car.  However, as he attempts to make the potion that will bring his beloved pet back to life, he has one major obstacle: one of the critical ingredients is missing.  One of the pages in the journal was smeared, so that main ingredient needed to complete the potion is unknown.  It is while trying to find this last piece of the puzzle that Furuya meets Rea Sanka, a daughter of a wealthy, eccentric father who has an abnormal fixation with his own daughter.  Rea and Chihiro quickly become friends, as she helps him search for his missing ingredient.  However, the tables turn when Rea tries some of the potion, and dies soon after.  However, the potion actually worked, and Rea is brought back from the dead.  What happens after? Well, most of that is for you to find out.

Mmmmm... Looks delicious. Who wants to taste test?

For starters, the plot of Sankarea is a little screwy.  Rea and Chihiro struggle to understand the full extent of what the potion has done to Rea, who longs to just be a normal girl.  Somehow, srhe believes that being a zombie helps her accomplish this, but I have no idea how being a zombie makes you “normal.”  Oh, if you were wondering why I’m analyzing the character of a zombie, she is still fully sentient, and doesn’t need to eat flesh or anything.  So yeah, “zombie” might not be the best term, but it’s the one used in the show.  “Undead” is probably a better term, since it doesn’t always default to mindless, flesh-eating monster.  However, the two main struggles in the series surround Rea trying to break free from her overbearing father, and Chihiro struggling to preserve Rea’s body, since it quickly becomes apparent that being a “zombie” doesn’t make you immortal, since your body is technically dead and prone to decomposition.  These concerns aren’t really all that constant, though, as other characters come along to provide comic relief, trials for the characters, and even the cliché love-triangle.

I'm not sure whether it's the red eyes, void gaze, or the blood running from her mouth, but I find myself questioning the wisdom in this based on the experience of many a zombie flick in the past.  So why does Chihiro think this will work out well, again?

The characters really aren’t all that special, for the most part.  Chihiro is the typical teenage protagonist, aside from his fixation with zombies.  His mother died when he was young, but he lives in a temple with his father and younger sister.  There really isn’t much more to say since he really is your basic protagonist.  Rea is a bit more interesting, since the conflict between her and her father provides much of the backdrop and conflict for the story.  Her step-mother is bitter, and you do find out why later on in the story, but for the most part she is just a bitter witch towards Rea.  Ranka Saoji is the other love interest for Chihiro; a childhood friend/relative that quickly sees Rea as a threat, but she never really does all that much about it, even supporting Rea at certain points, which simply showcases how good-natured Ranka really is, even if she likes to rough-house Chihiro quite a bit.

Turns out even zombies can get embarrassed, even if they don't turn red anymore.

The animation is fairly standard, as well.  It’s not bad, but not all that special. Part of the reason is that most of the show doesn’t do much with action or anything flashy, it just has a lot of character interaction and hardly any action to speak of.  However, knowing that, the animation remains fairly good throughout, and the characters look decent, but not all that impressive next to some of the bigger titles out there.

Ranko provides a lot of the humor, fan-service, and helps make our cliche love-triangle.  She's also the lively one to offset Rea's mostly lifeless demeanor (pun intended).

Overall, Sankarea is trapped in a pit of mediocrity.  The story is so-so, but the show offers no conclusion to most of the conflicts that take place, and there doesn’t seem to be a continuation of the show on the horizon.  There are a lot of compelling questions that are raised in the show, and a lot of interesting plot elements and themes to be explored, but the show never had the chance to pursue anything to fulfillment. So, anyone interested in how things might start to wrap up have to go hit the manga, but apparently the release is slow, and it’s still ongoing.  None of the characters really stand out that much, which is a shame.  That isn’t to say they were poorly-conceived, they just didn’t seem to set themselves apart all that much from the standard characters you’re likely to find in stories like this.  The concept was interesting, but the mediocre execution, lack of any sort of significant conclusion (aside from one conflict, and that isn’t even finalized), and the general slow-paced feel of the series made it somewhat disappointed.  However, there is still some content to be enjoyed, and the low number of episodes makes it easily gone through in a free weekend.

Good:

-Interesting concept.

-Lot of interesting questions raised through the themes and story.

-Smaller number of characters and episodes makes this show easy to follow and get through with ease.

Bad:

-Characters aren’t very original for the most part.

-Lack of any sort of major conclusion, and no season 2 on the horizon means it probably won’t have one outside of the source material.

Scully Rating: 6.5 out of 10