Title: Sankarea (さんかれあ)
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance
Summary:
Furuya’s not interested in the living, he’s got zombies on the brain! When Furuya’s cat dies, he decides he’s going to try and bring it back to life. In the process, he stumbles across a girl whose failed attempted suicide has turned her into a real zombie! What’s Furuya going to do now that the thing he loves the most is right in front of his eyes?
Like I said in the season preview, I love the story of Sankarea. Sure it has its fair share of rehashed tropes but it is also somehow unique with its zombie girl x human guy romance which I found captivating.
It’s about a girl who just wants to live a normal life but can’t because of her perverted and over protective father (The kind of father who would take naked pictures of her daughter every year with a pathetic excuse that it’s for documenting her growth… Eck, sick indeed). Fortunately/Unfortunately Rea died and its very contradicting since when she became a zombie that’s also when she experienced how to become a normal girl and finally live her life. What’s sad is zombies still rots since they are just re-animated corpse so not everything will be fine and dandy for our couple. Chihiro had shown his manliness in the first few eps but I promise he’ll be more awesome in the coming eps (I don’t want to spoil you guys..). There is also a reason why he only likes zombie girls(hopefully it’ll get animated). Even Rea’s father has a reason for being who he is and why he’s very protective of of her. Overall, we have an interesting story a very captivating and interesting characters and I can somehow sympathize with them.
The animation is top notch for a romance anime and man that character design is very mouth watering and the animation staff was able to capture the drawing style of Hatori Mitsuru-sensei. This series is also boasts good direction with its very detailed depiction of the not so noticable actions of its characters which further define their characters. The lighting of this series is also nicely done and is successful in setting the overall mood and feel of the series. I also love the color hues they’ve used in this series. Sometimes the colors complements each other but I also like it when colors are at contrast with each other a good example of it is the scene where Rea is screaming her heart out on a well (we got a gray and black background but Rea is wearing a bright red coat). This show also knows how to utilize camera angles that either adds more drama to a scene or give us yummy fanservice of Ranko and Rea.
I like both the OP and ED song of this series and IMO one of the best OP and ED song this spring season. I find the OP animation kind of creepy specially the part when Rea and Chihiro jumped together in a headstone. The ED song “Above your hand” by Annabel gave me this melancholic feeling and gave the series this feeling that it won’t be all laughs and light heartedness. Even the ED animation is even a bit melancholic too with Rea walking and lying alone in the building where she found Chihiro but thank goodness at the end we see Chihiro and Babu is also present there too.
At first I didn’t like the voice of Rea since when I was reading the manga I imagine someone like Itou Shizuka or Miyuki Sawashiro voicing her but after several eps I find Uchida Maaya’s voice fits Rea. Even though she’s still a newbie I have to commend her VA skills since her acting brought the Rea’s character to life may it be Rea’s voice of sadness, anger, happiness or curiosity.
Definitely enjoying this series and it got the same mood as the manga (I think its slightly better than the original material). Its very loyal to the manga but I think the pacing is slower compared with the manga which is fine by me since they were able to introduce us to the characters and I think the build up in the first few eps will be rewarded in the future episode.
Now after this first impression I’ll go write another one which involves another dead girl but this time she’s a ghost…
until then…
~ja
