Sankarea – 06

Chihiro is having the time of his life: filming zombie ero.

Last week’s conclusion was intense, I’m surprised nobody lost a limb … but now we’re faced with a new issue, how is Chihiro going to explain this to Wanko and his family!? Onward to one of my favorite shows of the season!~

I apologizes for the late post. Hawth gave me his stuff since Sunday, but I didn’t even started this until yesterday. My schedule is a little bit messy with all the studying now… Anyways, let’s move on to Sankarea shall we? And see if Chihiro stays in one piece this episode.

Chihiro’s dream has come true, the zombie girl he’s always fantasized over is no longer just a figment of his imagination, but clearly he’s a long way from understanding the inner workings of the undead. After Chihiro is released from Rea’s tight grasp, Wanko realizes his dark secret. She accuses him of murder, but he gets no opportunity to explain as Rea soon disappears out the window to follow Babu.

He soon finds her in the hydrangea fields next to the temple, chewing on the poisonous leaves alongside Babu. Rea comes out of her previous state and is back to normal, completely unknowing of what went down only minutes ago. Wanko and Chihiro’s grandpa appear, and the latter explains the three rules of caring for a zombie. Regular exercise, a cool body, and the daily consumption of hydrangea leaves. He then tells Chihiro some shocking news, that the decay, even with the rules, cannot be stopped.

“Whaddup dawg, wanna join me? This weed is edible!”

“To stop Rea from rotting, you have to get a piggybank ride from half naked girls and touch their boobs.”

After some convincing, Chihiro’s father allows Rea to stay with them. Wanko isn’t too pleased with it, but puts on a smile and leaves. Later in the day Chihiro starts a journal to record information regarding Rea’s zombie-ism and even records her on video. Wanko delivers some clothing for Rea to wear and goes as far as to say she’ll buy some more later. Chihiro soon feels an unbearable sadness, as the reality of Rea’s state finally hits him. She’s dead; she’ll never be a normal girl again.

This is the part where Rea goes all lesbian for Wanko then ditches Chihiro.

Rea and Chihiro go for a walk at night, with the excuse that she needs exercise. The butler from Rea’s mansion follows them, keeping a close eye on their actions. Rea soon also comes to terms with her death, but is still admittedly happy because being a zombie in the free world is better than being a possession of an obsessed father. Chihiro promises to take care of her, and realizes he must soon find a cure to her decay. Later on Chihiro is almost hit by a truck, but Rea saves him by throwing him backward with great force. He’s hurt in the process, but she licks his wounds to disinfect them.

omnomnomnomnom

Hydrangea Leaves:

Chihiro x Daddy, anyone…?

He actually has a face

Geez Deus, you forgot your 13th Diary

“Cut! You guys are doing the scene wrong! Rea’s supposed to be naked!”

OISHI~

Watanuki in disguise!? #CLAMPiseverywhere

It took a few episodes, but the obvious truth was formally revealed in the only plausible way for a show like Sankarea, a half-naked stroll across the roof and into a hydrangea field! From all the comments I’ve been reading, and from common sense, the solution to Rea’s problem was to be expected, but I’m now believing the entire ordeal was simply to distract us from the real issue, you can’t stop a body from decaying no matter how many poisonous leaves you shove into its mouth. The old man’s explanation was a bit of a curveball, I was naively under the impression that the decay would be stopped from such an obvious answer, but in fact it’s not an answer at all, just a temporary diversion from a natural phenomenon. Unfortunately my eagerness to hear the rest of his surprisingly ominous dialogue was spoiled by Wanko … but let’s be honest, he deserved to get something thrown at him. (Such bad timing!)

The emotional conflict between Rea and Wanko was also touched on this week more so than last. This is no more than speculation, but Rea’s inner jealousy last week seemed to be a small factor in her transformation to the wall-climbing, breast-licking “demon” that attacked the very same girl she was distraught over. Maybe distraught is an exaggeration on my part, but Rea’s selfishness and lack of reserve seemed to define her “other-self”, which are also traits of jealousy I believe. In fact I’d go as far as to speculate that her emotional state played a large part in her loss of control

The appearance of the butler gives us good indication that good ol’ what’s-his-name will be rearing his ugly mustache into the picture again. Chihiro is in for some trouble, not only does he now have to solve the decaying problem, but he has to avoid the powerful influence of Rea’s father. A man who can single handedly cause an entire family to leave town can sure as hell take care of a teenaged kid.

A writer here at Metanorn, lvlln, brought up a good point a couple weeks ago, that the mourning aspect of Rea’s death was ignored in favor of highlighting the positive aspects of escaping her past life. It was nice to see that the issue was touched on this week, with Chihiro realizing the “unbearable sadness” that he undoubtedly feels, but doesn’t show. Watching her eat the hydrangea leaves put things into perspective, she can never live the life of a normal girl, there are obstacles she’ll have to deal with on a daily basis. Rea is still stubborn however, perhaps she truly believes being dead was the only way to escape, or maybe she just hasn’t come to terms with it yet? I for one would never be happy if I couldn’t taste food or even sleep … Anyway, this is getting me depressed, until next time!~

This episode was… meh, I guess. I don’t know whether it’s actually the episode or it’s just me. I wasn’t in my best mood when I watched it. It’s just that I feel as if the usual charm isn’t there. The animation isn’t as striking as the previous episodes too. Everything feels so… Normal. Even the SHAFT feeling wasn’t there (few but not much). Episode six feels like some random episode of a random anime. I suspect it’s because of the sudden information dump that I’m not used seeing in Sankarea, but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say it’s just me. The colors are still superb though. I will forever love colors in this anime.

Of course, episode six is not that bad. The information dump is actually pretty useful. It seems that Chihiro’s grandfather has been experiencing stuff behind his family’s back. This is pretty interesting, considering how senile this old man is. How can he experiment stuff if he’s going to forget them five seconds later? Maybe it was his experience during his younger days? Who was his test subject? This one I really want to know, because somehow I have a feeling that it has something to do with Chihiro’s mother. And since Chihiro’s father experiments on zombies, that means he’s not a zombie right? Yeah right. If he’s not a zombie, why would he be eating hydrangea leaves then? So my theory is that Chihiro’s grandfather is a zombie and has been trying to find a way to cure himself. Or at least, to prevent him from rotting. Of course, my theory has this big flaw: if Chihiro’s grandfather is a zombie, but why isn’t he rotting then? Maybe that’s why he’s going senile. Gah, I know I’m not making any sense, but I don’t want to let go of the “my grandfather is a zombie” theory.

What I find the most interesting in this episode is the new relationship between Wanko and Rea. As soon as both of them met each other’s eyes, the anime crews isolate both of them, giving the girls their own world as they stare into each other’s eyes. I can’t help but seeing that as the start of their rivalry. BUT I also have this feeling that their relationship will be more than rivalry. What is it? I don’t know. Maybe the girls will bond more as friends rather than as rivals? Maybe. I just think that they will be more than just rivals. Probably BFF.

And haha, lvlln got what he wanted. Such luck. The tragic aspect of Rea’s death has been brought up. But by Chihiro since Rea still believes that being dead is better than being alive within such messed up family. I agree with Hawth that Rea is just being stubborn, not wanting to accept the fact that her death is something to be mourned over. And what sucks is that Rea’s body won’t stop decaying. How will this love relationship survive if the girl won’t even be “alive”? I can only see this anime ends disastrously because the facts laid out there are not favorable at all. Either one of them dies, or both of them die. And besides, it seems that Rea is going to be out of control soon. She’s liking Chihiro’s blood more than she’s supposed to.

Preview: Wanko is getting the spotlight now. She deserves it! Though it seems that there will be more dead bodies, seeing the mummified hand that’s being pulled out from the ground.

Moe. MOEEEEEEEEEEE!

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.