Chihiro Furuya is our ordinary male protagonist who, as it is very happens in these stories, comes to befriend this mysterious, sheltered girl, Sanka Rea. Things happen, and without too many spoilers, we find ourselves in a Romeo and Juliet love story with a George Romero inspired twist to it. I cannot believe I just wrote that sentence.
Having introduced our two main leads, Chihiro and Rea, I must applaud Studio DEEN for fleshing them out early on in the show, for they exhibit strong, distinguishing personalities that put a unique twist on the roles of Romeo and Juliet in the Shakespearean play. Each character starts off with emotional baggage, a hole in their hearts and lives, which some of us can relate to. Chihiro is a horror fan, one that takes this love too far, I feel, while Rea is a Yamato Nadeshiko (Google It), a girl who projects a facade of perfection, with not-so-pretty secrets behind her prestigious upper class upbringing. These two clearly set the show up well for further exploration into their personalities and further misgivings. Their feelings also subsequently mature to help each other seal these holes in their lives, giving the show strong romantic progression, a selling point of Sankarea. Sadly, side characters fall into the usual tropes: helpful, obedient sister Mero, lacking-screen-time plot device parental figure Doon, childhood friend who gets jealous Ranko etc. A slightly disappointing display, but expected at this point. The mediocre side cast aside,our leads more than make up for this shortcoming, since we watch Romeo and Juliet for Romeo and Juliet, not their extended families, so character-wise, Sankarea does alright.
As per Romeo and Juliet, the idea of forbidden love works on many levels in this narrative, one being that of parental disapproval and the other being necrophilia. But necrophilia jokes aside, Sankarea is a Romeo and Juliet love story in anime, and in that regard, I feel DEEN has succeeded, where the growing love, the maturing affection between the mains is seen when our main characters become better people as their romance progresses, following my point that the two helps to fill holes in each others’ lives. Chihiro helps to fulfil the wishes of sheltered Rea, and he himself grows to be a more caring, less passive and unmotivated individual. Rea becoming less sheltered, feels less repressed, more free and happy when with Chihiro. Having their love bring out the better in them gives the romantic plot sufficient impact and weight, which is good writing on DEEN’s part, and puts Sankarea a cut above your standard anime fare. I also liked the impact in the show. Situations have been given significant gravitas, such as essential zombie maintenance and the inevitable decay of dead flesh, and they help keep the audiences on the edge of their seats. Tension occurs even on rewatching Sankarea, and this tension is also released quite adequately despite awkward pacing, even during rewatches, meaning tension still holds up well. As mentioned, pacing is a weak point in the show’s narrative, where there are slow and fast moments, inexpertly pieced together throughout twelve episodes, demonstrating inconsistency in writing. Pace should be consistent, not uniform, not varied, deviating from an established speed by some degree to emphasize important moments on occasion. However, twelve episodes also means such errors should not be too hard on the viewer on the first watch through, still, it was worth pointing out. The story has flaws, but offers significant merits, such as novelty in its zombie love premise, enjoyable, substantial romance and good, old-fashioned fun that helps it stick out of the crowd a bit more. A harsher critic may pan the problems highlighted to a greater degree, but reviews are opinion and I like to give leeway to novel ideas, especially this one which has stuck with me for too long a time to dismiss casually, so the story is good in my books.
I was about to criticise the visual design of the show, being not as good in my recollection, but upon blu-ray release, everything looks crisp and excellent. Animation is great, colour composition has been balanced out very well, to mix a tone of horror and love. Everything looks nice enough to give first time viewers a treat. The character designs simply look good. Chihiro has tufts of hair on his head, making him look like a dog, with no offense being implied here as there is significance in this observation since it ties in with some Asian cultural beliefs that dogs are able to see the supernatural and share affiliation with these phenomena. This all fits the theme of supernatural horror Sankarea quite nicely. Rea is the main love interest, so obviously, she will look good, with large bright eyes, fair, almost pale skin and physically desirable characteristics in a female, at least in the eyes of this reviewer, full discretion. The leads are easily recognisable, so DEEN has done a good job here. Though the side characters are essentially tropes, they still look presentable and original, and do their job. Special mention to Gramps, he looks shrunken and deformed, making him stand out along with his more bizarre and original personality among the side characters. He eats poisonous leaves for fun. Have I mentioned how this show was weird? Collectively, I have no gripes with the character designs at all, and wish they were give more character definition to complement their unique looks, and DEEN has done well on the blu-ray release.
Sound design is average. Again, I would use the word serviceable to describe it. Not bad, not memorable, where comedic scenes, romantic scenes, action scenes all have tracks played systematically to add slight immersion, but I would not recommend it for another’s consumption. The ending is alright, I did not pay it much heed, but it gave me a feel of melancholy, which does reflect how I felt when I could not watch more Sankarea, so that exists. I would instead like to point your attention to the opening song of Sankarea along with its accompanying visuals. The title of this song is “Esoragoto” or “Pipe Dream” in English. I like it. J-Pop by nano.Ripe. The title of the song, visuals in the opening all tie in back with the entire premise of the show, where giant flying cats, M.C. Escher’s “Endless Stairs” are depicted, all help to demonstrate surrealism at the start of the episode. And this theme of surrealism applies to Sankarea very nicely, by tying back to the context within the show, that of “Zombie Love”, which comes off as far from reality as one can get, to show love toward a being that has risen from the grave, a sort of pipe dream, as the title of the opening song suggests. Also, at the end of the opening, Chihiro and Rea both entering a marked grave symbolises how everything that transpires in the narrative starts with death, as one enters a grave upon death. To analyse more would be to spoil the plot, so I will hold off on that for now, but it comes to stand that the opening of Sankarea shows unexpected depth and I am impressed with DEEN’s detail in the opening design. Nicely done. Both dub and sub are good.
To wrap things up, Sankarea is a series with an eccentric charm to it with competent execution in some aspects of its narrative. It also looks clean and gory in its visuals, which zombie fans may come to appreciate as well. A tale of Romeo and Juliet, layered with palpable zombie love that can melt the coldest of undead hearts. While there are flaws in Sankarea, one could definitely do worse when looking for something to watch, and for what it is worth, it drew me in enough to keep me watching. A recommendation for someone who wants to try something new, and is not afraid to dig through dismembered guts to find it. Wherever I may be, I feel Sankarea will stay in my unconscious forevermore, until someone asks me for something very weird to watch.
Overall score: I don’t give scores/ 10
