Ordinary girls are no longer interesting enough to the anime community, it seems. We've recently had a flurry of otakus, aliens, ghosts, and now zombie girls! Sankarea is about a girl named Sanka Rea who falls for a zombie-loving dude named Chihiro. This is probably one of those series where you're better of not reading Wikipedia or detailed descriptions as the foreshadowing and lead up to events is really well done, and ruined by spoilers.
Sankarea is a what-if situation where Chihiro masters a concoction that brings the dead back to life. Unlike the other ghost girl series(Tasogare x Amnesia), there is absolutely no horror undertones in this series. This series focuses much more on the characters, their backgrounds, and nice zombies that don't lose their minds and blindly eat and infect other creatures. While the overall series does end on a perplexing conclusion, the overall development and lead up are well executed, and the visuals are absolutely stunning at times. This is definitely a fun series that you don't have to be a zombie otaku to enjoy.
Animation:
This is by far the largest surprise of this series. Some of the backgrounds are the most realistic I have ever seen in an anime, and I ended up second guessing whether they are photographs or not. The series also uses a very dynamic color scheme making certain scenes dull with others vivid eye candy. I was also impressed with the lens flare and general lighting effects, though it's questionable whether they were really necessary. As for the overall mood, many of the scenes take place at night as hot temperatures aren't really good for preserving bodies. However, you don't get the horror/mystery feel that was so prevalent in Tasogare x Amnesia. The character designs were thoughtful though family members don't look all that related, and I wondered at first if the designers were colluding as I confused Yuuko from Amnesia with Rea prior to watching both shows. Chihiro also has cat-ear shaped hair, though the reason wasn't ever really explained.
There is some occasional action and a few bloody/ever-so-slightly-gory scenes, though nothing Elfen Lied level. As roriconfan mentioned, this show does have ecchi elements as our zombie otaku somehow lands himself the hottest idol from the neighboring all-girls high school. Relatively speaking, though, the ecchi level is not very high- limited to accidental falls, grabs, and occasionally dirty talk.
Sound:
I'm not a big fan of the sound of Nano.Ripe, last heard in Hanasaku Iroha. It's a light rock song with an ok melody. The ED is a slow, slightly dark piece that, to me, is a much better fit for the series. The BGM for the series is your standard fare, supportive when needed but not very memorable.
Didn't really notice any huge names on the VA list but they do a fairly good job overall. Maaya Uchida does well as Rea, giving her a restrained yet slightly outgoing feel.
Story:
Chihiro is a zombie otaku who decides to try to revive his dead cat Babu after finding a necromancy book. While there he meets a beauty who happens to be a neighboring school's idol, and together they perfect the concoction and revive Baabu. Along the way we learn about Rea's family situation and things soon become complicated...
This is a fairly fast-paced show with many episodes ending on cliff hangers (and some character-background troll episodes mixed in). I found the exposition in this series absolutely outstanding; they actually spend a decent amount of episodes fully explaining the background rather than just throwing in the instant girlfriend as found in so many other ecchi comedies. The character background episodes aside (there are 2 of them), there is always something going on and developing, leading to a predictable though satisfying confrontation/climax. There are definitely story elements that are not fully explained, and appear to be teasers. Given the trolling conclusion and the many unanswered aspects, some are suspecting that there may be a follow up on the series.
Technically, I really liked the unique premise and (thank goodness) the non-spoiler OP. It was also very thoughtful to have the episode title screen at the end of the episode, preventing unnecessary spoilers.
Character:
Chihiro is an unusually proactive main character who actually does some stuff before being told to by others, albeit totally limited to items that are zombie-related. Other shows should take note as this was a welcome surprise.
This show has a lot of good character tension. Chihiro ends up in a potentially romantic relationship with multiple girls, begetting some good rivalry tension. And there is also the family situation that Rea faces, which pushes a lot of the plot in the series. I expected Chihiro to be a bit more happy at times considering that his ultimate dream, revealed early in the series, was granted; perhaps as with all things in life, the "real" always has complications that never come up in the "idealized" form.
Sankarea also does an exceptional, if not overly thorough, job of explicating the backgrounds of supporting characters. This is in sharp contrast with Amnesia where the supporting cast was somewhat cast in the shadows. I say overly thorough because there are details that are unveiled that are never really ever explained later, again hinting at a possible sequel?
Overall, I enjoyed the lively mix of characters, even if Rea's mentally-questionable father did unnerve me.
Value:
While the ending really begets a lot more questions than answers, my strong desire to seek these answers only reveals how interested I am in the series. Sankarea is a very interesting series that I ended up watching from beginning to end in the span of a single day. While there are points that are unresolved in the series, the overall mix of interesting plot and theme elements overshadowed the other negative points in the show. Now you'll have to excuse me as I dig up the source manga and seek out more of this series.
