Chihiro Furuya has no interest in the opposite sex. This is of course far from uncommon in the anime world as male protagonists often act chaste and reject the conventions of romantic or sexual attraction but the difference with Chihiro is that he has an actual reason Hes been obsessed with zombie fiction for as long as he can remember and hes been on the look out for a certain kind of girl thats just drop dead gorgeous That is to say a hot zombie chick. One day after finding a mysterious inksplatted book about resurrecting the dead in his attic his precious pet cat Babu is run over by a local mans car killing the freaky feline instantly. Not yet ready to part with one of his only friends Chihiro begins to study the old book and begins to experiment with the potion listed inside of it crafting different variations of the same concoction to try and find that one sweet mix that will bring Babu back to life. Of course he cant do this at home so he chooses an abandoned hotel as his makeshift mad science lab And thats where he meets Rea. As one of the most popular girls in school and the daughter of its owner you might expect her to live a happy and privileged life fulfilling and free of want with nary a care in the world that wouldnt fall under the term First world problems. You would be wrong as the lifestyle of this rich and famous heiress is closer to that of a detainee than that of a debutante. Putting up with her Fathers soulcrushing overprotection and her Mothers alcoholinfluenced indifference she finds Chihiros weirdness to be a pleasant diversion and winds up becoming the Igor in his experiments. Unbeknownst to them he actually manages to perfect the potion so when she secretly steals a vial of it to end her own life with she soon winds up becoming the one thing hes always wanted A living dead girl. But with her psychopathic father waiting for the perfect moment to strike and her own mysterious condition presenting them with challenges at every turn is there any hope for their boymeetsghoul romance? Or like Rea are they simply living on borrowed time? Once upon a time I came across somebody in the forums I frequent denouncing Studio Deen as the worst animation company hes ever seen. He showed a mediocrelooking clip from the first episode of Fate/Stay Night calling it literally the best looking thing theyve ever done. Now Ill admit that that Deens put out a few asslooking anime before but I was quick to show him clips from a few shows that Id specially selected to show just how amazing some of their shows can look And one of them was Sankarea which had just begun to air on Funimation.com. I selected this particular title for one specific reason Because the animation in this series is nothing short of perfect. Now dont get me wrong We are of course not talking about constant fluid motion like what you may find in the best looking Kyoto Animation shows Onscreen movement is restricted to whats necessary but it never feels like theyre being held back by anything other than their own discretion. When the movement does slow down its almost always for the sake of an emotionally significant moment at which point its more like the visuals stepping back and letting you become engrossed in the shock and gravity that youre supposed to be experiencing which is further amplified by the exquisite art design and brilliant use of sound effects. This gives the series a sense of energy and atmosphere that can at times make you feel as though youre really there in the moment alongside the characters. For the most part the art design is rooted firmly in reality Well blonde Japanese girls with large breasts arent exactly realistic but you could consider that the exception that proves the rule. Everything from a field of flowers to a row of trees to your basic urban settings are drawn with elaborate detail down to the very last blemish arranged on screen with strict adherence to attractive color palettes and in ways that draw your eyes directly to the human characters living out their lives in the midst of it all. Having said that the use of offbeat camera angles and just plain weird shot setups doesnt always work and can at times feel a little overexcessive like theyre trying way too hard to look like Studio Shaft who can be extremely hit or miss in terms of visuals in their own right. Some occurrences deserve to be explored from less commonplace angles but when youre trying to spice up a conversation in a locker room by having three characters open up their lockers as though theyre practicing their timing for a synchronized swimming meet the show can start to look a little pretentious. The character designs are also a bit strange despite the mostly realistic body proportions I will never for the life of me understand why old people are often portrayed as little people And then theres the main characters catlike hairdo which Im sure has some sort of symbolic meaning in regards to his zombie cat. Rea looks like the stereotypical standard of young Japanese beauty and while I would be crying generic over it theres an argument to be made that her father simply raised her to look like that. The opening and ending portions are just beautiful. The OP Esoragoto by nano.Ripe is one of my favorites of all time for some damn good reasons. Aside from the throwaway sidecharacter breakdown that happens at about 45 seconds in the imagery used in this opening is full of metaphors for the story of the anime none of which youll understand until probably your second time through. Theyre very subtle in the way theyre presented and the childish voice singing the lyrics perfectly emphasizes the tragedy of a young adolescent who was never truly allowed to experience childhood and thus hasnt been allowed to grow up. The ending Above Your Hand by Annabel takes that idea to its natural conclusion Rea in a bowling alley what one might consider the ideal teen hangout just lying in the lane and waiting to get struck knowing shell never truly live and patiently serenely awaiting death to take her. Theres a good reason the singer sounds older here than in the OP Its the harsh reality to the ops unsettlingly upbeat fantasy. In keeping with these thematic ideals Yukari Hashimoto composed the soundtrack to hit two major notes One decidedly better than the other. Half of the OST explores the emotional trauma faced by Rea The exact nature of which is betrayed by an array of music box organ and piano orchestrations. The other half is tailored more towards Chihiro and theres a reason nobodys going out of their way to upload them on . These tunes skew more towards the background and have a much more homey feel to them They can be downright happy and disarming and while theyre perfectly fine in their own right the emotional resonance of the stronger half of the soundtrack does tend to attract more attention. Personally my favorite is Babus theme Babu no Iru Fuukei which just sounds like the anthem of a cat strutting around town without a care in the world and its surprisingly easy to dance to. The English dub is also top notch which shouldnt surprise you if you look at the list of names involved before viewing. The backstage work is in the hands of the right people with Joel McDonald directing and Monica Rial writing the script two choices you cant go wrong with. Jamie Marchi stayed the hell away from the script which is also to its great credit as shes a far better actor than she is a writer. She plays Chihiros cousin Ranko and while shes played more than her fair share of loud energetic girls her character has a great deal more emotional depth than your typical incestobsessed cousin cliche and Marchi makes you genuinely feel for this character who would probably come off as annoying in anyone elses hands. David Wald whom Im convinced can do no wrong plays Reas creepy father bringing forth an air of pride and nobility with some heavily unsettling tones lurking just beneath the surface. Monica Rial is of course adorable as a zombie cat as is Felecia Angelle who plays Chihiros ghostobsessed sister Mero with the perfect deadpan sarcasm. However the real surprise here is with our two leads Chihiro and Rea. Ever since Aaron Dismuke hit puberty Ive found his performances to be extremely hitormiss but he was luckily able to play off of his own obsession with zombies to play his strange socially awkward character. His performance could be described as one note but its the kind of onenote an introverted teenager would believably use and hes more than capable of emoting through it whenever he needs to. And whats more shocking is that Ive NEVER liked Tia Ballard the highpitched banshee who ruined the first episode of Shiki for me. But in the title role of Rea Sanka there are no words for how amazing she is. She shows an unbelievable amount of control over her voice and is able to put forth consistent quality whether her character is cheerful suffering or going through rigor mortisher approach to which is hilarious. When she goes into her backstory her expository dialogue can be downright heartbreaking and its clear she feels all the pain in her characters heart. She can come off as a bit too whiny and spoiled at some points in the story but I cant really fault the actor for that It is unfortunately the way the character was written. Whats that? You think its weird for a girl whos been established as an abuse victim to be portrayed as annoying and spoiled? Well get ready for worse because this show is really freaking weird. And Im not referring to its concept either This is one of the most bafflingly executed anime series Ive ever seen. It has no sense of tone it constantly shoots itself in the foot with its lack of focus and seemingly has no idea what it wants to be. Is it an intense dramatic character study? Is it a lighthearted slice of life with an unusual premise? Is it a tongueincheek love letter to the zombie genre? Hell it could be all of those things without feeling nearly as jarring Comedy drama and offkilter subject matter has been handled expertly in shows like Ouran Highschool Host Club but Sankarea just doesnt understand how. Our central character is Chihiro a zombie obsessed boy who immediately gains your attention via some subtle hints that he actually doesnt want a zombie girlfriend and is only saying that as an excuse to himself as others as to why hes not yet mature enough to be interested in girls. He lives in a house with what could almost be called a Japanese Addams Family has a dead cat hes trying to resurrect whichalong with his own catlike appearance could be a metaphor that he desperately wants to get a life himself. Hes one of the better male protagonists Ive seen but hes immediately overshadowed by the lead female Rea. Not long after shes introduced we start to hear her sad tale and it is so bizarrely horrifying that it winds up hijacking the story. Its like hearing about a triplegic puppy who just found out it has another case of leg cancer its that merciless of an attack on your sympathies. At first were told that her father takes naked pictures of her on her birthday which shes sick of. Yeah that sounds like a spoiler but we find it out in the first episode so whatever. Then we find out that he shelters and controls her firing any maid who he doesnt agree with possibly killing a stray cat that got too close to the house and using his influence to destroy the lives of the family of a girl shed confided to about the pictures. Youd think thats bad enough but as the story goes on we also learn some things that are supposed to make him feel more sympathetic but they just wind up making the situation feel all the more sinister. I wont give away the spoiler that reveals this but it becomes evident by the end of the seriesto anybody whos really paying attention that hes planning to start engaging in a physical relationship with her as soon as she turns 16. Hell theres an OVA episode where its heavily implied that he takes extra naked pictures of her that DONT wind up in the official collection. Every time I watch this series my heart feels heavy for Rea and the tone of the series at that point is appropriately crushing. But that tone starts to fade and by the time shes become a zombie its all but gone. We go right back to silly weird slice of life zomcom fare. It feels like youre watching a different show and the worst of it has to be the gratuitous fanservice. Now dont get me wrong Ive got nothing against animated nudity. Im no prude with that kind of thing and if its done well I welcome it. But Sankarea is that rare title where it just feels like a horrible misguided idea. Remember we just got through a soulcrushing backstory where it was firmly established that the exploitation of her naked body is supposed to feel sick and wrong. Why not follow this up with pointless shower scenesshe even states that she doesnt need them because she doesnt sweat where shes confusedly squeezing a loofa between her boobs and getting comedically attacked by an old man? Yeah they use her hair as a source of convenient censoring and even if they didnt she has no nipples for us to oglewhich is strange because Ranko definitely does but it still feels wrong. It starts to feel like the writers and animators and by extension the audience are no better than her father. Now it is of course possible to start an anime on an emotionally turbulent note and still have it be a comedy. Its not an immediately terrible idea but you have to commit in some way to both sides of the story. In Kotourasan we follow a telepathic girl as she doesnt know shes not supposed to be able to read minds so she unknowingly alienates her friends and destroys her own family by revealing peoples secrets to each other. She grows up depressed and cynical until she meets a group of friends who are willing and eager to accept her for who she is and even though she has many hilarious misadventures with them were never spared the psychological effects of her unfortunate childhood and the damage that she has to overcome and were terrified of what will happen when her mother reenters the story. See? This sort of thing can be executed well but you have to work to MAKE IT WORK. Kotoura is a hilarious show but her psychological trauma is never played for laughs just like Reas body should never have been exploited for cheap fan service. Its easy enough to accept anime fanservice as a natural element of the medium but if youre going to take the very idea of a female character being objectified by the male gaze to such a dark place you cant just go back to silly cheesecake. Youve gone under anyway you might as well throw some depth at us. Well its not like Sankarea doesnt try Thats the most frustrating thing about it. It has depth but it doesnt know what the fuck to DO with it. First of all this series is a subversion of the magical girlfriend genre a style of story where a male protagonist whos unlucky in love receives a female companion whos perfect for him through supernatural means and likely has to teach her an unspecified amount of stuff about the world around them while she finds fulfillment in simply being his waifu. Sankarea is the zombie version of this which is a welcome diversion compared to the homogeny of the genre. Shes found happiness in death that she didnt have in life although this is eventually shelved so the story can focus on exploring the physical properties of zombies in its canon. Frankly I would have loved to see the trope humanized further by having Rea get uncomfortable with Chihiro filming her for research as such an activity would probably remind her of her fathers photo sessions. But while were on the subject of Chihiro and Reas dad theres a whole other can of worms lurking in that subject. A few times during the series Chihiro reflects on how hes no better than her Dad because he keeps her locked up in the house. This serves as a convenient reason for him to take her on some walks around town but what the anime fails to realize is that the similarities go a lot deeper than that. Yeah they both keep her locked up but its also worth mentioning that she symbolizes an unusual fetish for each of them and also that they both value her primarily as a triumph of life over the tragedy of death Chihiro loves her because shes a zombie who literally came back from the dead and Reas father loves her for certain spoiler reasons. Aside from those rare moments of lucidity that I mentioned before Sankarea never capitalized on these things forgoing a wealth of possible depth in exchange for an ending that begs for an unlikely sequel and a resolution that deals with Reas father almost as poorly as Akihiko was dealt with in Sword Art Online. So is Sankarea a bad show? Well Kind of. I hate to say that because while there are a lot of negative aspects to the writing and execution of the series most of them are more like missed opportunities than actual flaws. Its like I said before this is just a really weird show all around and it can make for a bewildering experience regardless of what you were expecting from it. Its overuse of cliches can be irritating especially when it comes to Chihiro having basically the same two best friends that Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and several other protagonists have had but it manages to cast more of its cliches in an interesting and fresh light than not. Hell even the incestcrazy cousin is way more sympathetic and relatable than she should be by any convention. Honestly? I just cant help but enjoy it in all of its flaws just because of how bizarre it is. Sankarea is available from Funimation. It was originally released as the censored TV cut but was later released uncensored although if Im being totally honest if you can save some money by picking the censored version you probably should. There really isnt that much difference between them. For the extra money you get a couple shots of zombified Rea with her guts hanging out as well as no more than 30 collective seconds of uncensored nudity that youll barely miss. The uncensored version is cheaper now than when it was released going for thirtyfive bucks instead of sixty but you can still find copies of the censored version floating around Ebay for ten to fifteen bucks. The original manga is available stateside from Kodansha entertainment and while I havent read it it apparently offers a more complete story. It has a few OVAs and while one of them made it onto the DVD set as an episode the other two did not and are not available stateside. Sankarea is far from perfect but I still have to stick to my guns on one thing I said two years ago Its the best zombie anime Id seen at the time although its since been dethroned by School Live. It creates its own logic from scratch instead of clumsily trying to reinterpret and reinvent the existing logic choosing to paint the many established zombie lores as the works of fiction that they are. Its love of the zombie subgenre and dedication towards being a new and distinctive entry into said subgenre is what ties the series together with a note of otherwise sorely lacking consistency and to its credit the offkilter execution just serves as one more thing thats unique about it. Its bigger problems are a little too serious to ignore and there are parts of it that feel jarring and uncomfortable but I really like its brand of weirdness and would easily recommend it to anyone who loves zombies but is sick and tired of watching the same old genre fare. Even as a Halloween title it might not be for everyone but with its high production values offbeat campiness and unwavering devotion to the undead I still recommend checking it out. Unfortunately when the title of Halloween treat is removed its not very good. I give Sankarea a 5/10.