Sankarea: Moe Zombie Fantasy

Yes Chihiro, it’s happening to you.

After the events of the last episode, with Rea dying and being brought “back to life”, we now see her secretly taking refuge in Chihiro’s room. Due to her zombiefication, Rea now has deep red pupils instead of a lighter blue (I didn’t really notice that in the manga covers) as well as paler skin. Aside from that, there’s no other physical implications that suggest that she’s a zombie. Except of course for the huge gash on her abdomen which she stitched up herself (there was also a tube of glue in that scene as well)

Meanwhile, Dan’Ichirou falls into despair as he thinks about what happened – in a bath tub with pictures of Rea floating in the water. Based on the photos that were shown they weren’t the naked photos of Rea. But still, you really just wanna punch the guy. He would’ve stayed there too is it wasn’t for his wife. The exotic Aria riles up the old man (much to his..excitement) and again pursues Chihiro.

Back at the Furuya household, Rea is surprisingly filled with life..in a sense. She’s still the perky, curious girl when they were trying to resurrect Babu (who by the way is also back to normal, in a sense). Chihiro doesn’t quite understand her actions and her behavior on the situation. Rea is at ease though since Chihiro promised that he’d “take responsibility”. Depending on the context, that could mean a lot of things, with the most apparent one being put in the context of a relationship. Much to Chihiro’s dismay though, what Rea meant was that he’d help her do some pretty mundane stuff like shopping. But we have to remember, Rea’s life was for from mundane in the first place. To her, getting zombiefied, is like granting her a second life to do all the things she wanted – to live a life of a normal girl.

Development ensues (or..does it?) when Chihiro and Rea share an intense moment (during a sunset at that). As if on cue, Ranko chimes in at a most crucial moment, knocking the two back to their senses. In an attempt to steer Ranko away from the house, Chihiro meets with Ranko outside, leaving a then-embarrassed Rea along in his room.

Left to her own devices (and with Chihiro trying to talk out his situation with Ranko, as well as with his two friends) Rea explores the empty Furuya household, and afterwards decides to take a bath. We learn here that she doesn’t feel temperature. Yet another symptom of her zombiefication. She also sees a loofah sponge for the first time, and assumes it’s use as a sort of “practice”. Apparently the Furuya household wasn’t as empty as she thought, when gramps walks in on her.

After a tussle with the confused old man Rea escapes into Chihiro’s room, where another problem awaits. Hours pass until Chihiro finally gets home and is welcomed by a full-rigor Rea lying on the floor. Rigor mortis is the term used to describe the stiffness of a body that had recently died (this usually last up to about 72 hours, before the body starts decomposing). Upon realizing this, Chihiro now faces a new set of troubling questions – will Rea start decaying? Does the potion’s effect wear off after a while? How does he prevent these symptoms?