Sankarea: Undying Love (Episodes 6 & 7) – Love Triangle?

This is a repost of a series that Lynn and I did back in 2019! The posts alternate between Lynn’s blog – OtakuAuthor.com, and here.

Lynn is also currently going through the Sankarea manga series on his site, so if you’re interested, check out those posts as well!

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Lynn and I are back with more zombie girlfriend mayhem from the zomromcom Sankarea! A story about a boy and his love for zombies. What could go wrong?

The Fun Continues…

We’re back with another discussion of Sankarea, this time looking at episodes 6 and 7. This time around, the two episodes we are looking at were quite different, with episode 6 focusing more on zombie Rea, and episode 7 focusing more on Ranko. I was surprised to see the anime devote an entire episode to Ranko, seeing as she isn’t a zombie, or a girlfriend! We can come back to episode 6 after, but what were your thoughts on the Ranko episode Lynn? Seeing as she’s your girl for the series haha.

I was a little surprised that Ranko got a whole episode, but I feel like they’ve been building her up as a love rival from the first episode so not overly. Unfortunately, all that episode did was prove how awesome Ranko is and what a clueless self-centered dork Chihiro is. I still don’t see what she sees in him, even with saving her from a dog. I felt like the episode got a little jumbled with all the flashbacks. There was the point where Chihiro was working in the kitchen at Ranko’s restaurant and I wasn’t sure whether we were back in the now or whether this was before Rea became a zombie.

Yeah! I couldn’t believe what a jerk young Chihiro was. So what if he grew up at the local shrine and didn’t have many friends? No excuse to treat his cousin like she doesn’t exist. I feel like he’s a little better now, but he still whines and complains too much I think. Ranko has done too much for him to deserve his complaints. That said, maybe this is an argument for why he should settle for a zombie girlfriend. Live women are just too good for someone like Chihiro. Plus, Rea sees him as a hero, after he helped her to be free from her father.

Ha! Chihiro the accidental saviour. He has improved, but not massively. Like you say, he whines too much and is oblivious to pretty much everything that isn’t spelt out to him. And what was that face when Ranko went to kiss him. Move on, Ranko. Find a decent guy!

Should we just bash Chihiro for the entire post? Haha.
But yeah, he’s lucky to have anyone at all interested in him, zombie included.

He didn’t even manage to figure out the purpose of the hydrangea leaves! Zombie Rea ended up just jumping outside and eating them on her own. Chihiro really is useless isn’t he? What are the chances the guy actually figures out the secret to keeping Rea’s zombie body preserved?

It’s funny you say that, I was just thinking all this bashing and we haven’t even discussed the Rea episode… Yeah, and even once Rea had shown him that she needed to eat the hydrangea leaves, he still needed his grandfather to have a rare moment of clarity to explain it to him again. This then brings me to my next gripe, although this one is at the writers.

So, Chihiro’s grandfather had just been a bit handsy with Ranko and it cleared his dementia. He was able to talk to Chihiro about how to maintain the zombie body but before he could finish his sentence Ranko hit him with a plant pot or something. Now, that would have made sense if she’d done it straight away, but not after listening to him tell Chihiro what he knew. It was a deliberate act by the writers to not reveal too much to the viewer and it wasn’t done with any finesse.

You know I thought that was odd myself, the timing of when Ranko threw the plant at him. Like you mention, it’d make sense if Ranko hit him right away, or while he was acting perverted – but instead she throws it to him while he has been standing there and talking to Chihiro for a decent amount of time. I never thought of it the way you just mentioned, but that makes complete sense, and it does seem a bit lazy on the writers’ part.

But at least we’ve learned something new, that the hydrangea leaves alone are not enough to keep zombie Rea “alive”. If Chihiro was smart (he isn’t) he would just observe his grandfather, who is clearly a zombie himself. His grandfather must be doing something aside from just eating the leaves that is keeping him going.

Agreed, it was nice that it wasn’t a complete fix all. There are still some glaring questions that it also failed to answer. For example why did Rea rip open Ranko’s shirt and lick her chest? How was that not a topic of discussion? Why did zombie Rea kiss Chihiro? Are zombies just horny? All of these are valid questions that I feel we deserve an answer to. It was, however, a nice twist that Rea didn’t remember anything from when she was like that. I worry for Rea’s future, but as with everything else she’s going to have to do it herself. We can’t rely on Chihiro to come up with anything, at least not intentionally anyhow.

Plus the anime hinted at something else going on with Rea, did you notice how her pupils diluted for a moment when she licked Chihiro’s scraped arm? And the music was all ominous too. I wonder if blood has any effect on Rea..

I hadn’t noticed her eyes with the blood part, but picked up on the music. I thought that maybe it was more for her father’s butler who was driving by, but you could by right. I’m still waiting for the full on zombie outbreak…

Too many questions! I’m hoping the anime gives us some answers to these questions, because if we don’t, I’ll be fairly disappointed.

Let’s wrap this up with two final questions – what was your favourite moment from the two episodes, and do you have any concluding thoughts?

My favourite moment was when Ranko and Chihiro’s dad were talking about what a useless bum he was and that hopefully Ranko could install some sort of work ethic into him. Even funnier when Chihiro asked he had any say in it and both instantly said no and carried on their conversation. See, we’re not the only ones to have noticed.

I’m looking forward to seeing Rea’s parents again, more for her mother… although I’m sure it’s going to be her delightful father that’s going to turn everything on its head. We’ve had a couple of episodes of reflection. Now, we need some action.

I think you’re right – Rea’s father is going to step in soon.

As for me, my favourite moment was Chihiro’s evening walk with zombie Rea. It’s the first time we really get to see the two interact after she became a zombie, and she manages to act super cute despite the whole zombie thimg!

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And that just about does it for this post!

Thanks for joining us in this collab, and we’ll be back again in our next post covering episodes 8 & 9 on Lynn’s blog!

• Sankarea Collab
  • Episode 1 – An Anime ZomRomCom!
  • Episodes 2-3 – A Real Stand-Up Guy!
  • Episodes 4-5 – Zombies like Boobs!
  • Episodes 6-7 – Love Triangle?
  • Episodes 8-9 – Cliffhanger Interruptus!
  • Episodes 10-11 – Family Bonding Time!
  • Episodes 12-13 – Tease of the Dead

Stay tuned!

Until next time,
Thanks for reading!