Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 1) – Once I… Become a… Zombie

Chihiro is just an average high school guy who happens to love zombies… well, if loving zombies means wanting a zombie girlfriend is average, then sure! Hang on, you mean it’s not normal?

Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 1) – Once I… Become a… Zombie

What happened?

So, Chihiro loves zombies. He loves everything about them and bizarrely dreams of having a zombie girlfriend. It’s such a crazy idea, it’ll most likely never happen. That was until Chihiro’s cat, Babu was run over and died. Distraught with grief, Chihiro decided to take matters into his own hands. Along with a strange handwritten guide that he found while cleaning out a relative’s books, he intends to reanimate Babu.

However, there is one page that has been damaged so much it’s unreadable. All he knows is that he needs a poisonous plant so he’s going to try them all. Then, one night, while running experiments at an abandoned hotel, he hears a girl outside. She’s screaming! What could be wrong?

Chihiro learns that she is Rea Sanka, the heiress to the Sanka family which also runs the Sanka Girl’s Academy which is located across the river from his school. She seems happy during the day, but he’s seen otherwise.

The next night, Rea returns to the hotel to scream into the well once more, but this time she mentions something that catches Chihiro off-guard and he accidentally reveals himself. Rather than thinking he’s crazy, Rea wants to help him revive Babu. If it works, maybe she’ll even become his zombie girlfriend!

Sankarea Episode 1 Rea Sanka makes Chihiro Furuya an offer

What did you think?

I’ve decided to rewatch this series as I’ve just acquired the manga. The first time around, I was a little indifferent to the series, but being a zombie fan myself, although not to the level of Chihiro, I figured it was worth revisiting. So, far, I’m glad I did. There are things that I’m picking up on that I didn’t notice the first time around and I think there’s a lot to examine with the characters. For example, Chihiro. Maybe, his desire to have a zombie girlfriend is more about creating an unattainable prize so that he will not be disappointed when he doesn’t get an actual girlfriend.

I’m looking forward to working my way back through the series and comparing things to the manga. Also, back when I watched it the first time, I did a series of collaboration posts discussing the episodes with Yomu from the Umai Yomu Anime Blog. Those posts have since come off the internet when I rebuilt this site. Well, I’m going to bring them back to further compliment my dive into Sankarea: Undying Love!