Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 6) – It’s Because I… Ran Into You

Chihiro discovers that hydrangea leaves may hold the key to keeping Rea around, however, Grandpa reveals that they will maintain her personality, but they won’t stop the decay. He’s going to have to figure that out himself.

Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 6) – It’s Because I… Ran Into You

What happened?

At first, Ranko is worried about Chihiro hiding a runaway and how much trouble he’ll be in, especially considering how she’s wounded. That’s when she really puts it together – Rea is a zombie. Ranko grabs the first thing to hand, which happens to be Chihiro’s zombie alarm clock and throws it at him. She can’t believe he killed Rea for one of his twisted zombie experiments. While they’re fighting, Rea slips out the window!

Babu leads Rea to the hydrangeas and they begin to eat the leaves. Chihiro is surprised to see Rea’s eyes returning to normal. Could hydrangeas be the answer he’s been looking for? Unfortunately not. Grandpa arrives and tells him that they will keep Rea’s personality intact, they will not stop the decay. He never got that far with his experiments, so it’s up to Chihiro to solve that problem.

Of course, Chihiro’s father is curious as to why there’s a girl hiding in the hydrangeas. Chihiro asks him to let her live with them as she has nowhere else to go and he promised he would help her. Doon is delighted that his son has shown an interest in anything other than zombies and agrees to let her stay. The temple was originally built to house refugees so it’s perfect.

Chihiro is determined to find a way to save Rea so he begins a diary to track everything he notices. He even begins to film her daily. She’s not too happy about that. One evening, they go out for a walk as Rea needs to do some moderate exercise every day, plus the sunlight and heat increase the rate of decay.

As they head home, Chihiro almost steps in front of a speeding car, but Rea pulls him out of the way. With her strength, she flings him across the ground and manages to hurt him herself. She’s devastated and tries to check on him. She sees a graze on his elbow and licks it clean…

What did you think?

This series has some spectacular scenes that are full of vibrant colours and light that seem to contrast the melancholy of the moment. I particularly liked the moment that it showed Ranko and Rea looking at one another through the hydrangeas. Thankfully, Chihiro has finally caught on that the hydrangea leaves are important to Babu and Rea.

I liked this episode and felt like it gave us some great insight into all of the main characters without saying too much. A lot of it was portrayed in what they didn’t say and how they reacted to certain moments. Ranko was incredibly expressive. She seemed to be crushed at the revelation that Rea was moving in with the Furuyas. Even so, she brought her a change of clothes and was going to bring more. It looks like the childhood friend is destined to lose once more.

Finally, the scene where Rea was licking Chihiro’s wound after she saved him from the speeding car was excellent and had a real sense of dread to it. I loved how it showed that Chihiro was aware of the situation he had created and how tragic it all was. Ironically, this scene wasn’t in the manga. Almost everything else in the episode was.