Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 8) – Counterfeit… Freedom…

Rea is getting tired of Chihiro filming her every movement and demands that he treat her like a normal girl. He agrees but failed to realise that means shopping. Will it be safe to visit a public place like that?

Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 8) – Counterfeit… Freedom…

What happened?

All of Chihiro’s documenting hasn’t been a complete waste, although it seems to have become a way to openly perv at Rea. Anyhow, he’s learnt that she doesn’t sleep and since her body doesn’t sweat she doesn’t need showers, although takes them out of habit. She also doesn’t need to use the bathroom. He’s also seen Babu cough up a ball of hydrangea leaves and is curious if Rea will do the same.

However, enough is enough. Rea demands to be treated like a normal girl. There needs to be some sort of benefit to being subjected to the video camera constantly pointed in her direction. Chihiro agrees to take her to the mall to do some shopping and even agrees to pay for some new clothes. Now, he’s just got to survive the experience.

Meanwhile, Ranko visits the bathhouse during the day and discovers that it’s empty. She has the entire place to herself and it’s quite nice. Maybe a little too quiet though as there’s nothing to distract her from her thoughts. That was until Mero and her friends came in. Mero told Ranko that Chihiro had taken Rea shopping so she decides to hang out with them for the day.

At the mall, Rea finally picks an outfit. There’s some more shopping she’d like to do, but they should probably get some lunch first. Rea sits down to eat some hydrangea leaves while Chihiro gets himself some food. While he’s gone, three men approach Rea, but they are beaten to her by Chihiro’s best friend, Yasuda.

He tries to take Rea outside in the hopes of impressing her, however, the three men pounce on them and attempt to kidnap Rea. She fights them off with a concrete bench and is relieved when Chihiro finds them. However, the men then grab Chihiro and take him away. They had to fall back on plan B, but Danichiro is fine with that. He has a lot to discuss with Chihiro.

Sankarea Episode 8 Rea shopping with Chihiro

What did you think?

It was another fun and fairly easy-going episode. Chihiro is coming off as a real creep with his camera which seems unnecessary. He could just as easily record what Rea does without turning into a lecherous pervert and still get the same results. It’s definitely one of his character flaws along with not being able to read people. She was clearly uncomfortable, but he didn’t register it.

Ranko managed to get a little relaxation but it allowed her too much time to reflect on things and when she discovered that Chihiro had taken Rea shopping, she seemed delighted to have Mero and her friends to occupy her.

Apparently, in the manga, Mitsuru Hattori was asked to tone down Danichiro. He is definitely an overblown character but I think it works to show the difference between him and Chihiro, even though they end up doing the same thing to Rea. It goes to show that had Danichiro given Rea even a tiny bit of freedom, he could have avoided all this. Chihiro getting kidnapped was entirely his fault too. He seems to be completely unaware of the danger of anything.