Sankarea: Undying Love (Volume 9) - Lights, Camera, Resurrection!

Salva was defeated, leaving Chihiro and Rea to return home. Grandpa stayed behind to clean up his mess and promised to return to tell Chihiro everything. His current focus, however, is helped Rea remember!

Sankarea: Undying Love (Volume 9) – Lights, Camera, Resurrection!

What happened?

The zombie-mechanised owls swooped down and attacked grandpa. It looked like the end for him even with his body the way it is. However, Darin couldn’t stand by and do nothing. She threw her body on top of grandpa and tried to protect him. Luckily, she’d also had the foresight to reprogram Tora who stopped the other owls from attacking her. Salva was furious. So much so, that he failed to notice Rosalie stumbling towards him.

He turned at the last second and caught her head, however, when she punched him it tore off completely from Bub’s attack. Salva, still clutching Rosalie’s head, tumbled down into the whirlpool at the base of the facility. They were free to leave the island, although grandpa insisted on staying behind so he could clean up his mess. He promised Chihiro that he would return and fully explain himself.

Sankarea Volume 9 Rea and Chihiro memory attempts

Back home, Rea moved back into her house as she didn’t remember Chihiro and was certain he was a creepy stalker. Ranko, however, came up with a plan for them to attempt to help Rea recover her memories. They convinced Rea that she was a local pop idol and that Chihiro was the cameraman which was why he had video footage of her. They needed to record a new music video and went to the abandoned hotel in the hopes it would jog Rea’s memories.

They even reenacted the moment that Rea almost ate Chihiro. However, rather than awaken her memories, it just reminded her that she wanted to eat Chihiro. Luckily, Darin arrived and told them that Rea simply hadn’t been keeping up with her hydrangea leaf consumption. She quickly returned to the new normal and decided to move in with Darin who was giving school a chance.

Still upset that Rea didn’t remember him, Chihiro was surprised to receive a letter from grandpa, delivered by a zombie-mechanised owl. The letter told him to go to the place where they discovered the ice cave at their family camp. There he would find something that would explain everything! Grandpa wishes he could keep his promise, but fears he may not make it home.

In the ice cave, Chihiro found someone frozen in a block of ice. The message from grandpa told him to push it into a pool at the end of the cave and wait. Chihiro got scared and called Darin for help. She came and together they found a zombie that had been frozen in ice, but somehow regained full control once thawed. She claimed to be grandpa’s wife!

Sankarea Volume 9 Chihiro finds something in the ice cave

What did you think?

I’m not going to lie, I did not care for the idol segment with Rea one bit. I guess it seemed like a reasonable way to get her there and try to awaken her memories, but it really didn’t do much for me. I was also a little disappointed to see that the cliffhanger from the last book and the entire Salva situation was resolved in the first couple of pages.

However, this volume finished with an absolute banger. The woman in the ice turned out to be one of grandpa’s many wives. Just how old is he and what happened to Otoki that she was frozen and presumably thawed and refrozen several times? She’s like the creepy record keeper of grandpa’s life. Then, we had Rea going for a walk and what seemed like she was eating a bird. Could Rea be about to enter the final stage?

What have you learnt?

There are just two more volumes of this series and I’m bracing myself for a sad ending. It could be a happy ending, but I don’t feel like it will be. I’ve said it before but I can only see this ending when Rea dies for real or is somehow transformed back into a human. Her body is decaying and she will continue to lose control, especially if she can’t remember why she does some of the things she does. Now, this might mean a happy ending for Ranko, but I also feel like that won’t happen.

I think Rea will die and Chihiro will go with her. That’s going to be quite the downer, but that seems like the most likely ending. I can’t wait to see how that goes and whether any of my predictions come true. Anyhow, I think the next volume will likely be dedicated to grandpa’s life and that should provide a lot of answers, and I’m keen for them!