J-jeez, i-i-it's n-not like I w-want you to read th-this or anything, b-baka~

Well, this series took a dark turn really quickly. While those who have been keeping up with the manga wouldn’t have been surprised, it’s just…I dunno. I guess I expected another week of kawaii zombie desk ca-I mean cute zombie movie watching by Rea and Furuya (along with more cleavage shots), but oh well. Onwards to the review!

PLOT (with a splash of grimdark)

Sankarea, starring Andrew Garfield and produced by Marvel Entertainment.

This week’s Sankarea gives us a rather grim view of Rea’s home life. By home I actually mean “prison” and by life I actually mean “being molested by her dad”. I wish I was kidding but that’s actually what this episode is about, Rea’s years of abuse at the hands of her father.

I hope I don't get arrested for posting this.

The manga does mention the fact that Rea’s father has been taking pictures of her naked under the pretext of “measuring her growth”, but if I recall it was played off as more of a gag. While her father is overbearing and restrictive and a bit of a creep in the manga, it pales in comparison to the depiction in the anime. Part of it is us seeing this from Rea’s POV and hearing her inner thoughts about her father…and the other part is because his creepiness was cranked up to eleven for this episode.

Pretty much this.

Anyway, we find out that Rea’s father is actively making sure her friends aren’t in a position to help her by literally taking away their jerbs. I wonder, if we struck him down would he become more powerful that we can possibly imagine?

Rea-chan contemplating patricide.

The rest of the episode deals with the use of hydrangea plants in an (ultimately successful) attempt to resurrect Babu, childhood cousinfriend Wanko makes her obligatory (but ultimately futile) appearance, and we get a CLIFFHANGER END.

THOUGHTS AND FEELS

Hmmm hmmm hmmmmmm~

First things first, Rea’s voice is really growing on me. I had some doubts at first with the casting but her voice, while not extraordinary, does fit her role quite well. The SHAFT imagery, while not as apparent as it was in episode 01, is still present (i.e. where the hell did that bowling ball come from, anyway?). The little details with Rea’s limping (and the accompanying sounds) are a nice touch. We also begins to see the flowering of Rea and Furuya’s beautiful pure and innocent relationship.

Be still, my heart.

Furuya’s zombie girl fetish isn’t as apparent as it was in the last episode; he’s caring for her more as a person than some maiden he’s hoping to turn into the undead. But of course, with the direction this show is going…

Be gentle, i-it's my first time~

But let us go back to the subject of Rea’s father, the real focus of this episode. Note the following screencap:

That entire scene was something I did not expect from a shounen show.

There’s a rather disconcerting sense of submission here, with a girl towards her father no less. Maybe I’m reading too deeply into this, but I have a feeling the wide gap between the two are no accident either.

I’ll be honest, there were times during the episode where I felt uncomfortable at some of the scenes and imagery. A mild sense of unease is perhaps more accurate, but I do have to commend Studio DEEN from turning the gag-oriented source material to something a lot more serious. Rea’s father’s change from a comic background villain skulking about to one who is shown proactively doing rather illegal activities is rather jarring. Combined with the lighting and music during the molestation scenes and you’ve got something that’s about as dark as shounen will get. I’m fairly certain if Hiroaki Samura wrote this piece of work, we’d be about five rape scenes the richer by now.

Alternatively, this is Sankarea as envisioned by Da Hootch.

In any case, this series has both surprised and pleased me by its quality. The tone may have shifted to something darker than what I expected, but the way that it was executed was top notch, props to DEEN for that. And judging by the end of the episode and the preview, shit gonna be goin’ down next week.

"Is daddy gone?"

Come back next week for more dysfunctional familial hijinks!