Creative Staff
Story/Art: Mitsuru Hattori
Translation/Adaptation: Lindsey Akashi
What They Say
MY DECOMPOSING GIRLFRIEND
Now a zombie living with Chihiro, Rea’s enjoying her freedom from her father, going out shopping by herself. And their relationship begins to blossom, with Chihiro fulfilling his dream of a zombie kiss! But there are bigger things to worry about… like how quickly Rea’s undead body is going to start falling apart, and what insane lengths her father will go to in order to get her back!
The Review! (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Content:
A ton of stuff happened in the first volume and now Rea is hiding out at Chihiro’s house; well, his room to be exact. It isn’t like a teenage boy can bring home a girl and say, ‘Hey Dad, this chick is going to be living with us and staying in my room. Okay, thanks, let us know when dinner is ready’. At this point, Chihiro has a lot to do and figure out, like keeping Rea hidden and finding a way to slow down the rotting of her corpse. Add to all that the fact that Rea’s dad will probably come gunning for him too.
And queue Ranko! I really like characters like Ranko, girls that are boisterous (and busty!) and go after what they want. In this case, Ranko is in love with her cousin Chihiro, so it doesn’t take a psychic to see the eventual development of a love triangle between them and Rea. Although, since both girls obviously like him, will either of them be willing to back off and let the other girl develop a relationship with him? But for now, Chihiro has to worry about the immediate problem of convincing Ranko to keep Rea’s secret and figuring out what to feed his zombie girlfriend. Usually, the zombie thing involves eating human flesh; or brains depending on the zombie school of thought you prefer.
That issue aside, Rea’s dad is rich and spoiled, so it doesn’t take long before he sends thugs out to kidnap Rea and bring her back. Things get crazy, but eventually they both end up back in her father’s clutches. Cosplay and sword fights ensue, and people make surprising decisions before this volume is up. Will Rea die to protect Chihiro from her dad? (Oh wait, she’s already dead…) Will Chihiro stand up to Mr. Sanka and fight for Rea’s happiness? Pick up this volume to find out!
In Summary
I still think Sankarea is a cool take on the zombie genre, and I’m curious to see how the author is going to move forward as Rea inevitably begins to rot. Will she just have some blemishes over a few volumes that she uses cover up makeup to hide? Or will her hair start falling out right away and maybe even body parts like fingers just start popping off? There are a lot of ways this story could progress, especially when you consider that at some point she is going to develop a taste for human flesh. This is a zombie story, after all.
I have watched the anime to see how it compared to it’s source material. I think it is interesting that eleven episodes of the first season only covered the first two volumes of the manga. I wonder how much Mitsuru Hattori had in way of input in the anime story for all the ‘extra’ fleshing out of characters. The biggest difference between the two media is the expansion on the history of Rea’s father and stepmother the anime received. I thought it was cool to see the events that made Rea’s dad the weirdo he is, and it definitely gave her stepmother a chance to appear more human and show why she acts the way she does. So, was that fleshing out of their characters something that will be revealed in later volumes of the manga? Maybe, considering there are eight volumes already released in Japan. So get cracking Kodansha Comics because I want more Sankarea!
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: August 27th, 2013
MSRP: $10.99
