Subs by Commie
I’m pretty busy the following days with my exams so I’ve got a huge backlog on episodes to review. I don’t think I’ll finish another one today but hopefully I’ll have one done tomorrow which will probably be Accel World. Natsuiro Kiseki, Zettai Karen Children (lol, chapter 301 appeared out of nowhere) and Uchuu Kyoudai will come out sometime later.
Previously
By eating the leaves of that flower that keeps appearing, Rea can stay sane. She’s allowed to stay with Chihiro too. Ranko assumes that the two are dating.
About this episode
Now, after six episodes of torture, we finally find out Ranko’s back story, the thing everyone was waiting for. Well not exactly but we’re getting it anyways.
Some stuff isn’t making sense here. First of all, they’re cousins. Even at the age of three and four, the two don’t even know the other exists. There is some kind of explanation later on, that they live far away from each other, but I’m not buying it. Second of all I wonder why Ranko went to a graveyard that creeps her out in the first place. These two kids sure have terrible parents that let their three/four year-olds out unsupervised like that. Wow, Chihiro looked like a loser back then, more than now. It’s the round, chubby face that makes him look kind of frail and silly. We find out he’s right.
When watching Sankarea, be sure to be in a well-lit room at a good distance from the tv.
Oh, so you let your kid watch horror movies at that age too? His father doesn’t look like a bad guy but I guess he fails at parenting. Chihiro is already obsessed by zombie movies and I feel pretty sorry for Ranko throughout the episode. She’s not doing anything wrong but Chihiro doesn’t even try to do anything at all with her. All he wants to do is watch or read about zombies.
Are these two the same kids who pop up as Chihiro’s so-called friends? I’m not sure, their hair color matches.
Haha, the “girls are gross” age. Good old times. I was a few years older though but I think that every boy has a phase where playing with girls is discouraged or prohibited. Because all they do is dress barbies, adore horses and play house, you know? I’m not sure if the opposite is true too – do most girls also dislike boys at a certain age? Female readers, let me in on these dark secrets please.
Chihiro is of course not strong enough to stand up against these bullies so he runs away. Ranko’s comments are also darn funny, the way she describes Chihiro. It’s all true of course. She’s really disappointed in the person who she looked up to at first. The irony is of course that we can guess that Ranko likes or at least liked Chihiro despite all of this. Why she does beats me, she could get a way better guy.
We’re sent back to the present from the flashback. Or maybe a better way to describe it, we’re sent forwards in time. I wasn’t sure where exactly to place what was going on with the older Chihiro and Ranko until a bit later when Chihiro first mentioned Rea. So yeah, this is chronological, but Rea doesn’t appear in this episode so that’s why I was confused.
Never ask questions you don’t want to have answered.
I love the way Chihiro’s words can be interpreted so differently than he means them. “There’s a lot we don’t understand and it’s not stable yet.” or course describes Chihiro’s and Rea’s feelings for each other – there’s no way that he means her being a zombie or anything obscure like that.
I know that the “jealous friend who never gets a chick” character type has been used millions of times and that this scene is hardly original, but I love the dramatic music behind it. If you’d change the subtitles, I bet everyone would assume that this had a high dramatic value and people would get tears in their eyes from watching this.
He represents all of you viewers out there.
Somehow, this part was pretty funny. “Are you a hormone-driven weirdo?” “I am! And I’m proud of it!” almost seems to mock the entire trope rather than just this random guy.
Time to flash back to the past. Ranko moves close to Chihiro and has to spend time with him. I dunno, this part seemed pretty weak to me. Not only is it something that I’ve seen plenty of times but watching Chihiro be like that to Ranko was just painful to watch. He saved her and she falls in love with him (again). That’s all there is to it.
His past self would be so proud now…
Ranko awakens her inner tsundere. First she asks to hold his hand, then she becomes annoyed and lets go. Same story with her attempt to kiss. There should be something like a tsundere help line. Dial 311 and receive help or advice if you’re a victim of a rampaging tsundere. This would be so much more fair to all the poor boys in anime who have to deal with this somewhat annoying character type.
Ranko is the second character after Rea who shouts out her feelings. I don’t know why but for some reason I liked this scene. Maybe because of the good-looking background behind it? We now know all about Ranko’s relationship with Chihiro though. And I know that we all want a lot of girls to fall for our anime boys, but this is one of those anime where the love triangle isn’t very… well, deserved. I don’t think that Chihiro and Ranko fit together very well and Ranko seems to be a girl who shouldn’t have any problems getting a guy. I’m a big supporter of Chihiro x Rea. They make a good pair and there’s a legit reason for both of the characters to like the other: Chihiro was the person who got Rea out of her past hell and will do everything to make her have a “normal” life, while Rea is Chihiro’s zombie girlfriend that he always dreamt of.
This feels a lot better.
Rating: –
I don’t buy Ranko’s past. It just felt very sloppy and cliché. The fun thing was that Sankarea did its best to avoid too many clichés up till now but this episode was full of them. While I must admit that having Ranko’s character and her relationship to Chihiro explained is something that needed to happen (up till now her presence was kind of strange), I’m not so thrilled with this love triangle.
Semai Sekaide 