Sankarea 1

Alright, Zombie Moé is now the hot new trend. Based on a popular manga, Sankarea has lots of fans to answer to. For the most part it does well to meet those expectations. For those coming in cold, there are promises of enough dark twists and turns to keep you glued to your screen.

Furuya is a boy obsessed with zombies. How obsessed? He loves zombie movies, buys zombie figurines and props, and wishes to one day fall in love with a cute zombie girl. Yeah. One day, his cat dies. After a brief moment of grief, Furuya decides to resurrect his dead cat as a zombie. Sanka Rea, a popular girl whose father is the principal of the school, has some deep dark secrets. To vent her frustrations, she goes to an abandoned building and shouts into a well. Furuya, secretly performing the resurrection at that same building, overhears Rea's dark family secret: Her father takes nude photos of her every year to "track her growth". It is over this secret that the two start to bond and open up a little to each other. Furuya even teases her about helping him test his zombie potion. Little did he know, that little tease might come back to haunt him...

The main character is weird, but at least he has some personality and isn't a straight-up pervert like almost all male leads these days. Rea, on the other hand, will drive all the drama and mystery of the series. I did read a  little bit of the manga which, while interesting, wasn't very engaging. The anime adaptation fixes that with a slightly better main character and gorgeous visuals, but that might be just my own preference. I was quite surprised that Studio Deen could do such awesome backgrounds, character designs, and animation, but with   2 experienced animators on board as Chief Animation Director, things are looking optimistic. Also, best ED of the season so far.