Sankarea - Episode 1

このゾンビがこんなに萌えわけがない

Sanka Rea <3
At first, I only planned to watch this show due to its seemingly interesting story. And although this is still the case after the first episode, I have found a new reason to watch the show as well. I'm going to go ahead and say it now: Sanka Rea is bound to be one of the most moe characters of the season (barring any physical/personality changes if she becomes a zombie). Her "nice body" and undeniably cute personality instantly captivated me. Honestly, I'd be fine with a slice-of-life anime (i.e. without the zombies) focusing on her relationship with Chihiro. But then again, that'd just make the series another typical teenage romance. So, in the end, having her turn into a zombie (i.e. diverging from the path of typical romance stories) will most likely increase the chances of the series' success.

I felt the episode set-up the plot quite nicely. You have a girl who's tired of living her current, seemingly luxurious life to the point where she wants to die and be reborn as someone else, and a boy who's obsessed with zombies and resurrection of the dead. A fateful encounter brings the two together, creating a starting point for the rest of the series to follow. What makes things so interesting is that the idea of "zombies" is integrated differently than usual. Instead of the typical post-apocalyptic world where people are scrambling to survive and escape from a zombie invasion, Sankarea showcases Chihiro's desire to interact with zombies - even to the point of having a romantic relationship with one. Now, normally, that'd be utterly disturbing since the commonly accepted image of a zombie is far from pleasant. But when you throw in someone who's as beautiful as Sanka Rea (someone who wants to, and most likely will, become one of the living dead) into into the role of "zombie", everything changes drastically. All of a sudden, it doesn't seem all that bad for a human boy to be in love with a zombie girl. This unique usage of zombies as a plot device is what makes Sankarea interesting, in my opinion.

As an aside, the first episodes comes with OP and ED analysis.
OP: I have been a fan of nano.RIPE's songs since they performed the OPs for Hanasaku Iroha. The singer's unique voice is what distinguishes their music from other bands. Not surprisingly, Sankarea's OP is another moderately fast-paced song with good usage of various musical instruments.
ED: Annabel's most recent theme song performance was for Another's ED. Sankarea's ED was similar in terms of tempo and the softness of the vocals so it wasn't too hard to guess that she was singing it. I find it fits well to the overall theme of the series.