As Sankarea proceeds onward to the ending, a conclusion still obscure and uncertain, one shouldn’t overlook the girl in the middle – the busty cousin of our protagonist with a name based after furry animals.
It’s worthwhile to question the role of this character who sits in a position seemingly sorrowful.
She can do little but watch as her love passes by her, as regardless of what action she takes, it’s doubtful he’d fall for her – and it’s not simply this, yet she also hasn’t much importance to the life of the protagonist any more. As is stated by the fellow’s father in the imouto episode, our leading male has recently gained more independence and responsibility – and with his interests fixed on Sanka Rea, she’s essentially getting slowly erased from significance.
Furuya is sure to care about Wanko – although to what degree, that is a mystery.
Like all of us are more than likely to already know, while Wanko may have a crush on her cousin, he likes Rea more – the zombie girl who forced herself upon this otherwise average yet odd highschooler with a perverse fetish for rotted corpses and all relevant horror material.
Chasing a childish dream, the protagonist claims to place his eyes only on girls of the undead. Yet even though Chihiro’s vehemently set on that concept – Wanko is still a competitor in this affair of love. Now versus Sanka Rea, she won’t stand much a chance even if she explicitly shared her feelings with her interest of romance – yet assume that something happens to Sanka Rea, or rather, eliminate her from the hypothetical equation entirely. If one thinks of it then, Wanko certainly seems to have potential in her favor.
Yet as it stands, the zombie bishoujo is as lively as ever – and thus, as Chihiro begins to take care of Rea, Wanko merely follows the expected path of jealousy. Though even with this, she’s simply too kind and modest, despite how energetic and highly reactive and she may seem at times, to be able to make any further assertive progression than that which we’ve seen her employ in her background episode.
She’s aware that she loses out to Sanka Rea – even if confidently assuring herself otherwise.
However, it’s the very manner in which she’s driven out of the limelight that makes her a character quite intriguing. The series introduced her early on, she’s outgoing and certainly brightens up many a scene, and the anime continues to center focus around her – thus, while she’s being shoved from Furuya’s circle of attention, she’s still holding a solid spot in the series. And as she becomes cognizant of her losing position, knowing that she hasn’t hope of victory against Sanka Rea, her personality hasn’t twisted at all – she’s not turned vile or crazy.
Wanko isn’t becoming spiteful or angry, she’s jealous, yet she’s holding herself together quite commendably – she’s simply turned to face the other cheek after being met with a personal worst case scenario, and she’s somehow sustaining a relevance on the sidelines.
In a more elaborate story, this would imply that Wanko still has a greater role which remains unfulfilled – as for what Sankarea will deliver, that is something which is still to be seen. Failure would mean that the cousin ultimately subsides from the story, losing all substance – and this would be a downfall for the reason that she’s already so deeply integrated as is, not to mention, her fire is still kindling as aforementioned.
And so turning to consider what the finale can hold for this ample chested bishoujo with a heart as fragile as a puppy, Sankarea’s likely possibilities include an open route ending in which nothing is finalized – something which wouldn’t see us in a situation any different than we are now. Yet there’s also two definite choices which could be achieved, or rather, three – the first being that Furuya could settle on Sanka Rea, admitting his love for her, and that would probably result in a calamity for the cousin.
Secondly, Furuya has gotten himself too involved with promises to ever dare set aside Sanka Rea – thus, so long as she’s alive, the cousin would not receive her way. Yet going back to a subject earlier mentioned, assume that Sanka Rea finally turns to dust, or some other unfortunate incident occurs – if such a thing did happen, there’d be plenty going on, however the cousin would have an opening, and this should be recognized as a possibility of the many.
Lastly however, assume that Furuya makes no choice, or denies them all – dull as that would be, certainly no reason one should be surprised to see it if such did happen.
Whatever the outcome, the cousin has a distinctive position in it all – she will either be a character superbly utilized as per a drastic point in the story, or she won’t amount to much. And if the cousin doesn’t achieve anything, the series is similarly less likely to succeed as well – as once again, she’s sitting in the center of it all.
Jun 13, 2012 @ 23:52 CDT
Aside from Wanko – I hope Rea never dies out. Becoming a zombie herself is difficult – of course, Chihiro has to take care of Rea at all cost. I’m sure he doesn’t want her to decay and rot away. As for Wanko, there’s no reason for her to be jealous.
Why in the world would the cousin would be jealous of Chihiro? I mean look at this way, ever since Rea has fallen, thanks to her lame father, right when she fell down, she was alive. From that moment, she saw Chihiro and begs him to take care of her. [ Before all this happens, she drank the potion ]
Once Rea is resurrected, it is Chihiro’s duty to protect her, and of course, Wanko now knows she’s a zombie.
I don’t see why Wanko wants him so much even if they’re cousins and childhood friends. I believe that Chihiro is doing what’s best for Rea.
Jun 13, 2012 @ 23:58 CDT
I think Wanko is justified in her love for her foolish cousin – though yes, I think there’s no reason for her to be jealous either. If she likes him, she needs to say something.
She could also just become a zombie herself – this could turn into a zombie harem anime, see how that goes.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 0:06 CDT
That would be intresting – zombie harem anime. Though it is a good idea, in my opinion, harem anime sometimes ruins everything – with harem genre, it would be a failure. Lucky this anime isn’t harem.
Anyways, I want to thank Mero the imouto. Why can’t Wanko be like her? Minding her own business. Wanko should just help her clean the house while Chihiro takes care of Rea.
Thank you Mero for being such a good little imouto and thank you for minding your own business! Make sure you keep the house clean as well! Cheers to Mero!
Jun 14, 2012 @ 0:24 CDT
If she minded her own business, she wouldn’t be in the anime.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 1:01 CDT
I’m not really too sure on why Ranko even likes Chihiro in the first place. I don’t think I would fall in love with every squirt who lead me out of a graveyard, or shooed (is that a word?) a dog away. Especially not if the squirt was as anti-social as Chihiro was as a kid.
That’s not the kind of actions that could generate feelings for him that last over 10 years.
Actually, in the first place, do 7 years olds even know how to like other people? Back then I still thought girls were icky.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 1:10 CDT
The reason I think Rankowanko’s love for Furuyo is justified is that this series isn’t particularly sharp to begin with – though relative comparatives aside, she’s not been shown to hang out with many people.
She likely does have a fair amount of friends – though I assume that from when she met the dork protagonist, just by spending an extended amount of time with him, she by nature came to like him, even if for no reason other than she spent an excess amount of time with him.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 11:13 CDT
Talk about an easy pick up for Chihiro. Ah, if only I could live the life of a protagonist.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 1:47 CDT
The show is almost over – too little time remaining to resolve the current kidnapping arc and tie up everything, especially when the manga is still ongoing. Maybe a second cour is in the offing?
Wanko is only the competition for Rea, and a healthy alternative for Chihiro, but alas – he isn’t giving up his fetish for cold, clammy skin any time soon.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 7:05 CDT
Indeed, either they have to go with a second season – or this is this will end in a rushed or irrelevant mess. Yet assuming they did make a second season, that wouldn’t exempt this first from being recognized as what it is.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 7:48 CDT
The studio has a thing for zombies…the vampire of 2012 :P
Meaning they have 6 months to introduce some more zombie fanservice into the mix before the craze dies
Jun 14, 2012 @ 8:15 CDT
So in other words, they’ve failed.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 8:42 CDT
Well you can’t say they “failed” to create another zombie series without a plot. They followed it correctly but they don’t even know what the end product is going to be yet.
Ofc they can cut it short like Korezom as well and attempt to leave it on a minor high as a cushion for their next project. Hopefully they`ll learn to lean off the undead for a while. Seriously, was Princess Resurrection not enough?
Jun 14, 2012 @ 8:47 CDT
You are correct – they probably thought if they emulate enough SHAFT tactics, it might come off as an original and spectacular series.
The difference in Kore wa Zombie being disrupted however is that it still managed to be amazing – with a rather solid conclusion considering the nature of the series. Sankarea went from heavy plot, to something about cousins and little sisters – and then further to a man with dementia and how he doesn’t have sex with his wife. Even if the stage was set for a second season, it’d not be something I’d choose to watch.
Jun 14, 2012 @ 8:55 CDT
I wish there wasn’t a second season at all. The anime is good and popular, there should have been at least 26 episodes to begin with. I just want to see how it ends already!