Rea Sanka

Rea is the female lead of the series. She is the deuteragonist, following Chihiro as the protagonist. She is the daughter of Dan'ichirō Sanka and Aria Sanka, but her biological mother died right after she was born. She currently resides in the Furuya Residence at the temple. Currently, she suffers from amnesia as a result of having some of her braincells unwillingly removed, although it seems like she subconsciously starts to remember as of chapter 44/45.

Appearance

Rea is a young girl who has long black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. She has a slender figure. After her zombification her skin becomes almost entirely white and her eyes become a crimson red. She is described as 'beautiful' by her Father and boys in Shiyou Boys High School. Placed diagonally on her belly is the long scar that she received from the cliff-drop that killed her. She was murdered by her father. She bears striking resemblances from her unnamed mother.

Personality

Rea is quite friendly, especially to those at the shrine, but often suffers from indecision and hesitance to act in social situations due to her sheltered upbringing. She is shown to be extremely naive, needing more clarification to pick up on wordplay and some sensitive topics than most everyone else in the series. She lacks knowledge of the outside world due to her father having kept her sheltered inside the mansion most of her life. Overall, she is a gentle young girl who wishes only to live a normal life and be happy with her friends and family (though in the case of her family, that goal is portrayed as being much harder to achieve than she can handle, leading her to despair.) If her goal of achieving a normal life can't be reached then she would rather just end her own life than continue on.

Abilities

Rea's zombification stopped most of her body's vital organs, changing her skin color into a pale white. Her irises are blood red instead of the deep blue they were when Rea was alive. Also, her body's physical limit was broken, granting her increased strength and endurance; due to this, Rea can easily down an opponent, lift objects about three times her weight, and shatter chains. It was stated by Chihiro in the series' OVA that using this new strength, while it may be impressive, can put a huge strain on her body's muscles. A body builder

However, her body is still a corpse and she will undergo decomposition as time passes. To prolong the effects of the resurrection potion, Rea must regularly consume hydrangea leaves, as the leaves' poison was used to resurrect her. The leaves allow her to retain her human mind and consciousness and slows down the decaying process, but cannot stop it completely. Lastly, her nervous system has been shut down, making her mostly unable to feel temperature and pain. Strangely however, she cannot run faster because she still feels exhaustion, ironically she also can't sweat. Apparently, she is able to communicate with Babu, who is a zombie himself, even though he is also a cat.

Synopsis

Rea steals and drinks some of the zombie potion made by Chihiro in an attempt to commit suicide because of her closed-off and irregular life. However, she fails in the attempt but instead is resurrected as a zombie after accidentally falling to her death from a cliff.

She likes Chihiro very much, but feels that her presence is intruding or putting strain on Chihiro's and Ranko's relationship. She also seems to have a connection with Bābu, which Chihiro notes could be a telepathic communicative trait between zombies. She's also quite physically strong as her body is no longer restrained by her brain as a result of her death.

Rea is revealed to be a new, special case of zombification similar to that of Chihiro's mother. Instead of losing her humanity, her love for certain things (such as Chihiro) turns the zombie's stereotypical hunger for flesh into a lust which causes a state of "Eater Confusion". After Rea tries to eat Chihiro out of lust at festival, she runs away and is tracked down at the abandoned hotel when Chihiro awakes two days later. She attempts to seal herself away in the well but Chihiro drags her out, and she once again attempts to eat him due to the Eater Confusion status. With his dying words, Chihiro confesses to Rea which returns her humanity in time for her to protect him from the collapsing roof.

While on Zoma Island, Rea was given brain surgery that took a large portion of her memories. In an attempt to rejog her memory, Chihiro and Ranko reacted the night Rea tried to eat him. While this doesn't bring back memories, but does put her back into the confused eater state. Shortly afterwards, Darin threw hydrangea leaves at her and brought her back to her normal state.

Relationships

Dan'ichirō Sanka

Dan'ichirō is the overprotective father of Rea. His love for his daughter is almost incestuous, （due to his daughter‘s resemblance to his first wife and mother of Rea, who died after Rea was born）and has a habit of taking naked pictures of her on her birthdays. He has allergies to animals and is a clean freak. He has sheltered Rea for all her life, forbid her from touching animals because "it will taint her" and keeps a close watch on her friends. Rea feels pressured as a result. He gives Rea very little freedom and initially did not consider Rea's feelings. After being convinced by Chihiro about Rea's desire to live a life of a normal girl, he accepts Chihiro as Rea's protector. He also warned Chihiro that there should be no "sexual intercourse before marriage" possibly hinting that he accepts Chihiro as a man for his daughter. He later decides to leave for the United States, to find a way to cure Rea

Aria Sanka

Aria is Rea's stepmother. She used to be a maid for Dan'ichirō and was trained under a long-standing tradition in the Sanka family that future heirs are to marry the best of the maids. Dan'ichirō however met and married Rea's mother which he loved dearly until her death while giving birth to Rea. Although Dan'ichirō married Aria, he does not give her real attention and instead dotes on Rea, which has made their relationship a strained one at best. She secretly despises Rea due to how she's loved by everyone. However, as of episode 14 she appears to finally be softening on her daughter. After she, Rea, and Furuya have a strange shard dream; she removes the punishments she had put on Rea at school and stopped harassing her.

Chihiro Furuya

He promised Rea that he'd take responsibility if she becomes a Zombie. After Rea moved to his residence he conducts research on preserving Rea's body on a tent in his own room. He wants his first kiss to be given by a female zombie which he experienced first hand when Rea kissed him due to lack of the herb used for the potion. He also experienced becoming a half-zombie, revealed after being stabbed by Dan'ichirō with a fencing sword. This is due to him being bitten by Rea after the kiss (although the effects were only temporary). He also enjoys seeing Rea dressed as a Bunny Girl or a Nurse. Despite the fact that he's not interested in living girls, he managed to fall in love with Rea when she was still alive, and confesses to her while Rea tries to devour him, which brings her to her senses. He tries to approach to her, however has difficulties given the incident and Rea's own embarrassment.

Trivia

Her name has the same pronouciation as the name of the series.
Like many other anime girls (and some guys), Rea entered Saimoe Contests.
- To see her result, visit here: http://saimoe.wikia.com/wiki/Sanka_Rea
In chapter 32, it is revealed that Rea can speak fluent English.
When Jogoro calls Rea , "Sada" , Everyone thought Sada is just a made up person (due to Jogoro being senile) , but in truth Sada is Jogoro's first wife, and she resembles Rea in many ways such as the black hair, eyes, and height.
she was mistaken for Chihiro's and Mero's deceased mother, due to her pale skin, dark hair, kind desposition and inability to feel temperature.