GuiltyKing said: *patiently waiting for the synopsis*
Although you've already got my interest with that short summary there.
Sorry for the delay. Real Life tends to get in the way of Manga Life at this time of year. In any event, here it is:
Sankarea 36 -
Darlene started to help her father with his zombie research when she was six years old. He taught her how to use rotary saws to cut through bone and take samples. He warned her not to tell her classmates at school what she was doing. Her father looked like a normal guy at the time and he would praise Darlene as she worked with him. Darlene enjoyed this attention and was very happy.
When Darlene was older – probably a pre-teen – she went with her father to the zombie island where she first met Chihiro's grandfather Boyle. Darlene's father wanted to join the Boyle's research team and he introduced Darlene as his assistant. Chihiro's grandfather was shocked when he saw how young Darlene was and he asked where her mother was. Darlene's father replied that he and Darlene's mother were divorced. Boyle looked very unhappy. But from then on Darlene was a junior researcher in Boyle's lab.
We next see a slightly older Darlene, wearing a bikini, sitting under a sun umbrella, reading a ZoMA tablet, and rubbing with her heels the small of the back of Boyle who lays in the sand in front of her wearing a thong. Boyle asks why Darlene is at the island where there isn't anyone her age. Darlene replies that she has a pet and that she can study zombies, so she isn't bothered. Darlene tells Boyle that after her parents split up her father became more and more immersed in his work and so by becoming his assistant she could get more attention from him.
We go forward to another day when a young freshly dead girl is brought in. Her father sees the girl, calls her “Rosalie”, and from then on became even more obsessed with zombies and started to pay even less attention to Darlene. Darlene remembers watching her father dote over the little girl zombie and be much more affectionate to her than to Darlene. This started to bother Darlene more and more, so one time when her father was away on a business trip she started to look into his papers to try to find a reason for his obsession.
At the bottom of a drawer Darlene found an old diary. In it was a sketch of two kids – the taller one with the name in English “Rosalie” over it and the smaller one with the word in English “me” over it. This was her father's diary from when he was a kid. It starts out with him writing that the next door neighbor “Rosalie onee-chan” took away his “toys” again. He wrote that he was just taking out the “batteries” from the “toys”, but Rosalie told him that he shouldn't do things like that to living creatures.
Rosalie told him that if he continued to do things like that he would become a criminal and go to prison. So he apologied and promised not to do it again. But one winter's day he was out in the woods with a rifle and he saw a fox that he wanted to shoot. Just then Rosalie came up from behind him and tried to grab the rifle away from him. They struggled, and then there was a shot.
Darlene looked up with horror on her face. Boyle walked in at that point and commented on her reading the diary. He mentioned that Darlene's father was a confused boy who wanted to help people get well. The accident probably caused him to become who he was as an adult and that in some way his obsession with zombies was due to the fact that he couldn't revive Rosalie. Essentially, the original Rosalie was his first love.
From then on Darlene's father called any young girl zombie “Rosalie” and treated them with the love that he no longer gave to Darlene. So Darlene worked even harder to become a good researcher so that she could stay near her father even though he no longer paid any attention to her. Darlene then starts to think of her owl, but the owl's face suddenly turns into a horrid Rosalie-zombie face and Darlene wakes up from her memories and nightmares.
Darlene decides to bring some fresh hydrangias down to Rea but when she gets there she finds Rea naked except for the bandages wrapped around her wound. Darlene asks what Rea is doing and Rea says that she felt that she and Babu should take a bath. Darlene scolds her that there is no bathroom in Rea's room but then she offers to let Rea come to her room and use her shower.
We next see Rea and Darlene naked in the shower. Darlene asks Rea why she had to take a shower along with Rea and Rea tells her that it is more fun that way. Rea then starts to wonder why her memories are missing. She also wonders why she and Babu are injured but they don't feel any pain. And she wonders why she can't tell if the water in the shower is hot or cold.
Darlene gets depressed again and she wonders if it really was a good idea for her to bring Rea to ZoMA. Suddenly Rea grabs Darlene from behind. Darlene is shocked, but Rea has a warm smile on her face. Somehow Rea senses Darlene's sadness and tells Darlene that she can tell her any problems that she has. Rea gets a bit confused again, but then she smiles once more and tells Darlene that it is better not to hold things in. Darlene hugs Rea back and thinks to herself that even when Rea forgets her she will have Rea with her, and she thanks Rea.
Meanwhile, out in the rainy, dark jungle Chihiro is stumbling around trying to find the entrance to the lab building. As he stands and ponders the situation two hands grab his feet. Chihiro picks up a rock to throw but he sees that the hands belong to his grandfather who is on the ground next to him. |