While I doubt that "Zombie Girls" will ever become a main stream fetish, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the sweet and off-beat romance of "Sankarea".

At first blush this is a standard "boy meets girl" manga complete with obligatory secret past, childhood friend love rival, missed opportunities and bizarrely obtuse main protagonist - basically all the tropes that you've come to expect. What keeps it fresh however is the major plot hook of Rea's "zombification" and the hinted at "expiration date" of her human consciousness. It may seem like a subtle thing, but sometimes the difference between an average manga and a good one is something as simple as having a plot or a goal to work towards other than just the boy and girl getting together and Sankarea demonstrates that in spades.

That being said, the plot is more silly than serious although there are some very dark parts to it (as expected due to the subject matter) including character deaths and zombie violence. In addition to this the characters themselves are well done and asides from some well-worn tropes, they are mostly enjoyable

Some people may like or dislike the finale for the series - personally, I didn't like it that much, but it does offer more of a conclusion than most serialized mangas seem to give these days

On a technical level, the art was clean and crisp and overall fairly well composed but sometimes it felt like there were issues with "impact shots" and over all panel pacing with dialogue. The characters themselves are mostly well designed, but nothing really special however some of the "visual gags" relating to the zombies do work rather well and had me chuckling in spots.

On the all, I'd say that if you're looking for a "boy meets girl" style manga with a twist that will keep you reading to the end, then Sankarea probably will fit that bill.