Anime 31240 Re Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Reviews Filter Check 2

Re:Zero truly wanted to be something. It shoots for the stars, it tries new things and throws the characters through so much torture and misery that the fantasy-world they are living in resembles more a hell. They boil in this hell, fuming with anger and regret, any shred of happiness they find fading almost immediately to nothing.

But Re:Zero isn't something. It reaches for its dear, dear life, but remains in the end wholly unremarkable shounen fare interested more in shocking the viewer with gore and theatrics than in telling a genuinely meaningful story. Re:Zero may not be terrible and irredeemable, but it certainly struggles ... throughout most of its twenty-five episodes to demonstrate that there is more to it than this. What is there in Subaru's tragic story that the audience can take with them at the end? What does it want to say? Not a whole lot, to be sure. Re:Zero is ambitious in mediocrity, notable only for its perverted sense of drama.

(Minor spoilers will follow from here, as it is near-impossible to discuss an anime like this without revealing anything.)

I have seen many people compare Re:Zero to Steins;Gate in the months since its airing. This is a great disservice to Steins;Gate. Where Steins;Gate spent nearly half its runtime developing the setting and its characters before asking the audience to empathise with and feel for them, Re:Zero does so immediately and does not ever ask for consent. It never develops its setting in any meaningful way-- about all you know for the duration of the story is that it is generic fantasy-land where people hate witches and bad things happen all the time-- and it throws death and gore at the viewer from the very first episode, when nobody even knows or cares about who Subaru is. It is shocking to see major characters die within the first episode, to be fair, but it no longer feels shocking the second, third or eleventh time.

If there was any consequence to these events, it is immediately brought to nothing by the show's contrived gimmick of rebirth and time-travel. It doesn't really matter if someone does die, as time will conveniently bend backwards for Subaru's sake-- never to the beginning, and always to the last major event in the story. There is no cost and no meaning to anything that happens. Subaru's mistakes are immediately erased upon rebirth, and he can go on about his day with nothing but his own guilt holding him back. He is the God of his story and the world is his playground.

What Re:Zero does to compensate for this is killing its characters off in increasingly brutal ways. They will lose their limbs, be hacked to death by chains or tortured to the point where they no longer resemble a human being. It is violence without meaning, as artificial as can be, extreme and over-the-top to the point that it can almost at times resemble satire. Everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong for Subaru and friends, long before you are given any reason to care about their fates　in the first place. The fifteenth episode is easily the biggest offender in this regard as it is nothing more than one massive slaughterfest, intent on making you feel bad for Subaru and his many waifus, him screaming in rage and gurgling on blood like it is some sort of torture porn. It is entirely possible for fiction to contain elements of death and gore without it negatively affecting the story, and in some cases it is even necessary, as it is for stories focused on issues such as war. Death is an entirely natural phenomenon, and humans are evidently not above committing acts such as murder. The issue with Re:Zero is that its death and gore exists for itself. It exists to shock and enrage the viewer, rather than serving as a product of the setting or as a vehicle for more substantial themes. For some people, this works, and throwing a character through a hurricane of awfulness is enough to instil sympathy. That's great, and I don't hold any ill will against these people. If anything, I am envious of how easily they can feel emotion. What actually bothers me is how effortless this method of storytelling truly is, and the audacity Re:Zero has to pretend it is something profound and on-par with film, as it did in the credits of the fifteenth episode. Re:Zero is visceral and sensually striking, and yet ever so empty.

"Empty" can easily be used to describe the characters as well. Emilia, for example, exists as little more than a personification of the average anime fan's ideal woman, similar in many ways to Asuna from Sword Art Online, and lacking in any meaningful characterisation besides her occasionally getting upset at Subaru. It's even more baffling that Subaru chooses her in the world of romance when she has done very little to win over his affection or help him, aside from giving him a place to stay for a couple days. She may as well not even exist-- the only reason she even does is to create more senseless tragedy for Subaru.

Rem and Ram are much better characters, as they actually have legitimate characterisation, backstory and development over the course of the story. The issue with them, particularly Rem, is that this development occurs so suddenly that it feels more like a complete change in character than an extension of who they really are. Rem goes from hating Subaru's guts to being so completely in-love with him that she is willing to follow him to the ends of the Earth and sacrifice anything for his sake. To be fair, there is reason for this abrupt change in personality: Subaru is one of the only people who has ever shown her kindness, and he did so selflessly, on several occasions, without regard for his own safety. He does a great deal to win over her trust and respect. But the extent to which she loves him, especially when she was still cursing his name just a couple short episodes before, is so extreme that it feels less like a natural progression of her feelings and more a way to instil feelings of love in the viewer, to make her palatable to otaku, an ideal girlfriend of sorts, a "waifu" much as Emilia is. It is very hard to convince me that her feelings are anything more than a fleeting puppy-love when merely showing her a bit of kindness is enough to immediately turn Subaru from her most-hated person in the world to her most-cherished one. It feels fake-- it feels like a lie, as many things in Re:Zero are revealed to be.

Betelguese, as creepy a bastard as he is, is by far one of the most obnoxious presences in the entire show. He is there, presumably, to create a sense of horror, as he will bend his body in unnatural ways, chew off his fingers in anger and bleed from his creepy little eyeballs, among other things. In reality, he is so loony and ridiculous that anything he says or does feels immediately silly, destroying any of the supposed horror he was supposed to generate. See, the thing most anime get wrong with horror (and indeed even most fiction in general) is that a truly terrifying character is not a raging lunatic, but rather someone totally ordinary and conscious of their actions. Hannibal Lecter is scary. Betelguese is anything but. If you want me to feel scared, do so in a way that resembles a reality humans can actually relate to, rather than a fantasy made of the likes of ghosts and goblins and bowl-cutted priests who eat their fingers for no reason.

Most of the side characters are weak and one-dimensional as well, as they either serve as more empty harem material (with flat-out catgirls and lolis), are defined by a single-trait or catchphrase (as Beatrice and Roswaal are), or are there as a weak attempt to instil more horror, like the stupid kid on the carriage (whose name I forget because I was too busy being angry at his annoying voice and how dumb the scene was) who completely breaks character and turns into a raging lunatic in another shallow attempt to push the story in a dark direction. The one main exception is Wilhelm, whose backstory and motivations truly do feel meaningful and justified. It is just a shame that he is immediately thrown to the benches again once this backstory reaches its quick end, serving afterwards as little more than some old dude who is skilled with the sword.

This leaves our buddy Subaru. I think, without exception, he is the factor that determines one's enjoyment of Re:Zero. If you can put up with his utter stupidity, you will find it possible to empathise with the trauma he goes through and his mental breakdowns that follow. If you are annoyed and disgusted with his presence (as I regularly was), it will be virtually impossible to care about most of what occurs. Subaru is the difference between being a fan of Re:Zero and being someone who actively dislikes it.

In many ways, he resembles a typical shounen hero. He is hot-headed, makes frequent out-of-place jokes (which I never once found funny, by the way), and refuses to ever think things through in a logical process, preferring instead to jump into battles he cannot win or to lash out at innocent people merely because his pride and fragile ego are called into question by his own mistakes. He thinks he is the coolest dude in the world, that he can save everyone through his own power, and the mere presence of someone with more skill than him offends him right to the very core. He yells and cries on a regular basis and seems incapable of having a normal conversation with anyone. Subaru is a child, and without any doubt one of the more infuriating characters I have witnessed in perhaps ever. There were points in the story where his characterisation legitimately made me angry and made me want to stop watching the show. Some moments were honestly baffling, too, such as how he switches from being completely mind-broken during the events of the fifteenth episode to being totally normal (albeit with a desire for revenge) in the next.

I say all this, but the eighteenth episode is actually one of the best episodes of anime I have seen in quite some time.

Let me explain.

Where the first two thirds of the anime spent its time showcasing unnecessary gore, Subaru's stupidity and empty characters who exist for little more than space on hug pillows and other creepy merchandise, the eighteenth episode redeems the anime and gives meaning to all that has happened, even if it doesn't erase its mistakes. It is an episode dedicated entirely to characterisation. It is a single conversation where Subaru shows remorse for his actions, recognising all the mistakes he has made and why he kept making them. He understands that he is a deeply flawed, broken person incapable of saving anyone or indeed even himself. It is at this moment that Subaru becomes aware of who he is. And you know what? I stopped hating him as a result, even if I still fundamentally disagreed with his actions and his character. He showed himself to be a human being for the first time in the entire story.

I have great respect for scenes such as these. It's not often we get entire episodes dedicated to something as ordinary as a conversation. Re:Zero didn't need to use gore and death to identify its characters or make us care - it did so merely by giving Subaru a stage to speak. This leaves just one question: why didn't Re:Zero do this from the very beginning?

It's a bummer, as there was actually potential for a great anime. The pieces were there, and the writer and the staff behind the anime demonstrated that they had the talent to execute things in an effective and honest way. The music is excellent, complimenting Subaru's struggles without ever going overboard in sappy piano pieces and cacophonous orchestral pieces as many shows of its type tend to. Its visuals look totally fine, maintaining a consistent quality despite the longer-than-average episode count and abundant battle scenes, while the facial expressions, if occasionally a bit excessive, are undeniably effective at demonstrating the characters' pain and anguish. Re:Zero is very much a well-produced anime; you can tell that the people at White Fox truly wanted to create something special.

I think this is why, even if I was bothered by most of the things I witnessed during my viewing of Re:Zero, I don't think it is a truly awful anime. It may not be a good one, not by any means-- its mistakes cannot be so easily erased-- but I do think its consistent effort and its eighteenth episode do at least redeem it to the extent of being a passable anime. It's why you see me giving Re:Zero a mediocre rating in my review rather than a poor one. I dislike much about Re:Zero, but for that one episode, I was a fan.

I have a feeling I am in the minority here, as opinions on Re:Zero almost seem to be split into a dichotomy. It is the best anime ever made for some, a life-changing adventure packed with emotion, and for the rest, it is a pile of irredeemable refuse aimed at the lowest-common denominator. To be perfectly fair, I am far more critical of Re:Zero than I am supportive of it. Its issues are certainly more numerous than its good points, and having one great episode can only take things so far when the other twenty-four vary from terrible to merely OK. But I'll be damned if I said it wasn't worth putting up with all the nonsense to get to that one point in the story. I just don't know if others are nearly as patient as I am, and I do have my doubts that future material will ever come close to that level of quality again.

Chances are, you'll have a better time with Re:Zero than I did. Many anime fans aren't looking for anything especially profound or complex in their entertainment, and I do not say that to be arrogant or dismissive. It is perfectly valid to watch anime for its entertainment value-- I do it as well, and so does just about anyone who is honest with themselves.

But this is a review and not a fan-piece. I am here to share my opinions and to judge the anime with a critical, yet fair eye. Re:Zero has a great deal of issues when viewed under these lenses, and none of them are insignificant. No matter how emotional its copious amounts of death and suffering made you, it would be quite hard to argue there is much more value to Re:Zero than its spectacle. It is a master at manipulating the audience's feelings, and while it succeeds at entertainment and has one special little moment, Re:Zero fails at making the case that it is anything more than lavishly produced, yet cheap theatre.

The question is, is that enough for you?

It wasn't enough for me.

2016 was the year where we got some amazing new shows like Grimagar and Fantasy, KonoSuba, Tanaka Kun and Flying Witch and in that same year we had too, deal with disappointing too, downright awful shows like Erased, Joker Game, Divine Gate and freaking Big Order which are one the worst things I have ever seen in my life. In spring 2016 we are presented with a fantasy anime with a time travel twist. That anime is Re:Zero.
Out of all the anime that was hyped to, death Re:Zero was the most hyped and talked about anime of 2016.
The question is does it deserve all the ... hype? Let's find out


Story. 
The story beings with our main lead Subaru who is just living a normal at earth then suddenly he is transported into a fantasy world.
From they're Subaru just helps people solve the problems before they start while trying to, survive at the same because if he dies not only he's are immediately brought back too, life but everything that he has done will be rested. Very occasionally there will save points meaning when Subaru gets too, the that certain save point he will die and respawn too, the save point instead you know going back too, the beginning.
Am just going to, be honest with you right now.
The story is not that good as it doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Some people may say that it makes the story unpredictable but the problem is Re:Zero is not anime original series.
Also like too, mention the many plot holes that Re:Zero has like how did Subaru get his powers, when did this start, why do some of the characters appear in one minute and all of the sudden they are gone and never seen again throughout the, are they any other consequences when Subaru dies, who is Emilia, What did Subaru do in his past life back on earth and the list goes on and on. It doesn't really make any sense because of Re:Zero like too, throw in new characters that barely do anything in the story.
World Building of Re.Zero is okay at best because while the show explores the Kingdom of Lugnica well the other races like the witches, monsters as well of the labing nations, timelines, and the world history are never explained at all. But hey least its better than Akame Ga Kill world building which is nonexistent at all.
Also, I feel that after episode 18 the show literally becomes rushed in terms of pacing.
Update!!!
I have read the visual novel and arc 3 in the novel didn't have this problem but the anime tries too fit almost the entire arc in such small episode number.
Overall I have mixed feeling towards the story in Re:Zero
5.5/10
Characters.

Not going to, lie beside from Rem I found this cast to be either decent too missed potential. They are really not bad characters but I wish they did more with them
Subaru is just an average main protagonist who gets transported into a fantasy world.
Now what I have been told people that he's realistic. He started off kinda realistic but as the series he literally became unrealistic.
Most of the time he's either a whiny bitch or being edgy because of plot sakes.
He also tries too, be a comedic character but he fails because it was just painful too, watch and it's downright cringe-worthy.
Also, Subaru can be really emotionally manipulative at times to a point it becomes very annoying.
If they're any positives with Subaru at all that would be the character development. Yes, he actually a decently developed character because I like how he always project characters like Rem and Emilia from danger.
Overall Subaru is a mediocre character at best and subpar at worst.

Now we have are Rem
Now she is the character that I really liked from start too, finish.
I liked how she always supported Subaru even when she sacrifices herself for Subaru. Also, her back-story is well told and it explains why Rem became the person that she is.
She the only character in this series that has real character development because Subaru character development for the most part just exists too, move the plot.
Overall Rem is one hell of an amazing character and easily the best thing about Re:Zero.

Lastly, we have Emilia.
She is the most wasted potential character in this show for me.
She started off strong with a very likable person but as the series progresses she was out was completely out picture due to lack of screen time.

The rest of the characters were decent I guess.
I really enjoyed characters like Felt, Reinhard and Felix for been interesting and enjoyable characters.
Also, the villains were not that good at all.
Overall this character cast could have been better.
6/10

Art/Animation.
If you guys can’t tell the art of Re:Zero is great and very appealing too, the eye with a nice and smooth color usage from the backgrounds/scenery too, the color of the character designs.
Also the character designs were also great and they fit with the setting of Re: Zero
Studio White Fox really has outdone themselves with the animation because it's very smooth and constant in both the action and drama scenes.
Overall I like the art and animation here.
8/10

Sound.
The OST for Re:Zero is good but I wasn't a fan of any of the tracks.

The first opening was just wonderful too, listen easily the second best thing about Re:Zero.
The second opening is just mediocre too, be honest.
The first ending is wonderful too, listen and in general very relaxing. This ending theme is iPod worthy.
Same goes for the second ending theme of the series

As this time of the review, there's no official dub for this show.
8/10

Final Thoughts.
Re:Zero is a fun but flawed show.
While I kinda liked in the beginning but as the series progresses the show literally falls apart big time.
While the setting was nice, the openings/endings and Rem were good. The story was mediocre and too short for its own good, decent worldbuilding, characters range from good to miss potential, great visuals and a nice ost and great voice acting.

In short, this show is decent at best and wasted potential at worse.

Final Score 5/10

Overview:

Re:Zero rocked the anime world in 2016 and was named the new king of the Isekai genre. Re:Zero took the crown from Overlord Season 1, which had usurped Log Horizon, which had overthrown Sword Art Online in the famous coup d'état led by Digibro. The scramble for supremacy continues in anime's shittiest genre. Yes, I hate Isekai even more than I hate harem anime. However, I'm not just writing this review to rehash my opinion that anime would be better off if .Hack had been The Last Isekai back in 2002.

Plot:

Re:Zero is about a gamer geek named Subaru who closes his eyes and wakes ... up in another world. This is of course a fantasy world that operates similar to JRPGS. Subaru is rather thrilled by this and immediately tests to see if he has any powers. It turns out he has the awesome power to reverse time by a few hours or days. However, this power only triggers when he dies. While Subaru is effectively immortal, this means he has to go through a LOT of suffering to get a happy ending.

This plot, combined with the jarring tone shifts between goofy comedy and brutal violence, means that comparisions to Higurashi are inevitable. I was told by one of my offline friends that if I loved Higurashi, I would of course love Re:Zero. Well...I wanted to love Re:Zero. However, I find it comes up very short against Higurashi. Allow me to compare and contrast for a moment.

(Spoilers if you haven't seen Higurashi.)

Rika and Subaru both have essentially the same ability. However, there are some key differences. Subaru just needs to survive one major event and then he gets a new "Savepoint". His first task is to not get killed by 3 thugs in an alley and not get killed that night by an assassin. If he lives to the next day, he never has to relive the first day. Rika needs to save an entire village from an evil organization. If she dies, there are no checkpoints and she has to relive the same 3-5 months! Subaru gets to remember how he died and all details about his last life. Rika isn't allowed to remember who killed her or key information from previous timelines. She has to solve it all in 1 perfect go. Subaru immediatly stumbles into super OP allies to help him survive. Rika's only allies are a buch of punk kids with no powers or special abilities. Subaru at most has to retry 3-5 times to reach the next checkpoint. Rika spent over 100 years suffering to achieve her victory. When Rika FINALLY pulls off the upset and defeats Takano and her forces, it's one of the greatest feel good moments in anime. When Subaru wins in Re:Zero...meh.

Art:

I'm going to be honest in the fact I don't like the studio White Fox. I find their CGI very intrusive and shoddy. The character art is...fine. It's not a hideous looking anime by any means, but nothing blew me away either.

Overall:

I didn't actually hate Re:Zero, but I did find it very disappointing. Perhaps I went into it with my hopes WAY too high. It was probably just a victim of overhype, but I can't say I enjoyed this one very much. I also didn't feel it went anywhere that other anime haven't explored far better. Re:Zero is just pure average, white bread. It's fine, but completely unremarkable in every aspect.

Re:Zero is not a bad anime, but it sure does give you a lot of reasons to dislike it.

Liking Re:Zero means accepting rushed plot points that often take giant leaps of logic through horribly incomplete development. It means ignoring the elephant in the room so you can admire the wallpaper. But I wouldn’t write it off completely, because the room called Re:Zero has some pretty fancy wallpaper.

You can tell there was clearly thought underlying the conception of various plot points, but they’re just spliced together in a really unpleasant way. There are so many times when it doesn’t feel like there was a satisfying, logical ... progression from one event to the next in the story. Perhaps it made much more sense in the source material. I don’t know the answer to that. If only the legions of web novel summary readers were here to grace a filthy secondary such as myself with their boundless and unending knowledge of the intricacies of why a person needs to be killed and revived three separate times before they even realize they’ve died, then perhaps I, too, would see why this anime is a perfect and flawless 10/10 masterpiece. I’m sure they could, but that’s missing the point. The bottom line is that the anime watches less like a proper, stand alone adaption and more like a vaguely interesting summary. Naturally, as a summary, details are left out, and in the case of Re:Zero, it seems that many of the details cut from the show were what held the logic of the story together.

There were a couple of red flags early on that tipped me off that the show would be, if nothing else, extremely careless. For one, Subaru is just way too easy to accept the fact that he somehow walked into a fantasy world. He doesn’t even question it, which makes the writing feel rather lazy. Again, I’m not sure how this was portrayed in the source material, but I know that in the anime it makes him look really stupid. But, all right, I’ll forgive it. I think a bigger problem is the point I brought up earlier.

I’m fairly sure that if an average person were brutally killed and then forcefully brought back to life as they were a few hours ago, they’d at least think something was a bit strange. Yet, our dumbass protagonist Subaru dies and respawns THREE different times before he wonders to himself, “Hmm, did I just die? That was weird.” It takes him that long to have the tiniest inkling that he has some kind of new power, or that something supernatural is occurring. He doesn’t even wonder if he’s imagining things or hallucinating, except for a single throwaway line, the implications of which he doesn’t bother pursuing. Instead, we’re forced to watch him bumble around like an idiot for what feels like an eternity. And it’s not that his memories are jumbled up; that’s simply not the angle presented, and if it was supposed to be presented that way, then the director fucked up big time. Normally a complaint like this would be nitpicky, but Subaru’s entire character (at least at this stage) is based in his knowledge of tropes, which the show leans heavily on for comedic relief. It’s just not believable that someone who has the wherewithal to complain that his “starting gear sucks” doesn’t instantly recognize that he’s respawning. It needed to be clear that his memories were being selectively erased, which was apparently the case in the source material. Otherwise, we’re just led to believe that characters are way dumber than they really are. This becomes a sort of pattern throughout the show, where characters seem unreasonably stupid at times, and it is undoubtedly an insurmountable wall to climb for many viewers, as demonstrated by the backlash toward the Re:Zero fanbase. After all, it’s almost impossible to become immersed if you feel like you’re thinking harder about the events of the story than the actual characters are.

Speaking of stupid characters, the introduction to all the candidates for the throne is rife with some of the worst characterization I’ve ever seen. The positions that the candidates present to the council to prove that they would be the best ruler are so one-note and cheesy: “I’m a greedy gal, I want to be richer and I want my own nation!” “I want you all to grovel at my feet!” “Burn it all to the ground!” The anime just chugs along and expects you to accept these seemingly comically stupid characters. Some of the candidates get a little more character development later, but unless your name is Kaiki Deishuu, it’s very hard to recover from an introduction as terrible as theirs. The source material apparently explains their backgrounds in detail, but the presentation in the anime just comes off as laughable.

The story also has some weird inconsistencies. For example, there’s a point in the early episodes where Emilia tells Subaru in private that her name is Satella, which would never make any sense for her to do so in the first place unless she actually were, since Satella is known to be a fearsome and dangerous half-elf witch. There’s a scene soon after in a different timeline where Subaru hadn’t yet met Emilia, and he naively calls her Satella out loud on the street. The crowd makes a huge scene, leaping to her defence and saying something to the effect of, “Don’t be a bigot dude, she’s obviously not Satella, #NotAllHalfElves.” Fast forward 12 episodes later and now suddenly it’s a huge deal since, “That Emilia half-elf bitch is OBVIOUSLY Satella, just look at her!” even though absolutely nothing had actually changed. I get that the writer was trying to drum up sympathy for Emilia by adding some themes of racism, but I feel like that first scene really contradicted that in a very odd way. (And, no, she wasn’t wearing her magic cloak to disguise herself in that first scene, you can check.)

The humor of the show sometimes lands, but it’s often distracting because of how it usually clashes with scenes that you’d think are supposed to be more serious. In particular, the humor revolving around Subaru’s trope recognition is sure to turn off many viewers because how out of place it feels, even if that might be the point.

I’ve ragged enough on the show; let’s take a look at the what it does well—the beauty of the wallpaper, if you will.

This anime is excellent at displaying raw emotions, even if it might not do the best job of building up to the situations that would genuinely lend themselves to these emotions. If you want to see characters explode in rage, keel over in despair, shrivel in shame and regret, or bask in the ugliness of their pride, you will get it. The voice acting definitely helps to sell these scenes.

The sound design overall was definitely the unsung hero of the show. There are some sound effects that are used to perfection to create tension, such as that creepy chanting that’s sometimes played when Subaru respawns, or when the entrance of the Whale is greeted by the most (intentionally) generic sounding ringtone ever, or, my personal favorite, that choral “Ah!” sound that’s played sometimes when there’s a discovery (it sounds like it was ripped straight out of Diablo 2, it’s great). And I would be remiss not to mention how the show often interlaces the ending song into the show itself to stir the emotions, which would have been very effective if I actually gave a damn about the characters.

And, while often the show seems to leave out too many details to make certain parts of the story believable, there are so many times when it is good at actually being subtle, rather than just abridged. Though not perfectly done, I think the anime does a great job at developing Subaru’s ugly pride as the story progresses, such as when he spouts arrogant and selfish lines that are clearly not meant to be comedic relief, or when there’s a quick cut to him grinning cockily when he convinces himself that he’s the hero who’s going to save everyone. I say it’s not quite perfect because I feel like it’s something that came up rather suddenly after the mansion arc, and it cheats a bit, since he never actually stops being prideful even when the show frames it in a way to try and fool you into thinking that he has changed (“You get a front row seat to seeing me become the most awesome hero ever!” in episode 19), and it seems more like a mistake than something intentionally written into the story. But I admire the effort nonetheless.

In fact, I think that’s really the best part of Re:Zero, how it slowly clues you in on Subaru’s relation to the Sin Archbishops, which seems to be an inevitable future plot point, and because of this, I’m still interested in the final destination of the story, should there be a continuation. But if it continues to have the same adaption problems, especially considering how anticlimactic the ending was (and how it contradicted the whole “pride” theme of the second half of the show), I can’t say I’m excited at all for the actual journey to get there.

Great another horrible anime with a immature and salty fan base. I went into this anime with fairly high expectations however it turned out to be a huge disappointment. This show was getting so much hype that decided to jump on in and see what all of the fuss was about, but in the end I was bamboozled into watching this trash.

STORY- the story in re zero is pretty much non existent. We've seen this trope millions of times a teenage boy wakes up in a fantasy world with no knowledge of how or why he's there and he just accepts it. Why is he ... here ? How did he get here? I mean a little explaining would be nice and I have to say this to particular part reminds me of Erased an anime I enjoyed a lot. From what I saw in the12 episodes of Re Zero I watched they barely focus on world building and the environment. However I will give this anime credit for being funny. The first episode was just hilarious especially the scene where saburu is being stomped by a guy group of generic street thugs. Saburus power was pretty interesting and reminded me of a video game. Everytime he dies he respawns to the being of his arrival to this new world.

The show simply doesn't know what it wants to be, at one point it's extremely dark and next it's goofy and comedic. I just couldn't sit through more than twelve episodes of this trash if you can't pull me in during the first 12 episodes then it's simply not worth my time. Yes fanboys I dropped your precious show.

Sound - the theme song was great but everything else was average

Art-Average

Characters- All the characters are extremely shallow and boring. None of them develope at all and they all follow every character archetype in anime. Saburu is a normal teenager who apparently has the skills to hold his own against a trained serial killer assassin and his smooth way with words makes the ladies panties melt. The only and I mean the only two good characters in this anime is the talking cat Puck and Reinhard the pretty boy swordsman. As I said before if you haven't been able to develop the plot and characters in half of the damn show then it's a waste of my time. And why do people keep comparing this to Erased( just finished it)? I'm not a fan boy , but they're two entirely different shows and aren't alike at all lol All in all I found this anime to be a complete waste of my time. I give it a RIP.

Rest
In
Piss

Re:Zero is a show that you may enjoy if you're looking for a show that features the trapped/sent to another world element, which also does bring some criticism to an element its target audience is stereotyped for, but you still need to be able to overlook a lot of the flaws that people don't enjoy in the "gone into another world" shows. Keep in mind, just because it tries to do something different, doesn't mean that a) it succeeds in what it tries and b) it doesn't present the flaws of the setting.

So, this is basically the premise of the show, the whole checkpoint thing. ... The MC gets trapped in another world and is revived from a checkpoint chosen by the world. Some of the things that are to be appreciated in the execution of the series is that it tries to feature the possible despair caused by experiencing death, the damage respawning might do to your perception of your social circle and the fact that it feels like a pretty direct criticism of the escapism expected by the people expecting a regular "gone in another world" anime.

But some of the things not to be appreciated in here are for instance how Subaru's swings of mood and transitions while observable and somewhat understandable, tend to be way too extreme. The feelings he gets are well defined and completely valid, but the way he casts them aside often feels unnatural. As the show has 3 arcs, each longer than the other, the problem becomes more prevalent the more you get into the series as Subaru sulks and suffers for a period, progressively getting in a worse state, and then eventually, he figures everything out and solves the problem, and when he's about to solve the problem, he becomes rational all of a sudden and he suffers no backlash from the intense emotions he felt during those times and he should still be feeling. Like he's suddenly completely fine and he can work efficiently with his peers to solve the problem. But prior to that he was pissing and shitting around everyone and crying like a little bitch. You can't get from utter desperation to being a problem solver no matter how many pep talks you give yourself or other people do give you. Especially once you hit your limit.

Which does break the series for me. Because it's an attempt at realism in a setting that was mostly used in anime to fulfill the fantasy of those yearning for escapism. When you have a theme where you basically try to highlight that you can't escape your worthlessness, making the mental problems back into a corner because you actually wanna try right now is... well... convenient. And why do people yearn for escapism? Convenience. They don't have to try. And why does Subaru's emotions get shoven deep inside and don't matter enough to interfere with Subaru's actions? Convenience. The writing doesn't have to try to find a way for him to cope in a believable way.

However, while it did break for me, I can respect what the series tried to do. The series tries to highlight that nowhere you go and what delusions you might create of and/or for yourself, no matter what utterly selfless reason you might think you chose, in the end, if it's just used as a coping mechanism to reject what other people think of you and what you yourself might agree with about what other people think of you, not only will you not develop as a person, but you will also not develop the relationship you so desire, main character, since you're selfish and too proud to admit it. I respect that. I respect the theme that was chosen on this target audience especially. It's a bold choice. Praise.

But its execution was flawed, because every single time, rather than this being a constant problem in Subaru's psyche, his issues gnawing at him consistently, he will just feel some really intense emotions for a while and then, eventually, he is at peace with the world and he now he is capable of figuring out how to solve the problem. Quite frankly that is why I decided to keep watching this series. To see how Subaru suffers, to see how Subaru copes, and to see how he gradually improves. But the middle part is missing. Instead I see Subaru suffer, and then he's better after one pep talk I guess. It gets really shallow once you see him suffer for a while and then all of a sudden, the MC is like "Did you know that the people that buy Subaru's experience the least car crashes. It's true. We totally didn't make this up. Buy our cars."

Subaru was basically the only thing worth seeing in the series, and quite frankly that's sad because Subaru's a socially awkward bumblefuck who is seeking a waifu, with grand delusions about himself and a particularly vulnerable psyche once you get to know him. This is a result of every other character in the series being some form of trope which can sum up 90% of their character, for example, the valiant hero with the legendary sword, the arrogant knight bound by a code of honor, the trap, the perfect waifu, aggresive loli, the list goes on. There are some that have some limited degree of an interesting background, but it's very limited and by no means particularly groundbreaking all in all.

So far I described Re:Zero as a botched theme with no characters to support anything on it on the side, characters that are rather tropes to pander to the target audience since, if these characters worked before, THEY SHOULD AGAIN! So as a result of this, you can figure out that I didn't find any particularly groundbreaking dramatic tidbits from them. I'm saying this because I think I delved into every genre MAL has assigned Re:Zero, but might I also add that Re:Zero does have action?

Since Subaru has to survive, he's obviously gonna have to go through some form of action. And he does. And to be completely honest with you, while I thought it was animated decently, I thought the structure of the fights themselves had no substance. Because it's a fantasy world. And because it is a fantasy world, it has no limitations to what may happen. And since you don't know what will happen, most fights I consumed as flashy colors with some somewhat gorey bits. It is designed to entertain for those that look for fights that look colorful and lively rather than those who look for fights that entertain those that want to see a fight for any other reason, be it to learn something new about the character due to what they're experiencing, or a sick ass witty idea that throws the tide of a fight that seemed to be in someone's favor because all the cards were laid in your face and then the rug was pulled from under you, or anything else. If you're just entertained by how pretty things look on the screen, they do look pretty. That's all they do happen to be tho. Just pretty. It's instead, but I have superpower x that does y, but I have superpower y that does z. And whenever I need to turn something in a character's direction, I can just created superpower zz.

As I've said, Re:Zero is pretty. It looks pretty, it puts great detail into facial expressions and its world and I respect how it looks, how it sounds and how everything is structured in it, except the fights. I never saw anything to bother me in any other department, it crams in the intro and outro songs into the episodes themselves to cram in as much content as possible without taking anything from the story, which is not a simple thing as other people might think. The OST is done really well and fits every scene and definitely did the show quite a bunch of favors. In terms of how it was adapted, in terms of visuals and audio, it's good and this does give Re:Zero some value.

But...

Re:Zero ultimately boils down into a tropey show with only one character with substance, and that substance was built on the legs of one flaw or two and is a show set in a fantasy setting with tropes and shortcomings in terms of characters and fights than many spiritual predecessors had. It ultimately failed the task that it was trying to do. I respect what it tried to do and it's not the absolute worst thing you can watch, but it failed on pretty much every department it tries to impress me on. It did not completely dissapoint me in those departments, there are positives, mostly due to the fact that the studio did a good job with the adaptation and the premise was bold, but the story had glaring issues. I wish I could give you more details on what the glaring issues are, but Subaru's mental state and the things that happen to him, talking about any of it, would be a spoiler. If you've liked the stories you've seen in these kind of setting, it is a worthwhile watch since it's different enough to be something unique, but similar enough to have everything you've seen in those, due to their often blank nature. But I can't really see you thinking much about this show otherwise. It boils down to what you value in a show, so weigh your options before deciding on watching Re:Zero.

A story about a boy named after a car who randomly is transported to another world where magic, beast-men, and CGI background characters infest, decay and murder their surroundings. Toyota stumbles upon the power to respawn after dying. The series structures itself on this reset mechanic. Ferrari sort of plays the role of detective, trying to piece together missing pieces of the puzzle of his death so he can get out of his current predicament alive and make it to the next self-styled save point.

Opening first few episodes set up a good groundwork for the story to build off, explaining the world and the characters ... without getting too bogged down in extraneous detail. Nissan having to deal with different circumstances in the same time-frame and having to grapple with not being as strong he’d like adds a sense of internal conflict to what’s an otherwise straightforward introduction to the world’s light fantasy setting. Mansion arc afterwards is the first real complex mystery the story throws at its viewer, with various moving parts that all interact in a fairly satisfying manner. Being able to work around the limitations imposed by the time-loop and provide character development by revealing markedly different sides to each character depending on the circumstances is writing of a kind that isn’t completely terrible. Delivering on this consistently would’ve been nice.

Examining Re:Zero’s latter half is like performing an autopsy. Kick your feet up. Relax. Sit through some utterly contrived stupidity from Aston Martin, whose IQ has been sub-divided so many times over between now and the last time we’ve seen him that there’s essentially no critical thinking capability left in him whatsoever. Treat yourself to second-hand embarrassment by watching Volkswagen flail around like an idiot, for one episode, and then two episodes, and then three episodes, and then four. Experience masochistic pleasure in seeing the merchant loli explain in clear, explicit detail to Fiat, and by extension, the audience, that if he wants help, he needs to give something equal to the help that will be provided, told clearly, with no other room for interpretation. Savour the moment where Lada completely ignores this salient piece of advice and unnecessary act of charity and continues with no plan for several more episodes.

Needless to mention, there’s no point in torturing Renault for a few more rounds when you’ve already shown the audience the key to the door. There’s nothing of importance in these extra scenes. Already had an adequate amount of worldbuilding, already seen an adequate amount of mental deterioration by Alfa Romeo to sell the ‘I Love Emilia’ scene, no need to hear anything anymore from anyone. Dragging the story on in this fashion was a poor decision. The show suffers for it. Even when Chevrolet finally does get his act together by that point you’ll be so exhausted by all the screaming and yelling and death and blood and violence that you’ll just want the big climax to be over and done with without too much effort expended on your end. Miraculously however, the author learns from his mistakes and delivers a satisfying conclusion that saves the show from mediocrity.

If you actually believed that such a miracle could occur you are as hopeless as a child enrolled in the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Treat yourself to a completely unnecessary, totally gratuitous, and utterly inconsequential back-story about the old sword guy. Captain Ahab. Sit through his entire life story. From the cradle to the grave.

After all this malarky its still not over. A big clean-up section battle between the man who screams ‘DES’ at the end of every sentence (Beetlejuice) and the man who miraculously manages to form a complete sentence despite his severe mental disabilities (Dacia Sandero(mentally delayed)). This fight just goes on and on and on, padding out its length for seemingly ages. There were already signs of this during the mansion section where there’s this unnecessary epilogue near the end where Rem fights the dogs, but at least that had some energy in its conclusion. There’s no payoff when Honda finally reunites with Emilia, just sigh of relief from the audience – thank christ its over– even though really, he has much more of a reason to feel indebted towards Rem, who has done far more for Skoda and put her life on the line multiple times – but let’s not get into the semantics, let’s just enjoy the fact that you made it, you’re out, you can begin again, you can do something new.

Then optimism starts to creep in once more. Maybe this overly long drawn-out narrative was just an anomaly. Surely [C] the second season [L] will get things [U] back on track [E] with neat, concise [L] mystery boxes [E] that are well [S] thought-out and [S] entertaining to watch.

Re:Zero is a story for children, a shonen manga story dressed up as a light novel and re-sold for the latest generation of eager consumers who couldn’t care less about what’s on their plate so long as its labelled isekai. Not deep, not insightful. At times, entertaining. The good parts are good while they last. There’s a couple good scenes scattered here and there. Definitely an uneven experience that leaves a lot to be desired in the latter half of its story. If the author edited and trimmed away a lot of the extra fat and baggage holding that part of the story back, I could recommend it. Watch up to the end of the mansion arc and pretend the series ends there.

Where do I even start with this show. You will look and see the insanely high rating and think this is worth your time. You will watch the first 5 or so episodes and say "I see why it's rated so high", then you will wake up and realize you invested in a nightmare much like the MC.

This show in my opinion garners these high ratings because it attracts all the unsavory, socially frowned upon sterotypical anime fans. The show has been reduced to waifu wars and whose the best girl. When on going discussions like this are had you can tell you ... are not dealing with the most reasonable fanbase. The show is one big love story with one of the most cringe worthy and annoying main characters in existence. The main character never really changes either , so strap in for 25 episodes.

The story is not even a good one. The premise is quite interesting in the beginning tho. MC basically can come back to life after death in a groundhogs day deja vu sense. He retains all his memories and tries to solve who killed him or how to survive the day. The show quickly breaks away from this focus and branches off into more of a fantasy world with magic demon dogs, talking cats, elfen lied powered cult leaders, etc. The problem is the show kind of just switches to something else and not what you expect it to be early on. Show appears more gritty and dark, hopeless and then gets relatively light later on. It still manages deaths and etc but it focuses on power of romance and friendship without resolving mysteries of the world.

If an anime finishes at 25 episodes but there is more source material to explain and answer questions, I still rate strictly on the 25 episodes. I doubt other fans do this and figure in part of the story or details that haven't been animated. That being said Re:Zero in it's 25 episodes fails to even explain how the MC came to be in this fantasy world or provide hints. It also fails to explain much about his death restart ability, or much about the various magic,creatures, and such in this world.

The show is a let down and based on the beginning and not deserving of such high ranking. It's overhyped and overrated and that's the shortest way to sum it up.

I watched the first half of the show in one sitting. I finished the second half of the story in about one month. For three times during that month, I would watch an episode or two, and become so bored and repulsed by the idea of keep watching, that it would usually take a few days for me to come back again.
I view this show as the reverse cocaine. I get hooked, and then somehow want it less and less the more I do it.
Perhaps the producers went:"hmm, we ran out of story for the second half, so let's just expand all the boring stuff ... and show lots of Rem!"
It worked. I like Rem.
The show will be remember by many people for one female character, and not anything else.

Even if the story told is not so original, I have enjoyed this Anime. But I am going to be so critic with it, because I read reviews and many of them said "this was the best anime of this season". Well, I rate it with a 6, and I will explain why.

First of all, I would give it more rating if it would have other story ending. I don't want to spoile, so I am just going to say that I would expect something more cruel, after all the gore of the anime it has that "Disney ending". Very disappointed. And another thing is ... that, they don't explain anything at all. I've read that the manga has not ended yet, so...

I have to say that this is not an time travel story, this is a guy who dies and respawn from another save like if it was in a videogame. I just wanted to clarify this because I love time travel stories and this is the reason why I saw this anime.

And another point, and critical for me, is that this anime treat women as japanese style, kiddy women, romantics, stupids with child voices, with servants dresses, I really hate that. But well, this is something personal, I know there is people who like to see animes because of that. But I prefer women treated as in Shingeki No Kyojin, more adult, not with kiddy voices.

The music and the sound I think is very very poor, overall the music. I think it has no presence, and I very like the way japanese always introduce music as something important in their videogames and series. Thats a negative point for this serie.

And you will asking. Hey! There is something good in this anime?! Yeah! Sure. The art and animation is pretty awesome. Really worked, and this is a positive point. The characters too are good too, I really liked how Subaru is constantly evolutioning. He learns from his errors, in certain moments he is very afraid, but in others he is a leader, all mixed with a correct evolution. This is a great point too. And through all characters you can feel their feelings. That something I liked.

I recommend you this serie if you want to see something enjoyable, if you want to watch some anime cliches, is a good serie. But I think it has not to be so over rated, not deserved.

Dense source material has a general problem when it comes to adapting it into an anime, which is the adaptation's inability to fully capture the essence of what it was adapted from either due to narrative problems or time constraints when comparing the limited amount of time an anime has to the seemingly unlimited amount of pages a light novel contains. And so, we have White Fox's adaptation of Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World where such problems become quite apparent.

Story: Natsuki Subaru begins his nightly routine by going to the convenience store to pick up a few snack items and whatnot in order ... to begin what I can only assume to be a night of gaming in some RPG that he's clocked 50+ hours in, only to find himself in a medieval looking town with animal people, dragon drawn carriages, the usual fantasy stuff. He then gets caught up in a situation involving petty thievery and meets a strange silver-haired girl named Emilia, thus sparking an unexpected journey that delves into the human psyche and Subaru's own hell.

As it comes to no surprise, Re:Zero is one of the big series to have come from the 2016 lineup and for good reason. The focus and main draw of the show comes from Subaru and his adaptation to the new world that he's been transported to, concentrating on specific sets of events that he lives through with the catch being that he is forced to relive these events over and over again on account of the fact that he...well, dies, thus sending back to a 'checkpoint' at the beginning of each scenario until he has been able to get through one run of the event perfectly without any mistakes like a twisted version of a Fire Emblem level. (Yeah, f**k you, Fates.)

Though looping stories like this aren't particularly anything unique as there are actually quite a number of these, Re:Zero's claim to fame is the sheer and utter breakdown of Subaru over the course of the series. In light novel form, this is easily done through the eyes of the protagonist and features monologues that express the slow descent into madness. In anime form however...it doesn't translate well. Due to the constraints of the medium, the story doesn't resonate as well and the actual breakdown part in the middle of the series doesn't come off as heart wrenching or difficult to watch as I had initially thought.

Problems of the series also arise when it comes to Subaru's motive in the series because Subaru...doesn't really have much incentive for anything. More or less, the show just makes up Subaru's motive for doing things as the episodes run by. He doesn't concern himself with trying to go back to his own world (Which is fine because that motive is cliche and boring, but he doesn't seem the least bit concerned.) and he doesn't actively try to seek out answers as to why he's here or why the witch Satella wants him mainly since his focus at any given moment is what's going with the current arc at that moment whether it'd be trying to get Emilia to notice him or going whaling.

In terms of actual storytelling, Re:Zero brings us a deadly fantasy world with many mysteries (that might never get solved) and give more insight to the world with every new arc that the series gives us. At every turn, the series provides more and more detail to the world that Subaru has been placed in and does it at a nice gradual pace that over time, bolsters development for our characters and introduces new ones without flooding the audience with new people that we're supposed to remember or recognize.

In the end, Re:Zero is a series that was doomed to have its problems from the start. Due to the difficult transition from dense source material to a limited 2 cour series, many details were shaved off to fit the time constraint and many of the series's main draw and impact were lost due to the anime's inherent inability to relay that information well. Though White Fox did try their very best to translate the series into an animated form, and ended up making one of the most well received series of the year. (A bit too well received I might add.)

Overview:
+ Well paced world building
- 2 cour constraint shaved off details
- Main draw's impact lost
- Many unsolved mysteries that we may never get answers to

Characters: As mentioned before, this series feeds in new characters gradually with every arc and has quite a number of colorful and...interesting cast members that bring about result in this very odd fantasy world.

Up first we have Natsuki Subaru, the main protagonist of this series and the series's main victim when it comes to anything bad. With the ability to reset back to an earlier 'checkpoint' at the beginning of an event, the majority of Subaru's development comes from these constant resets (And trust me, they're CONSTANT), chipping away at his sanity with every respawn that he gets. Starting off as a sort of jokey character that doesn't take many things too seriously (and doesn't understand many things in this new world), Subaru slowly morphs through lots and lots of tough love in what I can only describe to be meaningful character development as you can clearly see a change from episode to episode. The only problem with this development is that it only comes about and solely relies on one particular girl.

Then we have Emilia, the half-elf girl that...a lot of people hate, for some reason. (Do we really have to have best girl wars in every series? Come on now.) As a character, Emilia comes off as a caring girl who only wants to help others despite being crucified for being a half-elf like the accursed witch, Satella, that everyone in the series hates for bringing about terror on the world. Beyond that, Emilia however is treated more like a figurehead for Subaru in the series more than an actual character. Emilia herself doesn't actually change all that much and is instead the target for Subaru's affections, the reason why he's doing everything that he does in the series. As a result of this, Emilia, the supposed heroine of this series, is pretty much absent for half of the series's runtime as Subaru festers his decaying mind, which...kinda sucks since that means she's more of a plot device.

Beyond these two, the series hosts a variety of characters that vary in terms of plot importance. From characters that grow alongside Subaru like Rem and Wilheim to other members of the tertiary cast that serve to create conflict or beat down Subaru again for being ignorant with the ways of this new world. Either way, these side characters add a lot to the world and admittedly are a lot more interesting than the main characters.

Overview:
+ Character development for characters beyond the main cast
+ Interesting side characters
- Subaru's development comes off a bit flat
- Emilia is treated more as a plot device than a character

Art: Produced by White Fox, Re:Zero has a very good production quality as expected from the company with a vibrant color scheme and crisp animation that has both been able to create lighthearted moments and dark, dramatic scenes without changing itself all that much, especially during the moments when Subaru really loses it.

Overview:
+ Good quality animation
+ Artstyle is flexible with the moods of the series

Sound: In terms of the OST, the OPs for the series Redo and Paradisus-Paradoxum really hammer in the action-filled psychofest that Re:Zero creates over the course of its runtime. For me, these two are the two most memorable tracks to come out from the series. The EDs don't really have much to them, so to me, I don't feel like they don't have much worth to mention. (Also, they really like using that choir sting a lot. Bit strange.)

In terms of voice acting, Kobayashi Yuusuke did a fantastic job with Subaru, filling in the character's desperate nature and doing a fair job at filling in the gaps of character development that we don't get due to the anime's lack of internal monologue.

Overview:
+ Good OPs
+ Nicely dramatic voice acting
- EDs aren't really that noteworthy

Personal Enjoyment: Usually, I'm not one to follow the herd when it comes to watching shows. My policy when it comes to popular shows is to generally avoid them lest I be crucified for saying that the series is 'Not Good' or 'Has Problems' from the rabid fanbase that praises certain shows like they're gifts from gods or be too high praise for the show's actually good qualities from the cults of people that detest a series like they're birthed from the devil. But since I've heard good things about Re:Zero and all of my friends were watching it (yay peer pressure), I decided to give this show a chance and ended up with a series that...was decent but had issues that were somewhat glaring.

Did I like this series?

Admittedly, I did actually enjoy this series. It was a bit of a different twist on what I'm used to watching on a seasonal basis and while it wasn't the end all be all series that I was looking forward to week after week, it was still an enjoyable watch and wouldn't mind seeing more of it as improbable as that might be. Also, I liked how even Subaru's most perfect runs of a string of events aren't always that perfect. Which is nice; I hate seeing things go too easily.

What didn't I like about this series?

The show just didn't have enough impact. A lot of praise for this series comes from how the series amps up the mental assault of Subaru's mind with the phrase "It gets worse" thrown around a lot to answer back the question on whether or not Subaru gets a break or not. This is largely due to a narrative issue and anime's inability to translate such dense material very well, but the problem still stands since I really didn't feel that gut wrenched at all when watching this series as many people claim it is. (Maybe that happens in later volumes, I don't know.)

Would I recommend this series?

Many people would probably say, "YES! Watch this series because it's soooo damn good!" To that I say...no. Admittedly, while Re:Zero is an interesting show and has many unique properties to it, I can't in good concious say that you should watch this show. Subaru dives down into an unlikable character before becoming a person worthy of redemption, the show still has a lot of holes in its lore than don't really get solved, and the amount of actual progression for the series is very little since Subaru resets every few episodes to the exact same event, which eats up a lot of runtime and forces the series to never move past 3 events, all of which are probably done over the course of 2 or so months in the show. So while this show is interesting and a good contender for a spot on your list of watched anime, it's not the savior of anime, it's not a must-see, it's just a decent show that has its ups and downs like a lot of other shows.

RE:ZERO KARA HAJIMERU ISEKAI SEKAITSU

Rarely have I ever wasted so much breath insulting anime characters.
There is such a thick concentration of wrong actions and terrible decisions and dreadful reactions to make anyone cringe. And the most frustrating thing is, after you're over your fit of rage at the screen and have managed to process the stupidity of every character, it will be clear that all those horrible things they do that make you want to kill them painfully are maybe more human than most other anime's reactions and therefore more accurate, which is exactly why they result so annoying, in my opinion.

In short, this ... anime is annoying beyond words, frustrating and bad for blood pressure, and I didn't like it, but I think it deserves a 6 for the simple fact that I think they have been very good at depicting the ugliness of a regular human's nature.

All the people railing at the failings of the main char are right to do so and have every right to continue, but after some thought I have come to the conclusion that he has been even too good and collected, given the absolute unfairness of his fate. For once (and it doesn't happen often) an anime managed to make me actually consider what I would do if I was in a situation like that and all I could feel was dread. Yeah, I wouldn't have fared any better. I wouldn't have been any less stupid and rash and annoying and cowardly and anything else he has been throughout the plot.

Let's face this, the reason the people who wrote an utterly bad review hate this character is because he is just as lame as the average person, except those moments of enlightenment when he finally stopped being a normal human and took on his anime character attitude, which couldn't be further from what an actual human would do in those situations. (I'm not saying no actual human could be brave or smart in shitty situations, but only that they wouldn't do it with that attitude. You know, that. The drama queen attitude.)

All of this is mainly referring to Subaru alone. The other characters often acted in a way that I couldn't really understand, they were often unnecessary mean to him even though his mere stupidity wasn't enough to justify such a treatment (For example, the cute maid just up and cold-bloodedly butchered him because... what exactly?)
As I said, some reactions were too much, even considering the gravity poor man's unpleasant situation and of the situations that ensued because of his screw-ups. They were just out of place.

The contrast between the extremely comical and cheerful scenes and the excruciating splatter and anguish isn't one of the things I didn't like, on the contrary. It gave an edge to the cheerfulness and made the dark parts even more intense, they were only ruined by an occasional excess of dramatic flair, probably put there to keep teenagers' eyes glued to the screen.

I won't say much on the setting and background plot because I didn't read the light novels nor did I understand a damn thing about why did all these terrible things happened to a poor boy whose only sin was that of not having done anything particular with his life so far.
Unless this power of him is considered to be a gift or something (bbbbbbuuuuuuut no it's definitely the worst curse I've encountered until now and I'm pretty sure I will dream I was poor Subaru tonight, and not in a good way).

So, to sum it up:

Plot: 7 Interesting, controversial, twisted just about enough and almost original (well, for me it's original, OK?)

Execution: 5 Too much flashy drama and too much flashy dramatic

Dialogues: 6 Clichéd. And why do people have to stop and have such lengthy and deep conversations while all sorts of terrible things are happening in the meanwhile that could be prevented if they stopped talking and did something about it?

Characters: 7 Subaru is characterized brilliantly and is all too human most of the times, and for once we can see actual growth and mental evolution that is actually credible in its crescendo. All the other characters are mostly shit.

Art and music: 10 Especially the music, the art is fine

Impact and ability to emotionally involve the watcher: 10

Ok, maybe the math isn't very good if with this grades the final result is still 6, but 6 is still the grade I feel like giving this. I admire all those people who scored 10 or 9 because it means they must be extremely patient and tolerant and can bear with this overall decent show much better than I did.

I will still feel that these three days I've spent watching it are the worst three days of the last month, not because the show was shitty but because it literally fucked my mind and put a chill in my bones to think that someone could actually be subject to that kind of torture.

Now will you excuse me, but I think I need to get some Gintama before I go to bed or I might not sleep so well.

I haven't seen Re:zero when it first came out, so i've saw all that growing hype around the anime without been part of it.
Honestly the first time i've heard about it i figured out that it would be a SAO-like anime. Still I wanted to give Re:Zero it's chance, a friend really liked it and told me there was time travel stuff so why not ?

But I was so disappointed, even more due to the fact that he hyped me, and to the anime's popularity. I mean, if it were only an average anime, neither especially bad nor especially good, I think I would have ... enjoyed it a bit more. Because, as I was a bit hyped, I put higher expectations on it.

So, I won't go in a deep analysis but just point out the problems of Re:Zero and the things it did well. Here we go !


/!\ Minor spoilers ahead /!\


First the "return to checkpoint" idea was interesting, it opens many doors for a good story-telling. However time travels are one of the hardest subject to tackle, because it is so easy to mess it up. And when an anime revolves around time travel (yes it is not truly time travel here but it is as difficult to manipulate) it kinda have two choices : to explain it, whether it is a scientifical or magic explanation whatever (as Steins;Gate) ; or drop any explanations, just put it here as a fact (as Erased).
The issue is that Re:Zero is doing the two at the same time. It does want to keep the causes of the turn back in time secret but on the other sides, it gives hints on the person who's responsible for that curse.
Btw his time travels are vanishing all dramatic tension. Even though Subaru is so triggered by those horror scenes, he merely has to die in order to restart the whole thing, no need to worry actually for us as well as him. And these time travels don’t even have any consequences, he can do it as much as he can.
So in the end i just felt unsatisfied by the half answer given by the anime.


And it is part of another issue with Re:Zero imo : the snapshot way of building the lore. We can figure out that Re:Zero’s world is one big fantasy world with ancient myths, kingdoms, royal families etc. We have plots about it with the King’s throne being vacant and those candidates coming from all over the world.
But all we focus on is Subaru saving Emilia. All this very interesting lore is merely forgotten for a romantic plot. There would be so much to say about the other countries, about the witches, about spirits/magical entities such as Beatrice and Pack. But all the anime care of is Subaru saving his waifu.
The some lore parts might not be such a big deal. However let’s take a look at Satella the witch of Envy. They talk about her almost in every episode, and in the end we don’t even know who she really is, what have she done, what are her powers. I had to take a look into the wikia to know all that, and to know that there were many other witches actually.
So idk, maybe Re:Zero is just another promotional anime, the kind of anime that is supposed to make you read the source material. But an anime is supposed to be independent of the source material. It’s not about answering all the questions or covering every part of the light novel or manga so far. By independent i mean that it should at least give the feeling that the work is complete.
In short, Re:Zero’s lore seems interesting but it is unfairly underused in the anime.


Now lets talk about the poor characterization. All of them are ranging from “have little meaning in Subaru’s quest during 10min” to “flat one-sided personnality”. They are so poorly developed that there is not much to say.
Even Subaru’s love interest, his beloved Emilia is a flat character. I bet that she has less screentime than Rem. She is the one that makes Subaru do everything he’s doing and that’s all. We know little about her too.
Talking about Rem, she lost almost everything that made her personnality interesting when she felt in love of Subaru. Just the generic waifu who follows her loved one blindly.
And finally Subaru. At least he has some fighting abilities but unfortunately, no brain. He doesn’t want to listen to anyone, neither when the others are pointing out his failures. So in the end he is making even more mess just for his own egoist wish to stay with Emilia.
At least episode 18 saved him from being totally dumb. It is worth mentioning that in episode 18 Subaru realises how stupid he is and apologises. But unfortunately a single episode can’t lift up the averageness of 24 others.


To conclude Re:Zero is really lacking in many pretty important points, great animation and music can’t make a dubious story and characters up. Yet Re:Zero can still have value in mere entertainment and you may be entertained by this anime. However, if you expected something more complex and well structured, you’re not at the right place.

I never wrote an anime review, but I wanted to spend a couple of words for Re:zero because people gets really sensitive when you talk crap on this anime on the internet. Seriously, if you say Re:zero is not that great you always find the one guy going all “uh, why do you have to be so DIFFERENT, fucking edgy man”, and this kind of fanatism never happened on this level with all the “seasonal top anime” (like Erased to make an example).
First of all, I don't HATE Re:zero, and I can see why so many people like it. The concept is actually something that ... has never been done good in anime, the idea of an adventure with “checkpoints” is fairly well managed and it makes Re:zero different from other SAO clones. Because it IS a SAO clone, but that is not an insult since a lot of anime that exploit the success of SAO are amazing (Log Horizon, Overlord). If you want to read something with the same concept of a story with checkpoints I suggest to read All You Need Is Kill. It's really short but it uses this element a lot better in my opinion (the manga is drawn by Obata so it's top quality).
Back to Re:zero, the first arc is hands down the best: Subaru needs to resolve a problem and he deals with it from different prospectives, it's a trial and error and it's damn good, also beacuse the secondaries are super likeable.
As the series progresses it becomes obvious that the focal element of the series is the supportive cast since the second arc gravitate around Ram and Rem, and the lore also gets more in depth with the magic mechanics, different races are introduced and the next sovrain selection (or whatever that thing was) arc starts, but things starts to degenerate from right here.
And here we come to the greatest problem of the entire anime: Subaru and Emilia. From the begining Subaru has no real motivation to be part of the story. He ends up in a fantasy world and meets a cute girl (you know, standard anime stuff), he has the opportunity to save her and does whatever he's able to, and that's perfectly ok to me. On a side note: it makes no sense that he is THAT strong in th first arc, that was just dumb considering that he never participates in a real battle after that.
The second arc starts with Emilia that apparently has brought Subaru at her home, and that makes little sense considering that she never met him in that specific loop. You could say that she just offered help to someone that actually helped her, but why him and not Rom whose injuries were lot worst than Subaru's? It's not that big of an inconsistency, but this plot point serves only so Subaru can keep interacting with Emilia, and this kind of things happen too often through the series. Emilia has no real personality most of the times, all she does only serves to justify why Subaru is in love with her. Because from the beginning, Subaru is in love with Emilia for no reason. He meets her in the city, thinks she's hot and goes with her, that's understandable, but then Subaru gets unhealthily attached to her, and that's not justified. You could say that you cannot command the heart, but the real reason is that it's just forced romance. Everytime Emilia talks it looks like she wants to jump directly on Subaru's dick, but the romance never progresses. That's not a personality, that's trying hard to be waifu material. On this matter, Subaru's single and only motivation in the entire series is that he wants to get laid. He has no other motive for being there or doing anything, it's fucking dumb if you stop and think about it: the whole series progresses because Subaru wants to jump inside of Emilia's panties and never thinks about why he ended up in that fantasy world or how to get home, he just thinks about getting that mad pussy, yeah. After realizing this, then you start thinking that maybe that's because Subaru has nobody that is waiting for him at home (that's even established i think). And MAYBE it's because Subaru is a shitty person? Thnk about the beggining of the third arc, where Emilia specifically tells Subaru to not get out of the room no matter what happens. The first thing the idiot does is obviously to storm the fuck out of there messing with random people in the streets which obviously turns out to be a super relevant character that is going exactly where Emilia is going. She then tells Subaru to not do anything stupid because it's an important moment for the future of the kingdom or some shit, and he gets in the way of an important event without knowing anything about it “because he can't stand Emilia getting bullied”. That supid fucker thinks she can't stand by herself and has to defend her. That's not being considerate, that's being sexist. And if that's not enough, he also insults all the knights in the kingdom without reason. When he fought Julius I couldn't stop thinking that Subaru was just wrong. When he confronts Emilia again and starts shouting at her I assumed that that was the moment where Subaru was supposed to show his true colors and then eventually being confronted with the bad person he is. But apparently I was wrong. That was just Subaru being stressed, so it was okay for him to act like a bitch with everyone. This is bad writing if you make the main character look like he's constantly victimized just to justify his shitty personality (and by that I mean that Subaru is a bad person, not a bad character). He is a selfish kid who thinks that everyone owe everything to him and never considers other people's feelings, that being Rem, Emilia or Reinhard. Shit, I loved Reinhard but he apparently stopped existing because Subaru was frustated and didn't want to talk to him anymore.
And there's nothing wrong in a character being wrong. But he's not punished for the wrong shit he does and doesn't learn from them, and that's not a correct way to develop a protagonist. It's just not fair that he is in the wrong, gets depressed and aggressive because nobody is on his side and in the end nothing changes, he keeps being a shitty person that got over a depression, he's like a shitty kid that gets scolded, cries very loudly and ends up not learning anything.
I hear a lot of people saying they sympathize with Subaru because he suffers without deserving it, but it's not like that at all. He gets killed and go through a lot of shit, but understands where he went wrong and make up for it in the end in the first arcs and that's right, but in the third loop the point is that he can't start from zero and must get over it with Rem supporting him. But idiots never learn, and so does Subaru: he doesn't give a shit about Rem and keeps focusing on Emilia even thought she openly refuses him, and the only thing that changes is that everyone else suddenly becomes 30% more stupid and starts believing anything Subaru says even though it makes no sense at all.
The last episode is hilarious by the way, Emilia suddenly relizes that she loves Subaru out of the blue without knowing that he's even there and all of her character developement becomes meaningless. Now it's her fault for making Subaru said and she rewards him beacoming the trophy. All the act of her being a strong character becomes meaningless because she just wanted a man that can make her cry like a pussy. I was laughing my ass of.
In the end, Re:zero is a potentially good anime that is ruined because of its real BAD main characters. I'm still looking forward for the second season at this point since I overall enjoyed the experience. I hope they won't fuck up next time.

I could empathize with this character until he forgave those who tortured him. It's incomprehensible and baffling to think how someone can be so pathetic, so starved for kindness and love to forgive those who tortured and put him through a lot of suffering because they held his hands. Blind to the fact that all of the happy memories he shared with them, their kindness towards him, were nothing but lies. This pathetic being is twisting events and looking through them to find some loopholes so he can delude himself into believing that these people don't hate him. And even more hilarious, they aren't real ... people, just some stupid NPCs from a parallel fantasy world with things like magic and demihumans.
Let's look at it from an outside perspective. Two people kill an innocent person, and Subaru can't hate them because he spent a week with them. He tries to find excuses and justify their sins, ignoring that innocent man, as if that innocent person's life doesn't have any worth. Isn't that disgusting, even if that innocent man is Subaru himself?
The moment he forgave them, I lost all sympathy for this pathetic being. He deserves all of the sufferings he goes through and more. That is what he chose, after all.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu stands out as one of the biggest missed opportunities that I have ever come across in my 10+ years of watching anime. The tragedy lies not with the shittiness of the final product but rather with the disheartening knowledge of what could have been. This is the story of a promising fantasy world ruined by lazy character design and an impossibly irritating MC.

Re:Zero takes place in the ideal setting for an Isekai--a dark, immersive, well-animated fantasy world filled with many “mature themes”. True to the formula, the story starts with our hapless protagonist, Subaru, being dragged into an exciting ... new fantasy world by some unknown dark power. He quickly stumbles on a cute, white-haired girl named Emilia who he instantly becomes infatuated with. This schoolboy crush forms the basis for most of his future decisions throughout the 25 episode anime.

A central plot device is Subaru’s ability to reincarnate to earlier points in time after being killed (which happens frequently). These reset points are analogous to a ‘save points’ in a video game and effectively give him the ability to relive hours to days in order to change an outcome—albeit at the psychological toll of having to die multiple times to get there. Although not well explained, these reset points update after Subaru survives for a variable period of time.

So far this all sounds pretty good, right? Fantasy setting, Groundhog Day plot mechanics, and battles w/ blood and guts. But holy shit let me tell you about Subaru...

To call Subaru a flawed character would be an understatement. He is a steaming amalgamation of idiotic shounen tropes. All of the bad, none of the good. His dumb decisions, immature personality, frequent impulsive outbursts, annoying proclamations and empty platitudes are just excruciating to watch. He is supposed to be 18 but acts 12 and for some inexplicable reason gets a free pass from most of the cast. Everyone wants to kill him but nobody seems able to just tell him to shut the f*uck up.

As a consequence of his emotional underdevelopment, dying and resetting cause him to have wild and erratic mood swings. He frequently oscillates back and forth between happy-go-lucky denial and whimpering psychosis--sometimes switching multiple times per episode. He's too irrational and immature to connect with.

The problem of his unlikability is magnified by the fact that he isn’t just a character to like or dislike, he is the anime itself. The story is from his perspective and about how he must die multiple times to navigate his way through different situations—there’s no escape from him. I would almost prefer (and it’s a big almost) that we had gotten a cookie cutter “self-insertion” MC like Kirito from SAO.

The rest of the characters fall into a pattern of giving Subaru undue respect. I take issue with the female characters in particular because there is supposed to be a romantic subplot. Subaru’s cringy courting of Emilia is presented unironically, creating a romance story tonally similar to Dumb and Dumber’s. By the end of the first half of the series I couldn’t even tell what was meant to be taken seriously or in jest anymore.

I don’t know what else is left to say. Art, music, plot are all solid but the beating heart of this anime, Subaru, is a potato.

This review is based on 15 episodes that I watched.

I am very disappointed with this anime. It started of very good. Story was interesting, main character was likable and his personality seemed cool. I was thinking - finally anime with a really well written male character that is down to earth, funny and unlike male characters in many anime recently doesn't act like total loser. Unfortunately that changed fast. Few episodes into series main character becomes annoying, crying, losing his mind and making this anime totally unwatchable.

Such a waste that anime that seemed so good in the beginning turned to be so bad.

Every once in a while, a show comes around and takes the anime community by the storm. Forums end up being filled with reactions, and comments talking endlessly about the most recent episode. Images of best girl pops up everywhere. In other words, the show becomes hyped as hell. Some of these shows are actually good while others range from terrible to the mediocre. But through my poorly written intro, the question remains. Is Re:Zero worth the hype?

No, no it isn't.

The story of Re:Zero revolves around Natsuki Subaru. An Otaku/shut in who gets transported magically into this fantastical new world filled with dragons, cat ... woman, and basically everything that an otaku could wish for. He ends up getting saved from a bunch of robbers from this mysterious girl and aids her in finding something that is important to her.

And thus starts Subaru's journey through a living hell.

Probably what has made this anime so popular in the first place is the amount of gruesome deaths that occur, and although I do agree that this gruesome approach to the show is its selling point, it’s also one of the main flaws of the show.

You see, I can appreciate well displayed deaths, but Re:Zero goes out of its way to make most of its deaths as tragic as possible. That’s not to say that tragic deaths are inherently bad, but rather Re:Zero tries to do this too damn much. I’ll admit I did in fact enjoy some of these scenes, but when this happens over and over again I can’t help but feel that the show is just trying too hard to get some emotion out of its audience. It tries so hard to feed the audience with these deaths, these tragedies, that by the end of it I mostly became apathetic to any suffering that Subaru would experience.

The other problem that I have with this show is that the arcs feel a bit fragmented from each other. Throughout the show it never felt like each arc was an actual progression, but rather separate stories that don’t help with the main plot. I found myself having to consciously remember why the characters were doing this sometimes because the show is so loosely constructed.

The characters in the show are a mixed bag. Many of the characters like Emilia who seem to have a prominent role in the story at first end up being shafted to being side characters so that the show could introduce more characters. Other characters like Rem seem to have a more withstanding impact in the story but it seems that Re; Zero favors switching the main characters for each arc. The problem with this is that any other character excluding Subaru seem to just fade out of relevance, and at the very end it had me questioning whether they were that important to the story in the first place.

Speaking of Subaru, the problems that I have with him isn’t that he makes the most idiotic decisions, and ends up hurting the people around him. But rather I have a very hard time trying to figure out what this character exactly is, because he is so inconsistent as a character.
At first I really liked Subaru. He was this smart person who used his brain rather than strength to solve his problems, which was a breath of fresh air. Afterwards we see his flaws show up, as well as his obsession with being the knight in shining armor. We see him fall and break, his resolve shattered. But then after a certain event, he does a complete 180, completely overcomes his trauma, and turns into this badass hero.

What?

It isn’t just Subaru though; the quality of the plot as a whole drops rather significantly after the start of the Whale Arc. The foundation that Re:Zero built for itself is trashed completely in favor of boring side character development, terrible pacing, mediocre screenwriting (I guess the screenwriting was always mediocre though), and the feeling that the show has lost sight of its original purpose.

The animation of the show is mostly inconsistent. The show looks really good in the first half, but the quality does drop a bit probably due to budget reasons. Nothing that makes the show unwatchable but it does hinder my experience a little. A good example is the CGI used in the show. It sticks out like a sore thumb and I wished the studio made a better effort trying to hide this. One thing that the show does extremely well though is character expressions. Whether Subaru is filled with grief, absolutely mad, or broken. His facial expressions express his suffering perfectly, with expressions ranging from uncomforting to absolutely grotesque.

Music on the other hand was a bit better. The OP’s are decent. I’m not a particular fan of them but I know many people that are. I especially liked the Ed’s though, especially “Stay Alive.” It fit the show perfectly and I would find myself listening to it for days. The soundtracks are pretty nice too. The composer has a good grasp of adding tension and an ominous air into his tracks.

I guess I’ll end this show with a small disclaimer. I don’t hate this show. I actually enjoyed this show a decent amount, and it has moments of greatness. But the lack of direction, confusing character development, poor pacing, and quality drop really dampens the experience. Re:Zero is a show that didn’t make me think of how good it was, but rather how good it could have been.
Re:Zero aims high, but falls short of being a great show.

(Btw, I don’t care what you all say. Felis is best girl)

In my opinion, this show can easily be described as the "Beyond two souls" of anime in some of its major shortcomings.
My core point for claiming this is also the shows greatest weakness. The author very clearly cared first and foremost about having certain scenes and setpieces. Putting these together to form a coherent narrative was secondary.
Beyond two souls does this by jumping back and forth within the timeline of the main character's life, while Re:Zero on the other hand ...does...nothing.
It simply introduces plot points only to completely ignore them, hoping the viewer has a low enough attention span, that they won't question this.
A lot ... of die-hard fans for this show will defend this by pointing towards the source material, saying that once the anime has adapted a couple more seasons worth of it, these plotpoints will be picked back up.
I do not consider this a valid excuse for 2 reasons:
1. Anything, wether it is anime, a game or book, should be able to stand on its own. Why would some source material be considered when judging the anime? It simply does not make sense to me.
2.Even if we were talking about the source material or about this anime in a couple of years, if more of it happens to be animated by then, and all of these dropped plots would be resolved at that point, that would still leave you with a bad end result. You would go from a show with tons of dropped plotlines to a show that doesn't know how to handle its plotlines. A lot of them were given way too much time to be postponed at all.

Now let us talk about the characters.
It's quite ironic that the show has a minor villain with the ability to erase people from everyone's memory, as the cast is incredibly forgettable.
Most characters are either nonsensical and annoying trainwrecks, like the maid sisters Rem and Ram, the main love interest, that is not present for most of the second half, or Subaru, the main protagonist.
Or they are somewhat likeable, but mostly because they follow popular cliches very strictly, which leads to them being especially easy to forget. Some examples would be the red haired swordsman or Willhelm, the old man with the grudge.
There are some minor exceptions, mainly the main antagonist for the final arc, Betelgeuse.
While he does fall into the second category I listed somewhat, he still manages to be mostly entertaining.

I'd like to talk about a few of these in minor detail.

First of all everybody's favorite, Rem. While she starts of fairly decent and her backstory is probably one of the better parts of this show, the moment she falls in love with the main character is to me the part where the show goes from somewhat above average and fun to a boring and forgettable slog. Her strong obsession with Subaru not only is annoying, as she expresses it way too often, the reason behind it is also incredibly shallow.
This could be intentional.It does seem like a major point of the second half. The author probably was trying to show, that true love is greater than someone who just loves you, because you saved them. Now let us pretend for a moment, like Subaru's feelings for Emilia aren't easily as shallow. Even if we do that, with how hamfisted this message is presented and how poorly written and uninteresting all of these characters are, all I could think while watching was "I get it, but don't care about any of this.".
Subaru in general does also fall victim of this. A poor man's hamfisted Shinji Ikari, but unlike Shinji, he actually is a genuinely shitty person. Add to that some extremely hamfisted otaku slander, related to how shitty of a person he is and you get Subaru.
Not every main character has to be likeable and great. But Subaru is nothing one would want to see. He is neither likeable, entertaining or interesting in any manner. It realy does seem like the author was more concerned with their meta commentary on otakus, than actually writing a cohesive narrative or worthwhile characters.
A final example of their inability to write a character, is Willhelm. The crux of he semifinal arc is him trying to get his revenge. His target is a giant white whale (slow clap for the subtely of the author). This whale has a rather interesting ability and the world of Re:Zero has all kinds of magic powers, so while I did not expect a conflict as clever as anything from Jojo part 4 and onward, I was still let down. Every single character's unique magical abilities simply boil down to a damaging projectile. To further make the viewer lose all interest in the conflict, we don't actually know the specifics of Willhelms motivation. We are given these in flashbacks during the fight. Not only does this feel way too rushed, these flashbacks are awful. It's not only painfully generic, it also managed to make me upset about a gender based cliche. I am honestly the last person you'll see up in arms about any gender nonsense, but this actually pissed me off. In the flashback, he's telling this female knight to stop fighting. People during medieval times obviously had a different mindset about gender roles, we all know that. But to actually have him convince the woman to stop fighting for good and have her newfound whiteknight protect m'lady instead, was utterly baffeling. The worst part about this though, is that it didn't make me care for Willhelm. And as I was neither invested in the characters nor the boring combat itself, I didn't care about the entire conflict.
There were some good bits here and there, but the slog that is the second half, the hamfistedness of everything, the uninsteresting characters and the complete mess that is the narrative as a whole, overall left me with a completely forgettable experience.

Also I cannot stand the art style.

UPDATE AFTER WATCHING ALL OF SEASON 2 (25/5/21): You might as well just ignore the following drivel. Go on your way good sir/madam. I still agree with what I said but it's so outdated.

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG REVIEW AND IT CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. NO TL;DR'S SINCE THAT'S FOR WUSSES.

Re:Zero was a pretty underwhelming experience for me. Made by Studio White Fox of Steins;Gate fame and released in the Spring 2016 season, Re:Zero is part of the seemingly impossible to stop trend of isekai anime. What set apart this anime from many others, however, and undoubtedly what made it so popular, was the way ... the anime subverted many of the power fantasy tropes found in most isekai and buckled down for a darker story and a heavier emphasis on powerful, emotional character writing. The MC this time, which we follow all throughout the story, is basically your standard person with no special abilities whatsoever and is caught up in a world much larger than himself. His only special "ability" is that he can return back to a point in tame whenever he dies. This sounds like a cool concept and has a good range of potential to develop. The thing is, this ironically narrows down the directions the anime can take. I'll try to explain why in this review.

Hardly anything actually happens in this anime and its all because of the way Subaru Impreza resets upon death. This whole reset thing would naturally stagger the anime's pacing in some form but this happens on a far larger scale than necessary. What actually happens throughout the 25 episodes in-universe? Subaru Outback finds himself in a new world, he meets the girl, he goes to her house, he kills some magical beast, he goes to the capital, he fights a flying whale, he fights a cult. That sounds like a lot? Well, it isn't. The anime grinds itself to a near-standstill at numerous parts in the show and it takes forever for the characters to actually do anything. There are sometimes scenes that take up to half an episodes time. The first half of the anime is plagued by so much repetition that it's almost comical that the way to advance the story was finding a stupid plot device in the form of a dog. The second half is even worse in that there is literally no development of the story going on while Subaru Forester is busy being edgy (more on that latter). It honestly almost feels like filler half the time. The worst thing that could happen is that this is entirely overwritten by a reset. And by god does this anime reach the point of self-indulgence whenever it starts killing off the characters. This invariably forces the story to perform a reset. The reason why hardly anything happens in this show for most of the time is because it knows that any new development in the story will be blown out of the water whenever Subaru Tribeca dies. Then this anime should be careful and plan his resets, right? That would be the smart thing to do, not the most shocking thing to do and this anime values shock value more than any sort of natural developments.

This ability invalidates almost any character development that this anime can potentially show us simply because it's incredibly axe crazy on it's cast. In fact, the anime knows this and tries to solve it in one of two ways; it either puts a heavy emphasis on flashback on certain characters, or it just doesn't do anything except give promises that the character will be developed in the next season or something. This only serves to break up the already thread-hanging pacing even more as in the case of the sword guy Wilhelm. The anime was desperately throwing in a bunch of flashbacks to give him something without taking it all away instead of actually having him develop naturally. This would be great if his character was actually important to the overall story but no. He's just your retired badass guy played out exactly as you would expect and isn't very important. It feels so odd whenever a character is shown outside of Subaru Leone's perspective since there is a 90% chance that the scene won't matter at all. This probably is a result of something being lost in adaptation when carrying over the undoubtedly more descriptive light novel to the anime since it's far easier to explain in words than to pace anime scenes together. Another gripe I have is that when the anime does finally move the story along, it waltzes away from the previous development of previous do-overs. What I mean is that if characters do get some focus and then the anime progresses to the next reset, all that previous focus feels lost. The anime often feels like it's done enough and goes "Okay I've given this character enough screentime, time to move on." without realizing that the screentime they got is not equal to the amount of time they spent interacting with Subaru R1. This makes the anime feel rushed in it's attempts to flesh out characters. The most egregious example of this would be Emilia (best girl) who really doesn't actually spend that much time with the main character in real time due to all the resetting. It makes sense that Subaru Legacy is smitten with her since he's seen her around a lot but it's weird when you consider how much Emilia cares for Subaru Loyale despite really only knowing him for a short amount of time. You can chalk it up to Eilia just being really kind (and I agree, she's best girl) but the anime seems to sometimes forget that these characters don't really know our MC all that well *cough Beatrice cough*. This anime needed to be smarter on it's resets and not abuse it. Paraphrasing the imortally handsome Jeff Goldblum - just because they could doesn't mean they should.

Phew okay that was almost everything I wanted to say about the flaws of the reset gimmick. This anime has more problems than that though. One thing that contributed to the grinding pace of the anime is just how insubstantial many of the events of the story feel. Not much in this show feels very impactful. A big gripe I had with the overall story was the entirety of the White Whale fight. That fight took as many episodes as an entire arc of a one-cour series and ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT FELT NECESSARY TO THE PLOT. The whole White Whale thing felt incredibly contrived and I felt like it was put in just to fuck with Subaru Stella even more because of course, BY SHEER COINCIDENCE THERE MUST BE SOME STUPID WHALE BLOCKING YOUR WAY TO AN IMPORTANT PLOT DEVELOPMENT. Nothing in the "arc" did anything to expand the world building nor. The White Whale itself was never previously mentioned. They honestly could have just gave some small explanation as to why it appeared where it was at that specifically contrived time. But no, the White Whale appearing could be a typical Tuesday or it could be a once-a-century thing. They just didn't bother. It's purpose in the story was to literally drag out the story with filler. Another scene that felt inconsequential is a scene that I know they put in just to bait a second season - the meeting and introduction of the contenders for the crown spanning the episodes 12 and 13.

The entire thing is just a farce. Everyone seems to be doing as they please with absolutely no consequences. I assume this is supposed to be a formal meeting between the potential next leader of your goddamn countery but everyone seems to be doing their best to piss off everyone else with silly, snarky comments and jabs so rude they wouldn't be accepted in a golf tournament after party. Seriously, am I the only one who, if I was any of the noble class in the world of Re:Zero, be shocked at the events of that scene? There is absolutely no sign of any sort of etiquette being observed and this makes the world seems so fake and contrived. As if there isn't any world outside of the important characters and their quirky shenanigans. I know this anime doesn't focus on world building but just give me something, anything that makes me invested in it. Worse thing is, there seems to be absolutely no consequences for anyone as a result of this scene. It was literally just there to show us the other contenders and to introduce the obvious twist that Felt was a challenger for the throne. Don't know who she is? Don't worry. The anime probably forgot as well since it doesn't show her face ever again for the rest of the run time. Her being a pretty boring character doesn't help either. Anyways, this was a scene which seemed to draaaaag forever and took up 15 minutes of episode 13 and could have easily been done in 5. The whole anime is saturated with what feels like filler. It knows it doesn't actually have much to show and could easily wrap all the events up in less than 13 episodes. Heck, you could almost call the eitre first half of the anime filler since it was all about that stupid dog who JUST SO COINCIDENTALLY WAS IN THE AREA AND WAS DOING BAD STUFF WHEN OUR MAIN CHARACTER WAS AROUND. Seriously, Re:Zero doesn't tell us if this is an everyday thing or not for the audience so we just assume it was put there, like the White Whale, to screw with Subaru Sambar and oh so coincidentally provide a platform to develop Rem and Ram. Great writing, yes.

Smoothly segueing from that, lets take our first step into the characters. Our MC Subaru Rex is...kind of stupid. Your enjoyment factor for this anime depends almost entirely on how much you can handle this guy. The anime is so obvious in its push for you to dislike him so that it can do a big turnover, that it somehow unironically makes him a dis-likeable character in general. As a character he's sort of fine. He serves his purpose as the anime's punching bag before being dragged off to do stuff he could have easily done it the anime gave him any sort of brain cells. What I don't understand, however, is his motivation. Why is he so obsessed with Emilia? What drives him to do stuff for her? The anime just plops him in the new world and they meet by sheer co-incidence. Would he have fallen for any other girl who walked by at the right place at the right time? The anime just sort of goes "Meh" on this issue and his incredibly imbecilic actions grow less convincing every episode. It would have been perfectly fine for him to be motivated by something like money and fame (or heck, even raw survival as in the case of Grimgar) before having him switch over motivations latter in the series but no. Subaru Pleo falls for Emilia at first sight and spends the rest of the anime being dragged around by the narrative with seemingly nothing else. If the anime gave him 30 more IQ points then we wouldn't have half the problems encountered and he would be less likely to get super angry like a child in every scene. The anime has him purposely make stupid, rash decisions not because it's natural for him, but because they needed to bring him to despair and make him an edgy fucboi. Seriously, why does he have such an edgy obsession with Emilia? In episode 12 when Juilus kisses Emilia's hand like a gentleman he gets seriously angry and the scene is not played for laughs. Anohter scene where a few more IQ points would have helped is the scene in episode 14 where he gets so pissed off at the city folk for disrespecting his waifu for resemblance to the witch. Any normal person would try and find out why there's such a stigma and see what exactly the whole deal is about the witch. He seriously knew about the witch from waaay earlier in the series but never tries to look into it. Instead he just embarrasses himself and gets pissed at others without actually doing anything. The anime doesn't want him to actually pause and think about anything since that would actually speed up the plot development. By the end of the show, I never grew to see him as a credible character. He's neither here nor there when it comes to being an MC of an isekai animebut, as I said, this anime lives and dies on him and your enjoyment with him.

The other characters are for the most part okay. Flashback scenes are always a safe way to develop characters and the anime used them quite effectively in doing so for Ram and Rem. Those two were some of the few characters whose actions actually made some sense whenever new resets occurred. I don't really have much to say about them since the anime centers around Subaru Justy but just by having consistent characters in this show already elevates it far above most other character driven stories. As for Emilia, I actually kind of feel bad for her. Not because of what happens in the story, of course. It's just that whenever she does something badass and actually kicks some butt in a satisfying manner, the anime tends to reset everything and make all her cool action parts null (I'm looking at you, episode 23). I actually really liked both as a character and as a person. Her personal philosophies, while not elaborated on, were shown to us through subtle ways as well as her direct actions. Scenes like her giving the witch's name to Subaru Levorg as a way of testing out the waters was quite a nice touch. She seriously has great potential but that is stymied by the way purposely hobbled and constrained structure of the show.

In fact, all the characters not called Subaru Viveo get shafted since the anime focuses on him and his resets. It can't afford to give any characters lasting development unless at very specific times because the anime knows it'll be wiped out. Whilst Rem and Ram can get away somewhat since their arc was permanent, Emilia and many others like the other contenders for the throne get very little. For example, Priscilla, as annoying of a bitch as she is, actually had a great character moment where she beat the everlasting shit out of Subaru Alycone (which, btw, was sooooo satisfying) when he was in his edgy phase and begging around for help. It just added so much to her character and showed us a lot of things like her pride in herself and her personal views. The anime, however, just blanket bombed this great scene as it did with the other scenes of Subaru Traviq having some pretty great interactions with the other throne challengers. Now you might say that it doesn't really matter since we were shown those scenes anyways but I disagree. It's simply lazy writing to move on believing your character is fleshed out after invalidating the very scene that fleshed them out. This is because its so simple to give us more. The anime waste so much time faffing about it could easily make new, scenes that stick around and show off the characters. Heck, they gave the main villain Petelguese more screentime than half the important cast and he was simply obnoxious and took way more time than necessary for the plot to advance.

The core problem of the show is that the storytelling isn't compelling. I know this anime is supposed to be a subversion of the isekai genre that has plagued us since the Second Impact of anime (Sword Art Online) occurred but it just doesn't succeed in giving us anything really new. I've seen dark, gritty shows where anyone can die at a moment's notice and I've seen the sort of character development Subaru Exiga gets in superior manga/anime. I can clearly see from the anime that the writer of the original self-published web novel was an ambitious person who clearly took a good look at the sorry state of affairs the isekai-ridden light novel medium had become and attempted to make something fresh and more grounded. I do believe he/she has succeeded in some of the aspects of the story but if there was something on a larger scale hidden in the original story, it clearly didn't carry over well into the anime adaptation (which, just by looking at the shot pacing of the show, was probably the case). As previously said, this show is almost self-indulgent in the way it attempts to surprise us and this can be seen in the total tone-deafness the show experiences many times. It never blends the cheerful parts well with the grittier parts since the characters and the situations they find themselves in are mostly silly and can problems can be solved in such simpler ways. Heck, the reason why Roswaal never shows up in situations isn't because he actually has stuff to do in the world like the show says - the world building is way to crappy for that - but it's because he's a literal walking/flying deux ex machina that could solve everything if he was there either with pure power or his brain.

Some final thoughts and lesser stuff I couldn't bother writing in a paragraph:
- The animation is consistent for the most part. There are parts where you can see White Fox flexing their muscles and hiring action animators for some really cool action scenes (like the part where the White Whale is charging the ground).
-Nothing really spoke out to me on the colour design and world design and it just looked really standardized. The mansion, the city, the forest all look really bog standard for a medieval-styled fantasy world. This isn't really a bad thing but if you want to make the subverted narrative interesting I'd also like to at least like to at least see something interesting.
- ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH THE CGI CROWDS AAARRRGGGHHH MY EEEYYYYEEESSS but seriously fire whoever made those 60fps abominations. The White WHale fight was nearly ruined when they constantly switched the mosnter from 3D to 2D.
- Music is normal as well. They never took advantage of the plethora of emotional scenes with some heavy music but it served its purpose. The second OP is seriously good though.
- Takahashi Rie was absolutely great and was the clear best seiyuu.
- Emilia is best girl. Rem's good but nowhere near the compassion and understanding Emilia brings with her.
- If there's one thing I did like from the constant resetting is the story between Emilia and Puck. Their relationship is kept mysterious but we see enough to get interested in the true nature of their contract.
- I wanted more of Beatrice. She's one of the characters shafted by the imbecilic amounts of resetting but I like her and her relationship with others and the way she is tied to the mansion is also quite compelling. I will actually watch season 2 if she gets any sort of larger role.
- Julius quickly became one of my favourite characters when he rightfully and satisfyingly beat the everlasting shit out of Subaru Levorg and called him out on his bullshit.
- The rest of the supporting cast like the royal selection candidates and their knights are surprisingly fine. The amount of personality they bring to the table and the unique dynamics they potentially provide whenever one of them shows up is somewhat immune to the resets. They were probably the one thing which held me back from dropping this in to the abyss that is the sub-4 scores (which is a big deal for me). Give me more of these guys please.
- Studio White Fox already had a successful and far superior series in the form of Steins;Gate and they at least drew inspiration from it. Unfortunately what made Steins;Gate so good cannot be found here. Steins;Gate spent its first half giving its characters development and motivations before thrusting our beloved characters into the dark, gritty story. Re;Zero doesn't have this luxury.

Re:Zero tried to be something fresh. Not original, but fresh. Did it succeed in doing so? Ehh kind of? After watching the absolute worse the genre can provide and then some more this show shows up with plenty of good ideas to turn things around. It didn't exactly execute all these ideas well but it also never really bored me like the incoherent mess that is Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (which I also reviewed #cheapplug). Overall it wasn't a very good experience as many have said but it isn't something to regret.

Thanks for reading!