Final Discussion
| Index | <== Episode 50 | [Episode 51] ==> |
Various Links:
MyAnimeList
Streaming:
Crunchyroll has the regular release available.
AppleTV has the regular individual episodes available.
Spoiler Rules:
-
As always, please be sure to tag any future content spoilers according to the r/Anime rules. There is likely to be first timer viewers here, and while discussing how previously seen content connects to content later down the road is interesting (be it later episodes or even Season 3), please be sure to properly spoiler tag anything mentioned! Let's make this a fun experience for everyone involved!
-
This also applies to cut content discussions, which I believe are fine to include for the sake of discussion, but should be properly tagged to avoid potentially spoiling viewers. Be mindful with how you present this information!
Story Arc Lengths for Discussion Purposes:
[Arc 1:] S1 Episode 1 – S1 Episode 3
[Arc 2:] S1 Episode 4 – S1 Episode 11
[Arc 3:] S1 Episode 12 – S2 Episode 1 (26)
[Arc 4:] S2 Episode 2 (27) – S2 Episode 25 (50)
[Arc 5 and later:] S3+
As always, if you have any suggestions for the Re:Watch, let me know!
by Theleux
18 Comments
To the Re:Zero source readers in this rewatch: First of all, thank you for behaving pretty great in this rewatch and properly spoiler tagging information that was only in the source material. That’s how it works in *rewatch* threads, but not in airing show discussion threads, which we’ll be in starting tomorrow for season 3. So I wanted to give you guys a friendly reminder ahead of the switch to hopefully save *you* the headache of getting a comment removed (and potentially getting hit with a tempban over).
[](#modsalute)
The Source Material Corner comment stickied to the top of airing show discussion threads is where *anything* that you could only know from being a source reader for the series goes no matter how “small” you think it is. Posting source content under a spoiler tag outside of this spot will not stop your comment from being removed, unlike how that was fine in this rewatch. Additionally, the Source Material Corner is *not* just a place for you guys to freely post spoilers, as future spoilers are still required to be properly spoiler tagged in there (this isn’t just to make it safe for the curious anime-onlies to click on it, this is also to prevent the ones of you source readers who aren’t fully caught up from accidentally stumbling into a spoiler for something you haven’t gotten to yet). To give a few examples of types of comments I’ve had to remove for belonging in the Source Material Corner since I became a mod back in March:
– “Oh the anime didn’t explain this well, here’s a better explanation from the LN” – Source Material Corner. If you’re trying to respond to a *specific* anime-only who’s confused about something using source info, I suggest making your comment explaining the thing in the SMC and then either 1) tagging said user in it or 2) responding to that person with a *link* to your comment in the SMC and keeping the description for it to something basic like “If you want further explanation, see my comment here.” **If you explicitly talk about how the anime cut content outside the SMC, even if it’s just while trying to direct someone to your SMC comment, that will get your comment outside the SMC removed.** Additionally, this includes content from the LNs that seasons 1 & 2 already skipped over, not just content season 3 specifically cuts, and also anything from side stories the anime *wouldn’t* touch on.
– “Huh, they changed this character’s eye color from how it was described in the LN?” – Source Material Corner. Using a super basic example here to get the point across, but yeah *any* sort of comparison between the source and the anime needs to go in the SMC, not just cut content.
– “Oh shit, I don’t remember [thing] being mentioned this early in the LN!” – Source Material Corner. Even if you just *forgot* it was actually mentioned this early, it’s better to err on the side of caution since not every mod has read the LNs for this and if we see a comment reported like this, we’ll hit it to be safe rather than sorry so it doesn’t spawn *actual* source talk in response.
– “Aww sweet, best boy/girl is *finally* here, can’t wait to see what the anime-onlies think of them.” – This one *depends*. If this new character has a good amount of screentime in their debut episode and/or looks like they’ll be important going forward, it should be fine (just don’t actually name the character if the anime hasn’t given out their name yet!). But if it’s a total surprise character who barely gets a line or two and doesn’t seem all that important in their debut episode, might want to hold off on that or comment it in the Source Material Corner. General hype about future events/characters is supposed to go in there.
– If you see a “What chapter(s) did this episode adapt?” question outside the Source Material Corner – Avoid answering it or just PM them the answer if you don’t want to leave them hanging, they’re going to be redirected to the SMC once a mod sees their comment and you don’t want to have your comment removed in the process.
If you have any further questions regarding why we’re so strict about this on /r/anime, please read [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1d60hdt/meta_thread_month_of_june_02_2024/l8y1gwn/) from a few months ago or ask on [the current meta thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/search?q=subreddit%3Aanime+title%3A%22Meta+Thread%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=year) I can of course answer questions here, but sometimes Reddit doesn’t tell me when someone’s replied to one of my comments, plus we generally want to keep this sort of talk in the meta threads.
**Re:Watcher** – anime only
I love pizza. I love burgers. Stew. A good mixed salad. Foods that are multiple things at once, all combining in in a single bite to something truly amazing. I also like multi tools, Swiss knives that can do more than one thing. I like versatile clothing that you can wear all year round and for multiple occasions. I like my trips to be efficient, to get multiple things done at the same time. And I like my media to incorporate as many aspects that I like as possible.
So you can imagine why I think Re:Zero is the best anime I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot, and I don’t think it’s the best because I’ve sworn allegiance to it or anything. I really wish to see an anime I’ll like even more than my favourite anime. But Re:Zero is just multiple complete shows in one. It touches so many genres, starting with fantasy and isekai of course, but also romance, action, horror, comedy, drama, SoL, mystery, psychological, coming-of-age, politics and many more. And it does each of them extremely well, some even exceptionally well. And it neither of them is a detriment to the other aspects, quite the contrary. Each aspect builds the other aspect up. Even if I’d rate all of them as just pretty good, the way they interact with each other just leaves me with a higher score than is even possible.
Re:Zero is my favourite fantasy and isekai, and close to my favourite romance. But another thing that’s really important to me is characters. Just like I’ll have fun anywhere I go if I have good company, I can be satisfied with quite a lot if only it has great characters. And Re:Zero has some of the best characters I’ve ever seen. Our protagonist, Subaru, is just amazing. I am not like Subaru, I differ in quite a few ways from him. But in many important ways, I feel like I *am* Subaru. Even his bad parts are written so well, so realistically that it’s unbelievable. What he goes through is relatable for anyone, and if it’s not, it’d at least encourage you to face your own humanity. Because Subaru is written as a human, with many faults and bad sides to him, and that’s simply amazing. It’s what makes his journey as great as it is.
The other main character is my favourite fictional female character. I love Emilia. I truly do. She’s pure and wonderful and cute and beautiful and fits so well with Subaru. I’ve always valued kindness the most in a person. If there is kindness, then everything is possible. If there is none, nothing is. And Emilia has more kindness than anyone I’ve seen. She has very human faults as well, but that just elevates her personality. It’s more to love about her. And on top of that, she has more personal strength than she realizes. She is the best.
But those are not the only ones. Every single character is written well. And we get to see that, see what they are about. The way they are introduced so naturally to us is exceptional. The cast is huge, but I could easily recite almost all of them from memory and tell you what those people are about. (Actually, let me try: Subaru, Emilia, Puck, Ram, Rem, Roswaal, Betty, Felt, Rom, Reinhard, Julius, Ferris, Al, Priscilla, Anastasia, Crusch, Ricardo, Mimi, Hetaro, Tivey, Wilhelm, Theresia, Russel, Marcos, Kadomon and family, Garf, Frederica, Petra, Otto, Ryuzu, Elsa, Meili, Petelgeuse, Regulus, Lye, Fortuna, Archi, Satella, Minerva, Echidna, Carmilla, Sekhmet, Daphne, Typhon, Hector, Pandora, Melakuera… That’s well over 40 people I think I know pretty well, and I’ve disregarded most people that only have one or two scenes so far.) What’s more, they all act like real human beings, and change and develop like real people. It’s just fantastic character writing.
Tappei has just put so much love and effort into all the writing, including the story writing and the world building, and you can tell. I particularly love how he’s taking inspiration from many different sources, both Japanese and Western media, then gives it his own unique spin. The love that’s been put into this anime shows, it’s overflowing. And the love White Fox put into it only contributes to it. The way they extended episodes to do the story justice is just beyond words for me. Especially in S2 they basically paid money to be able to deliver as much content to us as they did. They also dismissed OPs and EDs rather often to extend episodes, making their use of OPs and EDs a very special storytelling method. The direction often just does what it needs to do, but often enough it also goes above and beyond to have a scene hit particularly well, even with just very simple methods. The music is absolutely amazing with many incredibly unique standout tracks.
I’m rambling, but I can’t forget to talk about the stellar voice acting. Voice acting is usually pretty good in anime. But for this show, it’s exceptionally great. Yuusuke Kobayashi goes through everything as Subaru and his acting is just superb, he nails everything so perfectly. Rie Takahashi has my favourite voice of any VA, but she also has heaps of talent. She’s totally amazing and her voice control is almost unparalleled. Also, even if Subaru is put into many more situations to be able to show off his dramatic voice, she also excels in her dramatic voice acting. But I’ll leave it at that, because if I’d start talking about Inori Minase, Rie Murakawa, Arai Satomi, Takehito Koyasu, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and everyone else, I’d never stop. There are so many amazing VAs in this show and they are all performing at their best. Although I think I do have to mention how Matsuoka gave what might have been the best performance of his career – my mind still trembles thinking about it.
I’ll finish up the rambling in a second comment, I suppose.
Well, let’s go ahead and thank some people.
Shimmering-Sky, your contributions were as incredible as always.
u/Urgnu-the-Gnu, you always delivered the goods. Your comments were often the most thorough and I really appreciate the commitment to your craft.
u/Great_Mr_L, it was fun to see you react to the second season as a first timer.
thekoreansun, the analysis you provided were often some of the best of the entire series.
baseballlover723, I loved the way you provided both first timer sections, breaktime sections, and rewatcher sections.
ussgordoncaptain2, I loved the speculation you always provided in your comments. Hearing what you would do if you were certain characters was very interesting.
u/Brief-Fig-7506, I am extremely thankful I got to meet you during this rewatch. Your comments were always interesting and did a lot to add a ton of personality to these threads. You are now someone I proudly consider to be a friend.
Lastly of course I want to thank anyone I didn’t name plus all the lurkers who helped make this rewatch a success. You are truly unsung heroes.
Before this rewatch began, I was absolutely dreading it. Not only because of the shear length of it (heh, heh), but because I knew there was going to be a lot of engagement. But even despite knowing I would probably have more fun than anticipated, I still didn’t expect it to be as fun as it was.
There are certain memories associated with this rewatch that I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget the first episode and the amount of traction it caused. I’ll never forget episode 13 and the discussion it resulted in. I’ll never forget episodes 15 and 18 for the simple fact they were absolutely incredible episodes. I’ll never forget the season 1 finale and us reflecting on the events preceding it. I’ll never forget season 2 episode 4 and talking about Subaru and his life growing up. I’ll never forget the season 2 mid finale and us talking about the witches, specifically the amount of people who ranked them (Minerva best witch, by the way). I’ll never forget the joy on everyone’s face when Subaru finally kissed Emilia and it felt like she was able to find that closure that escaped her all this time. And of course, I’ll never forget the last handful of episodes that really put a spotlight on Beatrice and what a great character she is. And Subaru too, I suppose.
These moments that were made are all little From Zero moments that serve to fuel our existence. These are moments in time that we will never forget, no matter how many Return by Deaths we may have to endure. If life could be as beautiful as this rewatch, then what a truly blessed life it is.
One might rather hear thank you once than sorry over and over again. Well, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you, for this is truly an immeasurable experience.
**Re:Watcher**
It occurred to me, at around Episode 7 of this Re:Watch, how much time I was putting into writing down my thoughts. Specifically, I think that it was the scene in which Subaru realizes how much he loves everyone else at Roswaal Manor, as I was writing down how great the voice performances and the piano version of STYX HELIX were, when I realized… I was falling in love with Re:ZERO all over again. The music, the performances, the world, the characters, and *Subaru*: the miracle worker, the reason that it all comes together, the star that burns brighter than any in that shimmering sky.
Believe it or not, I didn’t think all that much of Re:ZERO during my first watch of Season 1. I thought it was a fun time and all, but my enjoyment of the story was mostly passive. I appreciated the emotional highs and character moments, but they didn’t fully resonate with me. It was only when I started to read what came next in the WN that the brilliance of it all just ended up… dawning on me. The fact that every character has a story and that all of their stories matter in context of the overall narrative. The unlimited potential that Return by Death possesses and the many ways in which it is explored. And at the end of it all, the immense catharsis that arrives when Subaru finally overcomes the impossible. I couldn’t believe that a single story could do so much. I still can’t fully believe it, to be honest, because every new arc has only continued to challenge the way that I view the series as a whole.
If there’s one thing that Re:ZERO does that I don’t think I’ve seen any other stories do as well, it’s the *follow-through*: the ascent from the depths, the turning point, when Subaru becomes his truest self and brings out the truest versions of those around him in the process. It’s one thing to be able to write a story that puts its protagonist through so many layers of hell and gets the reader/viewer to wonder how things will ever get better… but to, continually, transform that into a tale of self-empowerment and self-improvement that somehow manages to iterate upon all that came before it? That, to me, is what makes Re:ZERO so special. Frankly, this may also explain why Summer Time Rendering didn’t hit quite as hard for me as it did for others: it had the trademark mystery and suspense that all good time-looping stories start out with, but when it came time for things to start turning around, I felt that the show was too eager to move on from the emotional core that it had developed in its first half. There are ways to ramp up the action levels of an anime without sacrificing the emotional weight of the events that preceded that action, and I suspect that Re:ZERO Season 3 will end up becoming a quintessential example of how to achieve just that.
All told, I think I spent around 200 hours writing my comments for this Re:Watch, which is *not* something I’d expected before we started. I will admit that there were moments in the middle when I didn’t know whether it would be worth it to dedicate as much effort as I had to this endeavor. Surely, the things that I’ve written couldn’t be contributing much. But ultimately, even if my writings were nothing but echoes into the void, I’m really glad that I decided to stick with it. Through this whole process, I somehow came to appreciate this series more than ever before. And I’ve begun thinking that I might try to participate in the upcoming Season 3 discussion threads as well!
Thank you, Tappei Nagatsuki, for writing my favorite story of all time.
Thank you, White Fox, for adapting it with the level of passion and consideration that it deserves.
Thank you to the entire cast of Re:ZERO for bringing the characters I have appreciated and cherished to life.
And to everyone who has participated in this Re:Watch… thank you for taking the time to read what I’ve written here. I appreciate it. I really do.
—
**Fan Art of the Episode:** [*Congratulations on Season 2!*](https://files.catbox.moe/ii070d.jpg) by Yomohiro (July 9th, 2020)
**Source:** [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rb_crr/status/1280920094348984320)
**Bonus Comic:** [*Kept Her Waiting*](https://files.catbox.moe/3rqimg.jpg) by sunako (October 30th, 2016)
**Source:** [Twitter](https://twitter.com/sni8_/status/792565011516301312)
**First:Timer Starting Over in Another Rewatch, subbed**
So yeah, as I stated yesterday, absolutely *love* this series so far. I still can’t believe that the me of 8 years ago watched the first episode and then just went “Eh, maybe some other time” just for it to take me *this* long to get back into it, but given how much I love discussing shows I’m watching for the first time alongside rewatches on here, I suppose it was well worth the wait. I think the series just got *better* as it went on – I especially love how Roswaal’s challenge in this most recent arc meant Subaru *didn’t* rely on Return by Death as much as he normally does to brute force his problems, and also that Return by Death didn’t help him save Rem from getting Gluttony’d (seriously curious as to how she’ll get properly brought back to us, I assume that’s for season 3 to answer? [](#mugiwait)) since both things were pretty big mix-ups to the usual “formula” set up by season 1.
Anyways if anyone cares, the following is how I rank the OPs and EDs so far (counting anything MAL considers an OP/ED other than the instances when OPs were used as EDs):
**OPs:** Long shot > Realize > Redo = Paradox Paradigm
**EDs:** Styx Helix > Door = Believe in you > Yuki no Hate ni Kimi no Na wo > Stay Alive = Anata no Shiranai Koto > Memento > White White Snow
So uh, Gintama’s I Wanna Be… [🤝](#brothersinarms) Long shot → Ending up my favorite OP in their respective show when I was absolutely *positive* a different one I already knew about before starting the show was going to be my favorite. In Gintama’s case, I thought Sakura Mitsutsuki would be my favorite OP (the full size is still my favorite *song* to come out of Gintama, but at TV-size it’s just ever so slightly *off* to me), and in Re:Zero’s, I thought it would be Realize. Nope, Long shot’s a fucking *banger* I have been nearly unable to stop listening to for several days at this point in time.
Also, Otto best boy and Patrasche best girl (or Emilia, if you made me pick one who can speak Japanese). Subaru is lucky to have them supporting him.
As far as season 3 goes, I comment in airing threads the same way I do with rewatches (so, my live reactions with screenshots), only difference being I’ll obviously not be right on time since I have to actually *watch* the episode after it comes out. Exactly *how* late I am also depends on how busy I am on a given Wednesday – and also, barring tomorrow’s super long episode because pausing halfway through to watch another show is silly, if I can’t watch later episodes *right* on time, sorry but I’ll be prioritizing Sengoku Youko S2 whenever I end up with time to watch one of my Wednesday seasonals. Funny how *both* of White Fox’s shows this season air on the same day, huh. Anyways, if you want to make sure you don’t miss my reactions in the middle of the seasonal threads that will almost certainly be *huge*, let me know and I can tag you whenever I comment my S3 reactions. [](#saesmile)
Thanks so much for hosting, u/Theleux! [](#michaelwink)
(One last thing, the comment I alluded to making yesterday that’s addressed to source readers is a separate one I’ve made [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1ftrmh6/rezero_starting_life_in_another_world_rewatch/lptvsm0/), so that’s where you can find it.)
**Commentary on Tappei’s storytelling (negative)**
Each arc follows a roughly similar structure
Step 1, Introduce bad event
step 2 Subaru identify’s bad guy
Step 3 Subaru gather’s Dues ex Machina ally to defeat it typically by obtaining a plot device
Step 4 kick ass
Arc 1 was Talisman lost>Elsa>Reinhard
Arc 2 was Dog bite>Rem and Meili > Rem and Roswaal (What makes Arc 2 interesting IMO is that the dog was almost an irrelvant plot device, the central conflict of the arc was Rem vs Subaru while the dog… existed I guess)
Arc 3 was the Witch’s cult attacking Emilia>Betalguese>Crusch subjugation army (With white whale as plot device)
Arc 4 was Great rabbit and Elsa>Lord Roswaal>Beatrice+Garfiel (Garfiel was a cool moment for sure, but Beatrice was definitely Deus ex Beatrice)
I feel like plot driven narratives are not Tappei’s strength, he does definitely have a strong suit toward character driven narrative though
**The characters in this story are mostly great**
if we start with the main mather’s domain characters the least interesting is probably Ram but even she has a lot of depth past loving Roswaal as was evident in season 2 part 2.
Rem and Garfiel feel like surprisngly similar characters in all honesty, highly emotionally unstable people who are quick to judge and willing to go to extreme lengths based on a hairs trigger.
Puck is the least interseting side character, and yes he really doesn’t have much to him other than his fanatical devotion to emilia.
One thing I do comment on quite frequently is how every single character is extremely mentally unstable. If we go down the list of mather’s domain characters is Otto the most emotionally stable of the bunch?
**this story might be a good visual novel**
You know something I’ve thought of is that RBD loops make a lot of sense in VN format. Video game save scumming is already a thing and just make there be a RBD button in your video game to go back to the checkpoint. a VN would make an ideal medium for this, as you can unlcok new dialog options by playing different loops.
Most visual novels have multiple routes but with RBD we can have 1 golden route that is the only ending and every other ending is “lol you RBD”
**Royal selction**
The royal seleciton is clearly the main thrust of the story but surprisingly in the 4 arcs we’ve had it’s only made an appearence exactly once, for the arc 3. Arc 4 was almost entirely not about royal selection and instead felt like a “roswaals backstory arc” Cramming a few other character’s backstories in most notably Emilia.
Of the 5 Royal selection candidates here’s how I’d rate them in terms of “Probability of being a decent ruler given non ORV”
Tier “Would actually make a good leader”
Crusch, Anatasia
— gap—
Tier “a terrible leader but no worse than many leaders that have run real countries”
Priscilla, Emilia
Priscilla is notably a better leader in terms of experience but as Emilia gains more experience she is likely to surpsass priscilla in terms of leadership ability. Since Priscilla’s decision making is poor given what we know of her.
“tier I”m going to hunt the dragon before I serve you”
Felt
It’s unfortunate that mr cheat powers himself Reinhard decided to go with Felt. Felt is not a good leader at fucking all.
**Return by death note thoughts**
Return by death note gives me appreciation for prose, god prose is so hard to write so I just give up. This is a rewrite fanfiction that goes over “what if subaru *wasn’t* stupid”
One thing I noticed is that every story ends up being bootleg dr.stone. That time I got reincarnated as a slime, A conneticut yankee in king arthur’s court and Return by death note all have that Bootleg dr stone energy.
Modern science is too OP and it’s really easy to remember basic formula to make yourself OP.
I feel like when I’m writing the story I realize just how much Tappei relies on stock phrases to give characters personalities, it made it way easier to write characters in text without having to identify them over and over. You knew enlongated vowel=roswwaal and “i suppose”=beatrice.
Tappei wrote such compelling characters and it’s weird that the main thing I did was try to make the plot change while the characters were mostly staying the same.
Return by death note isn’t a very popular fanfiction as evidence by the comments/post but it still has some people who like it at least. It’s definitely one of those things I’ve written where I learn a great deal about how fiction behaves differently from reality.
**This being an anime added much less**
If I looke at the best and worst episodes of the show almsot all the episodes I dislike were all the high animation ones (Season 2 part 2 and the ending of season 1) because TBH the action in this show is below par, of the 13 anime I watched this season I watched around 10 actionish anime
of those 10 I’d put Re:zero around 8th in action? I was behind Ossasan newbie adventuerer, Wistoria, Elusive Samurai, why does Nobody Remember me in this world, and That time I got reincarnated as a slime I’d put the animation on par with I parry Everything, No longer allowed in another world and the strongest magician in the demon lords army was a human.
**Rewatching made the show way better **
Rewatching honestly might be the only reason I enjoyed the show as much as I did. The show is a very information dense show where solving the mystery with Subaru is a big deal. I ended up mostly dropping discussing the seasonals I was watching to participate in the thread.
The show in general is very much not a show I can binge watch at 1.5x speed and get all the details I need. It’s more of a “watch really slowly take lots of notes and pay attention to every minor detail” otherwise you’ll do everyone’s favorite faceplant and miss that in season 1 episode 11 Ram revealed the Mabeast attacker.
That was such an inexcusible faceplant IMO.
**Rewatch culture is really different from seasonal culture**
Rewatches encourage writing long posts about a single episode, I obviously won’t be able to keep the same format in seasonal threads, but I figure that if I cut out the time consuming reacting to the episode and only write the “spec/what I would do if I were subaru” I will faceplant extra hard but I’ll get a post out on time.
This show as a seasonal is going to be a way worse experience than as a rewatch, I wonder what shows have each type. Wistoria is a good example of a great Seasonal that would make a poor rewatch, and Stein’s gate/Re:Zero are probably the opposite (I really should participate in a steins:gate rewatch to see if my memory of all the plot holes/continuity errors holds)
I really enjoy rewatch culture but it’s clear that not every show is well suited toward it. The shows that are good for their stories rather than art/animation/sound design are far better rewatches. It’s also clear that episodic shows would make relatively poor rewatches as a lot of the fun in rewatches seems to be thinking of how the characters will act next.
**How i would be a rewatcher in a diffeerent season**
So it’s funny I think if I could tell myself one thing it woudl be to keep and maintain a series of text document where you go over every single event and just write down “What the story explicitly said”
no inferences nothing like that just what has been explicitly said or shown to the viewer. It’s actually a lot of information/episode which is one thing this show does, it’s liket he opposite of mushoku tensei, MT had what viewers called “5 minute episodes” where the episodes felt like they ended so quickly
Re zero has 2 hour episodes where a single episode has 2 hours worth of content crammed into 1 episode. this means the show really is so dense with information you can write >10k characters on a single episode no problem.
I’m not sure what to say overall about Re:Zero. If I started it would probably end up longer than a dissertation and I don’t have the time for it at the moment, so I just thought I thank you all. Thank you everybody who participated in the rewatch and thank you Theleux for making it happen!
Won’t tag anyone, but hope you read it. Special Thanks to:
Great_Mr_L – your posts when you were a rewatcher were very detailed and great. When you were a first timer they were interesting to read and you had some good speculations
Holofan4life – some of your personal jokes really made me laugh and I really appreciated how you read comments that were posted late, and that you came up with questions to ask for each episode.
baseballlover723 – really easy to read format and a lot of good information that was skipped. Amazing effort with trying not to spoil anything and I appreciate that you would try to answer my questions about Re:Zero. Because of you I’m really considering to binge the WN if I can get like 2 weeks off at some point to do so.
Urgnu-the-Gnu – Sugoooku good posts and engagement.
ussgordoncaptain2 – your posts were by far the most interesting to read as you had the best speculations. I was always looking forward to your cooking, although at times you had some takes that made me angry, but overall it was interesting and at times mind blowing.
This was my first time taking a look at a rewatch and it was great. Although it was far too time consuming and I was not prepared for it, I did enjoy it a lot though. I was also a bit down at the time the rewatch started, I felt that there is no one I can discuss my hobbies with, so I decided to engage on reddit a bit in May and see how it goes. You could say that the rewatch was almost perfectly timed. This rewatch lifted up my spirits as it made me realise that yes there is hope to find people online to talk to about stuff provided you put in enough time and effort without making massive achievements.
I’m going to start off with some rankings of mine. First, here is my top 10 favorite Re:Zero episodes.
1) Season 1 Episode 15
2) Season 1 Episode 18
3) Season 2 Episode 4
4) Season 2 Episode 23
5) Season 1 Episode 11
6) Season 2 Episode 15
7) Season 1 Episode 25
8) Season 2 Episode 11
9) Season 2 Episode 24
10) Season 2 Episode 25
Next, here are my top 10 favorite episodes of all time.
1) Episode 19 Toradora
2) Episode 63 Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
3) Episodes 25 and 26 Cowboy Bebop
4) Episode 24 Steins;Gate
5) Episode 21 Clannad: After Story
6) Episode 60 Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
7) Episode 21 Toradora
8) Season 1 Episode 15 Re:Zero
9) Season 1 Episode 18 Re:Zero
10) Episode 8 Uma Musume Season 2
It feels weird to no longer have an episode of Spice and Wolf in my top 10 given it’s my second favorite anime of all time.
Lastly, here’s how I would rank Re:Zero as far as top 25 favorite animes of all time.
1. Toradora
2. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
3. Spice and Wolf
4. Cowboy Bebop
5. Kaguya-sama
6. Nichijou
7. Clannad/Clannad: After Story
8. Steins;Gate
9. **Re:Zero**
10. Odd Taxi
11. Eureka Seven
12. Spy X Family
13. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
14. Attack on Titan
15. Cells At Work
16. Bocchi The Rock
17. Revolutionary Girl Utena
18. Samurai Champloo
19. Lycoris Recoil
20. 86
21. Fullmetal Alchemist
22. Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt
23. FLCL: Alternative
24. Interview with Monster Girls
25. Monster Musume
First off, it pains me that Eureka Seven has fallen out of my top 10 given what an influence it has on anime fandom. I would not be an anime fan if it wasn’t for that show, so it’ll always be top 10 in my heart. Second, I figured by I want to say episode 15 that the show was going to be in my top 10. It just was a matter of placement.
I think it’s funny that I have more season 2 episodes than season 1 episodes in my top 10 best Re:Zero episodes list because I thought the second season, mainly the second half, was somewhat of a slog to get through. That is until the climax which is honestly one of the best climaxes I’ve ever seen. I think what killed it was the episodes in the second half being almost all 29 minutes and 30 seconds when a lot of them die not need to be. They could’ve easily had been 26 or 27 minutes. For as good of a pacing this show has, it felt like it got long in the tooth after a while. By the end, it felt self-indulgent and masturbatory.
The show really started cooking with the cliff scene from season 1 episode 7 when Subaru was in such despair. That was really the first time that you really felt that Subaru was suffering, which is arguably the backbone of the series. From there, it was off to the races and the show did not look back.
I don’t think there was a single stinker in the entirety of Re:Zero’s catalogue. That is extremely impressive given we’re talking 50 episodes. Even shows like Toradora or Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood had at least one bad episode, so goes this show to have none is commendable. This might be the best series ratio wise between the amount of good episodes Vs the amount of bad episodes, of which I don’t think there are any. Even the mediocre ones have some great qualities about it that makes it a worthwhile investment of your time.
I think my favorite arc of the show was probably the start of the royal selection process to when Subaru got his head out of his ass. That to me was when the show was at its peak, because there was enough that was already built up to play off of while also the show was still so new you could have fun with Subaru’s character and what a fish out of water he was. I almost kinda wish that Subaru’s behavior would’ve carried over into the second season, but there was probably no way that could’ve sustained itself. You don’t want to run the risk of making the audience actively hate your protagonist.
Best character is probably Rem, with an honorable mention going to Emilia. Best episode is episode 15, while the best climax is the last three episodes of season 2. The best idea in season 1 was having Subaru being this flawed character, whereas the best idea in season 2 was having the witches as their own seven deadly sins. In particular, I thought Echidna really carried a lot of things in terms of being a foil to the other characters. She was tremendous. One last thing I want to mention is how I like the idea of season 2 part 2 being heavy on flashbacks. Reminds me of an Ikuhara work and how that was one of his specialties. I just wish there was more substance to the flashbacks, or rather they didn’t do it all in a row of each other. Some flashbacks were better than others, like Garfiel as a kid or the Beatrice one from episode 24, but I just wish we didn’t go through a long stretch where it was nothing but that. It kinda took away from all the other stuff going on.
In terms of a grade, I’d give this show a 9 out of 10. A 9.5 for the first season and an 8.5 for the second season. It’s kinda hard to give it an official grade knowing that there is more of the show to come. It’s like me assigning a grade to Kaguya-sama which is arguably my favorite comedy of all time: it’s definitely in my top 10, but we’re not even finished yet.
When I started this rewatch, I was extremely curious how it would turn out. I mean, I’m binging two other shows for two other rewatches. And not only do I add a third, it’s double the length of both of them combined? But I’m glad I finally got to watching the show so I can be caught up in time for season 3. This was a great decision on my part.
When I look back on my 2024, this will probably be one of my highlights. Much like the Fullmetal Alchemist rewatch was one of my highlights of 2023. It just served as a nice distraction from everything else going on. And though I spend 4 hours on an episode writing comments that’ll only get 5 or less up votes, I rest easy knowing that I got to experience the show with you guys.
And really, sometimes that’s all that matters.
I don’t really have much to say overall. I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts (and one day I’ll catch up on all the comments I missed over Season 2) and I even discovered some new things on this Re:Watch as well. I obviously love Re:Zero. I’d say I said about 80% of what I wanted to say. With the missing parts being things I just didn’t think of the right words, or I just forgot about at the time.
If anyone still has any questions about Re:Zero, I can finally talk pretty freely (during the Re:Watch I tried to avoid clarifying some things if it was reasonable to assume that it could be addressed later), so ask away if something still doesn’t make sense to you.
Someone mentioned if I was gonna post my tier list. It won’t be here at the start, but I might edit it in. It probably isn’t very interesting though. I’m not a huge fan of ranking things in general. To me, things are either good enough or they’re not, and all of Re:Zero is good enough.
I’ll be quite excited to be a first time watcher in Season 3. Will I be able to notice things early by paying attention? I’m not sure. For the first 2 seasons of Re:Zero I sure didn’t, but I wasn’t watching it nearly as analytically as I will be this time. And watching it weekly will allow for me to actually take the time to think about things and theorize, instead of just hitting next episode and getting it explained to me (and Subaru). This will also be the first anime that I’ll watch weekly (I hate frequent waiting, I generally much prefer 1 big long wait to many small waits). So I look forward to seeing you all in the discussion threads. I’ll almost certainly be quite late to those discussions as I don’t have CrunchyRoll and the episodes come out in my morning, so I’ll probably only be able to watch it after work anyways.
So here are some stats about my comments, since I like stats and I can actually calculate them with my custom markdown program (this was quite a bit of fun to write, there are still some things I want to do to enhance it (the stats section in general was really quite the hack), so hopefully it’ll be even better when it’s time to Re:Watch Re:Zero in [4 years](#bruh)).
###Overall Stats
Note that comment faces are unique only within an episode or arc, but for screenshots and clips, it’s the first appearance of it chronologically (also I’m not 100% sure I implemented this correctly, I only worked on this over the last 2 days (and mostly yesterday) and checking it’s correctness is difficult)
name | words | avg words | spoilers | avg spoilers | comment faces | avg comment faces | unique comment faces | avg unique comment faces | screen shots | avg screen shots | unique screen shots | avg unique screen shots | unique clips | avg unique clips
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | —
Total | 63,771 | 1,226 | 529 | 10.17 | 205 | 3.94 | 122 | 2.35 | 3,457 | 66.48 | 3,284 | 63.15 | 121 | 2.33
Arc OVA | 2,302 | 1,151 | 21 | 10.5 | 10 | 5.0 | 8 | 4.0 | 127 | 63.5 | 121 | 60.5 | 4 | 2.0
Arc 1 | 3,766 | 1,255 | 54 | 18.0 | 14 | 4.67 | 11 | 3.67 | 124 | 41.33 | 113 | 37.67 | 19 | 6.33
Arc 2 | 7,740 | 967 | 65 | 8.12 | 57 | 7.12 | 45 | 5.62 | 405 | 50.62 | 399 | 49.88 | 15 | 1.88
Arc 3 | 18,596 | 1,239 | 129 | 8.6 | 45 | 3.0 | 34 | 2.27 | 975 | 65.0 | 937 | 62.47 | 32 | 2.13
Arc 4 | 31,367 | 1,306 | 260 | 10.83 | 79 | 3.29 | 62 | 2.58 | 1,826 | 76.08 | 1,714 | 71.42 | 51 | 2.12
###Episode Stats
name | words | spoilers | comment faces | unique comment faces | screen shots | unique screen shots | unique clips
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | —
Episode #1 | 1,198 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 28 | 3
Episode #2 | 1,564 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 46 | 42 | 5
Episode #3 | 1,004 | 23 | 9 | 7 | 47 | 43 | 11
Episode #4 | 1,364 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 68 | 65 | 4
Episode #5 | 1,024 | 11 | 18 | 18 | 77 | 77 | 6
Episode #6 | 652 | 5 | 16 | 16 | 51 | 50 | 2
Episode #7 | 1,406 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 40 | 40 | 0
Episode #8 | 871 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 54 | 54 | 1
Episode #9 | 1,062 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 39 | 39 | 1
Episode #10 | 389 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 16 | 0
Episode #11 | 972 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 59 | 58 | 1
OVA Memory Snow | 1,274 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 58 | 56 | 2
Episode #12 | 747 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 45 | 0
Episode #13 | 1,828 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 53 | 52 | 1
Episode #14 | 1,020 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 72 | 69 | 1
Episode #15 | 1,111 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 41 | 5
Episode #16 | 1,329 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 94 | 93 | 1
Episode #17 | 1,250 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 77 | 75 | 5
Episode #18 | 2,206 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 116 | 105 | 5
Episode #19 | 1,077 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 40 | 37 | 3
Episode #20 | 900 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 42 | 42 | 0
Episode #21 | 1,488 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 77 | 74 | 4
Episode #22 | 547 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 35 | 34 | 0
Episode #23 | 1,289 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 83 | 79 | 0
Episode #24 | 1,124 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 75 | 72 | 2
Episode #25 | 1,092 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 62 | 58 | 2
OVA The Frozen Bond | 1,028 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 69 | 65 | 2
Episode #26 | 1,588 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 62 | 61 | 3
Episode #27 | 744 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 51 | 49 | 1
Episode #28 | 1,362 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 84 | 82 | 2
Episode #29 | 1,471 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 42 | 1
Episode #30 | 878 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 81 | 77 | 1
Episode #31 | 1,387 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 73 | 70 | 3
Episode #32 | 1,227 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 80 | 76 | 0
Episode #33 | 1,082 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 85 | 81 | 3
Episode #34 | 1,743 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 105 | 100 | 5
Episode #35 | 823 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 47 | 41 | 2
Episode #36 | 880 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 73 | 73 | 2
Episode #37 | 1,329 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 52 | 2
Episode #38 | 2,589 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 83 | 81 | 3
Episode #39 | 975 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 47 | 43 | 1
Episode #40 | 1,197 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 46 | 46 | 1
Episode #41 | 1,446 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 81 | 72 | 3
Episode #42 | 937 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 77 | 76 | 1
Episode #43 | 1,622 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 84 | 82 | 2
Episode #44 | 829 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 56 | 55 | 2
Episode #45 | 1,178 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 74 | 71 | 1
Episode #46 | 1,091 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 74 | 72 | 1
Episode #47 | 1,070 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 63 | 55 | 1
Episode #48 | 2,891 | 36 | 6 | 6 | 142 | 135 | 5
Episode #49 | 1,218 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 124 | 95 | 5
Episode #50 | 1,398 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 93 | 88 | 3
###Top 5 Episodes Stats
rank | words | spoilers | comment faces | screen shots | unique screen shots | unique clips
— | — | — | — | — | — | —
1 | Episode #48: **2,891** | Episode #48: **36** | Episode #5: **18** | Episode #48: **142** | Episode #48: **135** | Episode #3: **11**
2 | Episode #38: **2,589** | Episode #3: **23** | Episode #6: **16** | Episode #49: **124** | Episode #18: **105** | Episode #5: **6**
3 | Episode #18: **2,206** | Episode #28: **22** | Episode #8: **10** | Episode #18: **116** | Episode #34: **100** | Episode #49: **5**
4 | Episode #13: **1,828** | Episode #1: **19** | Episode #3: **9** | Episode #34: **105** | Episode #49: **95** | Episode #48: **5**
5 | Episode #34: **1,743** | Episode #34: **16** | Episode #36: **8** | Episode #16: **94** | Episode #16: **93** | Episode #34: **5**
###Bottom 5 Episodes Stats (values that are all 0 are omitted)
rank | words | spoilers | screen shots | unique screen shots
— | — | — | — | —
52 | Episode #10: **389** | Episode #8: **3** | Episode #10: **17** | Episode #10: **16**
51 | Episode #22: **547** | Episode #10: **3** | Episode #1: **31** | Episode #1: **28**
50 | Episode #6: **652** | Episode #44: **3** | Episode #22: **35** | Episode #22: **34**
49 | Episode #27: **744** | Episode #49: **3** | Episode #9: **39** | Episode #19: **37**
48 | Episode #12: **747** | Episode #7: **4** | Episode #7: **40** | Episode #9: **39**
###Top 5 Comment Faces by Arc
name | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
— | — | — | — | — | —
Total | [used 13 times](#ptsd) | [used 11 times](#aliens) | [used 7 times](#healthypasstimes) | [used 6 times](#etotamadunno) | [used 5 times](#terror)
Arc OVA | [used 3 times](#ptsd)
Arc 1 | [used 2 times](#etotamadunno) | [used 2 times](#aliens) | [used 2 times](#ptsd)
Arc 2 | [used 3 times](#ptsd) | [used 3 times](#terror) | [used 2 times](#lolifightsback) | [used 2 times](#abandonthread) | [used 2 times](#salute)
Arc 3 | [used 6 times](#aliens) | [used 4 times](#ptsd) | [used 2 times](#lewd) | [used 2 times](#disagree) | [used 2 times](#toradorasalute)
Arc 4 | [used 4 times](#awe) | [used 4 times](#healthypasstimes) | [used 3 times](#bruh) | [used 3 times](#morethanonewaifu) | [used 2 times](#faito)
Thank you to all the participants; rewatchers and first timers alike, for joining this journey back through the Re:Zero series (from the start!)
I enjoyed reading the deeply insightful write-ups from those who clearly adore the series, as well as those sharing their initial reactions to all the different events, both big and small. Seeing the amount of responses for each thread was a delight, I am glad the participation rate seemed to hold on quite well the whole way through. I hope at the very least this was able to revigorate any lost enthusiasm for the series all these years after the second season ended.
Look forward to the new season starting tomorrow, and make sure to switch back into the regular discussion thread mode for the subreddit. Until next time! (?)
****Overall thoughts:****
I love this anime. Rewatched it so many times. And I’ll be watching S3 weekly, so I’m thrilled for that. This is my favourite anime (tied with AOT, Bleach, and JJK). But including the novel and side stories, this is my number one series.
I love the themes, character development, and emotional impact of this story. This story and these characters deeply impacted me. Subaru’s growth, Crusch’s way of life, Betty’s loneliness, Emilia’s journey, and many more of them have been unforgettable to me. And there’s a lot of amazing stuff in the future as well.
I can go on for ages talking about this anime. But nothing else is coming to mind right now.
This rewatch has been really fun and enjoyable.
****TOP 3 CHARACTERS:****
1. Subaru
2. Crusch
3. Sekhmet
****TOP 3 EPISODES:****
1. 1×18 – From zero
2. 2×13 – The sounds that make you want to cry
3. 1×17 – Disgrace in the extreme
****TOP 3 SOUNDTRACKS:****
1. [The past’s destination](https://youtu.be/eCc6suoQTNU?si=VmW3o0x_IUBfABbo)
2. [Hymne of despair and atonement](https://youtu.be/0Ur4x5sxMZI?si=iwH75D9hb3VMMiI-)
3. [Violent Decay](https://youtu.be/u-M-qWeJ048?si=vy11i31G3NHLUUyv)
****TOP 3 CANDIDATES (BASED ON HOW MUCH I LIKE THEM AS CANDIDATES):****
1. Crusch
2. Emilia
3. Anastasia
**PART 2 IN REPLIES**
**Rewatcher for Season 1, First-Timer for Everything Else**
Re:Zero remains one of my favorite modern isekai. I remember loving the first season as it aired and this rewatch has reminded me a lot about how much I loved it. I am thankful for the opportunity to catch up with the remainder of Re:Zero before Season 3 airs.
Put simply, Re:Zero is just good. The characters are all quite interesting and well-developed. Subaru makes for a great protagonist to follow and watch grow. The rest of the cast is likewise great and I appreciate how the characters get to have their development continue over multiple arcs as they remain important to the story. The writing is enjoyable in general and the characters all immediately have good chemistry. Subaru’s ability to reset the timeline is such an ingenious power that lets the series go all out in creating different time loops to explore the mysteries of what all is happening in the world at that time. The series also manages to deliver some extremely impressive emotional moments. Episodes 11, 18, 29, and 49 all stood out as particular highlights in that regard. And while Re:Zero doesn’t usually focus on action scenes, it does contain some really well done action scenes when it needs to.
A large part of what makes Re:Zero enjoyable to me is that it avoids so many of the pitfalls of modern isekai. Subaru doesn’t feel like a generic self-insert. While the series certainly is harem-like in that many of the arcs result in yet another girl now liking Subaru, it doesn’t feel like it goes too far. Lugnica is a very well fleshed-out world that doesn’t suffer from the curse of being “just like a video game.” While Subaru certainly gains a lot of power in S2, I’m not sure I’d definitively describe him as being overpowered enough to steamroll all threats. At least, I hope it won’t be that way in S3.
If I had any complaint, it would be that I felt like S2 lagged a bit compared to S1. It’s not surprising since S2 adapted much fewer books than S1 did. Don’t get me wrong, S2 was still great, but it was noticeably slower and I did get a bit tired of being stuck in the same place, even though I know that was the main thematic point of S2.
Even so, Re:Zero is still as great as I remembered. In fact, it was often better now that I could pick up on all the foreshadowing in the season I rewatched. It was also great being able to learn more about the source material from others in these threads. That helped to shed a lot of light on the series.
I’m looking forward to watching S3 now. If it maintains about the same level of quality as what we’ve seen here, I know it will be great.
**Score: 9/10**
Thank you to /u/Theleux for hosting this rewatch. Thank you to everyone who participated in the threads. Hopefully we will see each other again sometime.
With that, the rewatch is over
I’m gonna be honest, I actually didn’t end up catching up with reading every comment each episode at around the middle part of season 2 part 1. Which is unfortunate, because I really wanted to interact with other commenters more
It just goes to show that interaction takes time, and making reviews takes time. So, I don’t know how to handle season 3 episode discussions going forward. I’m a novel reader, so I guess I should make Source Material Comments in the Source Material Corner. And my anime-only-safe comments can be outside of that. Shimmering-Sky already said how a novel reader can explain something to an anime-only, however I don’t know how to link comments. So if any of you reads this, I’d be grateful if you guys teach me how to. I probably won’t actually be explaining things to anime-onlies in the Source Material Corner, but just in case
Anyway, this has been a fun ride. I’ll come back and read the past comments that I’ve missed, and continue to regret not ending up interacting with them. But realizing also that interacting with people was probably impossible in the first place
About Re:Zero itself…
A bit of backstory as to how I’ve come to love this series enough to end up catching up to the Web Novel, and starting over from the beginning of the Light Novel
Back when this anime first aired, I didn’t watch it until it finished. I only watched it because everyone kept memeing about the “I love Emilia” thing. At first viewing, I didn’t actually care much about this show. I didn’t understand it. I was young, so a lot of the messages and themes and plots went over my head. But I guess I still enjoyed it, somewhat. When I got to the point of the “I love Emilia” meme, I *pretended* to be upset about it. To absolutely no one. When I first got to it, I actually didn’t care much about it, but I still pretended to cringe about it. So, in reality, like I mentioned in a previous comment or reply somewhere, I didn’t actually want to be involved in the waifu wars. I didn’t care about Rem. I didn’t care about Emilia. I didn’t care about the show that much, but I still liked it
Season 2 arrived, and people kept talking about this Echidna chick that they described as “Aqua from Konosuba”. So I rewatched Re:Zero with the directors cut, skipping the cringe episodes (at least on that rewatch) until I reached the PEAK that was the whale fight and the witch cult fight. I even related to Subaru’s “I hate myself” speech”, and made me understand that there was more to the “I love Emilia” scene than just a rejection. And then, I ended up loving Re:Zero
I caught up to the latest episode of season 2 at the time, I forgot which one it was, and then I decided that I couldn’t wait for the next episodes anymore. So I read the web novels
And my god, I loved it. I loved Re:Zero even more now. I loved it so much that by the time season 2 part 2 was airing, I believe I was already reading season 3 material
So basically, I grew up and ended up appreciating Re:Zero to the point that it ended up in my top 10 animes
That’s all I’d like to say for now. Thanks for the rewatch! See you all in season 3
Good episode I saw
I don’t have much to say other than the story is as good as I remember it and I still really enjoyed watching the anime a third time and reliving some of its best moments (my favourite scene is probably still the ending from episode 23 of season 1). This rewatch also allowed me to regain some more enthusiasm and hype for season 3 since I don’t read the novels.
I also need to confess, I actually decided to watch ahead once I caught up to the rewatch which is why I only wrote comments on a few episodes thread once I caught up.
It was still fun seeing first timers reactions as well as some of the cut content that were in the comments (even though I knew most of them)
I also wanted to thanks Theleux for organizing the rewatch despite some of the struggles he had, and honestly seeing how fun my first rewatch on r/anime was (despite not being super active in it) makes me want to also host one in the future once an ETA for season 3 of my favourite series get announced.
Rewatcher who couldn’t catch up.
Incomplete Episode notes followed by my final thoughts
Pilot the episode start must be really confusing to people watching it for the first time
Lol he really thinks this of this as a video game. The knight who actually took initiative and did something saved that child while Subaru could only gesture and imagine having magical power
Lol why don’t I have more power/cheats? Aren’t these sort of light novel adaptation isekai supposed to more about wish fulfillment/overpowered from the start Subaru wonders. Plus he imagines a cute girl may have summoned him.
A magic cloak?
Compulsory event? Again Subaru life’s not a video game.
It’s sort of surprising that he’s holding his own against the goons, at least until the knives come out.
Live strong.
A second girl passes by his troubles, or maybe not.
We meet pick
Cute when mad. An other World fantasy, who is apparently a tsundere.
We meet medium sized puck
Subaru won’t rush into deserted allys alone again, right?
Puck can sense malice. And wants Subaru to act as a shield. Subaru doing something stupid, trying to climb into an abandoned building.
Puck has an earring that makes me think of him as a pirate.
The usual pattern, again treating the world as a video game or a LN.
Lol at least he exercises even if he’s a shutin
S’tella is a nice name.
Lost child. Is scared of S’tella
Younger brother lol
What benefit? We will see soon, not just peace of mind.
Can do more then one good deed. Especially for a pretty girl. Who is wasting time helping people.
Subaru totally ignores that people dislike half elves. Dunderhead
Some scenes are animated a bit worse than I remember with characters staying still for a couple of seconds.
Helping the girl helps them with the shopkeeper and the little girl gives a pin to S’tella.
Do your best
Subaru has been holding her back, she says. What should she apologize for? The powerless guy doing in the head of the magic user. Creepy, creepy, bloody corpse.
Female voice, killer unseen. Yes that is your blood. Oh it’s the scene from the start. We still don’t know if Subaru had flashes of that or if it was just a preview for us. He’s going to save her? S’tella?
And now we have our time loop.
If anybody watched episode 1A and 1B separately they’ll be left thinking that rexero is a very different and much more boring and stereotypical show. It shows that they weren’t thinking about it as two separate episode, are they have changed the pace and ended 1a after he loops back to the shopkeeper
Shut your trap. Always bad to have balls chafing.
They don’t like the dragon lord
Scary sexy vamp lady.
With who then?
Agility is more important than size
Thank you for the wind
Our first Devine protection
She blushes over getting kicked. But she also cut him when he tried to dodge
Apparently merchant is nice.
Who is the witch of envy?
Ep2
Witch of envy is terrible/taboo
Nice distraction Subaru
Persistent low level crooks
Even if they’re idiots, if you don’t pay attention they’ll stab you. Ah the chips convinced you it’s a loop
Shopkeeper doesn’t want to deal with crazy guy talking about time loops
Oh no tomato went splat
Subaru is following for their advice from last time and calling for help. But with a folsseto for some reason
Nice guard index doesn’t necessarily sound like a good thing. But he does sound like a good guy.
Subaru doesn’t understand much about common sense. Doesn’t hear what Reinhardt is talking about him acting a bit weird then tells him about a lot house then says don’t go there.
How does Cary ladies dress stay on, that’s the real mystery of the show.
Subaru is very good at dodging. Felt must not care much about her house to destroy it so easily
Of course you won’t believe the person offering the trade on how much their
Live strong – Armstrong? 💪? Stingy losers? Does live strong mean being strong enough to survive?
Even if I were alone?
Don’t headpat people without their permission, youre lucky she only bit you and didn’t stab you.
Who would trust him when he’s claiming it’s a good price and that she can’t go higher
A code of ethics from a thief, right to buy for original buyer
OlManRom eyebrows are crazy
S’tella was right he was holding her back, so she arrived early
Episode 3
If you do as I ask I’ll cooperate. Admitting defeat? An elf no a half elf, what’s the other half? Accidental resemblance?
The pin the little girl bought her comes back as an important plot point.
Puck always signs out on time. Cutting open a spirits stomach? Hey don’t insult Felt, she does good work, she stole the same insignia several times
Subaru talking nonsense but with a nice third wall break
Puck is a bit sexist.
Puck if you weren’t so sexist you wouldn’t underestimate her. If it comes down to it what happens according to the contract?
As long as there is life fight. Then and now.
Subaru is surprisingly impressive with the club but I think Elsa is toying with him
That’s enough a fifth of the house collapses.
If Elsa is not enough to get him to draw his sword what is?
Look at this place your monster yourself. Hurtful.
Be sure to take care of your bowels. Eat fiber
Ok? 🆗
Name is Emma just Emilia
Subaru gets an itchy scratchy like delayed blood spray
She’s never seen him before.
Returning the crest is the least you could do felt.
Reinhardt has decided to change his mind and rest felt for some crime?
He can put people to sleep?
**Final Discussion**
[At the start of the rewatch](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1eme0my/rezero_starting_life_in_another_world_rewatch/lgynfin/), I compared ReZero to my general hate for the genre of modern isekai and considered that it might not be a typical example of modern isekai. Instead of a normal wrap-up, I want to finish that discussion by comparing ReZero, now that I have fully watched it (future seasons excluded, I am not a time traveler), to my [List of 12 Reasons Modern Isekai Suck](https://old.reddit.com/r/No_Rex/comments/s0zo7l/12_reasons_modern_isekai_suck/).
For each of my 12 reasons, I’ll give between 0 and 1 points (less being better), depending on how strongly ReZero falls into that writing pitfall or avoids it.
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 1 – The main character sucks**
> He’s male, vaguely middle aged, socially inept, and that is all the backstory you’ll ever get. Can’t risk adding any additional features or viewers would not be able to self-insert anymore. But don’t worry, he is also so obscenely powerful that no danger in the series will ever feel remotely threatening, killing any attempt to generate tension. You might be hoping for some character drama stemming from his social ineptness, but no luck here, since that characteristic will be forgotten after the first few minutes and only ever be revived if needed for a repetitive gag.
**0 points:** ReZero avoids this trope! Subaru might be male and socially inept, but we do get more backstory for him. He also is the opposite of insanely powerful, being surrounded by characters who are all more powerful than him, and, instead of being forgotten, his social ineptness plays a major role in the plot.
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 2 – The world sucks**
> Some anime put a lot of effort into their world building: epic wars in space, mysterious world of roaming giants, post-apocalyptic water worlds. Others make do with less, just a few changes here and there, some magic sprinkled onto a normal Earth. And some put in exactly zero effort – modern isekai. The world is a literal copy of every roleplaying game ever, down to the fact that people apparently use “levels”. Everything you see feels like somebody animated the index to a book on *overused tropes in fantasy*. To matters worse, we are not even in a good RGP, the kind with involved storylines. No, we are in one of those grind-fests, where instead of giving the players intrinsic goals, the programmers put in a cheap quest hub where the players can pick up kill-quests to level up *“for the endgame”*, except, we never see the endgame.
**0 points:** No levels, no starter city, no adventurers guild. ReZero *does* use the standard aristocratic tropes, but these are taken from the Shoujo genre following Rose of Versailles, not the fantasy genre.
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 3 – The antagonists suck**
> The main character is only half the story. Many good stories live off of their well-written antagonists, who stop the protagonist from easily riding to victory. When endowed with an interesting background, they might even [overshadow](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/8/81955.webp) the main character. However, developing fascinating characters takes time. Time that wish-fulfilling isekai are not prepared to spend away from ego-stroking the self-insert protagonist. Thus, they need to make do with cardboard antagonists, who come in two varieties: The dumb (*I misunderstood you, but you are so great that I take back my mistake*) & the comically evil (*I am evil, but you are so powerful that you saved everybody*). Of course, neither of the two will ever come close to endanger the overpowered MC, so whether their plans are due to stupidity or depravity does not really matter. And when I say *plans*, I mean *brain-dead head-on challenge*.
**0.5 points:** Garfiel is an antagonist done right, but Elsa is extremely one-dimensional and Roswaal’s scheming falls flat ~~on his face~~into Subaru’s fists. Not quite modern isekai levels of terrible, but the antagonists could be better.
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 4 – The magic sucks**
> Magic is what separates fantasy from science fiction. Societies are not built around technology, but around magic. Some fantasy worlds have elaborate magic systems: Reagents that need to be collected, scrolls that need to be recited, or long training of the inner mind. Part of the character arc for many magically inclined MCs is to watch them learn and master magic, often paying a big price for the power obtained. None of that happens in modern isekai. There is no story of learning, because the MC is already the best magician to ever exist. The magic also lacks that sense of wonder and disbelieve that accompanies it in well-written fantasy, when the reader encounters new ideas for the first time, only made possible by the imagination of the writer. Instead, modern isekai’s magic is a repetition of spells seen a hundred times before elsewhere. In short, the magic is not *magical*.
**1 point:** The magic in ReZero is, to 95%, just a combat mechanic. Casting out of combat is rare. Subaru also does not get any learning arc about magic, the two magic effects he gets (RBD & magic hand) and shoved into him without any explanation.
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 5 – What about Earth?**
> Imagine being whisked away to a different world. A pretty reasonable first question would be: “how did I get here?” A pretty reasonable second question: “how do I get back?” You may think that having a sparsely clad elf girl pressing her breasts into you at every opportunity would be enough to make you stay, but wait till you have to take a shit on a toilet without flowing water or toilet paper for the first time. I present to you, [the historical method of wiping your butthole.]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_stick#/media/File:Nara_period_toilet_paper.jpg) Oh, and did I mention that those were multi-use? Let’s not forget that all your friends, your family, all the places you know are back on Earth, too. Even if you have to stay, the place you come from should be on your mind a lot. In fact, that is exactly what happened in earlier, more realistic isekai. Yet, in modern isekai, the self-insert MC can’t have a backstory, lest you notice he is not you, and lack of sanitation can’t stand in the way of wish-fulfillment, so Earth is forgotten after the first five minutes of episode 1.
**0.5 points:** We do hear about Earth again, once, but Subaru never puts any emphasis on getting back there. Also, no mention of the lacking conveniences of modern life (how on Earth do 2 maids cook and clean in a 50+ room mansion without electricity?).
> **12 reasons modern isekai suck: Episode 6 – It has displaced normal fantasy**
> Remember when the MCs of fantasy were born in small villages and eventually heard the [call to adventure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Heroesjourney.svg). When they waged war in large scale battles? When they found a mentor who introduced them to the hidden secrets of the world? Yep, that was the mainstay of fantasy, before it got taken over by truck-kun victims. No smart phones, no book-making knowledge, and definitely no arsenal of equipment from grinding an RGP for years. But why spent all the trouble of coming up with a detailed world when the 100th RGP clone world sells just fine. Why have a compelling character arc when a NEET roleplaying a demon lord suffices as self-insert MC? While it is possible to ignore isekai, every trash isekai is a missed opportunity to make an actually good anime and takes resources away from better stories.
**1 point:** Outside of Sword Art Online, I doubt there is any other modern isekai that has done more to replace traditional fantasy than ReZero. The Subaru clones are running rampant over the following anime seasons.
I didn’t rewatch that show with all y’all because I rewatched the entire thing maybe a year ago, but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and thoughts about each episode. Hopefully next time something big like this happens I’ll join in, but for everyone I’ll be seeing y’all in the season three discussion threads!