Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-

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"You are, an amazing guy, Natsuki Subaru" - Natsuki Subaru

For context I have read arcs 1 - 8 of Re:Zero, equivalent to volumes 1 - 38, but this review will be completely spoiler-free.

The author of Re:Zero, Tappei Nagatsuki, describes Re:Zero as a story about a "boy without self confidence, trying to let his feelings known to a girl also without self confidence". While it's true that's mainly what this story is about, the journey we get to that destination is one filled with some of the greatest, painful, yet life altering moments that can only be told through the framework Re:Zero has created. You see ... the main character fall to the lowest of lows and see him peak the highest of highs as the story progresses, watching him grow in such a unique way that it makes the reader want to gain more confidence in themselves while reading.

Each arc in Re:Zero also feels more different than the last, introducing new characters while also creating great character development for previously introduced ones, expanding upon world building and overall lore of the story, and constantly getting out of it's own comfort zone to create scenarios that always feel fresh, new, and with creative plot twists. There's a lot to love about Re:Zero, especially in it's character department. Despite the large cast of characters that get introduced throughout the story, each character have their own unique personality, motivations, personal backstory and growth, expanding on familiar tropes while still making them feel three-dimensional. Ultimately giving the reader some of the most rememberable and inspiring quotes, monolongues, and speeches as a result.

The world itself feel so enriched in lore and content that you can find yourself getting completely absorbed in it. While the Re:Zero light novel is mainly Subaru's story, there's tons of side content available that has signifiance to the main story, making it feel like the world is so much bigger and grander outside of only Subaru's journey. Which is no small feat considering how enthralling and emotional Subaru's journey really is, with moments leaving you absloutely speechless and pontential to go even further. The different themes explored, creativity of each arc, ambition in storytelling, mysteries that keep you at the edge of your seat, psychological moments that make you look up at your ceiling thinking to yourself what just happened, and surprising consistency in writing despite the length of the story, makes Re:Zero truly a one of a kind experience.

Starts out promising but quickly loses focus and descends into mediocrity. The premise has potential and the story beats are fine but the writing is severely lacking on a technical level, most notably in the web novel. The light novel is better but not free of the issues, and apparently has numerous inaccurate translations. In both stories it feels like the story quickly loses its broader direction. Dialogue is often boring or painful to read, the endless flirty banter does nothing to establish sympathy or connection to the characters. Many locations give the impression of existing only as a backdrop for character actions, without establishing ... context in a broader world that would give the actions meaning. Antagonists are given annoying verbal tics to use in every line, undermining any emotions their presence ought to convey. Subaru and other characters are given bursts of meaningful and well-motivated character development, some of which are very good, but their infrequency and the surrounding filler makes them difficult to appreciate. All of this makes the experience of reading incoherent – the main cast fights the arc’s villains in a set of disconnected locations that don’t feel like part of a broader world, and for reasons which are only nebulously connected to a long-term objective. After ~7000 pages I don’t remember any lines, descriptions, or locations that particularly stood out to me. Ultimately the good just doesn’t come close to justifying the length. The main cast is memorable, but I don’t have much interesting in seeing the continuation of their story. A good editor could probably cut 2/3 of the web novel content and a good translator could probably rewrite the rest into something pretty good. As it is, it varies from mostly unimpressive (light novels) to often unreadable (web novel).
The light novels are a ‘mixed feelings’, if you like the idea of Re:Zero and don’t take issue with some of the aspects of the writing I did you might really enjoy them. A lot of people certainly seem to. The web novel is a definitive ‘not recommended’.


Disclaimer:
My opinion might change on this, this review replaces a previous different one and though I skimmed back through some light novel and web novel volumes to refresh my memory it’s been a while since I read from the start through Arc 6. I also switched to the web novel pretty early, maybe the later light novels improve. I might give Arc 7 a try when the light novels come out, and I could change my mind.

[Spoiler Warning]

Go to another world stories are easy to write, it is an undead horse that will keep having people ride it, hit it, mock it, praise it. At this point even "subversions" have become its own cliche.

So anyway, Re:zero, a show that is pretty bad, which was basically torture porn for 2-cour. A lot of people already shat on the anime so I may as well do it for the source.

At the time of writing, I have finished all the LN and gotten into the next arc of the WN, and ohhhhhhhhhh god is it horrible.

Plot - 3

First of all, the writing is ... terrible and no it is not the translation's fault, the actual writing is bad, as it is hard to keep track of what the scenario the author is describing. It is very bland, descriptions lack the whimsical charm of LN but are not artistic enough to be taken seriously. In addition the pacing is atrocious. Three arcs in and around 10 theoretical vols, we still have no idea what's the story behind this world or get any progress in the king election. In fact the story introduce a bunch of witches who explains...roughly nothing important, and serves only to provide more mystery.

And that is what Re:zero is, it is a dumb mystery that is really generic if they just explain it straight to you. In fact 3 arcs in, the main plot could be explained pretty much as "yandere girl (probably Emilia as a twist) likes scum, so fuck up world for scum, probably due to time travel or something."

And there is no funny plot or hijinks or anything interesting besides the shitty mystery and torture porn.

Character - 2

Oh boy Subaru, fan boys defend him for being "super realistic teen" and all that garbage. But then you find out he is the chosen one, oh yes, turns out the book that the witch cult have prophesies his action or something like that. And he have high compatibility with witch powers, what ever that is.

Did I also mention the witch did all the crap for him to make him feel better about himself?

Yeah, excuse me for not sympathizing with a scummy whiner whose the source of the problem!

Oh yeah, and his whining never get better, in arc 3, he had a talk with his father in a dream illusion. And you would think he is now a changed man as his father says he is proud of him. Nope, next few chapters he is sprouting hate speech at the twin tail loli from the mansion for saving him, being a vile scum once more. This isn't realism, this is an edgy teen with bipolar disorder. And you know what the author rubs it in by saying, he meant to create such a scummy character and it was quote on quote a deconstruction and criticism. I don't think making a straw man counts as criticism, as much as I hate these go to another world story, few of them sink to the despicable low of Subaru, at this point you are no longer making a deconstruction but a hate fic. Not helped that Subaru suffers or succeeds on a whim, when he fails it is because a random bullshit pop up, like the rabbit monsters in arc 3, when he succeeds it is through luck because a character suddenly does exposition for him telling him literally what he needs to do next.

Yeah fuck Subaru, as for the other characters, they don't get much spotlight cause this is Subaru's story so we are stuck with this asshole forever.

Overall - 3

This novel is garbage, whether in WN or LN format. There are ways to have a scum MC, if you are tongue in cheek about it and satirizes it. But that is not what this is doing, this is having torture porn and scum MC while being 100% serious, resulting in everything being unlikable and characters acting like they are complete morons.