ReLIFE

Dismissed as a hopeless loser by those around him, 27-year-old Arata Kaizaki bounces around from one job to another after quitting his first company. His unremarkable existence takes a sharp turn when he meets Ryou Yoake, a member of the ReLife Research Institute, who offers Arata the opportunity to change his life for the better with the help of a mysterious pill. Taking it without a second thought, Arata awakens the next day to find that his appearance has reverted to that of a 17-year-old.

Arata soon learns that he is now the subject of a unique experiment and must attend high school as a transfer student for one year. Though he initially believes it will be a cinch due to his superior life experience, Arata is proven horribly wrong on his first day: he flunks all his tests, is completely out of shape, and can't keep up with the new school policies that have cropped up in the last 10 years. Furthermore, Ryou has been assigned to observe him, bringing Arata endless annoyance. ReLIFE follows Arata's struggle to adjust to his hectic new lifestyle and avoid repeating his past mistakes, all while slowly discovering more about his fellow classmates.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hishiro, Chizuru Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Kaizaki, Arata Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Onoya, An Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Kariu, Rena Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Ooga, Kazuomi Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Yoake, Ryou Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Inukai, Akira Supporting

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Tamarai, Honoka Supporting

Akaneya, Himika Japanese

Amatsu, Kokoro Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Inukai, Sumire Supporting

Shiraishi, Ryouko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Adachi, Kazuki Producer

Kawanabe, Daisuke Producer

Watanabe, Akihito Producer

Reviews

May 7, 2025

CHaoz6097

Recommended

ReLIFE – A Second Chance at Youth, A First Step Toward Healing
“You can’t redo your life… but you can start again.”

What if you could relive your youth—not to change the world, but just to remember who you really are?
ReLIFE isn’t about flashy battles or fantasy escapism. It’s a grounded, emotionally resonant story about growth, regret, and redemption—disguised as a slice-of-life high school anime.
And it works beautifully.

Story: Not a Reboot, But a Redemption
At 27, Arata Kaizaki is unemployed, emotionally drained, and haunted by a past workplace trauma. His life is stalled—until he’s offered an unusual opportunity: participate in the ReLIFE experiment, where he’s given a pill ... that makes him look 17 again and is sent back to high school for one year.
But this isn’t time travel. It’s not about fixing his past. It’s about confronting his present—and learning from the people around him what it really means to live.
ReLIFE uses its premise not as a gimmick, but as a powerful metaphor: sometimes we need distance to gain clarity. Watching Arata navigate teenage dynamics with adult insight is both hilarious and heartbreaking.

Characters: Real, Raw, and Relatable
What makes ReLIFE shine is its cast of emotionally layered characters. Every person Arata meets—especially Chizuru Hishiro, the blunt and socially awkward top student—brings something new to the table.
Their interactions are equal parts awkward, sweet, and deeply introspective. And as their friendships deepen, ReLIFE subtly explores mental health, loneliness, bullying, social anxiety, and the pressure to succeed—all with grace and sensitivity.
Arata isn’t a perfect protagonist. He stumbles, avoids responsibility, and struggles with his own self-worth. But that makes his journey feel real. It’s not a dramatic transformation. It’s a slow return to life.

Art & Animation: Simple, Yet Expressive
Produced by TMS Entertainment, ReLIFE doesn’t aim for visual spectacle—and that’s okay. The art style is clean, bright, and fits the show’s tone. Characters are expressive, and the direction shines most during quiet, reflective moments.
It's not groundbreaking visually, but it doesn’t need to be. The heart of ReLIFE lies in its dialogue, emotion, and pacing—and the visuals serve that purpose well.

Music: A Nostalgic Touch
The soundtrack is soft and atmospheric, evoking a warm, nostalgic vibe. It never overwhelms the scene, instead enhancing emotional beats with subtlety. The ending themes change with every episode, featuring nostalgic J-pop tracks that give each episode a distinct personality—an inspired and memorable choice.

Themes: Regret, Recovery, and Real-Life Struggles
At its core, ReLIFE is about people who’ve been beaten down by adulthood. It doesn’t glamorize high school—it reframes it as a time of openness, trial, and self-discovery. It reminds us that even when we feel broken, we can still connect, change, and move forward.
It also dares to ask: what happens after second chances? What does it mean to live authentically? And how do you face life when the comfort of "starting over" is gone?
These questions elevate ReLIFE above typical high school anime. It's not about nostalgia. It’s about healing.

Minor Flaws: Slight Pacing and Scope Limitations
While ReLIFE is emotionally rich, it does occasionally feel light on dramatic stakes, especially in the early episodes. Some plot points are teased and not explored until later (or in the manga), and a few characters could have used more depth.
Also, the anime ends at a satisfying point, but doesn’t cover the full manga conclusion (though a 4-episode OVA sequel does wrap up the story).

Final Verdict: 9/10 – Subtle, Sincere, and Soulful
ReLIFE is a hidden gem—not because it’s loud or revolutionary, but because it speaks to a quiet, universal truth: we all carry burdens, and sometimes, we just need a little time—and connection—to start living again.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, lost, or afraid of moving forward, ReLIFE offers more than escapism.
It offers hope.

“Even if we can't change the past, we can choose how to live the present.”
That’s not just ReLIFE’s message. It’s a lesson worth carrying with you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 9, 2025

Aethern

Mixed Feelings

There have been so many iterations on the concept of reincarnation in anime that my nervous system has been cognitively primed to lower my heart rate and decrease my brain function to soften the blow on my psyche. In fact, just before watching this, I just so happened to force myself to finish Redo of Healer, which was an absolute journey in and of itself. Suffice to say, watching any show that begins with the letters “R” and “e” nowadays renders me nearly comatose, with the exception of Re:Zero. In desperate need of ReHAB post-Redo of Healer, I stumbled upon ReLIFE – advertising a large ... departure from modern fantasy slop, and hopefully a much needed rePRIEVE. I don’t know why the letters are stylized like that, nor do I care.

ReLIFE presents the modest character journey of a 27-year-old NEET to find himself, maybe a little bit of love, and most definitely a job. He’s recruited by a member of the ReLife research institute to participate in a novel case study. All he has to do is take a pill a day, and he will gain the youthful appearance of a 17-year-old. In addition, he’ll have to attend regular high school classes for a full year. Well shit… engineering a romance with a 27 year old infiltrating a high school is inherently problematic for obvious reasons. In other words, the story is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting for me to buy into the show. Surprisingly enough, ReLIFE navigates this premise well by utilizing it as a comedic tool, with the main character acutely aware of the age differences between himself and the surrounding students.

The idea of transforming back into a high schooler and the usual co-occurring drama is enough to sustain you for a solid 2-3 episodes, at least. One of the more interesting ideas it portrays is that despite the protagonist’s youthful appearance, he still has a 27-year-old body, which makes for some mildly enjoyable situational comedy in the appropriately named episode 3 "You're Old Now."

Within those expositional episodes, the show roots itself in its principal strength and protagonist, Arata Kaizaki. In truth, he’s not your stereotypical 27-year-old NEET; he’s able to find part-time work, function as a member of society, and most importantly, he feels like a normal human being. He has some habits which fit the NEET heuristic and some deep-rooted trauma, but overall, he is a strong foundational character. The remainder of the show is devoted to his character development, and the subsequent development of the characters he is surrounded by. He takes a bit of an advisory role in his friend group, which is constantly juxtaposed with his poor academics by his friends. After all, taking life advice from a student who fails all his exams is quite ill-advisable. It’s admittedly a good laugh sometimes.

Episodes 4-10, effectively half of the show’s runtime, are an absolute slog to bear, however. They are inundated with the all-too-familiar tropes and misunderstandings of romcoms and dramas. The primary offender of which is an unfortunate addendum to our main ensemble, Rena Kariu. She’s spiteful, quick-to-judge, irrational, and single-handedly responsible for half of the superfluous conflict in these episodes. Perhaps you could argue that her immaturity is realistic, but that does not recuse how trite and contrived these episodes are. When confronted with her own idiocy, she devolves into ugly crying and irritating dialogue. Combine her antics with a friend group that is just as dense and non-communicative as she is and you get a frustrating viewing experience. At least the remainder of the show is decent and gives you the saccharine romance that it's been building towards.

In addition to this mediocre median of episodes, the overall production quality of ReLIFE leaves quite a bit to be desired. The art style is nothing particularly special and the animation is mediocre at best. If you told me this show came out in 2006 instead of 2016, I wouldn’t bat an eye. I usually never have any qualms with sound, but this show also has some awkward and out of place sound design. Most background music is directed by piano notes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the show decides to discuss its more serious themes, it repeatedly plays a string of odd and tacky staccato notes, completely ruining the atmosphere. They sound rough and abrupt, inadvertently cutting through the tension of several scenes, when their purpose was to build tension. Surely there was a better alternative here.

Ultimately, is ReLIFE worth a watch? Depends on if you think episodes 1-3 and 11-13 can cover for the frustrating monotony of 4-10. I do, however, expect that the sequel will be significantly better off of a shorter total runtime and the already established character development of this season. And I’ll probably watch another isekai after a week.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 4, 2024

kend9l

Not Recommended

This is my first review, and for good reason. This show wasted my time and ultimately left me upset. After watching the first episode, I was hooked! However, this feeling did not stick around.

Story: This guy is unhappy with his current life and is offered to take a pill to appear younger and attend high school. This show had the potential to be a masterpiece but just decided not to be. Before I go any further I want to applaud the fact that this show did not sexualize high school girls. I really appreciated that and it made it so much easier to watch. ... The main character was surprisingly not a pedo and actively reminded himself these girls are in high school and romanticizing them is weird. However, this did not cover up the fact that the story just wasn't there. 90% of this show was following high school girls drama and 10% was actually ReLIFE related. Most of the episodes would follow side characters and their drama and at the last second a ReLIFE related scene would appear. Effectively reminding you that there is still a story and not just mindless drama. Just for the next episode to be more mindless drama. Ultimately this show is a lot of stupid and random drama that has NOTHING to do with the main character or the story.

Animation: This show has the standard box style animation that was around from the 2010-2020 era. It's right in between a vintage anime style and the new style we know today. It's just boring. Characters look like they are boxes and have no depth.

Characters: wow wow wow are these guys boring. A lot of this show is just characters misunderstanding each others feelings and not effectively communicating. Which makes sense for a high school setting however I feel the author uses this excuse to just create mindless drama and draw out the story. Our main character doesn't really have that much depth to him. he's just a guy who didn't take advantage of his early life and the show doesn't even really address this fully. Like I said 90% of this show is mindless drama.

Final Thoughts: I was really excited for this show but it just fell flat. the author had so much potential yet did nothing with it. such a shame that a 10/10 story was wasted on this flop.


TLDR: Cool Premise with poor execution
Story: 5/10 Has potential to be amazing just takes the wrong route
Animation: 2/10 standard box animation style
Characters: 3/10 boring, boring, and more boring
Score: 3.3/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: ReLIFE Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 25, 2016	210 replies	by ecijaworld »» May 8, 5:15 PM
	Poll: ReLIFE Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) GoldenDevilGamer - Jun 27, 2016	143 replies	by JacobEmily »» Apr 16, 12:18 AM
	Poll: ReLIFE Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) GoldenDevilGamer - Jun 28, 2016	529 replies	by DavidMahomes2014 »» Apr 14, 11:26 PM
	Poll: ReLIFE Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) GoldenDevilGamer - Jun 27, 2016	95 replies	by Ragodo »» Feb 20, 11:30 PM
	Poll: ReLIFE Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) GoldenDevilGamer - Jun 27, 2016	120 replies	by taflinder »» Feb 9, 1:10 AM

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