I actually like Subaru

pufonD said:
If you can relate to subaru and feel like he is realistic... I feel sorry for ya. But then again, the majority of anime fans are going to have a similar mentality.

MyPootis said:

He is not realistic then what is realistic and based on what, real world or fantasy world. In real world ı think he is realistic or average maybe not mentally. I hope you know what ı mean....

pufonD said:


In real world people do not have super powers, that is the only reason he is 'real', but is it such a massive reason to like him?.

In real world, your average person is going to be a person with an average mentality and usually an average IQ (ie. builders, costumer service). People who become actors, celebrities, singers, comedians, professor and etc. all have unique, charming, arrogant etc. traits. This guy in real life terms, would definitely see him become an actor. Not in a movie, but in a play.

But overall I mean if you can relate to him, well, go sort your life out, get into sports or reading or traveling, whatever, just sort it out.

Yarrowia said:

That's one thing that annoys me with people defending Subaru: no he did not experience death multiple times. He never experienced death, because noone can. You can only experience things while you're alive. What he experienced was suffering, but most of his deaths were quite quick anyway, so he had not to experience it a lot before going back.
As for the traumatizing effect of the time loop, well sure it must be hard psychologically, but at least he knows that there's a possibility to get out of the loop. From that aspect it's better than a Groundhog day scenario.
Then there's the fact that he experience deaths from people he cares about. That is true it must be traumatizing. But what is worse, seeing your friends die several times knowing you will see them again, or experience the death of your friend one time knowing he'll never come back, and living with the fact that you might have saved them for the rest of your life?

Also, I find it strange how the only qualities listed are that he"s "human" and "realistic". First of all, i don't find him realistic at all. Even if you accept the fact that he had traumatic experiences, the way he deals with it makes no sense, because there's absolutely no coherence in his reactions. One time he's depressed, then he's determined, then he has psychological breakdown, then it's gone and he wants to save everyone, then he realizes that he's useless even though he's been told that like 5 deaths earlier, then he wants to save everyone again. There's just no sense of logic, no progression in his behaviour. He just seems to react entirely different each time.
I know people will say "well it's so traumatizing you don't know how you would react, that's because he's human", but that's just a cheap excuse. With that, you could just make him do anything, having a development that makes no sense and excuse everything by saying that he's traumatized.
I would have enjoyed it if it was either progressive (become more and more depressed) or if he just had a clear breaking point. But as it is, it just doesn't make any sense.
To me, that removes all the point of having a time loop; he doesn't have a clear evolution. He never learns from his past experiences (in episode 18, i thought he finally might heave learned something, but nope), and he never really evolves; he just goes from one state to another without real coherence.

Even the relationship between the characters don't make sense. I can accept that he blindly fell for Emilia and grew an unhealthy obsession for her, because that's how he is. But his relationship with Rem doesn't make sense. He has a lot of times with her and Ram because of the time loops, and he grows to like them. Then, when Ram is killed, he finds out that Rem never trusted him and is ready to kill him without a single proof. Then just after that, he decides that he's ready to die to save Rem? I mean, okay he spent a lot of time with her through the time loops, but if I were to find that all the time I spent with someone was one big lie because she never trusted me, i certainly would be disappointed, and i certainly wouldn't die for that person.
And it's the same for Rem towards Subaru; from her point of view, she's only known him for a very short time. And we know that during the first days she didn't trust him AT ALL. Then suddenly, she goes from suspecting him to becoming crazy in love with him, so obsessed that she's ready to disobey her master to follow Subaru. All of that because he tried to save her (although didn't do much at all). That's really going from one extreme to the other without any reason. Not to mention that most of the time, because of his previous loops, Subaru acts completely weird, talks nonsense and yells at her for no reason (from her point of view).

And i also don't agree either with the argument that he's a good character because he's not a Gary Stu, or that people hate him for this reason. Just look at the MMORPG-world anime we got this winter season (Grimgar, Konosuba, Gate), none of them had Gary Stu MC. In fact, all of them had MC that were weak (both physically and intellectually), human and flawed. Yet they were all more interesting characters than Subaru.
I don't have anything against weak and flawed characters, but when they're well written and do not just exist for the sake of being obnoxious.

Yuzuryn said:
He's a very realistic character to me, despite what people say. For Isekai stories I'm usually used the protagonist either being a Gary Stu with no personality or just a guy who exists for Self Insert. So Subaru was a refreshing change.

Of course, there will people who go "why dont u just abuse return by death lol" and it's REALLY aggravating since when was death easy? Then people who try to logic the way out of it saying "Once human brain sees a lot of it you'll become desensitized." Which is true, but they apply that logic to every action he takes. They act like Subaru should just be "oh" and react dully to seeing Rem dying for the first time.

Everytime I see Subaru react in horror it's usually via a new situation. You can tell he's getting used to dying, but he doesn't actually like the idea of it. Also, he doesn't wake up screaming anymore like he did when he first returned by death. He's slowly getting more numb to it, but I guess some people expect him to be more null to it like Okabe from Steins;Gate. Which again, I completely understand, but my argument would be that not everyone is the same nor reacts in the same way.

And a little personal note. I really enjoy Subaru a lot because usually characters like him are the villians. They're the ones with the flaws who slowly self destruct themselves over time. I can relate to people like that especially but usually in fiction, characters like that also end up having a BAD END. For me, who looks for representation of myself and my ideals/morals in fiction because I can't find any in real life, that kinda sucked. Like it's awesome! Seeing a character with a releate-able struggle and actual flaws that they may or may not created dragging them down to hell. But all they do is get a BAD END and usually the protagonist never has flaws or has flaws that just make them look good in the end.

What I'm excited about with Subaru here is that it's going to do an actual "Zero to Hero" story. It's like they're taking a flawed villain and giving him an actual chance to redeem himself unlike other shows where the villain is too late to reform or just refuses.

What ticks me off though is that people who see his character and call it "bad writing". I can certainly see why they would say that. Arc 2 Subaru is very different from Arc 3 Subaru. However, for me, someone who has seen the nasty sides of people all my life, I found it very believe-able that this was our same Subaru just in a different situation. I've made so many friends who were like Subaru, all energetic and selfless and all that. However, once they got in a specific situation, some of their flaws came out and some even took a complete 360 in their personality.

That's why I don't believe that the writing from Arc 2 to Arc 3 didn't really digress and that Subaru didn't change. I would have if Subaru was put in an extremely similar situation to Arc 2 afterwards and then all of sudden acted so stupid. It would contradict what we saw before. All in all, Subaru is a very interesting character and I'm really curious to see where we go from here. I hope other people will give him a break about the Rem thing.

Speaking about the confession. I'd like to note this.
You notice how in EP 13 Subaru yelled at Emilia like she owed him something? He died for her so many times. He did so much stuff for her and wanted a reward in a return. Her Love. Her Affection. Anything. And with that the viewers called Subaru a "nice guy" and a dumbass. I'd say they had a good reason. That's not Subaru at his core, but what he did say was kinda nice guy ish.

Fast forward to Episode 18. Now the fans are condemning Subaru for giving Rem...an honest answer to her confession? Now I see why some of the critics and actual haters of this show might be turned off more from Re:Zero, some of the fans are...bleh.
Anyways, they're saying Subaru doesn't deserve her, that he should love her since she died for him so many times, since she did all this for him. So now..think about that. Ironically, some of the more rage-minded people who are going "FUCK SUBARU" right now are acting just like him from Episode 13.

Just because you confess to someone doesn't mean you're entitled to their love. It doesn't matter how much you have done for them, if they don't feel the same way then that's it. I think people are forgetting that other people have feelings and they can't help the way they do. Subaru's has a good reason for loving Emilia and if anyone disagrees I would love to talk about why I think he does. Rem confessed and Subaru gave her an /honest/ answer instead of just shoving the issue under the rug or flat out lying to her.

Yes, it was a bit cruel of asking for her help after he rejected her, but it was also cruel of her to go into pain-staking detail about how great their life could have been AFTER Rem rejected Subaru. They both were a little insensitive. That's why they laughed about it since the situation was so weird! Yet, some of the fans don't get that. They're just so mad about their shipping wars and tunnel vision they can't see it.

Anyways tldr; subaru is a good character and can in fact be likable

Raith94 said:
I don't see how anyone can see him as a "human" character. He doesn't act in any way like a normal person would, and it is apparent from the very beginning.

The first time I noticed was just minutes into episode one, where he randomly finds himself in a fantasy world. A normal person would freak out, probably think it is a a dream,or think something is not right. You don't just find yourself surrounded by lizard people out of no where in a bustling fantasy setting and go "whoa so cool" and just carry on like you expected this shit to happen. Normal people would be wondering what the hell is going on and be freaking out over everything that is happening around them.

The next big scene that comes to mind was when he was first killed. He just went through a crazy traumatic experience, clearly was in huge amounts of pain, and he just goes "huh that was weird" and just continues on. Like he just had his guts spilling out of him and was experiencing unbelievable amounts of pain, and he just walks it off minutes later? Later on it becomes clear that he can remember how much pain he goes through when he dies, and he become afraid of getting killed again. So how is he able to just act like a normal person after something like that happened?

There are plenty of other small scenes where he just doesn't act like a normal person at all, but those were the two that stuck out to me the most. If they wanted me to feel like this dude was really human and whatnot, then he should practically be traumatized by now. He has died multiple times and felt unbelievable amounts of pain, he found himself randomly in a strange world (something that would cause any sane person an anxiety attack I am sure) and he has witnessed multiple murders. No way is a "human" character just going to brush all that off.

RinFTW said:

your talking like he can do anything in that situation... he was passed out and then carried into a cave then handcuffed... did yo actually expect him to go like "My Nakama" his eye go into some color then save her?
He is a powerless man (not someone who can pilot a giant robot) who actually "tries" get fatally hurt... dies but try again even with the overwhelming despair of losing all your (heart-to-heart) interactions with other people.
People still think it that it easy for him to just reset... the people memory of him won't return that idea alone is scary.

PantsOnHead said:

We must not be watching the same show then. He didn't pass out.

PantsOnHead said:

He pretended to be broken so that he could stop trying. Rem had to drag him along throughout the entire first half of episode 15 because he quit. Betelgeuse called him out on faking his own mental breakdown. Even the episode title is a hint of his fakeness, "Outside of Madness".

pufonD said:
If you can relate to subaru and feel like he is realistic... I feel sorry for ya. But then again, the majority of anime fans are going to have a similar mentality.

levan86 said:


man i feel conflicted with your statement, generalizing something is not a nice way to bring forth your statement/arguments.

make you sound like a total douchebag, Majority of anime fans have similar mentality hah! nah i wont waste my time arguing with someone who straight away thinking he is the "great" minority while "majority" sucks.. according to you thats it.

pufonD said:


Lol at getting so pedantic, 'can't generalize'

Anyways you are the one who thinks that I'm in the great minority, I never stated that there is anything great about me. I wish I had my mommy cook dinners for me and wash my clothes while I sit without a worry in my head on my PC getting amazed at how a wuss is a 'very realistic' character.

RinFTW said:

Yea? then explain to me how he suddenly woke up in a cave with betelwtf face staring at him.

Mental breakdown range from mild to severe, Subaru had mental breakdown (that type some people have when someone close dies ) but due to his personality he exaggerated his mental condition to seek attention and care hence why Betelgeuse called him "fake" because it wasn't on the degree that he can call "madness".
Watch the part where rem enter the cave closely please He actually came into his senses when he saw her though it was too late. in the next loop he tried to do something but you saw how overwhelming the odds were against him.
EP18 where he gave up (no one can argue with you on that) and even admit it... but a good speech (a moving one not the cliche crap we hear in other anime) with our beautiful maid helped him. we all had something irl that we would have gave on if not for some simple encouragement from outside.
My point is there is a difference between giving up but then pursuing the issue later and giving up entirely.

Yuzuryn said:
He's a very realistic character to me, despite what people say. For Isekai stories I'm usually used the protagonist either being a Gary Stu with no personality or just a guy who exists for Self Insert. So Subaru was a refreshing change.

Of course, there will people who go "why dont u just abuse return by death lol" and it's REALLY aggravating since when was death easy? Then people who try to logic the way out of it saying "Once human brain sees a lot of it you'll become desensitized." Which is true, but they apply that logic to every action he takes. They act like Subaru should just be "oh" and react dully to seeing Rem dying for the first time.

Everytime I see Subaru react in horror it's usually via a new situation. You can tell he's getting used to dying, but he doesn't actually like the idea of it. Also, he doesn't wake up screaming anymore like he did when he first returned by death. He's slowly getting more numb to it, but I guess some people expect him to be more null to it like Okabe from Steins;Gate. Which again, I completely understand, but my argument would be that not everyone is the same nor reacts in the same way.

And a little personal note. I really enjoy Subaru a lot because usually characters like him are the villians. They're the ones with the flaws who slowly self destruct themselves over time. I can relate to people like that especially but usually in fiction, characters like that also end up having a BAD END. For me, who looks for representation of myself and my ideals/morals in fiction because I can't find any in real life, that kinda sucked. Like it's awesome! Seeing a character with a releate-able struggle and actual flaws that they may or may not created dragging them down to hell. But all they do is get a BAD END and usually the protagonist never has flaws or has flaws that just make them look good in the end.

What I'm excited about with Subaru here is that it's going to do an actual "Zero to Hero" story. It's like they're taking a flawed villain and giving him an actual chance to redeem himself unlike other shows where the villain is too late to reform or just refuses.

What ticks me off though is that people who see his character and call it "bad writing". I can certainly see why they would say that. Arc 2 Subaru is very different from Arc 3 Subaru. However, for me, someone who has seen the nasty sides of people all my life, I found it very believe-able that this was our same Subaru just in a different situation. I've made so many friends who were like Subaru, all energetic and selfless and all that. However, once they got in a specific situation, some of their flaws came out and some even took a complete 360 in their personality.

That's why I don't believe that the writing from Arc 2 to Arc 3 didn't really digress and that Subaru didn't change. I would have if Subaru was put in an extremely similar situation to Arc 2 afterwards and then all of sudden acted so stupid. It would contradict what we saw before. All in all, Subaru is a very interesting character and I'm really curious to see where we go from here. I hope other people will give him a break about the Rem thing.

Speaking about the confession. I'd like to note this.
You notice how in EP 13 Subaru yelled at Emilia like she owed him something? He died for her so many times. He did so much stuff for her and wanted a reward in a return. Her Love. Her Affection. Anything. And with that the viewers called Subaru a "nice guy" and a dumbass. I'd say they had a good reason. That's not Subaru at his core, but what he did say was kinda nice guy ish.

Fast forward to Episode 18. Now the fans are condemning Subaru for giving Rem...an honest answer to her confession? Now I see why some of the critics and actual haters of this show might be turned off more from Re:Zero, some of the fans are...bleh.
Anyways, they're saying Subaru doesn't deserve her, that he should love her since she died for him so many times, since she did all this for him. So now..think about that. Ironically, some of the more rage-minded people who are going "FUCK SUBARU" right now are acting just like him from Episode 13.

Just because you confess to someone doesn't mean you're entitled to their love. It doesn't matter how much you have done for them, if they don't feel the same way then that's it. I think people are forgetting that other people have feelings and they can't help the way they do. Subaru's has a good reason for loving Emilia and if anyone disagrees I would love to talk about why I think he does. Rem confessed and Subaru gave her an /honest/ answer instead of just shoving the issue under the rug or flat out lying to her.

Yes, it was a bit cruel of asking for her help after he rejected her, but it was also cruel of her to go into pain-staking detail about how great their life could have been AFTER Rem rejected Subaru. They both were a little insensitive. That's why they laughed about it since the situation was so weird! Yet, some of the fans don't get that. They're just so mad about their shipping wars and tunnel vision they can't see it.

Anyways tldr; subaru is a good character and can in fact be likable

PantsOnHead said:


Rewatch episode 15. He was conscious the entire time he was laying on the ground, all while Rem was trying to protect his worthless ass.

Either the story is inconsistent, or your premise is faulty; he never "woke up" because, as the previous scene showed, he was never unconscious to begin with. Opening eyes does not necessarily mean "waking up".

RinFTW said:

Do we really need to watch a scene of a cultist knocking a grown man out to carry him inside the cave to believe he was unconscious ? do you really need to that simple stuff to be spelled out for you?
What was the scene of Subaru suddenly opening his eyes after getting handcuffed for? also haven't you seen Betelgeuse knocking Subaru head into the wall and even bleed? passing out a little before watching Rem? direction was as clear as water on that episode.

Can we get a third-party opinion on this? Clearly we are not getting anywhere with this topic if a LN/WN reader or someone who actually paid some attention to ep15 can put some insight on that particular scene would be great.

Haytin said:


Did you not watch this last episode? Subaru is autistic as fuck for rejecting Rem. I use to like him but now I hate him.

cloud8100 said:


Seriously, I find a lot of people are acting the same cringe worthy way he was acting in episode 13 when he broke down and said he thought Emilia should like him after all he did for her. They're going that he should like Rem after all she did for him... :-/. At least he had the reason of a mental breakdown. These people are just being hypocritical. Its hard to see a lot of the haters comments just because of the cringe lol.
And they say they wouldn't act like him XD. People are basically proving that Subaru was acting as human as anyone else with all their hating lol. And unfortunately it appears to be a majority.

I love Rem x Subaru because I think they would go well together but you shouldn't fricken hate on the guy for the same thing you were hating on him for a few episodes ago. If anything it took a lot of guts being honest with Rem and I think they still have a chance in the future too. Of love from both sides. Depending on how things progress.

Everything he says in this episode are things most people in their entire lives do not realise about themselves and my respect for him went up tenfold.

appu1232 said:
Subaru has basically fixed the issues this episode (18) that people hated him for before this. Now I think the main reason people are hating on him is because of him choosing Emilia over Rem. I don't think that warrants any rational hate though.

Episode 13:
> You should love me after all I've done for you! - Subaru to Emilia

Majority reaction: "Wtf Subaru is retarded."

Episode 18:
> "I love Emilia." - Subaru to Rem

Majority reaction: "You should love Rem after all she's done for you!”

And no, the fact Emilia didn’t remember him doing so much in her case is not a good argument. Even if she did remember and Subaru said that to her, almost all of you would still call him retarded for saying that she was obligated to love him.

It’s fine to have a preference and be upset about who he chose but to say that he’s stupid for not choosing Rem because of what she has done is just being ignorant and hypocritical.

appu1232 said:
Subaru has basically fixed the issues this episode (18) that people hated him for before this. Now I think the main reason people are hating on him is because of him choosing Emilia over Rem. I don't think that warrants any rational hate though.

Episode 13:
> You should love me after all I've done for you! - Subaru to Emilia

Majority reaction: "Wtf Subaru is retarded."

Episode 18:
> "I love Emilia." - Subaru to Rem

Majority reaction: "You should love Rem after all she's done for you!”

And no, the fact Emilia didn’t remember him doing so much in her case is not a good argument. Even if she did remember and Subaru said that to her, almost all of you would still call him retarded for saying that she was obligated to love him.

It’s fine to have a preference and be upset about who he chose but to say that he’s stupid for not choosing Rem because of what she has done is just being ignorant and hypocritical.

Yuzuryn said:
He's a very realistic character to me, despite what people say. For Isekai stories I'm usually used the protagonist either being a Gary Stu with no personality or just a guy who exists for Self Insert. So Subaru was a refreshing change.

Speaking about the confession. I'd like to note this.
You notice how in EP 13 Subaru yelled at Emilia like she owed him something? He died for her so many times. He did so much stuff for her and wanted a reward in a return. Her Love. Her Affection. Anything. And with that the viewers called Subaru a "nice guy" and a dumbass. I'd say they had a good reason. That's not Subaru at his core, but what he did say was kinda nice guy ish.

Fast forward to Episode 18. Now the fans are condemning Subaru for giving Rem...an honest answer to her confession? Now I see why some of the critics and actual haters of this show might be turned off more from Re:Zero, some of the fans are...bleh.
Anyways, they're saying Subaru doesn't deserve her, that he should love her since she died for him so many times, since she did all this for him. So now..think about that. Ironically, some of the more rage-minded people who are going "FUCK SUBARU" right now are acting just like him from Episode 13.

Just because you confess to someone doesn't mean you're entitled to their love. It doesn't matter how much you have done for them, if they don't feel the same way then that's it. I think people are forgetting that other people have feelings and they can't help the way they do. Subaru's has a good reason for loving Emilia and if anyone disagrees I would love to talk about why I think he does. Rem confessed and Subaru gave her an /honest/ answer instead of just shoving the issue under the rug or flat out lying to her.

Yes, it was a bit cruel of asking for her help after he rejected her, but it was also cruel of her to go into pain-staking detail about how great their life could have been AFTER Rem rejected Subaru. They both were a little insensitive. That's why they laughed about it since the situation was so weird! Yet, some of the fans don't get that. They're just so mad about their shipping wars and tunnel vision they can't see it.

Anyways tldr; subaru is a good character and can in fact be likable