Sep 19, 2016
I'm going to precede this review, the first one I'm writing actually, by saying that I did in fact enjoy watching this series; however, I can't help but feel let down. Re:Zero had some very unique aspects, but at the same time brushed them to one side.
What I liked: The animation was good, and the sound engineering may have even been slightly better. The series was well put together with quality direction, intriguing cliffhangers and a suspenseful plot.
The action was fun, really fun. Most of the fight sequences were given proper attention and not always predictable.
There were a wide variety of characters with individual
...
personalities and goals.
Partway through this series (I believe it was episodes 13-15), there was very little I could fault about the story.
However, from here onward, everything began to fall apart.
What I didn't like: Lack of clarity/explanation. By this I mean that a lot of major plot points had little to no meaning or consequence. For example, the main character, Subaru, just suddenly appears in a different world and accepts it within minutes.
Any, and all, character development was thrown out of the window. Emilia goes from entertaining Subaru's affection to throwing his delusions back in his face (which i believe was a fantastic direction for the plot). He's even berated by her enemies. However, through his all-powerful, unearned, unexplained abilities Subaru manages to twist things to work out in his favour. Does he learn anything from this? Only how to say the right thing to the right person after failing to do so the first time. Does he improve himself through this? His continuing arrogance throughout the show suggests not. And yet every character who had berated him is suddenly treating him with high regard.
Lack of closure. So we are just going to accept the vampire woman, who posed such a threat to begin the series, was just a plot device to introduce Subaru's ability, belittle any power Emilia has and show off just how overpowered Reinhart is (only for him to never be significantly involved again)? What about Felt? She was given a lot of exposure to begin with and then was never shown again. Where's Roswaal? What was Subaru's life like before? Does he not miss anything, or anyone, from it?
Shallow romance. Both Subaru and Rem fall in love with very little interaction with their respective love interests. The confessions of love last longer than any prior interaction in both cases. It pains me to say it, but even SAO does a better job of romance in this sense (the characters were at least shown to live a life together, it was far more believable).
Lack of immersion. Pretty much every character trusts Subaru to lead them in to situations where they may die with very little persuasion considering he holds no rank and is even exposed as not being Emilia's knight at the ceremony. To have knights and perspective Queens believe what he tells them for no good reason makes no sense. Sure, he makes promises of land but it was shown he holds no authority over any affairs to do with Emilia or the Roswaal estate.
And finally...the never ending clichés towards the finale! What started out as a series going against the grain, showing a main character with an unlikable personality to have little to no power and rely on others, eventually descended in to a run of the mill "fantasy world" series. Main character has special ability within world -> uses it to overcome obstacles that others can't -> saves the girl without learning a single lesson.
Now, once again, I by no means disliked this series. I feel the glaring problem with it is that it feels unfinished. However, a second season would only aid in saving the downward spiral that was the second half of this season. I gave the show an extremely generous overall score of 6/10 and that's the result of the solid first half combined with enjoyable action and better than average production quality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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