Story 7.0/10
Story, wasn't anything special. The duration of the series follows Kaizaki Arata, a 27-year-old neet or shut in. He gets offered a pill from some odd fellow, Ryou Yoake, because you know, when you meet a stranger on the streets you accept pills from them. Anyway, as you may already know he's able to start his life over, from high-school again. Now it's not one of those, starting over again from a different world, more so, main character Kaizaki is goes back in time, kinda sort of. He's still the same age mentally, it's only his appearance that has changed. Nothing special is worth mentioning or pointing out in this story. The whole neet trying to redo his life gimmick seems overused and uninteresting at first however, the plot for each episode would have some interesting developments that were actually worth watching. The biggest issue I had was that sometimes intrusive sub-plots began taking over what was really important in the beginning which was the MC getting the opportunity to redo his life. It wasn't all that bad though, although the story-telling isn't consistent, the characters introduced later in the story, Arata's friends, their backstories and situations add for a very amusing, dramatic and emotional experience. From a comedic standpoint, the show is very light on jokes. Often times there were scenes that appeared to be made for laughs however, a majority of it felt forced and just didn't work out. I
Pacing in the story is really slow, if you want to have a good experience watching for the interesting narrative, along with other features this series has to offer, then I highly recommend that viewers watch it at their own pace. Furthermore, please make sure that you don't take users, myself included (obviously.) opinions and reviews and let them ruin or change your perspective of how you perceived the show. Towards the ending of the series, around episode 10 I noticed that there was a good amount of dramatic build up. There was a lot of potential opportunities for an amazing dramatic conclusion, however... NOPE! this potential was thrown out. I thought it would have made for great entertainment if the last few episodes focused more on drama however, this simply was not the case. Instead the last few episodes seemed like they should've been aired around episodes 7 or 9 or at the very least should've been released as an OVA or OAD. If any improvements to the story could've been made I would have liked to seen it focus less on branching out. Often times the story was all over the place. One episode the plot follows this character, doing this that and the other, next episode focuses on another character doing this that or the other. For me it came off as unbalanced, the story hardly focuses on the "Why?" and just keeps going forward. All and all, I wasn't impressed with everything that the story had to offer. Perhaps if there was a season 2 in the works then it would more than likely help me come to terms with the conclusion. Although predictable romances were made clear in the story, I still want to see the final outcome without reading the manga. The story earned a nice 7/10 from me mates.
Art 7.0/10
Art, animation and other related things were pretty bad. Character designs along with the animation quality for settings looked outdated. I thought I was watching something from 2007 or 2008. This would not have been such a bad thing if only the show wasn't released in 2016... you know, the year we are currently in. In addition to that, the reaction faces and backgrounds used for the characters looked like they belonged in the late 2000's period too. Over the top reaction faces with settings that matched them. Speaking of backgrounds, the settings for a majority of the locations, school, parks, festivals, all looked like hand painted cels from before you and I were born. Traditional cel animation... I hope to see the Blu-Ray release improve the quality of the settings and character designs. If this was rushed then I would totally understand. overall it's just unacceptable.
Sound 5.5/10
I hope you like pianos...
The soundtrack was pretty bad. It was like they were on a budget or something. I didn't really care for the opening and ending songs. In addition to that the background songs were not, in any way, special. Now ordinarily, I love pianos, if you've ever read any of my past reviews then you already know I'm a sucker for pianos, being a pianist and keyboardist and all.I'll be honest though, there is hardly any songs playing at all for the majority of the time. I kid you not, there are like 3 or 5 songs played in the background, all of them don't seem to match with whatever situations going on in the series. Often times it was as if the background music was added to prevent a scene for feeling bland or boring. It was too late for that though.... The voice actors were alright, I suppose. There isn't too much to say about them other than they did a pretty good job delivering their character's lines. What caught my attention in the sound department was how quiet the series is. Background characters don't say anything. No talking from background characters at the fireworks festival, school, it felt a little too strange to me. I mean, it's ordinary in lots of shows, however because the show was going for more of an authentic type setting, focusing on realistic settings, I think that background noise is necessary, especially since the show is very quiet in terms of sound.
Characters 7.0/10
The characters felt so one-sided. Each had one distinct trait about themselves that made the individual stand out, barely. Developing romantic relationships between the males and females were predictable and very, very, cliche. I mean, to the point where it wasn't cute, or sweet, nor emotional. You can easily tell whose going to end up with who based upon their actions with one another. The character development in the show is somewhat minuscule. Chizuru is like the only character in the show that has any major character development and growth. I found this to be somewhat disappointing because I thought that if anything Arata would have been shown to have the most beneficial developments in the series.
Enjoyment 7.0/10
Entertaining isn't a word I would use for the "enjoyment" part of ReLIFE. If anything, any sense of enjoyment was rather weak due the inconsistent and often times "strange" way story telling... or presentation. Not to mention that somewhat inconclusive ending. While watching ReLIFE it felt more like I was just in it for the ride. Nothing for me to think about other than how predictable the events will turn out and what characters will form a romantic relationship. Overall I wasn't too impressed with everything that ReLIFE had to offer in the Story, sound, art, and characters department. It felt rushed in those departments. Perhaps the producers were worried about time constraints and not finishing things in time, either way the final product just didn't live up to my expectations. The series just barley earned the 6/10 I gave it.
