~{Story}~
The premise of the series is definitely something that is quite unique. The story revolves around a 27-year-old jobless protagonist named Kaizaki Arata, who one day meets a man who gives him the offer to join a program named ReLIFE. This program will supply Kaizaki with a pill that can make him look 10 years younger and he’ll be put in a high-school as a test subject, to study his improvements and actions. But the series less focuses on the concept on being young again, and more on the concept of learning new things and adapting to a new environment. ReLIFE just isn’t a story about Kaizaki, but also the story about the people around. It’s not just how his school is changing his life, but how he’s changing other people’s lives. And the series focuses on some really important themes, which elevates the quality of the series. The series plays out like a typical slice-of-life school anime, as the series goes through many different situations and story arcs. And the series rearranged the content of the manga to make the series more enjoyable. Many twists and backstories that appear way later in the series, appears in this series, so anime-only watchers can see these reveals. And the ending may not end the overall main story, but it feels like a satisfying conclusion in the series, knowing how much the characters have changed.
Story: 8/10
~{Presentation}~
ReLIFE concept and premise may be interesting and all, but the ReLIFE’s biggest strength is its characters and how they are handled. The series is more character-driven than story-driven, as the series primarily focuses on the development in character relationships. And the way the series presents its characters and their improvements is what makes the series so special. And the series manages to focus on some really important themes, both for teenagers and adults. No, it’s main theme is not just “live your life to the fullest” (as the synopsis may suggest), but it’s also about bullying is the social world, how to be able to cope with situations you want to run away from, how to withstand yourself from making wrong decisions, how sometimes the wrong decision might be the best for everyone, how being superior can get you hate, and so on. The series isn’t a page-by-page adaptation of the manga, as many things were rearranged to suit the structure of the anime. Many content skipped from the first episode appears in the second. The reason for doing is primarily because they wanted to end the first episode off with the first day done. And many important moments that happen later in the manga, gets adapted earlier on in the series. This is because they wanted to adapt the big reveal and the major backstories. The pacing of the series is somewhat fast, but not rushed. It manages to not waste time and always entertain.
Presentation: 7/10
~{Character}~
As mentioned before, ReLIFE’s biggest strength is its characters. It only takes an episode or two for them to be likable, and each character stands out one way or another. And the fact that every character gets an adequate amount of focus makes sure that the entire cast as whole is strong, instead of one character standing out more than the other. The protagonist of the series, Kaizaki Arata, ends up being likable from the start as he can be relatable to adults and teens, primarily because we see him as both. The way he changes a character throughout the series is fascinating. The ReLIFE program managed to makes Kaizaki learn a lot of things that can help him later in the future. He learns his values and realizes how society works, while helping others around him by sharing his knowledge and experiences as an adult. But Kaizaki’s not the only character that gets a lot of development, but also the rest of the main cast too. Hishiro Chizuru also changes throughout the series, as she learns how to be more socially active and how to understand other people. And she’s later give a major backstory that changes the way the audience sees her. And her relationship with Kaizaki is really well handled. Yoake Ryou, a character that very few people expected to be a character with depth, proved to excel and be an excellent character. His backstory on how much he had to go through to make his first subject successful, shows that his smile is just there to cover up his regrets. And characters like Onoya An, Kariu Rena, and Ooga Kazuomi also prove to be just as good of a character as the rest of the cast. Onoya’s interactions with the rest of the characters is always fun, and Kariu and Ooga’s relationship is really intriguing, especially towards the end of the series.
Character: 8/10
~{Art}~,
The art is generally good in ReLIFE, especially considering the fact that TMS has a lot to do this season. The detailing isn’t the best, but it works. The backgrounds are fairly good looking as it’s pretty well detailed. The architectures look nice and well detailed and the natural environments look good too. The lighting is a little subpar is sunlight won’t feel like as if it a ray, but rather on flat color with multiple shading would be used instead, which doesn’t work too well. But the shading, particularly on characters, looks fine. The character designs are quite good, even if it’s not anything unique. You’ve probably seen Kaizaki’s face in some other anime before, but it still works well here too. Far away character models can start to lose its details though. The art style is intentionally drawn in a simplistic manner at times for comedic relief and it works well.
Art: 6/10
~{Animation}~
Probably the weakest thing about ReLIFE is its animation quality. The production values are okay at best, and this might be because TMS has to many projects to work on this season. The fluidity in character movements is lacking and it can be comparable to Sakamoto desu ga from last season. There’s a particular moment when Yoake was running, and that didn’t look too good. Character movements look alright, but the frame rate feels too low at times, which makes it lack a proper flow. But it still works though, just not as much as you want it to be. And there are times when the animation quality improves, particularly during comedic, over-the-top reactions, when the art is simplified.
Animation: 6/10
~{Voice Acting}~
ReLIFE may have a large main cast, but it doesn’t have a large supporting cast, so the number of seiyuu needed for this anime is quite low. That being said, there a whole lot of well-known seiyuu behind the voices of some of these characters, and they do a splendid job in adding more depth to the series. Ono Kensho does a great job as Kaizaki, as he does both serious and comedic parts right. His “eeehh!” (which you’ll hear a lot), works well and he does a good job in doing over-the-top reactions. At the same time, he manages to get the serious parts done too, particularly when Kaizaki’s backstory is introduced. Kayano Ai does a great job as Hishiro. It feels weird to listening to her after watching the KonoSuba OVA (since she’s Darkness), but she manages to make Hishiro as emotionless as possible, while adding a sense of curiosity in her voice. She does have experience in these type of roles (like Shiina from Sakurasou). Kimura Ryouhei was the perfect Yoake. He manages to get his optimistic spirit perfectly and it’s hard to see anyone else do his role better than he did. Other seiyuu such as Tomatsu Haruka as Kariu, Uchida Yuuma as Ooga, and Ueda Reina as Onoya, all do a great job in what they have to do. And there are other well-known seiyuu doing supporting roles, such as Namikawa Daisuke, Sugiyama Noriaki and Sawashiro Miyuki, who all do a good job too.
Voice Acting: 8/10
~{Music}~
ReLIFE’s music is also quite good too. The number of ED ReLIFE has is astonishing, especially for its length. This is because every episode has its own ED. That being said, though none of the ED ends up being extraordinary, all of them at least manage to be good. There’s not a single ED in the series that felt lacking in any ways. The OP, “Button”, is a very good ED that manages to capture the heart and tone of the actual series. Its vocals are nice and the music is great too. The background music in the series is great though. Though there isn’t much a variety, the ones you will hear will work well with the context. There’s a lot of piano music, that’s for sure. The piano music they mostly play is placed so well almost all the time. The music would play when someone is talking, then stop when things are silent. The music will follow the sounds of the characters speaking, which is really great. A good example of this is near the beginning of the series, when Kaizaki and Yoake meet for the first time.
Music: 8/10
~{Enjoyment}~
ReLIFE might have been much more than I wanted. If it was simply a series about a main character who gets to relive his high-school life and go through awkward situations, I would have been satisfied enough, But the series becomes much more than that by developing its characters other than the protagonist, and the series. And the fact that the series focuses on really important themes was a big surprise too for an anime labeled simply as a school slice-of-life, as it can easily be called a psychological drama at times too. I had so much fun seeing the characters change throughout the series and create relationships with other characters, whether it be friendship or romance.
Enjoyment: 8/10
In the end, ReLIFE is the anime to watch this season. There was a good amount of hype surrounding it before it aired… or pre-streamed, and the series manages to deliver overall. It’s got a great cast of characters that develop throughout the series so much, and the well-developed relationships are made. The comedy is consistently funny and inventive. And even its serious moments are done with such care. The series focuses on some very important themes throughout the series and some very good life lessons are learned. The production values are weak, but the series makes up for it with almost everything else. And not much is skipped, but rather rearranged, so it would work better in its anime format. Overall, ReLIFE has something for everyone, whether it be lighthearted or serious.
+ Fantastic cast of characters that get sufficient focus and development
+ Character relationships are handled well
+ Premise is interesting and evolves into something much more than reliving a school life
+ Important themes are introduced and well-focused on
+ Fast and consistent pacing with the rearrangement of content makes the flow of the series better
- Production values are weak and animations lack fluidity
Overall: 7.4/10
