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ReLIFE is an anime adaptation based on the web comic. The premise follows a NEET who gets a chance to turn his life around, what's different here is not only how the story is told, but what the story is. Kaizaki Arata is a 27 year-old NEET who takes part of the ReLIFE Experiment, this entails that he go back to High school for a year in an attempt to emotionally reinvigorate him, fix problems such as the inability to socialize, etc. and in return he gets living expenses for the year and if the experiment is successful he gets a job. What I liked about the show is how it carefully crafts this story around Arata's friends and how he influences them. One could write this off as subplots and filler, but careful inspection reveals how these incidents with his friends slowly change his attitude toward himself and his surroundings. The change in his personality and attitude is extremely noticeable toward end. He starts off wanting to blend into the background and let the year go by, but lo and behold he is almost immediately involved in something. Whether it be a pack of cigarettes or An trying to seduce him, small instances like this show his character and what kind of person he is. Towards the latter half more attention is given toward Hishiro and it tries to flesh out her character, but due to lack of source material there really isn't much to go on for backstory. Now to Art style, to be perfectly honest, the art and animation isn't all that great and boy do some of those backgrounds look a bit basic. The art itself looks a bit old and the animation is a bit dull. Though the art style is bit old it does it's job and quite well when needed. As far as sound goes a lot of piano was used in the background and while it doesn't provide anything special all the time, it did its job for those tense moments (mind you some of those tracks were quite pleasant as well).
All in all I quite enjoyed the series as a whole and am wanting for a second season, the show handles it's pacing quite well, going slow and building up tension for the climactic points, though if you are a person who likes fast-paced stories this may not be for you, but then again it's your choice and I recommend it. The ending leaves at a bit of a cliffhanger and hints heavily toward either a second season or a read-the-manga ending which is not all that great. I gave this an 8/10, and a recommendation to watch it.
