~Contains some spoilers~
Now I'm nowhere near as good of a reviewer as some of the people on this site. I don't have a massive vocabulary and great sense of humour like ZephSilver, I'm not able to consistently write well with unique hooks over and over again like Stark700, and I certainly am not as experienced as the living legends like Archaeon, TheLlama and Veronin. So usually, when I look to write a review, I check theirs first. to look for things to include in mine. However, when I looked for their opinions, I was dismayed to see that none of them HAD one yet. (At least at the time of writing this. Please note the time of writing and submission date are different.) Because of this, I was able, for the first time in a long time, to form my very own opinion, with no influence from the ratings or anyone else.
Unfortunately, Re:Zero quickly became the next SAO. The fanbase split drastically into two halves: those who loathe it and those who are convinced it is the second coming of Jesus, both of them providing wholly preposterous reasoning as to WHY they did. Honestly, at the core, they're both right, it's just that nobody can cooperate with each other and meet at the middleground.
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STORY: 7/10
What makes Re:Zero as popular as it is is the inclusion of two popular tropes in the industry, while still managing to make it feel fresh and innovative. At first, it seems like a standard 'Isekai' themed anime... until the brutal slaughter scene at the end of episode one. This is where I was hooked. No light novel adaptation so far had managed to surprise me in the slightest, up to now. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building and neural warfare for the first couple of episodes. I only had one minor complaint: it's so slow. I mean, REAAAAALLY slow for a portion of the series. Don't get me wrong, the climaxes were beyond compare, but seeing traverse through the exact same setting with only minor changes was boring. This problem preceeded to bother me until the arc that kickstarted Re:'s popularly: Subaru's psychological breakdown.
Emilia's rejection of Subaru, and his constant denial of help by other characters is fantastically executed. It emphasizes one of the central points of the series, and personally, my favorite part: Subaru may be the main character of the story, but the world isn't going to treat him that way. It's an element of realism that not many other series can pull off, never mind a LIGHT NOVEL adaptation. At this point, I had become an avid Re:Zero fan. I eagerly awaited the next episode and would watch it ASAP. However, by episode 17, I was worried. Subaru's torturing had gone from a legitimately depressing atmosphere to just torture porn. Any character who died would be alive by the next episode due to Subaru's constant rewinding. I had even become skeptical of the author's well being. Like seriously bro, stop killing my waifu. You got a gore fetish or something? And just when I thought my fondness had ended, when all hope had dissipated... Episode 18 aired.
I don't care how much you despise the series, saying episode 18 was bad is just ignorant and immature. The confession of Rem, Subaru's characterization coming together, and just how realistically the romance was handled is something I don't think I've seen in any anime - ever. THIS was the climax. THIS was the turning point. Loving the series was no guilty pleasure to me anymore. I had a legitimate reason.
It should have ended there. Once the main story is back on track and Subaru can actually make rational decisions (a surprise to all of us), the newly arranged allied force rallies and departed on a journey to defeat the white whale. I found this arc to be a bit boring, and maybe even cliche'd, something I'd been proud that the series had avoided. The next arc was the last of the current TV series, and my expectations were high; and alas, I was let down. The ending may try it's best to be climactic, but it can't disguise the fact that Subaru really didn't 'develop' as a character at all; he just went back to the way he used to be, and it doesn't change the fact that Re:Zero's story is nowhere near complete.
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ART: 6/10
Not much to say here. The art and animation are both fine, they have standout moments but they also have terrible ones. The amount of positive moments outshine the negative ones, thus 6/10.
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SOUND: 8/10
Re:Zero's soundtrack usually isn't mentioned when listing it's favorable aspects, which is really quite a shame. the first opening theme sounds like a traditional opening song to a light novel, having a couple standout moments where the song repeats itself to remind us of the show. Just because it's common though, doesn't make it bad. The first ending and second opening are really where the series shines though. Myth and Roid adjust to the tone of the series so well. They handle most of the insert songs as well, which are also fantastic. The second ending is also great and is probably my favorite of the four theme songs, it's a shame it doesn't get discussed as often. The voice acting is good, really good. Especially the characters of Subaru, Emilia, Rem, and Betelgeuse being the standouts. Most of the voices are rather average otherwise, but perhaps it's because the four listed get more screentime. The sound effects are also great. They can range from creepy to weird, and some will have you craving to hear them again and again.
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CHARACTER: 7/10
Now this... THIS is the part where the fanbase is probably the most conflicted. And with good reason. Before that though, lets talk about designs. The designs that drove people away from the series in the first place. Subaru's design isn't very unique compared to the countless other 'isekai' protagonists. He's just your happy go lucky track suit protagonist with a funky hairstyle. Emilia is well designed, but not memorably designed. And the rest of the characters after that... aren't well designed OR memorably designed. Besides maybe Betelgeuse. Hard to forget that ugly mug. Personality-wise the characters aren't very unique either... but that brings me back to point 1. The characters are supposed to be bad, they're designed TO BE cliche'd. And the author puts an element of realism in each of their personalities to make them stand away from the archetype. I think it worked, a portion of the supporting characters, but not all of them (Looking at you, Wilhelm.). It wasn't all bad, though. Rem's confession was immensely different then an anime confession I've seen in the past, which goes to show how mature this author can write a character. So WHAT HAPPENED with Subaru?! At first, he begins like just about every other protagonist ever: 'Durr hurr I played video games, jokes about magic and me being the hero', and that was fine. At least then, he was likeable. Then the author torments him, turning him into a narcissistic prick who is utterly dissatisfactory to watch. Again though, this is all intentional. Subaru was still a decent character at this point. So what drove him to the bottom of the barrel in my eyes? The last quarter of the series was supposedly him after he had gotten over his psychological trauma, but honestly, there really isn't a noticeable change in him. He just reverted to what he used to be before the tormenting. That's not character development! If you reaaaaaaally wanted to stretch you could argue that Subaru has become more heroic, but the change is so slight I don't even think it matters.
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OVERALL: 7/10
TL:DR
+Innovative way of combining popular tropes
+Good worldbuilding
+Animation and Art have more positive than negative moments
+It sounds great all around
+Majority of the characters feel realistic, namely Rem and Emilia
-Slow paced
-Just torture porn for pieces of it
-Incomplete story
-Some of the characters (Namely Wilhelm) are just bland
-Subaru's development feels fake
Oh and I almost forgot
+Re:tards. This is the funniest insult to come out of the anime community I've ever seen. I just wish I came up with it first! Bravo forums, bravo.
Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu isn't the messiah the fans praise it as. But it's not a complete garbage pile like the haters would like you to believe either. With the massive popularity and controversy of the show, you can sure as hell expect a season two to be right around the corner, and who knows... maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll get worse.
See you in a couple years, Re:tards.
