**And before the review starts , there is something I would like to address which I found quite concerning. I've seen a lot of the reviewers that rate this 5 or below say this is just another generic harem series. Great criticism except that its makes zero sense. In the series we have one girl that loves the main character (arguably two during the very last scene) , the others find him interesting but not enough for it to be in a romantic sense. Its the equivalent of calling Higurashi or KonoSuba a harem series**
That being said lets get onto:
---Story
Time travel is a difficult concept to get right. Either you do it great like Steins;Gate or you mess it up and get a load of plotholes like Charlotte. Thankfully I would say Re:Zero does this right. This shows gimmick is that the main characters is somewhat of a video game character in an RPG. The setting might get a bit repetitive occasionally but with wildly different outcomes.
This show has what I believe to be one of the strongest starts I've seen in an anime in a while. Rating off the first few episodes alone they would easily be 10/10s. Unfortunately the series does become a little bit more mediocre in the later episodes , in some moments forgetting what the series was meant to be about.
Story : 1/2
---Characters
Lets start with our main character. When a character is perfect they are criticized for being a Gary Stu. But in this series the character design of our main character is being judged by critics specifically because he has flaws. I don't quite understand the double standard.
Some people say Subaru is unrealistic because he is cringy. I couldn't disagree more. Subaru is a realistic character precisely because HE IS cringy. In fact I know someone in real life who has pretty much the same personality as Subaru. Subaru uses his special ability to fix things he messed up in the past via time travel. Somewhat akin to Steins;Gate in *STEINS SPOILER ALERT* saving Mayushii.
It is easy to imagine why Subaru would keep using his power over and over to make things perfect , as a Shut-in NEET this is all he has. Subaru also seems to have developed a crush on Emilia probably because she is the first girl that is ever really nice to him. And as a person who knows NEETs this is about as real as it gets. I do call shenanigans on how physically strong Subaru is however but this isn't a massive deal. He also doesn't seem overly shocked about coming to this world , but perhaps he has already "experienced" it via anime and video games.
For Emilia she is overly nice and polite but is not afraid to verbally destroy some people , aka Subaru. She seems like a capable fighter but not nearly as strong without her familiar Puck.
The other main female character later on would be the ever-so-famous Rem but I cannot speak about her in too much detail without spoiling anything.
Re:Zero has an array of flawed , realistic and likeable characters which is something that is not too common with a series this popular.
Characters : 2/2
---Sound and Animation:
The first opening. That has to be one of the best openings I have seen in a very long time. When you have an intro song that I would listen to even without the video you know you did something right. The animation isn't revolutionary or with film-quality but its pretty damn close.
Sound effects and Voice actors stood out to me as being excellent as well. Plenty of emotions with the voice actors as well as some sound effects unique to this series. Unfortunately other than the first opening there was no actual OST song that was able to grasp me.
Animation : 2/2
Sound : 1/2*
*The highest one I can possibly give.
---Enjoyment:
Lately most anime fail to make an impression on me and quickly bore me. After seeing a good amount of anime I would say around 80 to 90% bore me due to being able to predict everything that happens.
Re:Zero does not have this.
If I were to rate this series based on enjoyment alone it would hands down be a 10.
I would really , really like to give this an 9 or 10 but writing this as a critic I simply can't.
Enjoyment 2/2
Conclusion:
Re:Zero is an anime that has the potential to become a modern classic and will be greatly enjoyable to anyone who watches this with a fan perspective rather than a critically minded one.
Unfortunately it isn't perfect which prevents me from giving this a 10 or even a 9 but this is the highest 8 I could possibly give to a series.
Overall : 8
