The characters are just downright awful.
The main character, Subaru, is a selfish entitled self-centred cunt. Which is fine at first because that's the way the he was written to be, and the story punishes his actions and attitude. But in the last third of the series, one by one all the characters start sucking the main character's cock. All of a sudden Subaru can do nothing wrong and everyone kisses his feet. He hasn't changed one bit, he's every bit the same cunt that he was at the start, but suddenly the show is rewarding him.
Rem starts out pretty interesting, but in time becomes nothing but flatly-written waifu bait. There are multi-dimensional fascinating characters that would also happen to make a great waifu, and there are characters that exist for the sole reason of pandering to the viewers. Rem unfortunately is the latter. There's zero personality or thought behind any of her actions other than being in love with the main character. Her character development died the moment she fell for Subaru.
Emilia is your generic nice girl, and just when she starts showing the least bit of development, when she calls out Subaru for his bullshit and tells him to fuck off, she then gets shafted for the rest of the series. Subaru's so-called "love" for Emila is nothing but toxic possessiveness; at one point he even says "you should have a greater debt to me than you could ever repay".
The show is that it ends up being the complete opposite of what it set out to do. It ends up being nothing but a self-insert wish-fulfilment fantasy. I'll be the one to say it: Sword Art Online season 1 as whole is better than Re:Zero; at least it never tries to pretend that its anything more than the fulfilment fantasy it is.
The selection of candidates for the throne? All shifted aside to watch the main character playing hero. Why he was transported into this alternate dimension? Not explained. Why the main character can keep reviving time after time when he dies? Not explained. Why can he only revive at particular save points, which change throughout? Not explained. Why even bother? The writers can just throw anything they want into the story without any explanation.
Don't even get me started on the atrocious writing. Subaru's so-called PTSD magically appears and then goes away at random; whichever is more convenient for the plot at that point in time. His supposed turning point in the series goes something like this:
Subaru: I AM USELESS I HATE MYSELF
Rem: I LOVE YOU SUBARU
Subaru: OK, I AM FANTASTIC AND I LOVE EMILIA :D LoOoOL, HELP ME SAVE HER?
Rem: YES! :)))))))
Atrocious.
What does this show prove? Just add a bit of gore and deaths and edginess and everyone with circlejerk over it and go all "2dark2deep4u". If this show is supposedly the "saviour of anime", then the entire medium is beyond redemption. Just look at all the waifu wars amongst the show's fans, it shows you what kind of target audience is intended for the show. If not for the brilliant first four episodes I would rate the show even lower. Don't waste your time on this, its overrated, overhyped, utterly pretentious, and not worth watching.
