Spoiler Free:
There’s been a lot of talk about Re:Zero. From the Waifu wars to the hype around its writing. I’ve seen comparisons to many series. Some people even called it „The new Evangelion“. So is this hype deserved?
No. Here’s why:
Story: An otaku/neet gets into a fantasy world. Because he’s an otaku he knows the basic routine of such stories and tries to follow it but things are not as simple as they seem at first. The concept is good. But ultimately it fails (more on that in my spoilers section)
Art: It’s pretty fantastic in my opinion. If you enjoy good animation you will like this. The character designs are good. The CGI is surprisingly well integrated and not as noticeable as you would think.
Sound: Once again it’s fantastic. Voice actors do a terrific job. Be it during the serious or funny moments. Soundtrack is not as memorable as I would like it to be, but openings and endings are generally great
Character: Majority of the characters are your typical fantasy cookie cutters and there's nothing really interesting about them. The strong and righteous hero. The super strong loli. The insanely looking wizard who has some pretty suspect moments. The main characters are hit or miss at first and then just miss mostly. Overall I would say its an average cast assembly (mainly due to fact that we have 0 strong antagonists atm.)
Enjoyment: It’s definitely fun. There is good amount of comedic, serious and action moments throughout the story. Not once have I had problems with pacing. You are going to have fun if you are into similar shows. Also the directing is absolutely fantastic. I mean it. Somebody give the director a raise.
Overall it’s a promising show but its lacking in characters and story.
Spoiler section:
Story: As I said before, the story fails. It fails because at first it tries to portray this „realistic“ fantasy world.
“Oh you think there’s fun and harem and boobs and you are going to be a big hero? Naw fam catch this dagger in your back. Oh you think you are going to spew about how good you are and we won’t be G-Checking you? Here’s a speech about how you are nothing and as a bonus enjoy this beating in front of a crowd. “
It’s a good subversion. But in the end (at least currently) it doesn’t matter. Subaru even after all of his failures still wins. He is still the hero. He still took down the whale. He still saved Rem. He still saved Felt. He still saved Emilia. There are no permanent repercussions to his actions outside of mental health (which is still okay after sleeping on Emilia’s lap or listening to how good of a guy he is from Rem). Not to mention that the „neet“ takes out 3 bandits by himself, is trained in kendo and can block surprise attack from highly trained assassin (I understand that she was injured and he knew where she’s going to strike but she should still be much faster with her superhuman speed). While I understand that an otaku who is capable of absolutely nothing would bring us pretty boring story, Subaru seems way above average.
I won’t break down what’s wrong with each individual arc but there is some cheap writing (Roswaal conveniently going away when the demon attack happens only to conveniently come back and save Subaru, the way they defeat the Whale) You need some suspension of disbelief to get through the series.
Character: Let’s skip the 1d villains and your usual trope characters and focus on the 3 MCs. Emilia, Subaru and Rem.
Rem is the best written out of 3. Her characterization at first was pretty cool. Her love/hate relationship with her sister was breath of fresh air. And then she turned into Subaru’s side girl. Currently she exists as a plot device to help Subaru and occasionally let him fall on her chest for some fanservice. From pretty good to painfully average. Hopefully she’ll get some good development later in the series because she’s definitely one of the most interesting characters in the cast.
Emilia is boring. She’s a Mary Sue. Outside of her calling herself with the name of the witch in 1st episode she’s very boring. Even her goal is to make „everybody equal“. I’ve heard excuses that „we don’t know anything about her! Just wait!“ to which I say no. This is an adaptation. A work that is isolated from its source material. Just because something happened in the web novel doesn’t excuse what is currently happening in the anime. I am not judging the novel but the anime
Subaru is annoying. And I can see that it could’ve been author’s intent to make him annoying as commentary on otakus. But that doesn’t excuse his bursts of gag moments and his illogical thinking. It also doesn’t excuse that he can be fixed by power of female encouragement. And quite frankly I don’t see how he could’ve been a neet. He is sociable, pretty strong physically, good looking, is pretty smart, children like him. How is this guy a lowlife neet again? I hope we get some backstory for his situation because as it is, the more I think about him the less of a good protagonist for this concept he becomes. Let’s talk about his development in the 3rd arc. So he saves Rem and village children in the 2nd arc. He gets cocky and when he embarrasses himself and Emila he throws a tantrum. This all also started because Emilia got approached by Julius. He gets jealous and starts acting like an asshole. Then sees Rem get killed and village get burned, dies 3 times and suddenly he’s mentally broken? Where’s the same Subaru who saved Rem? He tried 3 times and broke down into tears because there are no other ways? This development is WAY too sudden for me to take seriously. I admit that at times his character gets good. But overall he’s just all over the place.
Re:Zero is a good above average show with showcases of promising stuff but as it stands it’s still only above average.
