The show starts as a joke of almost every fantasy anime using the main character as the perfect parody tool, making him say satirical things like: “This must be the event where I cast my spell. Ha!”, “Where’s my protagonist status?” and “Where’s the cute girl who summoned me?” but then the story quickly settles down and becomes a serious matter. It’s like the writer wanted to tell us: “We get it. We know that you’re tired of this overused fantasy world, but we’re going to use it anyway”. We laugh because we know that they’re right, even though we feel like we’re giving them the permission to use it. After starting on a parodic tone, Re:Zero slowly becomes darker and darker throughout the episodes, using horror and drama as its main genres. It gives us this unusual feeling that it’s original and appealing unlike its siblings, by ending almost each episode with a dramatic cliffhanger (sudden death of a character for example). And the problem is, it takes advantage of it EVERY episode to shock the viewer by making the main character look miserable and pathetic to the point that it becomes repetitive and melodramatic. The writer has one rule: each episode MUST end with a cliffhanger whether it makes sense or not. Re:Zero hides under a carpet of clichés and uses drama as an excuse to get away with it. Many people don’t have a problem with this. They actually find it awesome and thrilling. But I don’t. I find it exaggerated and unnecessary. What we need is a real explanation of the story, but sadly there is none: the story is divided into small or long arcs so there is no “story line”. What we demand is a motive, a goal that our main character has to achieve, a reason why certain characters act the way they do, a character development or a background story and NOT a sudden character transformation into the “Good Guy”, nor a romance that’s going nowhere. Unfortunately, we get nothing. Nothing at all. There is no attractive story and the characters are badly written. The whole show is painful to watch and makes you want to break your screen.
Please note that some sections in this review contain some spoilers. Feel free to skip those sections indicated by a *.
Let’s start with the bad elements:
•STORY: It seems that nowadays, new animes are basically copy-pasting what’s popular (be it an idea, a set of characters, a setting…) and keep twisting it around until it becomes better. One of the major problems in Re:Zero is that it can’t decide what it wants to be so instead it becomes everything at the same time: parody, horror, mystery, slice of life, comedy, action… And you can’t just pile up all those elements and expect a good and comprehensible story. What is Re:Zero trying to be? That’s the question that I’ve been asking myself (and still is) the whole time. Because to me, the anime fails in every aspect: there is nothing mysterious that you have to find out. Instead, some elements are brought up once and then completely forgotten later (characters, plot elements…). The slice of life (the mansion arc) is unnecessary and repetitive: it doesn’t develop the relationship between the characters. It insults it because the time-travel resets everything. The comedy is also removable as it doesn’t relieve the tension, because there is no suspense to begin with. It’s a time-travel fantasy where the main character never dies and keeps respawning back in time to try again and again until he manages to save everyone. It’s like playing an arcade game where you have an unlimited amount of credits. You’ll win the game eventually.
1) DRAMA: The drama fails due to a simple plot device that keeps the show going: time-travel. Many writers don’t take this sensitive element seriously in their Si-Fi’s and fantasies, and use it whenever and however they want to. But the real advantage in using time-travel in a fantasy is allowing the writer to tell the story in a different kind of narrative: use of different characters and scenarios, seeing the story in another character’s point of view… Time-travel can easily lead to a suspenseful and interesting story if used correctly. However, if it is triggered when the person holding the ability dies, it becomes a little bit more difficult to handle. The main character’s emotional state becomes crumbled with fears and traumas after each death, whereas from now on, each character who will die besides him will have absolutely no effect on us because we already know that anyone can come back from the dead by time-travel. So the point of this “Rewind by Death” is not to shock the viewer, but rather the character. And the sad part is that everyone thinks it’s the same thing. It’s not. You’re feeling sorry for the main character, and not the person who has just died in front of him. And why should you sympathize with a useless main character who doesn’t do a single thing during the whole show? Nevertheless, the drama is forced due to the vicious cycle of death-rewind. It lost its value when the writer made this poor choice of allowing the MC to reset the day when he dies. So stop trying to force it, it’s not working.
2) CLICHÉS: I already mentioned this at the beginning, but Re:Zero is still full of clichés no matter how much you want to deny it. Think of it: knights, castles, elves, witches, “lizard people”, “ground dragons”, actual dragons, apples that look exactly like ones but are called “appas” (talk about originality), lolis, maids… The problem is that the show is aware of all of those lame and overused elements. For example, the MC refers the small and cute characters as “lolis” and barely use their actual name. So in the end, we can’t really say that the fantasy world in Re:Zero is original because the setting and characters are nothing we haven’t seen already. And changing the name of a known fruit is not going to help, sorry. Re:Zero is based on a whole bunch of clichés, and made this very clear to us. This seems ironic given that it’s a cliché and is trying so hard not to be.
3) CLIFFHANGERS: The cliffhangers are poor. Some of them are too predictable, others are too unexpected and impossible to believe. Cliffhangers must make a little bit of sense and more importantly be relevant to the story but instead, they are used left and right for shock purposes. It’s not shocking if it’s not convincing, and it’s not convincing if it’s not provided with any proof. Even the MC doesn’t understand what’s going on anymore, so how can we? One or two cliffhangers are fine, but if you’re going to end each episode with one because you want more drama to your story then it’s not going to work. The viewer will eventually get bored after playing the long and famous game: “Who’s going to die next?” And the answer is too obvious: Subaru, and maybe another character that we don’t care about.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
An example of a typical cliffhanger is the episode where we learn that one of the maids Rem killed the MC. Get this: a loyal maid trying to kill the totally-not-suspicious guest who tried to save her master more than once. This was way out-of-character. She didn’t even talk about her suspicions with anyone, and didn’t even provide any evidence. The only thing suspicious about Subaru was his witch scent, but everybody knew that and nobody really cared to bring that up again.
How about the episode where our MC commits suicide, but then becomes too scared to die again and let the "plot conveniences" (some random monster you don’t know yet) take care of that? Why raise more questions when you can simply avoid them by letting him commit suicide again? And we're talking about a desperate and hopeless guy who wants to save EVERY SINGLE character he meets, even villains who tried to kill him once. And that’s definitely not going to work if he’s going to wait for something or someone to kill him so he can reset everything. He’s wasting his time, and ours.
There’s also an episode where Rem is brutally killed in front of Subaru because the killer wanted him to feel guilty and bad. That’s the reason why there are so many deaths in this show: to traumatize the main character, and not us. Because killing a character in this show is unbelievable and pathetic. It’s like faking death: we already know that whoever dies is not really dead and will come back by Rewind.
*END OF SPOILERS*
The endings are executed in a way to keep the suspense and thrill but in the end it’s just for a cheap shock value to keep you hanging and wanting more.
4) PLOT CONVENIENCES: The story doesn’t look appealing nor smart at all. Why? The plot conveniences are everywhere, not to mention too easy to spot. This makes the characters look manipulated instead of independent.
The first issue is that all the deaths are forced and used against the MC in order to traumatize him.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
In episode 14, Subaru arrives at the mansion only to find everyone dead. He then blindly walks into a suspicious ice room and suddenly freezes to death by some curse just after hearing someone whispering to him: “You’re too late”. That’s right: Subaru waits to be killed by the unknown because letting him commit suicide will be nuisance to the writer, since Subaru will take advantage of it every time and use it whenever something bad happens. Instead, the writer let him witness everything because he wants to traumatize him even more, kills him using someone/something we don’t know about, and later on tries to justify it. That’s not smart. That’s running away from a logical path that the character could have taken.
An episode later, Subaru gets his head chopped off by the same monster. His death is not only absurd, but confusing. After we learn the monster’s identity, we then come to the conclusion that killing Subaru in this way doesn’t feel right. It was not his fault. It never was. The monster could have prevented all of this, but didn’t because Subaru HAD to die. It’s almost as if he let him die on purpose. And the writer tries to justify his poor excuse of making this monster kill Subaru even if it doesn’t look compatible with the monster’s personality.
Another issue is a very annoying plot armor: the inability to inform anyone about the Rewind ability, either by killing the person holding the ability or by killing the person listening about it. Subaru needs to suffer ALONE before transforming into a completely different person. If he ever tries to alert someone, he starts hallucinating and seeing a witch’s hand coming from the dark grabbing his heart. Let’s say for the sake of argument that this is part of the witch’s curse. Couldn’t he IMPLY that he has been there before or that this was a Deja-vu? Repeating a character’s line for example, predicting his actions and movements… Is it that hard? (like the MC in “All You Need is Kill” or its movie adaption “Edge of Tomorrow”). But of course that’s too much for Subaru. He can barely lift a sword, literally. What about the other characters? Are they like Subaru incompetent and indifferent? Just by observing a person’s behavior, you can tell that there is something wrong with him, or that he may have experienced this before. We get to see one of the characters who barely shows on-screen saying that there’s something off about Subaru’s eyes, and that he looks like he experienced many deaths and traumas, but keeps it to himself. It seems that no one really cares about Subaru or pay any attention to him, and I guess it’s normal given his personality.
The writer needs something that can emphasize the drama. Every episode, from 1 till 18, someone HAD to die or something bad HAD to happen so Subaru can feel guilty, because that’s all on him. He’s the only one who can prevent this using his ability but nobody can help him because they’re not allowed to. So this is really a cheap plot armor that is barely justified by the writer. It is used to traumatize the MC, and it takes way too long that the trauma eventually becomes impossible to erase or overcome. So how, in just one single episode, did Subaru magically overcome his trauma that began since the very first episode and turned into a completely different person? But we’ll get to that later.
After episode 18, the drama fades away, because it did what it had to do: make the MC suffer alone using a simple tool: time-travel, while preventing him from telling anyone about it, since it would hurt the show so badly it would end in 12 episodes instead.
The story is also riddled with plot holes. The writer doesn’t explain why Subaru is suddenly transported to another world and then cursed by a Witch who doesn’t show up in the end. He doesn’t explain how the “save point” works. One of the most obvious examples is the episode 23 where Subaru respawns back to the strategy meeting after the White Whale battle and says: “Wow. My save point was updated!”, which is the same as him implicitly saying “Thanks writer, even though I have no idea what happened!”.
5) FILLERS: The story doesn’t have a sense of continuity because it’s divided into small and unrelated stories. Some of them are short and acceptable, others are fillers to lengthen the drama and waste our time. I’m going to explain the real reason behind those removable parts of the show, so I’m most likely going to give examples.
*OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD*
The Mansion and the Village Arc (Episode 4 to 12): This whole arc has one purpose based on an absurd claim: to strengthen the relationship between Subaru and Rem after she killed him several times because she thought he was a threat to the whole mansion. This is why it’s absurd: she’s JUST a maid so it’s not up to her to decide who lives and who dies. The fact that she’s even trying to kill a guy that has done nothing more than being nice to everyone and helping them because he’s in debt is beyond ridiculous. Subaru tries to convince her that he’s innocent but she doesn’t even listen to him. Beatrice act as his witness and tries to justify his innocence but fails. He blames himself for that and tries to figure things out because his life is at stake here, and not because he cares about Rem. So this arc is just another way for him to escape death by building a fake relationship between a maid so he can earn her trust. The writer makes Rem act irrational and out-of-character by accusing an innocent guy with no evidence whatsoever so he can give this arc a meaning. So if this isn’t filler, what is?
The Royal Selections (Episode 13): This episode has one goal: to get Subaru into a fight with Emilia. How? By making him look as ridiculous and pathetic as possible in front of everyone. The episode looks like a joke because not one single character in it takes the situation seriously. Subaru keeps screaming and shouting at anyone who insults Emilia. One of the council of elders is caring enough to ask him who he is and if he is done with his painful speech already instead of throwing him out instantly. Felt (one of the eligible candidates) also makes a scene screaming at Reinhard and asking him what she is doing here (I mean, isn’t it obvious?) but later on claims that she will kill everyone in this town if she ever becomes the queen, because to her that’s what a perfect ruler should do. Priscilla claims that she will become a tyrant and make everyone kneel before her, while Anastasia informs us that she’s too greedy and wants her own nation. Old Man Rom literally pops out from the ground to save the day and Emilia finally kicks Subaru out of the room after getting embarrassed in front of everyone. In other words, the introduction of the candidates which was supposed to be the whole point of the episode happened too fast and eventually turned out to be another cringe moment for the viewer.
The White Whale Arc (Episodes 19 to 21): the main objective of this arc is to make Subaru look smart and helpful, showing us a contrast between his old personality. This arc is no more than just a fight against a giant floating whale that takes up to 40 minutes when it could have ended instantly. Yes, the fight looks serious and cool, but what does it have to do with the story? Isn’t Subaru’s current objective to save Emilia, and not to waste his time running around a monster while teasing it? Wilhelm thanks him even before the fight because defeating this monster is avenging his dead wife, so it’s kind of a big deal for him. In other words, the writer makes the arc look serious and necessary to everyone so we don’t complain about it, and here I am trying to figure out the whole point of it. I think Subaru’s priority is to defeat the guys who killed Emilia in the first place (The Witch worshipers), and not a random monster who killed him once.
*END OF OBVIOUS SPOILERS*
•CHARACTERS: If you thought the story was bad, just wait and see what’s even worse.
The characters are too plain. They have up to 2 noticeable characteristics and once they do their job, they are thrown away into the garbage and completely erased from the show. Moreover, most of their lines and dialogues sound cheesy and messed up. Here are some examples:
“Do I look clever to you?”
“You are still Emilia’s dog”
“Explain this to Emilia and the loli”
“That was a vague order, but alright”
“Thank you for being defeated”
"Only I'm allowed to sniff Subaru"
“Love love love love love love love love love love love…”
“That was perfectly well-coordinated. Did you guys practice that for this meeting?”
"Will you be quiet? I'm trying to make myself look good."
This is not a joke. Those are actual lines from the show that are applied to serious situations like fights, meetings, convincing a certain character about something, giving an order. In general, the characters are well-presented (art, animations, voice) but look dumb when they talk so it’s impossible for you to take them seriously. It’s like they don’t even care about their situation as much as we do. They talk because they NEED to, whether what they say makes any difference or not. They don’t have a mind of their own. They are just following the writer’s orders without thinking like a reasonable human being.
1) MAIN CHARACTER: To put it simply, Subaru is an 18-years old that acts as if he’s 12. He has a special ability that lets him rewind time by his own death but he barely takes advantage of it and doesn’t really explore its limitations. He thinks of it as a joke and doesn’t understand what he’s truly capable of. In the first episode, it took him 5 seconds to realize that he’s been transported into a fantasy world: “It's safe to assume that this is a fantasy world” (Episode 1, minute 3), but when he dies the first time and resets the day, it took him almost 2 episodes to understand that he can time-travel by death (did I mention that he’s a NEET who plays video games and watches movies all day?). And what’s worse is that when he goes back in time, he takes the same routes and doesn’t try out new ones. He goes to the same alley where he got mugged last time and screams to the thieves: “You again?”. This is a time-travel fantasy, shouldn’t you at least explore different paths, meet different characters, and for the love of God question yourself: “How did I get here?” or “How do I get out of this place?”
In other similar shows like SAO, GATE and KonoSuba, the main character voluntarily travels to a fantasy world, so he doesn’t need to find a way out of it since he knows what he’s doing. So why does Subaru who is suddenly transported to another world take the situation so lightly that he doesn’t even TRY to escape. He accepts everything that happens to him AND everyone that he meets without using his brain.
Instead of searching for a way out of this world or getting rid of the curse, he ends up hunting for waifus, from maids to princesses to cat girls, because to him that’s more important than safety.
Subaru is one of those main characters who pretends to be the “know-it-all” but actually has zero intelligence. He doesn’t do anything in this show; it’s that simple. Instead, he just let the other characters do their job as he sits idly, claiming that he will save everyone. Hell, he even admits it later. There’s one sentence that could sum up his personality: “Go with the flow”. And by flow I mean plot. Subaru’s role is to blindly follow the plot without thinking twice. He repeats the same mistakes over and over again because he NEEDS to die so he can reset everything or wait for something “shocking” to happen in the end of the episode. In other words, he acts this way for the sake of the drama-cycle (so he can die, reset, then die again…)
Subaru’s second role is to over-dramatize the show, either by making an irrational decision, regretting it later and blaming himself for everything (even though it’s not his fault. He feels guilty because he knows he can do something about it but doesn’t) or becoming completely traumatized and unable to speak. One of the writer’s main objectives is to show us a development of his mental state (from best to worse) but it becomes exaggerated and too dramatic. There’s a whole episode where he doesn’t speak a single word because he witnessed another death: he has given up, but he hasn’t done anything AT ALL so how can he easily give up? Death is a serious matter, but not when you can reset it by time-travelling. It’s almost as if you’re taking advantage of it, since this will help you avoid it next time by exploring different possibilities. I don’t want to spoil another anime, but go watch Magical Girl Madoka and you’ll know what I mean.
Subaru also changes his behavior every time the plot demands it. Sometimes, he makes a scene because the show needs more drama. Sometimes, he doesn’t and completely turns off his psychological scars by pretending nothing happened because the drama needs to cool off at some point. He saves a maid who killed him once while pretending that she didn’t. He ends up protecting a thief named Felt while pretending that she’s not the reason why he and Emilia died in the first place.
Subaru wants to feel like a main character even though he’s not, at least not to me. You can almost hear his screams “Notice me! I’m important too” when he throws a tantrum in the royal selections episode and gets mad at anyone who insults Emilia, even in the episode where a Knight simply kissed her hand showing his respect towards her. On the other hand, Subaru acts like an ex-boyfriend who’s still overprotective towards his supposed girlfriend. He claims that he’s a Knight that’s going to protect her in a room full of Imperial Knights while wearing a track suit and shouting like a complete idiot but that’s just too pathetic because he simply can’t. Everyone knows that. He knows that. Consequently, Subaru is beyond pathetic and cringe-worthy. He shouts that he’s going to save everyone and two minutes later he runs away begging for people to help him, to the point that he was willing to lick the foot of a princess. Yes, that’s how far he was going.
After episode 18, Re:Zero becomes another “Find the missing Main Character” game (similar to Tokyo Ghoul Root A), where you have to question yourself: Who is the main character in this show? Is it Wilhelm, a Knight who suddenly becomes important to the plot and defeats the enemies in one swing of his sword? Is it Julius, a respectable spirit knight who acts as Subaru’s personal bodyguard? Or is it Subaru, the supposed main character who can only act as bait using his witch scent?
In episode 18, Subaru becomes self-aware and finally accepts his character: “What I am now is the result. All my powerlessness, all my incompetence, is the product of my rotten character (…) That’s right. I have no character”. If he was aware of his character the whole time, why didn’t he do anything about it? Why wait an endless 18 episodes to do so? And here’s the worse part: his character transformation is too sudden. After Rem’s speech, his personality makes a 180⁰: he becomes smart, patient and calm. This long speech barely seems convincing and powerful to completely turn a person’s personality upside down. It’s the personality that we’re talking about: it’s almost a built-in feature that you are born or raised with and it’s too difficult to change that quickly. It takes months, even years. And using Rem’s love confession is a weak excuse as it doesn’t suddenly make him a better person: it takes time.
There is no convincing character transformation, like the one we see in Tokyo Ghoul (where the MC was mistreated during the whole show and almost tortured to death before becoming a complete badass). Even though his character is written that way to make you hate him and then watch him overcome his flaws, it takes up to 18 episodes and in the end it doesn’t really succeed. After “Subaru’s second form”, he becomes a completely different person: calm, reasonable, smart... A true gentleman who admits his mistakes and forgives his enemies. It’s impossible to believe that 1 episode ago he was the same character. Subaru 2.0 still asks people for help because he can’t do anything on his own and acts as bait the whole time while others defeat the enemies. So what really changed in all of this? He made one good decision (a deal with a princess) and that was it. Then what’s the problem? He’s still weak and useless, but everyone accepts him as their hero and start helping him out for no reason: he gets his own army at his command, even though before no one knew about his existence and if they did they though he was a complete idiot. His character transformation is like night and day: one second he was irrational, stupid and thinks that he’s Rambo and then 1 episode later after one simple love confession everyone thinks of him as Napoleon executing the perfect plan or Gotham’s next Batman saving the entire city? I don’t buy this.
Believe it or not, Re:Zero becomes another shonen after the MC’s “transformation”. Rem made it very clear to us when she kept insisting that Subaru is her Prince Charming. There are different factors involved. I’ve counted three so far:
1) He informs the people about the whereabouts of the White Whale (a floating monster), because apparently nobody in this world can use their magic powers or a simple magic spell to track it down.
2) In every single fight, he acts as bait using his witch scent while others defeat the enemy.
3) He risks his life by acting as bait again, and saves a random maid he barely knows by doing so. Not to mention that the risk is non-existent to him since he can reset time the moment he dies.
Doesn’t this seem a little bit insulting to other heroes out there, who try their best to defeat the enemy, using their different set of physical and mental skills? I’m not even convinced that Subaru is a main character, so how can I believe that he becomes a hero later?
Not to mention the overuse of soliloquy (a situation where the protagonist speaks his thoughts out loud so he can indirectly address himself to us). Subaru keeps screaming out loud "OMG. I'm awesome!", "I look great!" and "I'm garbage" so he can highlight his character. He points out clichés to tell us "See? I'm aware of that, so it's not a cliché!".
2) SECONDARY CHARACTERS: Well, let’s start will the main heroine Emilia. She is a kind and caring person but in reality she’s simply a cheap fan service element for a barely developed and non-reciprocal romance. She’s very naive as she welcomes Subaru into her home after knowing the guy for no more than 10 minutes and that he smelled like the Witch (a very despised figure in the show). In addition, Emilia’s character doesn’t get enough development and this seems crucial since the whole show is driven by the relationship between Subaru and Emilia. Think about it: if you remove her then everything else will lose its meaning: the maids, Subaru’s objective and decisions… Emilia can be considered as a plot engine, and some characters even admit it. Ram acknowledge Subaru as “Emilia’s dog” (actual line), not only because he acts as one (he barks at people he doesn’t like and defends his master without thinking) but also because the story wouldn’t have made any sense if his master was not in it. Isn’t this the plot device of the whole show: a relationship between a dog and his master? So why give more attention to side characters like Rem & Ram? Let’s analyze then each character so we can see for ourselves:
-Rem: a bipolar maid with no fixed personality. She starts as a kuudere, becomes a yandere and slaughters everyone, goes back to being cold to Subaru, goes completely insane, then becomes surprisingly kind, but later on turns into a typical tsuundere who can’t admit that she’s in love. So instead of creating more maids, the writer decided to mix all the possible personalities you can come up with into one bowl of a character, thinking that he created a character development instead. Rem acts as a supporting character as well as a fan service one. Try to remember what happened in episode 18: she falls in love with Subaru while telling us (and not him) a fantasy about them living together and having kids that we know will never happen so we can fantasize about it. And of course, she’s just another mindless puppet who makes the drama look even more dramatic by acting irrational all the time and getting herself killed. Her actions barely help the story and the MC. In fact, she once ran away from Subaru and went to the mansion all by herself only to be brutally killed. This was the only safe and logical decision she could think of. But in reality, she was just following the drama path: to shock and traumatize Subaru when he finds out that everyone is dead.
-Ram: Rem’s twin sister with a dull personality, unless you consider “cold and irrational” a type of personality. Her character design is almost the same as Rem’s (except for her hair color) but surprisingly she’s not giving any importance at all. She’s there because the writer needed a background story for Rem, then decided to throw her away since she did her job. In episode 23, she comes back, only this time to kill Subaru and his entire army because he left the mansion and ran away from his master: “So this is what it means to bite the hand that feeds you”. It was Emilia who asked Subaru to leave the mansion in the first place after they got into a fight and NOT him running away to a new master without telling anyone. It was a simple request, not a betrayal. So if she can’t even tell the difference, what can she really do?
3) SIDE CHARACTERS: Almost all the side characters seem completely static and hold no real meaning in the show. They are there because the story is not crowded enough and the writer needs some fillers.
-Wilhelm: His Sword training with Subaru doesn’t change anything. It’s just to show us that the MC is actually trying to do something for once, that he’s trying his best, but he fails in doing so and finally admits it. Wilhelm is suddenly giving more attention than primary characters when he got his own flashback about how he met his wife. He can almost be considered as a main character replacement for Subaru.
-Beatrice: a tsuundere loli who despises Subaru but ironically enjoys his company. She tries to help him by convincing Rem that he’s innocent but apparently that led to his suicide.
-Reinhard: a.k.a “Mr. Nice Guy”. He’s an angel, a saint who helps Subaru out of the goodness of his heart but later on abducts a harmless child. Lolicon confirmed?
-Felt: too childish and ignorant. She blindly follows Reinhard without resisting and becomes one of the eligible candidates for becoming the ruler, only to ask him in a room full of princesses, Imperial Knights and people: “Why did you bring me here, and why am I dressed like that?” (most likely to relieve the tension).
-Felis: your typical cat-girl who turns out to be a boy even though he acts, speaks, and looks like a girl. His job is to look cute and help others without interfering with the harem (like the one in Highschool DxD).
-Julius: a spirit knight who takes his role very seriously, until he becomes Subaru’s pet and obeys any order he gives him without complaining.
-Roswaal Mathers: because the show needs another clown besides Subaru. He acts and speaks like a clown. That's his only unique trait.
- Betelgeuse (In English “Beetle Juice”): One of the 7 Sin-Archbishop representing Sloth. He reminds me of Nobuyuki Sugou: a one-dimensional, too-evil villain who becomes a joke in the show due to his funny way of speaking and acting.
Now for the good elements:
•ART & ANIMATION: The art looks really good and is actually nice to look at. The background scenes are noticeable enough and more detailed than usual. The choreographic scenes are fun to watch, others become repetitive but that’s fine. In conclusion, the art & animation is overall enjoyable.
•SOUND: The voice acting was acceptable except for some characters like Bettelgeuse: it was too high-pitched and was a pain to the ears. We get that he’s a villain but trying to make his voice as ugly and insane as he looks is just too much that he eventually becomes some sort of a joke in the show. We look at him and all we see is a Joker-wannabe but with a really annoying voice. Another voice acting that was supposed to be funny became extremely distracting and ruined the whole mood: Roswaal Mathers’ voice. It even makes you question his sexuality.
Other voices are good, like Rem & Ram (same voice actress), Emilia, and most male characters.
The OP was also great. I never skipped it. Same thing for the ED, except I didn’t listen to it every time. I was too busy trying to figure out the ending.
•CONCLUSION: In a nutshell, Re:Zero is an obvious cliched fantasy that tries its best to appeal to the general public. What I mean by that is the typical “edgy” cliffhangers, the time-travel, the fantasy elements (cute maids, princesses, Knights… the usual), the horror elements (blood and gore… so it can look serious and addressed to adults), the melodrama (way too much), the harem... Now try imaging a show that has all of those elements and more. No wonder you’ll get a messy, scrambled anime that is not just confusing, but painful to watch.
Re:Zero has a tendency to introduce certain characters but later on completely dispose of them as they were mere paper characters. Now the characters are one thing, but take a look at the story line: it’s not linear nor episodic. It’s lazy and filled with useless and boring arcs. It’s a whole bunch of stories, like a small book that you read to your child at night: it doesn’t make any sense but it’s a good way to make him fall asleep quickly.
•ENJOYMENT:
I never enjoyed a single second in this show. Why should I? The story is divided into stories, the main character is pathetic, useless, and acts like an idiot but suddenly becomes the hero we all need by acting as bait the whole time. Some episodes were rushed, others were mere fillers and the cliffhangers are always there, whether they make sense or not. Fan service and forced drama win in the end, because that’s what people want nowadays.
Do I recommend this? Well, let’s see:
Do you like to watch a bunch of unrelated stories, each one in a different genre?
Do you enjoy watching a completely useless and static main character similar to a statue?
Do you have a problem with abusive drama and cliffhangers that don’t make any sense?
After you answer each question, you'll know what to do.
