[Story: ]
The events were boring. There was no buildup to anything and all that seemed to happen in the show was a psychopath or beast killed the protagonist and his friends over and over, and the protagonist tried to stop them from dying. I think in the entire show the only buildup to an event or murder was that the murderer or beast was mentioned in a passing conversation. Like "hey watch out for that whale, it's bad news" was it and *poof* there's the whale.
The setting was a boring anime fantasy.. There were no cool powers, no interesting villains, no realistic depictions of economy, war, or politics. It's baffling how anyone makes a fantasy setting boring and generic given the potential to do anything with it, but Re:Zero somehow accomplished me being bored in a fantasy setting, which is exceedingly rare.
The writing was pretty bad. The series continually killed off characters, only to say "not really" to the audience over and over. The only tension was of the protagonist mental state since everyone in the show was effectively immortal, regardless of how much the protagonist cried over each of their deaths, even after the 4th time it happened. Then there is the fact that no one the show seems to have any real motivation outside of undying servitude to a princess or evil witch.
[Art/animation]
Mediocre animation. A couple of animation cheats such as reused animation or repetitive jump cuts, but for the most part it's simply "passable." Not much to say outside of "nothing interesting/new to see here."
[Sound]
Mediocre soundtrack that was used extremely poorly. Re:Zero tries to baby the audience by putting a "whoo-wee-whoo" at every sign of something bad, often in a much too obvious manner. The soundtrack itself is forgettable fantasy anime soundtrack #76, but it was also played extremely low in the background throughout the anime, making a lot of scenes almost dead quite with the exception of a few twangs every now and then.
[Characters]
Subaru is a polarizing mess. He's poorly written, has inconsistent mood swings and changes of character, and is generally an idiot about everything to an unrealistic degree. His backstory is completely forgotten by episode one and there seems to be no real reason to make him from an alternate dimension outside of Japanese otaku self-inserting themselves into him.
Emilia is basically non-existent for over half of the anime, despite being a major focus of Subaru's actions and motivations. If you want to note something about her note how little of a connection she and Subaru have and how big it is played out.
Rem is the "too good for this world" character who develops so fast from her original "shy but psycho" personality that it's almost as if the author replaced her with a clone halfway through.
Wilhelm is probably the only character within the show I view as being good. He has a consistent backstory and motivation for his actions. Sadly he's sidelined and his entire existence is merely defined as a side-character by his position alone.
The rest are forgettable archetypes. Loli's, tsunderes, white-knights, traps, the whole shibang you see in almost every fantasy series.
[Final thoughts]
Re:Zero remains to me what is a growing problem with the industry, that anime are put out in mediocre condition with no desire to go anywhere or do anything but be another fantasy anime among hundreds. Sure, it got hype and success because of calculated marketing decisions regarding characters, but I'm sure it's not going to stand the test of time.
I'm sure that I'll look back on this series and rate it lower thanks to it's terribly low rewatchability due to it's reliance on shockfactor/plot-twist/edge, but for now it's a solid 3/10.
It's not the worse anime ever produced, it's not terrible. But it's certainly got a lot more fundamental problems than other anime have.
