Art 7/10
The character and background design in re zero is good. I think the art style in this anime is pretty traditional in a sense that it is just what you expect from a fantasy anime but not something special. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying its just right. The design of the world is pretty normal, I'd say it's more medieval world than it's an alternate fantasy universe kind of world which is kind of disappointing because It wasn't really that kind of fantasy world which has really artistic concept it, it was just generic. The character design was also kind of generic in this anime, yeah there are some pretty interesting character design here and there but overall it was juuuuuust good. The thing that I praise alot for this anime's art is it's wonderful animation. The anime does PERFECT job in capturing the feel of the moment especially in the most extreme scenes whether it be dark or sad or cheerful. The transition in colors and animation style between different tone of scenes is really artistic and great and that's what made this anime's art really good.
sound 8/10
the anime has a very artistic and unique soundtrack. I loved the emotional ones so much in this anime. I also have to say that paradise paradoxum , the 2nd opening in the anime, is a beautiful masterpiece definitely one of my favorites this year. I will also praise the anime's style of sound effects , especially in the dark scenes the anime knows how to make you feel uneasy and there is also that sfx that appears now and then that sounds that sound something like a ray of light giving an angelic ring XD.....ok ok i don't know how to describe it properly but you will recognize when you hear it alot and i have to say it's pretty annoying but catch y in the same time.
story 6/10
Now there is alooooooot of issues with the stories although it was fine. Now the way the story began was pretty interesting. For a moment you think that this anime is gonna be just a normal fantasy story but then it shocks you really well with a twisting start and gives a glimpse on how the story is gonna proceed. The first few episodes were really interesting and caught my interest...but then story goes to the most boring 1st half i have ever watched. Whether you like to call the 2nd arc or the 1st one because the first few episodes were a prologue...it doesn't matter , the anime shows you the flaws of it's structure, You see the anime has this repetitive style where the main character, Natsuki Subaru, dies and go back to a "Checkpoint' in an endless cycle. The first half just showed how painful this cycle can be, it was boring and dragged for toooo long. You feel that there is nothing that adds to the story with this cycle, it just increases the length of the story and makes it painful. Well yeah there was an interesting backstory but that's the only good thing about the first half. The story does not progress in any way and feels too tiresome and unfocused. That was the reason i stopped watching the anime and i still hold my criticism today....re zero has a horrible 1st half.However, the second half is where the anime became a masterpiece. The story starts to evolve, the settings of the world becomes more interesting and you start to know more about this new world.moreover, the character development increases tenfold!!!! Although, the 2nd half uses the similar cycle, I thought the re zero is able to show us how interesting it can be in it's way of storytelling. Honestly, the 2nd half of the anime just changed my opinion drastically but the problem still remains....The story of the anime is unfocused and progresses really slow. You don't really get the main conflict of the plot here, it's just too vague and progress slowly.Not to mention, I realized the anime does a bad job in developing it's settings, even watching the entire 25 episodes the anime did not give us a full explanation on how things work in this alternate universe....there was a progress regarding this aspect in the 2nd half of the anime but it still feels minimum. To summarize, re zero has an unfocused and repetitive story structure and you can see how interesting that narration style be and how interesting it can be.
Characters 8/10
The best merit of re zero lies in it's characters...buut the way they presented was pretty dull. Let's talk about the main character Natsuki Subaru. At the beginning I thought this character is so annoying and illogical. His decisions are just stupid. He seemed to have 0 sense on what's going on and he makes it worse with his obnoxious personality. He is just cringy as hell!!!! he attempts at making humorous moments but they end up being cheesy as hell. His man drive was to just start a new life in this world and establish himself. This is very boring objective indeed and really gave me no interest in investing myself on this character............BUUUUUUUUUT!!!!! The 2nd half XD!!!!! Oh the good ol 2nd half :).......The anime turned all those negative aspects about this character onto his own strength!!!!! That was really unique. I won't spoil how, but as the story progress you will start to feel that Subaru is a great character. His character development is just extraordinary . He starts to grow as the story goes on and he will always ALWAYS make you feel for him and cheer for him until the end. I love the way way how subaru acknowledges the faults in his personality and always face himself in order to change and become a better person.His personality is still annoying though but that's what makes him unique. I have certain criticism of this anime for giving alooooot of praise to Subaru. There will be moments in this anime where Subaru finally manages to overcome a bad situation and you will feel the anime start to praise him like he is THE GREAT EPIC HEROOOO!!! and it feels very forced and cringy. The other great character in this series is Rem. She is honestly my favorite. Rem was the only character in the series that i didn't have a criticism for. She was presented really well and will make you really curious and interested about her in the beginning. She has a very interesting backstory and ends up being a major force in the plot. Her support to the main character is just beautiful and I will never forget episode 18 where she had one of the best scenes in the anime!!! I really feel sad for her honestly and she will always be my favorite. The last major character to talk about is Emillia. I honestly think she is very dull and stupid and she is WAAAAY too innocent. When she was first introduced in this anime I really had no interest in her at all and I thought that the relationship between her and Subaru is an awful. She seemed to be tooo good to him. She accepts Subaru's existence as if it was normal or as if she knows him for a while. She appears to be so stupid in interacting with others. The problem is that the anime forced some scenes where the purpose was to further build up the character relationship but it just felt tooo forced and cheesy. These scenes were like those very typical comedic romantic scenes that you probably have seen 1000 times before.However, later on you start to understand about her past and about her behavior and you will eventually start to like. In the end I felt that the relationship between Subaru and Emillia is a very meaningful and sweet one. They are both idiots and awkward, they are both outcast of societies, and they are both really kind. The last episode of the anime just gave me the ultimate picture of their relationship. Although they had some poor executed moments here and their, you will find at the end that their relationship is interesting. I hate the characters of re zero in the anime but later on my perspective changed 180 degrees.
Enjoyment 7/10
Although the anime had a poor 1st half, the 2nd half was enough to give me a blast and make me love it. There could be issues here and there but in the end the enjoyment is what matters. Something to note here is that this anime has loves to take some moments to the extreme. You will feel some exaggerations here and there in the tone like the anime is trying soooo hard to make you feel the tone and it ends up feeling ridiculous. The anime also has a couple of Shounen tropes here and there. In the end re zero is still incredibly enjoyable with it's awesome character development.
Overall 7/10
I still get some mixed feelings here and there, there are a couple of downfalls but the positives just outweighs them. However I'm still worried, The anime depends heavily on it's style of repetitiveness . How long could that be effective? It may be something interesting now but if the story continues with this type of narrative, I feel it will end up being dull. The story must pick up the pace from here. I really hope we get a 2nd season and I am sure will. Re Zero is a great anime with a couple flaws that has an amazing 2nd half.....and please don't compare this to Steins;Gate because it's waaaay too different
