So after a nice introduction we are at episode 4 and his 22 minutes of cheesy, boring slice of life. I cloud hardly hide my disapointement, the ending song began and I was about to close the media player as Suburu falling asleep but this very pleasant cliffhanger changed everythings. Why ? How ? Who ? I honestly didn't see that comming. At this point I learned something important : watch Re Zero until the last the second. Each episode for this arc add something surprising that hooked me until the end.
With the begining of the new arc, the show's name change to become Rem:Zero. At first we can just laugh at how a supportive character get much more developped that the "main girl" but I really liked Rem's developpement and she is, in my opinon, one of the main reason behind the success of Re:Zero. Of course we could say that she has a lot of screentime but that only is not enough to put her on the throne of "best girl of the serie" or even of the year. Personnaly I think she is worthy of the best female supportive character award. Why ?
Her character devlopement and the way she shines as a support for the main character are the answer. She becomes an important factor in Subaru's every success and their relationship is something rare enough in anime industry to mention it. Looking at those two make me think of the Araragi Koyomi / Hanekawa Tsubasa relationship. Something deep, very difficult to expres with words and maybe a bit spiritual. By the way, please take note that the only time Subaru kill himself is to save Rem, interesting for a guy which is afraid to die.
So yeah Rem grows as a character and the viewer can't help but fall for her thanks to that ep 15. This episode is an important turning point in the series with all the different feeling it addresses. Short but satisfying fight scene, violent death, (super) crazy saddist, some emotional words and a beautiful but sad ending. White Fox doing great here by making a special ending which feet perfectly to the mood of the episode. Of course, since I talking about Rem, I have to speak about ep 18, you agree don't you ? The one is a simple 24 minutes of how to become the best girl. It's hard to belive that having only two people speaking can make a such entertaining moment.
Frist Subaru have a profond relexion on himself and finally realize is own condition which is a bit unusual, painful and satisfying at the same time. On the other side we have Ren which deliver the best love confession I've seen for a while and that super effective title drop add the last piece on this well-build episode with a large panel of feeling. We can praise Minase Inori for her performance (insert song + voice actress).
Actually, could we give these seiyus an award or something. They really did a great job with those characters's voice and I can't imagine watching Re Zero in my native languge anymore. I pity the poor guy who will have to voice Betelgeuse, I mean, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu's performance is just unbeatable. Gambatte random dude.
Also you can't deny the job done by Whitefox. I loved the way they played with openning and ending like poping the opening song in the middle because it's fit the fight scene. Moreover, she show was a 25 ep run without break and we all know that production issues are very likly to happen here but the quality through the end doensn't decrease (well a tiny bit but it's okay).
WARNING spoilers ahead so if you didn't watch the show, stop reading here ! There is three things I want to talk about as they can be concidered as flaws.
First, ep 18 after an awemsome declaration, Rem got rejected. You may say it's stupid, Emilia is useless and Rem is awesome. Subaru is an idiot to still choising Emila. While I agree that Rem, at this moment, is the best logicial choice but love doesn't work that way. Sabaru really loves Emilia and Rem really loves Subaru too. That's why he rejected her and that why she simply anwser "yes". She already knows she'd got rejected but she still by his side. Don't forget that Subaru got rejected frist, Rem ins't selfush enough to accept Subaru's proposition without thinking about his own happiness.
Then you may also say Subaru should killing himself when he is too much in trouble. Seriously ? I mean this would be a cheap trick and would destroy the charm of the story and I don't like that. Look at the two time (1 in anime and 1 un wn) where Subaru killed himself ? For the sake of Rem. And I truly want to belive that there is a symbolism behind those suicides. Hell yeah, he can live without Rem #FanBoyON #TeamRem #RemBestGirl (well sorry about that)
Final point is the end... That I know don't give me this "you don't say / people die when they are killed" look, I have no idea how to say it otherwise. Yeah it's way too chessy. I would loved to see and ending like "We have to tell Rem that we won" ... black screen ... "Subaru-kun... who's Rem ?" THE END. Buuut as the studio doesn't know if they will produce a second season one day, it's way better to don't end on a cliffhanger avoid a frustration of the fan. I can't blame them for that.
