Re:Zero rocked the anime world in 2016 and was named the new king of the Isekai genre. Re:Zero took the crown from Overlord Season 1, which had usurped Log Horizon, which had overthrown Sword Art Online in the famous coup d'état led by Digibro. The scramble for supremacy continues in anime's shittiest genre. Yes, I hate Isekai even more than I hate harem anime. However, I'm not just writing this review to rehash my opinion that anime would be better off if .Hack had been The Last Isekai back in 2002.
Plot:
Re:Zero is about a gamer geek named Subaru who closes his eyes and wakes up in another world. This is of course a fantasy world that operates similar to JRPGS. Subaru is rather thrilled by this and immediately tests to see if he has any powers. It turns out he has the awesome power to reverse time by a few hours or days. However, this power only triggers when he dies. While Subaru is effectively immortal, this means he has to go through a LOT of suffering to get a happy ending.
This plot, combined with the jarring tone shifts between goofy comedy and brutal violence, means that comparisions to Higurashi are inevitable. I was told by one of my offline friends that if I loved Higurashi, I would of course love Re:Zero. Well...I wanted to love Re:Zero. However, I find it comes up very short against Higurashi. Allow me to compare and contrast for a moment.
(Spoilers if you haven't seen Higurashi.)
Rika and Subaru both have essentially the same ability. However, there are some key differences. Subaru just needs to survive one major event and then he gets a new "Savepoint". His first task is to not get killed by 3 thugs in an alley and not get killed that night by an assassin. If he lives to the next day, he never has to relive the first day. Rika needs to save an entire village from an evil organization. If she dies, there are no checkpoints and she has to relive the same 3-5 months! Subaru gets to remember how he died and all details about his last life. Rika isn't allowed to remember who killed her or key information from previous timelines. She has to solve it all in 1 perfect go. Subaru immediatly stumbles into super OP allies to help him survive. Rika's only allies are a buch of punk kids with no powers or special abilities. Subaru at most has to retry 3-5 times to reach the next checkpoint. Rika spent over 100 years suffering to achieve her victory. When Rika FINALLY pulls off the upset and defeats Takano and her forces, it's one of the greatest feel good moments in anime. When Subaru wins in Re:Zero...meh.
Art:
I'm going to be honest in the fact I don't like the studio White Fox. I find their CGI very intrusive and shoddy. The character art is...fine. It's not a hideous looking anime by any means, but nothing blew me away either.
Overall:
I didn't actually hate Re:Zero, but I did find it very disappointing. Perhaps I went into it with my hopes WAY too high. It was probably just a victim of overhype, but I can't say I enjoyed this one very much. I also didn't feel it went anywhere that other anime haven't explored far better. Re:Zero is just pure average, white bread. It's fine, but completely unremarkable in every aspect.
