First watch overall rating: 8
Second+ watch overall rating: 3
Of course, the difference in how I score the first watch vs the second watch prompts explanation. Please see the sections below for this.
Art: 5
It's standard. For something created in the latter half of the 2010s, this quality of animation is standard. Nitpickers might care about the action choreography which isn't great but as action isn't really the main draw of this show, I see no reason to punish it too hard.
Sound: 6
This show has 1 memorable ED song. The rest is pretty cookie cutter in quality. The OST is nothing to write home about.
Story: 3
Usually, I write the character section before the story one in my recent reviews. However, I will make the exception here as there is really no point at all saving this for last.
This show is effectively like watching your NEET/hikkikomori neighbor play a visual novel. For those who do not know what these are: NEET stands for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" and a hikkikomori is basically someone who stays home and never leaves it. A visual novel is a type of game where there is little to no combat in it, but the player selects dialogue or "action" options at various points in the story of the game to progress. Picking incorrect options (not infrequently) results in the death of the main character of the visual novel. Romantic routes often also exist in these so different options can lead to different endings or pairings. This show is effectively this - watching a player named Subaru play through a visual novel where he can try to romance his waifus (primarily Emilia).
So, why is the first watch-through of this show an 8 only to drop to a 3 on rewatch?
Well, on first watch, this show does have some fresh points. There is nothing impressive about a NEET/hikkikomori with no merits to his name to be proud of, but the idea of a visual novel storyline's convenient mechanic of being able to load your save file being internalized as part of the plot of the visual novel is a fresh one. Moreover, at first, this show's repeated killing of the main character or his waifus do induce some level of sympathy from the audience. It does have shock value. It is a trick, and a cute one that really only works for a certain amount of times. It will work more times on some people, but pretty much, for everyone, this shock will wear off eventually.
So that brings us to the question -- so what happens on the second watch and onwards?
Well, on second+ watch, this show has no more freshness. The shock value of the initial watch is gone. The main character or his waifus dying will no longer induce the same emotions or the same intensity. Your mind adjusts to the consequences of the events and learns that this is dull. Moreover, with each additional repetition of Subaru's death, this can only get duller.
Now, it must be the base essence of its plot (and characters) that will carry the show. Things like an actually intricate plot that progresses, for instance. Character motivations, growth, etc. To hit masterpiece or epic tier, a narrative must be something that you can watch repeatedly, over and over, and not lose your appreciation of its value. This often happens with shows that both have a valid, moving, and engaging plot AND can leave the audience with something to take home, and think about in solemn contemplation. Anime is a medium full of works that can do this, but Re:Zero is not one of them.
To elaborate on this, we have to strip out all of the cinematics, choreography, theatrics, tricks of narration and sound effects that heighten an audience's perception of how epic or great a narrative truly is. When this is done, what we have left is effectively the story of someone of literally no nobility of mind and no notability of ability going into a fantasy world, where he immediately meets a cute girl, follows her around like a puppy, proceeds to meet more cute girls, and spends most of his time dying repeatedly to bruteforce the result that has the least amount of undesireable deaths of his waifus possible (aka get to the next save point). He has no drive to accomplish an overarching goal, his position and time spent does not allow him to compare or contrast any axiology or philosophy. His past is so blank aside from us knowing that he is a NEET/hikkikomori that we know nothing about how he ended up as one, and know nothing of him that could get in the way of a similar otaku boi sticking themselves in his shoes.
Now, following this set up, this show's premise dooms it to be forever excluded from the ranks of epic tier narratives in the minds of any serious critic of literature, be it a medium of written text, film, or anime. You simply cannot tell an epic story of a useless pleb. The Epic of Gilgamesh is remembered because Gilgamesh's unique position as a demigod king allowed him to contrast many things: having hundreds of women at his disposal to bed with vs just one soul who will cherish him. Having a true friend, even if that true friend is not human but a clay doll. It questioned the axiology of immortality and the meaning of life itself. Modern epic tier anime works such as Fate/Zero and Code Geass can explore the clash of ideologies. Deontology (Suzaku) vs Consequentialism (Lelouch), true deconstruction of the idea of a savior, a hero (Kiritsugu Emiya)... the list goes on.
However, there is nothing being deconstructed in this show. There are no axiologies being weighed. Tropes are not even being subverted. This show is the epitome of a Frankenstein monster created by executives and investors with the intention to milk as much $$$ from fan merchandise as possible. Its makers have either zero understanding of what even made anime great and explode in popularity in the first place or they are gleefully ignoring it.
So what about just an enjoyable story?
True, a narrative does not need to be a master piece to get up to an 8 rating for its story.Just because Re:Zero sets itself to fail at hitting the epic tiers does not mean it cannot hit just good tiers. A good story just needs to be well done for its episode count and genres. So why is the second watch so low rated that one cannot interpret the rating as "good"?
Well, let's return to what the plot actually is once all of its tricks of cinema are stripped off. Again, this is the story of a pleb who went into a fantasy world with the ability to reload his game save file when things go wrong, who does nothing but chasing skirts between his deaths. If it was supposed to be a mystery, it lacks the logical hints that the audience can use to attempt to solve the mystery or the red herring that the audience and main character can suspect. An example of a good mystery anime is Subete ga F ni naru where these elements of mystery are properly fulfilled.
This show also bare-bones fulfills its fantasy genre, but this bit is not hard to do. The key distinction between a good fantasy setting and a bad one is its world building, which this anime does not bother with at any notable levels of effort beside the background art and basic fantasy races existing. The political scenes it tries to mix in do not reflect relatable political sentiments that can be discussed; only black and white points of views that, really, no one would have much to say about besides agree with or disagree with. This bit can be contrasted with the politics being played with in Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed, Code Geass, amongst others. Where is the sentiments of the people in this fantasy world in regards to their way of life? What about the economics of the world, amongst other aspects that can be discussed?
There is little to no drama that cannot be resolved with enough save-file reloads either. If the player character gets off on the wrong foot with any of the NPCs in his game, he can just load his save file enough times until he wins them over. Nothing is a permanent consequence or a permanent inter-personal tension. As for psychological and thriller, his state of mind is never truly dissected and broken and the thriller genre is truly the only genre that this show can pass and pass well. However, thrillers are inherently only good the first time they are watched. Once the magic is dispelled with repetition of experience, the piece shatters.
So what do we have left in summary of the show's plotline?
It is really more like an overly gory slice of life, with little direction in plot or sense in why these dangers keep coming. There is also no real explanation for why no one (of higher merit than the main character) has a clue that these dangers are coming. Slice-of-life, with horror mixed in or not, is not inherently bad. However, works in the slice-of-life genre are carried by their character development. This brings us to the next section...
Characters: 1
This is the largest problem of the series. Not every show needs to be a masterpiece or epic. Not every show needs to have a plot that can be rewatched over and over again. However, you do need at least a small handful of more than 1 well written character. This is where the show fails, falls on its face, and has no way to push itself back up because of the limitations of the very maker's ideals for this show.
For the protagonist, epics and masterpieces generally do not feature a growthless, featureless boy whose only merit is existence. Now, we look to the next tier: Just something enjoyable for what it is trying to be. Well, now all of a sudden, a useless trash of a human being is acceptable, at least at the start. The problem here however, is that this boy never grows. If someone is prideful and can back up why they are prideful, that is confidence. If someone is prideful but can't back it up, they are simply arrogant. Subaru is the latter. He starts with no nobility of mind. By the end of the show, he still has no nobility of mind. There is still nothing he is driven to achieve. If there is a single sentence to describe the core of his character, that still has not changed by much at the end. He starts off with no notable abilities. He ends with no notable abilities. His only gimmick is Return By Death (load your save file). He failed to even find a way to optimize his use of this one gimmick.
Bluntly, everyone can load a visual novel save file.
So in this sense, can the main character of Re:Zero have been anyone else? YES.
And resoundingly so. Subaru is basically a visual novel player who can never truly die in the world of his game. He might get to experience repeated bouts of physical torment, but his mind is always taught: ok and once it has reached a certain gruesomeness and intensity, the physical pain will completely cease and you will again be safe, sound and in one piece. Sure, I can concede that the perceived events are mentally traumatic normally, but his mind is basically being trained to ignore it*, to dull itself from the normal effects after numerous repetitions (*the mental trauma that would remain had the event left permanent consequences). Imagine playing a visual novel with VR gear. Sure, it can be a rated 18+ experience. But you can just load your save file. There is no danger. There is no true tension. Subaru did not need to grow and did not actually grow by any significant margins standard to most other protagonists of other narratives.
The main love interests of the show are truly no better. For them, they are supposedly given ability, a merited mage and a reliable fighter. However, what starts off as a paper cardboard waifu drawing effectively stays a paper cardboard waifu drawing. What began as a psychotic maid with so much irrational hate for the newest addition to her fellow household staff that she resorts to murdering him, needs but one attempt from the protagonist to save her life to, instead of the natural reaction of relenting her hate of him and cautiously getting to know him, turn a complete 180 and becomes obsessively in love with him to the point of being okay with him loving someone else.
I could overlook the fact that the other characters are effectively caricatures if the main three had been developed well, but they have not been.
Enjoyment: 8 (DROPS SIGNIFICANTLY POST FIRST WATCH; mine was 1 on rewatch)
Despite all that this show lacks, this show truly can be entertaining. The staff did the best it could to polish what would otherwise (at its core) be about as good as fanfiction.net trash into something that can be enjoyed with deliberately paced cliffhangers, lighting effects, camera focus and technique. The shock value of each of Subaru's deaths can be entertaining for the viewer for a while. For most people, that shock value will probably carry the show well into the second half of the show and maybe even til it's conclusion. However, that effort by the anime studio rather than the original author is the main and only true merit of the show.
Overall: 3
(Edited 2021/02 to dis-include Enjoyment score since I've recently updated my criteria to no longer include it since I can never rate other people's enjoyment, only my own, and my own may not agree with another viewers.)
To summarize, this show is one that had scuffed its own potential from conception but can be enjoyable until the magic of Return by Death and Subaru's repeated deaths wear out. Once the clock chimes 12 o'clock, the beautiful dress will return to rags.
