I'll be dividing this review into the following sections: S1, S2, S2 pt2 , focusing on characters and the story. SPOILERS AHEAD.
S1
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Subaru is a weak, emotionally unstable character who has taken the role as our protagonist. I found this to be a very interesting juxtaposition to other isekai wherein our lead characters are overwhelmingly stronger than 95% of the cast. Subaru as a weak protagonist, provides us viewers with a different perspective and expectations when viewing the series, especially given his power to return by death. The restriction that forbids Subaru from telling anyone about his powers is one of the best decisions the anime has made in the series.
Given this premise, anyone can see the potential the series has to offer. It reminds me of a combination of deathnote and steins;gate. Using his ability Subaru can gain knowledge by repeating events and overcoming situations using his brain as a substitute to the strength that he lacks. The series could also take a darker route and focus on despair and grief. Does the series live up to its expectation? Sometimes. The series has evoked emotional reactions from me but it has also left me swinging my head in utter disappointment. That is to say the series is filled with ups and downs.
The first arc with the bowl hunter is used to establish the nature of Subaru's powers. It takes a few deaths for our protagonist to realize his powers. This provides a few insights into Subaru’s characters. He is not a super genius; rather he is a normal character just like you and me. He also has a lot of guts ( both figuratively and literally). The first arc also introduces his love interest and makes him invested into this new fantasy world. Overall the arc is well done.
Moving forward from the 2nd arc you can slowly start to see gaps forming in both writing and direction. Re: zero is a show about either outsmarting his opponents, or convincing people to take his side through compelling arguments and information that he has obtained through his failures and resets. At least that's what you would expect.
In the 2nd arc Suburu learns there are two threats to his life: one from a curse, and one from within the mansion in the form of Rem. He handles the first threat well, learning where and how he was cursed. His opponent, Rem as the 2nd threat is not handled well. She doesn't listen to him, killing him quickly. Disregarding the fact that Subaru cant talk about his powers, he still sucks at explaining anything. There is no real information he learns that will persuade her to his side. We learn that Emilia is a candidate to the next ruler of the country. It explains why everyone at the mansion is suspicious of Subaru. Is he a spy, assassin or does he have a political agenda. Rem kills Subaru because he carries the stench of the witch, associating him with the witches cult, a fanatic organization responsible for the misfortune events that happened to Rem and her sister.
So how does he overcome this ordeal. Facing an opponent that won't listen, won't side with him. He falls into despair, gets his head placed on his waifu’s laps, recovers and then we divert from the Rem problem by turning our attention to the curse problem, essentially bypassing Rem killing him. Rem who has previously never listened to Subaru, killed without hesitation, and proceeded to heal and turture Subaru to learn about his connection to the witch's cult, now listens to him completely as he mentions he reeks of the witches spell. He asks her to trust him and she does. This is the time to be the most suspicious! Is this a trap? Is he telling the truth? Yet all these possibilities are overlooked.
Not to say there aren't good scenes but it's filled with holes and illogical choices. Subaru saves Rem's life, she falls in love, which is ok and even later results in a very emotional scene but it's rushed. Speeding things along, Subaru goes through a phase of constant death and failure. He breaks as a character and gives up. He is saved by Rem’s kindness and her love which fill Subaru with renewed energy and positive allowing him to succeed in breaking his despair and ending the final arc in a happy successful end. That is until the conclusion of the series we learn that Rem, the most important and pivotal character in S1, is erased from the minds of all but Subaru.
There are many plot holes, not mentioned, that drag the series to the ground. However, overall it's watchable and entertaining. We are introduced to his power, tensions build, towards the climax he gets a full dish of despair, overcomes the despair ( developing him as a character) and we are victorious in the final battle. Villains are there for the sake of being villains, Subarus acts like a baby and an immature brat sometimes, but that can be overlooked (for now).
S1 verdict - 7/10
S2 Part 1
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I expected season 2 to carry forward with the ruler selection process, Subarus focusing between political enemies ( between all the factions) as he supports Emillia and her ascend to the throne while also focusing on his goals to get Rem back and fight against the witches’ cult that that made everyone forget about her.
Instead what we get is Subaru falling into the same despair trap as we saw in season 1, negating any character development presented in S1. Unlike the previous season, Subarus’s brutal deaths serve as a visualization of gore with no purpose besides a shock factor. They do not change him as a character nor do they propel the plot forward. In fact the entire plot of S2, comes from a tiny decision made in season 1. When the mansion was being attacked part of the villagers went to the capital and the other half went to the sanctuary. In season 2 we discover that the individuals who were taken to the sanctuary never came back. The entirety of season 2 revolves around fixing the sanctuary problem alongside another attack on the mansion. The royal selection and Rem’s situation is fully ignored.
There are new concepts that I like such as the introduction of the witches and Subarus’s past. I especially enjoyed the witches personalities ( particularly the witch of greed and knowledge). The witches are represented as neither evil or good. They simply follow their own twisted ideologies, some of which I even agree with. Despite this, S2 is a regurgitation of S1 with worse characters, story and motives. It has no substance. The pacing also seems very slow for a minor sub-story such as this.
The biggest problem lies this season's villain, and Subaru’s return by death powers. We learn towards the end of the season that the main villain who ordered the attacks on the mansion was Roswaal L Mathers, the owner of the mansion and Emilia’s biggest supporter in the royal selection. Not only that he knew about Subaru’s power to return by death. His entire motive is to make Subaru grow as a character by making him choose who to save. The people in the mansion or the people in the Sanctuary.
This is Aizen all over again from Bleach, who apparently knew everything there is to know about Ichigo, predicted his entire life, set up all his fights just so he can see him grow as a character. This is the same situation between Subaru and Roswaal and it's one of the worst forms of character writing that exists. Let me explain why.
Subaru’s power is one filled with randomness. He can't choose where to resort to and he also has no control over how far into the past he can go with his power. Basically we know nothing about it, except that he returns by death. Somehow Roswaal has apparently figured this out because, he claims he knows about his powers and that it doesn't matter how many times Subarus resets, it won't change the outcome. This is such poor writing because there is no conceivable method to allow Roswaal this information. But let's indulge in Roswaals motive, ignoring the plot holes. Roswaal claims he wants Subarus to be just like him. Ok. Then what? What's the end goal? Do you want to be friends? Do you want to conquer the world with Subaru? Let me tell you. There is no end goal, the author has not thought about that. If there is no end motive then why all the shenanigans. Subaru is clearly not going to be friends with someone who made him choose between the people in the mansion and the people at the sanctuary. Subaru also has his taste of despair and hate so that clearly can't be a reason. There is no purpose for Roswaals actions. With no purpose, these events didn't even need to happen. The question to ask then is why does this arc even exist ?
Finally there is the issue of Subaru’s ability. By nature, every time Subaru dies we experience a different iteration. It would be very boring for the audience to watch similar content, therefore each reset Subaru goes through different experiences and events. This serves as the main method that Subaru uses to acquire new information to piece together the problem. On the surface, this propels the plot forward but creates the biggest deus ex machina moments in the series.
Because we need to experience something new, the author can create any new and unique way to kill Subaru. The story can create new characters, events, or revelations to fit the story. It's not necessarily a bad model, however re;zero takes away the option for the audience to solve the case. In similar shows that manipulate time ( steins;gate and Erased) we are provided the opportunity to make theories and guess. Specifically Steins;gate, we are given the limitations of time travel early on (such as how far in the past you can go) . When time travel is used in Steins;gate, it never feels convenient or made up because we established these rules earlier. Re:zero does the opposite. At the time of death Subaru is killed by a new person, entity or phenomenon. Examples: Rem, curse, Emilia’s familiar monster, and in S2 part 2 we learn that ally was an enemy without any prior indication. It feels so random.
S2 part 1 verdict - 3/10
S2 Part 2
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So lets talk about the positives first. Subaru finally starts relying on his friends, instead of trying to do everything himself. In the past he couldn't bare to watch his friends dying in an endless cycle. To prevent himself from repetitively witnessing the brutal slaughter of his friends, Subaru chose to shoulder all the pain by going solo. To be fair this is the exact problem he solved in S1, which somehow digressed in S2 Part 1.
Early on in the series we are taken into the past of several supporting and main characters such as Emilia, Garfiel, and Otto. It was very refreshing to see each character's history. It allowed us as the audience to relate and empathize. Without any emotional attachments, its hard for the audience to care about anything the character does. We slowly learn about the past of several characters, as we move towards the conclusion of this Arc. Emilia's backstory was particularly emotional, even providing good reasoning to how the S1 villain Romanée-Conti, Petelgeuse became the way he is.
Subaru learns how to use the unseen hands ability that he got after defeating Romanée-Conti, Petelgeuse in season one. It was noted the ability chose him as the next owner. It lay dormant up until this moment, where Subaru's mental / physical condition allowed for the power to manifest.
After being rescued by Rem, and the witches Subaru challenges Roswaal to a bet, in which he states if he can save both the mansion and the sanctuary, Roswaal will stop interfering and should try to support Emilia and her position as a royal candidate in earnest. At this point we should all know how things will turn out. So let's move on to what went wrong.
Romanée-Conti, Petelgeuse is given more backstory. He was in love with Emilia's step-mother, Fortuna ( Emilia's mothers younger sister). He loved both Emilia and
Fortuna immensely. One day Pandora, a seemingly immortal witch attacked the village and everything went wrong. Petelgeuse consumed something ( forgetting the name) to give him the unseen hands. Pandora accidently tricked him into killing the love of life, Fortuna which lead him into the crazy state that we witnessed in S1. From what we learn in this season, Petelgeuse is someone who would never harm Emilia. Despite his tragic history, his action in S1 contradict Petelgeuse as an individual. I can believe, his mind breaking; I can believe him going insane; but I can never believe that he would ever forget or be able to kill Emilia.
The entire trial to leave the Sanctuary is filled with questions, why does it only trap beast-men? Why does it target pure-blooded beast-men? It is established that the witches are most powerful beings in the world (that we know of). They created the white whale monster, the rabbit and snake monsters that we learn about. The witches cult worships the witches. So explain why the witch Echidna needs to make some barrier, to protect herself from a random dude.
This is a personal opinion but Subaru's confession was not something I enjoyed. I admire him for staying consistent, but his reason for loving Emilia was everything to do with the way she looks. Her hair color, her eyes, her voice. It would have been more compelling if he actually talked about her personality traits. I did like how he talked about her annoying parts in the end. In my eyes Rem is a better character. She feels more human. She never takes advantage of Subaru, always taking his side ( even when she knows he is wrong). She's fully aware that her love is one sided, yet still supports him, cares for him and helps him win Emilia. Again personal opinion.
Lots of problems that I don't have time to discuss, also many good points. This season is a mix of highs and lows. For any future season, establish a goal early on. Establish rules for Subaru's powers, and work within the limits to create tense and unique situation. And don't undo his character development.
S2 Part 2 Verdict - 5/10
