I wanted to like Re:Zero, I found that a lot of the major plot beats were fun, it leveraged its own premise effectively, and there was obviously a lot of consideration put into both the characters and the world they live in. By isekai standards, it's still one of the better shows, and it clearly aspires to greater things, which is probably why the rough character writing feels so notable.
Unfortunately, the way almost everyone speaks is stiff, overwrought, melodramatic, uncomfortable, inorganic and borderline alien. None of these characters feel like real people, which is, again, a problem for a series with themes that revolve around personal growth and becoming a well-adjusted, complete person.
A list of gripes in no particular order:
Most of the characters are very "anime". they all fit an archetype. It's clear the show aims to subvert your expectations for these archetypes but the moment to moment interactions remain grating throughout the entire show. Emelia, Rem and Ram, Elsa, Puck, Garfiel, Beatrice I suppose. Almost every character.
Tsubaru will at times say things that are awkward and nonsensical on multiple levels, such as speaking of a past life while saying something anachronistic, being far too familiar with characters, or saying a 10-20 word sentence that should have been 2-5. It often feels like internal dialogue that he just says out loud. At best this will get a brief acknowledgement, but often goes unnoticed. A normal response would be "what the **** is wrong with you". Half of his dialogue would be appropriately responded to with "what the **** is wrong with you". Many might say that this was intentional, and Tsubaru is just supposed to be very weird and immature. Unfortunately, a lot of other characters are also awkward, and as time goes on, its clear that everyone acting nonplused by Tsubarau, mixed with his continued awkwardness suggests this is just how the author writes.
Characters will make "jokes" that are not jokes, they're at best observations or canned phrases, other characters will laugh and act as though a joke was told, when there's practically nothing to laugh at. The banter is typically two characters saying canned phrases back and forth. Zero charm, lack of brevity, just overall uncomfortable to behold.
Everyone feels as though they're written by the same person. Ricardo, the beast man captain, is a great example of this. He's clearly meant to have an aggressive, overbearing personality. Good natured, but scary. He, at one point, while waiting to fight the white whale, says something to the effect of "Let's get going or when I get back my old lady will be old and gray". and then says "awww come on, that was my best joke" which then gets a laugh. That just sounds like something Tsubaru would say, it's also not funny. It's never funny. The funniest part of the show was noticing that Garfiel turns into a big orange cat.
The emotional scenes are extremely repetitive, and everything is overstated. There are some core nuggets to many conversations that are good, but they're often wrapped up in inane and unsubtle dialogue. The series clearly lacks confidence in its own ideas and in its audience. A better anime, decent novel or typical HBO show would convey the quailty of ideas at play here without really spelling out any of them through use of direction, metaphor, setting, plot, character details. By being so explicit, it ironically undermines itself. You're spoonfed character intentions and feelings, and then given several more spoonfuls after you're already full. If you look at shows like Sonny Boy, Odd Taxi or the Apothecary Diaries, it's like night and day. Even shows like To Your Eternity or Ranking of Kings, which can often wear their heart on their sleeve, feels leagues ahead of Re:Zero in terms of refinement and subtlety. Hell, I've been watching another isekai with my kid, it's called Amphibia, it's a kid's show about a girl that gets transported to a frog world. I think it might actually do a better job.
To be clear, there's nothing wrong with occasionally making subtext into text, but Re:Zero does this so gratuitously, and with such saccharine or dramatic delivery, that it makes you feel almost nauseated.
Another major gripe is that, while sometimes characters act in line with their established personalities, other times it's very clear they do or don't do things to move the plot forward in a way that suits the author's intentions. Sometimes a character will do something odd just so they learn a lesson or have a nice character moment later. By trying to flesh out the characters this way, you actually undermine their integrity. Tsubaru especially very rarely asks the normal questions to ask at the appropriate time. His intellect also varies wildly based on convenience.
This mostly feels like a series written by a socially awkward individual who is going through a period of self-discovery, and is learning a lot of valuable life lessons, such as self-worth, humility, working smarter not harder, authenticity, people are not the picture in your head, etc. Unfortunately, that hasn't really improved their social aptitude, and as a result everything still feels like a parody of normal human interaction.
To sum it up: it's cringe
The animation is also mediocre this season, which definitely hurts the watchability.
I considered giving it a 7, but I was honestly just not enjoying myself by the end.
