Re:Zero is my favorite series of all time.
At the same time, even as a maximum Re:Zero glazer, I find it difficult to fully recommend this season.
This is not because this arc sucks, but rather because of the adaptation.
I am not critiquing the animation or art, though I do think there's much room for improvement in that regard too, especially for this season, a significant portion of which is fighting. The animation has been good, far better than season 2 for sure, though given that this is (in my opinion) the best series of all time, I do wish it were receiving JJK level animation on its fight scenes. But I won't be greedy. The animation isn't my issue. My issue is with the adaptation, and the overall direction.
If you thought this season was amazing, and you have not read the novels, I would encourage you to simply do that instead, because I can assure you that every single thing you liked about this season will be better there, save for simply not being animated, forcing you to read words instead. If this prospect turns you off, then that's unfortunate. Because the novels are so superior to the anime that it's hilarious. There are countless reasons why, but there are three main ones.
1. Cut Content
There are multiple channels that talk about Re:Zero cut content for each week's episode. Every week. Enough for 20 minute videos on it every week. That's a lot of cut content. And it's not just random irrelevant sentences being cut. It's significant lines and entire passages that are important for the story or the characters being cut, and frequently at that. Now I don't expect White Fox to adapt every sentence. They don't have to spoon feed us everything. So other than actual catastrophic cuts like Al or Omega in seasons 1 and two respectively (if you don't know what I'm talking about by now you should make sure to find out) what I'm mad about isn't how much is cut. It's which stuff they're choosing to cut, and which stuff they're choosing to prioritize. This has led to some characters being simply depicted almost entirely differently in the anime compared to the novels. During Regulus's death rant, his backstory was omitted. Unfortunate. It wasn't necessarily integral to his character, but it's something I feel like should've been included. Instead, he had like a whole minute talking about his wives. There are several sentences where he's repeating or rephrasing something he just said. Why were some of these not cut in favor of a single damn sentence about his family? For another example, Theresia's episode. Are you familiar with the sword god? No? It was an important part of her backstory. Well, that's because it wasn't mentioned at all in the anime, just like her divine protection of the death god. The entire Theresia episode was just an adaptation travesty, but again, they have a limited amount of time, so some things will inevitably be cut. We can't have extended runtime for every episode. But we did get one extended runtime episode this cour. The Subaru speech. Cool. Why the hell did that get the extension and not this episode? I don't want to be picky, but the speech didn't need an extension lmao. Theresia's episode clearly did, given how much was cut. Unfortunate.
2. Anime Changes
Cut content isn't the only issue. Because some stuff is less cut and more just... different. Take my least favorite scene of the entire season for example. In episode 8, right before Subaru and Reinhard interrupt the wedding, Emilia pisses Regulus off and tells him she won't be his bride. And then he goes to attack and presumably kill her, and... Emilia just stands there and closes her eyes? Mind you, this is the exact same thing that she criticized Sylphy for doing moments prior. This was an inconsistent, out of character, illogical action. Why did Emilia do that? Well, she didn't in the novels. Regulus was about to attack her, and Emilia started charging up her magic and preparing to counterattack. She definitely didn't close her eyes and accept death. Why was this change made? Do we seriously need more damsel in distress allegations from Emilia? Come on. This is maybe the worst offender, but there are others. Emilia herself is just far worse in the anime compared to in the source material. She has far less character in the anime and is much more waifu-y. In the novels, Emilia was furious during this fight at points. When Emilia tells Regulus she hates him in the novel, her "violet eyes flare" and "her face was a mask of fury." Where was that in the anime? She looks less angry here than she does half the time in season 1. Same with when Regulus stares down Subaru when he figures out Lion's Heart. In the anime, there's nothing to it, he just looks at Subaru suspiciously. In the novel, Subaru describes Regulus's gaze at that point as "a dreadfully oppressive feeling, like the world flipped on its head" and Regulus's "hollow eyes tore into Subaru's heart like a curse" and "like a rusty needle scraping across his eyeballs." That was nowhere to be found. Speaking of Regulus, Regulus had a whole load of this type of change, a mixture of cut content and anime alterations. Anime watchers probably didn't notice this because it literally wasn't included, but Regulus's fight was literally destroying like the whole district of the city they were fighting in. That water attack where Regulus picked up a big ball of it and started launching a barrage down onto them was supposed to wipe out whole blocks of the city. In the anime it destroyed one fucking building, and Emilia and Subaru escaped even though it was right on top of them. How does that make any sense? Each of his attacks are lethal, right? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. It was different in the novels. Subaru and Emilia began running away before he even starting attacking, and barely managed to outpace the rain of destruction behind him. To be honest, Regulus's entire character is basically different in the novels. The anime basically defined him in one word, pathetic. They only really focused on him being a creepy incel or whatever, and went out of their way to paint him as a cartoonish joke of a villain in every scene. I can assure you that there is far more to Regulus than that, I made a whole thread on his character and what was cut in the anime. But as a whole, they just completely removed any sense of threat from him. Regulus is indeed pathetic, but he also has the most powerful ability imaginable and can kill them all with a breath if he wants to. But I don't think a single person really felt that Regulus was a threat in the anime. Subaru and Emilia are quipping every other scene while fighting him, while Regulus gets progressively more infuriated. There was just no danger to him in the anime.
3. Direction
Being "well-directed" is hard to concretely explain or give examples of. And maybe compared to the average anime, Re:Zero season 3 is well directed. But compared to something like Monogatari, what does this season do? It just takes what happens in the novels and sticks it on the screen in animated form. There are some good sequences, but for the most part, it's just showing you what happens. It doesn't use the medium of animation to its best effect. Compared to season 1, it's nowhere near the same level of quality. The tone is another issue. Re:Zero season 1 was a masterpiece in that regard. This season struggles. There's the whole Regulus issue, but also that it's simply not landing the emotional moments like it used to. This may be blasphemous, but Subaru's speech did not impress me in the anime compared to the novels. I believe that was a directing issue. Kobayashi Yuusuke's voice acting is splendid as always, but again, the anime simply stuck the speech on the screen in animated form. I would've loved to see some innovation in how it was presented. I mean, going back to Emilia and Regulus's anger, there are countless cool ways they could've showed what I mentioned, the "rusty needle scraping across his eyeballs." Instead, Regulus basically just made a mad face.
These are the main three reasons, but I have other issues.
4. The Fights
I said I'm not going to critique the anime for its production quality, since it's pretty good anyways. I'm not. What I'm going to do instead is glaze the novels. The fight you imagine in your head while you are reading arc 5 in the novels is ten times cooler than what the anime is showing on screen. The anime simply was not able to emulate the power and hype of Tappei's fight scenes. I'm not going to fault the anime for this, but simply say that the fight scenes in the novels are reeeeeally good.
5. The Writing
This comment carries over to the general writing as well. Personally, I believe the novels present everything far better through words than the anime does through animation. There are some things that you can display far better through animation than through words, but going back to the directing, the anime simply does not take advantage of that fact. This leaves the novels in a position where they simply do literally everything the anime does, but more and better. Hints of foreshadowing, character moments, all are much more thorough in the novels. If you are attached to Re:Zero because of its characters and mystery, the novels do it incomparably better.
6. Improvements?
Is there anything the anime does better than the novels? Yes. It has voice acting and music. Re:Zero's voice acting is phenomenal. I feel like it wasn't quite as good this season as previous ones, especially Emilia's, but it's still fantastic, especially the Archbishops. Speaking of, Capella is probably better in the anime, just because of the animators locking in for every single Capella scene, and Aoi Yuuki's insane performance. And... that's about it I would say. Everything else the source material does better.
This season was amazing. Ten out of ten. I enjoyed it. It's like a six out of ten adaptation, even worse at some points. Go read the novels if you like Re:Zero for the writing.
