Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- [2020-07-13]
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Seagloom
Posts: 298 |
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Nothing to add about the season finale. I just wanted to thank Kim Morrissy for her weekly reviews.
I thought your reviews were great. I've always appreciated your thoughts not only here but on your (not as often updated anymore  ) blog and on Twitter. And this is coming from someone that isn't concerned with production or sakuga. What I look for most in a review is a fresh perspective. Something I'm not likely to pick up on myself presented in a clear and digestible way. And that's what your work provided this season precisely *because* I don't usually concern myself with the production side of anime. Plus, Re:Zero is a dense as hell story so of course I enjoyed reading your take on that as well.
Looking forward to reading more of your thoughts next season! Toodles! |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1621 |
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Thinking back to Subaru's silver-haired collection back in episodes 2 and 3. Back then I just considered it a cute detail about how he got so attached to Emilia, but I'm starting to think that it might be the other way around, that he liked silver-haired characters because of Satella. That he might have met Satella 400 years ago, died and then got reborn (or some such) in Japan; a reverse isekai if you will.
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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Very much enjoyed this season, and Subaru's arc is one that resonates with me. That this is where the focus of the show is, above any fantasy epic plot, is impressive, and more mature than I'd expect for this kind of series.
I had one question that might be answered in the novels, but i'm an anime-only so far; what exactly were the potential negative consequences of tspoiler[he deal Subaru was offered by Echidna? I get that it was severe enough that all the other witches intervened, but the listed terms seemed very abstract to me.] Is this more clear in the novels? |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1621 |
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What Echidna wants is knowledge, ALL the knowledge. She wanted to abuse his power to learn absolutely everything she could. Every possible outcome, every detail of every person, place or event. Or in other words, she'd have Subaru die again and again and again, way many more times than would be necessary otherwise, until her greed is sated and tells him how to move on. That's why Satella was so pissed off that she managed to manifest herself at the party. |
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OrdepNM
 Posts: 252 |
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Tappei actually wrote a short story that depicts an "usual day" in the life of Subaru had he taken the pact with Echidna. I won't link because it's highly spoilerific, but I'll list some relevant highlights:
(The folowing is obviously not canon and contains no spoilers for the actual story, but I'll leave it under spoilers just in case, since it's technically not impossible that it is adapted as an OVA at some point) spoiler[-Subaru's morning routine after waking up involves practising to smile and going to Echidna's via a pendant to decide what they'll do today. He lost track of how many RBDs he did tough, in truth, it's been over 100 million times. -Petra is fine tough worried about Subaru. That day she's also worried the weather might turn for the worse later on. -Garfiel has left the Sanctuary after it was freed and joined the Emilia Camp. He hates Subaru's guts and mostly sticks around for Frederica's sake. -Reinhard also joined the Emilia faction after Subaru abused RBD to find a way for Felt to drop him, which devastates him. Subaru feels bad about it but Echidna assures him they made the right choice. -Beatrice is still a shut in. When Subaru tries to talk to her she gets violent and scratches him. Echidna assures she'll come around eventually. -Otto has left the Emilia camp over a year ago. Subaru is quite distressed over how things like this fit into the "optimum path". -Roswaal is back to his usual self and is looking forward to continuing to conspire with Subaru for their mutual goals. -Ram is more detached than ever, she tends to Rem's room because Roswaal orders her to. Rem is still asleep. Echidna assures they'll wake Rem eventually. -Emilia, unable to assert herself when Subaru controls everything that happens in her life, has become completely dependent on him. She's also become aggressively defensive of Subaru, she notices the marks from Beatrice's previous attack and momentarily goes berserk until Subaru calms her down. -Elsa also joined the Emilia faction somehow. When she returns to the Mansion at the end of the day, from an assignment that went nowhere, Subaru asks her how the weather was outside. She says fine and Subaru asks her to kill him, to which she shrugs and lops his head off. -Subaru restarts the day, this time informing Petra that she doesn't have to worry, the weather will in fact be fine.] |
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Merxamers
Posts: 720 |
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Very interesting that he wrote a "what-if" story about that possibility! I'm not going to read the spoilers, but i am even more motivated to eventually read the novels (it's hard for me to start the series i know are more "serious," so i fall behind in stuff like Re:Zero and follow many SoL and trash isekai instead...) |
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OrdepNM
Posts: 252 |
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I should have actually noted that the what if scenarios (yes there's several, one for each sin except Envy, tough we don't talk about the one for Lust) are mostly not in Novel form and can only be read on ReZero web novel page (Tappei maintains a free web novel of the series as a rough draft for the light novel). Currently only Sloth:If, aka Rem:If, which is what would happen if Subaru had convinced Rem to flee with him, is avaliable as a one off light novel and was given exclusively as a bonus to people who bought all the Blu Rays for season 1 of ReZero. Greed:If, which is the scenario I mentioned above, has recently been announced as the bonus light novel for people who buy all BluRays for Season 2. Also, these chapters are always released on April Fools, tough they're not always realistic what if scenarios. For example, this year it was ReZero in an High School setting. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11551 |
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If I'm understanding that correctly, I don't think that quite works, since in the first episode we got confirmation that the timelines he died in are separate and ongoing. He got flashes of previous deaths while he was still browsing magazines, so not only was what we saw not his first entry to the world, he was also retaining at least some nebulous memories of or some other sort of connection to those timelines. If he'd only done one previous loop which ended much farther down the line, he'd have flashed on that death, not the loot house ones. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3798 |
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Did we get that confirmation? If you mean season 1, episode 1, then we saw some flashes while he was in the store, but Subaru didn't seem react to it. It seemed like those flashes were more to entice the audience (at least in the directors cut episode, not sure how it is in the books). Hey audience, look at this crazy scene juxtaposed against an ordinary scene in a convenience store. Also, did the main character just die? Crazy! Keep watching! It wasn't till he started to shift to the new world that he thought he was seeing things. Also we saw in the second trial possible time lines after Subaru's death, but we didn't get confirmation that those were any more real than Subaru's first trial with his parents. If there was a confirmation earlier I definitely missed it, so I'm curious where that was? Though even if there were multiple loops before the start of the show (if he somehow died before he even made it to the apple seller which was the first save point we saw), I don't think that would prevent my explanation from working, where Subaru is sent back to the very beginning with no memory of his very first loop and that is how Satella knows him already. Simply being the first trip back upon gaining the return by death ability could prevent all those extra "features" from revealing it. Though I guess that's just an easy way to hand wave away any critiques of it 
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Showsni
 Posts: 641 |
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It kind of feels to me like the first bunch of loops in a situation are so Subaru can put together a list of problems and resources, ultimately leading to one perfect possible path. So, at this point Subaru hopefully knows nearly everything he needs to; now he needs to try and put it all together. Something like:
Problems: Sanctuary is trapped behind a barrier; it can only be broken if someone clears the trials. The people who dwell in Sanctuary are trapped here, and also keeping villagers trapped in here. Emilia has been unable to pass the first trial. Subaru was unable to pass the second trial, and has lost his qualification to take the trials. At some point, Roswaal will summon a snow that will summon the great rabbit, which will devour everyone in Sanctuary. Roswaal has hired Elsa and Maylee to attack the mansion. They will attack and kill the occupants after a set amount of time has passed, or sooner if someone arrives at the mansion. Garfiel seems to have his own agenda; in some routes he will go berserk, turn into a beast and kill Subaru/the villagers. Possible resources: Beatrice (in the mansion, a spirit, is waiting for a person to inherit the library who may never come). Roswaal? (is following orders from a True Gospel book, strong magic). Otto (can talk to animals, knock Subaru out of funks, merchant skills). Ram (good fighter, Garfiel likes her, Roswaal seems to have a relationship with her). Garfiel (good fighter, if unpredictable, Apostle of Greed status lets him control Ryuzu clones, seems to take against the witch smell). Ryuzu (links to Echidna? Somewhat mysterious. Asked Subaru to ask her about her surname again a different day). Frederica (Garfiel's sister, good fighter, in the mansion) Patrasche (best girl). Emilia (ice powers, has the qualifications to attempt the trials). Puck (hibernating?, a spirit, strong magic ice powers). Witches (maybe?). Ryuzu clones (can be controlled by an Apostle of Greed). Would that about sum it up? |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 513 Location: Kyoto |
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If we ever get Arc 5 animated, it only need one cour
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OrdepNM
Posts: 252 |
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Surprised to see the episode reviews back already, I wasn't expecting them until after the community vote. Is Re:Zero being grandfathered in from Summer or something? Not that I'm complaining
I've seen a few people say that Otto's trust and sidekick-y attachment to Subaru is a bit too much and honestly it kinda is. As usual the anime strives to keep pretty much every seen from the books intact while squeezing them down to the important parts, and while it succeeds at it for the most part, some nuance does fall by the wayside. In the case of Otto, he himself acknowledges that, after hearing Subaru's list of challenges arrayed against them and determining that Subaru must be incredibly cursed, he really should jus take his wagon and get the heck out of town. He doesn't, and while some of that is because of his situation (his entire life's work and goals rest on getting Roswal to buy all his worthless oil at sticker price or he's bankrupt) but ultimately he decides to throw caution to the wind and do a once in a lifetime gamble on a side with the odds stacked against him. Reckless? Sure, and we'll learn some more about Otto that recontextualizes his attitude, but ultimately it's a heart over mind kind of decision. I don't know which one is "righter" in terms of translation but I prefer Ram's line in the books "Lady Emilia being unable to overcome the trail is through no fault of her own" vs. the line in the anime "Emilia-sama hasn't figured out why she's struggling", feels much less ambiguous. Just a random thought but did they go out of their way to show Ryuzu from angles where her mouth isn't covered by her poncho? I wonder if they got complaints that they were cutting corners with her design being perfect to obscure mouth flaps. I suppose I have to give the anime some credit for something. I decried it for cutting the scene where Frederica explains why she left the sanctuary back in the first part, but they went back and re-added it via flashback. I guess it's something to take into consideration when talking about cut content. When Subaru and Emilia discuss her "deep freeze" period, I wonder if there's some wonky translation going on? She notes she's slept in the ice for a long time. Subaru asks how long and she answers "since I has 6 or 7, I think". That... doesn't tell us much since we don't know how old she is. The books spell out the time periods involved but keeping with what I said above, I won't just consider it cut content and leave it behind spoilers: spoiler[Emilia was frozen at age 6-7, spent roughly 100 years asleep and its been another 6 to 7 years since,making her technically 114 years old, tough only 14 of those were lived. An interesting tidbit is that Emilia never stopped growing while in the ice and woke up with the body of a 107 year old elf, so for a human that would be fatal.]. This has led to some pretty... heated arguments within the fandom and some funny reactions from Subaru. Very briefly you can see a flashback of Emilia standing amidst a very upturned Elior Forest before yelling at Puck and Roswal. This is a cut scene from The Frozen Bond where Roswal arrives to "recruit" Emilia for his cause (as described). Puck decides to throw him out and the two fight (a bit of the fight was depicted in the Memory Snow OVA) with such intensity that they change the topography of the area and making Emilia's mapmaking work obsolete. Truly this girl can't catch a break. Another detail that's glossed over is how taking the throne can help Emilia thaw the ice at Elior Forest. The king of Lugunica has access to has access to blood of the Dragon and, according to Roswal at least, that is powerful enough to do the job. But either way, Roswal truly is an a-hole of the worst kind. He just shows up and ropes Emilia, who has no idea what this Kingdom of Lugunica thing even is, into this high profile position that she's guaranteed to suffer from, by dangling the thing she wants the most in her face - and who knows if he wasn't just BSing her or not. Of course she couldn't refuse tough. Emilia thinks poorly of herself for entering the royal selection with much narrower goals than some of the other contestants (not that "save an entire group settlement of people trapped in permafrost" is any less noble than "I want to end our beneficial relationship with the dragon on personal philosophical reasons" or "I wanna own a country" but I digress), but even if that's how it started she clearly already expanded to wider goals, as she strives for a word without racial or class discrimination. Considering she was basically anime Mogli before becoming a candidate for the top job, she can hardly be faulted for having a narrow perspective at the start. After the "unfamiliar ceiling" line in Season 1, ReZero upholds its requirement of 1 NGE reference per season. A line that can easily be overlooked in The Frozen Bond is Puck noting that "She needs more time, hopefully forever". Puck wanted none of this for his daughter, he's be perfectly fine to have her spend her days giving silly names to patches of frozen wastes, rather than face all of this, but that ship has sailed and now the seal he's keeping over her memories has become an anchor dragging her under, so he does what must be done and breaks the pact, content on knowing that Subaru will be there to gather the pieces after the innevitable shock. This scene was toned down when going from Web Novel to Light Novel, originally it was... sadder. Emilia's symbiotic relationship with Puck getting severed out of the blue is just the latest gut punch in the worst couple of days Emilia has probably ever faced so she takes comfort with Subaru and asks him to stand by her till morning... which he agrees to and then promptly leaves in the middle of the night, leaving Emilia, who abhors lying and promise breaking, even more distraught. Last time at least Subaru could claim ignorance of Lugunica's cultural sensibilities and Emilia's beliefs, but that's not gonna fly this time. Next episode is something alot of people have been waiting for for a long time! |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1019 |
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Honestly this is why I am desperately hoping for Crunchyroll to pick up the Break Time shorts because unlike last season (for the most part), this season's shorts are not only plot relevant but contain some genuinely meaningful character moments, with many of the exchanges being taken directly from the novel that they unfortunately didn't have room to fit into the episode proper. Several of them are still comedic in tone, but it actually feels like they do actually matter (while thankfully not being necessarily required viewing). Today's Break Time only had like 2 seconds of The Funnies while otherwise being completely serious in tone and with some really solid Otto moments, with him internally criticizing Subaru's seemingly unfounded faith in Ram, the irony that he has even less reason to trust Subaru yet does so with no hesitation completely lost on him |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2060 |
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As much as I understand the problems Emilia suffers, the comments bother me. Some time ago, ANN made an article about how Subaru Natsuki shouldn't be part of the series because of the suffering he goes through and thus being outshined by Emilia. Now, after one season and half of Subaru facing his problems and trying to help Emilia, then it's bad for Subaru because the heroine also big issues?
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1621 |
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In the end, I think that trying so hard to mirror Rem's pep talk was a huge disservice to this scene and pretty much ruined it. All of it just felt weird.
Emilia was in the middle of a self-loathing trip, but unlike Subaru who had just commited his worst acts of egoism yet, Emilia was putting herself down for very minor things, things that she isn't to blame at all and even that one detail that she was right to be angry about! Instead of addressing any of that, Subaru just says "it doesn't matter because I love you", implicitly admiting that Emilia is no better than she paints herself as. That doesn't seem right. Subaru's own fault is handwaved, because this is mirroring Rem's speech and she had nothing to blame herself for at that time. And while Emilia is not only dealing with her own hangups but also a LOT of new information and the emotions derived form it, they don't seem even interested in acknowledging that or defusing anything of what's going on, which culminates in a kiss. With a person that currently doesn't have a hang on her reality, her identity or her emotions. Subaru has been through a lot and learned even more since the Royal Election arc, but nothing of that is reflected in this conversation other than having enough confidence to speak his lines. And if we didn't spend so much time in Subaru's headspace, I'd think he was taking advantage of Emilia's agitated and messy state. At least he remembered to kind of ask for consent. Otto's part was brilliant however, and a detail I love about it is how this started from Subaru off-handedly asking the Kansai dogs to take him back, to rescue a man that in a previous timeline pushed him off to his death. Trust and small acts of kindness are like second nature to Subaru and that's how he wins over most of his allies, which is what he has needed to solve every case since, as Otto put it, he's powerless on his own. |
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