Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Does Re:Zero's Subaru Stand a Chance?
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1037 |
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At the very least you can probably rest assured Emilia will be getting the spotlight in the second cour. Given Subaru's current status (having just dumped the overseer of the trial and said salty overseer stripping him of his qualifications as a result), the story is gonna require nothing less than Emilia stepping up to the plate.
Also gotta love this slightly paraphrased exchange between Subaru and his mom back in episode 4 summing up his entire journey this season (and arguably of the entire series so far):
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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As much as this show's plot becomes more confusing and convoluted by the episode, what I understand the least is why I'm still watching it.
There must be some explanation; I'm really not the type to hatewatch. It does have its moments, every episode or two, that seem meaningful in one way or another. But, overall, it mostly just seems like what would happen if you stretched episode 10 of Madoka Magica over 3+ seasons. Inevitably, that's gonna get repetitive. The countless plot twists and complications don't always end up being completely pointless, but their main purpose is to keep the "being Subaru is suffering" train going as long as possible. I know anime fans generally want shows to be as long as possible, but this is a perfect example of a story that would be vastly improved if it was much shorter. The main general theme is Subaru learning to balance improving self-confidence with relying on friends instead of just taking all the heat himself, with a political-intrigue fantasy-battle thing happening alongside that. Fifteen-plus hours of screentime is way overkill, and it doesn't do enough outside those main themes to justify it; like most anime with a male main character and a disproportionate number of female characters, everything revolves around the protagonist. It mostly leans on that first theme, and political content that doesn't involve him rarely comes up. Like, again, Madoka covered more or less the same concept, start to finish, in 3 episodes, and it sure didn't cut the interpersonal-and-cosmic-horror elements. Re:Zero, after 3 cours, still hasn't escaped the first of those 3 episodes. More than anything, this seems like a lesson in why editors are important. |
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andramus
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I found it interesting to see people's responses to the Beatrice of season 2. There were some people who thought she was totally out of character this season and couldn't reconcile the Beatrice of season 2 with the Beatrice of season 1. I went the other way and found the reveals about Beatrice very compelling as for me they recontextualized a lot of what we saw of her previously without contradicting it. Her haughty facade was a protective cover for her desperate feelings of loneliness, abandonment and isolation. In spite of her pushing him away Subaru kept reaching out to her and that facade gradually began to crumble. I actually think one of the strongest aspects of the Memory Snow OVA was showing the progress Subaru was making in his relationship with Beatrice. After all he managed to persuade her to join the festivities. |
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andramus
Posts: 193 |
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"Subaru needs to suffer" does seem to be a cornerstone of this series and is the main thing I have reservations about. Do people need to suffer in order to grow? Perhaps. However I don't think they need to suffer quite as much as Subaru does. Although perhaps the type of person he needs to grow into in this series is not just a decent person but an exceptional one. Maybe exceptional growth requires exceptional suffering. One of the What If? stories written by the author has Subaru and Rem running away together, getting married and having a family. In that story Subaru might not have been perfect but he was loving, hard working and earnest. As far as I can tell by most metrics he was a decent human being. In that story Subaru wasn't a man who could craft an alliance to defeat the Witch Cult in Roswaal's domain as well as signicantly contribute to the demise of the White Whale. It seems that the path Subaru is walking in this series is not just to become good but to become great. You said you don't know why you're still watching this series. I can't answer that for you but I can try to convey the things I find appealing about it. I'll be upfront and say that since I was a kid I've always enjoyed heroes journey and isekai type stories. Of course the ones I grew up with were the western isekais like the Chronicles of Narnia, the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and when I was a bit older the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It's only in the last 4 years that I've become familiar with some of the eastern/Japanese ones. I can't remember the exact viewing order but I started with Sword Art Online and then branched out into Overlord, Log Horizon, Grimgar, Tanya the Evil, Fushigi Yugi, The Twelve Kingdoms, Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, Arata Kangatari, Re:Zero, Konosuba, Cautious Hero and Rising of the Shield Hero. Personally I don't consider SAO a true isekai but it's what got me into the genre. I'd say my top three isekai series are Re:Zero, The Twelve Kingdoms and Log Horizon. One thing I woud say all three have going for them is their level of world-building. So many of the isekai I've watched just have a generic MMORPG or fantasy medieval setting that it's refreshing when a series goes into a bit more depth about the foundations and structure of it's world. The nature of Subaru's Return by Death ability means that on some level the whole world and story revolves around him. No other character or plot development can progress until Subaru makes it to his next check point. Any other characters' development or plot progression that occurs can be undone by Subaru's death. This can be quite frustrating especially for viewers who don't care for Subaru or who aren't particularly invested in his character progression. Perhaps if Subaru manages to overcome the current obstacle that Roswaal has placed before him he will die less often in the future. Seeing as to date most of the life and death scenarios he has faced it's likely Roswaal had a hand in. One of the things I like about this series is the mystery aspect. Just like Subaru we know nothing about this world he has been thrust into and have discover it and tease apart it's mysteries alongside him. Various characters have their own personal histories and relationship dynamics that don't involve Subaru. They have their own stuff going on. Whilst Subaru is starting to build a bit of a harem with Emilia, Rem, Beatrice, Petra, Patrasche, Satella, Echidna , Ryuzu and Otto his relationship with all of them is different and not all of them fawn over or fight over him. So far all Subaru's relationships feel earned and not like they were just handed to him because he is the main character. Jeez I rambled more than I meant to but in short I'd say what I find appealing about this series is its' world building, mystery, shock reveals as well as it's diverse cast of quirky and interesting characters. Also what I like about Subaru as a character is his earnestness, kindness and compassion for others. Even when he tries to be calculating and treat a "loop" like it's throwaway he still does things like leave a letter for Emilia knowing there's no need if he's going to die anyway. Some people consider Subaru's lack of calculation stupidity but personally I find it appealing. In fact if Subaru were to become more calculating and less "stupid" then he would likely end up more like Roswaal or Echidna. |
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MFrontier
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I think the main shift with Beatrice this season was finding out Petelguese died, since they seem to have some kind of history. |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1037 |
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Well...I wouldn't really consider Beatrice and Ryuzu, but when you really stop to think about it, even though it very rarely, if ever, indulges in those tropes, it is kinda true that Subaru does technically have a harem. Though I guess it doesn't really bother me because, like you say, it hardly feels like any of those relationships happen just for the sake of happening. They feel earned and they don't really feel artificial and as I said, it almost never indulges in the usual trashy tropes that most other light novels would with their harems. It doesn't read like empty wish-fulfillment. I guess it helps considerably that Subaru is written like an actual human being who has believable chemistry with all of the characters mentioned as opposed to literal cardboard that somehow manages to attract every woman on earth despite being, well, cardboard. |
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Juno016
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Madoka is my favorite anime of all time. I think a show as tight and wasteless as Madoka is a very high standard to compare to. But Madoka was also an anime planned to be 12-13 episodes since the start. Re:Zero is an adaption of a light novel, which is itself a heavily edited down version of a serialized web novel. The anime for Re:Zero actually leaves a lot of the world/side-character building out that gives the novels infinitely more substance in the cracks of the plot. I'll leave it up to you whether you're interested in the novels at all, but if you want more Re:Zero without the crazy suffering loops, try reading the EX novel volumes. EX1 is about Ferris and Crusch's past (and motivations), EX2-3 are Wilhelm's story in two arcs, and EX4 is pre-royal-selection and involves Reinhard, Julius, and Ferris as they grow their friendship. All 4 volumes reveal a lot of cool tidbits about the world and characters only hinted at in the main series (ie. Rom is a major antagonist in one of them, you get to see another Ryuzu clone with a personality, a character who appears later is a main cast character in one, you get a preview of the Great Rabbit, and so on. All volumes involve the rival kingdom to Luginica in some way, too.). Otherwise, the manga adaption of Re:Zero left in some of the cut scenes from the anime, including a major one from season 1 in the carriage on the way to the royal selection if you want to skim it. Re:Zero does seem to be intentionally building up to a mystery resolution, at least. Very intentionally. The pieces are coming together right now in the web novel, so I think we're getting closer to the end now. Speculation seems to be on the nose, too. I guess I just really like intentional mysteries where the author has a plan. Madoka clearly had a short one and played its pieces very precisely, almost to a fault. Re:Zero definitely has an endgame in sight. I seriously hope it pays off after all the time I've invested. I don't see why it won't. But yes, I guess I can genuinely nod at the ridiculous amount of trauma Subaru goes through. If you can believe it... the web novel was waaaaay worse. You're getting a much lighter version of most events (arc 4 didn't cut many deaths out, though, since they were all important, which is probably why it feels like a lot). |
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