Re:ZERO: Starting Life in Another World - Reviews

Re Zero

This anime is really a very controversial one. I watched it years ago and honestly, I found it quite disappointing and weak. Now after watching it a second time, I have to admit that my opinion has changed. Re Zero has massive problems, especially in the first 10 episodes. It doesn't seem convincing enough, everything feels forced and the protagonist is completely irrational. The cast appears uninteresting and off-putting. The story is extremely linear for the first 2 hours. Of course, as a viewer you can already lose all your interest here, that's how it was for me.
Despite the disappointing start, the series develops very rapidly in the course and becomes even fairly interesting in the middle part.

Re Zero is the usual Isekai anime, which however is combined with death loops. Through this, the protagonist must face a cruel fate with his respawn, which wants to have him absolutely under the ground. This subject of respawns, time loops, and other things is always a game with fire. Either it will be interesting or it will be a disaster. Here the author has actually managed to make something out of this idea. It wasn't much, but it was enough to convince.

Despite all the positive and negative expectations, the first season was mostly average, but still far better than I remembered. Especially Subaru has grown on me as one of the best protagonists.

[Story 6]

In the first season, you learn very little of the actual plot. It's all about how Subaru finds his way in the new world and how he copes with the dangers. The whole thing has its ups and downs until slowly the bigger dangers are revealed.
What the author did well here, however, was the unification of dark fantasy and psychological aspects. My only concern was that it would just end up like a usual shounen. The main character loses, has to get stronger, respawns again, and so on. But the author surprised me again by even having the fights gain individuality. The majority of the series is not about battles but about the protagonist and his problems. How he develops and what consequences his decisions have. And also how he emerges from them to do things better.

But the author surprised me again by even giving individuality to the fights.

If they had compensated for other shortcomings in Re Zero, this series would have been much better.

[Characters 5]

My only problem is with the supporting characters. They are all stereotypes and have no personality beyond what you can already see. While they help the plot follow a good flow, they are very uninteresting and one-dimensional in terms of content. There wasn't a secondary character outside of the protagonist group that I liked or found interesting in any way.

Rem and Emilia are two fairly interesting characters, though Rem's role came later and Emilia's came in the second season. Though Emilia seemed like a useless princess in the beginning, there was more to her than that, which you only learn later.

In contrast, the protagonist Subaru was a real diamond. Not only did the story put the most focus on his psychology and development. No, he possessed character reflection and evolved through his constant mistakes. He was immensely human and very realistic about his fears and doubts. He is essentially powerless, has no special talent, and yet must face such dangers. In the beginning, he saw his respawn as the perfect solution to compensate for his weakness. Until he realized what scars it leaves on his mind and soul.
His desperate struggle, against this world and himself, was pretty well executed. So well, that I can say Subaru is one of the best protagonists I've seen.

Protagonists aside, we had another interesting treasure this season. Petelgeuse is one of the main enemies of the series and a really sad soul. But at the same time, probably the best "crazy" villain I've seen in anime. If this guy doesn't embody insanity, I don't know who does. His constantly repeating dialogue, the nonsense he talked about, his design, and his persona were just exemplary. Rarely do I see villains that I find very interesting and this was one of them. Despite how simple his concept was.

[Music 7 / Animations 7]

Re Zero had 2 decent intros, they were nothing great but at least they have recognition value. But I especially liked the soundtracks in the series. They added a certain sparkle to the atmosphere.
Together with the animations, of course. Through the rather gloomy style that was used here, you could get more out of the whole scene.

[Conclusion 5]

I'd like to give the series more, but I'll have to leave it at that. Re Zero is a very interesting anime. However, the first season was pretty uneven and made me feel like the author couldn't decide on a route. The first 10 episodes, despite everything, left a much worse impression than the second half of this season.

Nevertheless, Re Zero is one of the better anime and one of the best "Isekai".

[Enjoyment 7]

Yesterday, I ended watching RE:Zero -Starting Life in Another World. It may at first look like an ordinary fantasy anime, but is actually a really gripping and a REALLY REALLY moving anime with a deep storyline.

      The Story is about an ordinary high school student Natsuki Subaru who suddenly appears in another world, where he's been straight away killed...BUT after that Subaru has been transported back to where he entered the world. It's basically about the MC dying all the time and being revived on a different checkpoints and receiving a new experience about the reason of his death. But no one can suffer so much deaths without the disorder of the psyche. SPOILEEEEEEEEERRRRRR He even comitted suicide to save his friend's life...

      The strong relationship between Rem and Ram was fantastic and at first I really liked Ram and hated Rem... because of ...what happended ... but then I founded ouf about what happened with our lovely twins in the past and ...she was so deeply described that now I like her even more than Ram. (it was really hard for me to remember which is Ram and wchich is Ram lol)

      The most interesting and horrifying at the same time about the film is how Subaru's mental health is getting worse with every death. I really enjoyed watching it. 

Well to be honest this is my very first review to an anime not because it impressed me, not either because i think it sucked, no because ot took my brain and literaly f***** it.

Story

Re:Zero is an anime which hardly can be described normal/average not in terms of animation or charakters no the story is just kinda messed up and freaky but not bad. The protagonist is a complete loser and shut in which finds himself suddendly in a fantasy world. at first he is not aware of anything until the fact that he dies and wakes up on an earlier time before he died.it is unique in some way but i personally this die/repeat thing is used a bit too often in the story.

Animation

The animation is not bad but mostly somewhat average with a few creepy not bad made effects. but as said overall average.

Sound

the sound is something i really liked starting from the slashing sounds which really creep, into the background music which adds to the creepiness this anime should give i think.

Charakters

The protagonist is overall a dissapointment he is a loser which tries to overlay it with fake confidence not excactly the charakter i like i gave it a bit more points because some charakters had a bit of a funny side but thats all.

To the last i think this anime is worth watching but not a must watch i recommend not to watch it late night though, not because it is creepy no cause you could get freaky dreams i suppose. And i won't compare it to other animes cause i think thats overall crap cause every anime has the right to be called a unique work.

ps: i don't know if this review is any good so i would be happy to hear some feedback thx in advance.

Greets D.

Story -

The story centres around Subaru who is taken too another world and believes it is a game and initially approaches this new world as such. After finding Emilia, he makes it his issue to save her from what is going on. The plot is broken down into three sections but the method on his it overcomes being the same. The story itself isn't bad, as each challenge is different and brings its own elements to help drive the story alone.

Art / animation -

The animation is very good throughout the show and there is lots of detail with the spells that are used. It is overall very appealing on the eyes.

Sound -

The music was great throughout the show. The first opening song is fantastic but there are two openings (second one takes over around the half way point) and it was very sad to see it changed over.

Characters -

Nearly all the characters were fairly interesting but there wasn't much depth to their development. There is one character that really sticks out but not for the right reason. This being the main character. I can't really remember the last time I really disliked the main character. As you would expect the main Subaru to be built up and developed across the series but instead they spent more than half of the show breaking him down. It went to the point where it just really highlighted how incapable he is at anything with a full on mental breakdown but after a quick chat and hug he was all better and is a better person. This, I imaged, was what they were going for but failed miserably at portraying. There wasn't going to be a good way of getting him from “Zero to Hero” in a believable fashion. This one character really brought the show down to the point it was barely watchable.

This was a Secret Santa review

The Story: The first few minutes sucked because of the sheer ovesimplicity of the plot: "protagonist gets to a different world and we don't need to explain a shit." Well, that's just wrong. From there on, though, it was getting better and better and it'd drawn me really into the story. Then middle eps came (around 15) and it kinda got frustrating to watch. It was the horror part, really. I still can't say it was shitty, it was just frustrating. Than, surprisingly, all got a bit better and continued in the manner of the first eps, just with a bit more cool and matured protagonist.

Chars: I'm not sure, whether what really got my attention on this one was the story or the characters, but I think it was the chars. At least the main three ones were fairly in-depth presented, so that's good. However, I feel like in this regard there's a story worth another 20 eps at minimum (other domains lords and their lieges, the witch, ...).

Animation didn't either offend me or excite me (but there was a loli and some gorgeous girls), hence slight above average rating. OST was seriously average, can't say nothing about it.

Overall: It was fair. It's not gold of anime, but it's certainly above average, I think. Main setting is grossly inoriginal, but creators managed to make it kind of worth watching by adding the horror and psychological stuff (who wouldn't get crazy by experiencing what protagonist experienced a few times more than average person should, right?). 

So, I do recodmend this (not for children, though!).