Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 08

I feel bad for the artists and animators who made the opening and ending for this show as they don’t seem to be getting much use. Not that I am complaining of course as if the choice is between a catchy theme song and more content then content wins every time. Though it is a little bit of a pity as the opening and ending for this show are pretty good. I am fond of the way they made the opening loop as how it starts and ends is the same. This week acts as a calm before the storm and manages to address what is a normal flaw regarding anime stories in general. For you see often in a anime when a character’s trauma is brought up and addressed, that’s the end of it. Sure the protagonist may angst over a new problem but when they break out everything tends to go their way and it’s just doesn’t bother them anymore. The character breaks out of his angst and faces adversity with no problem. Re:Zero looked to be continuing this trend with Subaru regaining his will to fight and jumping off a cliff. The beginning half certainly makes it feel like Subaru has gotten over it but then we notice that Subaru is a bit too upbeat. His meta humor goes up to rather annoying levels and he is clearly exerting himself. For you see while anime may state otherwise, healing from trauma is a gradual process and you don’t suddenly feel all better because someone gives you a pep talk. Subaru here tried way too hard and everyone noticed that. With Ram and Rem it made him all the more suspicious. WIth Emilia it made her worried. It’s clear that Subaru is still traumatised by his previous repeats as evidenced when Puck casts a shadow spell over him, which blocks his sight and sound. The level of panic Subaru exhibits truly shows that he isn’t over anything as the state is very similar of his nightmares. So Emilia laid him down on her lap and got him to let it all out which leads to a pretty powerful scene. This is one of those things I find interesting about Emilia, in that while Subaru seeks a romantic relationship with her, her relationship with him almost seems motherly. One could debate that her level of affection for him is a little strange considering how long they have known each other and I do sort of agree with that. Though what I mention later here could be a result of that.

We learn quite a bit about magic this time around and that Subaru’s affinity is with shadow magic. Does that mean he’s going to end up a badass necromancer in the future, um…no. Shadow magic looks to be a unimpressive kind and Subaru looks to have no real talent in controlling it. I approve this development as what makes Subaru’s tale compelling is that he is a normal human. If he suddenly gains superpowers that would make him less relatable and his struggles less compelling. There’s also more detail on the Jealous witch and I find myself most intrigued by it. More and more it looks to be the Jealous witch who gave Subaru his power and brought him to the land. So it goes that there were seven witches who represented the seven sins. However the Witch who represented envy devoured the powers of the others and drained half the world of magic. Some have said that the translation of “Jealous Witch” is an incorrect one as due to her status of representing a sin it would be better to refer to her as the witch of envy. Personally though I prefer calling her the Jealous witch as it just sounds better to me. Besides Jealousy is often associated with envy so it’s not entirely incorrect. Beatrix lays down some interesting lines. The witch of envy desires love, she cannot understand human language and even all the dragons and heroes of the world couldn’t destroy her. This leads me to make a theory, one which Subaru briefly alludes to. For a moment Subaru considers that Emilia is the Jealous witch due to the info that the Jealous witches body is that of a half elf with white hair. This explains why Emilia is so concerned about her race when she reveals it to Subaru and Subaru writes off her introducing herself as Satella in the first run to make her seem suitable to the throne to those thinking she’s aiming for it. I however have another theory. I believe that Emilia is the jealous witch, however I think she isn’t actually aware of it herself.

The way the Jealous witch is talked about makes her seem like a spirit or some kind of ghostly creature and it’s possible the reason why she couldn’t be killed was simply because she can’t really die. For anytime a body is destroyed she would move to a new host. My guess is that Subaru was brought here to protect her from harm and most importantly, love her. As that’s what she desires most of all. For Emilia this doesn’t look to be something she’s doing on purpose and I believe the witch is working subconsciously to achieve this. Hence why Emilia is so attached to Subaru and seems at times to know what he’s going though, even on a vague level. Subaru made a big mistake this episode which could dig his grave later when he goes to replace a vase despite no one telling him where the spare vases were. He wrote this off as Ram telling him about it but I say they found it mighty suspicious. Roswell makes a curious comment to Ram about stopping her sister from acting out which suggested that Subaru’s death in the second run may have been her acting on her own instead of on orders. Though she seems to have lightened up to him after seeing him on Emilia’s lap. Both sister got rather playful with him at the end of the episode so this time around I think his death isn’t going to be by their hands. Instead it looks like the mysterious shaman is the one who’s going to kill him this time. Who that is is still up in the air but Subaru looks to have homed in on the cause being in the village due to Beatrix’s comment about a curse needing physical contact. But could this be the turn that Subaru manages to break out of the cycle? Honestly, I doubt it. If you happen to be itching for more Re:zero like myself, I recommend checking out the Break time specials. They are a pretty fun side dish to the main story that happens to include some material that didn’t make the original cut.

~AidanAK47~