Category: Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

A flashback before a arc finale certainly isn’t a new prospect but I at least can forgive it if the info provided is good. With this we learn of Rem and Ram’s past and with it comes a number of answers. My previous theory turned out to be off the mark but I am actually happy about that. So it seems from birth Ram had a massive affinity for demonic power, to a degree that she could accomplish practically anything with it. Everyone compared Rem to her sister and she felt inferior to her in everyway. Thus she has always pushed herself to do her best, not because she wishes to best her sister but rather because she wishes to punish herself for being happy that Ram lost her horn the moment it happened. Rem has been holding on to a massive inferiority complex this whole time which is rather strange when you consider that Ram is more likely candidate to feel inferior. It has already been established that Rem is better than Ram in practically every way. She’s, more hardworking, earnest, stronger and generally more proficient in every area. Subaru even points out that she beats her in the chest area as well. Yet Rem always measures herself up to who her sister used to be and always feels she falls short. Seems the ones that cut off Ram’s horn is a witches cult, sporting the ku klux klan hoods as well which cultists seem quite fond of. Some are theorizing that Roswell is the one who cut off Ram’s horn but this seems based on the fact that one scene shows a man cradling Ram who looks to be wearing Roswell’s attire. Looking over the scene, it’s clear that the one who cut off Ram’s horn was wearing different clothes than the person who was holding Ram in his arms. Roswell looks to have saved the two from the attack and then took them on as his personal maids. Part of this could be because of his eccentric mannerisms, his objective or what looks like Ram’s need to be supplied mana directly to her torn off horn.

The finale of this arc is Subaru’s battle against the Ma-beasts which does turn out to be him holding them off until someone who can take care of them comes along. I really like that Subaru is never the one who truly defeats the villains, rather he makes use of his limited skillset to buy time for someone who can. Ultimately Subaru gets off alive and looks to have won the heart of Rem. I am not too fond of the harem aspects of this series but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t moved by Rem’s smile. This episode looks to have won Rem a large fanbase and I even admit that when I see Subaru go back to trying to win Emilia’s heart I somewhat wish he would go after Rem instead. Maybe because I was never too fond of Emilia to begin with or maybe because I think Rem and Subaru make for a better couple but regardless you can consider a Rem fan from this point forward. Well more a Rem/Ram fan because what can I say? I am greedy. What I find most interesting from this point on is that Rem looks to be quite smitten with Subaru now and if she starts making moves to get closer to him, I could see problems arise. For let us not forget,(No matter how easy it is too forget) Rem did kill Subaru quite brutally in another loop. Rem may not remember this but Subaru certainly does and I doubt he’s pushed this out of his psyche quite so easily. But let’s not let that cloud this episode because this was a nice heartwarming victory. We do have some loose threads, namely that one of the children Subaru recused has mysteriously disappeared and that the Ma-Beasts were controlled by someone. My bets on the blue haired little girl. Roswell also mentioned that his goal is to kill the Dragon connected to the royal family which could out him as a villain but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Something tells me this dragon isn’t quite as benevolent as he’s described to be.

We have two arcs done and I am quite satisfied with how Re:Zero has turned out. If this was the end of the series then I would certainly rate it highly and put it in my best of the year. But we haven’t even reached the halfway point and have a whole fourteen or so episodes to go and a brand new arc starting. The sceptic in me says that plenty of series have fallen down in the second half but I want to hope with this. For one White Fox is promising they are bringing their best with this and based on the quality so far that’s certainly exciting. Even the author is hyping up the next arc having more Subaru suffering. I have even heard that the third arc of the series is has the worst sales, not by being bad but rather because readers couldn’t handle the level of suffering Subaru was experiencing. Seeing as I happen to be the soulless monster that I am, I take my potato chips and eat them in glee at the prospect. Who knows, maybe his suffering will become too great even for me to watch on. I actually have a high level of confidence on the quality of this series continuing but I am concerned about how it will conclude. Perhaps this new arc will give the series a main goal it has been missing since the start but considering the amount of material left to adapt I wonder whether it will provide a good conclusion which leaves room for a potential sequel. While there are a total of eight light novels, those light novels are adaptations of a web novel which is much further on.  Basic on rough estimate and machine translation there are a total so far of 6 arcs with the sixth currently still being written. However future arcs are much longer than our current one. Web novel wise the second arc which we just finished is 50 chapters long. The next arc is 84 chapters long with the fourth arc after that being a massive 130 chapters long. Given White Fox’s number of sequels made i have doubts we will even make it to the fourth arc. (White fox has made a total of two sequels. One a movie for steins gate, another a second season of Jormungand.) Unless this turns out to be a real hit I think we will need to rely on translators to see the conclusion to this story.

~AidanAK47~

Out of everything I watch in a week, nothing quite gets me excited than to see another episode of Re:Zero and nothing leaves me quite as wanting as when the end credits role and let me know of the week long wait till the next episode. I actually visibly shouted “No!” when I seen those end credits roll. To those in the future who happen to have all the episodes ready to marathon through, know that I envy you. I also hope that general consensus of the second half of this series is quite positive too as there have been beloved darlings of mine that slipped up in the second cour.(Oh Fate/Unlimited bladeworks, so close yet so far.)  I even admit that part of the reason why I hunger for the next episode is to see that cliffhanger resolved, only to get left with another cliffhanger. While not a bad way to get the viewer hooked, ending each episode on a cliffhanger can lead to inflating expectations(As evidenced by Erased) or just escalating the story to silly levels when it attempts to one up its cliffhangers constantly.(As evidenced by Code Geass) Considering that Re:Zero is a light novel adaption I am hoping it will manage to avoid both of these missteps. But let’s move on to the actual episode.

So surprisingly, Subaru did not die but this brings up a new problem. While I think we near the end of this arc; Subaru looks to have gotten a new save point. One that puts him in a much worse position than before. Now having been bitten and cursed by a number of dogs, he must killed those dogs or else die when they drain him of energy. In a desperate attempt to save Subaru’s live Rem has ventured into the forest and is killing every dog she sees in berserker mode. Leading Ram and Subaru to go in after her before she gets herself killed. We learn a number of things from Ram about the twin maids, namely that Ram and Rem are Oni. Ram however does not have a horn like Rem does as it was cut off in the past by from what the flashback suggests, Rem. Oni generally have two horns, however twins are born with one each. So twins are normally ostracised from the village. Use this info I think I got a theory on just what happened with Ram and Rem. Basically I believe the two left their village and ended up settling near a human village related to the witch’s cult. Ram tried to get along with the villagers and village did something unforgivable to Ram which pushed her into berserker mode. When the village was in flames Rem came up to Ram and cut off her horn to break her out of it it. This would explain how Ram thought the tale of the Red and Blue Oni would upset her sister and why Rem was particularly distrustful of Subaru. Though we shall see how much of that turns out to be correct.

I have really come to adore just how human Subaru is for a protagonist. It’s true when compared to the power levels of all the cast he’s barely even noteworthy and often fairly useless in a fight. But he has a vulnerability and emotional drive that makes him such a great protagonist. For example, Beatrix was surprised to see Subaru unaffected when she informed him that he would die in half a day and even seemed somewhat impressed. Though we know that Subaru isn’t affected not because he doesn’t fear death or has courage but rather because he’s used to it. He’s experienced death so much that the prospect of dying doesn’t so much as make him flinch. Rather it’s just business as usual. What does make him flinch is Ram using her wind powers or Rem flinging her mace, which does look to be them slightly triggering his PTSD. He brushes off his situation by comparing it to a game or cracking meta jokes but he is truly shaken by it. It makes him unmistakably human. Even at the end of the episode when he had a perfect moment to hit Rem’s horn, he chickened out at the last second. Let’s be honest, in that situation when you had to run up and hit someone who could kill you in a millisecond, we would do the exact same thing. That’s what I love about this guy, he isn’t some perfect superhero who can perform on command with no hesitation. This is just an ordinary guy trying his very best to overcome a dreadful situation. I find it most amusing that he’s given a sword and it breaks before he even gets a chance to use it. Looks like the only thing you can depend on is your fists Subaru, though speaking of which.

I previously complained about Subaru showing a level of superhuman strength, as shown here as he tosses Ram several feet away. However I noticed someone bring up that upon coming to the other world Subaru got a slight strength buff. Whether this is actually true is up for debate as the only evidence is Subaru claiming it when he punched out the thieves on his second run but I am willing to accept it. It’s plausible and happens to negate my complaints about the feats he can accomplish which would be beyond human capacity. So going forward I will assume this is the case, even though it could just be adrenaline and self confidence. Major props to him thinking of using his curse of not being able to talk about responding to his advantage. That was some really clever thinking on his part. Pity he overestimated Ram though and she ran out of juice before she could take them all out. I previously stated that Ram was the more dangerous of the two but considering her lack of stamina it looks like Rem truly beats her in every area after all. Despite that Ram is determined to live up to the expectations of her sister. Yet again I am left hungry for more as I don’t know what this trio will do once they knock Rem back to her senses. Her berserker mode is certainly needed if they plan to get out of this situation. Some other last notes on this episode, fight animation remains excellent and flying Ram made my day.

~AidanAK47~

This week I happened to see the result of delaying the release of Re:Zero on a certain message board. It was pure pandemonium as there were those too lazy to google demanding the next episode, trolls trying to convince people the episode was delayed to next week with fake screenshots of twitter posts, haters and generally a cluster of utter idiocy that the internet can only provide. All this chaos over tennis delaying the episode. Guess I can say Re:Zero essentially is the most popular series of the season. Considering with popularity comes a cancerous fan base that fills me with unease, even the best of games or shows can be devalued by the overly loud fan base placing it on a pedestal. I worry because I actually really like this show and that delay killed me just as much as anyone else. Through this show still has it’s flaws it still manages to give me the giddy feeling every time an episode comes out. One of the flaws I consider is that I found it a bit odd when Subaru started listing out the children’s dreams to motivate Rem to help him. I get why he was doing it but it came out of nowhere. It is also made a bit awkward when he had to give another speech yet again to convince her to let him look for the last kid in the forest. Having two motivational speeches right by one another is a bit disconcerting. Subaru’s meta-isms can still be annoying at times and the characters do need a little bit more development.

The culprit behind the death of Subaru in the first run has been determined. And it’s….the dog with the shifty eyes! Well when you put it like that it sounds rather silly but taking into account the foreshadowing….well it’s still quite silly. My guess is the dog is the familiar of a mage(Like Puck is to Emilia.) likely related to the organisation who tried to steal Emilia’s emblem. Considering the focus on killing off Subaru this could be a result of the grudge Elsa has againest Subaru for messing up her plans. I don’t think this is an independent incident considering the timing and the way one kid was removed from the group specifically to lure Subaru out alone. Even the little girl Subaru rescues is the one who lead him to the curse puppy in the first place. Perhaps the girl is the perpetrator? I didn’t see a bite on her for one thing. This happens to be the only time Roswell left the Mansion, by flight which does suggest he’s quite a badass, and I have a firm suspicion that he was made to leave the mansion on purpose. The timing of the attack on the kids and him leaving was far too coincidental. My guess is that the shaman found out that Subaru forced Betrix to dispel the curse and resorted to measures to lure Subaru to the forest. Taking Roswell out of the equation so he couldn’t turn the tide against the Ma-beasts. Still Rem managed to put up one hell of a fight and she’s quite the berserker. Seems she’s an Oni which the subtitles have translated as demon but Oni fits better considering. I get the feeling that the tale Subaru told of the red and blue Oni has more relevance to them than previously suspected. Perhaps Ram made a deal to turn human in order to get closer to humans and it backfired on her maybe?

The second half of the episode where Subaru and Rem venture into the forest to rescue the kids was some truly tense and excellent sequence. For this part of the show had something not a lot of anime have. That is genuine stakes for the viewer and characters. In many a series it tries to fool you that characters can die. However in many cases that is simply an illusion and the viewer knows the characters are not in any true danger. Because they are the heroes and the heroes can’t die until the story concludes. Of course some characters can die on special occasions but it a fairly rare occurrence. However in Re:Zero, Subaru and anyone can die at any given moment. Sure that only means that Subaru returns to the starting point but the show has made it a point to give Subaru’s deaths gravitas. For Subaru this means a horrible death and resetting to the beginning. This loss is also felt by the viewer because all the development and efforts Subaru made to get closer to people disappear. When watching this episode I was fairly certain Subaru was going to die, but I didn’t want him to die. For if he dies that means the Rem and Ram who softened up to him die with him. I will never see the result of the promise he made to Rem or how she will see him after this event. I never knew for certain if Subaru would die this time or live and watching the last few minutes had me on the edge of my seat as the show gave me false death flags and raised my hopes as Subaru escaped near death. That’s what I call damn fine entertainment. I do applaud the animators and direction during these scenes. While there are still shortcuts being taken, the music and direction more than make up for it. In particular that piano piece that played during Rem’s transformation was downright perfect and while I truly don’t have linguistic knowledge to give the japanese acting a fair assessment, I can really feel some strong emotion in the performance.Maybe I have been spoiled by the likes of One Punch Man and Fate but I am more sensitive to shortcuts in animation when regarding fight scenes. However what fight scenes that are there are quite excellent. Overall White fox has kept a high level of animation consistency throughout the series and I hope they keep it up.

~AidanAK47~

A certain criticism has loomed over this series from its very inception. As the series continued people have asked the question “How can Subaru brush off his horrific deaths so easily?” Today we have the answer to that question and that answer is that he doesn’t. It’s been building incognito in the background all this time but finally Subaru’s deaths have begun to affect him. And it hit him hard. The Subaru of this episode was a fairly broken guy who has little of the happy go lucky meta humor of before. This actually proves that his meta jabs are a kind of coping mechanism so he can help bury his traumatic experiences. But those things are still there and we even see him having nightmares of his previous deaths. The straw that broke the camel’s back was likely Rem’s confession that both her and her sister were just pretending to be friendly with him which I say isn’t quite the truth. Maybe this time around as Subaru was more distant but I do think they were more genuine with him in previous loops. However they don’t remember those loops and that’s what truly destroys Subaru. To him Ram and Rem are people he’s known and bonded with over a month but to them he’s no more a stranger. The pure utter frustration just wells out as Subaru vents his despair at her despite knowing that she has no idea why. All before his throat is ripped out by an unseen attack later revealed to be Ram.

We have learned a number of things this episode. One is that the main reason Subaru is killed by Rem is because he has the smell of the Jealous Witch around him. This smell seems to be only perceivable by Beatrix and Rem, it angers Rem greatly because a group known as the witches cult did something unforgivable to Ram. This may be related to Ram’s ability to manipulate air which seems like really dangerous magic. Looks like there is one area Ram excels at better than Rem as she certainly is the most dangerous of the two. The smell seems to grow stronger with each loop which does explain why Rem only started killing him on the second loop but this could also be because of another thing we learn. As Emilia is confronting him, Subaru decides that he doesn’t have to go through the loops alone and is about to confide in Emilia. It makes sense as many in a time loop situation find someone who believe them and thus help escape the loop. Bill Murray had Andie MacDowell. Okabe and Kurisu. Though Homura is an exception. Just by having someone to listen can really help out victims of this particular scenario. However as it sadistically turns out, Subaru can’t tell anyone about his power. Anytime he attempts to, a hand will appear and threaten to kill him. It’s likely that it’s a clause of the curse he was given that should he tell anyone then he will die for real. So Subaru must bear the weight of his power alone which is unbelievably cruel. Why Subaru was given this power is still unknown but now we have a prime suspect of who gave him his power. The Jealous Witch, Satella.

This time around it looks like Subaru gets closer to Beatrix who sticks with him out of guilt at first but looks to have become attached to him. Due to Subaru making a deal with her to protect his life he then survives to the fourth day. But due to a strange turn of events, Rem dies of the same curse that killed Subaru. I truly applaud the voice actress of Ram for that wail of grief because that was soul shattering. By this we can be certain that the curse that killed Subaru in his sleep is not related to the sisters. But why did they target Rem instead of Subaru? It’s possible that the killer knew that Ram would in turn target Subaru because he’s the most suspicious person in the mansion but there is another aspect to this. For one, Rem originally went to town with Subaru in previous loops. One could assume that Rem went alone to town while Subaru holed himself up in the house. So could it be that something in the town hit them with a curse? I don’t want to suspect the dog bite as it’s a little too silly but it is the most suspect action that happened in the town. The mystery here is who is killing Subaru with that curse? Roswell looks to be out of the running as I don’t think he would kill his own servants. Beatrix looks to be in the clear as well so who is left. Honestly despite him having an alibi, my money’s on Puck. I get the feeling he’s not quite as fond of Subaru as he lets on and Beatrix did state that a death during sleep could be induced by either her or Puck. The only major problem with this is Puck’s time limit.

This episode’s finale is Subaru attempting to kill himself in order to fix things but finding that forcing your body to commit an act that goes against every biological functions instinct isn’t nearly as easy as fiction made it seem. Plus the fear that “Return by Death” won’t activate this time as there truly is no guarantee that it has unlimited uses. Even I question whether it will still work when Subaru kills himself instead of being killed by someone. As it seems that while having nightmares Rem and Ram held his hands and calmed him down. Thus he decides to save them both and return once more. Having found his resolve, Subaru manages to commit the most bravado suicide I have seen so far in anime. I would like to bring up how great it is that white fox sometimes cuts out the anime opening and ending to fit in more content. Normally that is a thing reserved for finales or opening episodes but here they have had a number of episodes were no Opening or ending played at all and instead we were just given new content. It really shows that White fox are putting real effort into this adaption and I certainly hope they can keep up the high level of quality. I can safely say this was the best episode of Re:Zero to date and I am solely waiting on the next episode. I just hope it doesn’t pass by as fast as this one did. That’s a truly annoying aspect of a great show. Time makes it feel so short.

~AidanAK47~

I swear, this show makes me want to jump into the manga and read ahead because I simply can’t handle the week long wait between episodes. Today the culprit behind Subaru’s death is revealed to be none other than Rem. Now I know what you are thinking. Which one is Rem? I don’t blame you on that as I too get mixed up on which is which and this is further confused by the similar nature of R and L in Japanese. Basically you can call them Rem and Ram or Lem and Lam as both are technically correct. For these reviews I will be going with the R version and I have a means to remember it. Simply recall this sentence. “Rem is not red.” So this reveal is pretty surprising as I was hedging my bets on Ram(Pink hair) being the mysterious killer and yet out of the woods comes Rem(Blue hair) swinging a flail like Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. So it seems that Ram truly is good for nothing as Rem is the cook, cleaner and assassin all rolled into one. Though her level of proficiency makes me think her skill is otherworldly. There is definitely is something off about these sisters. Considering Rams reaction to Subaru telling the tale of the red and blue oni, I believe this story hits a bit too close to home for them. Maybe Roswell is a demon and Rem made a deal with him in order to save Rams life? Either way these two seem related to demons and I am willing to bet they are some kind of demon or variant. One thing I noticed which is odd is something that happens when Subaru declares his reward at the dinner table. The first time he did it, Ram sneezed. The second time, she hiccuped. And the third she yawned. It could simply be a joke on the animators part or it could suggest that Ram remembers the previous time loops. When Subaru attempted to retrace his steps in the last run, Ram was the one who set him off track and made him do different things. There is also the fact that in this run Rem avoided him while Ram got closer to him. She could be a future allie in this regard or maybe this is all just done subconsciously.

Subaru’s killer came after him much faster this time around as he was acting a lot more suspicious in this run. He woke up screaming, scaring the hell out of Rem and Ram. He asked to be a houseguest instead of a worker and spent his time sneaking around the mansion and trying to talk to Rem and Ram. Even Roswell seemed a lot more wary of him and it’s likely that hush money he gave him was simply a means to keep Emilia happy thinking that he was going to let him go away without incident. Once Subaru is away from the mansion we see some cracks in his facade as he tries to remind himself of his conviction. There was an odd scene in the beginning which had Subaru walking with a spinning Beatrix. The thing that was meant to be conveyed here was that Subaru was walking around Beatrix. But Beatrix was spinning far faster than Subaru’s walking speed which gave a weird jarring feeling like Beatrix was just spinning randomly in place. Either way Subaru has taken to visiting Beatrix as a coping mechanism and help get rid of his fear. Beatrix happened to mention something quite interesting to Subaru as well when asked about magic that can kill someone in their sleep. She names out two potential causes, on is a shaman’s curse from the north and another is to drain the mana out of someone. What makes this particularly interesting is that she specifically details that the only ones capable of this feat are her and Puck. Puck killing Subaru for getting close to Emilia is a interesting idea and not too farfetched. Though their is a big hole in this theory and that is that Puck can be only active during the day and Subaru was killed during the night. He seems to be getting closer to Beatrix but it does prove to be a dilemma as while Subaru becomes more familiar with them, they still see it as a first impression which causes them to get put off by him. Some like Emilia take it in stride but it clear that the fact that no one can remember those moments he spent with them is taking it’s toll on Subaru. There is one more thing that I believe is very important in this episode and it came up while Subaru was telling the fairytale to Ram. He mentioned a dragon that made a contract with the royal family but more importantly he mentioned a fairytale about “The Jealous Witch.” This is the second time this witch has been brought up as the first name Emilia gave to Subaru was Satella. When he called her that after a repeat she got angry at him for calling her by the name of the jealous witch. I have a feeling this witch may be very connected to Subaru’s “Return by Death” power.

~AidanAK47~

So Subaru has started his first repeat of this arc and at least this time he’s quick to come to terms with it. Though it is nice to see that he hasn’t shrugged off the progress he made getting wiped out without warning. But this time at least he’s at least making a plan and that plan is to repeat his actions from before. This may seem pointless but it does make for a good plan as it allows him to look over his actions with more detail and yet despite making all the same moves, things turn out differently than before. Rem and Ram get closer to him this time and things seemly turn out better than before. I believe the reason for this change was simply due to Subaru not noticing that he was making use of knowledge from his first run. He followed the guidelines for cutting potatoes before Ram told him how, he went over to his uniform before being told where it was and other small details that Subaru didn’t notice he was doing but Rem did. They brushed it off with Ram saying that Rem was bothered by Subaru’s messy hair but I doubt that was actually the case. In fact I believe Ram and Roswaal was much more concerned with Subaru this time around as both of them interacted with him more than the first run. It’s possible that due to him acting more suspicious they wished to scope him out more so Roswaal went to the bath around the same time to talk with him there and Ram began tutoring him on reading and writing to get a closer view of him. Perhaps even falling asleep in the middle of the lessons was a plot to see if Subaru would attempt to kill her in her sleep. As for the thing about Subaru being able to speak their native tongue yet not being able to read it, well I don’t really see it as much of an issue. After all you could say that this world speaks english by coincidence but doesn’t write it the same way or simply that whatever translation magic on him only works on spoken word and not on written words. Either way it’s not that important. When America goes to Japan everyone speaks English, when Japan goes to America everyone speaks Japanese so whatever the alternate universe that they happen to land on is fair game.

Well Subaru goes through his week yet again and even manages to do better this time with charming both Emilia and Rem. One particular odd happening was when Subaru mentioned about liking demons more than god’s, Rem practically beamed a smile at him. The way she reacted and her constant reverence for her sister seems to suggest that Ram may possibly be a demon. Or in a world that already has elves, a demon race may also be present in this world and the twin maids happen to be of that race. As Subaru reaches the repeating point it looks like this time Re:zero might end on a heartwarming note as Subaru once again makes a promise to go on a date with Emilia while she is tutoring him. Then the after credits scene happened and let me say, bravo. That scene was really well done and intense. The dark looming feeling of something about to happen and the shocking brutality of his death was a truly impactful moment. This does bring me to my next point though which happens to be a matter of gore. Now the manga and LN didn’t spare any details on the grisly nature of Subarus deaths but the anime has taken a more reserved approach to the matter.

I don’t know if it will be changed in the blu-rays but they try to keep gore to minimum while instead focusing on Subaru’s reaction to it. Truthfully I am not sure what is more effective as the gore does tend to be gratuitous in the manga. What you don’t see tends to affect you a lot more but in this case people might misunderstand about the nature of Subaru’s wound from the attack. You likely think Subaru’s arm was ripped off but you would be wrong. It wasn’t just Subarus arm, his entire left side of his torso was ripped clean off. They did a great shot of showing Subarus pain in the anime but the manga had this one panel which just had Subaru’s despaired face on it and the words “I want to die” bolded over it. It puts home just how much pain Subaru was in but admittedly it’s not what I consider needed. The point to get that Subaru died horribly while still not knowing what killed him. On that matter I wonder, just what is happening here? We have two factors at work. One is a mysterious illness that hits Subaru at his time and causes him to constantly vomit. It’s my base assumption that this is what killed him in the first run. The only particular causes for this could be a type of poisoning or perhaps that dog bite that Subaru has gotten twice now. The second factor is this strange murderer wielding some kind of chain weapon and happened to be going about the mansion’s halls when Subaru was looking for help. This seems unrelated to Subaru’s illness as why would this person feel the need to personally butcher him if he was going to die anyway? My guess here is that two people are out for Subaru’s life but one of them only came into play the second time around. The murder was also exceedingly malicious as they seem to have purposefully wounded Subaru gravely before putting him out of his misery. Taking into account the speed of the weapon, I am fairly certain they could have hit him with a fatal shot from the start before he could feel pain. They deliberately waited for Subaru to writhe in agony for a bit before giving him a fatal blow. The question is, who did Subaru antagonize that he didn’t in the previous run? The likely suspects would be Ram and Roswaal but then who is responsible for Subaru’s illness? In any case, I doubt Subaru is going to walk this death off as easily as he did his last ones.

~AidanAK47~

Despite nearly dying our protagonist wakes up out of the loop and now in the mansion of a strange clown like fellow with twin maids. The mansion looks to be Emilia’s home and we not look to be in a new time loop as evidenced by the last scene where it appears that Subaru was unknowingly killed in his sleep. This time it looks like Subaru has a number of days to work with and the cast has changed to a number of new strange characters. Todays episode was the first run through of the cycle so naturally it was just Subaru getting along and through the days. He made considerable progress in romancing Emilia but much like his first encounter that info is wiped from her memory. This might cause a disconnect with Subaru who might act overly familiar with her and scare her off. Here I must bring up the weakest aspect of the show and one I found a bit grating through this episode. The comedy is pretty weak. I smiled as Subaru referenced Evangelion as he woke up and even he picked up on the Tsukihime reference by asking the maids about them having opposing talents. Ram and Rem are clearly inspired by the twin maids of Tsukihime, Hisui and Kohaku. Though it seems they differ in that one maid can handle all manner of household chores while the other seems to have some other hidden talent. If these two are as inspired as I believe then that talent is likely very dangerous. Getting back to the comedy, while some references are smile worthy, other moments of Subaru pointing out anime tropes in the show is a little obnoxious. The other jokes are slapstick in nature and don’t really match the otherwise serious subject matter. It could be that our author is attempting to pull the contrast seen in shows like Gakkou Gurashi and mix lighthearted fun in order to highlight the dark nature of the other side. In this case it really doesn’t work as Subaru’s mannerisms and confidence are a little otherworldly. He doesn’t seem to have any concern regarding his old world and is a little too upbeat and friendly for a self proclaimed Hikikomori. I expect this part of the show to phase out though as it’s hard to keep a sense of humor when you are undergoing psychological/physical torture. Well unless you are Deadpool; in that case your sense of humour triples.

So what did we learn and why did Subaru die at the end of the week? Well we found out that the king and his closest successors have been wiped out by an epidemic which means there is a power struggle for the throne. Emilia looks to be a contender to the throne thanks to the emblem that was stolen in the first arc and this likely means that Felt is also a candidate for selection. So Emilia is in a precarious position that would likely mean that her caretaker would be cautious of anyone approaching her. This may be a reason for him to kill Subaru in his sleep but frankly mister count clown is so suspicious that it makes me doubt he’s the real killer. Even as he discussed Subaru with the pink haired maid it seemed as though they were discounting him as a possible spy. My guess is there is a third party involved here who took out Subaru. But perhaps Clownface and the maid changed their minds once seeing Subaru trying to woo Emilia. There is also a twin tailed loli witch whom resides in a library that should only be accessed by those who she lets in but it seems Subaru has the strange talent to find and enter it of his own accord. The loli is also voiced by a Japanese voice actor even I can recognise. Sadly that voice actor is mainly using their Shirai Kuroko voice for this one and I truly hate that character to hell and back. When hearing that familiar tone; memories of that irritation as I listened to that voice yell “ONEE-SAMA” and it makes me want to hit something until it breaks into dust. Aside from that their isn’t much to her character so far though she does play off Subaru well. That is the thing, Subaru has gotten most of the development so far and he has made it a point to openly declare these people as common anime stereotypes. But as I said before, just because you point out the cliche does not excuse still using the cliche. I would like these characters to gain traits outside of their current personalities so that we can differentiate them from the dozens of alternatives that exist within the medium. Next episode is likely the true start to this arcs conflict and I wonder what Subaru is dealing with this time.

~AidanAK47~

We reach the end of the first arc and our villainess is defeated but many questions left unanswered. I am glad that she didn’t happen to perish in our Knights Excalibah! attack as she plays a fantastic femme fatale. Her fighting style resembles that of Rider of Fate/stay night and when she climbed on the walls she almost looked like a possessed corpse. She’s a genuinely intimidating figure and the fact that her nickname is “The bowel hunter” makes her all the more scary. For our protagonist to make an enemy of someone whose primary interest is ripping out people’s intestines is a worrisome matter indeed.  Not to mention she such a beast that to dodge an attack when one of her feet is frozen to the ground she rips the flesh off her foot and freezes it with a crystal so she can continue fighting. That’s some incredible pain resistance. What we have here is an episode which was entirely set in a room with a massive fight scene. It wasn’t the highest quality fight scene I have seen but damn if it wasn’t pretty damn good. It’s nice that anime nowadays can have people fighting while talking instead of tense facial expressions to the sound of sword clangs. In particular the 360 shot looks to me like someone was taking lessons from One Punch Man. Well played White Fox. I would take some well done Sakuga over still frames and yelling any day. What is most surprising is that Subaru isn’t the star of the show here and instead the Knight who was featured last episode showed up to defeat Elsa. While Subaru’s actions did affect the outcome, it is surprising that he wasn’t the one to defeat her. It’s almost taboo for the villain of the arc to be defeated by someone other than the main protagonist.

He didn’t exactly sit back and do nothing however and his skills at fighting are getting a little ridiculous. I mean he was swinging around that massive club with one hand with very little effort. My suspension of disbelief has limits. That delayed cut at the end was also rather cartoonish as they realized that Subaru was actually cut and the damage only showed up two minutes later. Still how it was shown was rather clever. At first it appears his clothes were only cut which makes it comical but then comes the bleeding from his stomach. I doubt this means another rewind for Subaru as this does feel like the end of an arc. Reinharts reaction to Felt pulling out that emblem was also rather intriguing. By my best guess I would say that the medal stole had some charm that made it could only be held by royalty which is why Reinhart started questioning her about her family. There’s also the matter of Sattella whose real name is Emilia. Upon being introduced to Felt and Rom he remarks about her being a half elf. Then Felt panics because a Half elf with white hair is apparently related to something. Even Emilia remarks that she has no relation to that something. My guess is that this has to do with the name Emilia gave Subaru before which appears to refer to a being called the “jealous witch”. I am still loving this show so far and the wait between episodes is really killing me. It’s true that Subaru’s chuuni mannerisms can swing between annoying and funny. The characterisation also needs some work but quite frankly I am looking forward to the further dire adventures of Subaru’s time loop hell.

~AidanAK47~

As Bill Murray can attest, reliving the same day isn’t the best situation to be in. You may gain all the time in the world to master whatever you wish, no consequences for any of your actions and the ability to do over any situation not matter how dire. But you have to live through the same tedious situations over and over again, reintroduce yourself to people day after day knowing they will only forget you and eventually the time will come when you will break from the loneliness of the situation. But things are much harder for Subaru who not only has to repeat the day but also repeat his death over and over again. I am willing to give Subaru a break for not figuring out the time loop earlier considering that death is pretty traumatic and it’s easier to assume that it was a dream than face the reality that you just died. However with three turn backs even he figures out that he’s in a time loop. Subaru has been killed three times, twice in the loot house by Elsa and now once in the alley when he was accidentally stabbed by a group of muggers. When I think about this story, I am glad that white Fox was the ones to animate this. This isn’t the first time after all that they have dealt with a story of this nature

This episode was not very eventful as it was essentially Subaru attempting to retrace his previous attempt at a much faster pace. To sell his phone to the thief Felt in order to obtain the stolen medal and return it to our elfen tsundere before Elsa comes by and kills everyone. What I like about this so far is that our protagonist doesn’t shake off his deaths so easily. He jokes about it and generally puts up a good front but it really did affect him deeply. He runs into Elsa while looking for Felt and looks to be hit with some heavy post traumatic stress disorder. He is truly, utterly terrified of that woman which makes her pretty intimidating despite her looking to be just a minor villain. It’s the small changes in Subaru which catch my attention the most as I find him to be the most interesting of the cast. Subaru claims to be a Hikikomori but on all accounts he doesn’t seem like one. It could be a case like with KonoSuba where the protagonist gets a huge confidence boost due to being in a anime situation but I don’t quite think that’s the case. Subaru doesn’t look like a Hikikomori, nor does he fight like one. His fight with Felt when she was attacking him was most surprising when he displayed some pretty impressive dodging skills. To me, Subaru feels like a former delinquent who picked up anime as a hobby. That would explain his fighting ability.

As for the rest of the cast, I find them lacking. The problem is that a large amount of them are standard stereotypes with not much to them. I don’t hate them as they have enough to be likable but they do lack unique depth. They need more to them to differentiate themselves from the number of similar styled characters. The father daughter relationship she has with the loot shop owner is a step in the right direction but she still requires more. But at least the characters do work for what this story is trying to do. In particular it was good that thanks to Subaru being so forward and knowing too much, it caused Felt to be more on guard and suspicious of him.  As well as Elsa gaining an interest in Subaru after he froze up in fear in front of her. Whether the changes Subaru made end up getting him out of this mess is still in question but it looks like he made some good moves this turn. I have a feeling that Knight introduced this episode will play a big role in how this resolves.

~AidanAK47~