Re:Zero S3
Short Synopsis: Season 3 of Re:Zero.
Lenlo: The premier Isekai is back, with a triple length pilot episode! And you know what? It was… alright. Probably didn’t need to be an hour and a half, and some of the issues from the previous season like characters not shutting up and getting to the point are still present. But those just seem to be Tappei’s style, however much I’m not a fan. It also felt like Subaru had regressed at times, with characters praising him for the same pigheadedness that got him in trouble in previous seasons. Still, it’s a clear step up from last season and most of my issues seem to at least be done with a purpose this time, at least the two times it happened in this pilot. My biggest praise though has to be what Re:Zero is doing with the side characters. I enjoyed the focus they got, with Betty and the Astrea family in particular standing out. Their rapport with each other and the rest of the cast, Betty’s voice lines, all of that was good. Again, probably didn’t need to be an hour and a half, the show really isn’t that remarkable outside the time looping shenanigans, but I understand wanting to get us right into the action instead of boring us with 3 weeks of random bullshit. And you know what? I think it mostly succeeded, I’m already more invested in these villains than I was the rabbit, and the location and characters caught up in it are much more interesting. Suffice to say, as a downer on Season 2, I’m kind of looking forward to this now. Not sold on it yet, but I’m in.
Potential: 60%
The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan
Short Synopsis: After the heroic death of his grandfather, a guy – who happens to be in the weakest class – looks to establish the strongest clan in town.
Mario: I suppose I can give credits to this episode on how clear its intention is. Upon seeing this party do their mission, you learn all the things you’re supposed to know: how a “Talker” functions (and how others perceive it), the MC’s ability to strategize, and his reckless approach. Does all this make up an exciting episode? Not really. The visuals lack any flair, and Noel’s attitude is difficult to relate at times. He picks unnecessary fights with his teammates, and in total disregard for their opinions. It’s bad enough that I actually feel he deserved what happened at the end, and I don’t think the other guy is going to stay with him for long.
Potential: 10%
Lenlo: Talker is a pretty standard MMO-Like fantasy world with classes, skills, and even an overly edgy backstory for the MC. But unlike Ragna Crimson, which knows exactly what it is and revels in the edge, Talker seems to actually take itself seriously. This takes a lot of the prospective fun out of it, especially with as lackluster battles as Talker has. What’s weird though is that group dynamic is actually kind of nice. The MC has a goal and he actively seeks it out, completely willing to step on others and push them into things they don’t want to get his way. And one of his party members, a complete piece of shit, is totally willing to go along with him! They hate each other, but they’re united in purpose, and that’s kind of cool. I’m not expecting much from Talker moving forward, it’s not a complete wash but it hasn’t caught my interest I’m afraid.
Potential: 5%
Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister
Short Synopsis: Man moves into shrine so he can attend medical school, on the condition that he marry one of the priest’s three daughters and inherit the shrine.
Lenlo: This is really just a modern take on Love Hina isn’t it? Guy trying to go to college, ends up living with a bunch of girls for free on some weird deal/circumstances, ends up falling for them? Only for this one it’s baked into the plot that he has to marry one of the girls living here. To be frank, I’m not sure how I feel about that last bit. Isn’t this basically just selling your daughters to a guy to force him to inherit the shrine? Tack on a bunch of ecchi fan service, which the show tries to act self-aware about by having him overhear the girls changing and then not open, but it’s kind of ruined when the girls open it anyways and give him a face full of tits. Also one of the girls is 14, which makes the whole marriage plot really weird? It’s kind of a foregone conclusion that the middle sister with red hair is going to win, but still. This whole setup is kind of just weird and uncomfortable. If you want an ecchi romance this will probably work for you? It definitely looks fine enough, unlike a lot of shitty ecchi. But for me, it’s a hard pass.
Potential: 1%
Awww… I would have liked Aidan to cover Re:zero as a fellow appreciator of the show.
Although Sirius’s whole introduction was the highlight of the episode for many offans of Re:zero, what most interested me was how Garfiel was written this episode. As we know from the Sanctuary Arc, Garfiel was proud to be the strongest person there and the defender of the Sanctuary. Here he saw just how much weaker he was compared to Reinhard, not to mention Reinhard unintentionally pissing Garf off by calling him impressive for his age, which rubbed more salt in the wound. Later on in the episode, Garfiel informs Subaru that he’s taking a step outside since he’s unhappy about not being the strongest. When outside, he has hallucinations of Elsa due to having killed her and also ’cause he came close to dying against her. And it is fantastic writing for Garfiel to be written like this since he clearly demonstrated a fear of death in his first season. I have to hand it to Tappei for being for writing his characters to be consistent with what came before. Given Garfiel originally stayed in the Sanctuary ’cause he became scared of the outside world due to seeing that his mother’s carriage had been caught in a landslide, it was clear he had a huge fear of death. This is further backed by how Garfiel backed off after Subaru said that he knows hell and looked at Subaru’s eyes, which shows Garfiel believed that that is indeed the case, a callback to Season 1 Episode 12 when Wilhelm said that Subaru’s eyes indicate that Subaru is well-versed with death. So it is very fitting that Garfiel, who fears death, is struggling with seeing hallucinations of Elsa when she is long dead since it was probably his first kill, which was traumatizing for him, which was confirmed by Elsa saying that as weak as he is, he killed her. If you’re confused about Garfiel showing no visible signs of being bothered by his killing of Elsa or his stoic behaviour in the Breaktime episode following that in Season 2 telling Maylie that it’s okay to cry, trauma does not always happen close to instantly and can take months to manifest.
In Episode 48 (Episode 24 of Season 2) Garfiel, while fighting Elsa, eventually got a lucky break when the ceiling fell down on Maylie, which distracted Elsa, allowing him to savagely bite into Elsa’s neck repeatedly and do enough damage to stop her regeneration, allowing him to deal the finishing blow. Garfiel who took pride in being the strongest of the Sanctuary, likely had some trauma over defeating Elsa in this way since it took Elsa being distracted rather than him winning a pure man to woman fight. The reality likely dawned on him that he wouldn’t have won a fair fight, leading to him thinking he isn’t the strongest, and hence, weak as the hallucination of Elsa said. If Garfiel only had these hallucinations rarely, he will likely have them more often now that Reinhard has shown how much he outclasses him. Garfiel wants to be the strongest ’cause he fears death and ’cause he’s a young teenager and who hasn’t developed a healthy self-esteem yet. Clearly from Subaru’s struggles with RBD and now Garfiel, Tappei has shown he has a very nuanced view of death with Garfiel in having both have trauma for killing Elsa and also being reminded of his mortality due to the circumstances of his victory over her, and this should be applauded.
I have also long believed that Episodes 12 and 13 contrasted Crusch and Priscilla’s approach to acquiring power with the context gleaned from Episode 16, and Episode 51 has given what I believe is more ammunition to support this thought. Before I bring up the relevant contrasts, I first need to state outright that I believe Priscilla is a lot less whimsical than she lets on. Every bit of Priscilla’s interaction with Subaru in Episode 16 was well thought out and cannot be simplified to Priscilla being a creature of her emotions or that she was looking for entertainment. On a lot of occasions Priscilla says that it’s for her entertainment or that it’s amusing, I suspect she just doesn’t want the people involved to know what she’s really thinking. You can’t always trust what a character says at face value.
This is backed by Priscilla calling Subaru her appa handler to Marcos and then following through with that by calling Subaru her manservant to Emilia. This sequence of actions shows that Priscilla saw significant value in Subaru after he dared to defy her and try to protect her anyway despite her needing no such assistance and how he taught her that appas have red skin, even considering him in some extent part of her camp due to some possessiveness.
Priscilla was notably the only Royal Selection candidate in Arc 3 to give Subaru help in the way of pointers after his outburst at the castle without asking for anything of monetary or strategic value in return. When she said that she appreciates Subaru’s desperation but that Subaru had not thought things through with how his actions amounted to cornering his ally, benefiting his enemy, and losing all control in the process, she basically straight up told Subaru that his actions weren’t helping Emilia and were unbecoming.
She specifically said that Subaru was better off dying for using the sort of approach he was using. Contrast this with Crusch wanting Emilia to withdraw from the Royal Selection as compensation for helping out and Anastasia wanting to see what sort of information she could learn from Subaru in his vulnerable state, Priscilla was basically being somewhat selfless and acting out of the goodness of her heart, however shocking that may be.
Priscilla basically gave Subaru a chance to redeem himself in her eyes after his outburst at the castle in Episode 16. That’s why she told him that his desperation wasn’t helping Emilia and then immediately posed a situation to him that would require for him to be disgustingly desperate with her asking for him to lick her foot. She was basically hoping for him to pass a test in which she had already clearly given him pointers, and Subaru still failed miserably, which Priscilla most likely saw as being extremely disgraceful after all the effort she put in to make the interaction favourable for him with her hinting at what she actually wanted to see from him.
I believe the reason Priscilla decided that SHE would strike down any camp Subaru was a part of, not that she would have any camp he was a part of be struck down, is that he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her womanly instincts in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of.
Her wanting to strike down any camp he is a part of shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated to the extreme because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru, and for a guy who is struggling through his way in the world and acts as a white knight, what greater shame could he face than to have his ambitions be thwarted by Priscilla, the one who had him on his knees and asked him to savour the humiliation of licking her foot, every time he tried to make something of himself? It would be the ultimate humiliation.
This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, “Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!” It shows that she thought that Subaru would think over the reason for that particular interaction leading to the way it did and that she expected a better response from him. I do note that Priscilla was likely also angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level probably disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation due to her pride being wounded, leading to her feeling significant shame.
If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her, she would not have reacted the way she did in as deciding to strike down any camp he is a part of is far too punishing for just being disgusted at Subaru’s actions. Priscilla decided to personally see to Subaru’s attempts at achieving manhood in the future be denied, castrating him at every turn, most likely as a reminder to herself not to make the same mistake again in misjudging a man to avoid a similarly shameful moment from happening again.
In personally striking down any camp Subaru is a part of, Priscilla also gives Subaru a chance to redeem himself by defeating her, which would prove she was right that he is a man of significant worth. Any way the future goes if she carries out this threat to strike down any camp Subaru is a part of is thus a win for her no matter what the outcomes is, which shows Priscilla had very carefully thought out the entire interaction with Subaru, from her using her fan to hide her lips to hurling Subaru to the door so that Al could take him away, so it had nothing to do with entertainment but was meant to be a test for Subaru, and she had already thought about what she’d say if he failed it.
Given Priscilla had planned out the entire interaction with Subaru in Episode 16, it goes to show that is possibly the case in other scenarios too, not just that one moment. I’ll get back to this point later.
Crusch notably indicated in Episode 12 that she thought that the Royal Selection candidates for there at the castle for a drinking party where they get to know each other before they face each other as rivals. Although she was mistaken ’cause Felix knows how to get around her Divine Protection, I believe it still shows that Crusch is the type to value camaraderie due to how hyped up she sounded about it.
In contrast, Priscilla, if I am right about her being a lot less whimsical than she lets on, specifically is used to or grew up using a divide-and-conquer strategy. Emilia faces tons of discrimination for her half-elf heritage, so taking a shot at her by asking Emilia if she is sorry for being born would play well with a lot of the nobles and even much of Lugunica’s Imperial Knights since kids are raised on folktales of the horrifying Witch of Envy even if Priscilla does not necessarily have a hatred for demihumans and specifically half-elves herself. I’m not saying that Priscilla does or doesn’t fear half-elves since I genuinely don’t know but that there may have been a point to her hurtful words to Emilia.
Even with Priscilla’s interaction with Felt when the former moved to ‘strike’ the latter might not have been ’cause Priscilla lost control of her emotions. Priscilla heard very well that the nobles thought it was an insult that the knights brought a girl from the slums to participate in the Royal Selection with all the talk of her lack of grace and education. Priscilla knew full well that with Reinhard around that she would be unable to commit actual violence, especially towards Felt, and I believe she did what she did to look better in front of the nobles since many of them would like to strike Felt as well for daring to be there even though it wasn’t her own choice to be present. Thus, I believe Episodes 12 and 13 demonstrated two contrasting styles for attaining power, Crusch’s camaraderie and Priscilla’s divide-and-conquer strategy.
As for Episode 51, Season 3’s premiere, Priscilla brought out Heinkel to spoil a family reunion. She may have said that it’s amusing to do so, but I again put it out there that she just doesn’t want people to know what she’s really thinking. In all likelihood, Priscilla brought Heinkel to the gathering ’cause she knows that if the Astrea house were to be united in favour of one candidate that that candidate would be the favourite to win the Royal Selection. That would be why she sought to prevent Reinhard and Wilhelm from making up by allowing Heinkel to take a piss and ruin things for Reinhard and Wilhelm, which is continuing her divide-and-conquer strategy. I don’t believe that she was really going to strike Heinkel with the Yang sword, and that it was performative to prevent people from realizing what sort of person she actually is.
As for Crusch’s side of things, she implied in the premiere of Season 3 that the reason the Emilia camp was even invited to Priestella by Anastasia was ’cause Crusch knew how much Subaru cared about Rem and personally ensured that Anastasia invited the Emilia camp to the Watergate City. Crusch cares very much about camaraderie and building good will, and that is one of the reasons she’s my favourite character in Re:zero. I fully believe Episode 51 also contrasted Crusch and Priscilla’s approaches, much like I propose was the case for Episodes 12 and 13.
“It also felt like Subaru had regressed at times, with characters praising him for the same pigheadedness that got him in trouble in previous seasons.”
That was also one of my main issues with the episode. Subaru has been through so much, you’d think he’d have learned to control his temper by now: it has come back to bite him in the ass quite a few times, after all (most prominently when he insulted the knights), and he’s seen time and again that many people are more complicated than they seem at first (he was on bad terms with much of the cast before eventually becoming friendly with them, after all). But it seems like the show won’t allow him to mature too much: the status quo has to remain intact.
I had a similar issue with the time skip. Apparently a whole year has passed, but absolutely nothing seems to have changed! In the previous season Subaru once again confessed his feelings to Emilia and even kissed her, which she reciprocated, which should have massively changed their relationship. But a year later … they’re back to the same old dynamic, where Subaru treats Emilia like a goddess, while Emilia treats him like a close friend instead of a lover. And the same goes for Emilia’s political position, which seems to be exactly the same as it was before the time skip: whatever happened in the past year (which is summarized for all the characters except Emilia) doesn’t seem to matter at all (the only things that seem to matter are the events of the previous seasons: defeating the whale, rabbits, and Archbishop), so why bother with a time skip then? It’s stuff like that that reminds you that, in spite of its mature themes and solid character development, Re:Zero is still a shounen series in the end, so the status quo can’t be allowed to change too much and the world building can’t become too complicated. I did still have fun with the premiere, though, and I don’t see myself dropping it because of this.
By the way, thanks for keeping up with the first impressions! They remain a very useful resource, especially in combination with the season preview.
This is why I prefer Seinen stories like Dorohedoro and comics like Hellboy. They both give the status quo the middle finger and actually allow the characters 2 grow and the plot to actually progress! F the status quo!