Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (Re: Life in a Different World from Zero)

It very much is meant to be off-putting how deep her devotion goes at her own expense. Hell, if she hadn't outright told the Archbishops how much Subaru meant to her, then she wouldn't have piqued Lye's interest and gotten her name and memories eaten.

Several people have theorized that when she gets her memories back, after consolidating with her new memories from Arc 7 and at least Arc 8, she might ease off on the Subaru simpage, and maybe even find someone new to love.

Edited by ROTHY on Apr 30th 2023 at 11:41:04 AM

I suppose it’s also meant as a parallel to Subaru’s own suicidal devotion to Emilia. Love is one hell of a drug. >.>

Though at least Subaru has a revival ability to balance out his suicidal devotion.

I also hope Rem grows out of that devotion honestly.

LN spoilers, I forget the number but around the climax of the first season.

There's a bit where Rem proposes something along the lines of her being Subaru's mistress that the anime cut out or trimmed down substantially.

For a series that's been pretty decent at subverting some common Isekai trends and putting a bit more narrative weight behind stuff. I'll be pretty disappointed if that kind of harem-style situation has actual support when Rem eventually gets her memories back.

I think Rem moving on from Subaru would be an excellent development, and despite knowing how popular she is in the anime fandom (from what I've seen). If the author could follow though I think it would be really amazing.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Apr 30th 2023 at 11:42:41 PM

And to think, all of this because the author hated how Rem got more popular than Emilia.

That's not true.

Rem being more popular was kind of inevitable considering Emilia spends almost the entire first season as a background character…

Season 2 episode 3, first meeting with Echidna! She’s… much cuter than I expected. Or a good balance of cute and intimidating at least. Interesting.

Speaking of cute, I can’t be the only one who wants to give Otto a big warm hug, right?

I do think that Rem's suggestion of joining Subaru and Emilia could work, but A) Emilia needed a LOT more development (which she largely gets in season 2) and B) Rem and Emilia would have to actually interact first.

I also got back into the series a while after Season 1 with the OVA movie set shortly after the Bishop attack on the village, IIRC, and I also found Rem's portrayal there offputting. I'm not sure she had more than a few lines that didn't include Subaru's name.

Echidna's not the best example of it in S2, but the author is very good at making characters who are stated to have alien or unusual thought patterns actually feel like it. Echidna is good at faking (somewhat) normalcy, though.

Edited by RedSavant on May 1st 2023 at 3:24:35 AM

I guess it could work. But I'd definitely want at least a couple of volumes of very heavy Emilia & Rem interaction first. I feel like they would at least need an equivalent of the moment between Subaru & Rem in the forest.

Something which up to LN 20 I haven't seen yet.

I think it would actually be pretty neat to see a show do proper polyamory. But without the aforementioned setup, for this series at least, I'd be disappointed if the author goes with having Rem as the mistress as she suggested.

...I really doubt Subaru's up for a polyamorous relationship and if anybody says that polyamory is the newest marginalized group in need of representation I am just going to

Ever since those Smartphone and My Little Sister is a Devil isekai anime did the "just marry all the hot girls that solves the problem'' ending, I just have to laugh at that concept.

I like Subaru's rants to Rem and his parents in Seasons 1 and 2 but I still have not warmed up to him deserving any kind of genuine or even alternative happiness. The gamer in me is offended by his save-scumming and This Loser Is You being rewarded with a hot, busty elven girlfriend who thinks pregnancy happens when you kiss someone.

Rem is too good for him and Emilia is thousands of years too old for him.

Edited by FOFD on May 2nd 2023 at 12:31:21 PM

Well, at least he seems to have genuine feelings for both of them, so I could buy it on his side… Not sure if Emilia would buy it though. >.>

Episode 5! It was nice to see a glimpse of Subaru’s old life albeit a fake recreation of it. This trial seems a bit unfair though, since people who had a really, really shitty life have an obvious disadvantage. Also nice to see more of Ram, I admit her no-nonsense snarktastic personality is more to my taste than Rem’s. Maybe I’m a bit masochistic.

And, oh hey, look who’s there! It’s our old friend gruesome death! It’s been a while. I had completely forgotten that knife b*tch was still alive, yikes.

PS: Roswall’s, err, "explanations" for why he didn’t lift a finger to stop the Cult make it sound like he knows. Not sure how that would be possible though, since no one else does, not even supernatural beings.

Finished season 2! That was… quite a ride. With significantly fewer deaths, but a lot happening nonetheless. Having several characters know or guess that Subaru has save points was also a game changer, both plot-wise and emotionally to some extent. I’m fine with it, it had to happen at some point.

• Really liked Emilia’s development by the end, it’s like she kept the fun bits of her personality (like those nonchalant little jabs she can throw out of nowhere) but ironed out the annoying bits. And the part about the "baby" had me rolling on the floor.
• Echidna was another strong point, and her reaction when Emilia passed the second trial got me… even if it is a bit hard to interpret. Does Echidna have unspoken regrets about the family life she had with Beato, Lewes and Roswall and hate Emilia for embracing her current life despite also losing her first family? By the way, a kiss in a mainstream isekai show has no right to be this wet. Wow.
• Geuse… what the flying fuck? In the first season he was just hateable, but knowing what exactly made him lose his marbles was just heartbreaking. Emilia never met the thing he became in the present, and that’s probably for the better.
• We got a lot of Otto this time around and nothing could make me happier. The best NPC friend one could hope to have! Patrasch is best girl too.
• I’m not a fan of Elza but damn, that batshit insane fight with Garf was enjoyable. As was her end. The part about her being a vampire was curiously brushed over though…
• On one hand, I like that this season focused a lot more on Ram and that she got her "both eyes uncovered" moment, on the other… I think I would have prefered it if she really was out for revenge on Roswall and not in love with him.
• Speaking of Roswall, I knew he was shady, but man did I want him to suffer this season. There are lines you shouldn’t cross no matter how desperate you are.
• I didn’t care much about the whole Lewes subplot for some reason. I don’t know, it felt superfluous, like there were too many character arcs at once (especially when there were several versions of Lewes to keep track of).
• Subaru’s speech to get Beato out of the library was… weirdly intense on his part. Like, he literally fucking proposed to her in all but name, I don’t think he laid it on this thick even when he confessed to Emilia.
• I was surprised that the event that kickstarted the whole season (Rem being "eaten" and forgotten by everyone) was left completely unresolved by the end − though it’s fitting that the series itself forgot about her, lol. Next season, I guess?
• And finally, the part that surprised me the most… Satela. That was not how I imagined her. I thought she would be, well… what Echidna ended up being, more or less, with a more mysterious and sadistic edge. Not this innocent, harmless-looking teenage girl who seems to have nothing but genuine love and worry for Subaru, although she expresses it in an incomprehensible way. With it being all but stated that she’s Emilia’s biological mother, I’m even more curious to know what the hell her deal is now.

A detailed that struck me was how little we heard the opening this season. I think there were only like 5 or 6 episodes that had an opening theme, it made every episode feel… bigger, somehow.

And I only realize it now but this entire series revolves around obsessive love, doesn’t it.

I always liked Emilia and season 2 just made me like her more.

I have to think season 3 will be about trying to find a way to cure Rem. Or perhaps one of the other Archbishops starts wrecking stuff.

The thing about Ram is that with Rem gone, Roswaal became the most important person in her life because her memories of her got essentially overwritten by him being just as important to her. Not-so fun fact, in timelines where Crusch is erased, Felix has a complete mental breakdown because she's the most important person in his entire life and a lot of critical events in his life cannot be reconciled without her.

Also Elsa being a vampire is an incorrect guess on Garfiel's part. She's actually got a special curse that makes her a "Curse Doll". What it's supposed to do is cause the cursed to lose control of themselves and be given temporary immortality in exchange for being sent to kill a specific target, at which point the cursed will perish. However, Elsa is an outlier who managed to to keep her mind while keeping the upside. There is a limit to how much damage she could take, and once that limit is reached, then she essentially became a zombie before dying for real in the mansion fire, which was cut from the anime.

Man, I'm going to have forgotten so much by the time season 3 rolls around.

Granted, I was already largely getting through season 2 on vibes.

What dk you guys think about the plot structure of Re Zero?

I’d say it manages to make its gimmick interesting. "The protagonist can’t die" could kill any sense of stakes if handled poorly, but since here every death advances both the plot, the lore and the development of characters, it works.

I would agree. The writer is aware of the fact that Subaru is essentially losing (decently) large chunks of time every time he resets, and plays into it with things like that absolutely excruciating capital arc in season 1 where Emilia has to remind him that, no, she doesn't know him as well as he acts like she does. That's a completely natural complication to run into, especially since so many of Subaru's loops involve him seeing people he cares about a lot die in awful ways.

Overall it does a good job of making Subaru's power be, essentially, Dark Souls. He's going to die, probably in painful ways, but he learns. It even makes his power set into a tradeoff - if he can guide things into going in a good direction, it ends up being more dramatic if he hasn't had a save point for a while, or the possibility that someone's death might be made permanent.

I'm rewatching Episode 18 when Subaru freaks out and Rem comforts him with probably the best motivational speech in anime.

Why the hell does Subaru choose Emilia over Rem.

That's the type of complication I've been looking forward to seeing again.

I'm a bit behind on the L Ns, I think three have come out since I read any - but vague future spoilers. Someone in this thread indicated that kind of social consequence is going to happen again. Which I'm looking forward to seeing!

As painful as that scene in the capital arc is to watch or read, its so important to making what comes afterwards feel all the better. And frankly its one of the bigger things that gives me faith in the author's ability.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jan 23rd 2024 at 7:35:19 AM

I must say I really like the small scene in Episode 12. Wilhelm corrects Felix and tells him he can see in Subaru's eyes the look of someone who's been at death's door many times. It's small, but its one of the early times someone acknowledges Subaru's character development.

Later in Season 2 the same thing happens when Subaru confronts the blond dude.

A question in this scene from the first episode of the second season, is there camera abuse with the round specks that could be dust or is it a lens flare effect?

Edited by Malbicho on Feb 5th 2024 at 9:55:29 AM

New Season 3 trailer.

The announced release date is October 2024.

Edited by ROTHY on Mar 24th 2024 at 3:45:23 PM