This review will contain spoilers for Season 1.
Out of kindness for some people's sanity(mostly the fans of the series) I'll tell you the final score will be a 74/100
tl;dr ~ Arlan's a mad man and needs to be locked up
If there is one easy thing to recognize about Re:ZERO, it's that the overall art direction is great. The locations look nice, the characters are well designed with an overall distinctive style(Save for one pair), and quite often it'll have shots that deserve a clap.
The music is quite nice, the overall sound design works well, and certain distinctive noises such as the sound of Rem's chain resound ominously, as intended I would hope.
While I'm not a huge fan of the Opening Songs I know there are many who like them, and I'm not about to call them garbage so they get a pass.
The pacing for Season 1 is refreshingly on point. The first arc resolves quickly, while also establishing the overall situation. The second arc moves at a good clip, and when we think it's all done it adds a small twist to keep going without dragging.
Episodes 18-25 are all nice, and very easy to binge through. The action is handled quite well, and while certain shots can be a bit laughable or might've been done better I wasn't complaining.
Though I couldn't resist laughing at Wilhelm on the whale with his sword.
A lot of things are set up and then paid off, and by the time we finish off it's quite easy to say that we've been prepped for what could only be an alarmingly entertaining second season.
Let's be honest. Episodes 13-17 are a difficult time. When I first hit the episodes fans of the series told me to keep going, that it'd "get better" when I "pushed through". The fact that numerous fans told me this tells me in turn that the episodes aren't good.
One should not have to "Endure" a show. If you have to shove your hands through broken glass to reach the delicious cake on the other side, the glass shouldn't be there in the first place.
Could it have been handled better?
Most likely.
Did it do it's job?
Only if that job was making me want to quit watching.
One of the greatest aspects of Re:ZERO, to me at least, are the characters. Most of them are established properly, they have personalities that click well, and their interactions with one another also are well handled.
Julius, for example, is a great showcasing of a character who's well designed. His actions make sense, his personality might seem poor but ends up being great, and it's only due to Subaru acting like an idiot that we even might think otherwise.
That is the core of my problem with Re:ZERO's first season.
Subaru, and how people perceive him, and how he acts, and so on and so forth.
Let's take Rem for example.
The initial actions of Rem are beautiful, she's suspicious of Subaru but she also tries to tolerate and help him. However a single night of Subaru trying to be helpful to her is enough to make Rem throw away reason, toss herself into a life threatening situation, and also develop a near yandere-esque personalit in regard to him.
It's a bit of an absurd and drastic shift, one that takes the nuanced Rem and flattens it more than her own chest.
This is something that happens consistently in regard to Subaru. People he either mistreats or mishandle will always, invariabily, end up on his side respecting or infatuated with him.
That isn't simply due to him reliving and changing how he approaches the situation, it's something that happens because it does.
Most people would find Subaru not only aggravating to deal with, but they wouldn't put up with the majority of things he says or does.
I'm not saying that I wanted everyone to hate Subaru, but I would've loved to see a lot more emphasis on people pushing him toward acting more sensible. Wilhelm has a great moment where he comments on Subaru's eyes in episode 14. It's those small situations that could've helped to sharpen Subaru's personality, refining him into a better and more likeable character.
Instead we got a Subaru who makes the smallest of strides toward bettering as a person.
Episode 15 should not exist.
Go ahead, go down and hit the dislike button right now. I'll wait.
One of the best things about Season 1 is that each episode held a certain importance, they either pushed the narrative or showed us something with Subaru's character.
The majority of Episode 15 is forgettable because it's Subaru nearly comatose. He sits and does nothing, he stands and does nothing. He gets moved around and guided by Rem because he does nothing.
This is not an episode of any actual value, because it is an episode about nothing.
The most important parts of this episode are the impressive Giant Puck, and Betelgeuse with the Rem death.
One could easily readjust the other "Time Loops" to integrate these(Indeed, we see a Giant Puck in a loop that comes up).
I often joke about how this is the Loop that Subaru takes off, because it's what he does.
Even Betelgeuse, the villain, mocks Subaru because he's only pretending to be crazy. Which makes sense, as Subaru subconciously would know and accept that the deaths of everyone are reset on each loop, and as such their deaths don't matter in the previous loop.
He's merely "acting as he should"(completely shocked and withdrawn due to the deaths).
This was the biggest flaw of Season 1 to me, the single moment where I felt I'd wasted my entire time watching an episode.
When we're introduced to Emilia we start to catch hold of her personality easily enough.
We also see Emilia isn't afraid to stand up for herself, that she has a lot of courage, and that she also holds a lot of power. She's a girl who will do what needs to be done in order to achieve her goals, but at the same time she won't willingly sacrifice people to do so.
All in all Emilia is a great character at the start of Re:ZERO. Even as she helps out Subaru, giving him a lap pillow(While barely knowing him), we know that she's exceedingly kind.
This is when everything starts to fall apart, though.
Emilia not only starts to showcase that she's there for Subaru, but that she's willing to do almost anything he suggests. She's so compliant to Subaru, and so often there to try and emotionally support him, that she is a quintessential waifu before episode 11 ticks around.
She's powerful, capable, friendly, caring, and wants Subaru to be happy and healthy.
So why didn't she join Rem in the forest to help kill the mabeasts?
Why didn't Rem, Ram, and Emilia go into the forest together to kill them? Their combined capabilities would've easily handled it all, especially since Rem went in during Puck's active hours.
Because that would make her the hero.
We see this same issue pop up again in Episode 23 compared to Episode 25.
Emilia shows up to deal with the cultists, she uses her powers expertly and eliminates threats, and in front of the villagers who'd feared her she garners their respect and admiration.
She goes from a girl who was afraid to have her hood down, to a woman who stood out in the open on her own two feet.
Sorry but we can't have that.
Episode 25 Emilia, which is the "Current Timeline" Emilia never does that.
Instead she gets in a carriage and babysits some children, and is sent away so she doesn't get in trouble.
She's literally told to watch the kids and stay out of the way.
And she does that.
On top of that she's put into danger via a situation set up in advance simply to have this happen, where she doesn't even have the knowledge to know she's in trouble.
Instead she becomes an ignorant damsel in distress who has to be saved by Subaru because she, quite literally, can't save herself.
So from the Emilia in the first four episodes who was a powerful magic wielder, a warrior who would stand side by side with Subaru and face anything alongside him....
We get a girl who sits in the background and waits for Subaru to do everything.
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