ReLIFE

ReLIFE is one of the greatest anime I have seen, lately. This review is different as I went in completely blind with high expectations. I wasn’t let down and I don’t even know what I was expecting. The TL;DR is here. Stop reading this review, go in blind. Don’t even read the synopsis. There’s also a TL;DR at the end, but it’s more packed.

I did not know what I expected by watching ReLIFE. I only watched it because I kept seeing it over and over again by my friends and I was getting triggered at the fact it kept appearing. I challenged myself to have high expectations and I was not let down.

Story:

ReLIFE… touches on something that isn’t easily handled. And that is the ability to relive certain moments of your past. ReLIFE is about a man who is given the chance to relive his highschool years. I’m sure many of us would like to change what mistakes we did. Even me, who is fairly young has many things that I would like to change.
ReLIFE handles many things aside from this. They tackled an “isekai-ish” setting without ruining the character. I say “isekai-ish”; I really mean that it’s because he gets to live in a different environment. I’m not a 27-year-old who has trouble with jobs yet, so I can’t exactly relate to how someone would act upon becoming a highschooler again. The main character, Kaizaki Arata, is… realistic. His character did not waver upon a body change. The same cannot be said for isekai.
Perhaps the subject ReLIFE does well are the stakes. As an adult, your mindset changes heavily. Compare a child to a teenager. There’s already a large difference in minds. I’m sure most of us were called smart as a child, but became dumb during their teenage years. Kaizaki has to act like a highschooler, which isn’t easy as he has possible slip-ups. In ReLIFE, everything is on the line. Your memories, your friends and your future. I’m stopping here to avoid spoilers.

Art:

I’m actually unsure whether the art is good or not. I’m not a picky person when it comes to animation, but if I had to put it in terms, it was average. The volleyball scenes were well animated, and the stills were fine, I guess. ReLIFE has a style. One that I’ve never seen before. I was turned off initially at the start because the style was weird, but it’s unique, and I respect that. However, my friend said it looked like hentai animation which I disagreed with. But taste in art is subjective. Or I’m just focusing on subtitles too much. (Hopefully, not.)

Sound:

The opening was nice, though it’s not exactly an opening you’ll remember every day. I guess if I had to rate it, it would be a 7/10, for being catchy but not memorable. I appreciate the number of subtle spoilers in the opening, though. I cannot say the same for the endings. The endings changed every episode, but some fit the theme of where the episode ended. It wasn’t memorable, so I can’t really give you an honest opinion on ReLIFE’s endings. It hits hard always… depending on the episode.

The voice acting was nice. I was dying of satisfaction of Kaizaki’s voice as he feels SO CRISP! His accent, too. Everyone did their role nicely, but there was one girl with red hair who took a bit of getting used to. She sounded more realistic than the others so it was refreshing.

Characters:

I think the characters were the ones that carried the show. I’d watch an entire slice of life anime about these characters, or One Piece but the pirates are ReLIFE characters. They’re just so realistic and fun to watch. Admittedly, the story raised their characters higher. (Am I using that right?) This is the type of anime where the characters and story compliment each other.

All the characters have significant traits to them. One is a popular kid, but is pure and doesn’t truly understand his feelings. One has social problems but is academically smart. The show also manages screentime really well, as there are a large amount of characters.
One character I’d like to talk about is Red hair girl. She, by far, was the most realistic character. Humans… are annoying. They slip up way too much and they make mistakes. Red hair girl has a lot of problems that she can’t talk about, because we are afraid of losing our friendships. I thought she would change in the end, but she ended up being the same. Because it isn’t easy for humans to change. And I’m sure most of you can relate.

TL;DR

There’s just so many things that I could talk about and how ReLIFE became one of my favourites out of nowhere, but I don’t wanna drag this review more than I already have.
This is the type of anime that you won’t be judged for watching. And there’s only like 2 short boob jokes (less than 10 seconds at most) , no fanservice at all. I’m not sure about you guys but this ruined my mood so much because my sensitive self got so depressed at the end of every episode. (I still am at every chapter of the manga.) I got so caught off guard because I was having so much fun for 3 episodes and now everything got gloomy.

Final words: I’m actually unsure how to recommend this show. Do watch it.