ReLIFE

This show is pretty highly regarded, I can't say I 100% understand why, but I can understand why some might resonate with the show.

For a story about growth, acceptance, perseverance and relationships, I thought it did an adequate job of portraying a relatively typical high school show with a unique premise/twist. The concept itself is a fun idea, and I would imagine some people really do appreciate the idea of going back to school even after experiencing life as an adult.

The plot itself I found rather bland, nothing legitimately of note. Kaizaki has the dynamic of being older than he actually appears, which does lend itself to a few interesting gags and occurrences, but to be honest I would be lying if I said the 'ReLIFE' aspect of the ReLIFE show really did anything for me. This overall felt like a generic high school show.

The most interesting aspect of the show was actually Hishiro, who was played off in a good few gags with her deadpan nature and inability to socialize. In fact, the show does focus more on her in the first few episodes, which is sadly revealed to be just a smaller foundation for the character's later arc, which is not in my opinion, properly developed. The problem with this is that the show isn't really about Kaizaki and Hishiro; it's about how ReLIFE can be used to shape Kaizaki's growth through experiences he never had (the entire premise of the show). I felt as if the plot could have been shored up better by just laser focusing on a smaller cast of well-written characters instead of trying to shoehorn them in with high school teen drama.

The plot attempts to spin pretty generic high school drama as interesting by framing it within the ReLIFE program. Didn't really do anything for me; I saw no reason why ReLIFE even really needed to exist to begin with. For that reason I found myself tapping out around the blander character arcs.

What I found most egregious was how on the nose the writing was - within the first two episodes it's characters confessing their deepest insecurities. I felt as if the character writing didn't properly flow - it all felt a bit forced and flat. Characters will stare at the camera (THEY'RE LITERALLY TALKING TO ME!!!!!!!!) and tell you everything about themselves. What they're thinking, how they're feeling, what they want to make them feel better. This is a personal gripe of mine, and the most damning part of the show. I did not like the way the characters spoke (i.e. were written), and so I didn't really like the characters as much as I could have. The show may have thought the concept of the plot could carry more weight to justify blander character writing, but it did not work for me.

The production was overall serviceable, a bit of a letdown as, mentioned before, the characters really love just looking into the void and telling you everything. The flat faces and lip movement did not help with this. Not a dealbreaker but you can tell it's not a show that had enough love and attention put into it. If I were to compare it to Furuba from the same studio, it's probably like, 65% of the way there in terms of animation.

The music and score sounded like someone let their cat run along their keyboard.

I hate Rena.

6/10 was alright