This is my first review here on Anilist, which isn't surprising considering that Re:Zero is one of my favorite fiction of all time.
Season 3 adapted arc 5 of the novel, which is one of the most action-packed arcs we have in the entirety of the story. Moreover, it has a lot of foreshadowing, build up, new characters, information on the world and magic system, mysteries, and character dialogues (especially with Regulus, who I will talk about later). All of which makes this arc -by far- the hardest arc to adapt into an anime in the current story.
I think White Fox did a great job with it, but they also missed so much on what makes Re:Zero so impactful. It's not the fights, story, world, magic system, or anything that I mentioned above, but the characters that make the story so impactful and unique. Here, I think that White Fox missed, pretty hard.
I will start with the most important character that they did wrong - Regulus Corneas.
This guy, so amazingly written, yet they made him a one-dimensional crazy evil guy.
Regulus has a lot of yapping throughout the story, and by that I really mean A LOT. I understand they couldn't possibly adapt everything, but skipping his backstory? and his whole character at that? He was built in a way that feels like he always yapping nonsense and only when you get to his last speech - you understand everything, and it is such a beautiful way to conclude a character. Yet White Fox left him with only with his nonsense.
No anime watcher can understand him now, and it pains me so much to see this.
For me, Regulus -by this arc- is the second-best character yet in the story, and no anime only watcher will ever get to feel this.
Regulus wasn't even the only character they missed on, which sends me to the next character - Theresia Van Astrea.
Theresia backstory was cut so much. The pacing was too fast, and I feel like this makes anyone who is watching to be unable to understand and connect to her character. I'm not going to say the exact details, for anyone who reads this review will not be spoiled and still be able to read her chapters in the Web Novel, but they really made her just a side character with minimal importance, a Felix victim.
Other than those two, there were obviously more thing they missed on - the magic stones explanation, Julius and his brother state, Regulus's fight with Reinhard, some Subaru and Beatrice stuff, and more. But now I would like to talk about what they actually did right - Liliana.
Liliana, and maybe Capella too, are the only characters that even improved over the novel. White Fox really gave them a lot of investment and care, whether it is character wise or animation wise.
Talking about animation, White Fox definitely gave this arc justice. no complains here. Garfiel Fight says everything.
Overall, season 3 is a blast of a watch. Although there are many more stuff that could have been improved that I didn't mention here, I feel very satisfied with the adaptation, with the exception of Regulus.
Score is still going to be high since it's Re:Zero and by that better than most anime, the novel would just rank even way higher.
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