I have so much to say about volume 1 of Re:Zero, however I have planned this review to be designed in a way that will catch the interest of potential readers from both the anime-community and absolute beginners whilst relatively avoiding spoilers. (There are a few spoilers here though). This review is only for the first volume (Arc 1). The corresponding anime episodes are episodes 1-3 from season 1.

and YES, there is a TON of additional content in the novel that is not in the anime (ep 1-3).

For starters the light novel is about Subaru Natsuki, a chronically online 17 year old NEET who was teleported to this medieval fantasy world in the Kingdom of Lugunica. Unfortunately his teleportation came not without consequences, as he was granted a power, or should I say curse, named Return By Death that results in him traveling back in time whenever he dies.

In this world he, having been in his old world a shut-in all his life without any real connections, manages to form a multitude of tender bonds with many people. All Subaru seeks is the warmth and happiness that comes from being with his loved ones, however fate does everything in its power to deny him this intimacy, creating ruthlessly unforgivable scenarios that cause immense emotional pain, psychological horror and inner conflicts. For example, Subaru could grow real close to someone only to die, return by death and the same person not having any idea who he is when he approaches them in his next ‘loop’, or his loved ones could even die to something beyond Subaru’s control.

What makes all of this so heartbreakingly emotional is that the novel excellently develops and writes the character-relationships with a lot of great and human conversations filled with emotions, funny and heartwarming moments, thoughts and monologues that also flesh out the worldbuilding (Such as how the currency works and the geography) and characters extensively more. Remember Rom and Felt? Their type of father and daughter dynamic has been radically expanded from the Anime and we get to learn so much about them that the series unfortunately for brevity's sake glosses over. The same applies to the other important characters such as Reinhard who is more expressive and is surrounded by an aura of his nobility and power as well as the main heroine who likewise is much more expressive. The most outstanding part is how brilliantly Subaru was characterized through all these interactions as it is crystal-clear how much he cherishes all his relationships as well as how many insecurities he carries that are present in his feelings and monologues, making him so incredibly human.

This leads to the first loop being heavily more tragic and emotional than the anime-equivalent since Subaru and the heroine had grown so close due to these aforementioned longer and additional interactions. Return by death causes you to be extremely emotionally invested in the story as the stressful life and death situations paired with tragic deaths and repeated restarts for Subaru makes his relationships significantly more tender, which makes you desire so much for Subaru to just be allowed to live in peace with his loved ones. When I read the first loop I was touched by how well-written all the interactions and personalities were and how emotional the first death was.

This is the main thing that makes Re:Zero so heartbreaking since the deaths are so devastating, as all these tender bonds get annihilated whenever he dies, resulting in horrible emotional pain for him, not to mention the psychological horror as he, whilst only being 17 years old, experiences brutally traumatic events such as the aforementioned repeated deaths of loved ones but also being killed himself by a terrifying and psychotic antagonist. The author did an extraordinary job at writing her as we truly get to experience the sheer terror that Subaru feels from her.

My favorite example of this is Subaru’s second loop in arc 1/volume 1 when she attacks Subaru and some of his friends. The novel illustrates all his horrified and panicked feelings and thoughts as he is so scared that he can’t do anything but remain frozen on the ground whilst she kills his friends one by one. Not to mention he lacks powers so he couldn’t do anything either. The anime glosses over this moment but his terror is so fleshed out in the novel, we truly get to experience what he felt.

Eventually she assaults him and brutally kills him, breaking a lot of bones before slicing his stomach open all the while we read all the insane body-horror details and how excruciating it all felt for him as he slowly died of blood-loss. Felt so bad reading the torture Subaru went through in that chapter. Not to mention it was only the second chapter!

This death leaves lasting trauma to Subaru, as he can not stop thinking about how painful the experience was, how horrifying she was, which leads to him feeling heavily discouraged to even return to the same place, however he must go back in order to save everyone from the awful outcome. At the end of the day, he is just a 17-year old boy and Tappei makes sure to demonstrate this to us.

Subaru throughout the story tries his best to figure out how to ensure the safety of all of his loved ones, however new information is constantly revealed and unforeseen events occur that jeopardizes his plans. On top of having to factor in all the threats and possible issues, he also has to maintain his emotional well-being, which is difficult when he keeps dying traumatically whilst being denied emotional closeness as well. The latter is intensified by the fact that the experience from his previous deaths lead to great social damage.

One example of which is when he, immediately after dying to Elsa in the first loop, goes to meet the heroine he had grown rather close with, however she not only has no idea who he is but the name that she gave him in the original loop was also a gravely insulting fake name. So when Subaru tried to address it, from her perspective, he was an insulting stranger, resulting in her getting angry at him, which in turn led to Felt being able to steal her badge due to her carelessness, intensifying her feelings of irritation towards him. Ending with her leaving him alone. To add salt to the wound, Subaru was made a public fool too as the crowd was looking at him. In the novel we truly get to see how embarrassed and ashamed he feels not only because of his actions but also that she didn’t trust him enough to give him her real name. This is one of the prime examples too of how Tappei demonstrates the powerlessness of Subaru in the face of these unfortunate events that are out of his control, which only exacerbates the worsening of his emotional well-being that in the end worsens his intellectual ability too, leading to even greater struggles for him. Talk about a horrible curse.

This culminates in an amazing character-development for Subaru

The balance between pacing and development is perfect too, as all the segments, including every little conversation, are given sufficient time to reach their full emotional potential whilst preserving the momentum flawlessly. It was effortless to become emotionally invested in the deep story and its character relationships.

This was all just the introduction and the main-body, however the conclusion is also incredible, especially the final battle between Subaru, Emilia, Rom, Puck, Reinhard and Elsa. The whole final segment is greatly expanded from the anime with tons of more details, such as how overpowering the presence of Reinhard is and how powerful he is, Elsa’s fighting-style, the magic etc. It is the part of the light novel with the most spectacle and it was insane to read it all, truly amazing fights. The anime version of the fight was amazing, however the novel truly made you feel how desperate and deadly the fight against Elsa was, not to mention the emotional moments and stakes were leveled up immensely, with the prime example being when Subaru bought Felt time to escape the loothouse by defending her from Elsa. Her overwhelming stress and sadness stemming from Subaru sacrificing himself for her and doing all of this for her in the novel was magnificently written as well as the subsequent moment where she finds Reinhard who offers to help.

To summarize, Volume 1 of the Re:Zero light novel was a wild emotional rollercoaster with great worldbuilding and is one of my favorite fantasy/dark fantasy/psychological horror novels of all time. I absolutely recommend this light novel to everyone. The day after completion I even ordered the second and third volumes. The only thing I can think about is if Arc 1 is already this outstanding, imagine how brilliant and emotionally devastating Arc 2 will be when the main characters of Rem, Beatrice, Roswaal and Ram are introduced.