How anyone could rate this show a ten is beyond me. Just because this show introduces a new concept to the Isekai genre and the guy gets the girl at the end of the day does not make Re:Zero a masterpiece. Keep in mind, I'm not dissing anyone who rated this show a 10/10, in fact, you all have different opinions about why you rated the show the way you did. (This acts as a toxicity shield so... take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Back to the review.) This show has little to no character development for the main characters. A large chunk of the show was filler because it didn't matter what happened during a big event in the show when Subaru just dies and restarts. "No, but it's good because it introduces a new concept to the Isekai genre and it's executed well because the character can figure out how to solve the conflict when he dies," You know, I thought that too, but when we are given 5 episodes taken place inside the Roswaal mansion and the main character is painfully slowly figuring out the problem doesn't make sense. So, without further adieu, let me explain to you why Re:Zero does not deserve the 10/10 rating.

(Light spoilers ahead so be weary, nothing too extreme though)

(Also, I'm writing this as I think of more things to say, thus why these topics are in no clear order)

As I mentioned in the very beginning, this show has almost no development for characters like Emilia, which is one of the main characters, which makes the opposite of sense. Tell me you know something about Emilia other than that she looks like the Witch and she's a candidate of the Royal Selection, go on, I'll wait. To call someone a main character and give them the opposite treatment as any main character should get makes the opposite of sense. Piggybacking on this idea of "supporting characters get more development," in episode 11 titled "Rem," we get a full backstory on both Rem and Ram. Both Rem and Ram are supporting characters, however, and the fact that we get development on them instead of A MAIN CHARACTER, doesn't make too much sense. I am glad that we did get this development because we could later empathize with Rem when she puts herself down about not being as powerful as her sister.

Another thing I wish to mention is its copious amounts of death seen from episode one to twenty-five. Episode one is when we first are smacked in the face with this world that Subaru is transported into and what his power is: to Return by Death. But the problem is, we didn't get to know the characters all too well before this happened, the first death happens so quickly, it's hard to sympathize with Subaru. He dies before he even gets any development. Not only this, but Subaru dies a total of 3 times before the first conflict is resolved. There's a thing about death that's truly fascinating: experiencing death every once in a while is shocking and heartbreaking, especially after we get to know the person that's died. The problem lies in when it happens 13 or so times in a rapid succession, the deaths become annoying after the first one or two times. This is because it happens so many times that it doesn't become shocking. It becomes extremely less shocking once we realize that whatever he did before he dies doesn't matter because he just goes back to when the conflict he has become a part of first starts. The only thing that changes when he dies is that now he knows how to fix what happened before he died. I suppose this is an interesting concept, but did Subaru have to die so many times? I think the series would have been much better if he died less than the number of times he died in the series already. This way he wouldn't die at least once every episode, and the deaths may become shocking depending on when they happen, what the scenario is, and how much we know the character.

Now, after reading these two paragraphs, you may be asking yourself, "Why did he rate this a 5/10 when it seems like he truly hates this show?" I'll tell you why this show got a 5/10: Re:Zero definitely had its good parts. My first two paragraphs are just barely scraping the surface on what this show did wrong. I could have talked about how the exposition lasted for an incredibly long time or how Subaru and Emilia aren't the most likable characters in this series, but I don't want it to seem like I completely despise this show. So now it's time to back away from the greens and get into the pudding of this review. The next thing I wish to talk about, its truly good moments. I'll start off by talking about the smaller stuff. The art definitely took the show in a positive direction, this show had great character designs. Although its use of shadows was sometimes unnecessary, I won't let that take me away from how they made the city and the characters look. The music and sound design as well definitely made this show look good. Neither they didn't rely on super sappy piano music for the "sad" parts, nor did they rely on super intense music for the action parts. You could really tell that they weren't trying to force emotion out of you which I really appreciate. Some of the episodes were actually really good, some weren't entirely filler and I really enjoyed the entire battle of the White Whale. There was one episode that truly stood out from the rest, however. Episode 18 titled "From Zero" was the greatest episode of this entire series. Episode 18 was purely a conversation between Subaru and Rem, and might I say, it was the conversation that made Subaru's character make sense. It was the most developing episode in the entire series and was the catalyst to Subaru's character arc (something which I enjoyed considering throughout the first half of the series he was pretty unlikable.) We got to see Subaru's sensitive side when he's not trying to be the hero. This episode is what I truly watched the series for, I was waiting for an episode where Subaru would change and that's what we got. That is why episode 18 is truly the greatest episode in Re:Zero.

So, what else is there to say about this series? It had its moments. It was enjoyable at times, but when you take into account the lack of character development, slow development of the plot, and unlikable characters (among other things), the show goes from an easy 8 or 9 to a 5 or a 6. I enjoyed this show to an extent, this show was quick to grab my attention from the first few episodes, but over time I just wanted things to progress faster. Thus why this show does not deserve the 10/10 or 9/10 rating everyone thinks it deserves.

MY FINAL RATING: 54