ReLife is about a 27 year old man who, because he quit his first job after three months, was unable to receive any later job offers. One day, he gets invited to the ReLife experiment, where he would transform into a high school student for one year in order to revitalize his soul and rehabilitate him back to society. This story, along with the 4 episode special which I will be considering as merely the 14th to 17th episodes of the show, is about his year living a ReLife as a high school student.

This is a show that, like many other masterpieces, starts off slow. The first half is very little more than a decent and enjoyable, but stereotypical, slice of life show. It only starts picking up the pace from episode 11, and really only starts utilizing its premise to its full effect starting from the sequel, from episode 14. However, that is not to say that it only gets good later in the show. Even as an ordinary high school story, it does a good job conveying the complex emotional and social development of its characters. Although some, if not most, characters were based partially on common anime cliches, their personalities are more complex than that and develop beyond just that, and I would not consider any of the named characters to be one-dimensional.

One common complaint I have about this type of show is that the character conflicts are resolved too easily and too quickly than would be realistic. Many emotions and problems in life are only settled over months or years or even never at all and anime often doesn't hit the intricacies and the difficulties of that. ReLife is not immune to the oversimplification of character conflicts but it does execute the plot a lot better than most. The thing I like the most about this show's first half is that the character personalities and developments are meaningful and are important to what occurs in the later half, and everything contributes to the overall theme of the story. I love that the story seems meticulously planned out and intentional, especially in a genre where oftentimes twists seem to spring out of nowhere and backstories are inserted wherever convenient.

Now, that ending, the four episode special, is what pulls this show from decent up to great. I won't spoil it because it was so great, but this show's message is to make the most out of those fleeting moments in your life before they disappear, and damn it really hit me hard. The ending brought me to tears and I felt the incredible urge to hug my friends and family before we inevitably part. Similar to the main character, I am in my last year of high school, and even though I won't disappear completely from the friends I've made these four years, graduation may be the last time I see them in my life.

I love the story and the characters, but the rest of ReLife was mediocre. The only reason I would not consider the animation to be plain bad is that it was at least consistent in its mediocrity, never dipping below or going beyond its bare adequacy. Towards the end, I felt like the animators were perhaps rushed on time and took some shortcuts, one of which was pretty obvious: placing blue and pink cutouts of background characters instead of actually drawing them out. In addition, the music was super stereotypical, and sometimes the background music was even out of place so much that I wish they just didn't include it. The ending felt Kimi no Na Wa-esque, and if it had the stellar animation quality or the powerful music placement that was exhibited in Kimi no Na Wa, I'd say it would have potentially packed an even stronger punch than Shinkai's work.

I think the show's target audience is the people who were in similar situations as the main character: young adults in Japan who may or may not identify as a NEET, but are not doing what they wish they were doing in life and have lost the energy they had as a teenager. If that's the case, I have no doubt that this show can successfully inspire those people and give them renewed motivation to get out of their homes and take on life. ReLife has definitely been the best slice of life romance show I've seen in recent memory. As the main character, Kaizaki Arata, says:

"Someday we'll part. Maybe be forgotten. But we're living in the moment. So... make lots of friends, fall madly in love, and enjoy every moment to the fullest."