This show made me nearly lose my mind. It made me so unbelievably upset with its lack of any plot (or any sort of sense to begin with) that I barely managed to finish the show without dying of anger and disgust for 90% of the characters. “But why did you not drop it then?”. To be honest with you, I really had high hopes for this anime after seeing how hyped up it was. However, after watching the first episode, I knew immediately that this is going to be an awfully long and tedious ride. Regardless, I’ve decided to stick to it and just finish it in two sittings, to get it over with, accompanied by said hope that it might get better as the show progresses. And I was so incredibly wrong.

And before anyone tells me how wrong I am and how dumb I am because I didn’t ‘understand’ this show, honestly, please, don’t tell me any of those things. People are allowed to have opinions.

But let’s just take a step back and talk about the plot, which doesn’t exist in this show. That’s what I would say right after finishing the show. However, after carefully analyzing Re:Zero, I found it. Our main character named Subaru Natsuki gets magically transported into another world (yes, this anime is an isekai). After that, Subaru finds this ~~Satella~~ Emilia girl, starts liking her. That’s pretty much it. Hey, listen, there is nothing with the series being based on romantic relationships unless there is no explanation why the main character (MC from now on) likes the other character. Ah, pardon me! Emilia actually saved him in the dark alley, so now he’s trying to return the favor while being in love with her because she’s pretty. And because she saved his life. Isn’t it… kind of a boring story? But let’s put this aside and carry on. After the alley incident, Subaru tries to assist Emilia with her issue and they both get killed. Don’t forget, kids, this is an isekai, so the MC respawns, however, only he can remember what happened in general as well as to him and others before death. This is the part of the show that is the most interesting, the respawn part, because due to some circumstances our poor MC cannot even tell anyone around him that he, well, died and came back to life. Nevertheless, this part of the story is never explored (at least in this season). Instead, our MC is just suffering the entire show for no reason, really, other than he’s a total mess of a human being and deserves the treatment that he gets throughout the show. On a more serious note, the gore that exists in the show just exists. As mentioned previously, there is no long-term meaning in Subaru’s suffering. Thus, it is really hard to tell if Re:Zero explores any themes. There is no great, big, or meaningful purpose in this show. Subaru isn’t trying to go back to his regular world, he isn’t trying to explore why he can’t tell anyone about the respawn power he possesses, he isn’t even trying to learn about the world he now lives in. The only thing that concerns him is making sure that his sweetheart Emilia is sound and safe, which, again, could’ve been a great plot, however, there is nothing appealing about Emilia, except for her looks.

Emilia, much like 90% of the characters in the show, is one-dimensional and empty. Again, I understand, this is only the first season of the series, but it wouldn’t hurt to give us a bit more backstory about who she is. Emilia lacks any characterization throughout the show, which makes it incredibly hard to relate to her or like her, in the first place. Yes, of course, she is very pretty, very gentle and caring but that’s about it. She seems to be made as a perfect waifu material. Maybe that’s why Subaru fell for her, despite the fact that she didn’t really do anything to win him over or charm him. Regardless of Emilia being a waifu material for various sized pillowcases, figurines, mousepads, etc., she got zero character development throughout the entire season. I honestly can barely recall any important moments that included her. Emilia was gone the majority of the time and was never there for the crucial moments in the anime.

Now let’s talk about Subaru. Subaru Natsuki is a dumbass. He is not smart, he is not funny, he is trying so hard to be somebody that he will never be. I understand that Subaru is being portrayed as a typical shounen hero but, again, he’s not a hero, far from it. Subaru is a kid with a fragile ego who literally deserves the whooping (gory anguish, in the show context) that he gets. I honestly believe that Subaru is suffering from a hero complex and seeking to be recognized ~~only by Emilia~~ by everyone, which, ultimately, rarely leads to anything good and results in him respawning over and over again. Similarly to Emilia, who is designed to be loved by thousands of thirsty anime watches, Subaru was created so those thirsty anime watchers have someone to relate to in this series (which is, from my perspective, is borderline insulting).

The only character that I cared about throughout the entire show was Rem (and occasionally Ram). These two sweet little ladies got character development, backstories, and proper characterizations. Although this is great, the only character we see glowing in the show is Rem, since Ram didn’t get a lot of screentime (which is, again, really sad). Despite the fact that Rem is the least one-dimensional character, her development regarding our beloved Subaru seemed a bit sloppy and too fast. How often do you see people going from ‘I cannot stand your guts’ to ‘Oh my, I really like you’ in a matter of a couple of days (unless you are in middle school or something)? Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to talk specifically about the relationship between Rem and Subaru without spoiling. However, the only thing that I may say is that Subaru for once stopped being an idiot. And I’ll leave it at that.

The rest of the characters in this show are not worth mentioning. They are boring, dull, and uninteresting, except for maybe Wilhelm van Astrea. The majority of the side characters are made, again, to appeal to thirsty anime watchers. They got tsundere lolis, cute guys with cat ears, hot guys with swords, you name it. It is unfortunate to see those characters being left on the side of a road without any suitable portrayal while having so much potential to be explored within the series.

As for the soundtrack and visuals, everything is… fine, I guess? If we talk about visuals, nothing special to see here again. It’s your basic isekai with bright colors and dim lights once in a while when things go south. Soundtracks aren’t memorable, the openings and endings were mediocre. Nothing much to say here, unfortunately.

As you could probably already tell, I didn’t personally enjoy Re:Zero. From my perspective, it had way too many flaws to be liked or enjoyed. Re:Zero lacks depth, it lacks relatability to the real world we live in since the show doesn’t really explore any theme. It is not the worst thing I have ever seen but I would not re-watch it again (at least not in the near future). Having said that, it doesn’t mean that you won’t like this show as well. It is worth a try, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it deserves the hype it got. And I definitely don’t think it falls into the category of ‘big brain’ anime.