


Welcome to my review! Why am I reviewing a Summer anime at the beginning of the Winter season? Because I'm an extremely slow writer, that's why! Any other questions? No? Great! Moving right along!
As stated in the last review, in terms of popularity, Re:ZERO is nothing to scoff at. When it premiered back in 2016, it took the anime community by storm and quickly established itself as among the most popular isekai alongside Konusuba and Sword Art Online. I found its popularity was paradoxically belied yet affirmed by its comparatively low showing on the rating charts: it was a somewhat middling anime, with its impressive highs being counteracted by groan-inducing lows; it was certainly an anime that made an impression, but not one that rose much higher than the competition. Still, while it wasn't the cum laude of anime, it had a sizable following, so it was immediately followed up, right?
Wrong, actually.
White Fox took its sweet time making the second season and it wouldn't air until 2020, four years after the first season. The wait didn't seem to dampen fans' enthusiasm, however, as it consistently topped the weekly anime charts.
But you probably already know that. You, inexplicably, want to know my thoughts. At the end of my previous review, I stated that I was was ready for more "glorious suffering." But that was then, this is now. A good hook could have still left me floundering. After all, if I'm being blunt, that's what the first season did. Even halfway through this (half) season, I was having my doubts. I was ready to write this series off for good and walk-away. "Good enough" isn't quite worth my time when I have so little of it nowadays.
Come the conclusion of the second season's first cour, however, I'm pleased to say that I've since changed my tune. It feels like Re:ZERO has finally come into its own, beginning to feel like the gut-wrenching psychological isekai that it always wanted to be, largely unburdened by the annoying, cliche elements that plagued the first season. Re:Zero has climbed out of its C-range prison with a vengeance and at the rate it's going, it could grow to become one of my favorites.

The second season of Re:ZERO picks up shortly where the first left off. In a dragon-drawn carriage, Subaru and Emillia are en route to the capital after successfully quelling the Witch's Cult attack on the manor and nearby village. Subaru mentions Rem to Emilia and to both his and (most of) the audience's horror, she doesn't recognize the name. We are treated to a flashback showing Rem and Crusch being ambushed by two new Witch's Cult archbishops — the archbishops of Greed and Gluttony. As it just so happens, the Archbishop of Gluttony is able to erase the memories of a person. Rem barely makes it out alive, thus she's remembered by no one but Subaru. Crusch, who's hurt but not as badly, becomes amnesiac. Worse for Subaru, he cannot use his return by death ability to save Rem, as he's reached a "check point." After heading to the manor to drop off the comatose Rem for safekeeping, at Beatrice's suggestion, the two head to the forest sanctuary. However, the two soon find more than they bargained for, as they're embroiled in a trial that'll make Subaru question his allegiances and test the limits of Subaru's Return by Death.
And I know what you're thinking, but no, I don't love this season just because Rem is out of commission.
It certainly doesn't hurt, though.
And I'm not saying that just to be mean, I legitimately do think that Rem's absence allows for a more dire and gripping tone. If you recall, I essentially lambast Rem's role in the second half of the first season as Subaru's "Get Out of Jail Free'' security blanket, with her picking him up as he's at his lowest and seeming to enable his feelings of grandeur through her inexplicable and unearned love for him. And to be clear, I'm aware that female characters only functioning as catalysts for male characters is Problematic™. That said, if Rem's only role is to inform the mood of Subaru, I'd at least like her to lead to interesting changes instead of stagnating him. Without Rem serving as Subaru's cheerleader, the mood of season 2 part 1 is consistently dour. Before, the presence of Rem's smiling face seemed to temper Subaru, telling him that no matter how dark things got, there would always be a ray of hope. Her comatose state casts some doubt on this sentiment.

This brings us to my first major praise of the season: the tone is consistently enjoyable for me. As I outlined, earlier, the stakes are set up in the first episodes extremely well, making the season much more gripping than its predecessor. I found that the first season was plagued with some pretty bad tonal issues. Season 2 Part 1 thankfully alleviates this by adopting the first season's more serious elements while leaving the lighthearted elements behind. I suppose if you're someone who preferred the lighthearted elements or was happy with the blend of the two, you might find Season 2 Part 1 too bleary. But if you're anything like me, you'll appreciate the change of pace. While there are a few moments of levity, I don't find them groan-inducing unlike their use in season one. A pretty big mark of the shift in tone is how Subaru is much more willing to actually induce Return by Death. Things are grim this time around and you'll either shirk from this development or lap it up like me.

One thing I found pretty lacking in the first season was characterization — specifically Subaru's. I really wished that we got a sense of what Subaru's life on Earth was like. Writer Tappei Nagatsuki answered my prayers, as we get a pretty damn good look at Subaru's life before the start of the series. It was a snippet, so while it wasn't the most in-depth, it's enough to really know who Subaru was and how that informs who he is. After watching the fourth episode, in a list post, I wrote "Give it up for the best damn episode in the entire series." Even with all the swerves that come after it, I stand by that statement. In just one episode, I was able to honest-to-God care about Subaru as a person, not just because he was someone going through unfathomable pain, but because I finally saw him as a human with a genuine story. This episode was very heartfelt as we get to see Subaru and his parents' love for one another. This love between child and parents — as well as the fear of inadequacy that this love brings — is a feeling that I've found is seldom explored in anime. It's a very genuine feeling, one that I never would have expected from the show a season ago. Re:ZERO works best when it decides to be genuine instead of tropey. Now, when I look at Subaru, I don't just see "realistically-portrayed-generic-asshole-isekai-protagonist," I see "insecure-lonely-young-man-when-given-a-chance-at-a-new-life."

I wish I could heap as much praise on other characters, but they're unfortunately not as fleshed out as Subaru. We get a number of new characters, including Garfiel~~d~~, Frederica, and the breakout character, Echidna, but they're not as explored as I like. Re: ZERO does what it does best: introduce visually striking characters that aren't terribly deep, but extremely recognizable due to their notable personalities. For what it's worth, I grew a bit more attached to them than many characters introduced in season one, mainly because we stay very put in Season 2 Part 1, so we're exposed to them more than the revolving door supporting cast of season one. While we don't explore their characterization as much as we do for Subaru, I enjoyed the shifts in Roswaal and Beatrice's characters. Beatrice's vulnerability and Roswaal's brutality and wiliness were things that I very much enjoyed, as they were quite entertaining and showed that they weren't as shallow as I initially thought. I'll ultimately defer strong judgement on this front until the second half of the season, because as shown with Subaru (and to a lesser extent, Roswaal and Beatrice), Tappei Nagatsuki is capable of writing compelling characters.

All this said, as I stated before, come the middle of the cour, I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about the season. Save first and fourth one, there weren't really any stand-out episodes. It wasn't really "middling" like season one (as in its highs and lows counteract to make an anime experience that's ultimately somewhat unremarkable), it was just kind of boring. I tuned in because I'm someone who always aims to finish what I start, not because I was particularly invested in what I was watching. I thought, "it's okay, I suppose." Unlike the first season, there wasn't anything hooking me from one episode to the next. It seemed to me that there was a dearth of engaging events during the first half. Oh, sure, things certainly happen, such as meeting Echidna, but after these events, I didn't find much to look forward to in the next episode. Part of this could be due to Subaru's signature ability, the main draw of the show, and what huffs life into it, being extremely underutilized. Both me and my friend began watching Season 2 Part 1 and they dipped out around this time. Honestly, I can't blame them. Like I said, if I wasn't as insane, it's very possible that I would have given up here as well. This first half's relative lack of energy is the season's biggest flaw. It might even be worse than the first season in some regards, because, more than frustration, more than annoyance, the worst sin that a creative work can commit is that of apathy. If the first cour continued chugging along with this relative lack of momentum until the finish line, I would have dropped the series.
But White Fox, like a mad conductor, funneled coal and black magic into the locomotive, causing the show to barrel full speed off the rails like a goddamn doom train. During the second half, Subaru begins to die, like, a lot. I remember feeling really tense and wondering how things would turn out. It's extremely impressive that a world that's reset upon death can still feel like it has honest-to-God stakes. This is largely thanks to the concept of "checkpoints" and Subaru's mental state. "Restarting" isn't exactly a panacea if you restart to a point where things are still awful and there's no way to fix it. Even if the checkpoint is a good one, there's still the question of being mentally stable enough or smart enough to fix things? With how much crap is thrown at Subaru this season, these two stipulations foster a delectable feeling of suspense.

Coming from season one, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this season resists the urge to reaffirm Subaru's (and thus the audience's) sense of entitlement. I know I said that, with Rem gone, this entitlement would be tempered, but it's feasible that Subaru could have gotten this pick-me-up from somewhere else. He largely doesn't, though. Here, there's no one giving him a second wind to make him think, "yes, I am the knight in shining armor." I think Subaru's status as a savior really works here in a way that it didn't before. Around episode four, it hit me that Subaru is really only a hero in characters’ minds simply because, due to how his ability works, he can essentially only show them his most successful self. It works here because the anime does a really good job of driving home the fact that the path Subaru walks is a difficult one; not simply hellish due to dying again and again, but difficult because he doesn't really have the brains (though he certainly, commendably, tries) to figure things out perfectly. Even if he's a "hero," the first part of the second season does a pretty good job of showing why this isn't necessarily an enjoyable thing, even if it's an unquestionably good thing. It paints a hero as one who seems to eternally suffer and fail in darkness in pursuit of a shred of light. In other words, the toll of being a hero is extremely palpable, here (it certainly helps that Subaru briefly stumbles into a timeline that shows what happens after his death). Furthermore, Subaru fails Emilia and never really gets to make up for it, making this half of the season feel a lot more impactful than the majority of season one. Without his cheerleader, you'd think that Subaru would succumb to depression. Surprisingly, he doesn't (or, at the very least, not to the extent of before). He picks himself up due to the strength of his own resolution. This is a fantastic marker that Subaru has become a stronger, more independent person.
Overall, I think season 2 part one "walks the walk" of a realistic, brutal isekai better than the first season, as it seems to commit more to a dark mood, stepping back to actually allow it to simmer instead of getting antsy in fear that viewers will dislike it. I said before that Re:ZERO had an identity crisis. Now, it feels like it finally knows what it wants to be.

Based on this season as a whole, I'd like to say that Re:ZERO will continue to be a tense, gruesome anime with rounded characters. Subaru will always eventually come out on top at the end, but always a little more broken than when he began…
...but perhaps I'm getting my hopes up. In the final episode, Oto gives Subaru a slap to the face[get a hold of yourself, man] and tells him that he needn't do everything alone, giving me the feeling that the second half of the season will milk The Power of Friendship for all it's worth. Earlier on, Subaru refuses Echidna's aid
(thoughIhonestlydontknowwhatwouldbesobadaboutit) that would help him get out of his terrible situation. This is presumably because, as dictated by 99% of media, True Heroes™, even broken ones that are pushed against a spiked wall, under no circumstances shall make deals with characters that are even slightly suspicious. Perhaps Season 2 Part 1 was nothing more than the downpour before the overly saccharine rainbow.
But I'll proceed with cautious optimism.
Re:ZERO is by no means perfect now. Characterization is still largely lacking, the first half can be a slog, there are still some groan-inducing, tropey parts (Echidna's "bodily fluid" tea, anyone!?), and there are some awkwardly directed moments like Echidna's monologue^ which is somehow simultaneously barebones, yet overdone. Yet, often times there's a charm to the imperfections, this time around. Oto declaring himself as Subaru's (first) friend might have been a bit too saccharine for me, yet in a way, it keeps in with the dour tone — all this time and Oto is Subaru's first true friend here. The way witches are introduced is simultaneously dumb — they're visually striking and distinct but it seems like they can be reduced to just one trait, plus they’re inexplicably all showing up like it's a role call — yet cool — "Wow, they look so cool and they're all going to show up!?” Re:ZERO still isn't quite an "A" for me — perhaps it still hasn't earned that grade in my mind, or perhaps I'm just being stingier with my ratings — either way, it's definitely improved and I'm excited to see what glorious suffering is in store for us the rest of the season.
8.5/10
B

^If you want to get a sense of the grandness of Echidna's monologue without the goofy directing, I suggest reading the excerpt of it from the light novel here:
――A lovely smile rose onto Echidna’s face.
Credit to @Read for getting the text for me
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