Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season Part 2

This will be a review for season 1 and 2. Didn't really know much about Re:Zero before watching besides the main girls names. The return from death aspect was definitely cool and refreshing at the start and while I feel it came to be both under and over utilized in different ways, it kept things at varying levels of freshness. Characters are pretty well written, especially in the later half of season 2 where a lot of them get fleshed out more. I think the first half of season 1 and the 2nd half of season 2 were the strongest, it got a bit dull ... in between but I'm looking forward to season 3 because it does seem like things are ramping up from here as things fall into place. I fel like the world building was a little barren but its been starting to expand on it more and more pieces falling into place. I'm hoping the anime keeps up with the quality of season 2 part 2 but we will see.

Season 2 of Re:Zero was a random side quest for the purpose of world building, character development, and exposition dump... but it was executed sub-optimally, feeling difficult to get through at times, and wasted some characters' mystery/potential. I only completed it because I loved season 1 (Director's Cut) and can see season 3 picking back up again with the return to the main plot.

Season 2's sense of horror and stakes were diminished, and plot lines were insufficiently supported by characters' motivations. The main character became less complex and more one-dimensional with repetitive long-winded "don't give up" and "I'm here for you" speeches with every other ... character. There were so many forced/hurried backstories to the point where it was difficult to care about them all.

That said, I still have high hopes for the rest of the series.

Tldr: set up Echinda as a very interesting character in part 1, realize it’s too complicated to properly write her and instead refocus part 2 on boring shit happening inside a backwater village while also planting seeds for better seasons to come and of course completely killing the pacing of part 2 by doing so.

I very much liked the introduction of Echidna into the story in part 1 of season 2. I liked the idea of giving the story a new layer to keep it interesting since we explored the basic premise thoroughly in the previous season. I was hopeful that the powers Echidna brought ... to the table would help create a new perceptive on how and for whom Subaru should use his power. A clash in ideologically so to speak between her and Subaru.
But unfortunately that is not the case and Echidna gets done dirty here. I feel like they cut her out of the story or at least drastically reduced her screen time because writing two morally complex characters having multiple back and froths about their differences in ideologically is way more complicated than having to write Echidna is evil because she is evil. Simply just sidelining her completely also works here as well. It feels to me that they bit off more than they could chew in part 1 by introducing Echidna and therefore tried to fix it in part 2. They made the decision to sideline her in order to put more empathize on what’s happening inside the sanctuary which is fine if the sanctuary would also add to the premise of the show which it doesn’t.
We waste most of the season in the sanctuary talking to some very powerful furries and mushroom people. To top that of the clown who played a rightfully small role in the previous season because he isn’t that interesting as a character gets his own story arc here. Personally I don’t watch the show because I’m interested in Roswaal L. Mathers and I don’t think many people are. In fact I know that many people aren’t interested in him since he has been favored by 472 people while Echidna is looking at 4,918. We also see a lot of important events in flashbacks which will presumably become relevant for the story in the next season? Which brings up the question to why have them here if they are not relevant for the main story at all. This makes part 2 feel horribly paced until the part where they leave the sanctuary which is pretty much at the end. Because as we leave the sanctuary behind us the show gets instantly interesting again. This makes the sanctuary feel largely like filler. What a waste of time.
They should have cut everything that happens in the sanctuary into like 2 episodes and instead moved on to the interesting stuff but we don’t do that here because we plan to make 15 more seasons with interesting marital worth to make only 5. With the good shit reserved for later seasons and over exploring the stupid backwater, out in the sticks, nobody gives a shit about village that is conveniently cut off from everywhere and everything we are given about 2 out of 12 episodes which are genuinely interesting to watch and drive the story forward in a meaningful way.
All in all a waste of time and potential with some tidbits of important information sprinkled across which completely brake the pacing. Season 2 part 2 virtually screamed there will be 15 more seasons so better keep watching because some good shit will happen eventually. Meanwhile here watch this garbage or you won’t understand some things later on. Enjoy.

No i am not a Echinda simp it just happend to be that she was the only character introduced in the season who had meanigfull dialog that sticked with me even a year later.