Ahh Re:Zero, the anime that is in my opinion looking to be the best show this year (beating erased). The anime that actually inspired me to write my first anime review, despite me being a lazy fk.
Apart from having excellent art, soundtrack, story, voice acting (especially voice acting) and direction (pacing) there are several underlying themes and messages (sometimes subliminal/hidden ones like in its OP). This is a show that will go against all of your preconceptions, judgements and/or expectations of a trapped-in-an-another-world type anime and will present to you something that feels entirely original somehow. It's one of those don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover type shows.
There
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are many things I could talk about this show that would take too long to express, so I'm just gonna stick with presenting some plus and negative points.
+ Interesting story about a shut-in neet suddenly appearing in fantasy world and has a strange respawn ability 'return by death'. With no purpose/reason for his summoning he has to cling to those around him and deal with things that will challenge his very sense of self. My synopsis might seem cliche and uninteresting but since I'm lazy I cbf going too much in-depth (I'll probably spoil it anyway). The story however is surprisingly the strong point because I consider the world-building in this show to be top-notch. Even though it has a time-travel attribute, it is not similar to Steins;Gate (which casts a shadow of expectation over it). It is a fantasy story first and foremost, and a very well made one at that (not the harem/romance type or Lord of the Rings type fantasy, it's more like a 'follow the journey of the MC through the world' type fantasy). It certainly isn't predictable, cliche or boring to watch (except the first few episodes).
+ Soundtrack is very good. It doesn't simply have catchy OP's and ED's but impressive orchestral music and also utilises the sounds of objects, breathing, movements to really set the tone of the scene and your expectations of what is about to happen. Episode 15 is a good example of this.
+ Right off from episode 1 we see very good art/animation (but not so good during some slice of life scenes). It manages to be fairly consistent throughout each episode and does give off the feeling of watching a well-made show. Character designs are also top-notch, with characters that actually add to the story being drawn well enough to be memorable; almost all characters/creatures were unique looking as well. I don't think there's a single character that looked boring, plain or weird.
+ The biggest selling point of this show is its constant sense of mystery, foreshadowing and the whats-gonna-happen next factor. Unless you've read the light novels for this show there is no way you can predict what happens next, even on a minute-to-minute basis. It was almost a 'one cliffhanger per episode' situation going on. Although this is fairly what you'd expect from time-travel like plot, the plot twists and cliffhangers don't feel off-putting, outlandish or just plain weird (think Mirai Nikki's weird ending). Instead they actually do what they are supposed to do - shock and hook you, get you hyped and make it hard for you to stop binge-watching. The best comparison to this feeling is watching Game of Thrones.
+ Main plus point for me was the fact that RZ took an overused genre, flipped it on its head and excluded nearly every character and plot trope that makes the genre so hated. Although its not blatantly presented to the audience, there were several central themes that were strongly developed that were in my opinion quite meaningful. Primarily, the deconstruction of what a true hero/protagonist should be was a key reason why I rated the show even higher than I might normally do.
Although it happens a lot in anime, the dialogue, execution and specific way the show demonstrated this theme, was quite unique (chiefly that its 'unlike' most shows) and outstanding. For the sake of brevity, I'd suggest watching the show to judge it for yourself but I think one would at least somewhat agree with me on this.
Despite having many other +'s I could talk about I'm just gonna skip to the negatives cos this is getting TL;DR.
+/- Main character Natsuki Subaru does not follow that standard behaviours you'd expect from a protagonist. Although he isn't made into a sort of anti-hero or villain like Light Yagami (death note) he certainly isn't a great person. This show is really self-aware of the kind of things a protagonist should do but it instead illustrates a MC that doesn't necessarily always do it. In short, the MC isn't made to be appeal to the audience's expectations (he, like the other characters in the show, feel poly-dimensional), so often there are cringy scenes/dialogue/inner thoughts around Subaru that can really make you dislike him at some points, but you can be rest assured that he does end up redeeming himself. He becomes the protagonist we all want in the end - starting from zero hehe. Essentially his character could decide whether its a plus or minus point for you. If you don't take the time to understand his character, and pay close attention to the show, it's likely you'll think he's dumb, over-dramatic or whatever (which is what most critics try to argue); which is a shame because he is actually very well-written.
- This does not affect me personally but there are some hard-to-watch scenes, blood and gore so it might not appeal to everyone. I certainly don't think its done to the point where you'd just want to drop the show but I can say that it doesn't hold back at trampling over your heart lol. In other words, there is plenty of shock value but there is always a 'weight' to the gore, unlike Tokyo Ghoul where there is literally blood/gore everywhere all the time and you don't feel anything, its more like that feeling when you first watched Attack on Titan and you're just there like 'WHY? OH WHY?'
Overall it doesn't matter if you think its good or bad at first, I would recommend just diving into it because regardless of its plot, it is definitely one of the best shows this year. Most of the hate the show receives is pretty much coming from people who want to de-rate it because they weren't that impressed, or they completely missed the meaningful points the show presents etc., and they end up using nit-pickery arguments or misrepresent/misunderstand/over-exaggerate some of its negatives. Trust me, it's not nearly as bad as any negative reviewer would make you believe.
Re:Zero is a fun show to get hooked on. It doesn't primarily concern itself with being philosophical, something really deep or trying to be a masterpiece - although episode 18 and some other episodes show potent and interesting digressions of human nature. Its not the best thing ever, but it definitely is above average.
You can really see how it is a passion project and that White Fox has put it in a lot of effort into it. It's definitely a must-watch show. Although it does have some flaws (mainly near the ending of the show), the cumulation of so many amazing moments and the dramatic, fun and interesting ride that I went on while watching this convinced me to award it a 10/10.
P.S If I had to rate it as objectively as possible I'd still give it as least an 8/10 but it just doesn't feel right. It simply excels in every department I can think about (or care about anyway), exceeded my expectations and was just too enjoyable a show to give it an 8.
Sep 21, 2016
Ahh Re:Zero, the anime that is in my opinion looking to be the best show this year (beating erased). The anime that actually inspired me to write my first anime review, despite me being a lazy fk.
Apart from having excellent art, soundtrack, story, voice acting (especially voice acting) and direction (pacing) there are several underlying themes and messages (sometimes subliminal/hidden ones like in its OP). This is a show that will go against all of your preconceptions, judgements and/or expectations of a trapped-in-an-another-world type anime and will present to you something that feels entirely original somehow. It's one of those don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover type shows. There ... |