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Story > 7
The story took the major points of the manga, focusing on the friendship of the two main characters. So unfortunately it skips a lot of character developpement especially for the side characters. Thus the main plot makes sense but the behaviour of some characters seems out of character actually.

Art > 10
The animation really is great and they are many scenes that are great ideas well composed like the one where Shouya is walking in a crowd of cross-headed people. It is a simple and straightforward way to show that he feels uncomfortable around strangers.

Sound > 8
The OST isn’t flashy nor ... stays in my head afterwards but it does it’s job well. I didn’t expected an occidental song for the opening!

Character > 7
I’ve talked about the lack of developpement for side characters early. Therefore I found Ueno and Kawai really annoying even though we knew the reasons of their behaviour. But as far as Shouya is concerned we really had to see him grow up and changes his mind. Even though he was a jerk when he was a kid we can only root for him as he tries so hard to correct his past mistakes. Same goes for Nishimiya, she had to go through many hard times and still she finds way to smile.

Enjoyement > 8
Overall I had a good time watching Koe no Katachi.

I haven't seen Re:zero when it first came out, so i've saw all that growing hype around the anime without been part of it.
Honestly the first time i've heard about it i figured out that it would be a SAO-like anime. Still I wanted to give Re:Zero it's chance, a friend really liked it and told me there was time travel stuff so why not ?

But I was so disappointed, even more due to the fact that he hyped me, and to the anime's popularity. I mean, if it were only an average anime, neither especially bad nor especially good, I think I would have ... enjoyed it a bit more. Because, as I was a bit hyped, I put higher expectations on it.

So, I won't go in a deep analysis but just point out the problems of Re:Zero and the things it did well. Here we go !


/!\ Minor spoilers ahead /!\


First the "return to checkpoint" idea was interesting, it opens many doors for a good story-telling. However time travels are one of the hardest subject to tackle, because it is so easy to mess it up. And when an anime revolves around time travel (yes it is not truly time travel here but it is as difficult to manipulate) it kinda have two choices : to explain it, whether it is a scientifical or magic explanation whatever (as Steins;Gate) ; or drop any explanations, just put it here as a fact (as Erased).
The issue is that Re:Zero is doing the two at the same time. It does want to keep the causes of the turn back in time secret but on the other sides, it gives hints on the person who's responsible for that curse.
Btw his time travels are vanishing all dramatic tension. Even though Subaru is so triggered by those horror scenes, he merely has to die in order to restart the whole thing, no need to worry actually for us as well as him. And these time travels don’t even have any consequences, he can do it as much as he can.
So in the end i just felt unsatisfied by the half answer given by the anime.


And it is part of another issue with Re:Zero imo : the snapshot way of building the lore. We can figure out that Re:Zero’s world is one big fantasy world with ancient myths, kingdoms, royal families etc. We have plots about it with the King’s throne being vacant and those candidates coming from all over the world.
But all we focus on is Subaru saving Emilia. All this very interesting lore is merely forgotten for a romantic plot. There would be so much to say about the other countries, about the witches, about spirits/magical entities such as Beatrice and Pack. But all the anime care of is Subaru saving his waifu.
The some lore parts might not be such a big deal. However let’s take a look at Satella the witch of Envy. They talk about her almost in every episode, and in the end we don’t even know who she really is, what have she done, what are her powers. I had to take a look into the wikia to know all that, and to know that there were many other witches actually.
So idk, maybe Re:Zero is just another promotional anime, the kind of anime that is supposed to make you read the source material. But an anime is supposed to be independent of the source material. It’s not about answering all the questions or covering every part of the light novel or manga so far. By independent i mean that it should at least give the feeling that the work is complete.
In short, Re:Zero’s lore seems interesting but it is unfairly underused in the anime.


Now lets talk about the poor characterization. All of them are ranging from “have little meaning in Subaru’s quest during 10min” to “flat one-sided personnality”. They are so poorly developed that there is not much to say.
Even Subaru’s love interest, his beloved Emilia is a flat character. I bet that she has less screentime than Rem. She is the one that makes Subaru do everything he’s doing and that’s all. We know little about her too.
Talking about Rem, she lost almost everything that made her personnality interesting when she felt in love of Subaru. Just the generic waifu who follows her loved one blindly.
And finally Subaru. At least he has some fighting abilities but unfortunately, no brain. He doesn’t want to listen to anyone, neither when the others are pointing out his failures. So in the end he is making even more mess just for his own egoist wish to stay with Emilia.
At least episode 18 saved him from being totally dumb. It is worth mentioning that in episode 18 Subaru realises how stupid he is and apologises. But unfortunately a single episode can’t lift up the averageness of 24 others.


To conclude Re:Zero is really lacking in many pretty important points, great animation and music can’t make a dubious story and characters up. Yet Re:Zero can still have value in mere entertainment and you may be entertained by this anime. However, if you expected something more complex and well structured, you’re not at the right place.