Sep 20, 2016
Re:Zero is a bait and switch.
It gave me huge hopes at first, but despair and disappointment later on.
Story and Characters (1)
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Re:Zero starts off with the impression that it was a story of how a normal MC could overcome his tribulations with wisdom and intelligence.
The show does pretty well in fulfilling what was expected from it... but not for long.
Somewhere after the 2nd arc, it declines into a haphazard mess of unrealistic and nonsensical character regression.
...
When characters act in unexpected ways, viewers would expect that there are certain circumstances that results them in doing so.
Perhaps flashbacks of the previous life events would give a clearer picture on what makes them act the way they do
(e.g. what happened in the MC's previous world that made him repeatedly commit self-own as if he have lost all common-sense?) .
Perhaps there could be a showcase of internal dialogues to explain the thought processes.
However, Re:Zero hardly contains any of those.
Important questions on the character's personalities are ignored, resulting in a potentially outstanding cast being portrayed as opaque, illogical and inconsistent (on a "WTF" level).
After looking at the spoilers of the light novel, I am not expecting any substantial improvement, at least for the next few arcs (equivalent to possibly > 2 seasons).
On Art (8) and Sound (9)
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Though not crème de la crème, the art is pretty decent with polished backgrounds, lighting/composition, particle effects, etc.
Fight scenes, especially the ones in the earlier episodes, are bustling with action and tension.
The soundtracks are really well-composed and placed to fit the atmosphere and emotions.
In fact, I would strongly recommend just listening to them on their own (find their covers on youtube).
This is so that you won't be reminded of the harrowing story whenever you want to enjoy these listening pleasures (yes.. you'll find fans crying in the youtube comments).
White Fox is one of the better anime studios out there and does a great job in selling the Re:Zero franchise with their strong production abilities.
It really pains me to see the efforts of the animators, composers, voice-actors and everyone else on the team hinging on a shaky story that can be broken at the mere whim of the author.
Enjoyment and Overall (1)
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Despite the good art and music, I can't help but feel appalled by Re:Zero.
The sheer atrocity of the story and characters negates the positive aspects.
Perhaps this was intended by the author (his interviews indicated that he wanted to piss off readers through the story).
And perhaps he really wanted to piss off readers so much that he would resort to even butchering the quality of the story with cheap tricks (as pointed out in several other reviews).
If that's so, giving Re:Zero a 1 is the most sincere and utmost respect I can give to the author.
SPOILERS and links to Q&A with author:
http://pastebin.com/GbgUPSKZ
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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