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「約束した朝は遠く」 (Yakusoku Shita Asa wa Tooku)
“The Morning of Our Promise is Still Distant”
So is the title foreshadowing what’s to happen? Is this “promised date” the reason that Subaru keeps dying? Probably not, but it’s a nice hint at the fact that he’s going to keep repeating these few days until he finds out what (or who) is murdering him. The last few minutes of his episode were pretty gory and by now, I’ve grown used to the fact that I’m always on edge while watching Re: Zero. You know that when everything’s going too smoothly, tragedy is just around the corner. Not to mention that this show airs on the same day of the week as Game of Thrones! Sundays are officially my hermit days. The death of Subaru for a second time confirms the theory that he gets a “revival” every time he dies (and I’m calling it a “revival” because that’s essentially what it is, not because I blogged Boku Dake ga Inai Machi) and he was indeed murdered at the end of last episode. Now the question is, who and how? I brought up the idea of poison in my last post and I will bring it up again because I think that’s likely what’s slowing him down. What is physically chopping up his arm and slaughtering him is another story. It reminds me a bit of Elfen Lied where people get dismembered and it’s because Lucy has f*cking invisible telekinetic arms slicing you up! That probably isn’t the case here but you never know in the realm of fantasy. There’s definitely no shortage blood here folks – hats off to White Fox for keeping it up every week.
If it wasn’t for that ending, I would’ve thought that this week was actually pretty tame and a good follow-up to the introductions last week. This time the twin maids get more screen time for the viewers to really tell the apart and get to know them. They’re not one and the same and they actually have very different personalities – who would’ve thought? Ram, being the older one, was a bit easier to read but not any less interesting. She teaches Subaru how to read and write their language so that she and Rem could have it easier. Midway through the night, she falls asleep on Subaru’s bed too, which sounds to me that she’s less hardworking than she appears. Or perhaps she has other ways of compensating for the fact that Rem is a lot more skilled then she is? On the other hand, Rem’s interactions with Subaru were vastly different from last week and his injuries vary too. I think the obvious speculation would be that Rem is after Subaru and the dog bites were a huge contributor to his slow death… but is that too blatant? Subaru also cuts himself when he’s peeling the apple with Ram so why couldn’t Ram have poisoned the knife? Ram probably has more of a motive if she sees that Subaru is warming up to Rem more. Rem doesn’t seem to have motive at all for killing Subaru either though unless she thinks that Subaru is being rude to her older sister (whom she’s clearly protective of).
With all this speculation, I’d love to hear what other people think. I’m sure there’s plenty of foreshadowing and hints dropped, but as someone that hasn’t read the manga or light novel, I’m going to enjoy it for what it is. The fact that Subaru is smart enough to try and relive the entire duration without making too many variations is wise of him – although I don’t know how much closer he is to finding the murderer. He’ll need to work a little harder next week to understand who is out to get him and why. If his promise to Emilia has anything to do with it, maybe he should be on the watch-out for whoever is listening to their date conversation. We also haven’t heard much from Roswaal (thank God for lack of creepy clowns) or Beatrice this week so maybe we’ll see more of a focus on them later on. Rather than being a servant around the house, I’m sure Subaru could ask for any other position in the household to investigate more. Re: Zero is shaping up nicely to be more of a psychological thriller and mystery than anything else. I love it but it’s very deceiving for people coming into for an “action/adventure/fantasy” series.
Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: A slower ep to build out the characters – specifically Rem/Ram. Takes the time to differentiate them. And just when I thought it’d be a quieter episode… BAM! #Rezero #neveradullmoment
Full-length images: Because I missed one last week.
Ouch, I bet he didn’t think he would be killed off like that at the end.
I really like seeing Subaru interact and get to know these characters better. The slice of life is so endearing, and really makes his deaths at the end all the more impactful.
Exactly. Like the calm before the storm.
Holy Sh**! Is this going to be a trend now? Peaceful SoL for the most of the episode, then bam! Brutal AF. Not complaining though, I really like the mystery of this anime.
Theory:
It’s Rem and Ram, under orders of Roswaal to test if he’s a spy or not. I’m thinking Subaru gets out of this by befriending Rem and Ram so they won’t assassinate him.
Pretty brutal ending, it kind of reminds me of those infamous eroge bad ends where if you somehow messed up in the story, you get a really gruesome end (ex: school days, dramatical murder, etc). I can only imagine how Subaru will act when he wakes up from this nightmare, any normal person would lose quite a bit of their sanity by now. If he can still maintain that extreme optimism, I would honestly be impressed, but I think it would be more realistic if he toned it down a bit because of the deaths he’s going through right now.
I’m still going to chalk it down to one of the maids killing him. I’m thinking it was Rem because of a small little conversation they had in the village. Rem specifically asked Subaru whether he liked demons or not, and he replied with a yes. In response, Rem gave him a sincere looking smile (more ominous in my opinion). I’m guessing Rem and Ram are some kind of demons that have some terrifying power, and that’s why they also act as bodyguards for Roswaal. As for the reason why he’s dying, I’m still not sure yet, but perhaps he’s failed to meet certain expectations. I hope planning a date with Emilia is some sort of trigger, cause that would really suck.
On an unrelated note, does anyone know how to paste a picture from the blog post onto the comments? Tried using variations of or [img] but to no avail, not very tech savvy.
It definitely reminds me of the “Bad End” in visual novels now that you mention it lol but like I mentioned last week in another comment, I don’t think he needs to pass a certain “goal” in order to progress. I really think it’s because he dies that he resets and if he lives, he can get a new reset point.
In order to do the images, you just past the URL into the comment box. Right click on an image and copy the image link. You don’t need any tags.
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
Yeah, I also feel that his reset is merely triggered by death and not certain goals he has to meet. It just so happens that he would probably have to achieve some goal to avoid death and get his godforsaken date with Emilia, aha.
Thanks for the help guys, I was able to post an image comment below, although it doesn’t seem to enlarge when I click it, lol.
For me, I just right click the image, copy the link, then paste the link into the comment box and the picture appears when I post the comment (though your comment will be delayed from being posted if you link too many at once).
It’s a max. of 5 images per post I believe. Anything more and it will have to be approved by one of the administrators.
This guy is going to be emotionally annihilated come the end of this.
The way he’s dying, jeez.
The Multiple respawns would pretty much take an emotional toll on him. Think how’d you feel if you kept repeating the same route on a VN game while looking for the happy end and still couldn’t figure out the right flags to raise after trying for the Nth time.
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and that adds more emotional stress on him.
If it wasn’t for that brutal ending, the episode would’ve been not quite interesting. But after that ending, I realize that more than just a necessary balance between brutality and tender slice-of-life, the slice-of-life part accentuates the effects of that brutal ending because of all the attachment it caused in Subaru and in us. Subaru is suffering so much not only physically, but mentally as well because now he has to repeat this reality over and over again, therefore having his dreams and promises ERASED (Boku Machi comes to mind X) ) until he finds his killer, and his killer is just so brutal and frightening that Subaru would never grasp this hidden threat within his realm of comprehension. In other wards, it’s unknown, and Lovercraft already gave us his take on the unknown. And in turn, the show is directed in such a way that it makes viewers also feel Subaru’s suffering.
And I actually thought this “peaceful” arc within the mansion was gonna be less enjoyable than the insignia retrieval arc before it. My oh my, this show is getting better 🙂
Speculations away!
With the way he died, I cry magic, which leaves Beatrix or roswell. I like the idea someone mentioned about it being a test for suitability for becoming a spy. After all, where Emilia is going, she’ll need a good background shield and information gatherer. That also fits the story of putting our poor sap into certain death situations. So along those lines, maybe this is roswell’s way of having that role filled. Failure is death!
I was suspecting Ram last week thanks to that scene with Roswald and Ram, but Cherrie’s thought of it being a jealous Rem isn’t impossible either. I’m assuming they’re some manner of magically-created or -bound being though, considering how happy she was Subaru was all down with demons, so who knows how someone like that reacts to anything?
Cripes, that was one of his most violent deaths yet. At least Else made his end quick, and last week he probably just died in his sleep from the poison (by choking on his puke or something, which is still kinda ghastly, but hey).
In any case, I don’t think the maids are thát suspicious as of yet. They’re definitely hiding something (I doubt they’re human, in any case) but, eh, I don’t think they have enough motive to straight up kill Subaru. Clown-dude is still the more suspicious one amongst the trio (though that seems too obvious). And I think it’d be smart if Subaru starting poking around Beatrice’s study too – seems like there would be a ton of stuff in there to help him figure out things. If anything, after this episode, she’s the one we know the least about.
Or maybe Puck’s the diabolical mastermind behind it all. Little furry bastard!
Noooo !
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Every episode that blows by I like this more and more. Subaru antics seem to have settled down to a comfortable level(EMT! EMT!) and as I’m a big fan of character interactions as a side dish I’m liking the spotlights that keep shining on our dear cast. Roswaal was fabulous! The dogs & the knife are definitely things I feel are suspicious but I can’t rule out any of the people in the mansion not wanting Subaru to go on that date too, although it feels like a bit more of a petty reason.
Did anyone catch whether this would be one or two cours?
@erohakase: Two cour – 25 episodes.
I’ll be blogging all 25 episodes of this bad boy! >=)
I think you will probably be busy with next season coverage, Cherrie. Re Zero has 2 cours, which will end in the end of September. And there will also be the second season of Shokugeki no Soma next season, which I’m pretty sure you will cover it again.
Keep up your good work, Cherrie! I’m sorry if there are any grammatical errors in my text >_<
@One Pinch Man:
Ah yes… more food next season >_> Nearly forgot about that one but I will be totally throwing my name into the hat to blog it again. Luckily BSD is only one-cour *phew. Don’t think I can do 3 shows a season again.
BSD is a split cour. The second cour will begin on Fall.
Yes, we’ll have to see how well I enjoy the first season before committing to another one =X but so far, so good!
Overall a pretty good episode – certainly some interesting things going on. Agree with others that it would have been an “OK” episode if not for the ending. Figuring out the various “puzzles” is definitely a draw. The characters are still a mixed bag for me, and frankly, I’m starting to wonder how much I’ll like Subaru by the time this is over.
I don’t hate the guy, but eh, his personality now rubs me the wrong way at times, and I don’t mean his reward picking. I’m just going to roll with that, but yeah, if he continues to blithely go through life (more like lives) without any thought of “how do I die less going forward”, it won’t help his case.
The SoL stuff was OK – comedy still not really working for me. However, as others have mentioned it’s needed to flesh out & give some distinction for the two twin maid characters. Points for that. I agree with Cherrie about Roswaal – less is more with that guy.
Not sure what to make of Beatrice remembering him. I guess there’s some alternate dimension aspect in play with how her door… thing works. Definitely a clue IMO, but not entirely sure what to make of it. Perhaps too obvious, but Subaru getting sick sure screams “caused by dog bite” to me. Next time around, that’s one thing I would change if I were him. As for his murderer, one of the “oni” maids does seem to be the culprit. I’m betting on Rem, but just a guess. I can’t think of a good reason (motive) for anyone in that house to kill him – brutally so at that.
Beatrice remembering him was just confirmation that his Reset Point isn’t when he first woke up. notice Beatrice said “second time”
@GoXDS: Well, the dialog goes:
[Subaru] “If this is the second time I’ve woken up in the mansion…Then you remember me, right?
[Beatrice] “If I could, I’d rather erase you from my memory, I suppose.”
[Subaru] “So the conditions are different from last time… The save point’s changed from near the guy with the appas to the two angelic girls in maid uniforms.”
To me that indicates that unlike Rem/Ram – everyone else really, Beatrice does remember him. Also, Subaru states that the Reset Point is when he wakes up with Rem/Ram – what we saw (“The save point’s changed from near the guy with the appas to the two angelic girls in maid uniforms.”).
He died again so we’ll find out more next episode.
@daikama The way I understand it, Subaru’s new reset point, waking up with Rem&Ram in the room, is the second time he wakes up in the mansion that day. The first time was when he experienced the looping hallways, met Beatrice for the first time and got his mana sucked out (or whatever it was she did). It’s pretty much like how his first reset point wasn’t the moment he arrived to this alternate world, but later with the appa guy. Which would mean that Beatrice “remembering” Subaru refers to their first meeting.
I also agree that less is more with Roswaal, but I did make a silly observation; I found him more tolerable without the clown get-up (probably because clowns are creepy). He’s still annoying, but it was better than the first impression. The way he talks though…
I also had the impression that she “remembers” him because he stumbles into her room the first time before she knocks him out. Then he wakes up again with Rem/Ram watching him and that’s his reset point. I don’t know if it has any significance that THAT specific point happens to be his reset point… maybe it’s a sign that either Rem or Ram really did do him in. Or Beatrice really has something to do with it… >_>
@GoXDS @Erimaki @Cherrie: Thanks for the clarification – got it. 😀 I had forgotten that Subaru wakes up twice early that day (oops), so yes the reset point being the second time he wakes up makes sense. For some reason I figured (assumed really) the reset point was very start of “Act 2” if you will (i.e. first time he wakes up) – like how the first reset point was right when “Act 1” began.
@Erimaki: Agree – Roswaal is better without the clown makeup, but it’s not a “scary” thing for me, but more WTF. Just seems random as hell. O.o And yeah, his manner of speaking is annoying. That’s probably the biggest complaint I have about him.
@daikama Just to clarify, it’s not that I find Roswaal himself creepy. I think he’s weird (and mildly annoying), but the reason he’s weird is that clowns in general I find creepy. And that someone at apparently high position dressing up as a clown is just a WTF thing, like you said.
The same reason is why stuff like hospital clowns puzzles me, though they aren’t actually creepy when you see them (at least in my country, quick google search revealed to me they can be creepy in other countries).
Just want everyone to know he got bitten by the dog last loop too. You can see a bandage on his left hand under his pinkie in the previous episode.
One advantage of these rewind dramas is the amazing opportunity to flesh out characters in the same span of time and see what could have been.
It’s nice to see speculations from people who only watched the anime, since I’ve spoiled myself with the WN I don’t have much to write.
Either way, more Rem is good!
Thinking about Subaru keeping his sanity after who-knows-how-many deaths now has me thinking of Bioshock Infinite and going through Tears into parallel dimensions. Not exactly the same, but feels similar. At times, Booker and Elizabeth will come across what are practically phantoms of people that already died before in the previous dimension they were in, but are alive again in that new dimension (where they didn’t die yet), and yet remember dying from before and, at least the first time you encounter a couple enemies it happens to, you can listen to them questioning what happened, what’s real and what’s not, and just losing it bit by bit.
Hoo that’s interesting, it makes me want to play it 8’D
Yeah that’s kinda similar with re:zero, in the aspect that repeatedly dying and remembering previous life is basically mental hazard…
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
The doujinshi’s already writing itself!!!
Let him have the rod! >:D
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2005%20-%2027.jpg
My face when I’m probably going to die tonight but I still haven’t figured out why.
Um, it wouldn’t really make sense to poison the knife unless you don’t mind poisoning the food.
Regarding the twins I suspect that they are Red Oni and Blue Oni… literally.
I couldn’t wait, so I went and read the manga, which is unfortunately only a few chapters ahead of the current episodes, so I only read an extra episode worth of content at best.
I won’t spoil, of course, but I can say this: the actual answer it’s even worse than I imagined.
I feel terribly sorry for Subaru, it’s going to be a loooong ride
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Did the same, and i can only agree, poor Subaru…
I’m so hooked by the anime/manga, i want to read the LN now to know what happens next !
stupid ben afflek who kill natsuki subaru (repace raffi ahmad pls)
http://www.dreamersradio.com/img_artikel/8raffi.jpg
http://www.dreamersradio.com/img_artikel/8raffi.jpg
http://www.dreamersradio.com/img_artikel/8raffi.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
He’s prolly thinking “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu didn’t see what hit me!!”
porabily replace melody jkt48 or raffi ahmad pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
porabily trade arceus
@aegislash: As someone who probably lives in the same country as you… I found your comment utterly disgusting.
Yeah that’s a fantasy/romance/horror anime ! The manga depicts a more violent (less censored at least) death.
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when he found out who is the summoner, he really gonna make he/she/it pays for these.
I hope so
Rem & Ram being demons is sort-of confirmed this episode. I’m rather curious about what caused the divergence– maybe the twins got suspicious with how Subaru seemed to be too well-adjusted to his situation to the point where he was leading them.
Anyways, list of suspects so far:
1) Beatrice – the nausea/vertigo Barusu underwent prior to his death this episode was similar to what Beatrice put him through in the last episode. However, that would make Beatrice the obvious suspect, so I’m labeling this as a red herring.
2)
KefkaRoswaal – Probably not the killer, but the guy telling the killer to kill because f*ck clowns.3) Rem and/or Ram – I get the feeling they were assessing Subaru’s character this episode. Also, they’re the only other people in the mansion, so they’re suspicious by default, unless…
5) Soon-to-be-introduced character – this would throw the previous point off.
Admittedly, I’m relying less on clues from the anime and more on meta-ness. The bigger question for me is why does Subaru get murdered. I’m guessing
RoswaalKefka is really evil and was grooming Emilia to bedaddy’s little girlhis bride so he could be king; Subaru’s entrance just complicated matters.Maybe I’m being too obvious and not thinking a lot, but I suspect Reinhard (or is it Reinherd? Or Rainhard? Can’t remember now). In fact, I suspected him from the first moment. Something tells me he’s the one who employed Elsa, or he at least knows her.
Oh, and Roswaal. When I first saw him, I immediately thought: Kiss-clown-with-Takasugi’s-voice. I like him a lot :). I believe he will be essential for plot development.
I mean, if we will be given any.
Reinhard is a bit too good to be true but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt right now. He hasn’t done anything suspicious yet that points him as the killer =X
Well, not suspicious in the way that would lead to him murderin’ people. I’m guessing Felt’s going to turn up later as a Reinhard-backed claimant to the throne or something.
I’m not 100% that he IS the killer. I just believe there is something between him and Elsa. I seriously don’t know if it makes him the bad guy, but I’m sure that he’s hiding something. I mean, that super-ultra-powerful attack on him on Elsa destroyed the building, but she managed to escape? Well, she’s Elsa (and that means one hell of a lot), but, well, he’s Reinhard. I’m too hyped for him and Reinhard is not that much of a powerful character as a believe now, or he restrained himself for a reason. And Elsa may have looked pissed at that moment, but, like I said, she’s ELSA. She’s a good actress.
Don’t know, my intuition just says that there is something more about him X). Maybe I’m looking for revelations when there are not and he is just a nice guy.
arceus and raffi ahmad pls…………….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One jealous witch down, now who’s the jealous oni.
And I wonder which one’s the trap… maybe.
The last part of the episode really impressive! The excellency of it alone is good enough to give the whole episode 4/5 rating.
Anyway, 2 things I wonder about the episode.
From his experience, It’s natural for him to suspect that his revival is caused by his death.
But we don’t see any scene in which he thinks about the possibility, tries to figure out who the murder is.
Second, he only tries to replay/imitate the slice-of-life path of the previous episode as faithfully as possible. It looks like as if Subaru has some (compelling) reason to believe that he can avoid the reset/revival of the loop by doing so. But nothing in the episode suggests or implies what the reason is.
Instead, the show mostly concentrates on creating the light vs dark contrast effect (the contrast of typical LN-ish slice-of-life scenes and the last dark and brutal ending). The execution is really well done for such effect, though the plot progression lacks plausibility.
THe main reason he tries to stay awake the 2nd time around was in order to see what killed him during his first time he died (when he died in his sleep) his main motivation though was to have the date with Emilia though on the next day.
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Devastator001 / “THe main reason he tries to stay awake the 2nd time around was in order to see what killed him during his first time he died (when he died in his sleep) …..”
Probably it’s your guess, I think, because the relevant parts of the original Web Novel (chapter 14~17 of Part 2 ) don’t have any explicit text which indicates Subaru tries to stay awake the 2nd time around in order to see who(or what) killed him. The only text which I found to be possibly related to your guess(?) above is ‘襲撃の可能性を思えば (If possibility of a surprise attack should be considered….,). This sentence appears in the novel’s description of Subaru trying to keep awake the 2nd time round that night. But to try to keep awake in preparation for a surprise attack is different to try to keep awake to find out who the murderer was.
To be honest, much (if not most) of the original web novel upto arc 3 is poorly written, not so well thought. That’s what I think about the original web novel. The anime adaption is surprisingly successful in revising it, and managing to make the bad parts of it much less bad, and the good parts of it way more better.
I thought it was pretty obvious this episode Subaru was staying up because last time he died in his sleep. Which pretty much means he’s staying up to survive and catch the culprit or discover the cause. There aren’t that many reasons to try and stay awake while sitting in a corner, and that’s one of the better ones in Subaru’s situation.
Also, from the passage you quoted, I think that was the intention of the author with the web novel as well. There aren’t that many surprise attacks Subaru would be preparing for on the night he died last time.
(And just for the record, since the source of the anime is the light novel, not the web novel, I would guess whatever writing issues existed in the web novel would have been fixed when, you know, actual editors got involved. At least many of them.)
As for your original points:
1. Subaru doesn’t try to figure out the murderer because he has absolutely no clues (except that he died in his sleep on the 5th night in the mansion). Heck, he doesn’t even know how he died, as far as he knows it could have been a freak accident or natural causes (from story perspective it’s pretty obviously not that simply though).
2. It’s hard to tell if Subaru’s thinking like that, but when he doesn’t have clues, it’s safest to try and gather some. His plan to survive and go on a date with Emilia suggests that’s not what’s on his mind though, so maybe he just wants to reach the end of the Emilia-tan Date Route. Anyways, it’s safest to imitate his past actions as best as possible simply because that would theoretically minimize the variance in the events and make gathering clues or reaching a specific goal that much easier.
“I thought it was pretty obvious this episode Subaru was staying up because last time he died in his sleep. Which pretty much means he’s staying up to survive and catch the culprit or discover the cause. There aren’t that many reasons to try and stay awake while sitting in a corner, and that’s one of the better ones in Subaru’s situation.”
Let’s suppose that he kept away to catch the culprit or discover the cause. Then It’s hard to make sense why he didn’t make any preparation against possible surprise attack from enemy (no weapon, no attempt to seek any kind of help from Emilia or Puck or any other plan to protect himself against attack).
If you were him, would you really think that just staying up the night is the only thing you can do to avoid the time loop by death? Probably you’d not.
Oh, it definitely would make more sense for Subaru to prepare more. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have prepared badly (the way he prepared, or didn’t, to combat with Elsa already shows Subaru doesn’t seem to be much of a thinker as far as battle preparations are concerned. Though to be fair he didn’t have much time back then).
But really, this whole thing pretty much boils down to if Subaru has some other reason to stay up and sit in a corner than to see what he died to last time (and try to survive it). Since I can’t think of a better (or even another) reason for him to do so, I’m inclined to believe that’s why he did so.
Barusu calls it “Return by Death”, I call it “Return to being a virgin”. I’m calling it now, he dies every time he triggers girl flags.