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「次なる場所」 (Tsuginaru Basho)
“The Next Location”
Best prep those lawn chairs and get the popcorn ready, because it’s time for the real suffering to commence. While I imagine the random name drops and new locales may confuse more than foreshadow right now, this episode largely did the job of prepping the field for Re:Zero’s next big arc, because if the teasing wasn’t enough, the appearance of certain faces might be. After all, we all know what Witch means in this franchise.
Besides the fun of what’s to come, the big thing this week was the return of some well-known (and soon-to-be known) faces. Beatrice naturally is the biggest (well, narratively at least), with attitude and stubbornness returning with a vengeance to ensure Subaru’s own unique form of selfishness is not left without a counterbalance. Beyond the fun of tart Beako-isms though, there were a few key details which did emerge, notably that refusal to divulge Sanctuary’s location and how to get to it, name dropping someone called Geuse (take a guess who you think that is), and the existence of a Witch Factor. Obviously the girl is involved with more than simple knowledge considering that foreboding atmosphere and utter lack of info, but to what degree (and its relationship to Subaru and Emilia) remains to be seen.
Beyond Beatrice came our new arrivals—and with it a whole host of teasing. Frederica I think is going to quickly top the charts thanks to pointy smiles and calm maidly demeanour, however the elephant in the room with her of course is her relationship to Rosewaal and her knowledge of Sanctuary. Once again we have another character who knows far more than she’s letting on, and a small part of me is fully expecting a personality change and power reveal of some sort once Subaru and suffering begin the dance anew (remember those initial impressions of Rem and Ram? Subaru certainly does). The more important ones to pay attention to though will be our little elf cutie pie (hint hint), and obviously Echidna thanks to calling herself the Witch of Greed. Besides the major implications of there being more than one Witch (since Echidna is not Satella before people get ahead of themselves), there’s also her involvement with and/or plans for Emilia, since you damn well know that magical device didn’t suddenly decide to screw up. Couple it with Puck’s eerie silence and earlier request from Subaru and you can wager things are about to get a little hectic.
We may still technically be in the preparatory stage, but with pieces this hefty, it sure won’t take long before the consequences make their presence felt.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「Realize」 by Konomi Suzuki
Is it me, or does Echidna look like genderbent archbishop of greed? (Or vice versa idk)
My first reaction was that she stole her appearance from Katanagatari (I can’t think of the name of the dumb main character who died endlessly in the final episode). But (assuming you meant gluttony) they do seem to share some features. At least she doesn’t talk like him. But she’s also obviously an ugly distortion of Emilia (or vice versa) so who knows.
Oddly, on MAL’s show details page, they have images of the covers from several of the light novels and most of the female characters look the same (Emilia, Echidna, Frederica, and whoever is on the cover of volume 12). It seems that the anime made slight changes to make characters look less similar (excepting somewhat Emilia and Echidna).
Her name was Togame and she was not dumb!
That’s right, thanks. I was stuck with ‘kogame’ in my mind (and a couple of others) for some reason but that obviously wasn’t right.
While Togame was charmingly voiced, she was pretty foolish about important things and ultimately was too small a person (and was needlessly stubborn). I felt sorry for Hiteihime.
That was her charm. She was in o er her head but she had a tragic backstory that made you feel for her. I was sad and pissed to see her die.
Well, this episode just took the ‘all exposition, all the time’ lead for the season, requiring more than 22 minutes before anything actually happened. Ugh!
At least on the positive side there’s no rushing, it’ll be just like season one in terms of pacing.
Good episode and the OP sets the proper mood, heh…
Looks like Beatrice knew Betelgeuse and while he took the “wrong path” she ended in the mansion. I think remember seeing a pic of a younger Betelgeuse in one of the two OVAs. Flashback episode incoming?
Frederica wasn’t what I expected from seeing of her and her animal like smile before. Thought she would be the cheeky type, instead she’s the sort of distinguished Nazuka Kaori voiced head maid. Gap moe?
I guess the blonde boy featured with her in the OP might be a relative of hers, possibly a younger brother that they’ll meet in the sanctuary?
Looking forward to what Maaya Sakamoto voiced Echidna has to say.
btw. Pancakes did you read the LN or are you going in unspoiled?
Oh there’ll be more on Betelgeuse, either this season or next. That info though (same regarding Frederica and her family) is definitely spoiler material lol.
And nope I haven’t read the LN, but I’ve been spoilered by various forums and the franchise’s wiki so I know more or less what’s going to happen. Kind of sucks the suspense is gone, but makes it easier to catch any spoilers at least 😛
Am I the only one that noticed that something weird happened with Petra’s handkerchief? Did it teleport back to her? The anime made pay us attention to it, as if it is something relevant…
No spoilers, please!
I thought she was simply wearing another handkerchief on her own. You know, matching handkerchiefs, but she was too shy to show it to Subaru.
I replayed that moment a couple of times, trying to see if she had a second matching ‘kerchief, but her wrists were always obscured, as were his afterward. So yeah, kind of weird but I figured that it might be significant at some future moment. We’ll see. I like that they didn’t tell us anything (and hope they don’t later (like they unfortunately did in the coach when Subaru was thinking about what Puck had told him previously — that said, it was a good moment for him).
As an aside, I completely forgot that she was a known character. I guess I should re-watch the first season or something.
I think there’s two handkerchiefs, just the show didn’t bother explicitly showing the second (Petra’s). If anything the whole scene was simply setting Subaru’s next despair flag.
So we finally get the new OP at the end. Lots of quick flashing imagens there. And is that the Black Beast of Caerbannog I saw?
I mean, not black, just the Beast of Caerbannog.
So much talking, which adds almost nothing to the plot, gosh
A lot of beating around the bush in this episode. I was like “Stop talking and go to Sanctuary to get the villagers back.”
Frederica was certainly a surprise. Usually sharktooth characters are more flamboyant, but no she acts normally and talks so soft. It was almost jarring to see a character like that.
That opening made me wonder if we’ll see Subaru get spawnkilled like in a video game. That would be something.
Considering how shark teeth usually go you can bet there’s more to Frederica than meets the eye, especially considering she’s half beast (which IMO is a nice way to explain the dental pattern).
Had to look up the name online to understand Echidna wasn’t the same witch it was talked about on season 1.
I don’t know if it is the anime adaption that made a poor job of explaining this or the fact that there are multiple witches was kept intentionally hidden.
Beatrice already told Subaru in Season 1 that the Witch of Envy (Jealous Witch was a bad translation since a Witch of Sin wouldn’t be called the Jealous Witch) devoured the other witches bearing the name of the deadly sins.
As far as I can tell, Subaru is likely talking to the Witch of Greed in the afterlife since she was killed by the Witch of Envy. Recall that Petelgeuse was excited about Puck killing him because he believed that he would be reunited with the Witch of Envy, whose soul was likely sealed in the afterlife since the fabled dragon, sage, and hero of olden times were unable to destroy her body, and sealing her soul in the afterlife was the only way to defeat her.
Pretty much as Vance stated. For the layman (and anime-only viewer) though it’s certainly not well-described, and for all intents and purposes it’s easy to assume from the first season that’s there’s only one Witch. This season will provide more clarity on that front however, especially in regards to Emilia.
Already running late for the next one, so…
Man, the season 2 OP sequence gave me flashbacks to Rick and Morty‘s “Vat of Acid” episode. Also, I almost expected this girl to be voiced by Haruka Tomatsu with how much she resembles Zero-Two.