First Impressions / Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu / Series Introduction

「劇場型悪意」 (Gekijou-gata Akui)
“Theatrical Malice”

Whatever one has to say about Re:Zero it’s definitely not that it or White Fox skimp out on season openers. Over three years after season two’s end we’re once again greeted with 90 minutes of isekai goodness – or, you know, Re:Zero’s version of that. As we all know it’s only the taste of what’s to come – and if you want to avoid spoilers I suggest catching up on the previous season because from here on out I assume you’ve seen it all.

Given it’s been quite a while since the previous season you would imagine this opener would help fill in the blanks and indeed we got that in part. Besides going through the usual array of cast from Subaru (Kobayashi Yuusuke) himself down to Emilia (Takahashi Rie), newly contracted Beatrice (Arai Satomi), pickup Garfiel (Okamoto Nobuhiko), and the host of everyone else from Ram to Roswaal, Otto (Amasaki Kouhei) to Julius (Eguchi Takuya), it was a veritable refresher into the who’s who of current-day Re:Zero. As with all light novel adaptations however I expect quite a bit of confusion to start given the one year time skip; the previous arc with Echidna is assumed knowledge, the events leading to Rem’s and Puck’s state isn’t explicitly mentioned, and if you don’t remember the likes of Anastasia (Ueda Kana) and Felt (Akasaki Chinatsu) best be getting on that prior material. Still this episode I think did a good job of alluding to previous arcs with show not tell, particularly in the case of Rem and Puck where you best be sure their current conditions will be coming up again given their closest compatriots.

The true meat and potatoes though rests with future events, and damn if we didn’t get it all nicely wrapped. First off the bat is Anastasia and her call to collect the fellow royal candidates in Priestella for one arbitrary reason or another. The true reason? Dealing with the latest Witch Cult shenanigans. At this point the cult is effectively the raison d’etre for all of Re:Zero’s arcs, but it’s hard to deny the impact given how varied the characters involved often wind up being. Sirius, the Sin Archbishop of Wrath after all is the latest in a long line of crazy, and it’s not hard getting an idea of what to expect when Subaru’s first Return by Death is at the hands of literal head popping bloodshed. Couple it too with Regulus, the Sin Archbishop of Greed dancing around the edges and the teased history of Priestella and you might start getting an idea what to expect. There’s going to be a lot of chaos, there’s going to be plenty of carnage, and rest assured you don’t know half of what’s coming down the pipe.

As for more personal matters here too we got the full meal deal of several different tangents. The major one given Subaru’s intimate involvement of course concerns the Van Astrea family, especially the connection between Wilhelm, his grandson Reinhart, and the newly revealed father of Reinhard, Heinkel. In short expect this tense family relationship to see quite a bit of strain as it works towards the inevitable resolution, particularly given Heinkel’s siding with fellow royal candidate Priscilla – there’s a (spoiler alert) reason for it as well as Heinkel’s current state, and best be sure this arc will start indicating why. Next up of course are the old favourites in Julius, Crusch, and Felt, though Julius arguably stole the show here for similar reasons as Wilhelm. Subaru as repeatedly shown has mellowed out and matured of late, and his talks and banters with both Wilhelm and Julius show a greater deal of control and understanding than he had before. Not enough to completely lose that side mind you (as Julius confrontations and Witch Cult showdowns always show), but enough that you shouldn’t expect the same brash behaviour from the kid this time around.

And as for what Subaru will be getting up to and with who, suffice to say we won’t have too long waiting to find out. Between new girl (and guaranteed fan favourite) Liliana, the new and improved Beatrice, and even Garfiel and his own minor arc, there’s a lot of material to chew through, a lot of character development in store, and over three cours (albeit split) to work through it all. Best stick around boys and girls – this is going to be one hell of a season.

4 Comments

  1. What a banger season opener! It fulfilled its mission: getting me excited for that new arc.
    There’s so many new things brought on the table that for sure will matter later on:
    The Astrea conflict, the gems, Liliana, Regulus, Garf’s mother, Mimi & Garf, Priscilla finally on stage, that new antagonist, the city mysteries: its foundation, its founder… a real buffet!

    It reminded me that one of Re:Zero’s strengh was its character development and being able to deliver a consistent story with so many of them on stage at the same time without falling in the “meanwhile…” cliché.

    Makoto
    Reply

  2. I take issue to calling Garfiel’s arc a minor arc. Although Sirius’s whole introduction was the highlight of the episode for most fans of Re:zero, what most interested me was how Garfiel was written this episode. As we know from the Sanctuary Arc, Garfiel was proud to be the strongest person there and the defender of the Sanctuary. Here he saw just how much weaker he was compared to Reinhard, not to mention Reinhard unintentionally pissing Garf off by calling him impressive for his age, which rubbed more salt in the wound. Later on in the episode, Garfiel informs Subaru that he’s taking a step outside since he’s unhappy about not being the strongest. When outside, he has hallucinations of Elsa due to having killed her and also ’cause he came close to dying against her. And it is fantastic writing for Garfiel to be written like this since he clearly demonstrated a fear of death in his first season. I have to hand it to Tappei for being a master of writing his characters to be consistent with what came before. Given Garfiel originally stayed in the Sanctuary ’cause he became scared of the outside world due to seeing that his mother’s carriage had been caught in a landslide, it was clear he had a huge fear of death. This is further backed by how Garfiel backed off after Subaru said that he knows hell and looked at Subaru’s eyes, which shows Garfiel believed that that is indeed the case, a callback to Season 1 Episode 12 when Wilhelm said that Subaru’s eyes indicate that Subaru is well-versed with death. So it is very fitting that Garfiel, who fears death, is struggling with seeing hallucinations of Elsa when she is long dead since it was probably his first kill, which was traumatizing for him. If you’re confused about Garfiel showing no visible signs of being bothered by his killing of Elsa in Season or his stoic behaviour in the Breaktime episode following that in Season 2 telling Maylie that it’s okay to cry, trauma does not always happen close to instantly and can take months to manifest.

    In Episode 48 (Episode 24 of Season 2) Garfiel, while fighting Elsa, eventually got a lucky break when the ceiling fell down on Maylie, which distracted Elsa, allowing him to savagely bite into Elsa’s neck repeatedly and do enough damage to stop her regeneration, allowing him to deal the finishing blow. Garfiel who took pride in being the strongest of the Sanctuary, likely had some trauma over defeating Elsa in this way since it took Elsa being distracted rather than him winning a pure man to woman fight. The reality likely dawned on him that he wouldn’t have won a fair fight, leading to him thinking he isn’t the strongest, and hence, weak as the hallucination of Elsa said. If Garfiel only had these hallucinations rarely, he will likely have them more often now that Reinhard has shown how much he outclasses him. Garfiel wants to be the strongest ’cause he fears death and ’cause he’s a young teenager and who hasn’t developed a healthy self-esteem yet. Clearly from Subaru’s struggles with RBD and now Garfiel, Tappei has shown he has a very nuanced view of death with Garfiel in having both have trauma for killing Elsa and also being reminded of his mortality due to the circumstances of his victory over her, and this should be applauded.

    Vance
    Reply

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