First Impressions / Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

「ヴィルヘルム・ヴァン・アストレア」 (Wiriherimu Wan Asutorea)
“Wilhelm van Astrea”

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for… the battle against the giant White Whale! And it’s truly a great battle indeed as we see all three armies charge against it and literally firing all its efforts into defeating it. Rem and Subaru lead the charge initially but then it’s up to basically Crusch’s team to take it down. When you take a step back, it’s pretty abnormal to see a giant floating White Whale even in the realm of fantasy. I get that it’s a mabeast, but still – why is it a whale? Why not a giant eagle or something? Totally off-topic now. Anyway, even though the Whale has endured many hits and cuts, it manages to keep on flying and doesn’t ground itself easily unless its charging at someone. There were a few scenes that actually got me excited to see damage being done but alas, it only makes the Whale angier. When Wilhelm cuts out his eye, that totally made me cringe (and pity the Whale in general). It makes me feel pain just seeing the Whale get disembodied like that – even though I know it’s the enemy.

And of course, to no one’s surprise – the White Whale’s fog does in fact make memories of an individual disappear. I believe the Whale eats the person in the fog and then that person disappears from any memory. It’s weird that soldiers would NOTICE that people are missing and not know who they are though. I thought that the soldiers would just be forgotten altogether. Subaru is the only exception to the rule because he’s a) lived through this attack once but b) he also seems to be immune to the effects of the fog. I thought initially that it’s because he’s special with his abilities, but maybe it has something to do with the Witch’s influence over him that makes him immune to mabeast powers as well. Rem/Ram aren’t immune to the fog and neither is anyone else on the battlefield from what I can gather.

What I enjoyed the most this episode though, despite the huge epic fight, was how well it intertwined with Wilhelm’s history. When I first started the episode, I thought it was going to be a whole episode devoted to the history before Subaru, but seeing bits and pieces of Wilhelm’s encounters with his wife was a nice touch. The anime has done a great job of incorporating all the necessary scenes that explain Wilhelm’s history and just how Theresia van Astrea (Takahashi Minami) changed his life. I would’ve liked to see just how he falls in love with her and how their romance blossomed but seeing more of Theresia’s skills as a Sword Master was cool too. Not to sound sexist or to generalize, but it’s amazing to me that a woman would be the Master Swordsman in a country whose knights are primarily men. It only increases my curiosity as to how their lives changed after meeting – Theresia must have had a huge influence over Wilhelm to not only marry him but better his skills to “protect” those around him. I mean, look at him today! Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the revenge he fought so hard for because the Whale literally shallows him whole. NOooo! Not Wilhelm too! I think losing him and Ricardo this episode was a huge blow that I wasn’t ready for. I always thought this was going to be it – no more revivals for Subaru (in this arc) – so these loses could be for real and characters actually die for good. To see Wilhelm and Ricardo go like that just feels like such a blow to the team and show in general. An entire episode title just for Wilhelm and now he’s gone? Gosh, that tears my heart up.

The fight continues next week against not one but THREE Whales! I can’t imagine how the armies are going to accomplish that task unless the other Whales are fakes. With a lot of people missing/dead, it’ll only grow more difficult for them to take down the White Whale. I wonder if that means that someone else has more tricks up their sleeves or if they’re just going to continue to strike it until it gets grounded…

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: It’s not ONE giant whale but three?! That’s crazy… X_X. That was an amazing fight and I loved the crossover with Wilhelm’s history and encounter with his wife. #Rezero

51 Comments

    1. https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2020%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
      You know you would think Suburu would have had the advantage since Most heroes face raid bosses either alone or in a small party. In Suburu’s case he had a reasonably large army, filled with strong people, and some advanced technology; I am shocked to see something like photon cannons in a Fantasy setting, I do wonder if Suburu’s phone can be taken and studied then he can be the next Bill Gates.

      Anyway, I guess things like tanks and fighter jets woudn’t work well on that giant Whale, I think since it took a direct hit from those advance military weapons. Would be nice what would happened if Suburu managed to get the JSDF to fight that whale, assuming he dies again
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kZovVnSGzXo

      L002
      Reply

      2. @Lelo: Good info about the magic stones since Rem states: “Its white hair scatters mana and disperses force. My magic was not as effective as it appeared, either.” That would explain limited effect. On the other hand, Crusch’s “wind slash” (I’m assuming it’s some sort of wind magic) seemed effective so not sure how this all works. Physical weapons (e.g. swords) sure do seem to work well, so my question is whether the “magic resistant hairs” property is known only by Rem (and if so, why she didn’t mention that during planning) or others. Seems to me that using iron balls (like old smooth bore cannons) fired by magic would do the trick. Magic propulsion, but a physical, non-magic projectile. Actually, given that it’s a whale, large harpoons also come to mind.

        daikama
        Reply

      3. @daikama yes, despite the first impressions, even Crusch’s attack didn’t do much damage, while the magic cannons effects were mere scratches.
        All of the attacks done by the Iron Fang, Wilhelm and Crusch caused basically light wounds that quickly stopped bleeding. Of course, a lot of these wounds are required to expose more of the underskin of the Whale.
        Since Crusch’s attack is a slash, it’s fast and does more damage than the other magic attacks (and probably it hurts more, since the Whale reacts immediatly to it), but it still doesn’t do a lot of damage. It’s a wind magic + sword techique attack that’s supposed to “cut anything in its range”, but it didn’t even cause the Whale to lose a bit of altitude

        Lelo
        Reply

  2. Well, that was pretty slick- seamlessly interspersing high-octane action with heart-wrenching drama. Not an easy task. Scenario writers deserve applause for making it work. More oft than not all that results from such an attempt is a jarring mess…

    Zen
    Reply

  3. This is what happens when you bring only one healer to a raid with only one DPS to carry the entire raid. The healer doesn’t even have AOE Heals man, and he can’t even cleanse fast enough for the entire raid man…. LFR is pathetic these days man…

    Art of WoW(Kuma)
    Reply

  4. Some fun facts about Re Zero’s author!
    – Not a professional writer, but works as a meat shop butcher (Currently taking leave from his job to assist on the anime)
    – He thinks up plot developments whilst working, and sometimes likes yelling Subaru’s name during the meat cutting
    – Emilia’s his favourite character, but thinks Crusch is the best ruler candidate
    – He loves putting Subaru through lots of sh*t because it’s fun, but also to give him constant development (The author believes MCs grow strong through adversity). He’s thinking he’s been too soft on Subaru lately and needs him to experience even more intense sh*t

    The author was in Taiwan to promote the Chinese translation of Re Zero Vol 6; the info was revealed by him at some meet and greet events there.

    Here’s some pictures of the author himself!
    http://gnn.gamer.com.tw/9/135899.html

    *Info was obtained from Taiwanese websites, and translated by a Redditor.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/4xe6et/miscellaneous_stuff_from_nagatsuki_tappeis_visit/

    zztop
    Reply

    2. A lot of interesting information. Thanks! It explains several things, actually.

      So the author thinks Crusch is the best candidate? I can’t say I don’t see where that may come from, given the nature of the setting.

      Mistic
      Reply

  5. I did like the reveal when he started to yell that he could Return By Death and they showed the mouth of the witch whispering in his ear. I’m also frustrated that I have to wait another week. This anime is rushing my weeks and making my year feel like its going by so fast…

    igniteous
    Reply

  6. I think it’s probably because they’d have something on-hand to help remind them of the ‘forgotten’ people, maybe like a list or at least something that tells them who’s all with them.
    Not to mention, since they’re pretty much an army, it’d be weird if they’d have ‘blank’ units ie suddenly forget who were all in _unit/platoon, or at least how many people are supposed to be there.

    I really hope they didn’t kill Wilhelm and Ricardo. ;_;
    I’m really interested in knowing about Wilhelm’s wife.
    If she was so loved by the ‘sword’, and she was freaking strong from the looks of it, how the heck did the whale kill her.
    Even Wilhelm didn’t know about the whale grouping/multiplying (I can’t tell).
    That would mean she died before it even used its full strength, right?

    Hmm...
    Reply

    1. I’m pretty sure a list wouldn’t help, since the whale seems to remove the victim’s existence entirely. We saw all of Rem’s stuff disappear last loop, so there can’t be any identifying memento left behind. They were clearly using the number of people in each group as some sort of indicator, and the method Lelo talks about below does appear to be what they’re doing.

      SK
      Reply

    2. It’s easy how they did it. They split into groups for example 12 people in each and at any given time they can count how many fighters is left in a group. If I remember 6 others out of my group that means there is 7 left total counting me. 5 people were killed and I don’t remember them.

      Urizithar
      Reply

  7. About the soldiers knowking how many people are missing, the author explained their method: basically, they made platoons with a fixed number of soldiers (15, iirc), and every platoon has the same number of others, no exceptions.
    This way, even if someone’s existence is erased, they will know something is missing.
    “My platoon is complete, 13 men”
    “But my platoon is complete too, and we are 15”
    “Something is not right”

    It’s simple, but effective.
    Of course, it has limits: it works only if the fog doesn’t erase someone from each platoon (that’s why their tactic is to split), because they won’t remember the actual starting number of soldiers, but only that there’s supposed to be a fixed number for each platoon.
    For example, let’s say that there are three platoons of 15 men each, so 15-15-15.
    If the fog erases people so that we have 12-13-15, the lost number is five, and they know that. But if the fog erases them so that there are 12-13-13, they will think that only one person is missing, when the lost number is actually seven.

    Lelo
    Reply

    1. They can also use a standard operating procedure to count 15 always. That is they know that their rules call for all units to have 15 people always. So they will go I only recall us taking 12 but rules say it has to be 15 so probably is 3 lost. You can even do different size units say A units are 15 B units are 10 and C units are 5. But the smaller are more dangerous as if all are killed you will forget the unit existed. But as long as anyone survived they will remember what letter the unit they were assigned to was. This would be emotionally madding as your mind would be saying there were not 15 I swear it would just be the abstraction telling you that your mind was wrong.

      Unfortunately they did not have time to do that Ram do you have a single horn with Rem being gone.

      They might have noticed the initial person erasing by over time noticing things that just did not add up without someone being removed, then consulted a mystic or past seer that might be able to see the disturbance if not the person themselves. Sort of a the spirits say people are being erased.

      RedRocket
      Reply

  8. I remember Puck referring to the White Whale as Greed, and since we’ve already met Sloth as well as (maybe) Pride, I’m kind of doubting that the White Whale simply summoned “other whales in the area”, but rather that it’s a unique creature and that they’re simply seeing an illusion or something.

    Also, I suspect that Bradley Wilhelm is still alive. This show seems to always go for the crazy unexpected, so since they made it seem that he died I’m guessing he’s instead going to slice the whale up from the inside and then hop right out. After all, he was swallowed whole. Then again if that’s what I’m expecting, then it’s not “unexpected” and thus it probably won’t happen.. :p

    By the way.. If Subaru gets hit by the fog and dies, will the witch forget about him and fail to Return (him) by Death? If so, then it would seem that the White Whale (along with being locked up somewhere and repeatedly dying of hunger) is his biggest threat.

    JayDrink
    Reply

  14. A frankly terrifying theory that someone else brought up on another discussion site is that the whale regenerates. One whale is from the eye that was cut, and another is from the fin that was cut. In the shot they show 3 whales, but are there only 3? I can’t remember if the shot includes the whale on the ground that just took out Wilhelm and Ricardo or not. If there’s actually 4 whales, it would increase the chances of the theory being true in my mind, since Ricardo cut a tooth out.

    The WP
    Reply

  15. ” It’s weird that soldiers would NOTICE that people are missing and not know who they are though. ”

    A theory is that the whale cannot erase common sense

    e.g. A platoon has X people, etc.

    So even if the whale erases the people, still be memories of a squad formed.
    It is like in the previous loop. Otto remembered that they are chased and travel as a group — but forgot the individual members.

    seeker
    Reply

  16. I feel cynical for some reason.

    I don’t think it’s a good idea to reveal 3 whales at the end here. They couldn’t kill one whale, so why have 3? The odds are so horrible that I’m guessing they’re all going to die and Subaru will loop again, but if he returns again what is he going to do?!

    I thought the plan was to have an army to defeat the Witches cult, and the Whale was to get the army there, but this is being treated as the main event, and they can’t handle the whale(s). I dunno I feel like we’ve lost focus of why they’re even there in the first place.

    spikerman87
    Reply

    1. What he can do is repeat same process he did now, only this time outright tell them about whales powers, the fog, the triple whales, his toughness, his special mana dispersing skin hair, so they can actually prepare, i was waiting Subaru to mention the fog to them before the fight but it never happened,

      Wilhelm is eaten, unless he can cut his way out of the stomach, wolf dude got smashed. Theres triple whales flying about, some of them seem to be illusion judging by how one vanishes after Rem pushed it’s chin up after it went head on trying to eat them.

      John
      Reply

    2. The point is that the Whale it’s a pretty terrible and fearsome monster.
      This moment in the battle is were everyone starts to despair seeing how horrible the odds are against them. The army was, like you said, to attack the Witch Cult, but it was necessary to get rid of the Whale first, a monster that not so many people in that world have fought. They didn’t know about all its powers.

      This battle is also important to us viewers, but it’s a kind of spoiler to tell you why, so just believe me.
      But don’t worry, the battle against the Whale occupies only the volume 7 of the LN, it will be over soon.

      Lelo
      Reply

  17. I don’t think Subaru will die this time and I highly doubt that Wilhelm is dead. The reason is simple, they still have a chance here.
    They even showed us a change in the “relationship” between Subaru and the witch.

    Btw, fun fact: Toothed whales are usually smaller then the other kinds, but there are exceptions. The biggest toothed whale species are called “Sperm Whales”.
    So… can we just call this three creature the “Flying Hornyed Sperm Whales”?

    Namegen
    Reply

    1. It’s possible since Wilhelm was literally swallowed hole. We don’t actually see him get crushed, and no blood splatter or anything (unlike Ricardo), and he obviously wasn’t chomped by any of the teeth either.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      Reply

  19. I’m curious about how Ricardo saves Subaru when he is being chased by the whale if, as it was shown in episode 17(when he goes after every powerfull potencial ally he met in the city but gets rejected by all) that people saw Subaru like someone meh that just asks things. In episode 18 he describes himself, kindof accuarately but a bit with selfhate this capacities and what he may/can/can’t do and feels. So….
    like….
    to Ricardo subaru was a fight teammate, related to him by the peticion of The little purple Lady candidate, but not like “someone worth risking your life for” or that’s what I thought until i saw him crushed by the whale and saving subaru.
    so….
    why?
    He is skilled, leads a troop, has prestige, and dies for subaru, a guy he just meets and leaves him a good impression?
    …
    BTW the Episode was Awsome, I love the Battle, it was awsome because when it is a large Monster/Raid boss people have to Give it all, recover, give it all again, recover, give more again, recover, endure finish. But you get to see most of this fantasy world firepower, and fighting tecniques.

    Seing Whilhelm rush with his sword, walk in the whale jump and things like that brought Atack-on-Titan /bleach style to my mind, awsome, nimble fighter.
    The Cannon made the feels of the artillery and the wolfriders synergy. It was good as the breakdown of peoples minds aflicted by Whale-Sickness and their respective solution.
    I wouldnt have expected that the fight would have been done with an artificial sun.

    And… thanks for explaining the way people saw others dissapeared about the fixed teams, that was an intrigue to me also.
    Anticipated thanks for answering my questions and reading this long reaction post.
    Is this a reaction post?

    DavEduCam
    Reply

  21. I honestly don’t see Wilhelm dying, it feels like the show just wants us to think that. My main reasoning is that the flashback sequences feel incomplete; we’ve only gained a small glimpse into his wife and there was really no resolution. We don’t see how Wilhelm fell in love with her, only how powerful she was. I have a feeling he’ll rip through the whale from the inside or somehow find his way out of it. If they killed him off now, it would be a waste of an episode, shows that try to develop a character in a single episode just to kill them off in that same episode aren’t very good in my opinion – and re zero is far from a bad show.

    Also, major props to the ground dragons, especially Wilhelm’s! I swear Wilhelm jumped like 3-4 times this episode and every time he’s about to fall the dragon finds the exact location and leaps to his rescue. I wouldn’t be surprised if his ground dragon developed some kind of anxiety issue with trying to predict where his master will land, lmao.

    ChromeNova
    Reply

  22. I mean, I knew there was something else to it because of Theresia’s supposed death, but I didn’t think it’d be anything like THIS!
    Goddamit Re: Zero, you did it again!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TE01zupwQQ
    After you all get your minds blown by the episode, you should see the reaction videos on youtube for extra fun XD
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2020%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

    I still find it hard to believe she died from the white whales for some reason. If Reinhard is any indication and she was supposedly even more powerful, then there should’ve been evidence of white whale injury or corpse lying around at least. And I highly doubt she’d face them alone, cause no one in this world is stupid. I mean, if Wilhelm could do THIS and he’s not even an Astrea sword master himself, then it’s improbable that she’d die this easily even with 3 of them. I’m not saying she might still be alive, I’m saying there must still be something else to it even after this cliffhanger.

    yoloalchemist
    Reply

  23. Why is it a whale? tell that to every mad scientist they will laugh much less a crazy powerful being worship by a cult of crazies XD.

    People notice because they notice someone is missing on a full platoon. for example they dont remember the 3 guy that got erased eventhough it was supposed to be a 30 man platoon they were only 27. while the other also has a standardise of 30 people.

    The Satellite cannon is a rail cannon that fires an Accelerated magic stone (Roswaal use it at episode but have a bit more rainbow to it) while the night clearer are basically a lump of magic stone with flash spell added to it.

    Wilhelm notice that how the Whale was not that strong in comparison to a Master Swordsman.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    FLuck
    Reply

  24. “If you think this has a happy ending you have not been paying attention” I keep that in mind so that the three whale show up does not crush me. This might not be Game of Thrones and end well but not planing on it.

    If Suburu had any left over thoughts that he could actually help in a combat way, seeing how powerful and how many powerful people there are should kill that.

    On the white whale Mobby Dick spoiler of end Show Spoiler ▼

    Loved the nothing held back opening attack breaking anime convention. The main plan had the whale down, Wilhelm knew better but still thought the whale not tough enough to win vs wife, then we see the reason two more.

    The erasing only requires being hit by the mist streams, being crushed, fall killed, dying from the fear attack, bit to death or swallowed seams to leave your memory intact.

    Deserter unlucky that if they still remember you you did not get vanished, assume they saw them running though otherwise it would have been missing in action but still remembered. (I like learning that the singular “they” has been in English from the time of Shakespeare, very useful if you don’t know the sex, the Victorian sexist idea that “he” instead of “they” would be used for both sexes when sex unknown or when sex of reader unknown was stupid)

    If Roswael or Reinhard show up it will not be “deus ex machina” this is a battle story and we know that they are out there somewhere in the country they can learn from the rumor mill that a significant force left for the Tree and maybe even about the whale if any solders in the the force told people left behind, the rumor can travel across the country side and even be transmitted if that is possible by a sage or pigeon. Even Priscilla and her forces might show up trying to find out what the other two claimants are up too. Roswael can travel supper fast so he the best show up. It never “deus ex Machina” if you know some force is out their somewhere that could become involved even if they have to change their mind to do so, when Roswael saved Suburu from the dogs especially so as he was on trip and expected to return home sometime.

    Interesting that Theresa was Master Swordsman not Master Swordswoman, might be translation from Japanese thing title might be gender neutral in Japanese (maybe not unisex on purpose just that they did not put male into the word) Love to know.

    RedRocket
    Reply

  25. Gosh this series intense to watch overall. (Binge-watched in 2 nights)

    …along with all the highs, lows, and ‘lows’ of Subaru (Also, his exploitation with anything that he encounters and knows, and his continuing problems surrounding his true “ability”.) Quite the MC that we’re observing, and worth writing an entire paper on as a character study.

    info600
    Reply

  27. i wonder if emilia will go with subaru if subaru asked her to like how rem responded in this episode disregarding the danger… errr… forget it… perhaps its a no as per emilia supporters here says, she has a “life” and blah blah blah.

    Magano
    Reply

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