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「らぶらぶらぶらぶらぶらぶゆー」 (Rabu Rabu Rabu Rabu Rabu Rabu Yuu)
“Love Love Love Love Love Love You”
From mystery to, well, more mystery—albeit with a dash of answer because yes, we definitely were good kiddies over this past week and Re:Zero always rewards good behaviour. Mostly. I imagine some are probably starting to grow annoyed we haven’t really advanced anywhere now over these past few weeks, however the drip feed of information and the subtle hints of where this story is going should be enough to satiate the more ravenous viewers. After all, when you get this many Witches in one episode, you know the follow-up will be spicy.
Probably the most impactful aspect of this episode were the Witches. Big baddies, penultimate masterminds, whatever term you have these girls are Re:Zero’s collective antagonist—and yes, they most certainly are girls. Ignoring why the likes of Minerva and Typhon decided to appear (except to tease their later importance), Daphne was the name of this game as Miss Gluttony deigned to explain that the White Whale was the least of everyone’s concern. Thought mabeasts couldn’t get worse? Oh you sweet summer child. The hydra-esque nature of the Great Rabbit though does mean Subaru’s task just got significantly harder, given he not must only contend with Elisa, but also something on the level of the White Whale. While two for once usually is the optimal deal, I’m morbidly curious seeing what plan the kid has to tackle this crazy threat because you know it ain’t going to be easy.
Beyond sneak peaks of future antagonist appearances though, the character of the moment was undoubtably Echidna as yet more info was gleaned regarding Subaru’s circumstances (and some future ones to boot). While the biggie was naturally Return by Death being a limitless skill (as if anyone thought otherwise), the more interesting aspect (at least for me) concerned the trials. For all the proscribed importance specified by Garfiel and Roswaal of Emilia overcoming the trials, it seems the sticking point is accepting and overcoming one’s past, which given Emilia’s post-trial response is something she cannot do. This will undeniably be the next major point of contention in Re:Zero, as the backstories of Emilia, Roswaal, and the Sanctuary have been danced around and teased enough to become an indefatigable itch in terms of audience curiosity. Mind you, I don’t anticipate the answers to Subaru’s current predicament to be revealed from learning what makes the (supposed) good guys tick, but we’ll at least have a better idea of just what threat is currently being faced by everyone involved.
After all, hard not thinking there’s something major set to drop (and plenty worse to come) when the face of Subaru’s suffering suffering herself just so happens to suddenly enter the picture.
Last week, I said I thought Frederica’s crystal sent Subaru to the future, but on a rewatch, I saw a speck of snow fly by before he got teleported, which shows he wasn’t sent to the future. He just got knocked out until it was morning. So I now infer that the snow was caused by the Great Rabbit. Subaru thinking back to building full of empty clothes when Echidna said deserted fields are the only evidence the Great Rabbit leaves behind must mean that the Great Rabbit ate every last piece of flesh of the Arlam villagers, Roswaal, Ryuzu, and Garfiel, as well as drinking all their blood too.
Last week, I also speculated that the mark on the White Whale and the Great Rabbit was an indication that they had an owner, but with this episode’s reveal that they are the Three Great Mabeasts, maybe the mark is meant to indicate that special status instead of them having an owner.
This episodes verifies my previous speculation about mabeasts being creations of the Witch of Gluttony, Daphne instead of Satella, the Witch of Envy, like Crusch and others believed. It made no sense for why creatures created by Satella would try to eat those that smell like her.
The Witch of Wrath, Minerva, is pretty cute, probably the most facially appealing of the Witches of Sin so far. She’s waifu material for sure. I have a soft spot for pretty blondes.
From what I could tell of the Witch of Envy’s appearance this episode, she is not possessing Emilia’s body. You can tell by the colour of her hands and the purple aura around her that this was a spectral projection of Satella’s body. This raises the question of what happened to Emilia’s body though. Was it engulfed by the darkness?
I think it was already stated in a previous episode of this season that the three great Mabeast were created by Daphne.
Can’t remember if it was Echidna or the loli chief of the sanctuary who said it, probably the latter.
Actually, it was not stated in a previous episode of this season that Daphne created the Three Great Mabeasts. Echidna only said that Daphne defied the will of God to create beasts that would end starvation. Anime-onlies could have speculated that Daphne created them, but there was no confirmation in the anime until now.
Pretty much this, this is the first explicit mention Daphne is their creator.
Whoops, in my rush to be the first post, I forgot to note a couple of things.
Since Roswaal is out of commission, the powerful magic user that Gluttony says is needed to wipe out the Great Rabbit is probably Beatrice. I wonder how she’s going to eliminate the rabbits.
Also, the post-credits scene with Roswaal shows that Subaru knows about Return by Death since he hopes Subaru won’t make any more mistakes.
You mean Roswaaal knows about Subaru?
I’d hesitate to think Roswaal knows about Subaru, but he definitely knows more than he’s letting on. I would think the guy likely has an inkling Subaru has some form of power/ability, but doesn’t know any of the specifics behind it.
Why hesitate? he was clearly ready to die and said: NEXT TIME, do better Subaru.
He clearly knows
Because there’s a big difference between suspecting Subaru is capable of certain things and knowing specifically what Subaru can do. We can easily guess Roswaal has an inkling that Subaru has otherworldly knowledge and might be capable of time travel for example given his remarks, but there’s nothing revealed yet that suggests Roswaal knows specifically about Return by Death.
That’s really good of the Witch of Gluttony to provide an infinite food resource so that nobody need ever go hungry again. Except that the reason they don’t go hungry again is that they get eaten by the infinite food resource.
It’s just the circle of life 😛
There’s no way Echidna’s going to be this convenient forever… I wouldn’t really worry about it a la Rem who has a murder or two of Subaru under her belt in discarded timelines, but since Echidna exists outside of Return by Death’s effects… Granted, his relationships with all the witches is bound to get A LOT more complicated before it gets any simpler.
I guess Garfiel’s back on the ally track this times since there’s a way bigger witch stink to deal with, lol. Even if Subaru dies Echidna’s still going to know about Return by Death in her dream world, so Satella’s probably going to be throwing that yandere tantrum until he figures out how to stop her.
Oh yeah it’s not hard to guess Echidna has other motives at work – or will start making increasingly larger demands as time goes on. The mention that the requirements to attend her tea party grow with every successive visit should be foreshadowing enough, but I think the PVs are also good for suggesting what’s coming 😉
Thoughts on this episode:
– Meta: Managed to recognize (and confirm) Misaki Kuno as Typhon (typecast as a loli again) and Nao Touyama as Daphne, but did a double-take with Minerva. (Mikako Komatsu? Nani?!)
– Daphne: “There may be many of them [The Great Rabbit], but they all share one consciousness.”
A hive mind. But seriously, the Great Rabbit is willing to forego the instinct of self-preservation just to potentially consume ridiculously high amounts of mana? Hope somebody in the Re:Zero-verse can conjure up a big enough fire spell that can kill every last Great Rabbit (after being lured by that mana, of course).
– Satella’s appearance (and madly repeating “I love you”–including in that title screen)… Yeesh. *shudders* And at this point, that felt like Rie Takahashi at her most creepiest. So creepy that Megumin would definitely say, “You’re freaking me out!” before hightailing it outta there. (OT: Incidentally, from my favorite episode of KonoSuba season 2, which also includes Aqua’s famous “cry cute” scene.)
– BTW, is Satella’s leitmotif a remixed (and a much more creepier) version of “Call of the Witch”?
– Also, what the heck happened to Emilia after Subaru awakened from Echidna’s tea party? Talk about “nothing is scarier”… And I’m taking a guess Subaru also dies in this timeline.
Questions/queries that remain (for now):
– “That question” known only between Roswaal and Beatrice.
– The other two trials of the Sanctuary and what Emilia’s seeing in her own trial.
– Whatever the heck Garfiel and Frederica’s gemstones are.
– Meta: This season revealing why Beatrice is Joey and Garnt’s “best girl” (at least until Garnt became an Echidna cultist).
Kuno Misaki is so easy to recognize, Touyama Nao as well. My first reaction WAS Komatsu Mikako, but had to actually look Minerva up to make sure. Seems like Minerva might actually be the “nicest” of the Witches.
boy oh boy
Witches are batshit crazy… and Echidna is one most rational so far…
And Daphne design made me quite uncomfortable… all those bondage devices and seemingly naked -but sexless- pubic area? on a loli body out of all?
Minerva on the other hand is pleasurable surprise. Fists of healing? Wrath is love?
And the Great Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is just truly monstrous.
I can see Subaru resorting to use Emilia or Roswaal to lure them in.
Alternatively he will just pass the trials and evacuate the Sanctuary before the rabbits arrive.
This way or another, there is one more task to the pileup Subaru has: wake Rem. Save mansion stayers from Elsa. Deal with rabbits. Stay sane. oh boy…
If you look at Daphne’s body, it’s a different color from her face. So she isn’t naked.
Yupp this, Daphne is entirely clothed except for her hands and face.
I am at once relieved and worried, because dressing up to look like you are naked is another level of perversion…
Speaking of perversion we havent seen yet any hinto of Withc of Lust. I am wondering what she will look and act like?
But Envy, oh boy, does not disappoint. Seething Yandere, turned up to eleven!
So… no one is going to mentioed why Subaru is so fixed about the rabbits even though it was never explained properly where they were or how he got there in the first place?
For all we can tell (in a cynical manner) he just time leap to the future or to other dimension and came back, like a child who saw a dream and now fixed on how to solve a situation that many not come to be.
Now know Re-zero I can tell ofc it none of the above, I just wanted to demonstrate (mostly for the novel readers) how bad it was to show it like that in the anime adaption
Where the Rabbits came from is irrelevant. Its not as if Daphne would know, she been dead for 400 years. He doesn’t need know to learn how to kill it either.
Yeah it’s just like the White Whale, what matters isn’t where they originate, but rather dealing with them when they appear. I agree the anime didn’t really show their initial appearance very well (snowy field after having a very green Sanctuary? Needed something else to explain away), but the takeaway should be that the rabbits are a threat which must also be dealt with alongside Elisa.
Welp, Subaru seems to have more end more on hand as the story progresses. First an assassin with stomach fetish, then the fluffy carnivore version of the “grey goo”, and now the yandere last boss… seriously, just give him back his oni waifu and leave him alone…
Pretty sure that “price” he paid for remembering Echidna will bite him in the ass too… I mean as mush as I like her (Second only to Rem), she’s the witch of greed, not the witch of charity. He’s being extremely careless with offering “anything” to her.
ps.: I always took heavy snow as a sign of Emilia dead and a certain cat going on rampage, so don’t think a big time-skip happened there.
Oh yeah. She is Witch of Greed. I’d be concerned, that she “seems” to be generous with information and assistance, while asking for seeming trifles. And that “any price” talk from Subaru does seem a bit careless. He might be underestimating witches a tad.
The PVs showed a very angry Subaru with Echidna, so it’s pretty well known he will be paying the price eventually when it comes to Echidna’s assistance.
One more thing. Who put the barrier around the sanctuary and for what purpose ?
It may be to keep witches imprisoned… And maybe Echidna is manipulating Subaru to unwittingly release all those eldritch cuties on unprepared World?
Pancakes, I realized something on a second watch that Echidna might have given Subaru a hint on how to get past his current troubles.
She said she has no hope of getting Emilia to break her out of her shell, but maybe Subaru could do it since he’s intent on doing everything over and over again.
“Even in three days of trial and error, I can’t hold out any hope that she’ll break out of her shell. Or perhaps… you can do it? Since you’ve made up your mind to keep repeating everything, could you give wings to the cowardly princess?”
Echidna implies here that she might have tried to change Emilia’s trial up (maybe starting from the previous loop in which Emilia went through the trial 4 times), and suggested that maybe Subaru could get Emilia to break out of her shell, doing what Echidna herself couldn’t do, but Subaru mistakenly believes that “Or perhaps… you can do it?” meant that he should undergo the trial himself in Emilia’s place.
Yupp it’s pretty much a given now that the way forward will involve the trials and that it’s up to Subaru to figure out how to advance through them or get Emilia over the hump. I don’t think Echidna would try to adjust the trials (it runs counter to her greedy nature), but she’s definitely not against having someone like Subaru provide the assistance needed.
So the voice confirms that there’s some kind of connection between Emilia and Satella, or is there…? Maybe she just possessed her and that’s all. Well, I don’t expect to find out about it until later in this arc, if at all, which is fine.
Rabbit hunting next?
They could have done a better job with those faking looking flowers on the tea table, lol.
Satella did not possess Emilia. Satella was wearing different clothes than Emilia, emitted a purple aura from her body, and had a body that wasn’t physical. You could tell it wasn’t a physical body by the colour of her hands and because when Garfiel attacked Satella, saving Subaru in the process, Satella broke into shadow pieces that reformed later. This version of Satella is merely a spectral projection, and because it is a spectral projection, it has no DNA and will be able to pass the barrier unlike actual half-elves like Emilia and Satella.
If the Great Rabbit is only the second act, how bad’s the Snake’s going to be whenever it shows up? The Rabbit doesn’t quite have the same punch that the Whale had, though – those subjugation episodes from S1 are some of my favorites for rewatching.
Probably about as bad as the Whale and only slightly better than Elisa. If anything all are equally horrific and the Rabbit just lacks the punch because we haven’t been able to see what it’s truly capable of outside of one isolated occurrence. Yet 😛