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「白鯨攻略戦」 (Hakugei Kouryakusen)
“Battle Against the White Whale”
For a second there, I thought the whale might not actually appear.
… But it does! In true timely fashion too. What an amazing feat to see a giant floating white whale against the armies of Crusch and Anastasia. It’ll be an incredibly battle next episode if we can actually see how they bring down the mabeast or if something else is going to pop up. I’d be more interested in seeing how they fight against it (and win) but maybe someone else might come along to spoil the fun, who knows!
As it turns out, after last week’s episode, Subaru does come around and finally use his knowledge to put a plan into place. Obviously with some help from Rem, Anatasia and Russell, he’s able to convince Crusch to help him – by killing the White Whale. Given that it’s a beast that everyone is aware is connected with the Witch and has hurt so many people in the past, everyone is determined to work together to put it down. Not without some fair trades in between, but at least this solves a piece of the puzzle which Subaru is going for. He’s one step closer to getting to Emilia without killing anyone; within his own circle anyway. I don’t think this battle will be without causalities in the armies. Out of everyone involved, Wilhelm seems to be the most invested and for good reason (although it’s not thoroughly explained just yet). We know that the Whale took the life of his wife and now he’s out for revenge. On top of that, when Wilhelm married his wife, he took her surname! That was unexpected add-on because even in today’s society it’s not very common to see the male change his last name… unless of course, the female is of importance (which I’m sure his wife is). He clearly hasn’t forgotten her all this time and I was under the assumption that the whale fog (or its other powers) make people disappear from memory so I wonder how that fight went down. Maybe it wasn’t much of a struggle on her part at all.
The episode introduced a few new cast members as well (and brought back some returning ones whom haven’t gotten many lines). This includes the Captain in Anastasia’s camp, Ricardo Welkin (Nomura Kenji) and he’s quite the outgoing, outspoken fellow. He has a good spirit around him but also as Captain, he holds a high command which makes him scary too. Subaru better not get on his bad side. We also see Mimi’s brother, Hetaro Pearlbaton (Han Megumi) and he looks just like Mimi (except with shorter hair). Very different in personality from Mimi as he’s much more serious and calm by nature. Mimi’s just adorable though – gosh, I really want to see how she fights and see her get serious.
Overall, I thought the build-up of the episode was well done and at a good pace for what’s to come. Generally I would expect these types of episodes from Re: Zero after every epiphany that Subaru has or an explosive finale to an arc. You need time to set-up the epic battles and fights and I’m hoping that this fight with the Whale is the good one. Not that I want people to die, but I think this is it – Subaru is finally going to complete another level arc and move on past this point in the story to save Emilia. There’s also the Witches’ Cult led by Betelgeuse wandering around nearby but maybe they’ll show up sooner rather than later. With this huge army, they’d be stupid to attack but if they do, I’m sure Subaru would win this time. This way he can kill two birds with one stone and save Emilia. Let’s not get ahead of myself though, we’re still a good 6 episodes away from the ending. I’m proud of how far Subaru has come since last week and with his faith in Rem (and vice versa), I’m sure he’ll go far now. He’s made a drastic improvement in trying to change the course of the future and I’m sure he’s going to succeed this time.
Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: For a second there, I thought the whale wasn’t going to appear o_o lol! #Rezero. Finally we see Subaru succeed at something! Been waiting for this moment for a long time. He’s finally learning to plan ahead.
See, people who were giving up on this? If you just be patient and stick with it, then it can really pay off with an episode like this. Of course, it’s not like is just 100% over everything as he’s still nervous about things working out, but he has the comfort of knowing that he isn’t completely alone nor does he need to feel ashamed of asking for help.
As for the Cult, they are most likely nearby considering Otto was most likely killed not long after abandoning Subaru in the previous reset. It would be interesting to see just a massive brawl between the mercenaries/soldiers, the White Whale, and the Cultists.
SUBARUUUUU JEEEEENKIIIIIINS
SOMEBODY has to aggro that thing sometime or later.
Relevant:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLyOj_QD4a4
Did he just run in….? Save him! OMG! Stick to the plan.
The 5+ episode streak of despair had me slightly expecting the whale to not show up and then Subaru gets gutted again…
But thank the Lord it didn’t happen that way lol.
This was a great episode, glad Subaru is finally playing his cards right. Can’t wait to see the rest of what happens from here on out.
Ok was it just me, or was everyone else waiting for Subaru to get the Natsuki Smackdown this episode? By that I mean stuff just starts going wrong for Subaru for no reason. Especially during the negotiation; I literally held my breath when Crusch was making her decision about agreeing to his terms or not.
I think it’s pretty funny this anime has me emotionally flinching every time Subaru goes out on a limb or makes any plans.
This ep was definitely a breath of fresh air but I wonder how many more of those we will get in this smoke filled room that it Re: Zero.
In an strange way Crusch’s lie detection ability made it possible for the true information obtained from previous lives to be verifiable. The confusion bit mentioned in the episode is that while the underlying information (White whale, when/where) is accurate the way it was revealed was a lie (due to the whole everyone dies if you talk about the revival mechanic). Interestingly this information took a couple cycles to obtain so it wouldn’t have worked before.
I was 110% certain that the whale wasn’t going to show up and Crusch and her army was going to kill him in anger. Re:zero has me foreseeing the worst.
Didn’t Puck say ‘Gluttony’ when the whale appeared in the last ep?
Yet they called that whale something the Witch of Envy made…
Then again, it’s not like anything really changes if they believe it was Envy or Gluttony; part of Witch Cult = Enemy of the World.
Remember the part where Beatrice tells the lore regarding The Witch Of Envy ate the Other 6 Witches to gain the power to destroy the world.
or maybe the part where hey let just blame the Jealous Witch for everything because why not
Novel readers say this story is the 3rd out of 6 webnovel arcs. The light novels have only covered up to this arc though.
Rem:Zero fanart:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=58211977
For the love of god Rem, don’t you die this time. We need to be able to move on with everyone (at least almost) being safe.
Hate to say it, but they pretty much wrapped up her story last episode. If I were a betting man I’d say she’s a prime target for being killed off now.
Or forgotten…
Regarding the magic stones mining rights =
If you observe episode 17 Beatrice mentioned that Roswaal is a cruel man. and she is not like roswaal who is securing his own future (clairvoyant perhaps?)
This Suggest that he knew about the attack on his estate. This episode confirms it by the facts that Roswaal giving Rem the rights of mining the magic stones (Those sparkling thing in his hand in Episode 7) in his territory as a bargaining chips if there were any needs to do so (which they do). Rem informing this to Subaru allows him to open negotiations with The Crusch Faction, and subsequently on securing the fastest route to the mansion that is currently harbors the white whale (targets of the Crusch Faction).
I know on the no show whale worry. I have put this show in the same class as Game of Thrones and follow the advice “If you think this has a happy ending you have not been paying attention”. This allows me to enjoy the good without being to depressed when it goes bad as it is sure to do.
They are going to fight the White Whale if the fight stays true to the spirt of the book this could be a very bloody fight maybe even with the Whale taking his greatest enemy into death. I hope there are more survivors than the book though or no chance to deal with the cultists.
Some have brought up why no National effort to get the whale. I would speculate maybe the first defeat might have been one. Plus this country seams to be militarily organized in the feudal manner that being the Nobles control most of the military forces with the King often having no more troops than a strong nobel. Thus under a feudal system you have to get Nobles to act together when they will do the what is in this for me calculation. And typically all forces are not really ready for war and need to build up supplies and add mercenaries and feudal levies if needed to their forces. As poorly trained peasants not likely to be anything but whale food and get in the way I understand why no levies were mustered.
If frustrates that some on other sites attack the cell phone still having power when clearly they have never owned a flip phone, or bother to read other peoples posts of people who have owned flip phones (and of course can be trolling). I’ve owned more than one flip phone they go way way longer on a charge than modern phones, of course they are not running the apps modern phone use. If Suburu turned it off except when shown using it on the show it should have charge left in fact the use before he came to this world would be the determining factor of how much power it has more than the two times he has used it in this world. I assume it loses no charge from use when Suburu dies and resets.
Some think Suburu lied to Crush about the phone calling it a meta, as others have noticed Suburu calls the phone something you would call a meta and thus does not lie, also as Suburu has not consulted scullers on what exactly is a meta the phone might meet the definition of a meta. The definition of meta might be device that archives effects not achievable by normal objects. It seams Crush is aware that her detecting truth ability can not detect misleading truths at least when the teller does not feel guilty in the telling. I think this explains Crush’s stated reluctance even at the end of the conversation.
Clearly the negotiations left it up to the viewer to draw conclusions on how Suburu gained knowledge of what he could trade, some were upset by this but I think the time ate up explaining all this would have lessened the impact. As Rem came up with a large bag of gold before to hire a whole team of wagons I just assumed the mining rights were something that Rem had the right to negotiate with if needed. Clearly Rem was Roswaal’s agent in town as well as a maid and bodyguard. Or Rem and Suburu figured they could negotiate the rights without permission and probably get forgiven for the effect. I understand for some that not having this spelled out is frustrating but I also understand that spelling things like this out also known as exposition can cause a show to drag and rob things of impact.
For some Suburu switching so fast to performing well also seamed unbelievable, but like others with mental illness or PSTD, I have found Suburu’s reactions acceptable. Yes a 20 plus minute talk can put you back to gather at least for awhile. And yes the 10 minutes of tearing himself down are part of the conversation Subaru’s personality has changed, near death and combat can cause major shifts along with a emotional enlightenment that has been coming form the results of many episodes. I expect Suburu to crash as points or back slide as that is normal with real people especially with trama. Mental illness comes and goes unlike popular opinion as well and we don’t know if Suburu has PSTD or a more short range mental trauma the majority actually do not come down with full PSTD from emotional trauma.
Crusch seems like the military strong-(wo)man type of leader. If I had to guess, her leadership style in real-world terms should mirror that of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Anastasia seems like an uber libertarian- think Ross Ulbricht running a country instead of an illegal darknet website, not a pretty picture. Priscilla’s the narcissistic-capricious despot type; Kim Kardashian with a brain, essentially- or female, socially liberal Muammar Gaddafi. Wonder who’d want to live under the rule of someone like that? Felt is a chaotic free spirit- a whimsical pseudo-anarchist, more or less. Much like the Anonymous hacker collective- possessing a generalized, deep-seated disdain for authority oft-ascribed by philosophically uninitiated observers to a belief in anarchism– but is in truth mired in conceptual confusions, and without any of the polish or internal consistency characteristic of true anarchistic ideologies. Not to mention the fact that she’s uneducated. Emilia…is Emilia- foolishly kind to a fault and intelligent but often hopelessly naive. Reminds me more of your ideal kindergarten teacher rather than a ruler.
These were my initial impressions of all the candidates and honestly by moderns standards they’d all make ghastly rulers, Emilia included. I shudder to think what would become of their nation should any of these exceedingly inept and unfit people ascend to the throne. The only character who appears to possess the requisite moral fiber, kindness, emotional stability and cunning to rule seems to be…Reinhardt?!? Wouldn’t be surprised if some crazy plot twists go down and this actually becomes the case at the end of it all. It’d definitely be very fitting…very fitting indeed…but knowing that this show isn’t of the sort that likes to make sense, Emilia’s going to win and usher in a golden age of prosperity, isn’t she…even when it makes absolutely no sense. Or then again, maybe Reinhardt will put Felt on the throne as a puppet, marry her and rule by proxy…
Saddam Hussein was a egomaniac with narcissistic tendencies with little tolerance for differing opinions and a major streak of cruelty, had to have his picture everywhere. Priscilla again is more like Hussein. Hussein and Gaddafi are quite similar. Until we find out how the leaders in this story treat their troops and especially their subjects it hard to truly determine. Priscilla might only be similar to Hussein and Gaddafi in style and actually as enlightened a leader to her people as someone in a feudal society can be. Priscilla did reject Subaru’s crawl and kiss her feet approach after all which I would think would be the only way you could get Hussein or Gaddafi to help you.
This world is pre Enlightenment you are not going to find any wide area democrats and the population wants a king not democracy so all leaders wether good, evil or in-between are going to be nobel or strongmen within a restricted system that has social expectations of their behavior.
Crush came across to me as a firm but fair military and nobel leader. She would fit in well as a military commander in the US Military, I was a US Army Reserve Officer in the Infantry. But Crush in addition had to be the tough leader of a country, which a Nobel basically is in many ways.
Your right on Felt and pre Enlightenment really has no real idea what to replace the system she wants to tear down with.
As all three leaders other than Felt gave Suburu advice I will think somewhat well of them till we know more.
Emilia does seam not ready mentally for the job in some ways but she might surprise as she seams serious of learning how to do it right. On the other hand Emilia has a kill the world if I die contract which could be a sign of a truly evil intent as that can be a very selfish desire. Don’t know on the world kill contract though maybe there is a fate worse than death for the world that Emilia believes only her can stop. Puck sure does not seam evil in nature.
That Saddam was a cruel narcissist goes without saying. The vast majority of autocrats are. However, he was a relatively disciplined individual, and the Iraqi military under his regime was frequently praised by western journalists as such. What Saddam wasn’t was a flamboyant, whimsical, undisciplined narcissist, of the ilk of Gaddafi, or even his own son Uday Hussein. Both of which were oft-criticized for their colorful wardrobes and feral libidos, among other things. Pricilla fits this bill to a T. A completely self-absorbed, chaotically undisciplined individual with a penchant for ostentatious dressing, seduction, whimsical novelty-seeking and sudden, bipolar fits of rage.
Yeah, that’s why I qualified my statements by saying “by modern standards.” Let’s be honest here, most pre-enlightenment regimes were horrible ipso facto– inherently repressive, corrupt, noninclusive and authoritarian (With, perhaps, several notable exceptions). Pretty much the best these pre-enlightenment societies could hope for was a “benevolent dictator”- someone like Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius or Emperor Kangxi of China- rulers such as these were relatively rare, and they all had their flaws, for which there were no ameliorative means, as in autocracies there are no political checks and balances. Reinhardt, from what we’ve seen of him, seems like the the sort of guy who’d be a benevolent dictator, which is why he’s probably the character most fit to rule…
(Forgot to mention) Crusch, on the other hand, is a disciplined, militaristic, Machiavellian autocrat- far more similar to Saddam (who incidentally, like Crusch, was often seen dressed in military garb) than Gadaffi with his ridiculous, ostentatious macaw-esque wardrobe, female bodyguards/harem and sex dungeons, or Uday Hussein with his wild parties and rapist-playboy lifestyle…
**To qualify, Saddam’s army was disciplined for a third world autocratic regime. Certainly still not up to American standards. In hindsight American officers have been reported to say that the Iraqi army of the present is pathetically undisciplined compared to how it was under Saddam, and the inferior discipline of the Iranian army is frequently noted in articles about the Iran-Iraq war during Saddam’s era. Incidentally, many former military officers under Saddam joined ISIS and are said to have instilled the discipline essential to the group’s military successes…
@Zen
Modern ruling examples may not work given the fantasy setting. Crusch could easily be compared to soldier-kings or soldier-emperors like Trajan or Frederick the Great. Up to and including the Modern Ages, the realities of the world tended to make them more realistic, down-to-earth and solid rulers than the power-grabbing generalissimos we are used to nowadays.
For example, in our world a political leader capable of gathering a personal army in a matter of days would be considered a danger, and leading the troops herself would be considered an excessive risk. However, in a fantasy world in which the state monopoly on violence doesn’t exist, it means that Crusch has the strenght, the support and the will to protect her subjects. The value depends on the context.
I rather see Crusch being a good leader but a bad politician (and being bad at politics is kind of bad when you had Anastasia and Priscilla as your opponent. Felt is kind of new in the politic and is only supported by an old giant and a living tactical nuke while Emilia… let just say Subaru is her only voter put her right in the last place. Roswaal wanting to off the dragon isn’t making her life easier in the race for the throne)
1) Anastasia
A respected and well known businesswoman. Her political ability is only rival by her business smarts.
From rags to riches she build up her own empire of business called The Hoshin Company the most prosperous within kararagi and well known having a branch in Lugunica.
Not only That she comes with her own personal army. Compose from what we can observe in this episode and episode 16 , a lot of Demihumans.. Remember how Rom a demihuman was treated in the court.. gaining the supports of the demihuman is vital since from what we can observe they are a lot of them
Money what makes her world runs and if you want the littefinger (yeah they do have i want the throne vibe XD) of the story she is one.
Priscilla
Ever wonder how Gilgamesh from the fate/stay series rule the land? she him genderbend
A Duchess and
(Not Cover in Anime but are available in arc 3 manga Vol 1 chp 5 and LN vol 4)
Show Spoiler ▼
available only own her own short stories (if white fox ever wants to cover it)
Show Spoiler ▼
All good military/nobel leaders are like Saddam by the common traits all leaders from best to worse have in the medieval period (even more modern ones like Franklin Rosevelt, Lincoln and Churchill), you said “Crusch, on the other hand, is a disciplined, militaristic, Machiavellian autocrat” (I am assuming the grey meaning of Machiavellian in that actions are amoral at times that is often called Realpolitik today) Even Gaddafi meets this description in his rise to power and often during his realm. The flashy Gaddafi only showed up more when his power was certain and even then he kept a tight reign on Libya. Libya is a hard country to keep together like Iraq broken into a large number of tribal fractions but not quite as hard as it lacks most of the religious and ethnic parts that make Iraq such a problem. The Libyan army under Gaddafi was fairly effective maybe equaling Iraq’s in skill not in size, Libya is a much lower population place. Gaddafi ran a stern state and would have won, just like Saddam, against the uprising except for Allied bombing. To me Saddam was very flashy but in a different not as colorful way in his huge number of grand palaces and instance of having his statues and pictures everywhere and constant rase in the media. Especially later Saddam could be very undisciplined in his actions taking bad military decisions on a whim both large and small. The Iraq army held to gather but was very inflexible with Generals picked on loyalty not as much on skill, once Iran got mobilized Iran often defeated the Iraq army, drove them from Iran and then made gains into Iraq that Iraq’s army defeated with great difficulty even though by equipment and organization on paper Iraq should have defeated Iran. Saddam did not tolerate dissent and surrounded himself with yes men, to disagree did result sometime in Saddam killing that person himself right then in example having the person and himself leave the conference room and Saddam shooting them in the next room.
Perhaps it is too soon to compare any of our candidates to Saddam and Gaddafi as they have shown traits that Saddam and Gaddafi did not have. Crush has been willing to listen, willing to negotiate on even terms and willing to give advice to someone that the two dictators would have executed for the same behavior. Priscilla was repulsed by Subaru begging and giving into her demands and wanted Subaru to stand up to her, Saddam and Gaddafi wanted yes men and killed those who stood up to them.
My linking of Saddam to Priscilla was in the general sense of both Saddam and Gaddafi were egomaniacs where Crush has not shown that trait as yet, yes Gaddafi was a lot closer in style to Priscilla than Saddam. You could say Saddam had more class than Gaddafi and Saddam’s son. (all effective leaders have huge ego’s but the dictators go way past that)
Time will tell as we learn more about our candidates especially if we can learn how their subjects are treated. Unfortunately the final test is becoming Queen, many seemingly ok leaders of movements went bad only after taking total power, and often do good works earlier in their rule but then decay.
Recently learned how Lincoln had fake tickets published to the Republican convention and then flooded the hall with his supporters and people hired off the street to outnumber the other side and make it seam majority support was for Lincoln. Lincoln opponent was also trying lots of cheats Lincoln just outplayed him. Lincoln during the war supported a Governor becoming absolute dictator of his state for the duration of the war in order to keep that state in the union. Lincoln made illegal mass arrests in Maryland to keep the state in the Union. I’m glad Lincoln was a Machiavellian.
The more common meaning of Machiavellian is of a evil schemer. As a reader of of the book I agree with the view that machiavelli was neutral only pointing out what works often giving a good guy option or a bad guy option pointing out the flaw of half measures using historical examples. In example when permanently occupying captured territory you either make the population full citizens of your country and treat them as well or even better than the rest of your citizens or you kill everyone man, women and child. Machiavelli got his bad reputation from his buttering up the ruler writing anything you do is moral of course. This type of buttering up is not uncommon dealing with rulers back then to do otherwise could be a hazard to your health. For another example of this type of writing read the forward to the King James Version of the bible, boy they pilled it on thick when writing to the King, I think many today will be amazed how thick.
I am enjoying this discussion and everyone’s good information.
I’m skeptical that it’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out; it still feels like there’s going to be at least one more bad end for Subaru and co. However, it is nice to see what finally seems like progress (outside of character development for Subaru and Rem, which was important) in this arc.
Couldn’t help but see Subaru’s whole negotiation as him looking at the answers in the back of the textbook, then working his way backwards to “show the work.” Wilhelm’s identity was that one even question thrown into the problem set, to make sure he actually knew what he was doing. Hopefully he can make more of those “observations” before repeatedly getting killed, so he won’t waste as many loops in the future.
Subaru finally has someone whom he doesn’t have to try to expain everything to. That should be a signifcant boost to his psyche; even if he only uses Rem as a soundboard for ideas, it’s still better than him always trying to do everything on his own and ignoring everyone else for not simply taking his word.
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
While Subaru having his spirit back is nice to see, I question how useful a cavalry charge is against a flying enemy.
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
OMG Subaru, do NOT charge into the raid boss recklessly!
I hope the raid won’t end up like Leeroy Jenkins and his friends.
LEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOYYY JEEEEEENKIIINSSS!!!
Seriously that Ring Tone sold the entire episode for me. Albeit the pacing was… a bit too fast, but still..
https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu/Re%20Zero%20Kara%20Hajimeru%20Isekai%20Seikatsu%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
OMG, I was expecting a rivalry stare between girls, with the same love interest, not between an animal and a cute girl.
damn that ringtone made me for a sec imagine the whale will pop out at behind
The ringtone is the OP to a really old anime called A Dog of Flanders. Wonder why they chose that of all things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-ack_NFz_o
Whoops, wrong link, sorry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_wm4KmrDH0
Dog of Flanders?
…I hate this series.
It is really fitting for a simple, yet ingenious reason:
Show Spoiler ▼
Lots of great moments this episode. The short opening about the whale was a great next step for Subaru and meant the scene in the opening credits of Crusch smiling as the White Whale’s sillouhette went past finally clicked for me.
The second nice little moment was when we learned that Subaru has bonded with the ‘most proud’ type of ground dragon because of course he has.
The moments that made me happiest though were when Wilhelm and then the veterans were grateful to Subaru for the opportunity to hunt the whale. After all the agony he caused himself trying to make himself the hero of Emelia’s story it was so good to see him make a plan that took into account what other people wanted. It was a moment of almost redemption for him to accidentally become a real hero for other people. I was so happy for him and I’m glad he didn’t let it go to his head this time.
Did nobody pay attention to the strange static in the end when whale showed up? I don’t know if nobody here watched No Game No Life or what, but when that happened in NGNL Sora’s existence was erased completely, everyone forgot him like he was never there. Pending doom incoming, this entire army gets erased and Subaru is left alone, again.
I’m so glad Subaru’s using his brain this time (about time !), I hope he’ll achieve his goal.
Maybe that’s the anime adaptation but some elements are missing like you mentioned Cherrie, like the ability of the Whale to completely erase people from memories like they never existed.
Why Wihlelm still remembers his wife ? Subaru should’ve warned them of its ability or he’s still unaware of it ?
Also… the battery capacity of his cell phone is insane ! :p
Also, the main question is still unsolved: why mabeast and the witch cult want Emilia dead. I’m not sure that’s only because she’s a candidate to be the next ruler.
Is it? He’s most likely keeping it switched off and when we see him using it in most cases it doesn’t count cause the world resets. Like first time when he used it to bargain with Felt. He later died so it didn’t count. Or when he used it to light a map. Even modern smartphone would be still good to use in that case. Not to mention older type he has.
That would be a really convenient explanation although we never see Subaru completely switch off the phone and when it felt down while being chased by the white whale it clearly shows that it was still on stand-by mode, allowing him to have a glimpse at the clock.
Also don’t forget that even if he resets, there’s at least a whole week that has passed, i never had a phone that lasted that long (not even Nokia !)
Anyway… who cares for realistic accuracy ! :p
This cellphone debate again… is it that hard to believe that off screen Subaru simply turned off his phone and only turned it on barely a couple of times troughout the series? It’s only being used around 2-3 times on the whole current timeline and that’s only for a couple of minutes.
In terms of the whale, I believe you have to actually be specifically eaten by the whale to have your name and existence erased. It’s just as likely that Wilhelm’s wife was simply knocked and thrashed around like Subaru had been before and simply died from her injuries.
I once had nokia that was easly on for close to 2 weeks when it had new battery and I didn’t use it for anything other than checking time once in a while. It went down to 1 week rather fast and finally 5 days by the time I was changing phone but I find it entirely possible for him to use that phone for so long. Even if it is convenient.
after this episode rem just solidified her position as the best girl for subaru. and finally, and episode where we get to see that subaru has some form of worth unlike the previous where he was portrayed as a useless, powerless guy.
Crusch’s smile at the end made me look forward to seeing how Emilia will react to Subaru’s accomplishments (assuming things go as planned). She’s constantly been pushing him away from all the “complicated” election stuff, him suddenly showing up having earned Crusch’s respect and with a solid alliance formed makes me look forward to how she’d react.
“Eh? Subaru? Hontou ni? Eh? Subaru ga? Hontou no hontou desu ka? Eh??”
Well, let’s be honest: Subaru had to die several times and go over the edge for him to learn the lessson. Which means that, in a normal setting, his ignorance was indeed suicidal, so Emilia was right at pushing him away.
But since this isn’t a normal setting, yes, Emilia is in for the biggest surprise ever 🙂
Rem brings the laughs this episode with her jealousy of a land dragon. Subaru shows the fruits of his suffering and brings together an army to combat the White Whale. Strangely though, I do not see a lot of mages or archers compared to cavalry or armsmen. Crusch also gets to show off her leadership chops for once. At the moment she does seem to be one of the better candidates for Queen compared to Felt’s professed anarchy and Priscilla’s serious Nero vibe. Anastasia at least seems to be a canny merchant at bare minimum. Emilia on the other hand would make for an enlightened despot but has a good chance of being martyred if placed on the throne.
The more optimistic feel of this episode is a great breath of fresh air after the crushing darkness of the last handful of episodes. This series I think works best when they swing the pendulum at the right time. Too little build up and the victories look cheap while too much runs to audience apathy. The Witch Cult serve as excellent and mysterious adversaries, we have little knowledge about and thus they do have some mystique.
One theory I’ve been hearing on why people remember Wilhelm’s late wife is that the memory of a person is erased only if the whale eats them, so if the whale killed someone by body-slamming or tail-slapping someone they would die but still be remembered.
I am calling it now. They are going to win the battle but the whale is going to eat Rem as she protects Subaru and the next time he dies it will turn out that his checkpoint has moved to after the battle. So he can be tormented by being the only person who remembers her and thinking that it is all his fault. That way we can have extra angst in the next 10 episodes of Subaru being an idiot.
I’m dropping this peice of crap of a show… Err… This season only had Psi-nan and ReLife as good anime. All the rest is crap.