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「それぞれの誓」 (Sorezore no Chikai)
“Each One’s Promise”
Sit back, take a deep breath, and calm those nerves, because yes, everyone’s favourite isekai tragedy is finally (finally) back in anime form. It’s truly been a wait and a half for more Re:Zero, between the likes of anime sequel purgatory and the shenanigans of Corona-chan, but after four years patience it seems has paid off, and oh boy are we set for some fun. The suffering after all didn’t take long to recommence.
Given the ubiquity of Re:Zero I won’t waste long on synopsis, details, and animation/voice acting (because honestly little has changed on that front): if you’ve seen it you know what’s happened and where you stand, and if you haven’t get on that first season to find what you’re missing out on (and so you can avoid inevitable spoilers). We good? Alright. From that point on this episode wasted little time in getting us back to speed—seriously, no OP or ED again!—with the first five minutes or so adding the extra material included as part of the recent first season edit, including the spiritual disappearance of everyone’s favourite blue ogre/demon/adorable best girl cutie pie Rem (Minase Inori). You would think after so thoroughly crushing the White Whale that Subaru (Kobayashi Yuusuke) would be due for some well-deserved rest and relaxation, but nope, that’s not how this story works. Re:Zero’s Witch brokers no blissful peace, and with the rapid appearance of Sin Archbishops Greed and Gluttony to offset the loss of Sloth—i.e. Betelgeuse—the promise of war will only intensity from here.
What’s particularly insidious about this latest arc of Re:Zero though is what Subaru is going to have to do to get back to his new par. Much like with his previous alliance-building to deal with the White Whale, Subaru’s Return by Death is only a half measure—the new reset point inconveniently falls after Rem’s and Crusch’s encounter with Greed and Gluttony. The poor kid is undeniably going to have to deal with new and excruciating ways to die courtesy of further Witch’s Cult insanity, and then repeat the slow and agonizing relationship building with an amnesic Crusch after coming to—at least if that reset point doesn’t update and make thing more complicated mind you. Couple this with the inevitable problems set to emerge once Subaru and Emilia (Takahashi Rie) reunite with Ram and Roswal at Sanctuary (because you can bet that won’t be a walk in the park either) and this season won’t be lacking in dark and heavy. No matter the changes Subaru has internalized, no matter how much he may now be prepared to face the deadly path ahead, you can expect scenes like this to remain plentiful, as the stakes couldn’t be higher and the enemies are only getting stronger.
Best grab a chair and get that popcorn (and Kleenex) ready boys and girls, because Re:Zero is back and it’s going to be like nothing you saw before.
IMPORTANT PSA: given Re:Zero’s popularity, there will be a strict no open spoilers policy in the comments. Any blatant spoiler, no matter how innocuous, will be liberally edited out as I see fit. If you believe a spoiler is critical for your comment, use the html spoiler tags <*spoiler> <*/spoiler> (without the * of course). I’ll be more inclined to retain spoiling comments which try and keep important info hidden with these tags.
Also you’re damn right Rem is best girl; I should know, I have the T-shirt 🙂
So when the show reveals Satellas backstory, aka how she came to be. Can people refer to her by her obvious name without tags?
Yeah I think that’ll be allowed, I don’t think the show will make any serious effort hiding it, it’s too damn obvious.
this season is gonna be a wild ride yessireebob
Ah, that easter egg with Rem If route. I wonder if Oculus founder bribed them into adding those frames lol.
So now Gluttony is hanging out with Greed instead of Lust? Oh, wait….
You know you’re old when you get that reference XD
Gluttony seems would be Subaru’s worst type of enemy in theory. It’s pointless to RBD if his memories were lost. Would he turn into unrecoverable vegetable after a single bite? Or would he be immune to it thanks to witch’s power? Can’t wait for next episode.
Have to remember though that his powers directly stem from the Witch, I wouldn’t think Gluttony would be able to erase Subaru’s memories that easily if his sugar mama thought retaining them was better for the suffering 😛
Well, that was a quick start. Back into despair, though I hope they don’t overdo it, because It could get old if Subaru still loses his nerves everytime something goes wrong.
At least Rem didn’t disappear completely, her body still being there for everyone of her friends to see.
How the upcoming events are adapted is going to be interesting because it’s arguably worse in terms of despair vis a vis season one, but now has Subaru mostly steeled against what’s coming. He’ll still break, but expect it to be different than before and more in line with the final scene of this episode.
Subaru Try RBD causing him to roll the dice and got a snake eyes losing his sanity point.. XD.
Subaru Natsuki: “Ah s**t, here we go again.”
*Queues “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds* (As used in Gigguk’s “Re:Zero IN 8 MINUTES” video…and funnily enough, Agents of SHIELD season 7 episode 7, which I watched before this episode.)
Took a leap watching this despite not completing the Director’s Cut. (I did finish with the regular version so I get the gist of season 1, more or less.) And the “Who’s Rem?” jokes/memes are back in force. Though at first I thought Rem would physically disappear (again) even with the White Whale defeated. Turns out it’s not Rem’s physical form that disappears, but other people’s memories of her (except Subaru, of course) and her own memories. At this point, is it safe to say that “Being a Rem fan is suffering”?
On the other side of the shipping wars coin (besides the “third option” if you know what I mean), if one hasn’t seen it marathon-watching season 1 (or the Director’s Cut), this scene definitely demonstrates why Subaru loves Emilia so damn much: Beneath her beauty is her deep sense of kindness, compassion and empathy–an oasis in a desert of despair. And that’s something Subaru has seen (heck, even felt) in the many timelines he’s died in–and at least one timeline that may or may not be canon (*cough*IsekaiQuartet*cough*). Does this mean I’m 2D simping for Emilia now? Not really. I still prefer Megumin, though. ;P
Anyway, I’m rooting for Subaru and his allies to find a way to defeat the new Archbishops of Sin and re-awaken Rem. But before that, I’m already dreading to hear the drone of despair that is “Call of the Witch”… (Unless you’ve diluted that nightmare fuel with “Call of the Gigguk”…XD)
FWIW, Emilia is probably my favourite character in the show. She has those qualities you mention but also grace — even when she’s angry. Doesn’t really come out in a show such as Isekai Quartet but it works in this show. She has a great monochromatic design as well.
I can’t say that I really liked this first episode. The feeling for me was more noisily frantic anxiety —or frantically noisy— than one of despair. I found it clumsily handled (with the extended length of the episode abused). I was thinking that maybe I oughta re-watch the first season again but this jackhammer approach likely means that it won’t matter if I forgot anything. Oh well, at least it can’t get worse.