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「オットー・スーウェン」 (Ottou Suuwen)
“Otto Suwen”
Slow and steady wins the race—or at least garners you the most unexpected of outcomes. Yes, you’re not seeing things, that definitely happened (eat your heart out Emilia fans), and oh yes, it makes what’s to come all the more interesting. The Sanctuary arc has been called Re: Zero’s best for a reason after all, and we haven’t even hit the real goodies yet.
While I’m sure the life and times of merchant Otto aren’t at the forefront of popularity, I have to give Re: Zero credit for being willing to actually spend time on fleshing out these secondary characters. Otto, like many others, isn’t simple cannon fodder or comedic relief, he’s very much a necessary element in helping Subaru ensure he gets the outcome which breaks through the latest Return by Death loop. Even if Otto’s involvement is, well, less than perfect. Talking to animals sounds fantastic in theory, but not all creatures are open to heartfelt discussion. Just ask Ram.
The latter half, however, is where the real meat lay, and not just for that bit of eagerly awaited (if future uncertain) fan service. Similar to Subaru last season with Sanctuary’s first trial, the release of Emilia to remember her past is another bit of necessary development to break through the malaise of self-enforced ignorance. In learning of her past, Emilia, much like Subaru, is in part believing that she must take everything onto her own shoulders, but unlike Subaru and his hero complex seeks to withdraw into herself to spare others any pain. It’s the wrong and inherently selfish thing to do, but it’s also understandable given Emilia has effectively been a bird in a cage; suddenly obtaining total freedom (in the form of memories) would be terrifying under the circumstances. Thus the importance of Subaru’s very calm, very open, and very crazy declaration of love. Yes the kid may have left during the night, sure he has reason to dislike, but when you’re smitten such cares go out the window, and right now Emilia needs that level of support to keep her righted as the tempest which is her past burns itself out. Of course, this isn’t to say Emilia is deserving of the support—that remains to be seen—but at least we can expect some proper advancement through Echidna’s test.
Well, right after getting through Garfiel, and something tells me that’s going to be slightly more challenging.
Errr, from reading the reactions on the web, it looks like I’m the odd one, because the Subaru Emilia scene didn’t work for me as well as for most others.
As I was watching it, I was half expecting it to end with Subaru dead. 😀
Whether by the hands of a freaked out Emilia, feeling betrayed, or some other unknown perpetrator.
While he told her countless times that he loves her, he also pointed out her failings and my thoughts were that he was purposefully overdoing it, coupled with the (what I thought was a fake) look on his face. Yeah, I really considered him having some hidden plan in order to get her to come out of her shell. But as it turns out, the scene was played straight, haha. Anyways, will have to rewatch.
Didn’t expect Otto to turn out having any kind of powers. Pretty neat.
And Ram can still kick some ass, nice.
Yeah, the Subaru Emilia scene wasn’t so persuading to me either. It wasn’t clear till the end what Emilia’s final reaction would be.
I wouldn’t fret too much about it, I’m also hard-pressed believing it entirely works and I knew it was coming!
I’m gonna be honest, from 17 minute mark to the end i was fast forwarding, puppy love is not why i watch Re;zero. I’m guessing this loop will reset soon, as it seems Garfiel killed some people again.
Oh it will, Garfiel isn’t about to let out the truth of his past that easily.
Why were Otto and Ram messing with Garfiel at all? Because he would meddle in Subaru and Emilia chat? I don’t quite get it.
To me, Garfiel looks like a dumb mass of aggression for now. No talking, just fighting.
It was a nice piece of Otto’s backstory. He felt like OP for a moment.
Subaru, a man who only has good timing (c) Ram. Haha.
You pretty much have it, Otto and Ram needed to keep Garfiel away so Subaru could do what he needed to do – i.e. get Emilia back on track for the trials. They didn’t know what Subaru was going to do, only that it would help free them from Sanctuary (or in Ram’s case help Roswaal) and that Garfiel was an obstacle towards it.
As for Garfiel’s motivations, besides remembering he considers Subaru a Witch’s agent (given the reek of miasma around him), we should likely learn more about them next week.
I have kind of… mixed feelings about this episode.
On one hand Otto’s backstory and the fight against Garfiel was pretty cool.
On the other it felt like Otto suddenly grew some main character plot armor after many episodes hammering the fact that there’s no such thing in this world.
Aaand then came the confession scene… That was pretty weird.
I get it, the show wants to portray Emilia as an ordinary nice girl who got caught up in things, but after seeing so many interesting characters in this show she just felt underwhelming, shallow and egocentric.
Subaru’s speech did not help either. He suddenly lost all of his personality and just said what Emilia wanted to hear… Jeez, if this is a master plan about a plot twist then well done, but otherwise… eh…
IMO I wouldn’t consider Otto possessing much plot armour, he may have stalled Garfiel, but little else and his ability was next to useless even then. Plus it’s not unlikely he’s also dead given Garfiel’s state at the end.
As for the confession oh yes, she’s very much shallow and egocentric, something which (to be fair) she has more or less been since the beginning. There is a reason for it though; she has been locked in ice, freed and arguably coerced by Roswaal into helping with his wants, and then locked from most of her past by Puck for some currently unknown reason. Emilia simply has never grown up, and is now getting that experience all in one go. Subaru giving her what she wants is pretty convenient, however there’s no guarantee the results will match his own desires.
I have a theory about why Subaru has such unwavering affection for Emilia based mainly off of Episodes 18, 21, and 25 of Re:zero.
In episode 25, Subaru said if Emilia mentioned 10 things she hated about himself that he’d tell her 2,000 things he likes about her. In episode 18, Puck told Petelgeuse that if he wants to kill them he needs to generate a thousand shadow hands, half of what Satella could, which is 2,000. This suggests that perhaps the reason Subaru thought of that specific number is that Satella influenced him subconsciously.
I’m positive that Satella can influence Subaru given that she can read his mind and determine if his intent is to reveal Return by Death, which shows that subconsciously, there is a connection between them even if Subaru has no access to Satella, the Witch of Envy’s thoughts. So if Satella can make Subaru think of the number 2,000, which is associated with her, it’s possible that part of the reason Subaru’s affection for Emilia is so strong is because Emilia looks just like Satella, and Satella is subconsciously making him obsessed with someone who looks just like she does.
In episode 21, when Crusch offered to Subaru to become one of her men, he turned her down and said it wasn’t about loyalty or allegiance, but his faith lies exactly where it should. This shows that his reason for supporting Emilia perhaps does not have a very solid foundation if loyalty has nothing to do with it
I want to state clearly now that I’m not saying that the entire reason Subaru is attracted to Emilia is because of Satella. He does have a thing for silver-haired girls as shown by his taste in anime heroines, and Emilia did show that she had very good character when he first got summoned to the world and was struggling by himself in a foreign land, but I do think what he feels for Emilia is partially a result of the Witch of Envy’s influence.
Yeah, I understand that Subaru believes in video game tropes and thinks of himself as the main character of a story, even going as far as saying Emilia would slowly fall for him in episode 25 as if it was a given that it would eventually happen much like what happens for most male isekai protagonists. And Emilia even treated him kindly when no else would and eventually gave him a lap pillow, which was one of his otaku dream fantasies, and given his natural inclination to silver-haired beauties, it would make sense that he would fall for Emilia. However, I just think there might be something more sinister going on under the surface.
I also have an analysis of the Priscilla and Subaru scene in episode 16.
My interpretation of the scenes in which Priscilla had an extreme reaction to Subaru considering licking her foot and her decision to grab Subaru’s arm and say to Emilia, “Is there a reason you stare at my manservant, half-wit?” is that Priscilla actually found Subaru to be attractive and possibly a potential lover after he had the moxie to show her that appas have red skin and stand up to the thugs even though he was a weakling. To me, Priscilla saying, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!” shows that she thought Subaru was more than just a loser before he made a fool of himself at the castle, and her challenging Subaru to lick her foot was an attempt to see if he actually had any dignity left and to see whether he’d show the same kind of attitude he had when they first met, which was one that didn’t show deference to her and even taught her something new. Basically, I believe Priscilla was shit testing Subaru to see if he was worthy of her after her initial positive impression of him contrasted with his ugly outburst at the castle.
On the surface, Priscilla may have been calling Subaru a jester and a clown, which would give reason for people to think she isn’t attracted to Subaru, but I didn’t take Priscilla’s words at face value because of just how offended Priscilla actually was by Subaru deciding to actually lick her foot. She lectured him about what he displayed not being an act of loyalty or devotion but more akin to a pig’s greed, leading her to say she would strike down any camp he was a part of, and this tells me that Subaru’s decision to lick her foot was something that was the complete opposite of what Priscilla wanted even though on the surface she made it sound like favouring his miniscule pride would lead to an undesirable result. I believe Priscilla decided that she would make a weak pathetic Subaru her mortal enemy was because he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her judgement in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of. That shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated as much as she had been or even moreso because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru. This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, “Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!” I do note that Priscilla may also have been angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level might have disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation. If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her, she would not have reacted the way she did in my opinion.
I know it might be a tough sell since it’s just one scene from a character that has only showed up in 3 episodes so far, but Priscilla’s outrage along with her body language during the scene which included her playing with her hair and uncrossing and crossing her legs says to me that she thought of Subaru as being more than just a clown or jester. I have seen some people say that the author has a mean streak with that Priscilla scene and was being nasty to Subaru for the hell of it, but I think that that scene had a lot of care and craft in how it was presented based on Priscilla’s tone of voice and also the music and tension and that it might be relevant to the endgame of Re:zero. I do acknowledge that it’ll be extremely difficult to convince Re:zero watchers that this particular interpretation is correct barring the airing of additional unreleased content that might be on the longer side of several seasons away, but I try my best to put myself into the shoes of the characters and see whether their interactions made sense, and coming to the conclusion I did was the only way I could make sense of Priscilla’s outrage in that scene. Her reaction changing from disappointment initially (judging by the voice acting and the line, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!”) to that of righteous indignation is why I believe what I do about that scene.
Now comes the part that will be something I don’t think anyone but me has predicted. I believe that Subaru will end up with a look-alike of Priscilla at the end of Re:zero when he gets sent back to the regular modern human world after Satella, the Witch of Envy, possesses Emilia’s body and gets Subaru to kill her with the help of a coalition of fighters, and Satella sends him back to where he came from in her dying moments. I believe Subaru will eventually grow closer to Priscilla in future arcs of Re:zero, and Subaru will have to settle with a look-alike of her when he returns to the world he grew up in. Luckily for Subaru, Priscilla has no recollection of the time he seriously considered licking her foot given that he was killed off by Puck in that loop, so there is time to mend that relationship.
Why do I believe that Subaru has no chance of being with Emilia at the end of Re:zero? In the anime, there are already two incidents that suggest that Satella will possess Emilia at the end of the series. In Season 1, Petelgeuse stated that the Witch Cult’s goal is to test Emilia to see if she can be a vessel for the Witch, and if so, the Witch will be revived on a coming fated day. The second incident is in Season 2 when Satella told Subaru to come kill her one day, and given that Satella’s original body is immortal, that would only be possible if Satella possessed a body that can be killed, and Emilia’s body fits the bill for that purpose. Thus, Satella’s endgame goal is to possess Emilia’s body and finally be killed off. I see no reason why this will not come to pass given the hints we’ve gotten from the anime already. Maybe Emilia is Subaru’s first love, but she won’t be the one he ends up with in my opinion.
All this talking for what? Can’t you accept the fact that the main heroine of the story is only Emilia and nobody else?
I have never in any way indicated that I don’t believe Emilia is the main heroine. I just have seen stories where the main heroine or even the central protagonist dies at the end of the story, so I don’t assume that Emilia will survive at the end just because she’s the main heroine. I just think Emilia dies based off of what Satella’s wish is, which is to die.
This is quite the difficult episode for me. I enjoyed the part where they gave Otto a chance to shine. Although I would admit, him having abilities kind of came out of nowhere almost like it was shoehorned into the story. Maybe it may have been hinted on in the first season or during the first cour, but I didn’t expect that. Either way, it was still welcome and I genuinely enjoyed his backstory and his heroic moment which I’m quite sure still ended up in some form of grisly ending.
As for the second part, it was quite difficult to watch. The first few minutes of the confession was goin well then in the end it was intensely grating. I lost interest halfway through and never felt the emotions it should have elicited from the viewers. I don’t know how closely they followed to the source material with this scene, but I thought they padded it out too much.
Still, as this series has shown time and time again, there will always be a surprise at the end of every episode. And it looks like a showdown is going to happen in the next episode. Despite my mixed feelings on this one, I can’t help but feel excited for the next one.
What happened with Rem voice ?
I noted something strange…. like an off buzzing or totally a different voice
maybe it was recorded on a different studio or from home… or a different seiyu ?
becuase it totally sounds different