Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

[Edort4]

So the MC seems to be a bit dense. Maybe it is a side effect of the reset. Somehow like in edge of tomorrow it took 3-4 times to sink in. I dont understand why or how he keeps meeting the thugs trio. I guess it must have something to do with the "comic relief" (all writers must read the same old "101 to writing book") but I fail to grasp how that overused situation, in only 2 episodes (must be a record), could please the public. If its just an excuse to meet the elf in the 1st episode and the knight in the 2nd I would call that lazy storyboarding.

I find Elsa to be amazing. Words fail to describe her awesomeness. Thus far is my favourite character and I hope we see lots of her. Actually this 2nd episode felt short so I guess thats good. Will keep watching even thou I dont actually like harem shows with lolis.

[shinta|hikari]

I think the trio encounter is to show that history has some kind of magnetic force that tries to pull itself into its original path.

I wonder if Elsa will be part of his harem later. The conquest would certainly be interesting.

[KrayZ33]

I'm glad MC realized what's going on around him, I liked the 2nd up not only but also because of that.

And since no one mentioned it, the ending theme is actually pretty amazing, compared to the opening at least.
Gets you pumped up for what is about to happen, reminds me of how Gundam handled it (Unicorn)

[MFauli]

Just saw episode A and B. I like it now after seeing those first two episodes. What I didn´t like was that the hero calls himself a hikkikomori, yet is perfectly fine with being outside, is even super confident and eloquent in front of strangers. They should have dropped that hikkikomori line, would have been better. Oh, and "Oh, I was probably transferred to a parallel world" line was so underhyped, lol.

Will watch episode 02 later. I wonder how they´ll handle the dying from here on. It´d kinda suck, if he has to go through all the same shit again and again to reach a certain point. Maybe he´ll get checkpoints? Maa, I´ll wait and see.

Although I´m not sure yet if this a serious or a comedic anime. The kills are very gruesome and serious, but everything besides that feels relatively shallow, as if it was a gag anime.

[KrayZ33]

The way he "relives" what has happened is actually pretty enjoyable.

Shinta's statement

I think the trio encounter is to show that history has some kind of magnetic force that tries to pull itself into its original path.
I think the trio encounter is to show that history has some kind of magnetic force that tries to pull itself into its original path.

Seems to be somewhat true, but at the same time, there are all these differences that might lead to a different result, what we don't know however is what result is temporary or what is then going to happen "eventually", no matter what he tries to do!

Right now, he is always ending up at the loot house for example.

I might overthink this a little here, but if I assume this is some kind of a "game" scenario maybe it's not a "time loop", but a game mechanic

Return by Death = Respawn (obviously)
Apple Vendor = Savepoint
Thugs = an event that "respawns" (or more like, it's part of the story and will always happen) and will yield either different rewards or different story progression (or branch of in a bad end, visual novel style)
Elsa = Boss battle
Loot House = Main Story Quest location
Half Elf = Main Story Character, you can't advance the story unless you talk with her and she joins you.
Swordsman = Optional party Character
Felt = Optional Party Character

Everything that happens on the way to the Loothouse are basically side quests that might help him to defeat the boss, which is Elsa.
If he fails to do so, he'll respawn at his last checkpoint/savepoint.

It would be funny if he manages to defeat Elsa somewhat soon and die against something else a day or two later. When he does die, he'll now respawn at the Loot House after he defeated Elsa however and he has to slowly advance to new "savepoints" until the Main Story Quest is solved.

[David75]

It is possible that each day is a passing point. So he has to get through everything that might kill him on that first day, spend the night sleeping so that everything he lived that day gets granted.
Then his new starting point is that new day. So by then felt, the silver princess, Reinhard, the Appa seller, dangerously desirable Elsa and everyone he met the first day will remember him.

[shinta|hikari]

I definitely prefer the save point idea compared to always starting from Zero... but then we have the title...

@Mfauli - I totally agree with you about the hikkikomori part. He can love MMOs without being one, after all. It was unnecessary. It's not a deal breaker or anything, but omitting it would make his setting more natural.

[MFauli]

episode 3 is out
----------------------


That was close!
Will be interesting to see if the checkpoint theory pans out. It kinda has to. Would be too much trouble and work to repeat THAT scene all the time.

Sucks, though, that the killer woman got away. Honestly, I think it´s because a fatal, wrong mentality in character design these days. With so many anime or shows or games or whatever, you always have stories where enemies just won´t die. Why? Because the makers think "hm, I put so much effort into creating this character, it´d be a waste to have him/her killed already". And that´s why we´ve got these frustrating situations, where villains stay alive until very late in the story. You know what would be the proper solution? CREATE MORE GOOD VILLAINS. Really, stories these days lack good villain writing.

Reinhart was kinda overkill. I wonder: When he said he usually only fights monsters ... did he literally mean monsters such as giant dragons, trolls and kraken and stuff? Because that´d make sense

Last but not least, and I feel bad for mentioning it again: Wtf was Subaru doing there at the end? His posing, his "ok" stuff, wtf. It wouldn´t be that bad, if it wasn´t for the "he´s a hikkikomori" origin. NO hikkikomori in existence behaves like that. :/

[shinta|hikari]

Maybe one that likes disco?

Anyway, I agree that Subaru can get annoying, especially because he's dumb as bricks. However, that's the only thing I don't like about this show. The fights, animation, magic, swordplay, and non-Subaru characters are all great. Emilia lost her fake tsundere persona from episode 1, Felt got fleshed out (I can only wish it happens literally ), Elsa's psychopathic motivations were elucidated, and Reinhard's chivalry was emphasized.

While I agree with you about the annoying trope of enemies escaping, it actually makes sense that Elsa survives. She's too pro to fight an impossible battle, so the fact that she held on that long means she had a chance, and when it disappeared, she devoted her all into running.

What did Reinhard see when Felt was handing over the insignia? It's not the trinket itself that bothered him because he handed it over to Emilia at the end. He also asked Felt's age. Maybe that insignia can only be held by elves or royalty, and Felt is an abandoned heir to the previous evil emperor (cough, Chaika, cough) or something.

[KrayZ33]

Elsa had some really amazing scenes in EP3.

They really did not slack on the job and made her look gorgeous throughout the whole fight.
Small details like when she threw her knife at Felt when she was about the leave the room make the show so worth it.
I love that kind of stuff.
Let's hope they keep it up.

I even chuckled a bit when Subaru managed to block that knife by kicking something in it's flightpath and realized "Fuck man, I'm nailing it right now" - It really felt like it was one of the moments when you clearly know you can't do something specific, but the stars were aligned properly and you somehow stumbled your way to victory.

Howeer, his pose at the end was really over the top .. and I wish they wouldn't overdo it as much in the future. He didn't seem like a character that would fool around after a situation like this *that* much.
Some, less annoying "jokes", to lighten up the situation would've been so much better. Emilia's laugh was really cute though! She even tries to hide it , so no one can see her smile, (as if there was anything to be ashamed off) awwwww yiiisssss!


Btw, did anyone understand why Elsa was throwing her knife at the end? I thought it would circle around and slash someones gut open when nobody expected it, but it seems like Subaru had his belly opened up the whole time.

edit: or was it deflected by Reinhard's "spirit shield" or something?

edit2: another thing I'd like to add

Emilia's sense of "doing the right thing" is so much better than Emiya Shirou's.
When she's acting like that, it seems much, much less immature. Not sure if people even consider them comparable, but the "sacrificing yourself/your gains to help someone else" - theme is there.

And is anyone of you playing LoL? When Rom was about to die and they finished the fight, I remembered this little video here



I kept on thinking about how he should "rewind" it again for the perfect score. Turned out he didn't have to.

[KrayZ33]

Watched Episode 4 right now.

Seems like it's truely build up similiar to a game with certain savepoints/autosaves. Did the Mansion owner seriously kill him in his sleep, that's extremely spooky and it must be even more spooky for Subaru, knowing that you died without actually seeing/feeling it must feel extremely awkward.

If the Mansion owner wanted to be on the safe side, I wonder what he said to Emilia afterwards. Not that it matters, because that "timeline" does basically not exist.
It's kinda sad that his relationship status with Emilia is "down" again and I wonder how he'll build it up again.
We might even see him getting tired of it or something like that. That would be an interesting twist, I can imagine him getting grumpy after doing it over and over again, which will eventually lead to an attitude that will never allow them to get close.

[shinta|hikari]

That's a twist usually reserved towards seinen stories like Steins;Gate. I don't think this loop will go on enough for Subaru to get jaded and lose interest in Emilia-tan.

[MFauli]

Rather lame episode, though. I hope this "let´s put the only significant plot progression in a 10 second clip at the end of the episode" style doesn´t keep recurring.

[David75]

Beatrice did not reset. That will prove useful in the future.
Now as for how Barusu died, well the first night I thought poisoning, and that's what happened. But it seems the killer was lurking just in case. I wonder if they kill everyone in the mansion after that, or just clean Barusu's remains... Because with all that blood, that's a bit of a tedious work to clean.

Also, I thought the owner and even the maids were quite powerful, even Emilia is. So I guess we once again have quite a powerfull assassin, with over the top skills.

Then the question is why target Barusu. It's probably related to Emilia's King candidate status. But we don't know for sure.

Back to the poisoning, feels like it's the mutt's bite, they really insisted on the bite marks. Is the mutt the compact version of a larger beast ?

[shinta|hikari]

Beatrice reset. She only remembered him because the save point was his 2nd awakening AFTER getting pawned by Beatrice the first time.

[KrayZ33]

Watched Ep5 right now:

Not sure what happened to the twins, maybe Subaru learned enough during his time as a butler that they started to respect him "enough", or they were honestly worried about him and couldn't believe that he was a spy this time around?

Did the blue one fall for him? That was kinda cute. I guess it was hinted that they aren't truely human during the Angel vs. Demon talk. Talking about cute, this show puts alot of effort into making the girls look good, especially Emilia looks better and better every episode. The clothing, the movements, I enjoy it to watch her, too bad Subaru himself is so goofy, while I like his statements and enjoy his attitude from time to time (he's able tp brush some things away and doesn't hesitate to "shoot back"), there are just as many times where it's uncalled for. (especially when he changes into disco stu-mode... or whatever he's trying to do there when his voice changes and all that)

I can't say I enjoyed the pacing this time around... it's not like they wasted a lot of time, it's just that this episode was pretty much useless on it's own. I actually liked what I saw, but it felt similiar to Haruhi's Endless 8. It's very thrilling to see what is different, what is the same and whether he will or will not be able to change stuff, but at the same time, it's really frustrating to see him failing at the exact same moment again even though the outcome itself is perfectly acceptable for me.

It's more of an "I wish I could watch another 3-4 episodes already" issue.

Also, I thought the owner and even the maids were quite powerful, even Emilia is. So I guess we once again have quite a powerfull assassin, with over the top skills.

Ep.6? I know I'm behind but didn't EP6 only air today/yesterday? Did we see the maids fighting or doing something awesome already, or are you talking about the impact of their characters and how much you enjoyed them.

[MFauli]

it was a shit episode, truth to be told. once again nothing happens in 20 minutes, then something happens in the last 10 seconds. meh

also, i reeeeally hope Rem is killed. Would be absolute bullcrap if Subaru forgave her killing him once/attempting to do so a second time, just because she´s a cute girl with a sister.

[shinta|hikari]

You don't forgive cute evil girls. You enslave them.

[KrayZ33]

When did we stop writing down the episode number when it wasn't mentioned before ?

I don't need a fat "episode X" at the beginning with a link, but it's a pretty huge deal for a show like this.
I'm actually able to refrain from reading a comment about an episode I didn't watch yet, but only if I know what episode that person is talking about.

[shinta|hikari]

I wasn't even sure what episode I watched, to be honest.