“Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World,” might be the best isekai story out, and with the growing popularity of season three–it’s making a case for it. When people are looking for an anime to watch, isekai aren’t usually the genre people go to first. It’s either Shounen, romance, thriller or a genre of their liking.
Re:Zero is under the studio White Fox and they have produced other notable anime such as “Steins; Gate,” “Katanagatari,” and “Akame ga Kill.” White Fox has a distinct animation style when it comes to their shows, characters look more like real people with normal hair styles. Compared to “Dragon Ball Z”, where their characters have pointy hair following the trend of Shounen animations.
“Re:Zero” first aired in 2016 with the first season having 25 episodes, as well as season two. Season three which is currently airing is planning to have 16 episodes. The first episode of season three released on Oct. 2, and it airs every Wednesday night.
Every anime genre has their own tropes, but amongst all other genres, isekai stand out the most. You automatically know it’s an isekai when these tropes are involved. According to GameRant, a website that talks about anime and other pop culture, the normal tropes that they mention in isekai anime are overpowered protagonists, transporting to another world, or reincarnating as something else.
Isekai tropes can be good or bad, it all depends on how the story uses them. I mentioned overpowered protagonists, some main characters can be super strong and that can be boring because they have no challenges or fears of losing. Being reincarnated into something else is also highly used. Some anime that do that are “That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime” and “Mushoku Tensei.” If the anime doesn’t leave one world and goes to another, it’s not considered an isekai.
“Re:Zero” is a unique isekai anime in that it doesn’t follow all the typical tropes like having an overpowered main character. The main character of “Re:Zero” is a 17 year old named Subaru Natsuki. Unlike other Isekai anime, Natsuki is still in his own body and is not reincarnated.
In Natsuki’s previous world, he was just trying to survive in an environment that he wasn’t enjoying and didn’t know what the future would hold. Natsuki was just living a normal life before he was randomly exported to another world.
Natsuki suffered a lot and went through many tragic moments to help him get to where is now mentally and with his power in season three. Natsuki started off very vulnerable. The only thing Natsuki had as a crutch was the ability to “Return by Death.” Every time Natsuki dies, he revives at a checkpoint. Natsuki doesn’t have the ability to pick where he returns to. Before the incident takes place, Natsuki returns a couple minutes earlier from the moment of his death, so he can try to figure out how to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
Even though he’s able to come back to life, one downside to his power is that when he dies his interactions with characters no longer happen, only Natsuki remembers. He was also very weak mentally and physically during critical situations. Before Natsuki became this strong leader, he was very dependent on others and had lots of trouble trying to prevent tragedies from happening. Since he had trouble trying to prevent tragedies, he saw many traumatizing scenarios of the people he cared for which messed with his mental state, sometimes leading him into emotional breakdowns.
As the seasons go on, “Re:Zero” does a great job with the character development. It doesn’t matter if you’re just seeing the character for the time in season three or there from previous seasons. The character development from all characters is evident. Natsuki went from being vulnerable in season one to becoming a vocal leader and calling himself a “knight” as he and the team get ready for war against the main antagonist of the season, the Witch Cult.
Compared to season one and two of “Re:Zero”, season three is mostly the characters from previous seasons. Newer characters help Natsuki fight and try to save his romantic interest, Emilia who is captured by the cult.
In season three, the cult represents the “Seven deadly sins.” Each member of the cult is the embodiment of either Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Envy, Sloth and Pride. One of them has Emilia hostage. If Natsuki and his team ignore the cults order, they will go into war which could lead to many deaths.
Every anime has an official soundtrack and even though it’s just music, it has a big impact on the show and “Re:Zero” does a great job showcasing that.
The soundtrack is timely and it helps add importance during the scene. In scenes where Natsuki is sad or anxious, the music reflects it by being sad or hopeful. But when the scene is serious, there’s intense music to help the audience connect with what the character is feeling at the moment.
I think “Re:Zero” excels the best when it comes to emotional attachments with characters. I mentioned that Natsuki dies a lot and that he has the ability to come back to life. Re:Zero is able to make the audience squeamish in some deaths because it can be very gory at times, but then Re:Zero is able to pull the strings when it comes to the romance aspect.
Where the season is currently, I think “Re:Zero” is doing a good job with the pacing. Instead of having random dialogue to fill the episodes.”Re:Zero” focus on season three is the war that they will have against the cult. I don’t think “Re:Zero” is missing anything from the story. They do a great job of focusing on the important scenes that have happened in previous seasons and relaying them back to the current season. “Re:Zero” is an anime definitely worth watching. The experience is great, viewers get to connect with multiple characters and it’s easy to digest for fans to binge the anime.
