Fuck this guy. I need Rem back.
The animation quality seems to be pretty good, I know some people feared the animation would be bad but I have no complains.
I thought for sure this would be a political arc now so the ending was a bit "unexpected"... I thought this first new arc would go in a bit of a different direction but of course shit had to go really bad really quick.
Can't wait for next week!
Haven't seen Subaru's return by death in so long i had SHIVERS. I did not expect everyone to die like that though. I really wonder how everyone got influenced by the archbishop to be that affected by her speech. She's the archbishop of wrath but didn't feel any wrath from her. Though it's been a while since I've watched Re:Zero so can't remember how they work.
Interested to see how Garfiel's story will progress. So they'll be fighting the witches cult soon :D
It was a long episode but I hardly noticed that it was 1.5 hours long, it was good
Theorizing: (spoiler tags if people don't want to see this.)
Did Anastasia know about this? it's convenient that all the whale killers are here + Reinhard.
Gifts were offered to make them come, why offer gifts? Why does she need them there that badly? Did she know that the attack was going to happen? will she take the credit? Priscilla wasn't invited (would she take too much credit etc?)
I watched that whole hour and 18 minutes of fluff/recap to get that ending which is the real beginning of this season.
Don't watch Re:Zero, it's too much for you to understand. Entire episode had amazing worldbuilding & character interactions but you only cared action which is not surpsing for JJK [REDACTED].
Nah, I think I’ll watch and criticize what I don’t like as I have done for the last two seasons.
[Removed]
Back to shonen, this series isn't for 15 yo edgelords.
Nobody here even mentioned shounen lol go drink some milk kid this discussion isn't for 5 year olds
Is hard to care about character interactions when the dialogue is so awfully fluffly and cringy. This has always been the biggest problem for me wtih Re Zero and holy shit did this episode had a lot of that
What's wrong about the dialogue? Just out of interest.
Do you think with a more polished translation it could be better or it is inherent for you?
Well, since you're asking and I really want to get this out of my head, it's gonna be a long one...
It could be the translation, not sure (spanish is my first language btw) but in general the dialogue just feels unnatural. Like someone said in this thread, characters often stick to their attitude no matter the situation. Like how Subaru always rants so easily (you would've thought he'd learn some restrain after everything he's been through) and acts so childish around everyone, treating them like they were always his friends, even if he didn't had that development with them,. In contrast, even if trivial, his interactions with Beatrice felt more gratyfing... and fun, because that shit was earned, and I love Takahashi Rie, but I can't stand another "SUGOOOOOOOOOOOOKU" from Emilia anymore.
What's sad, is that when characters do change their attitude according to the situation, it's not convincing. Out of all the characters in Re Zero I thought the old dude would be the most restrained, which is a trait that until now he's been showing, but as soon as this drama with his family came up he completely lost his cool in front of EVERYONE, only to watch Emilia, the childest one after Subaru to handle the situation... I can't understand this development.
All of this wouldn't even be that bad if it wasn't so apparent. By far the worst thing is how fucking redundant the dialogue is. There's almost no subtlety, everyone has to talk about their thoughts and feelings, and everyone has to point it out. Seriously, go watch any scene from this episode and indicate me one where this doesn't happen. The only one I can remember is Garfiel meeting Reinhard (a situation that was explained after), but any other time is:
"Subaru gets mad"
Julius: omg he's mad
Subaru: yes, but i'm not mad like before! i'm containing myself!
Julius: yes boy, you've mature so much!
or when Joshua goes to the mansion at the beginning:
Starts gushing about his brother
Joshua 20 Seconds later: oh sorry I lose my cool when it's about my family
Emilia: you really love your brother do you? duh
or near the end when Priscilla tries to hire the little bard:
Liliana rejects her and explains
Subaru and Emilia: ...damn she's done, this bitch about to slap her
Priscilla: Oh well, that's fine.
Subaru: omg im surprised, I thought you were a bitch
Emilia: IM ALSO SUPRISED!, aren't you a bitch?
Priscilla: No! im actually not that much of a bitch!
This seems like i'm nitpicking, but this happens a lot in in Re Zero, which is a shame, because I think almost everything else is great, and some characters did have good development like Garfiel and Beatrice... and Emilia, even if she's now talking like a 10 year old in every other sentence. These problems aren't always present, but when they are so blattanly abbundant like in this episode it takes me out of the experience.
Dunno, I've checked the episode again and I didn't find it bad. It's normal give and take, not that far from normal exchange between normal people. There is not rule about subtly being necessary according to literature studies, but it is cool. Personally, I don't really care at all since for me art isn't about hiding stuff, but about conveying stuff. To put it simple, I think Re:Zero just does it okay, but except for a certain part of S1 (and Rem's whole "char """dev"""") I rearely find it annoying.
This is a typical issue with anime—tell, don't show. Or, a thousand words are worth a picture. Anime—even above average ones—often fall into this trap.
Which is why I enjoy movies like Spirited Away or manga like BLAME! which manage to tell a story with minimal dialogue.
How was it only recap and fluff? There was word building we got to see new characters we basically got to know so many new things and you say it’s only recap??
I speak only for myself, but I got the world-building from watching the last two seasons. The episode—in my opinion—did not need to be a full 90 minutes. I feel 60 minutes would’ve been good enough to catch everybody up and get the ball rolling on the new arc. So even being generous, there was 30 minutes that for me could’ve been cut out.
Nah it makes sense that they adapted vol 16 in one episode. It’s a good start into the arc and if it was split into two or three episodes it would've kinda messed up the pacing with the buildup at the end. Yes the first 60 minutes of the episode don’t have much action but are pretty important so cutting most of it out would be stupid.
Definitely a good call to air the start of this arc as a 90 minute episode, things should flow pretty well from there. I can't complain about seeing some Anastasia since I quite like her, she just doesn't get a whole lot of time in the first few arcs. Also don't mind seeing more Felt / Reinhard combo, their dynamic is always a lot of fun.
I'd forgotten what Sirius' power was, thanks for reminding me anime. It's been a long time so I don't recall a majority of what happens so this should be a fun watch.
Finished the episode, wow, sooo many important characters in this city.
This is gonna be another Super Hard Mode stage for Subaru to clear. Every arc though, I just feel Emilia is the most boring female lead ever. Every other character just overshadows her at every step for me. I wouldn't vote for her at all in this candidate race.
The 90 minute prologue start is genius, soooo many moving pieces, so many shifting plotlines we just got introduced to. Looking forward to seeing more of Priscella.
A year of not having experienced dying sure has Subaru shaken. And we know he feels it all, so he has the trauma of seeing an innocent boy dropped and splatted in front of him and he could nothing but cheer and laugh about it while under the influence of this new Archbishop.
I would say that this first episode, the length of a movie, was excellent, it didn't just introduce new characters or remember the old ones, but as it progressed it also inserted small flashbacks to refresh the memory. The big piece has arrived at the end, with our Subaru dying again after a long time.
So much dialogue with next to no story significance and annoying characters... I remember why I didn't like S2 now, last few minutes were good though
Actually, the way Re:Zero is written is that everything said or done is VERY important to the story.
Especially this first episode, which will spin back around later
In just this episode alone there were dozens of exchanges and dialogues that lead nowhere and could have easily been cut out. The way people talk is also just extremely annoying and unnatural, save a few and a lot of characters have like one personality and attitude that they stick to no matter the circumstances, Subaru included. Sure he technically went through a lot of character development but the vast majority of the time he acts exactly the same as before, (wow instead of straight up attacking Julius for basically no reason he only threatened to do so, incredible development) Emilia is pretty much the only exception. Idk maybe I was just younger when I watched S1 so these things didn't really stand out to me, but the dialogues are just not well written, which is a pretty big deal when the first episode is 1.5 hours long and is almost exclusively dialogue. I think this show works a lot better when it's not focusing on surface level political conflicts with dozens of characters involved that never had any development and instead focus on a select few like S1 did.
I wouldn't date to say there were "stuff that went nowhere" but "stuff which is basically set up". Re:Zero is no perfect, but I can see they are setting the stage for several many subplots.
On the characters and characterization: well, according to literature studies there as different kind of characters according to how they are handled, and I don't think there's more than one from this episode which didn't play a relevant role. In any case, I think Reinhard's dad scene was sorta awkward, tho.
In general most scenes could be classified between "chehkov's gun", "character dynamic" or "world building".
Also, I have to say the way text flows depends on translation too. In Spanish it was fine, but I can see given how long this episode is they maybe couldn't polish it enough (yet, the text still flows worse in Spanish compared to the neat official translation the novels enjoy).
Anyway, I think the best way to judge this episode is: depending of how things play out during the rest of the arc. But I have to say I like the change of narrative so focused on Subaru to a bigger cast.