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REVIEW: ReLIFE Final Arc BD+DVD




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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2019 11:36 am Reply with quote
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buoyed mightily by the end-of-season reveal that Hishiro was a ReLIFE candidate just like Kaizaki. All through the original season, the appeal of an actual romance between our leads was undercut by our understanding of the alleged age and experiential difference between them. As a twenty-seven-year-old adult, Kaizaki attempting to woo Hishiro wouldn't just be a deception, it'd be a massive abuse of his relative experience and power. With Hishiro at last put on equal footing, ReLIFE can actually embrace the weirdness of their relationship, as each of them attempt to subtly figure out the feelings of the other.


I'm still disappointed that they went this route. While I understand why they did it at the same time it just feel like they chose to side step the problem, but its still there. They still fell in love with each others when they didn't know the other actually was an adult. Say if there was a show about a pedophile trying to fish some kid online, only to find out his latest prey was an adult all along and then ending with a bow on top with some "aren't they a cute couple!" message at the end, leave a bit of a bad taste (the same way show with loli character try to make it okay because "she's actually 800 year old"). I would have liked if they at least went a bit more into depth about that aspect, say would the change in physical age affect there relationship (say they think the other is really cute/handsome as a teenager just to find out as adult there just meh) which could have been used to explore interesting topic.

Overall I have the same problem with it as I had with main show, when its using it's setting (adult re-living high school) it's at its best, but when it try to just be another high school roomcom it's forgettable.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2019 7:13 pm Reply with quote
I didn't have much of a problem with the memory loss aspect of this show. I actually liked how the whole thing ended, but I did feel the "time skip" between the end of the tv series and the start of these OVAs.

While I can see what the above poster touches on, due to the "ages" of the characters, my mind was always thinking that both characters were adults in the ReLife program. I never saw their relationship as "I like him/her because they're a teen", but it was how they met. My view may be very simplistic, but I view it along the lines of them falling in love due to their adult personalities. I rarely delve deep in my entertainment, which is probably why I have little to no problem. Laughing

Add to that, in my eyes, the memory wipe makes them falling in love while thinking the other is a teen moot (in terms of it being seen as problematic). They've now found each other as adults, and are going to fall in love all over again, as they're clearly going down the "fell in love due to their personalities" route.

I enjoyed this series, so much so, that I'm going to be buying it on disc. The TV series is what I enjoyed more, but getting the OVAs is icing on the cake for me, as there are too many series I like that never get any kind of ending with closure. Laughing

Up to this point, doesn't look like anyone has licensed it (in Australia, I've seen nothing announced), so I may need to import this one. But, there is a possibility that Madman may grab it...I'm only saying that because they have just put up Orange for pre-order, and that series was released in the US around the same time as the ReLife TV series.

Since the AUD is under 0.70USD at the moment, I'm hoping Madman is getting ReLife (and that it'd include the OVAs). Laughing
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3644
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2019 9:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
“these two ReLIFE candidates will forget each other because them's the rules, I guess.” It's a deeply unsatisfying core conflict, but fortunately, it's unable to truly drag down this OVA's satisfying emotional moments.


I didn't care for that bit either and thought it just added unnecessary drama just for drama's sake. I can understand the reasoning behind erasing the kids memories (you don't want a bunch of kids wondering why their friend disappeared), but why would it be necessary on the kid that's actually a relife candidate? It's not like they're going to go looking for them, so they'd never know the "kid" wasn't around any more.

Ali07 wrote:

Add to that, in my eyes, the memory wipe makes them falling in love while thinking the other is a teen moot (in terms of it being seen as problematic). They've now found each other as adults, and are going to fall in love all over again, as they're clearly going down the "fell in love due to their personalities" route.


I'm not sure if this was in the manga or the anime (or both) as I went to compare the endings right after I finished the OVA, but spoiler[after they meet again and see their respective phone straps they get their memories back and realize who they each are.]
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Stampeed Valkyrie



Joined: 10 Aug 2014
Posts: 826
Location: PA
PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 8:31 am Reply with quote
I came into this series via the anime, and left via the manga.
Overall I honestly couldn't recommend either the TV series of the Finale OVA's.

Too much content edited out for time and broadcast restraints. These edits get really bad in the finale with some pretty good character building events completely skipped.

This is another example of no emotional attachment to the characters because too many underlying plot elements which worked very well in the manga, are completely omitted in the anime form.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 8:43 am Reply with quote
Covnam wrote:
I'm not sure if this was in the manga or the anime (or both) as I went to compare the endings right after I finished the OVA, but spoiler[after they meet again and see their respective phone straps they get their memories back and realize who they each are.]

From memory, has been awhile since I've seen the OVA (and never read the manga), but the ending in the OVA felt more like spoiler[it triggered familiarity, but not outright recognition of who the other person was.] Though, I could be wrong.

I should give the final OVA a rewatch. Laughing

EDIT - so yeah, I didn't really remember. I just quickly had a look at the final minutes, spoiler[they remember everything, but it was due to thinking about when they saw fireworks, where everything came back.] So, what I said in my previous post, is wrong. Laughing
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