Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-

Episode 3

Okay, first off, it's hilarious to me that the character named "Garfiel" has the polar opposite personality from the lazy orange cartoon cat. He's loud, brash, and a go-getter, who suplexes a ground dragon on his first appearance. There's gonna be memes about this guy all season, isn't there?

Aside from Garfiel's introduction, we also got acquainted with Echidna, who doesn't seem to be quite as malicious as the ominous cliffhanger last episode made her out to be. She definitely isn't someone to be trusted, though, especially after lacing Subaru's tea.* At least she genially offers to explain all the complex fantasy lore in this anime, which would have been really helpful to both Subaru and the viewer at this point. On reflection, though, I am glad that Subaru (and by extension the author) showed restraint here, wanting to push the plot forward rather than get distracted with too much exposition. The series has a way of drip-feeding its lore, which I think works a lot better in the long run. Also, it's just really funny to see Echidna acting all put out that she didn't get to serve her expected role as the mysterious guide person.

I have to say, that first scene in this episode made me inadvertently think of the teatime mechanic in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Subaru was given the chance to ask a bunch of questions, and then flubbed all of them, meaning that his Charm stat did not go up. I hope that he will come back to redo this scene and score a Perfect Teatime. He probably will end up doing just that eventually; Echidna strongly infers that he'll be back, and next time he'll want answers.

The most intriguing takeaway from this conversation is that Subaru appears to have inherited the Sloth Witch Factor from killing Petelgeuse. Last episode, Beatrice strongly implied that she knew Petelgeuse before he got sucked into the Witch's Cult; she might even have been fond of him. Last season had various parallels between Subaru and Petelgeuse, too; Petelgeuse was a dark mirror, reflecting what Subaru could have become if he had continued his downward spiral. It's starting to seem like the crazed Sin Archbishop is going to become a more nuanced and compelling villain in death than in life. Of all the mysteries hinted at in this series so far, it's definitely the one I'm most interested in.

The rest of this episode is about the Sanctuary and Emilia. I've got to be honest; I'm not quite sold on the setup here. We're told that the Sanctuary is a place for half-bloods, and that as a half-elf only Emilia among the visitors has the qualifications to undertake the trial to free all remaining Arlam village residents that Garfiel is keeping hostage. So after a heartwarming pep talk with the villagers, Emilia goes to take the trial, only to collapse within literal seconds of entering the barrier. After all of her talk about proving herself and becoming a reliable person, she gets incapacitated in a completely anticlimactic manner, without even a hint of her struggles being shown. She ended last episode unconscious, and ended this one in much the same way. It gives Subaru the perfect excuse to jump in and attempt the trial himself... but eh. The abruptness doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth.

I'm also ambivalent about the nature of Subaru's trial. It's about confronting his past, so he wakes up in his home in Japan before he got transported to the other world. So far, Subaru's previous life has been almost completely unexplored. We know that he was a shut-in and that he hated the person he was, but not much else. Most "isekai" stories like these don't make the main character's previous life much of a focus beyond the broad strokes, and I expected Re:Zero to be no different in this regard. So while it's interesting to see Subaru's family life get addressed (his muscleman father seems like quite a character), I'm a little puzzled that it's happening so belatedly. We'll see how it all shakes up next episode.

Since I don't want to end this episode review on a low note, let me give a shoutout to Kenichi Kawamura's storyboards this episode. He's got a habit of doing dramatic closeups on characters' eyes, or showing only parts of their faces, leaving you to wonder how exactly they're thinking and responding to things. It really ramps up the tension and intrigue in an episode that was mostly dialogue-driven.

(* NOTE: In Crunchyroll's subtitles, Echidna says "I used the Envy Witch Factor on it to strengthen your resistance" but it should actually be translated to "I exerted influence on the Sloth Witch Factor and strengthened your resistance.")

Rating:

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.