Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-

Episode 7

Re:Zero has always deftly mixed its grim moments in with its light-hearted content, but episode 7 marks the first time that it has taken itself completely seriously for a whole episode (well, except for one brief moment of levity near the end of the episode). The result is outstanding. If a better episode of any anime series has aired so far in 2016 then I haven't seen it.

Gone – at least for the moment! – is the inane, high-spirited banter which characterized the lighter parts of the series. Even when Subaru interacts with favorite straight man Beatrice, he just doesn't have the spirit for it this time around, and it's not hard to understand why, as what happens to him before meeting with Beatrice again shakes him to the core of his being. The episode skips the opener entirely (and later the closer, too, for not the first time) and instead immediately resumes his confrontation with the flail-wielding Rem. From that we learn that it isn't jealousy per se which is driving her attack; she honestly thinks that Subaru is a spy who is trying to pull something over on her sister, perhaps with the intent of ultimately targeting Emilia. Since she doesn't know Subaru well, doesn't remember the previous time loops, and is (apparently) super-protective of both her sister and the place that they have at the mansion, understanding how she would interpret Subaru's innocent banter with Ram last episode as slyly playing up to her isn't hard. (For that matter, he was actively trying to play up to her, just not with the insidious intent that Rem apparently imagined.) Subaru is unable to convince her otherwise and so again dies messily.

The intensity of Subaru's tearful frustration over not being able to understand why Rem would do this to him carries over to his fourth loop. He's now terrified of her, and the sisters, of course, don't understand why. When Emilia comes to talk to him, he does something that viewers have long hoped for – seriously contemplate spilling the beans about the time loops to her – but we quickly see why he can't: whatever power is allowing him to do these time loops doesn't want him talking about out it, and there's a nasty, dread-inducing side effect if he tries. Later comments by Beatrice, when she comes to see him, strongly suggest that the Jealous Witch may, in fact, be the one who laid some effect on Subaru which is causing the time loops. But why, especially given the further hints in this episode that she did something pretty awful to Ram and Rem in the past? And does that have anything to do with why Emilia called herself Satella during Subaru's first meeting with her but hasn't since? This suggests that the Witch has some link to Emilia (if she isn't outright an alternate personality of Emilia) and may have commissioned the unwitting Subaru to be her protector.

Whatever is going on there, the circumstances induce some deep soul-searching in Subaru. Since there's no precedent for him looping a fourth time, he's fearful of the limits of his ability, and so tries to take himself out of the equation by asking Beatrice to protect him that fourth night. That, however, leads to Rem dying instead, and by implication from the same curse-like effect which probably beset Subaru during the first time around and started to beset him during the first second. That Subaru can't deny that he might know something, but is too fearful of phantom hands to speak what he knows, causes Ram to go ballistic in a fashion which suggests that she probably was the one who killed him in the hall on the second repeat – and given how Rem acted earlier in the episode, surmising that Ram was acting under the same logic at that time (since Subaru had been seeming to play up to Rem prior to that) is entirely reasonable. Subaru's flight in terror continues the soul-searching before he finally concludes that, damn it all, he does love both Ram and Rem, too, and there's no way he can let things end like this. In a bit of logic that would be twisted under any other circumstances, that means that he has to work up the courage to commit suicide so that he can more boldly try to correct things the next time around. Beatrice's conversation with him on the cliff keeps me from shaking the feeling that she may know a bit more about what's going on than what she's revealed so far, too.

Pretty nearly everything in the episode contributes comes together perfectly to contribute to the overall effect: the excellent use of creepy music, the distorted images when Subaru's sense of reality twists, the spectral hands that caress Subaru's body and briefly make his skin transparent, the images of Subaru's tear-stained face, even the subtly softer behavior of Beatrice when she can clearly see that Subaru is distressed in a non-joking fashion. Can't leave out some great voice acting efforts, either, both by Yūsuke Kobayashi (the current voice of Arslan) as Subaru of Rie Murakawa as Ram; that is one hell of an anguished scream she lets out. And yes, that nasty squishing sound at the end of the episode plays in here, too. If there's a flaw, it's that some of Subaru's dialog near the end runs on a couple of seconds too long, but given how much stronger and determined he seems at the end, I'll overlook that.

I am not about to say yet that this series is a Best of the Season candidate, but a couple more episodes like this and I may have to start thinking that way.

Rating: A

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