Thoughts on Re:Zero, one year later.
Having tried to get back into Re:Zero again (which I dropped half way through last year), I still couldn't bring myself to finish the series. While rewatching the few episodes I did, I have managed to further extrapolate why I dislike the show so much (and am puzzled as to it's mainstream popularity - surely people cannot overlook the show's glaring flaws just because it has Emillia and Rem).
Subaru is... an unremarkable protagonist. There is nothing unique about it him. His characterzation (
characterization ≠ character development) is virtually non-existent. What we know about Subaru:
- 1. He is an Otaku, with no stated interests of particular besides just an overly broad claim of "otaku".
2. He has a crush on Emilia, and is uncaring enough to stalk her across multiple timelines even when she ostensibly rejects him.
3. He is dissatisfied with himself for his complacency, which the only notable form of character development. The only thing that makes him remotely memorable in the LN genre (whose protagonists are forgettable by default, save for Tatsuya) doesn't have anything to do with the character himself, but how the series treats him.
Indeed, the only thing to write home about the
main protagonist - the character we are going to spend upwards of 80% of the series' runtime following is that he basically a selfish jerk, and nothing else. Many posters on MAL, Reddit, and AnimeSuki have claimed that he is a deconstruction of the light novel or Isekai genre, but Subaru is anything but. He is the
embodiment of the stereotypical LN and Isekai protagonist. The difference is how the narrative treats him - by basically torturing him for some minor screw up for days on end every few hours the story progresses. The story lavishes in torture-porn so much, that it crosses the line from "huh, this is pretty interesting" to "this is just senseless". By the midpoint of the series, the sheer amount of contrivances the series uses
just to make the protagonist suffer is absolutely ludicrous. This does not deconstruct the Isekai genre; Re:Zero
is embodies the Isekai genre. It just makes shifts the responsibility of the conflict to the character, and makes sure that he is responsible for every minor problem that ever happens.
Resolving the numerous conflicts involving death and resetting amounts to an incredibly tedious show to watch: the first arc which takes place at the tavern takes several hours of screentime to resolve, when the story could have been condensed into at most two episodes. The amount of time spent just wondering around, retreading the same beats each time for tidbits of information (which is wholly inconsequential to the overarching story in the longrun) exposes the poor pacing of the series. All characters involved (besides maybe Reinhardt and that one business-minded princess) are either completely uninteresting or even repulsive. The fights are drawn out and generic, and I have no idea where all of the locations takes are relative to each other (which - considering the importance of the mansion where Emilia and Subaru live, and the castle where all the political maneuvering will take place, we
should know where they are!). I'm not even going to bother with the general artstyle and sound design of the series. I will say though, that the ending
Styx Helix is quite memorable - enough to recall it from a series I didn't even like a whole year after I dropped it and only heard it a few times.
Now, on to my main beef:
Re:Zero does not get me to care. I do not care about Subaru, because he does not
love Emilia. He
lusts after her. He incessantly follows her around tries to get in a relationship with her without giving a damn about what
she wants. Not once, does he asks about her outlook on life or what she hopes to accomplish. Nor does he make any attempts to understand what she wants. He has some vague understanding that she is a candidate to become a princess (which he only learned by overhearing it), and then DISOBEYS HER EARNEST REQUEST to help her, when she SPECIFICALLY TOLD HIM TO JUST WAIT AT HOME FOR A FEW HOURS. His sheer inconsideration goes so far, that he basically ends up making Emilia's problems worse by simply trying to do what
he wants as opposed to what
she needs. I'm not a feminist; it's about Subaru being so self-centered, that he doesn't even consider other people as freaking human beings. If he actually gave a damn about her as human being, he would tried to make a genuine connection, but it's quite clear that he sees her as only a pretty thing by the end. If the series had actually addressed that point, I would have been more than happy to see Subaru rise up and be a better man, but I digress. I genuinely happy that Emilia told him off after his stunt in the castle; too bad the narrative is going to do everything it can to get him together with her in the end... and if the Rem arc is anything to go by, he will not have developed in that area one bit. At most, he wallows in self-pity about he is some useless failure in life for being an otaku shut-in, without addressing his actual problems. Not to mention, he callously tells Rem off because he's still chasing after Emilia... after she
told him off, further showing the true depths of his selfishness. It's mind boggling that people uphold Subaru as some sort of model of devotion, when he's clearly a stalker who couldn't accept his rejection, nor understand why he was rejected. There's one thing Subaru was right about
: Emilia deserves better. She
truly does.
Sorry I went off a rant there, but I
genuinely cannot grasp this show's critical acclaim. No really, it boggles my mind.
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