Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu – 04

The next chapter of Re:Zero gets off to a strong start with a fun Eva reference from Subaru, followed by his and our dashed expectations he’d wake up with Emilia sitting by his bedside.

Instead he’s greeted by no one, walks down a hall loop, solves it on the first try with his gamemaster-infuriating natural luck, coming afoul of a “drill loli” (referring to her swirling twin tails) sorceress who burns him alive, claiming it’s just a test to determine if he’s friend or foe.

Waking up again in the same bed (the ceiling now familiar), he hears snide commentary in stereo about himself, then finds two maids, Ram (pink hair) and Rem (blue), standing in his room. Emilia appears, and all is well. He surveys the massive estate where they’re staying, shows “Emilia-tan” Japanese morning calisthenics (a great cultural crossover), and meets the lord of the mansion, Roswaal L. Mathers, whom he not unreasonably mistakes as some kind of jester.

During a sumptuous meal, Emilia informs Subaru that she is one of the candidates in the running for ruler of Lugunica (her insignia was proof of her status), and with the present king’s whereabouts unknown, things are uneasy in the kingdom. As such, one can’t fault Subaru for requesting something relatively modest as thanks for saving her: he wants a job at the mansion. And hell, who wouldn’t? The place is fantastic.

Once he’s fitted for a butler’s uniform, the twin maids show him the considerable ropes of estate maintenance. He proves he’s not particularly skilled at anything beyond solving Betty’s door magic on the first try every time, but it’s all stuff he hasn’t done before, so a learning curve is expected.

Ram and Rem are patient and discover some surprising things about Subaru (like his sewing skills), but Ram is quick to nickname him Barusu (a blinding curse) and don’t go easy with the barbs. It’s a great sequence of Subaru once again starting to find his place, and it lulled me into that same comfortable place.

Ram, who it would appear has some kind of special relationship to her lord, reports to him that Subaru doesn’t make the best butler (or spy, most likely) and doesn’t believe interfering in his friendship with Emilia is necessary, since they’re both “kids” and “nothing will happen.”

That line is accurate due to the personality of Subaru and Emilia, but also proves prescient. But before it does, Subie and Emi have a nice little chat in the masnion’s yard/field. Emilia offers to heal Subaru’s wounds, but he wants to keep them as proof of his efforts.

He also asks Emilia on what amounts to a date in town when both are free, and Subaru ignores her concerns that being with her would be troublesome for him. When he goes to bed, he can’t even sleep—he’s too excited about his date tomorrow—until he starts counting Pucks.

But then morning comes, and Ram and Rem call him a guest, and his wounds are gone. Return by Death has occurred, only with a new spawning location: the bed in Roswaal Mansion. But when did death occur? Was his power triggered by something else? It’s another stunning turn for a show that’s been full of them.

This truly is a gem of a show that lulls us (along with Subaru) into a sense of comfort and security, then resets all the progress he made. Having to start over from scratch in this new timeline will be particularly demoralizing for Subaru, even though neither he no nobody ended up dead—as far as we know—this time.

But it speaks to the confidence of this show that it can sweep the slate clean with such regularity. Reset buttons are typically a way of making quick, neat endings, or making things easier for the writers. Here, the resets make things harder, since an entirely new route and new bonds must forged anew.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu – 03

Subaru is surprised to find “Satella” at the loot house before dark, but not for long, as he realizes her nature never changes no matter which timeline he’s in. She always helps the lost girl, then ends up tracking Felt down. However, just when Subaru is making progress mediating between the parties (by being nice to both), Elsa comes out of the shadows.

Again, Subie uses his knowledge of Satella to summon Puck to shield the blade, knowing he’s still corporeal this time of day. But Elsa still manages to severely wound Old Man Rom. Puck and Satella launch a pretty-yet-terrifying counterattack with their green ice-like crystalline magic, but to no avail—like a cockroach, Elsa just won’t go down.

During Elsa’s fight with Rom, Felt, Satella, and Subaru, she’s full of quips, and so is everyone else. As the blades and crystal saggers fly, so to does the juicy dialogue, which is just as sharp and satisfying as the action.

Subaru makes mention of how cool he is when he realizes he needn’t fear death (since he can always start over at the fruit vendor) but at the same time, really doesn’t want to die and have to start over, especially now that he’s made progress with both Felt and Satella.

Satella goes down for a moment, but gets back up and helps Subie from long range when she can. Felt is able to escape outside to call for help, which they’re going to need because Elsa is as relentless about disemboweling everyone as she is hard to kill.

That help comes in the form of Reinhard, who is a resplendent model of ultra-cool fantasy hero timing, appearances, and dialogue. He doesn’t even draw his own sword, instead choosing one that’s lying around, so confident is he that he doesn’t need to go all out against the likes of Elsa the “Bowel Hunter.” It’s also cool how Elsa knows him too, and is excited to see what he can do before she kills him.

In a great bit of world-building even within this one loot house interior, Satella admits Reinhard can’t go all out while she’s healing Rom. But when Rom is out of danger, she gives the go-ahead, and Reiny goes ALL OUT, launching a terrifyingly powerful attack that rends half of the bottle episode’s bottle clean away. Outstanding presentation of an “overdrive” attack.

Everyone celebrates the victory, until Elsa pops out of the wreckage, STILL not dead but only wounded. Fortunately, she chooses the better part of valor by retreating, but the fact she’s still out there with her chilling desire to disembowel everyone else is certainly disquieting, as is the fact even that huge attack didn’t kill her.

Her kiss-off attack is foiled by Subaru, who uses Rom’s giant bat to parry the blow, saving Satella’s life in the process. When the coast is clear once again, Subie goes into Self-Aware Fantasy Hero Mode, asking for something from his rescuee in return for his heroics: her name. She replies Emilia, with just about the sweetest gosh-darn smile of the Spring. A great little transaction.

Even with all the twists and turns we’d experienced so far, Re:Zero still isn’t quite done yet. When Felt finally produces the insignia she stole from Emilia to return it to her, Reinhard suddenly hardens his previously lenient stance (he’s off duty, so he’ll overlook theft) and formally arrests Felt, hitting her with a sleep spell when she resists.

Once again, the strong reaction from another world insider creates great gravity and significance for one innocuous-looking little piece of jewelry, like the name “Satella.” But this time, Subie didn’t call her by that name, got on her good side, and when the wounds Elsa made finally open, she heals him and prevents another reset.

I was really glad about that, because my heart nearly plummeted all the way down into the Central Dogma when it seemed like he was going to die. That said, I do hope Felt is okay—she seems to be a pawn in all this—and Subie and Emilia can secure her freedom without making Reinhard mad or getting the law on their backs.

Overall though, this week was simply a tremendous piece of entertainment. Succulent kick-ass combat, quick-witted, tasty dialogue that never felt forced or in the way, and countless twists and turns that only added to the richness of the whole. This was the complete package.

It was also a brilliantly compact package at that, with 99% taking place in the confines of the loot house, the setting never feeling stale. Eschewing the OP and ED were also a gutsy choice for what is just the third episode. Re:Zero is a must-watch Spring experience, and this was its best episode to date. Hopefully it keeps this up.