lichtgruen

The first episode of Season 3 was enough to put me off Season 3 completely. Far too much talk, far too little action. And an extremely unoriginal introduction to the "adventure": Subaro and Emilia's group receives an invitation to a water city that looks like a prison on the map. They discuss whether it could be a trap... and ultimately travel there anyway. It all seems very contrived, especially since Emila, as a candidate for the throne, should have other things to do than undertake a long journey in the vague hope of obtaining a special item. The only climax (which I finally fast-forwarded to) consists of Subaro's confrontation with a female Sin Archbishop. This leads to Subaro using "Return from Death" multiple times with extremely short lead times. The only realizations for me: Subaro hasn't developed as a character, and the fights are ultimately just boring because you can't relate to the opponent, who is portrayed as deeply evil. It's a shame, I used to like the series.

That's it for me with Re:Zero!

Season 1 was great and exciting. Season 2 was mixed, but still had some exciting moments. I admit, I was a bit skeptical about Season 3. They were planning another split-cour anime - and this time, instead of 25 episodes, they ended up with only 16.

Yesterday, I watched the first episode of Season 3, which, as befits Re:Zero, is significantly longer than the regular episodes. It quickly seemed endless - the very conventional plot, the associated predictable storyline, and the irrelevant chatter bored me to death. Finally, I looked up the synopsis for episode 1 on Wikipedia - and then fast-forwarded to the tipping point in the video: Subaro is walking through the city and accidentally encounters a witch priestess who is about to throw a child off a tower. Subaro and the bystanders die... and Subaro, of course, comes back to life... but only about 30 minutes in the past. He immediately rushes blindly into battle... and immediately dies again. Character development? None (even though a year has supposedly passed)! An interesting, serious opponent? The enemy is merely a caricature of abject evil. The characters to be rescued - completely irrelevant to the plot. The plot... just doesn't touch me emotionally. And then it's supposed to get even more action-packed: The first eight episodes of the split-cour anime are called the "Attack Arc," the last eight the "Counterattack Arc." Sounds like a fighting shonen. No thanks... this isn't the Re:Zero I once saw as a star in the anime firmament. What a shame.