The Storytelling Genius of Re:Zero

[@LunaticThePhantom]

May end up remastering this because idk where the off balance audio came from (because it sure wasn't there when I rendered the video), but as a perfectionist I wanna fix it asap

[@closet__optimist]

W Re Zero glaze take my sub you beautiful bastard (it’s also my #1 of all time)

[@thesnowarts943]

maan the conclusion of your video is just perfect... you're goddamn right. maybe re zero isn't for everyone cuz of all this stigma i doubt it would be mentioned as a GOAT someday, but for us that know how many fuckin layers this anime has its just fuckin a awesome story that can deeply conect with ppl.

[@jeorge000balada]

Re:Zero is a masterpiece

[@lukeowen4457]

Great video! I enjoy hearing your perspective, and I really want to like the show, but when I saw it a few years back it (especially the second season) hit really flat compared to my expectations. I agree with a lot of your points that the show starts off very strong, but imo the second season felt like a derailment from the aspects I was interested in (world-building and the princess selection) to instead introduce a new conflict and leave Subaru stuck in the village for what felt like way too long from a pacing perspective. Also, Rem's heartfelt confession to Subaru fell completely flat for me and was nothing more than a comedic gag because she spends the greater part of an episode baring her soul to him for him to respond with "cool story bro, now can you help me rescue the girl I have a crush on?" Unfortunately I'm in the awkward predicament that I don't like the show but don't remember enough of why to give a coherent explanation. I haven't watched the show again since I first saw it back when season 2 came out, so I can't point to specifics of why I didn't like season 2, but I wish you would cover season 2 because that's where the majority of my issues with the show lie. I really want to give Re:Zero another try, but season 2 left such a bad taste in my mouth that I haven't been able to muster up the energy to rewatch the series to give season 3 a try.

[@thesnowarts943]

re zero is way more about the characters than world building bro, so major part of the time world building is on the second plan. but in fact re zero is a REALLY big story, the novel has about 40 volumes at the moment, so S1 and S2 covers only 15 volumes, which focus on character development, in some moment it will focus in the world building and the plot itself, it's just the pacing you see? about Rem's confession I really can see where you're coming from and I guess it's pretty fair if you see it that way 🤣. but in fact Rem was never expecting to gain subaru's love with that confession ( but she actually get anyways) the confession was all about subaru accepting and suppassing his past to stop hating himself so much. from all you said i guess you would like season 3 more, it has lot of fights and the plot moves way faster. but i highly reacomend a rewatch on season 1

[@lukeowen4457]

@@thesnowarts943 yeah, you're right, it's definitely more about the characters and their reactions to stuff. But the princess selection concept piqued my interest and I was excited for an arc about it, so I was disappointed when that didn't happen in the way I was expecting. It felt like poor pacing to me, but maybe I just misinterpreted what the show is about so I had unmet expectations made me feel disappointed where others may not feel the same way.

[@siginotmylastname3969]

World building doesn't shape the plot of any good story to be frank. I think you reacted to the royal selection stuff like Great the author can't wait to show me more of this! But it's there because it's the plot in the background of the entire series, and season 2 which is only books 9.7-15 of currently 39 directly relates as well. During the opening ceremony they basically all write off Emilia as a candidate while Subaru fumes and makes a fool of himself. In season 2 it turns out even Roswaal doesn't back her at all and he's using brutal methods to pull ahead in the royal selection because of his own goals Emilia isn't aware of(mentioned killing the dragon in arc 2) so of course they have to deal with internal politics first. Neither the royal selection and Emilia attempting to become ruler, nor getting Rem back for Subaru, can happen while Roswaal's treating them both as pawns and they don't even know what he has planned. The end of season 2 is basically the end of the first chunk of the entire story aka the introduction, after it every one of their goals has been revealed and the story moves into fighting for them.

[@siginotmylastname3969]

​@@lukeowen4457yeah just to be to the point, the royal selection ends in three years and the opening ceremony wasn't for some sort of election so there's not much to even show for three years. How it works: the royal family was wiped out and the dragon tablet soon instructed the sage council to find candidates for the next ruler using the dragon gems in the insignias, which glow when they find one of them. The nobles are increasingly not ok with the candidates it chooses to the point they're doubting the dragon volcanica even though he's basically a god there, so the sage council tells the candidates to give speeches demonstrating what they will do as rulers. This was supposed to placate them but basically every candidate pisses them off with different problems - Crusch wants to end the covenant, Felt is Felt, Emilia's a half elf, Priscilla is rumoured to have killed her eight husbands(but probably not as hard to accept since she's still a baroness who doesn't plan any big shakeup) and Anastasia's a powerful foreign merchant who also insults how the country was ruled before. So the royal selection ceremony doesn't really say there's a big political arc coming up. After all that, half the candidates would struggle to get ANY nobles to follow them! And this isn't a democracy remember, it's a monarchy and feudal system with the dragon volcanica looked at as a god to protect them. The only thing they have to do for three years according to the system they're in is lobby the nobles so they don't revolt against would be monarchs. Felt clearly has other plans, Crusch has set out to be a militaristic sort of leader who thinks they should deal with problems instead of volcanica so goes to fight the white whale which improves her reputation, Anastasia gets involved because Subaru tempts her with elior forest magic crystal mines as well as Russell Fellow as competition, Priscilla just lives in luxury confident in her win, and Emilia...well she's hated, she can't just go ask for noble support. Nor does she have any big ambitions, she's treated as a pawn by Roswaal so for the royal selection plot to progress, they have to deal with Roswaal. Arc 4 is just that. The books for the beginning of arc 3 were heavily cut including making clear why the royal selection is happening and how it works, how the politics works etc makes more sense in the books generally. The biggest problem is people treating it like an election when it's a feudal system where commoners shouldn't count at all and the nobles are mostly assholes, and the only reason the candidates have any chance of one of them ruling is because Volcanica is a god to them.

[@d3ltazer0judgement]

Peak video ngl, till now I've only watched the 1st season and what I've seen was pure quality, never understood the way some people say this anime is bad

[@youcantbeatk7006]

Why are you spoiling yourself?

[@d3ltazer0judgement]

@youcantbeatk7006 bro literally only talked about the 1st season, I'm not spoiling myself

[@bclol3007]

what a goat

[@siginotmylastname3969]

Fun video but a lot of argh takes, let's just leave it at Subaru did not fake going insane, Petelgeuse just perceives his milder fugue state as a form of voluntary escapism compared to his own twisted mind. Which Subaru internalises because he's a self hating kid who's gotten a shit tonne of criticism in violent traumatic situations which he can't tell anyone about. Edit: just gonna add the immediate warning of some wrong interpretations of re zero comes when someone completely separates seasons 1 and 2, especially bad if they ignore season 2 ep 1 is the conclusion of arc 3 in the books(the last one hundred pages of volume 9 are adapted here). You can't separate arcs 3 and 4 either because arc 3 was basically following Roswaal's plans as well(he was aware of the cult watching the entire time and messed with Puck's contract to make Emilia vulnerable throughout otherwise she'd have been more capable of saving herself). The amount of people who don't realise this arc is made to happen by people pulling strings like him and not "all because of Subaru" is way too high. Edit AGAIN: I'm just really glad when it's not another typical video essay trying to fit the series into a certain narrative which is thesis worthy, the problem with doing that is it's an unfinished series(and again, the popular narratives all separate arcs 3 and 4 instead of noticing they're being drastically recontextualised) whereas it's MUCH better to just say what you love about it, more abstract writing analysis works but the "this is the theme of re zero" type stuff ignores that there are at least 7 arcs still to animate, let alone the mountain of side stories! So I came back around, great video.

[@thesnowarts943]

well, in other words subaru didn't gone actually insane and Geuse saw right trough it at the first sight. I don't really see the problem of subaru faking his insanity at that moment, it gives him and that scenes a TON of layers, way more than if he was actually insane, you see, tappei was not making Geuse do that speech without any intention.

[@siginotmylastname3969]

​@@thesnowarts943Petelgeuse's whole speech is based on projection so it doesn't really need Subaru at all to have layers. He criticises Subaru for not truly being insane, says he killed her in his sloth, yet we know Petelgeuse is blaming himself for killing Fortuna. In my opinion he's saying neither of them deserve to escape the blame and guilt through insanity, that even after what Pandora did, he struggles with whether it was his fault. Petelgeuse has to say he's the insane one because if he wasn't, he killed Fortuna and everyone afterwards. In his mind that is. But Subaru internalises that he was sane and only seeking an escape from his actions because of Petelgeuse's words, leading him to blame himself for more and more deaths around him from that moment on. For both of them it DOES NOT MATTER. Their perspective matters and Subaru thinks he was sane and Petelgeuse insists he was insane(while likely not believing it at all since he's projecting onto Subaru while criticising him). It's my choice to still believe Subaru wasn't "faking" anything. And tbh "faking insanity" in a series with messages about mental illness is a terrible takeaway. Subaru's struggle with terrible PTSD pretty much starts on episode 7 and gets more obvious with every episode, he deserved sympathy for his behaviour long before episode 15. In the books during volume 2 after Rem killed him he refused to eat, grew paranoid about dying in his sleep and self harmed to stay awake until Emilia came and made him eat. His words in episode 13/end of volume 4 are also clear projection about his debt to Emilia for saving him and his downward spiral is driven by ptsd, other illness and more significantly the huge complex he has about his power meaning nothing he does is ever good enough and blaming himself every time someone else suffers. I don't think there's a single situation where I'd agree a character "being insane takes away depth." Just shows a bad understanding of mental illness to me. Btw I don't say stuff like ptsd plays a role because x symptom does this etc, the fact his complex is the focus is why I love it more than any supposed representation of mental illness. But it's pretty obvious from most of his behaviour he has ptsd and stuff and the complex he has basically is that mental illness tbh. Also ep 15 is immediately followed by Subaru barely able to sit and think through anything while rem puts up with him having tunnel vision about killing Petelgeuse, do you seriously think it helps the argument that he was sane before 😭 Crusch quite literally calls him a madman! Tell me the intentions Tappei has of calling him sane through Petelgeuse and insane through Crusch immediately after if not to show he's internalising a villain's blatantly wrong perspective?

[@jeorge000balada]

3:24 I'd say the manga is. The anime simplified things and rushed the pacing for me

[@jeorge000balada]

Also, everything went well at college?

[@LunaticThePhantom]

Yeah, semesters over and I ended up passing the only class I had 👍

[@jeorge000balada]

@@LunaticThePhantom nice

[@lunakingsley.7247]

​@@LunaticThePhantomainz ooal gown, aura bella fiora, mare bello fiore, emiurge (overlord), titan luz noceda, the collector (the owl house), aladdin (magi) or light yagami survive attack on titan. That would be fun and interesting.

[@bclol3007]

also, i know talking about arcs is easier, but can you clarify what parts of the season you are talking about. when you said "arc 2" I thought you were talking about season 2 since i havent seen the show in like 6 years

[@JB-fd8jy]

Season 1 covered arc 1-3, seaosn 2 covered arc 4 and season 3 covers arc 5 Arc 1 = royal capital vs elsa Arc 2 = mansion with the Oni twins Arc 3 = white whale + sin archbishop of sloth

[@closet__optimist]

@@JB-fd8jyseason 3 is also rumored to be extended in order to cover arc 6

[@siginotmylastname3969]

​@@JB-fd8jyseason 2 also ends arc 3 since episode 1 is the last hundred pages of volume 9. I think that matters a lot for how the story is understood(eg arc 4 doesn't start with Rem's coma so it isn't actually setting that up to be fixed, arc 3 actually starts with them preparing to go to Roswaal in sanctuary so leads into arc 4).