Re: Zero - Ep 15

Jesus fucking christ.

Holy shit.

What the fuck did I just watch.

Spoiler

Haven't seen something so viscerally brutal like that since Higurashi. Like, there's plenty of brutally gory anime around, but it's a lot rarer to have something so physically cringe worthy and emotionally draining. Probably because you rarely see that stuff happening to the main characters.

Overall, it was a fantastic episode though. That ending credits scene of Subaru's headless body kneeling in the snow as the credit rolled was absolutely beautiful and has so much emotional impact. It's hard to reconcile the feeling you get there with the scenes of Subaru doing his comedy stunts in the earlier arcs.

Does this mean Emilia is Satella's daughter and that was Satella speaking? Edit: On second thoughts, was that Puck...? Certainly sounded like the voice actor.

Also despite how dismal this episode was, Rem shined so goddamn bright. With Subaru camatose, she was left playing the hero and god is she awesome. The way her voice actor played her that episode was great too - she was so very clearly at a whole new level of fury from her tone of voice, one we haven't heard all anime so far.

God, I love this anime so much.

 

This was the first and only episode of this anime that I really really Iiked. Every other ep was just meh.

It felt like they were actually trying to dip into the plot and get somewhere, rather than just have Subaru dicking around, and then having something horrible happen, and then rewinding a few times until happy ending.

Betelgeuse was the highlight of the episode for me. Comical villainy, yet also intrinsically terrifying in his movements and patterns of speech. Love shit like that.

Subaru is still annoyingly hurtling down that cliche anime MC path where his emotions go from 0-100-0 in the space of a fart, but in this ep it finally felt appropriate.

Hopefully the show remains dialed up to 11 for a bit before dropping back into comedic shenanigans and bad drama.

Side note: Can we talk about how cerebral and Asimov-y Planetarian is while simultaneously being disgustingly moe? GODDAMNT KEY. STOP RUINING EVERYTHING.

 

Because Jarik was nagging me so much, decided to give Re: Zero a shot and I have to say, really like it.

The humor works often enough, Sabaru was, at the start, a rather decent protagonist as far as male shonen protags go, I actually kinda liked him even if he tried way too hard at times that it caused second hand embarassment.

But it works, yeah? As Jarik said, he finds himself in a fantasy world and he is trying to make it sense to him via making it fit in a narrative that he expects to be true, only it doesn't.

He gets fucking traumatized, because that's what death and violence does to someone not prepared for it, especially his own death which has to fuck him up like nothing. The people he has grown to care for, partly because they are nice people, pretty girls mostly and partly because of some twisted version of stockholm syndrome where he makes them fit into his fantasy character narrative.

And all that makes him obsess, it's the rare anime that truly fucks up its main characters negatively like this. Sabaru was a better person before the anime. He is losing sanity points like nobodies business and for all his time rewind power, he is powerless, something he doesn't quite get because he does see himself as the main character.

That's why he did what he did at the court session where he proclaimed himself as a knight, because he is the hero in this story, so obviously, since every other contender has a knight, it's obvious that he is hers, right?

So, yeah, he has become more and more unlikeable throughout but from time to time, something that makes him likeable again shines through when he is able to collect himself. I am really looking forward to see how he will get through this. I certainly don't want him to become a swordsman or anything in a few days, so, we'll see which way the anime goes.

Spoiler

I think that big thing at the end was Puck. It was hinted several times that Puck actually kinda knows about the loops. I mean, he admitted he can read minds and he always acts more and more familiar with him, so, I do think that was an order for the next loop. Same with the librarian and her knowledge and it is interesting that she wasn't anywhere to see in the aftermath of both attacks.

 

91 days reeks of being created by a Goodfellas/Untouchables fan boy. I'm liking it a lot so far, hard to see Angelo not being completely screwed over though, like the protagonist in 99% of mafia stories.

Also, if you want some wicked, bittersweet Feels, Sweetness and Lightning. If Tsumugi doesn't immediately steal your heart the first time she calls for her 'Oto-san', frankly, you've no soul.

Also hard not to bawl like a baby when Kyouhei nearly breaks down at the simple sight of his daughter enjoying her rice dinner.

Holy fuck I'm tearing up writing this. I need a tub of ice cream for the next ep I think!

 

I was really excited for D.Gray-Man Hallow but when I saw it, heard Allen (and all the poor souls that had their voices sucked out of their body) and I don't recognise them all. I just expected somthing better. Still gonna watch it though.

 

I had hoped they were going to start fresh and reboot it FMA:Brotherhood/HunterxHunter style since I never watched the original. But then it turns out it was just a continuation so I noped out of there.

 

A movie apaptation of the 6th volume of the NGNL manga/LN (I can't remember what the original source material is?) has been announced today. No word on studio yet but if it's Madhouse then they're finally getting over their aversion to sequels it seems! I wasn't really a big fan of the series to be honest but I know it has a lot of fans.

 

Warning Spoiler for ep. 16 below.


Re:Zero ep. 16 (something I read which was a really detailed analysis of ep. 16 as well as missing stuff from LN. I thought I'd share).

Spoiler

The desire of a pig. This episode uses its title in a literal sense.

It may not seem like it at first but this episode gave us probably the most character development or set up for character development we ever had in an episode. We also dive deeper into a lot of world building involving politics, economics and cultural backgrounds.

First of we see how Crusch seems to invite an important person that is controlling the financial situation in the kingdom. Remember in episode 14 when Crusch said that she is gathering forces for something? It’s possibly for that exact same reason that she know invited someone with financial advice.

Let me get to the negotiations with Crusch which was in my opinion done brilliantly in terms of dialogue, meaning and cinematography.

What I recognized immediately is that we don’t see Subaru’s eyes directly until he more or less explodes. That’s where this glow in his eyes appears that Crusch mentions as a murderous intent that holds no reason for her to support. We anticipate to see the face of the madman that is shrouded in mysteries within the first minutes of the episode.

Now to the content of this negotiations which is really interesting. First off we get the information that the presence of the Witch Cult is not something unknown. They also seem to have a grudge against half elvs as well. I mean they were shown eradicating an entire race.

In this scene Crusch strikes me as a really realistic replication of a determined ruler. She does not act out of kind heartedness, she demands something to get if she gives and she clearly knows what lies in her responsibility and what not. Subaru is so captured in his hatred he even forgets the relationship he has with Crusch’s camp which is based on a contract.

Crusch asks for her profit if she would help out but the thing is Subaru has nothing to give except a debt. By asking him again if he is willing to go as far as risking Emilia’s candidacy for this rescue we see how desperate he is. I mean he is not wrong, she can’t be a candidate if she is dead but he is trying to negotiate with something that doesn’t give Crusch any profit. Emilia with her background is fated to loose, this is no secret and pretty obvious for anyone with a political understanding.

Subaru’s reactions shows how two world with two different ideologies and mentalities clash together. Subaru displays the idea of humanity as the reason to save these people. Why would you hesitate if you can save a lot of people from death? Basically the idea that our world follows. The thing is this world follows different rules and she negotiates with a candidate for the throne. Crusch has no reason to help a rival who is incapable to keep her own territory safe and who is incapable to offer something of profit.

Then Crusch addresses something that pretty much anyone with a sharp eye and mind would ask. Where would Subaru get all this information? And when he doesn’t reply what stops her from assuming he is affiliated with them? And guess who is claiming that he has not relation to the cult? Exactly, the girl that accused him of the same thing about 9 episodes ago. This showcases the change of Rem’s relationship with him.

After this "pointless talk" ( in Subaru’s eyes ) he explodes and we see his murderous eyes for the first time. All the things that happened in episode 15 have accumulated into endless hatred towards the cult and Betelgeuse. The ending of episode 15 makes a good job at portraying that. All this hatred now clouds his reasoning for going against the cult. He wants them death, he wants to kill them all more than he wants to save the people from them. Crusch pinpoints this fact by saying „Not once did you say that you want to save Emilia“.

And now imagine what this sentence means to Subaru. In Subaru’s eyes Crusch basically said that all the effort he poured into saving Emilia, that all the suffering he had to endure for her well being was a mere lie to hide his true intentions. Imagine if you died several times to keep someone alive and then someone who has no idea about all of that comes up and claims that all of this was a shallow lie?

After hearing that Subaru merely walks up on her. You have to interpret the context of this scene and you’ll realize that he was about to straight up assault her. In the LN he grabbed a spoon and held it as if he was about to stab her but honestly they handled it way better in here.

What this scene showed us really well is that Subaru is nowhere near sane or "back to normal". He simply drifted to another extreme within insanity. But above everything else he learned a lesson in that scene.

I don’t really have to say anything about the short scene with Rem except the fact that Subaru has so little control over his emotional state that he almost lashes out on Rem when she talks about the upcoming events as if she doesn’t really believe fully in their truth. He calls the people he drove away ( especially Reinhard in this scene ) useless, even though he is the most useless one of them all. As he recognizes that he also addressed Rem with that he turns away but he far too much pride to apologize.

Well next to Priscilla’s scene.

Oh I love that scene, and no not because of Priscilla’s extremely fine body, hm….No I love it because it teaches Subaru the definition of dignity. What Priscilla wants is entertainment, you can’t possibly lure her out with money or goods. So what Priscilla did was testing Subaru if he was different compared to all the other „pigs“ that are below her. The moment he agreed to lick her feet and actually attempted to do so, he proved that he has no dignity and the greed of a pig. To kill the cultists, to get his revenge he was willing to lay down all of his pride in front of an enemy. He sank to the bottom for a selfish and greedy demand. You could also say that he doesn't value the people around him as actual humans which reduces him to the standards of an animal. Oh and guess what Subaru has to say about that after he gets kicked out? That...., even after I saved her. This scene shows us that despite everything happened Subaru is still thinks that the people he does something for, owe him. He still hasn't shaken off that attitude which only drives people away from him.

At last we get Anastasia. First off we hear a bit about her world view and how the royal elections influenced the economics in the kingdom of Lugnica. The demand for weapons higher than ever which ties into the gathering of forces that Crusch talked about. By mentioning Russel Subaru gave Anastasia the information she needed. In short: he got played hard. And then Anastasia says something extremely interesting which also has a lot of irony to it.

She says that whatever he does the past won’t change. She says that to the person that can undo the past for the most part but has to live with the consequences of what he did in episode 12 & 13. Anastasia and the story itself is rubbing the fact that Subaru has to live with what he has done into his face. Of course as if Subaru wasn’t already enraged enough, being confronted with your mistakes only fuels this unyielding rage. At the end of their conversation Anastasia even summarizes what his mistakes are and through that we see the third lesson he has learned. Reputation and negotiations. All in all this entire episode was a huge punch in the guts for Subaru, his ideals, his personality and moreover for people inserting themselves into him. I can imagine that anyone who fully inserts himself into Subaru was just as enraged when they got shot down by anyone around them.

There is not really much to say about the part after this. The Witch Cult seems to be a really thoughtful organization since we hear that many unconfirmed claims of activity similar to the witch cult has been reported. If something is reported so many times without any proof or clues it doesn’t take long until it’s given no attention anymore.

At least Subaru now managed to gather means of transportation and he shifted his goal from killing to saving right now even though I wouldn’t be sure if he could contain himself from killing if he got the chance to do it. Close to the end mysterious things start to happen. At first we see "Flügel’s tree" ( Flügel is german for wings by the way ) then a carriage is disappearing and only Subaru seems to remember it and then "it" appears.

The fact that they ended it at this point means that episode 17 will be insane. I estimate next episode to be at least on episode 15 level if not even better or worse in terms of suffering.

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Wrap it in [.spoiler][./spoiler] no periods

 

The lack of nuance in his reactions is at the moment my biggest problem with the series. I understand that it represents part of the madness that more and more takes hold of him, but as I was watching I felt it grate the longer it stayed like this. I often seek at least something in a protagonist that lets me identify with him, or maybe I just prefer a cold, hard rage over spitting madness at every conceivable option, but I honestly can’t stand this for much longer and hope that he’ll have at least some measure of success soon, to give him back at least the sanity needed to respond with something aside from absolute fury.

They did foreshadow in the beginning that you can expect tonal shifts from time to time due to the psychological seriousness of his condition, but this is such a strong contrast to his earlier behavior that I feel myself disliking him more as the story progresses. Which is sad, because so far I loved the series.

The brutality of episode fifteen didn’t strike me as that horrible, but that is in all probability largely owed to the fact that I just came from a stint of Berserk. In any case, and my issue with the protagonist aside, I adore Rem and the craziness and danger of Betelgeuse was well portrayed. I just hope that there will be at least some light moment soon to contrast the incredibly dark aspects of his current character development. Some form of victory, even if small and inconsequential in the greater scheme of things.

Also, are there any opinions on Taboo Tattoo? I like it so far, and the fights are gorgeous.

 

Thunderbolt Fantasy is so fucking weird. I downloaded the first episode on a whim because people called it pretty. You can imagine my surprise when it turned out to be half stopmotion, half puppet show with shittons of CG slapped everywhere. Story seems to resemble a lot of Wuxia, but the fact every Chinese word gets translated in the voice acting but not in the subs makes it hard to remember the names of everything.

Will follow it, though, out of curiosity if nothing else.

 

Alderamin's OP's been growing on me so far, might actually be my favorite of the season. As for the show itself, it's a solid 7/10, not great but definitely watchable

Decided to rewatch Re:Zero since I dumped it at Episode 1 and I might wait 1-2 weeks before picking Food Wars up again.

 

If you're hoping for some small victories, be prepared for a long wait... at least for 3-4 more episodes.

Spoiler for episode 17.

Spoiler

Well talk about a start, huh?

Alright in right at the start we see the visual confirmation that it is indeed the white whale that was mentioned 3 episodes ago.

A lot of things are happening in a short span of time.

The whale seems to have some kind of holes on its body from which it blows an extreme amount of air causing an entire storm.

Eventually Rem makes the decision what she feels is her destiny. Recall episode 15 and how she said that the witch cult now even took her reason to die ( Subaru ). Subaru is the one person and overall reason she would choose to die for and that’s exactly what we see here. She knows that in his current state he would protest with all his might so she knocks him out and disappears in the darkness.

After that there is this extremely terrifying and interesting scene with Otto.

Subaru wants to go back and save her, Otto wants to live on. Here we have a not mentally healthy madman arguing against a commoner with rational thoughts.

We hear that the White Whale killed an entire expedition led by the first Sword Saint ( Master Swordsman is a sloppy translation here ) was completely wiped out. Ever since then this creature is classified as a catastrophe.

Then Otto speaks the truth. Both are weak, both can’t do anything in this situation. The thing is from his past life Subaru knows that Rem is not strong enough as well.

And now pay attention. When Subaru looks back into the darkness this is a key moment. Within these few seconds the Whale did something to Rem that made Otto forget her. Do you think a perfectly sane person like Otto would tell an obviously enraged and unpredictable person like Subaru "For now we’re fortunate to escape it" after they just lost her to this beast? No, because at this moment he talked without any knowledge of a person named Rem. Since Subaru seems to be unaffected we deal with two different aspects that are actually really similar to his return by death. Just like there every other person except him doesn’t know anything about what he knows. The thing is this time it’s not the existence of an entire life but the existence of a person. On top of that Subaru usually has to confront this thought of being alone with the knowledge of something no one else knows AFTER he has returned to a time and place where he can collect his thought. Here he has to face this reality while still being in an "unsuccessful timeline". Of course he still doesn’t understand it in this particular scene but the more people don’t remember her the deeper he is sucked into this suicidal desire.

Remember that Subaru is already mentally damaged. Now he has to deal with this too and you can see how he perceives this. He stares at Otto and acts accordingly to the kind of mentality he has in this life…rage.

Both Subaru and Otto ask themselves why the white whale only follows them and no other caravans. We see a shot that clearly show the horn of the whale. Now here we need some additional info from the novel that should have been mentioned quite some time ago. I don’t know whether they implement this later on via knowledge drop but I doubt it so here a small fact. Mabeasts of all kinds usually have a horn on their head. Recall the Wolgram in arc 2 and the puppy with the bald spot on its head. A horn was supposed to be there so somehow they lost it. Well and because Subaru speaks out his responsibility for this situation Otto does something that might cause some controversy.

Some might call him scum for pushing off Subaru but what I see is mostly humanity, scummy but humane. As ugly as it is, some people would have done the same and for a commoner like Otto who doesn’t seek honor in death like some knights this is the most realistic decision there is. Subaru is left all bruised up and the whale ignores him because of the said horn.

I think the scene where he repeats "I don’t want to die" is extremely powerful. Some might say "why would he say that? He knows he can simply repeat"? The thing is, we don’t know that. Never was there any indication that Subaru has unlimited tries within one checkpoint until he succeeds. He has to treat every life of his as it was his last one. In episode 7 he actually said so himself and this was the reason why he initially didn’t kill himself. Another part is your natural instinct as a human. No one wants to be killed or even eaten by a bigger creature, that’s how nature works.

Eventually the carriage returns and we see clearly that Otto was killed by the cult, it’s somehow an extreme case of karma at works here. Subaru is haunted by the guilt over the loss of Rem and that’s the only thing that is on his mind right now, he isn’t even faced by Otto’s death anymore. And then there is this slight trace of hope in form of the children. The last time Subaru saw them was gutted out by the cult so seeing them and hearing them perfectly fine now gives him some sort of rewarding feeling. He achieved something even if it was at the cost of many lives, probably including Rem’s.

Subaru wakes up and hallucinates right off the bat. I love his reaction when Emilia’s name is dropped. I think it’s two things that cause this reaction. Firstly all the memories from the scene of episode 13 come back to haunt him. Secondly she did something for him by healing his body which is pretty ironic because he was the one saying she had more debts that she could ever repay to him, yet here he is piling up some as well.

Ram brings really interesting points. Emilia didn’t talk about anyone and for Ram who wasn’t involved in anything it’s clear that Subaru did something. In her eyes he is someone who doesn’t address anything as it is but instead likes to shrug it off and Subaru can’t say anything against it because it’s true.

And then Subaru has to deliver Rem’s sister the message of her death, well so he thought. Instead he is hit with the same reality again but even worse this time. Even her own sister, the closest person to her doesn’t remember her as well. Subaru never had any experience with something like that so he is confused and nowhere near calm. We learn some more information how this "erase" works. Apparently even the history is rewritten and events are altered so that it seems as if this person never existed. This line "Even for a nightmare this makes no sense". Subaru who is from another world searches for rationality in a world that is irrational in its entirety, well from our standpoint. Then we see how even the belongings of the erased person is gone. Every small hint that this person ever existed is erased from this world. Personally I see this as a fate worse than death. This difference in perspective I talked about earlier becomes apparent in full force once again. People aside from Subaru see him as confused, as a madman, as insane and this time it’s not even because of the events from another timeline.

Subaru plays with the thoughts of running but the thought of Emilia brings him back to one last little flame of determination. Subaru is feared to confront Emilia and this only gives her stance and things she said in episode 13 even more weight and truth. He doesn’t respond when she asks why he is back here, he doesn’t want to explain something that can’t be explained and would only lead to another why ( as in why do you know that the witch cult will attack? )no Subaru wants just out of here, running away from death itself with Emilia by her side. The events of his past lives show another effect on him. Never would have past Subaru grabbed Emilia like that and almost drag her out of the room.

"I don’t want to suffer and cry anymore" Subaru is so close to giving up everything. He says everything will work out if she just agrees and comes with him. Here he falls back into his escapism. He denies the existence of Rem and what happened to her because he just doesn’t want to confront himself with painful thoughts anymore. And then Subaru explodes by basically forecasting Emilia’s future. Imagine someone telling you "no you won’t be able to do that, no you won’t achieve that". And then Subaru mixes up his perspective with the ones of others again. In his perspective Emilia wasn’t able to protect anyone yet here she claims she has things to do. Of course Emilia nor anyone else can share his perspective which makes it even more jaded for us. He does the same mistake he did in episode 13. He gave her the fault for things that happened in different timelines. Emilia recognizes that Subaru haunts something and he is very hurt but can’t pinpoint it of course. Subaru feels like he has to achieve anything so that Rem’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

After he realizes that everyone around him forgot Rem he just can’t take it anymore. He risks to hurt himself through these hands just so that he can get this off his chest. The thing is now there are 2 hands instead of one. Note how the hands are now mindlessly enter Subaru’s body no, it almost caresses his heart in a threatening manner as if it’s saying "I can crush this anytime, you’ve been warned". And then Emilia drops dead in front of him. Instead of his heart her hear was taken. Remember what he said right before he revealed his ability. "You can take my heart". So not only don’t these hands only affect Subaru, they are extremely conscious of what he says. I think this finally crushes these theories of simply writing his reveal down on paper. These hands or whatever is controlling it is extremely conscious of what Subaru is doing and saying 24/7.

Now Subaru has lost the last thing that kept him going, Emilia. He just stares into the distance after screaming. Beatrice appears and crushes the crystal that holds Puck. Subaru begs that she kills him but as we know Betty hates to see people suffer let alone die in front of her or through her. That’s especially cruel since Beatrice granted him his wish in episode 7 which was supposed to safe him from death. Subaru is let down by the last person he hoped to help him in any way. On top of that we hear that Beatrice apparently suffered A LOT already and she wouldn’t exchange a future for more pain.

Subaru only seeks death, he wants to flee from this reality. Then the cult arrives and Betelgeuse praises him for not being slothful and basically doing their job. Once again Betelgeuse believes Subaru to be a sin since he says how Emilia died already after meeting only one sin. Then something really interesting happens. Subaru can see the authority of sloth which surprises Betelgeuse a lot, in fact it enrages him.

God there is so much more to talk about but I too have to cut off somewhere. All in all I loved all the emotions this episode was able to convey. From selflessness, to guilt, regret, selfishness, rewarding feeling, shock, despair and many more.

 

Amaama to Inazuma is honestly shaping up to be the Anime of the Season for me. I thought it'd just be a fun, little cutesy anime, but it's honestly completely solid.

The kid is too cute.

 

Anyone have a particularly strong opinion about Mononokean?

I've been enjoying it, but every time I look around for discussions people are just kinda saying "Meh, Natsume Yuujinchou" is better.

Having never seen Nastume, I don't have much to compare it to. Just seems strange that I'm seeing such negativity towards it.

 

I think I'm done with RE:Life for awhile. Every interesting plot development is continuously riddled by Subaru's overblown reactions to everything and everyone, and it's just getting tiresome.

Maybe I'll come back to it in a few months and binge the rest while I'm exercising/cooking.

 

Yeah the 2016 spring anime selection is kind of lame though I'll definitely be watching the next episodes of shokugeki no Souma and I will finish relife just for betelgeuse. He's probably my favorite anime villain this spring. Other than that none of sequels look all that great.

 

Sweetness. And. Lightning.

The feels. The lovable characters. The levels of Cuteness.

 

Yeah, I concur completely with Hugplx. Sweetness and Lightning is a precocious show, full with heartwarming, bittersweet and downright adorable moments. Even those moments that hit you right in the feels do so in a good way. You just feel better after watching it.

 

I want a Tsumugi of my own. Preferably without being a widow...