Re:ZERO First Impressions

Here we go again with another anime about a boy who gets trapped in another fantasy world somehow, let's see how this goes. Honestly, I came into this anime not expecting much since the initial story is something that has been repeated many times over the past couple years with examples like Sword Art Online, Konusuba and No Game No Life, but I enjoyed this none-the-less. The Story

Our story starts out with the main character, Subaru, a younger shut-in type of guy, buying snacks to go back and shut in himself in to play video games, while a mysterious figure who appears to be dying seems to "pull" him into a fantasy world. Playing off the idea that this trope has been overdone, Subaru is pretty calm about this ordeal and plays out exactly how you would in a video-game. With no luck in obtaining information or finding the reason he was summoned to this world, Subaru rests in a back-alley complaining about his starting gear, cornering himself from some muggers who end up beating him mercilessly. Fortunately, Subaru is saved by a beautiful silver-haired girl who is chasing a thief who stole an insignia from her. Despite her rush to chase the thief, the girl and her cat-shaped spirit guardian take care of Subaru and thus Subaru is drawn into her quest to find her insignia. After a day spent of looking, the two end up in the slums of town where after finding a store-room for treasures, our characters are quickly killed. Mysteriously after grasping out for life, Subaru jumps back in time to when he first was transported in, similar to how "revival" worked in the recent anime Erased.

Here is where I question the story a bit, though he had just been killed, Subaru has been pretty calm about strange things happening to him, but when he is thrown back in time, suddenly he is surprised. He seems to be disconnected with everything, unaware that the events taken the first time around never occurred in this time. He rushes back to the storehouse thinking that he'll find his friend, where instead he finds the owner, and actually starts dealing to get the insignia from the thief! The strange jump in the main characters demeanor really gave a sour taste in my mouth, and made me question his thought processes. From here, the mysterious killer shows up and kills the owner, the thief, and Subaru again, causing Subaru's ability to activate again. Without revealing all of the story, I will say that this anime has some serious plot holes to fill, and has to do some serious work to set itself apart from other anime with similar elements. Score 6/10

Characters

The couple characters revealed in this first episode were refreshing to meet. First, we have our previously mentioned main character Natsuki Subaru, designed in a tracksuit to show his laziness and lack of style (despite it's pretty cool design). Though his thoughts throughout the episode aren't fully fleshed out, he is overall a pretty reliable guy, a main character you wouldn't feel bad cheering for. His power to turn back time through death seems pretty interesting, and given his background in gaming I'm sure he'll learn to make use of it in more creative ways soon enough.

Our second character we meet is the mysterious Silver-Haired girl (Emilia) who asks to be called Satella for some reason unknowing of us. What a great character, she's a tsundere type character, yet she's not crazy violent like many of the girls who fall under this trope. paired with her cat-shaped spirit "Puck" she's very enjoyable, always coming off determined to fulfill her goals, and yet never can stop herself from helping someone in need (with Puck constantly teasing her about). She is shown to have magic abilities, such as shooting projectiles of ice spheres at the muggers when she saves Subaru, but the length of these abilities aren't so set in stone yet. Not so sure how permanent other characters are, but all other supporting roles were done fairly well, everyone had an interesting design and they all stood apart from each other, having unique characteristics of their own and not blending into the background. Score 9/10

Sound

The music for this anime was very fitting for each of the times they used it, during fights they either had some more electronic action music, or giving the turn of events a more dramatic use of orchestra music to emphasize the seriousness of a situation. The voice acting was superb, not one character felt out of place, and though Yuusuke Kobayashi played his role well, the voice actor most people were excited about was Rei Takahashi, following her extremely popular character role as Megumin from Konosuba. She did a wonderful job playing "Satella", giving her a voice of her own very befitting of the character, very shy sounding, but full of spunk and determination.

Score: 9/10

Setting

The setting was very similar to many anime these past few years, medieval fantasy, sporting demi-human characters like lizard people, cat-girls, and I swear there is a sloth person in the background in one scene. Furries will find a comfortable place here, though humans still take a prominent role in this community. The city that this story takes place in is huge and vibrant, full of trade and diversity, and although it's a repeated setting from other shows, it plays the setting strong and does not let you down. The town is vibrant during the day, and beautiful at night, the use of lighting makes it look like a modern metropolis at night when viewed from far away. I cannot say that they didn't put effort in the setting, they really put their own spin on it and polished it to the point where it stands out. Score 8/10

Animation

The Animation is something I can praise this anime for, they did not cut any corners. Every movement is crisp, the use of static images is minimal. What I love the most about the animation of this show is that they put their all into everything in this first episode, no matter if it was the main character or a background character shopping, everything was animated and full detail was put into all of it. Even on moments where the main character is in focus and the background in blurred, background characters made believable movements. Though CG is used for many of the background characters, it's beautiful and blended well so it doesn't clash with the overall style of the anime.

Enjoyment

In the end of the day, I was pulled into the story and very interested in why our character was pulled into this world, and how he came into his abilities. Not only does this story play the serious and dramatic parts well, but the comedy and slice-of-life elements bring the story around giving some lightheartedness to situations that could be a bit too serious. The balance of all these elements, combined with likable characters, superb animation, and a setting that, although nothing new, stands strong for what it is, makes for a very enjoyable show that I'll be excited to see each week. Score 8/10

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