RE:ZERO KARA HAJIMERU ISEKAI SEIKATSU 3RD SEASON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ActionRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
ANIME ActionRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season Part 2
MANGA ActionRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu: Dai-5 Shou - Mizu no Machi to Eiyuu no Uta
ONA AdventureRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Kyuukei Jikan (Break Time) 3rd Season
ANIME ActionRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 4th Season

REVIEWS

• 

  vampirevore

  75/100
  fell off like the Simpsons

  This is a review of the third season of _Re:Zero_. This review has spoilers, because logically you’ve probably already watched the anime if you’re reading a third season review anyway. If you haven’t watched it, then: skip to the end I guess, if you feel like it. ____

  _Re:Zero_ is one of my favourite anime of all time, and has been one of my favourites since I first watched it almost ten years ago as I started to immerse myself in the medium of anime. So, when it was officially announced that it’d be getting a third season I was pretty excited about it to say the least. My policy of generally avoiding fandom spaces meant I didn’t know what to expect, what new obstacles may present themselves for the main cast, and what points of growth or commentary this next phase of the story would provide and I was looking forward to being able to take it all in and make sense of it weekly, in the same way I’d gotten to experience the second season. With this third season now concluded, and another phase of the story wrapped up, the only feeling I’m left with is,,,, indifference? As weird as it felt in real-time, and as out of character as it feels to write this out after all the years I spent defending and highlighting this show, this new season of it landed with all the grace of a wet sock, and the main reason underlying that fact for me is: its lack of any self-awareness.

  I want you to consider what made this show so memorable for you, if you’re someone who also enjoyed essentially all of what came before this point, the moments in the story that were as difficult to watch as they were essential for developing Subaru’s character and the audience along with him. His argument with Emilia after he’d been absolutely humiliated trying to fight Julius, Rem’s confession and rejection in the phase of the story after that, Subaru’s encounter with his parents and his past life during the Sanctuary’s trials. All of these moments forced him to confront the ugliest, most cowardly aspects of his own character, forced him to confront inconvenient truths that made it clear that no matter how great he perceived his own suffering to be, it gives him no excuse to disregard anyone else’s wants or struggles. Over the course of two long seasons of death and rebirth, breaking down and being built back up again, he learned to value those around him for the actual humans (or demons,half-elves, etc….) they are, rather than as his own one-sided image of them, and has started the quest towards valuing his own life and role without the baggage of the alternating entitlement and self-isolation that made him unable to form genuine bonds at the start. I felt like I gained a new perspective on myself, on the world at large, and on isekai (and other escapist anime) in general, through watching his story unfold. And that’s what made _Re:Zero_ so great to me. Now with all of that said, where is Any of that in this third season? Before you dismiss this review for just having raised that question,,,, hear me out a bit.

  Subaru doesn’t need to be put through the psychological equivalent of _Takeshi’s Castle_ on permanent loop for me to derive any satisfaction from keeping up with his story, he doesn’t need to die over and over again or keep being broken down as a character. The general absence of those sorts of moments for most of this season is not necessarily where my issue with this season comes from. If I were to take a specific example, the confrontation with Regulus that took a bit more than half the season to clear, you’d see where the writing here starts to fall apart a bit. In casual conversation with the most dear and cherished person on earth to me, I’ve expressed the view that Regulus is essentially an amalgamation of every harmful trait/stereotype you typically associate with incels. And that’s not me saying his inclusion in the story is somehow problematic, just for the record, it’s only an assessment of his character. He has an obsession with purity, asking Emilia about her virginity as the most important, and first question before embarking on his plans to marry her, and also not wanting any of his wives to express themselves at all in ways that he found offensive. They were to be chaste, modest, quiet, and pretty much only dolls for his admiration and use. All of this notwithstanding, he failed to understand why it was that he was so emotionally isolated, and why nobody truly cared for him.

  In some respects, I feel like Regulus being an incel is a mirror of where Subaru was two seasons ago, or where he could’ve ended up if circumstances permitted. The lack of emotional maturity causing him to alienate himself from others, the disregard for the individuality or human worth of the women in his life, the vindictiveness, were all reminiscent of the version of Subaru we saw around his confrontation with Julius. Worse, obviously, but similar in spirit. But rather than this being a moment for self-reflection or commentary, or a moment to truly demonstrate personal growth, the show kinda just lets that opportunity fly past, because I guess that’s not what it’s interested in? And fine, not every part of every story has to have a greater significance, but the significance of that omission stands out in a context where other parts of the story start telegraphing the same sort of worldview/mindset and trying to frame it in an even vaguely positive light. Which brings me to: Wilhelm.

  Wilhelm has always been an uncomfortable presence for me in the story, even at the height of my days as a fan of this series, because his core motivation is his love story with his long deceased wife, Theresia, which could not possibly be more of a “women belong in the kitchen” moment if it Tried. If you’re reading this review, I figure you’ve already watched the anime and already know what it is I’m referring to, but on the off-chance you’re here out of idle curiosity or you watched previous seasons Years ago but haven’t started the third one yet, the long and short of it is that Wilhelm believes that Theresia, despite holding the title of “Sword Saint”, should not be wielding a sword at all, because she’s too pretty for it. He spends most of his life training and fighting to make her a stay-at-home mom, which, with the full context from the flashbacks this season, doesn’t come across quite as bad as it seemed in the first season in all fairness, but also absolutely does not exist in a vacuum. It’d be one thing if Theresia happened to not be interested in making war, and therefore not as suited to her title and role as we know Reinhard to be, in a story where the women involved otherwise have enough agency to not constantly get sidelined in the way that she essentially was for Willhelm’s character development, but it’s another thing entirely in a story where her story is example 1 out of 100. It’s almost impressive that Tappei Nagatsuki, the original author, managed to once again contrive a set of circumstances where Emilia needs to be rescued by Subaru, and continue the path set in season 2 where Beatrice’s entire character revolves around him, and give Subaru a chance to avenge (or save) Rem, who’s also obsessed with him, and on and on and on, all at once. Heck, we even get a new sin archbishop, Sirius, whose entire personality revolves around the now long-dead sin archbishop of sloth, Petelgeuse, who she has a one-sided fixation on. Under those conditions, with the women in the story continually being used as tools to give motivation or depth to the men in the story (Subaru getting most of that), it feels a lot less incidental that the story didn’t really zero in on Regulus’ relation to his “wives” to the extent that it could have. And that undermines a lot of what the previous seasons laid the groundwork for, in my opinion.

  That was all a lot of negativity though, and it’s not like I hated watching this, or like it only had negatives to offer. I had a lot of appreciation for the newly introduced sin archbishop in the witch’s cult representing lust: Capella, as well as for the sin archbishop of gluttony who got much more of a spotlight this season than their previous cameo. I love that Capella, for all her bluster and taunting, for all her spite and venom, is very clearly someone who’s been through a lot of hurt, only trying to inflict that hurt on others in return. We don’t get very much of her backstory but we get enough to piece together that the dragon blood she uses to poison a couple of members of our main cast is something she wishes she could be free of herself, and paired with her resentment for people whose love only goes skin-deep, and her fixation on love, you can presume that her past may involve having her loved ones turn against her due to her cursed blood and the shapeshifting she’s capable of thanks to it. Of course, having said that, it’s Maybe possible that the shapeshifting has to do with the authority of lust,,,, I choose to believe that lust’s authority is restricted to instinctively knowing what other people desire, which by coincidence fits her pre-existing abilities quite well, as it lets her torment people in the form of their loved ones. It’s somewhat similar conceptually to the sort of fuckery that Envy from _Full Metal Alchemist_ got up to, but it’s never gonna be a “no” from me.

  Gluttony is a much less sympathetic villain, because they (all the different persona’s that make up the sin archbishop of gluttony) quite clearly revel in evil for the sake of evil, no matter what ass-backwards justifications they may happen to spout in the process. You might say the excess is unnecessary, but that’s exactly what makes it gluttony, right? The confrontation between Otto and his nameless besties and the unhinged (occasionally literally) Gluttony somewhat surprisingly became a highlight of the season for me, even though I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. The fight was a bit reminiscent of the subjugation of the White Whale in the first season, but even though it’s a rehash in that respect I still love the concept of having your numbers progressively whittled down without having any way to keep track of it because your own memories are actively rewritten to omit each of Gluttony’s new victims, and if you ever do realise it’s bound to be too late. And unlike the whale, Gluttony is all too happy to mock you using the memories of those now lost to you forever, which adds another dimension to their character that I personally appreciated.

  Now, the length of this review has kinda gotten away from me a bit so I probably won’t end up talking about everything I wanted to bring up, but this is the obligatory part of the review where I mention that the professionally produced anime was, in fact, professionally produced. From an “objective” point of view, the animation this season was better than it has ever been, and there are some genuinely unbelievable cuts of animation, including Garf’s big fight in the second half of the season, which, just for the record, I Loved for reasons beyond just the visuals. It was genuinely pretty hype in a way that I don’t think this anime has managed to be in the past, and it’s not the only moment that made me feel that way. Reinhard had a couple even though you could argue his very existence takes away a lot of the tension/stakes in any fight he’s involved in, and Emilia knocking the stuffing out of Regulus was incredibly satisfying too (tangentially related to that point: I heard subsequently that they animated one punch for each individual bride that Regulus had kept captive, but I don’t know how true that is because I didn’t go frame by frame or anything). In terms of pure spectacle, White Fox fed us more this season than we may ever get again. But even with that, there is a caveat,,,, this season takes place after a bit of a time-skip, and like any good anime time-skip it is accompanied by several redesigns, some of which seem to apply retroactively for the purpose of making more expressive character models. I’m going to be blunt and say I don’t think the redesigns or the shift in artstyle went well in every instance, and as a major Pandora enthusiast I was a bit unhappy with the appearance she had in her cameo this season. There’s also certain cuts or even entire episodes that you can tell were put on the backburner compared to the rest of the season, but that’s almost always going to happen anyway so it’s more just an observation than a complaint.

  And that, the spectacle of this season, reflects a possible deeper shift in priorities. Maybe the first two seasons were more set-up than anything else, laying the groundwork for precisely an arc like this, and the focus is now more on the action and on narrative payoff than it is on building up or saying anything more about our established main cast (with at the very least the exception of Garf). But if that is indeed the case, I can’t help but feel that the remainder of the show, for as long as it continues, will be carrying on without any of what set it apart from the rest of an already arguably oversaturated isekai genre anyway. Lord knows there are better escapist power fantasies out there than this, and for a time it seemed that was the furthest possible thing from what Tappei Nagatsuki aspired for this story to be anyway. But now? I’m not sure there’s such a meaningful difference between an anime that unironically does the whole “flat is justice” bit and gives its protagonist a full harem replete with the most suspiciously designed “legal lolis” on earth, and an anime like this, which takes that same trope, and maybe makes one or two jokes about it in the process as the full extent of its self-awareness. For the handful of my fellow elitist snobs out there, how many degrees of separation are there between _Re:Zero_ at this point, and a show like _Mushoku Tensei_? Rudeus and Subaru aren’t the same character, obviously, they don’t react the same way nor do they face the exact same conditions to react to, so don’t misunderstand. I only mean in terms of the spirit of where the priorities are. For me, this show has gone from a cut above the rest, with lots to say and lots of uncomfortable lessons to get across, to another name in an endless sea of isekai unconcerned with how and why its audience turns to the genre for an escape and commenting on what that says about them (or: us, I suppose). You may be fine with that, which would make this season maybe as high as a 9 out of 10 for you, especially since it gave us the exact kind of cliffhanger the original version of season 1 deprived us of at the end. But for me? It’s gone down a few notches. ____

  With all of that said, this season had a fair bit I did not like, and a few things and characters that I did still appreciate, meaning this was not a complete waste of a season or anything nearly so dramatic. It’s just one of my favourite anime suddenly seeming to fall far short of “perfect” the longer it goes on. With that in mind, I figure a score of around __75 out of 100__ seems fair enough to reflect my experience with this season. Unambiguously more good than bad, but with a lot of room for improvement that I honestly doubt we’ll see going forward anyway. Maybe you agree with most of what I said, or maybe you think this was the worst _Re:Zero_ review in the history of the earth, but either way if you made it all the way down here then thank you for bothering to read this needlessly long re:view.

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• 

  Kaziii

  90/100
  Different from the previous two seasons, but still great

  ____Never done a review before, so bear with me for a second____

  (this review contains spoilers, you have been warned)

  Re:Zero Season 3 is quite unlike the previous two seasons, as it is way less focused on the drama and psychological aspect of the show and instead focuses on the action. Which on its own isn't a bad thing could potentially alienate some viewers however I found it to be a breath of fresh air before what comes in Season 4 (or arc 6 for the novel readers).

  That being said, lets rate the different aspects of the show from the animation, to the story itself.

  Animation: 10/10. I think very few people will disagree with me on this, we've never gotten animation this good in Re:Zero before and some of the fights were simply gorgeous (thank you Vincent Chansard). This season really stepped up in the animation department and I'm glad it did, as its primary focus is action. characters like Capella, Sirius and Garfiel were beautifully animated, Capellas transformation were especially gorgeous and absolutely lived up to the hype.

  Action: 8.5/10. I was hoping I'd like the action scene themselves a bit more but they were overall still great, with the highlight being Garfiel vs Kurgan for sure. It's a shame some of the action had to be cut out but I was still pleased overall.

  Story: 8/10. As a novel reader I knew that the story wasn't going to be on par with the rest of the anime thus far, but it was still great nonetheless. We got some amazing character growth from Garfiel, Reinhard and Wilhelm this season, all of them having to overcome their weaknesses and deal with their haunting past. However I do think that some of the choices were a bit weird, like ending the regulus fight this early on when it was clearly the main focus of this season but that's how it was done in the Light Novel so that's more of a complain of the story itself rather than the adaptation. Some of the cut content also bothers me quite a bit, like not bringing up that Al is from earth and instead opting to put this crucial info in... break time? Whatever honestly, but some of the other cut content like a good chunk of the Regulus fight being and some of Theresia's backstory as well being cut out bothered me quite a bit, not that they're crucial to the story but they made the former much more menacing and the latter much more interesting.

  Overall: 9/10. it is the weakest Re:Zero season in my opinion, but that's not saying much as it is still very good and worth watching. I'm sure some people will find it much better (or worse) than I did but overall it was still great.

  I'm now looking forward to the best arc in Re:Zero being adapted, which is the one in the next season. see you there!

  (I apologize if I made any mistake as english isn't my first language)

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• 

  AquaLucas2

  20/100
  I'm done with the Re:Zero anime

  Original creation date: 3/12/25

  Spoilers for Re:Zero S3 up until Ep12

  I dropped it.

  You know, it's often rare for me to drop an anime this late into it's run, I've gotten accustomed to knowing when an anime is going to be a waste of time before it gets this bad, but I didn't expect this to turn into such a catastrophe. No, not my beloved Re:Zero...

  But the writing was on the wall, this season for some reason was only given 16 measly episodes to cover what is one of the most complicated, dialogue heavy arcs of the story, at least that's what I've heard from light novel readers. Add on top the obnoxious marketing ploys like Emilia's "buffed chest" and starting cour 2 with an unnecessary undressing scene, it just reeks of monetary exploitation and otaku pandering. I feel bad for any one who has their name attached to this project. It's not as bad as some other projects, but it's disheartening to see regardless, and I blame entirely the greedy execs who wanted to ship more merchandise to line their pockets instead of giving the staff the time to make something worthwhile.

  In fact, that first episode is exactly what the story should've been, all the reoccurring characters are reintroduced, we see how the city functions and the factions on the board, we even get some interesting character development for Wilhelm and Reinhard, as well as introducing homicide induced trauma into Garfiel, as well as a potential lead for finding his mother. And that Subaru death scene was just pure kino.

  The reason I'm dropping it now however, is that the quality of the adaptation simply isn't up to par with what I expect from Re:Zero as a story. It would be an insult to Nagatsuki to experience his story that I love so much in a way that doesn't convey any of what makes it so good. This may seem petty, but in the words of the visual novel youtuber Meirin, "Stories can only be experienced for the first time once" and I'm deciding to get out now before I let this adaptation spoil what's left.

  In truth, most of the issues rear their head in the 2nd cour, but there were still signs that this season didn't get enough time in the oven in the 1st, I'll cover those before I expand upon that horrible Regulus fight.

  So the first couple episodes were actually pretty well animated, the Capella encounter was a particular stand out, but it's hard to notice all the rushed plot lines. Immediately after dying in episode 1 he gets into sleuthing around like nothing ever happens, then dies AGAIN, and right back to normal. It's honestly kind of sad to not see him in pain for what should be a traumatic experience, it just feels like forced optimism. You see we don't have the time to have Subaru doubting himself, cause we need to get this plot moving baby! Even though it's an integral part of his character. In fact he doesn't die AT ALL after this, you know, literally the main power mechanic this show had over all the other generic isekai? How the hell did he survive getting his leg pulverized by Regulus? Or the time Capella just fuckin ripped it right off? And then gets thrown into a god damn river? Still alive, because he has the power of plot armo- I mean, dragon blood, I guess. We then get treated to this lovely work of animation.

  This was an oddity among clips in the show, but I have no idea why something of such low quality is even in Re:Zero, I guess QC missed that one some how? At the time I just laughed it off, but it was a sign of things to come, but we'll get to that soon.

  The point I was making is that the series doesn't have the time to delve into more nuanced emotions, Subaru's character is essentially dumbed down to pre-Rem season one levels of incompetent (made even worse since this season takes place 1 year in canon after season 2). He's hot headed running into battle like a dumbass with a god damn whip and a loli, and then he gets blown the fuck out and I'm supposed to care about his flesh wound that is totally deadly and lethal and stuff. And the speech, yeah take 10 minutes to have all the characters hyping him up, before he gets on mic and fumbles his way through one of the dumbest speeches I've ever heard in an anime. He literally says "I'm not anyone or anything at all." YOU LITERALLY KILLED A SIN ARCH BISHOP, YOU'RE EMILIA'S KNIGHT, and then he says "I know there must've been someone better suited to talk to you." Except all the people in that very room elected him to do it? Look I understand why there is such nuance to this scene, but it doesn't come through at all, I just remembered previous seasons and how hypocritical and selfish it is of him to whine when it's his job to create hope in the city, especially with how that level of introspection wasn't present at all in this season up to that point.

  Now other issues, remember Reinhard's dad? He kinda just showed up in the first episode and then disappeared. I was waiting for him to be an integral part of the show since there has to be something to nerf Reinhard in some way, since his character up to this point has been the OP super nice plot device with the personality of cardboard. Well he kidnaps Felt which I hope would lead to some character development for both of them, only to get knocked out and tied up immediately. This kind of sums up like half of the characters, who kind of just exist to team up and split into different battles in the second cour. The only character that got remotely any development was Garfiel, and it's nothing compared to what he went through in season 2. It's honestly so weird the way that Priscilla's egotistical sociopathic personality is toned down into a harmless side waifu that helps out Subaru in a pinch. Like I kind of get it with Anastasia but she has no reason to be so forgiving. And did we really need Rachins and those other thugs from the first season? It feels like they wanted this to be a "le everyone is here" type arc but without the ability to properly flesh out any of them, it just reeks of fanservice.

  Now, new characters. They're... fine. Liliana was extremely annoying but it's clear there was thought put into her character in episode 11, as well as a role to fill in defeating Sirius's hypnotism. There's also her handler, and we get some leads with Garfiel's mother that talk for a bit in episode 3, Regulus's 59 wives, and the 4 new Sin Arch Bishops. Of course with the cast already so bloated it would be difficult to make any of these people stick, but Regulus was surprisingly good. Having any character strike some level of fear into the cast is what villains are for, so it's good having some one that isn't obviously insane in a way that makes the protagonists just ignore whatever they're saying, it's why Roswaal was such a good villain in season 2. We also get the necessary added context of how he treats his wives, putting Emilia through some kind of strife. Also that Roblox smirk of his lives in my head rent free.

  So with that, watch as they turn his character into a complete joke, in one of the worst anime fights I've seen in years.

  It's honestly astounding how incoherent and idioc the entire sequence was, and I was face palming every 2 minutes at the sheer stupidity on screen. Put simply everyone is a complete moron in this fight, but since Regulus is OP, Reinhard is OP, and Subaru has plot armor (extends to Emilia) we get some of the most mind numbing choreography I've seen in an anime. In fact, I can just show it to you.

  ^ ok I kinda like this one ngl

  ^ he's fine btw :)

  ^ I hate EVERYTHING about this

  I mean, what do you want me to say?!

  This is some of the most unserious animation I've ever seen, it's like I'm watching Looney Tunes or some shit. And before anyone makes the Gear 5 comparison. 1. Re:Zero was never like this so why would it make sense to animate your fight like this (unlike one piece which was always cartoony) 2. The animation itself is all cost cutting, time crunching, suspense ruining, logically incoherent crap, while Gear 5 got some of the best animators in the industry (We've all seen the Re:Zero Chansard clip, so why do we have to assume that this fight had to turn out like ass while other parts of the anime get S+ treatment?)

  I'm not sure who decided to make the fight like this, maybe it's actually in the novels, and if so, I could have at least used my imagination to conjure up animation that would fit something so comical. I mean just look at the clips and think about whats even happening on screen. It unironically looks like something out of a parody isekai, like "I got reincarnated with maxed out endurance and evasion!"

  It's strange because the Sirius fight was actually good, without any of this ridiculousness, and it got me to care about Liliana. This isn't a high bar and it still managed to fumble the bag. I don't feel like I even need to discuss what any of the other characters are doing at this time, I'm sure they were given well thought out plans to take out the Bishops of Gluttony and Capella, but none of that came through in the crumbs of screen time afforded to them.

  I simply don't have the time or patience to be watching this show anymore, and I feel like the entire arc was created without any understanding of what made the previous seasons so memorable. I'm gonna be reading the light novel from now on, since I still have faith that the story continues to evolve in unique and interesting ways. Well, not right now, I need sometime away from this story to properly appreciate it again.

  In conclusion, I'm never watching an episode of Re:Zero ever again.

  Thanks for reading.

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