Sunday, September 18, 2016
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Re: Zero 24 Overview / Review
So, a new cycle begins. This was very appropriate but it was a bit late in the game to be restarting... I thought this was going to be a huge waste of time, by the way this is not the final episode but it was not, 25th will be the final episode.
Subaru goes back to after the slaying of the White Whale (Gluttony) and informs his troops of what he learned during the previous cycle. After that we go to Emilia waking up, doing nothing but talk to Puck.
I swear I'm trying not to be biased against Emilia but every single one of her scenes in this episode completely drag down the pacing. Nothing happens during this scene, we learn nothing , there is nothing revealed, no character development or action.... beyond Puck stating that he will be on her side which we already knew from nearly the beginning of the show.
Wilhelm and Subaru visit Roswal mansion to clear up the misunderstanding about the note. Subaru is wearing a cloak to hide his identity and yet it is heavily implied that everyone EXCEPT Emilia is able to see through it. Fucking Emilia....
So they evacuate the villagers in time and are able to prevent the massacre of previous cycles (FINALLY)... following this, they stage an ambush against the Witch's Cult forces which , for how brief it is , was my favorite scene of the entire episode, not going to lie, I was half hard watching this glorious ownage.
Mmmm, Subaru being badasss is something we really don't get enough of. That was quite good and I wouldn't mind getting more of it, though I'd prefer to have some dose of Rem as well. That's fine though. They continue their strikes against the Witch's forces (offscreen for some reason) and apparently most of them are razed.
Once again the wolf guy doesn't get to do shit, the fighting he performs is done offscreen so we don't get to see it. Goddamnit.
Next up we see the final encounter, Subaru goes to face Beetelgeuse in his lair. But we get some reveals here; What "The Ordeal" is and what it is for, finally we are informed... a bit late in the game in my opinion but it doesn't matter. It was nice finally knowing what is going on and the writing, though a bit sluggish here, is still pretty good.
The trap set, he baits Beetelgeuse to the chase and draws him into a chasm, a very familiar chasm.
It's a nice touch and a good call-back to Subaru's Return By Death use when Rem died in a previous cycle. I like it and it makes the following dramatic scene a bit more meaningful. Julius waits to ambush Beetelgeuse and jumps down, using a technique from the previous cycle to aid in his combat against Beetelgeuse.
Julius uses his sense-link that he used in the previous episode to free everyone from illusions to use Subaru's sense of sight, which gives him the ability to see the Authority of Sloth, The Unseen Hand. Because of this Julius seems to be able to strike down the hands.
This strongly implies that Julius is much weaker than Wilhelm since Wilhelm was able to defeat Sloth multiple times without assistance. That's nice writing, but moreover, the fact that Julius and Subaru are working together makes it quite meaningful , functioning as both character development and character interaction.
I don't like how Sloth has been portrayed as so weak though, he only had one moment of glory and that was when he killed a small group of people in the previous cycle. He should have been shown to be nearly unstoppable rather than annoying. Anyway the episode ends with Subaru and Julius going in for the kill, similar to how in the previous episode Julius struck down Subaru;
So imagine the previous cycle except nearly completely reversed. It was also set-up so that Subaru prepared somehow to NOT be possessed but was not explained. It was done off-screen, we'll see next week in the final episode.
Final Thoughts;
This episode was not as good as the previous week's episode but it had some okay action and decent character moments. The worst parts were Emilia just sitting on her ass doing nothing and Emilia getting emo for no real reason. Emilia really is the worst part of the show, hands down.
That being said, this was bad as a stand-alone episode but this series is not meant to stand-alone, it is meant to be taken as a whole, this episode was purely reactionary to last week's fantastic sequences and partially as a set-up for the finale next week so it is a transitionary episode. Bad on its own but functions exactly as it should.
The best part was Subaru using his now-foresight to prepare for the events he knows will play out. It was very cathartic and exciting to see the enemy forces get decimated by a well-prepared militia led by Subaru.
Am I excited for the finale? fuck yes... but I hope we see Rem again... something HUGE is going to happen, and by this I mean, a character, a MAJOR character is going to die without being able to be resurrected. Oh god I hope its not Rem.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Re; Zero 23 Overview / Review
Work in progress.
Few things I will say though briefly;
This was the best episode out of the last 10 of the show. It had great pacing, fantastic characterization (Especially Julius and Feris), it had a glorious set of twists which were completely reasonable in-universe and for once, not a single character was annoying , not even Beetelgeuze.
That being said; I was legit terrified for a brief moment during a particular scene, thinking a character would actually die and then just didn't for no reason.... "FERIS?!?!? NO.... wait what?". That was shit writing but aside from the writing was top notch.
We are reaching the end soon folks... it's been a great ride and we're about to settle on a fantastic climax, let's hope it pays off.
Ok let's do it;
This is where we were last week, apparently this was a planar shift and it is heavily implied that it was Ram that did it, but "The intense smell" is clearly Satella's scent so this implies that Ram is associated with Satella. I like this, this raises intrigue but doesn't bash us over the head with it.
Unfortunately the pay-off is shit.
It was an illusion and Julius frees everyone, nothing happens.... after that they talk to Ram which reveals, in a very subtle and fantastic way that there is a traitor amongst them.
Subaru had sent a note to the mansion prior to heading out with his forces but the note that actually arrived was blank, implying that they were going to be attacked (I.e. that Subaru was a traitor). This is cleared up and that's that.
So now that Subaru knows that the danger is imminent, he goes to the town near Roswhal mannor and tells the townpeople to get the fuck out of dodge.
The villagers are dense and take awhile to listen, giving the enemies ample time to prepare their attack.... by the time the villagers begin to leave, this occurs;
One of the cult members is discovered by Feris and he launches an explosion spell , trying to kill Subaru. The earlier spirit (Ia) saves him but during this time, nothing is protecting Feris... I will not lie, I was legitimately scared that Feris was going to die in this scene because, as we know, Feris is the greatest healer in all of Lugunica so if he is alive and near, that means no one else is in any real danger.
Killing Feris here would have made sense but he (for some reason) is fine after taking a point-blank explosion to the face (Bullshit writing).
Tore off some of his clothes though, dat trap-service.
The battle continues against the Witch's Cult and one of the incarnations of Sloth wounds Wilhelm, many villagers die as well.
Things look grim but finally, the worst character in the show appears and finally does something;
Emilia returns to Re: Zero, like 15 episodes after she last did anything, she returns. I would rather have Rem here but whatever, she strikes down the last finger of Sloth, or so it would seem.... then we get a VERY reasonable, very well written twist;
Subaru begins to experience some sort of trauma and we get....
I liked this. It made sense that it happened and it was silly at the same time. It was the only time I didn't mind seeing Betelgeuse pop up because it means that there is a legitimate reason for Subaru to be afraid; We know HE can't die, but others can die. Him being the instrument of their death would have been a fabulous turn....
But alas that doesn't occur, Feris and Julius talk him down and he asks to be killed.
We end on this note, with Julius striking down possessed Subaru leaving us to question if the cycle will repeat for the final episode.
Final thoughts;
Was this a good episode? yes, we had some great character moments by Subaru, Feris and Julius... even Betelgeuse was in great form. The plot finally got moving and the action sequences were fast paced with some legitimate suspense even if that suspense didn't really go anywhere.
The only bad mark on this episode is Emilia who, as always, is very boring. She is a Mary Sue character designated to be the "official" good character, the love interest. She does what she is supposed to do so we have nothing interesting going on whenever she is on screen. Emilia drags down every scene, every storyline she's in.
That being said, everything else was top notch and the set-up for the next (Final) episode was glorious. This brought the show back into form and we can only hope for an appearance of Satella in the next episode.
NOTE: The pacing was even and steady (For a change) so kudos to whoever directed this episode, if it was the same guy then good job for getting out of the terrible habit of giving the previous episodes awful pacing.
Few things I will say though briefly;
This was the best episode out of the last 10 of the show. It had great pacing, fantastic characterization (Especially Julius and Feris), it had a glorious set of twists which were completely reasonable in-universe and for once, not a single character was annoying , not even Beetelgeuze.
That being said; I was legit terrified for a brief moment during a particular scene, thinking a character would actually die and then just didn't for no reason.... "FERIS?!?!? NO.... wait what?". That was shit writing but aside from the writing was top notch.
We are reaching the end soon folks... it's been a great ride and we're about to settle on a fantastic climax, let's hope it pays off.
Ok let's do it;
This is where we were last week, apparently this was a planar shift and it is heavily implied that it was Ram that did it, but "The intense smell" is clearly Satella's scent so this implies that Ram is associated with Satella. I like this, this raises intrigue but doesn't bash us over the head with it.
Unfortunately the pay-off is shit.
It was an illusion and Julius frees everyone, nothing happens.... after that they talk to Ram which reveals, in a very subtle and fantastic way that there is a traitor amongst them.
Subaru had sent a note to the mansion prior to heading out with his forces but the note that actually arrived was blank, implying that they were going to be attacked (I.e. that Subaru was a traitor). This is cleared up and that's that.
So now that Subaru knows that the danger is imminent, he goes to the town near Roswhal mannor and tells the townpeople to get the fuck out of dodge.
The villagers are dense and take awhile to listen, giving the enemies ample time to prepare their attack.... by the time the villagers begin to leave, this occurs;
One of the cult members is discovered by Feris and he launches an explosion spell , trying to kill Subaru. The earlier spirit (Ia) saves him but during this time, nothing is protecting Feris... I will not lie, I was legitimately scared that Feris was going to die in this scene because, as we know, Feris is the greatest healer in all of Lugunica so if he is alive and near, that means no one else is in any real danger.
Killing Feris here would have made sense but he (for some reason) is fine after taking a point-blank explosion to the face (Bullshit writing).
Tore off some of his clothes though, dat trap-service.
The battle continues against the Witch's Cult and one of the incarnations of Sloth wounds Wilhelm, many villagers die as well.
Things look grim but finally, the worst character in the show appears and finally does something;
Emilia returns to Re: Zero, like 15 episodes after she last did anything, she returns. I would rather have Rem here but whatever, she strikes down the last finger of Sloth, or so it would seem.... then we get a VERY reasonable, very well written twist;
Subaru begins to experience some sort of trauma and we get....
I liked this. It made sense that it happened and it was silly at the same time. It was the only time I didn't mind seeing Betelgeuse pop up because it means that there is a legitimate reason for Subaru to be afraid; We know HE can't die, but others can die. Him being the instrument of their death would have been a fabulous turn....
But alas that doesn't occur, Feris and Julius talk him down and he asks to be killed.
We end on this note, with Julius striking down possessed Subaru leaving us to question if the cycle will repeat for the final episode.
Final thoughts;
Was this a good episode? yes, we had some great character moments by Subaru, Feris and Julius... even Betelgeuse was in great form. The plot finally got moving and the action sequences were fast paced with some legitimate suspense even if that suspense didn't really go anywhere.
The only bad mark on this episode is Emilia who, as always, is very boring. She is a Mary Sue character designated to be the "official" good character, the love interest. She does what she is supposed to do so we have nothing interesting going on whenever she is on screen. Emilia drags down every scene, every storyline she's in.
That being said, everything else was top notch and the set-up for the next (Final) episode was glorious. This brought the show back into form and we can only hope for an appearance of Satella in the next episode.
NOTE: The pacing was even and steady (For a change) so kudos to whoever directed this episode, if it was the same guy then good job for getting out of the terrible habit of giving the previous episodes awful pacing.
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