Re Zero 22 ; Overview / Review

So when last we saw our protagonist, he was fuming over a guy who has no doubt given Emilia the D several times before joining their main defense force which is heading to Roswal mannor, however we start this episode with

So at first the viewer is like "What? is he Julius' brother or something?" but no, he's just talking about how he's too awesome to be associated with a mercenary troop (Anastasia lending her main forces). So he needs to use a pseudonym so he is not connected to the rest. This makes me wonder if Julius will die or get his ass kicked in this or the next episode. They're setting him up to either be humbled or killed.... while I appreciate the writing after watching knock Subaru around, this is a bit too obvious a set-up. Also; He talks shit about the people WHO JUST KILLED THE  WHITE WHALE? WTF?! these people are now going to enter legend status. Did the writers forget the last episode or are they that determined to make Julius look like a dick? I mean last time he had a somewhat legitimate grievance because Subaru was being stubborn ... but this time? sigh, oh well whatever.

Anyway, I hear there is a twist coming up within the next few episodes, I hope it is not the twist I am expecting (CLUTCH HEART).... moving on, Subaru tells his accumulated forces that they now have to go after the Witch's Cult, at which point...

... yes, someone questions it. I love this. In so many anime I see these types of characters just sort of "going along and not making a fuss" but here they actually lampshade it "WTF does this have to do with our original mission?" since Subaru says the White Whale and Witch's Cult are connected but has no evidence. This is dismissed of course, if it wasn't the show would end right there but still, it's really nice writing for them to show the characters having valid skepticism, similar to how Crutsch-sama did in previous episodes.

Gold star for that sequence.

Oh goddamnit, this is remedial level writing right here. When your character says something like "Let's all return home alive" that's pretty much a guarantee that one or more major characters are about to be killed. It's what we call a "Death Flag" but let's hope I am proven wrong. Also this scene drags on quite a bit and should have been trimmed by about 25% of its duration.



So after this they start to ride towards Roswal Mannor and Julius/Subaru have a conversation where something very unexpected happens.... Subaru... matures... as a character.... character development, he admits he was a fuck-up and made a mistake when fighting Julius (OBVIOUSLY). But it's really nice to see the character change gradually into a non fuck-up.

Naturally he's still Subaru, a deeply flawed character which is nice because if he didn't have these flaws he'd be another Goku (Mary Sue). So again, great characterization, great character development... atrocious pacing but still , good writing.




Alright let's go straight ot the action because this pre-amble is taking forever... there is this very strange scene where Subaru is commanding the Witch's forces, I hope this is explained in the future because I was left thinking "What in the fuck...?"

This is both good and bad writing but whatever, the purpose of this scene is to create intrigue so good job.

And then we get another serving of the atrociously annoying Beetelgeuze, someone kill this guy already , every single one of his scenes is horrendous;

 Beetelgeuze talks about how Subaru might be "Pride"  which actually fits really well, if the White Whale was Gluttony and Beetelgeuze is Sloth, then Subaru would fit perfectly as "Pride" given that each of these three has thus far exhibited strange, supernatural powers with Subaru's being "Return by Death", BG's being the Unseen Hand and the White Whale the Deletion Fog.

This means there are several other "Sins" in the world but have not been clarified... this is how you world-build. This is how you write !... the pacing is also even and smooth, finally they're getting back to form.

So anyway, Beetelgeuze talks shit until....

Goddamnit this episode is going so quickly and so slowly at the same time. The pacing is so schizophrenic.... by the way, DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE, THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR KILLING REM IN A PREVIOUS CYCLE.

So they ransack Beetelgeuze's corpse and pull out his "Gospel" acting like it's some sort of super powerful artifact (Say what?) , plot point obviously but.... of what? you're giving us so many more questions than answers, ffs.

Apparently it symbolizes joining the Witch's cult or at least potential to do so and every  true cultist is given one. This is why Beetelgeuze attacked Subaru when he had none. Anyway the rest of the cultists are killed off-screen (WHY?!) and we are back in exposition town.

Who or what the flying fiddle sticks is that weird mole head thing? WTF? this show is just fucking with me now. Anyway more serious for a moment, there is a strange undercurrent of sedition in these scenes.... forebodding almost. Things are just going too smoothly which leads to me to believe some horrendous event is about to befall them that cannot be erased. Again , this section is good writing.

And then suddenly....

Wait what? Julius is a traitor? am I reading this right? that one came out of nowhere. Anyway Beetelgeuze's Unseen Hand shows up and absolutely destroys their forces.

That was pretty good if short lived. Apparently all of the group is "Sloth" and any can take on the role which makes sense because the "Sins" are intended for "The Ordeal" which requires their presence, this is one of the reasons Beetelgeuze never actively sought to kill Subaru in the previous episodes. But again, the pacing is really bad..... anyway they talk about how bad things are looking and Subaru starts to question himself, leading up to what is probably my favorite line in the entire series so far;

Completely rejecting the Shounen trope of "MUST GET STRONGER TO BEAT THE OBSTACLE", here it is stated as "Be strong" rather than "Get strong", the difference being the immediacy. This essentially goes against Return by Death and forces Subaru to reflect even further. It's a nice little exchange which, in my opinion, drastically improves a fairly lackluster episode.

Feris tells Subaru to "make-up with Julius" (For some reason) and then abruptly there is what seems to be a dimensional shift... I love where this is going;

Even odds as to whether this is one of the branch of Sin or Satella herself. I really hope it's the latter since we've been promised her appearance since episode 1. Come, show us the Jealous Witch. Show us.

WAIT WHAT?! RAM IS EVIL?!?!?!? WHAT?

WHO ? WHERE? WHY? THIS WAS NOT TELEGRAPHED OR FORESHADOWED. THIS WAS A TERRIBLE ENDING AND A TERRIBLE TWIST . FUCKING AWFUL.

EDIT:
By the way, that thing around her neck is somewhat implied to be an "Odo" similar to what Emilia carries around. Also the fact that Ram was teaching Subaru to read very slightly implies that Ram had on her person a "Gospel".... she CANNOT be Satella but she can be a manifestation of jealousy, given the past that Ram and Rem have it is not unlikely.


I'm not sure  why she's suddenly able to do dimensional shifts since this was not a power she ever possessed but it is interesting nonetheless.


Final thoughts;
The episode was not very good and the ending made it infinitely worse. At least a lot more stuff happened than the previous two episodes where almost nothing did.

I normally end with a subdued breakdown but basically, although this was (finally) not filler and there was actual PLOT, the problem was  it was horrendously paced at a point where we were poised for a major action sequence. Even the wolf guy said to look out for his skills in the previous episode and yet we saw none here, things like that. We were given a little bit of information on Satella's cult but it was flimsy and raised more questions than answers.


The ending (again) came out of nowhere and does not feel earned, but this can be redeemed... we'll see where it goes. This, in my opinion, was the worst episode of the series so far.

Re Zero 21 ; Overview / Review

Last week there was somewhat of a twist/cliffhanger where it showed several white whales rather than a single one. It was a well thought-up, well presented twist which set the stakes very high for the following episode (I.e. this one)

As per the last episode, Subaru is showing traits of finally growing a pair. It also makes sense because he knows for a fact that he will Return by Death if he fails. So it's both a combination of bravery and willful stupidity in the face of zero-consequences. So, fair enough.

I have nothing to add to this. Rem best girl.... that being said, the pacing is INCREDIBLY off, I understand that it's intended to be a major encounter in the series, a turning point even showcasing a lot of the changes that Subaru has undergone.... but this (Arguably) two-part episode could have gone by in a single episode, there are hardly any plot points going down beyond "Three whales ZMOG!"

Subaru using his head for a change and figuring out what is going on. I'll give them credit, I had no idea that this was what happened but it WAS telegraphed early on in the previous episode with how much they highlighted the severing of the eye and how what followed was the appearance of the new whales.  Well done writers, well done.


Seeing this, Subaru figures that the main whale is the one to take down and develops a fairly impressive improptu plan and gets Crutsch to go along with it;

Basically the same plan as before, use Subaru's Satella influence to attract the White Whale and then position it for a tactical strike, except this time more directly. There is a lot of bullshit physics here but we're dealing with magic so whatever.....

The knock the Flugel Tree onto the White Whale, finally wounding it in a significant way on top of permanently crippling it. I'd like to point out that what I have described so far is basically the whole episode.... and the previous one wasn't very substantive either so the show's pacing is getting worse even though the writing is still top notch, a strange dichotomy if ever I've seen one.

Author's further thoughts; Let me explain briefly, a good show can compress its source material to be salient and exciting while maintaining a briskness of pace. This show is not doing that, we had two episodes in a row where barely anything happened. The writing is good because the characterization is very good, but at this point the plot is suffering severely since we know that there is an urgent plot related event coming up (Assault on Roswal's mannor) ... making these two episodes feel like filler.

They're not filler , but the slow pace makes it seem that it is and that's a very bad thing, forcing me as a reviewer to take down a full point out of this show's final score at the end of the season. Sorry.

Wilhelm gives the final blow to the White Whale but during the process has flashbacks to when he supplanted Theresia, his dead wife which was killed during an encounter with the white whale. These flashbacks were beautifully choreographed, animated, scripted and paced. I loved it and it very quickly fleshed out Wilhelm's character.

By the way, Wilhelm survived being eaten by the White Whale... which was bullshit.

That's really beautiful and heart-warming.... but it's slowing the episode down even more, fuck. Such good things that honestly drag down the show, I never thought I'd see such a dichotomy , I can't stress enough how this is making the show worse even though it's very very good.


So anyway after the White Whale is defeated, Subaru talks to Crutsch and , in a surprising but realistic way, they flirt a little bit and he implies that she'd be "BEST GRILL" if it wasn't for Emilia/Rem. (Fuck Emilia)

In any case, he openly admits that he had an ulterior motive but Crutsch doesn't care, she got her goal which is implied to be massively increased influence in the kingdom due to her army defeating such an enormous, persistent threat thus drastically increasing her chances of winning the selection process... or at least that's what was heavily implied.


Anyway she agrees to give him some of her forces and Wilhelm volunteers as well.

So now we have a fighting-force ready to defend Roswal Mannor, which is strange because Roswal is supposedly incredibly powerful and yet is (seemingly) defeated by the cultists... could he be in league with them? what does Puck do during the fight that allows Emilia to be slain multiple cycles? these questions remain to be answered.

Anyway a very interesting plot point (in my opinion) is that Rem will not be participating in the next cycle because she was heavily wounded during this battle. I hate this because I want more Rem.... we will get more Emilia instead of more Rem so fuck that.

Rem strongly asserts herself as "Best girl"  and we have a very adorable scene.

 

I know how incredibly cold the japanese are and how kisses are significantly more meaningful to them than those of us in the west... however, it really felt like they were to kiss and I couldn't stop thinking "KISS HER YOU FOOL" in a completely non-jocular way. This was such a good time to insert that scene... regardless, it was a lovely scene and it once again, strongly cements Rem was best girl. Sad that we will not see her till about episode 25  which is the final episode. The next 3 episodes will (APPARENTLY) be a fight against Beetlegeuse's forces which honestly.... I don't care about, I want to know more about the mythology which has been heavily hinted at , with Satella, the dragon, the "Sins" (aka Gluttony; the White Whale, Beetelgeuze; Sloth, Satella; Jealousy (But didn't Satella absorb all of the other sins?! WHAT?! etc.)

After we have that our almost obligatory climax, we are told by one of the little guys that Anastasia sent half her mercenary force to guard the path for some reason rather than aid against the White Whale. This force will assist Subaru in the Mannor.

And then we see....

Which is a pretty stupid question because I thought Julius was specifically a part of Anastasia's troop. Wasn't he? I mean it was made pretty clear during the courtroom scene and the duel as well. It's obvious that he'd be there if the soldiers are Anastasia's men but whatever, some minor tension because Subaru dislikes Julius .... doubly so because Julius kicked his ass.

I never really cared about Julius or his backstory because it is all a really terrible attempt at a love triangle which quite frankly, doesn't exist, partially because Emilia is a very boring, very flat, very uninteresting character. I'd be far more interested in learning more about Reinhard who is probably Wilhelm and Theresia's son,  given the red hair and all.

But why is Reinhard serving Felt if his family is serving Crutsch? these are interesting.... Julius flirting with Emilia and Subaru being jealous is not interesting. Subaru being annoyed because he got his ass kicked after challenging someone way out of his league is not interesting, it's boring.

So that concludes the episode.

Final verdict on episode 21;
 It was better than the previous one but both are nothing more than filler. The action was a little better than the previous episode  and the mythology was increased, we were given another glimpse of Satella's influence and the fighting-force necessary to defend Roswal Mannor has been assembled so a lot was accomplished.
BRIEF NOTE: A lot of inconsistencies with the lore in this episode

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THAT? it was established that anyone killed by the fog or eaten by the White Whale would be erased from the memories of everyone in the world except Subaru (For some reason). So how do you know that your losses were not few? yes I understand some people were physically killed but are you telling me the vast majority of injury was not due to the fog or directly from the White Whale's consumption as was shown in the previous encounters? plot hole much? shit writing much?

Anyway unfortunately the director did a shit job of portraying this encounter so it feels like we've done nothing in the past few episodes and the urgency established prior to this has been greatly diminished. This was easily the worst part of the series so far.

And on a personal note; I honestly thought Crutsch was going to die here. She is far too competent of a candidate to go up against garbage like Felt, Priscilla, Anastasia and Emilia, none of whom are fit to be rulers. This was a good time to eliminate her.... but no one of significance died so it made the fight seem more like a formality; Yes I understand this is how the source material went but what I'm saying is, (If this is accurate) the source material fucked up because this fight is set-up to be filler. There's no other way to say it.

In any case I'm excited to see the plot finally move forward and for us to be given actual events, actual interactions and expanding the lore of the series.