My problem with Re:Zero
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Just to preface, I have only watched seasons 1 and 2. I know a bit about season 4 and some bits from the light novel but i won't bring them up in this argument.
I have 2 main issues with Re:Zero and I'll try to discuss them here at length and I hope to be as clear as possible.
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- Re:Zero insists upon itself and constantly affirms it's moral viewpoint.
What I mean by this is that Re:Zero prioritizes driving the point home rather than leaving it linger in the viewer. It constantly ensures that the viewer knows why the characters behave in a certain way and leave no room for actual thought.
For example, when working in the mansion, Subaru constantly overworked himself so that Rem and Ram don't kill him or on a more fundamental level, so others can accept him. He portrays himself as this sort of "dumb" butler just so he doesn't get killed. Of course this puts a tremendous strain on both his physical and mental well-being, he's playing a role thats just not himself. Yet, the story doesn't let you figure that on you're own. It reaffirms it every single chance it gets by how Subaru repeatedly says "This makes me sick" (or something along the lines) or how he vomits etc..
The part of him saying that this action makes him sick is unnecessary, it's already self-evident from his actions that he's clearly uncomfortable. Or even when he figures out that Ram is the one who keeps on killing him, he went on a monologue on how they taught him all sorts of things and how much he's grateful for them.
The story cannot risk the viewer feeling ambiguous towards Subarus feelings, it needs to insure that whatever Subaru is thinking, you're thinking about that too. When he went on a monologue at the cliff before he jumped off, this was Tappei's way of making sure you are both emotionally bought-in and can easily recognize Subarus motivation. Subaru is weak, pathetic and at times very miserable too and the story knows that all too well, so in an attempt to make the audience sympathize with Subaru it has him say every single emotion out loud.
This problem persists with how when Subaru makes a mistake, other characters like Rem, Ram and Emilia go into this verbose extensive monologue detailing explicitly why it's bad for Subaru to hate himself. This would be fine but not with how fast Re:Zero deals with it. Because at times it poses a question which it then immediately gives an answer to, leaving the viewer no actual stance on the matter. This is shown by the fact that when Subaru went on a monologue detailing his mental state in-length, Rem had an answer ready immediately. The dialogue often functions less as actual human one to one communication than as just a means for thematic resolutions.
Normally humans don't behave like that, we don't go on extensive monologues and the ones we're talking too sure as hell don't go on their own monologue refuting the first. Simply, it's just not realistic, it's just a tool to make sure that you're on the same level as the story.
It's like Subaru argues Thesis A, but then Rem delivers Counter Thesis B, detailing reasons X, Y and Z on why Subaru shouldn't be sad. When real human discourse happens, usually it's awkward and when a person trauma dumps like that they aren't immediately presented with a speech, rather with shock. Which the other party tries to carefully calm down the other party. Yet, Re:Zero falls into this error a number of times, the one in EP 18 as stated above, when Emilia lashed out at Subaru when he embarrassed her in the selection, when he tried saving Beatrice, when the witches were talking to Subaru and so on and so forth.
The characters just feel like mouth-pieces to reflect what the story is trying to deliver, deconstructing any viewer interpretation or any actual agency on how the viewer should feel. And at times it does *show* how characters are feeling and why they act out certain actions, but then it ruins all that and goes on to extensively*tell* why characters act.
And even though I dislike bringing in other series as comparison, I will mention a couple here just to further reiterate my point. Such examples of shows handling deep issues like this is Neon Genesis Evangelion and it really drives home the fact that human interaction is very *very* awkward and messy and doesn't fall back on extensive monologues except maybe in the last two episodes but I'd say that's a fair exception if you're familiar with NGE. Another example is Monogatari, and this one is ironic because Mono is well-known for it's intense monologues but any viewer knows that's it's just not as straightforward as Re:Zero and gives the viewer quite a bit of agency.
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- Re: Zero is at the core a very repetative story
This point is pretty self explanatory with the main differentiating factor of the story is RBD, literally just reseting the world everytime Subaru dies. Yet, I want to expand on it a little more especially regarding Subarus character development.
As stated before, Subaru is pathetic, weak, miserable, and "talks big game" to quote what he says. The story does a very good job at exploring this. Nonetheless, the way the story treats his character is more like a reset point to fall back on. At the beginning of every arc, it feels like he's become a dunce again literally overshadowing every single advancement that's been made.
Almost every arc in Re:Zero is as follows:
Subaru acquires a flawed mindset (self-hatred, dependence, idealism, etc.).
His flaws lead to catastrophe.
He emotionally breaks down.
Another character gives him emotional reassurance or guidance in very verbose monologues.
Subaru reaches a revelation.
He overcomes the immediate crisis.
A later arc presents another variation of a similar psychological problem.
Re:zero is quite flawed in how it deals with character progression, and at it's simplest there's two problems.
- He dances around the same problem.
He's always reset to a similar emotional state, whether it be him hating himself(which is at most times the case), him not being able to depend on others, him thinking that he's not good enough etc...
The story deals with these issues in each arc yet it feels like they're all basically the same issue i.e him hating himself, yet the story always frames it as this revelation and achievement. This refutes the rebut that it's small progress, because the story sure as hell doesn't treat it as such. In EP 18 it feels like all of Subarus self-hatred issues were washed away, the story doesn't articulate this part but it sure as hell feels as such.
Each arc adds a nuance, but they just feel like iterations of each other and no new advancement has been made.
- Character progression feels too rudimentary
As stated, each arc handles a different issue and then solves it. Which is a problem in of in itself because real character growth shouldn't be defined that easily, it should feel natural. Anyone arguing the case for Subarus development can very easily just point to one example and say "See, there he developed" as is the case with, of course, EP 18 and many others.
Unfortunately, natural character progression doesn't work like that. Development is where when inspecting the same character you can notice behaviors that he wouldn't do before or when he mentally matures. It should feel like a never ending steep slope, where the character is just progressing bit by bit, because truly there is neither an end goal nor is there a definite checkpoint (**cough cough** looking at you RBD). Rather, Subarus development feel like concrete steps, as if he's actually climbing a set of stairs. (Anyone else felt Deja Vu? Yeah it's ironic)
The framing of these breakthroughs can make them feel more concrete than Subaru's later behavior justifies.
In defining these crucial moments where he develops, it overrides the fact that a major issue with Subaru is that he's flawed and often falls into the same issues again and again. It created a dissonance because with each issue that arises, I can't help but ask "Didn't we just deal with that?"
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In conclusion, these are just a few critiques I had while watching and I hope I was able to deliver my points clearly.
Thanks for reading!