Weekly Anime Post 165

I (re)watched all of re:zero up to the most recent episode in a week because i am a degenerate here are my thoughts:

season 1: is by far the best season and worth checking out and ignoring the rest of the series if you so desire. much better production than s2, great pacing, great introduction to the cast, the world feels the most mysterious and mystical here, subaru and emilia aren't flanderized yet, i could go on. i first got into this series after s2 had already aired a few years back so i'm pretty confident nostalgia isn't a major factor here. people like to b-word about subaru being an r-slur but thats like the entire point of his character and is pretty refreshing compared to the cavalcade of gary stu isekai mcs. maybe there's an argument to be made that it goes to far in the other direction but imo people get a lot more invested in subaru than other MCs because of the way he's written here. very strong 8/10 season.

the OVAs (memory snow and frozen bond): i really like memory snow actually, it gives us some very much needed downtime and reprieve from the suffering, and helps flesh out emilia camp a bit more before the dynamics get shaken up in s2. frozen bond on the other hand is yaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnn. emilia is just so fricking boring as a character, and since she has to carry this ova on her back its in very dire straits. i could still appreciate the sentimentality behind her and pucks relationship but i really dont understand why this needed to be an hour long. memory snow 7/10 frozen bond 5/10

season 2: is not complete and total garbage. i think there were two major hurdles to overcome for adapting this arc and they were: the source material and the real world circumstances. so i understand why the season is the way it is. doesn't excuse it being such a slog to get through, but it does make it understandable enough. the emilia flanderization kicked into high gear here. im told the author has a parasocial relationship with his own character which has lead to her character writing and the "romance" themes being extremely mishandled. this would be fine if those elements didn't take up so much screentime. this might be still be fine if another 25% of screentime wasn't taken up by flashbacks and info dumps. there's still a lot to like in this season though. echidna and roswaal. echidna is just fricking adorable and has one of the more interesting dynamics with subaru. roswaal is my favorite villain in the story so far and his constant 5d chess in the background makes the series a lot more engaging to rewatch. again i feel like his interactions with subaru steal the show here, just so much to analyze in every scene with the two of them. i don't think it's a coincidence that my two favorite characters this season are the ones who know about subby's RBD. it just gives the author a lot more to work with and gives the viewers a much better reason to get invested in them. besides those two garfellow and otto make up some okay additions to the emilia camp, but neither of them really wowed me either. middle of the road 6/10 season, still managed to keep me invested but i would not blame anyone for dropping the series here.

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