After many people telling me to continue watching Re:Zero because it “gets better in the second half”, I decided “fuck that” and dropped the series. My main, if not only issue with the anime was that its protagonist, Natsuki Subaru, was too much of a loud-mouth, brain-dead, unbearable loser. Two years later, and not much seems to have changed…except that I ended up finishing the series for reasons even I don’t quite understand.
Everyone loves a good redemption story. Under typical circumstance, no one in their right mind dislikes it when a bad person becomes a good person. I am no exception to this proclivity to forgive and forget those whom genuinely turn over a new leaf. That being said, I just can’t bring myself to like Subaru. For me, good redemption stories need a character with aspects worth redeeming. As far as I can tell, Subaru has none. Instead, what our dimwitted “hero” has are four defining character traits that he never grows away from. The first trait is the most obvious.
Natsuki Subaru is stupid. I pointed this out straight from the beginning—Subaru is not adept at fundamental learning. He has the ability to reverse time. In even remotely capable hands, this power would be world-altering in its applications. Instead, this godlike magic found its way into the hands of someone that doesn’t understand the basics of trial and error. What this power would mean for any normal person is that you would go through a checklist, test out variables and see what works, then reuse what works while tossing aside what doesn’t. Subaru once punches out some alleyway thugs in the first few episodes of the series, and then never does it again despite their repeated encounters after.
This lack of rationality is easily applied to Subaru’s actions across the series as a whole, because he’s always trying brand new paths rather than finding new ways to navigate old ones. We watch all of his failures, annoyingly in full when the amount of his failures across the series could easily be condensed into a 3-minute montage. Natsuki Subaru fails a lot, but he doesn’t learn nearly enough from the process. He doesn’t know how to study enemy actions before losing, to then go back and use that knowledge to come out victorious. Most of his conflicts with characters are one-offs, even though he could easily go over scenarios again and again, poking and prodding to see which approach will be the most ideal. What’s most irritating, however, is the fact that he still manages to succeed in his own stumbling, idiotic way.
Subaru wins in the end, and he most certainly does not deserve it. The reason for that can be found in his second irredeemable characteristic: Weakness. We have already established that Natsuki Subaru is weak-minded, but he’s also just generally a weak person. My mention of a montage earlier was not only a jab, I was actually alluding to a very necessary but missing piece in this character’s development. Subaru needs to train both his mind and his body if he’s going to be of any use to anyone, and the best way to show this would probably be in montage. Instead, a lot of time is spent just following Subaru to his inevitable failures, over and over again—and that process could definitely have used some speeding up. Yes, Subaru does admit to wasting a lot of time in the big confession scene that everyone talks about, as well as a bunch of other things that I will get to later, but admitting a problem is nowhere near actually fixing it.
He also admits that his brief moments of “training” were a lie, as well as his attempts at studying, because Subaru cares more about appearances than actually putting in hard work and making something of himself. This does not come as a surprise though, because Subaru can’t hold his own in any fight he’s a part of. Death by witch lady, death by Betelgeuse, death by Rem, death by those wolf-things—it doesn’t matter. All of Subaru’s paths lead to death, but in a very inconsequential and un-purposeful ways. With a weak mind, Subaru does not learn to die in a meaningful way. With a weak body, Subaru does not learn to survive in a meaningful way either.
His third, and most boring/underutilized trait is that Subaru is an outsider. Usually that’s the one trait that makes a character unique, giving the audience a perspective of the forest from beyond the trees. Instead, Subaru kinda gets along with everyone for no particular reason. What I mean by that is not that everyone is friends with Subaru and they get along like there’s nothing odd about a boy in a tracksuit amongst a typical middle-earth fantasy land where countries are called realms. No, what’s odd here is that no one excludes Subaru, perhaps because they’re too busy shunning the pretty, silver-haired half-elf girl that does nothing but kind things for everyone she meets.
Subaru is an outsider, but he doesn’t relate to Emilia at all. She’s perfect and outcasted by society because of some stupid folklore/social stigma thing, whereas he’s utterly imperfect and is still accepted by society, at least to the point where he can walk around without getting looks despite clearly deserving them—I mean, why is he still in that fucking tracksuit? It makes no sense, there’s no reason why Subaru wouldn’t want to try to blend in the locals. I doubt its emotional attachment either, because the only people that might ever have emotional attachments to a tracksuit are actual track athletes and gangsters.
But this brings us to my final point: Subaru doesn’t develop. Whether it’s his clothes or his attitude, Natsuki Subaru DOES NOT CHANGE. You may think he changes from Rem’s heartfelt confession episode, where Subaru goes and acknowledges all the faults in his very being, but in the end, he just goes back to doing things in his own idiotic way—yet this time manages to not make a complete ass of himself. Through sheer luck, he somehow is able to do what is needed to be done as he reaches out for help from Emilia’s contenders, gets rocketed into the goddamn stratosphere to fight off a mass-murdering White Whale, fights a cult leader with infinite, invisible arms that can transfer his consciousness into other bodies including Subaru, and saves the all-powerful magic half-elf and a handful of children from a bomb hidden in her carriage.
How does he do all this? HOW? Subaru hasn’t change fundamentally as a protagonist. He’s still loud, he’s still dumb, he’s still rejecting the best girl—what about these things suddenly makes him a better person? He still isn’t using his powers to even a quarter of its potential use. Instead, the show gives him another power of seeing the invisible hands of Betelgeuse, rather than just delving into the some of the other infinite applications that come with the ability to control time. This show just feels like the equivalent of Subaru walking up to a chess board, loudly exclaiming that he doesn’t know the rules, then flipping the table and declaring himself the winner anyway. He doesn’t EARN ANYTHING. He doesn’t earn the respect of war veterans and powerful commanders alike just because he led them into to danger and miraculously prevailed despite not having any leadership or combat experience to speak of. He doesn’t deserve to have Rem’s heart just because he sometimes has soft eyes and once ham-headedly helped her move on from her past, which was just so he could escape the loop where he kept getting murdered in his sleep.
Subaru does not deserve the title of pride in the show’s sloppily applied reference of the seven deadly sins—which, if I could just side-rant for a bit, makes no bloody sense. It’s like bad case of Fullmetal Alchemist (the original series), where the homunculi are given the obviously wrong sin titles. Subaru should obviously be sloth, not pride, reflective of his uncanny ability to do almost nothing with the tremendous power he’s been granted. Betelgeuse is an Edgar Allan Poe level pervert that talks almost exclusively about the witch’s love and how much he desires it, so clearly lust would be a better fit for his temperament. And then they just give gluttony to a goddamn whale, a name choice so unimaginative I can barely fathom it but nonetheless, there you go. Side rant over, back to Subaru.
It’s hard to give examples of characters NOT doing something, because that essentially means looking at everything a character has done in order to prove that there was something they had not. The thing is, the only thing I found that represents even a modicum of progress is the fact that Subaru acknowledges his faults and turns down best girl in the same episode. From there, things just work out—and it’s infuriating because it all feels so happenstance. I was hoping for a reason to actually start caring about this character, and instead all I saw was the same old Subaru. Perhaps it makes sense, considering that Rem’s confession, while cute and touching, honestly isn’t the best way for Subaru to grow as a character. Love isn’t the answer, and never should be. Love should be the reward for hard work and sacrifice. Love should be the motivator to pick yourself up and be the best you can be for the one you love. Love should also be directed wholeheartedly at Rem, the undisputed best girl. But because it’s not, it doesn’t make sense that her confession would pull Subaru up from the darkness.
Subaru just doesn’t make sense to me. Believe me, I am no stranger to misery and idiocracy, but his particular brand of it barely speaks to me on any level. It just makes me frustrated, like watching a Let’s Play of someone that’s terrible at a video game. It’s not fun, insightful, or useful to follow a character like this. Yet for some reason, I powered through and finished Re:Zero—probably for Rem alone. I doubt I’ll come back for season two.
Thanks for reading.
There Goes My Kokoro 
Glad I am not the only one driven crazy by Subaru. I didn’t get beyond the first double episode of this because I couldn’t stand him but everyone tells me to go back and watch it again, to give it ago, that it gets better. It isn’t about the plot or the setting. I hate the main character so it is unlikely that I’ll like watching any more of it. After reading this post I’ve definitely decided this one is off my to be watched list for good.
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Sorry to hear he stays the same but thanks. I will move on.
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Very well written and interesting post
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An interesting take on the character, I disagree with most of it, but it’s an interesting take with another view that is just as valid.
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It’s an interesting take from critics who don’t seem to understand what mental trauma is. Firstly it’s not a so called power one would be willing to initiate up and down, it literally means ending your life. And no one can bear the pain of dying over and over again
Especially in the alley scene, no one in their right mind would want to die so callously when he knows what is ahead
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I underhand he’s had to die tens, if not hundreds of times by the current end of the show but i cant handle how much of a cowardly, reckless, annoying, loser he is. I cant imagine how terrifying and lonely his experience must have been but he’s just so rude to everyone so many times. Sure, he’s somewhat fine by the time he’s able to progress but that’s only because he was trash for like 15 deaths before that. He may have trauma and his situation may be terrible but he’s just fundamentally a bad person. You could see it all the way back on his first life. After Em stopped to heal him he still didn’t want to help that little girl find her mom. He only ended up stopping because Em did. And I don’t even know if Subaru is a bad person outright. I think the writers just want him to be a “real” or “flawed” person but they just end up make him an asshole half the time. Overall the flip flopping makes him really hard to like, especially when he goes douchebag mode for like 5 lives in a row.
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That’s so contradictory. Someone actively suffering from mental trauma is only going to get worse without help. Mental Trauma does NOT happen overnight but does so gradually. He wasn’t in a good mental health since the beginning so how is he actually getting better when he should gradually be getting worse. Maybe he doesn’t have trauma at all. Everyone has a bit of a crisis. Everyone fears for their loved one if it’s reasonably plausible that they will die and he knows for sure they’ll die because he has witnessed it. That kind of over reaction is not trauma. It’s good ol’ fear kicking in that survival instinct. Not everyone who goes through traumatic events develop trauma. Not all war veterans or holocaust survivors have debilitating trauma.
Just to counter argue your points, Yes no one would be willing to kill themselves just to test some theory with trial and error but death does happen anyway and each time you learn something from it and if you know you’re going to die anyway you are most definitely going to try to do things differently. Subaru charges straight in with his comrades without a plan being completely dependent on his friends powers and not considering the danger he is putting them in. Where’s the trauma here? When his friend which he put in danger dies? Oh that’s right, that’s exactly it. His trauma only triggers when they die because he failed so maybe rather than suffering trauma due to the loss of his friends maybe he goes crazy because he failed?
If he doesn’t want to die and is suffering from that anxiety and fear of the unknown then he shouldn’t go charging straight in (i’m assuming the alley scene is the one with the thugs)
If he is that scared then he should actually try training for real.
This kind of trauma should have transformed his personality into someone more cautions, more distrusting, more scared, more neurotic, with paranoia. Everything he does is normal. It may be stupid but it’s normal. He doesn’t over react. Again, even if it’s stupid it has rationality. Someone suffering from trauma might not be so calm and collected. The person can be in fact violent.
In conclusion, it might just be that you are the one not understanding trauma.
Subaru’s only useful skill is his ability to not die. The whole thing with the Whale only happened because he “predicted” the location. Other than that he is useless. His only useful skills are derived from his curse ironically, including his witch scent.
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The real point isn’t Subaru himself but rather the author’s condenscending desire to create Subaru as Chew Toy or Whipping Boy and use him as tool to save our ‘perfect’ waifu, Emilia.
Re:Zero itself devoid of any lessons but punishment. Yes, Subaru behave like an utter fool but what the author do is to throw unrelated plot to MC and blame him. Then creating punishment of eternal hell. We don’t burn down house to catch burglar or we never burn child’s hand to teach them that fire’s dangerous. The torture and suffering in Re:Zero simply don’t fit the crime.
Guilt-tripping by punishment – Subaru doesn’t change because it’s the plot, suffering and side characters who guilt-tripping him to change creating illusion that he change and grow.
Subaru is weak – In early Arc, Subaru actually strong willed and stronger than average but it flip-flop in later series.
Many people seems to like Rem. In early episode we already know that Rem murdered Subaru twice because of Witch’s scene but just forget it about it because love transcend everything which is bad plot in itself. Clearly, all character in Re:Zero is just a tool to fulfill the author’s wet dream.
The story of Re:Zero is illogical itself. He suffer many bad treatment by the people surrounding him who rather play the judge and pass patronizing judgement rather than guide him. Yet, he love and forgive all of them which never make sense. Because of what? Because of author want to play god, punishing him repeatedly and force him to fit in the society just like how Japanese society treat social outcast who can’t fit in.
If you want to make review for Re:Zero, please focus on the author and plot itself rather than attacking character left and right because that’s the source of problem. In Re:Zero, the author want to snatch the title of MASTERPIECE by cramming 5 to 10 plots in one plot to make it sound brand new.
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dude your somethin else re0 is a masterpeice
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I hope you know this Rem killed Subaru once and that was in the hallway at the manor. The other time when Subaru was being tortured by Rem, Ram is the one who sliced off Subaru’s leg and is the one who killed him.
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Why are you so scared of reality?
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This is exactly right. So many of these light novel adaptations are just so shallow and feel like cheap fan fiction. Ultimately their fiction portrays their own personal philosophy and this one misses the mark.
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I love reading criticism of Re:0. Thanks for writing this. Most people seem so delusional and can’t find fault in this edgy anime even though it was right under their nose. They said “it’s masterpiece”, “it’s unconventional hero”. I proceed to read Arc 4,5,6 and whole W.N/L.N. What I find out, there is nothing special. Re:0 is copycat of both Kyou Kara Maou and Sword Art Online, different in Re0 is MC with extremely bad luck and no real power plus messed up plots in one story.
If they want to release season 2, do you care to watch it?
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I probably will not watch season 2…maybe if someone paid me to.
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BRUH THE REASON I WATCH RE:ZERO IS FOR SUBARU HIMSELF. HE DIES SO MANY TIMES OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO ACHIEVE WHAT HE WANTS. ID ABOUT YOU BUT THAT IS STRONG RESOLVE RIGHT THERE.
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Loathe as we may be to admit it, Subaru is a true nerd not as we would like to see ourselves, but as the awkward creatures we often wish we weren’t. Since I was used to the tradition of light novel anime glorifying their incredibly boring nerd protagonists, I found it extremely hard to watch Subaru’s behavior at first, thinking for sure that everyone was just going to give his manic chuuni trash an inscrutable pass. But with the exception of his endlessly forgiving (and also pretty socially awkward) love interest Emilia, the cast of Re:Zero surprised me by reacting to Subaru’s antics with a refreshing mix of dismissal, confusion, and apathy. Suddenly, Subaru’s painful personality had changed from a weakness into a strength, as he navigated the world around him, death after death and failure after failure, to slowly transform every new situation from a tragedy at his expense to a victory that no one was expecting of him. Just because Subaru isn’t the kind of person I’d want to hang out with doesn’t mean I couldn’t respect the show’s decision to let him shine, polishing his nerdy foibles into something that could gradually lift him up instead of dragging him down.
And so I went from loathing Subaru’s irritating lack of specialness to seeing it as the very thing that made him special. With enough time and effort, even a truly useless uberdork like Subaru can save the day, using only his determination to learn from his numerous mistakes until the impossible task ahead of him is finally conquered. If Kirito or Bell are perfect cardboard fantasies who win the day in tidy ways that no “real” nerd could accomplish, Subaru is both more and less appealing as a genuine otaku who wins the day in ways that seem attainable to anyone who feels like they’re stuck at the bottom of the weeb trash barrel. Subaru frequently jokes that the universe is conspiring to make him the hero of this story because that’s just what happens in isekai light novels, but it’s clear that he really means “I have to force myself into the role of hero, because I don’t have any other choice to survive, so I might as well just keep on going for fun!” It’s the kind of genre-awareness that’s relatable to any otaku trying to put themselves in Subaru’s shoes, even if it’s a little annoying to hear him say it out loud.
But is that really how Subaru feels?
The sad fact is that, like any realistic otaku, Subaru absolutely relishes this hero status that Lugunica’s world has conspired to give him, because he’s been anticipating it through his own favorite media for years. Yeah, dying over and over sucks, but it sucks in a very chuunibyou-friendly “this angsty dark curse I have makes me super-important and interesting” kind of way. Even if you consciously know that it would be painful to be Shirou (Fate/stay night) or Okabe (Steins;Gate), they both save the world and get the girl in the end, through an adventure that only they can fully appreciate, whose importance resonates with all the people in their lives. It’s not always “fun,” but it’s endlessly validating, so it’s not long before the win-even-when-you-lose fantasy Subaru’s found himself in starts going to his head.
After Subaru has conquered enough time loops to get Emilia into position as a prime candidate for the kingdom’s Royal Election, something terrible happens to him: he stops being important. First of all, he’s wounded, so the most helpful thing he can do for Emilia is stay behind and recover. But if he did that, he would miss the “main plot” going on inside the royal court. So the next most helpful thing he can do is keep his trap shut while the knights and nobles begin their selection process and Emilia makes her case (despite prejudice against her for being a half-elf). But if he did that, he’d have to listen to the courtiers besmirching “his girl,” who he’s now determined to put on the throne. So Subaru makes a scene, calling the royal knights a bunch of prejudiced idiots who got their jobs from their dads, claiming himself as Emilia’s right-hand knight, loudly promising to make her queen, and agreeing to a big public duel with a knight he insulted. After all, even if dies in the duel he can just come back.But there are some mistakes you can’t come back from, and when Subaru wakes up from getting curbstomped by the knight he challenged, Emilia isn’t looking at him the way she did before. He disobeyed her, endangered her chances in the election and his own life, and he did it all to sate his own ego. Instead of apologizing, Subaru responds to this accusation with even more self-righteousness, assuring Emilia that he really did all this for her, and she should know this by now because of all the other times he’s saved her. To Subaru, Emilia owes him unconditional friendship because of all the things he’s done for her across many lost timelines, but he can’t make any case for his own importance because he’s cursed to keep silent about his powers. Instead of putting their friendship first, Subaru can’t stop thinking about the validation he’s not getting for his hard work, so he lets loose a tirade of frustration over why she won’t just trust him unconditionally when she owes him more than she can ever repay.
Emilia’s response is shocking: “The version of me that lives within you must be amazing. She can understand everything, even if you don’t explain it to her. She can feel all your pain, sadness, and anger as her own…You’ve done enough, Natsuki Subaru. You know, I had hopes for you. I thought that maybe you, only you, wouldn’t give me special treatment.”
In perhaps a light novel anime first, the hero’s love interest gently informed him that he wasn’t the hero, she wasn’t his love interest, and he needed to take her off his pedestal and get out of her story. The next four episodes of Re:Zero are an agonizing series of escalating tragedies as Subaru drags his wounded pride all over the countryside trying to force himself back into a story that was always bigger than his obsession with what the world owed him. By sending him away, Emilia set her own demise and the world’s apocalypse into motion, but unlike every other otaku fantasy before it, Re:Zero never blames her for this innocent mistake so the “misunderstood” hero can swoop in and save the day. Just because Subaru is the key to Emilia’s future through pure narrative circumstance doesn’t automatically make him a hero, but this show actually had the balls to take that away from him with real consequences, and without making any excuses for his warped attitude.After trying and failing to reclaim his role as protagonist half a dozen times (with as many traumatic demises), Subaru finds himself completely alone apart from a kindhearted maid girl named Rem he rescued in a previous time loop. Not knowing what else to do, he begs her to run away with him to the countryside and leave the whole story of Lugunica behind. This is where the problems first start creeping in. First of all, Subaru is not in love with Rem, he’s in love with Emilia. But Rem is absolutely in love with him. Re:Zero tries to paint this as him “settling” or “running away,” but he’s still “settling ” for a fantastical reward, complete with Rem’s doting description of the happy life they would have growing old together. After spending so many episodes calling out the egotistical fallacy of how chuunibyou fantasize giving up perfect cliché happy endings for imperfect endings that worship their heroism, Re:Zero plays its hand completely straight by relishing in the pathos of Subaru imagining the “perfect life” he could have if he didn’t need to be a hero and pursue more imperfect glories.
Humoring the idea of running away to an “easy life” with a girl he doesn’t love, toying with her feelings as a way to punish himself, is just another flavor of egotism. Just as Subaru isn’t “owed” a hero role, he isn’t owed that idyllic life as some consolation prize for giving up on it, and since Rem knows that he doesn’t even love her, she shouldn’t just be humoring this hypothetical as if her own feelings don’t matter. That’s when I realized that the minute Emilia stepped down from that pedestal, Rem took her place, not as a love interest, but as an endlessly forgiving pillar of support to validate Subaru not as the hero he wasn’t, but as the otaku he is.”Just watch. You get a front row seat to see the man you fell for become the most awesome hero ever!”
In the best way, this line is refreshingly honest about the shameless glee that such a believable nerd like Subaru would embrace after getting spirited away to save the day in a fantasy world. In the worst way, it reveals the smug entitlement and delusion that can make a character like Subaru unbearable to the people around him, who are all too aware that a fantasy world is the only place a person can “win” the role of protagonist. Ultimately, Subaru is a realistic character in an unrealistic universe. In the world of Re:Zero, Subaru becomes special simply by recognizing that he’s not special, but in a more honest world that doesn’t revolve around him like Lugunica does, Subaru wouldn’t be a worthless god or a priceless weakling. He would just be one complex person in a world full of complex people: not the best or worst of anything
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I think I understand that tragic role Subaru plays, and I think the problem isn’t inherently that role itself. Rather, what I find insufferable about the show is the pure lack of redeeming qualities in his character from the start. I can’t relate to him on any level: As a young man, as an Otaku, as a person who finds himself in a world he doesn’t understand, as a person that finds himself in love, as a person that finds himself in fear…there are so many opportunities for an audience to relate to his character and yet they always fall short for me personally.
As a young man, he is overly confident in himself despite a complete lack of skill, strength, and knowledge. He doesn’t seem concerned about where his life was heading or his place in society, and when the “call to adventure” finally reached him, it’s almost anticlimactic in how he thinks he can just be the hero and save the day. Naivety is relatable, but his levels are off that damn charts.
As an Otaku, he’s just an ear-sore. Shouting generic nerd knowledge does not make you meta or cool. Everytime he makes some sort of reference it feels like an out-of-touch entertainment exec trying to reach the youth demographic.
For being a fish-out-of-water plot, it’s rather original in the sense that he doesn’t seem too hard off to rapidly adapt to this fantasy scenario. And yet at the same time, he doesn’t adapt in the slightest–merely finds a way to casually exist without putting in any effort to fit in or survive in this world. Magic exists, but he never even remotely learns how it works. There’s an economy in this world, but he doesn’t find a job or a way to feed himself. There’s a distinct fashion/armory to the world, but he never takes off his stupid track jacket. He doesn’t put in any efforts to fit in, without any good, self-righteous reason as to why.
As for love, he meets a girl who is nice to him and falls for her. Then he saves another girl whom he learns more about, spends more time with, and whom is nicer to him, and doesn’t find himself longing for her in the slightest. What does he see in Emilia? Who the hell knows, but he’ll reject kind, beautiful, competent maid girl for the chance to be with this mysterious elf girl whose backstory is still a mystery.
Fear. You’d think there’d be some sort of interesting aspect built upon this emotion, as Subaru continually is confronted by the things he fears the most. In a way, he is affected by psychologically by his ability and his experiences with death, be it his own or his friends, but at the same time he never gets used to it in the slightest, which is fascinating in concept but in execution just kinda feel like he doesn’t learn a damn thing from his mistakes. I’d be more interested if the trauma starts having a greater effect on him, seeing flashes of his friends being dismembered when he talks to them in safe settings, or seeing his friends as people who are capable of terrifying things, like Rem murdering him with a mace. Instead, Subaru’s headspace is just a confused mess, probably because he’s an idiot, and anything interesting that could come from the processing of all this crazy information just never happens.
My point is, Subaru sucks at even being terrible. He fails in way that teaches almost nothing. The takeaways from his triumphs are just as boring as his failures, and there’s nothing about him to make me feel mad at him, happy for him, sorry, for him…or any other emotion, really. He’s not a character I love to hate, hate to love, or any of the other combinations. At the end of the day, it’s just pure ambivalence, and that’s just one emotion that I don’t believe can carry the plot of an entire series.
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The thing is the he see’s Emilia as the perfect girl for him. Like minor spoilers for season 2, but we see Subaru’s room and the figures and posters of characters that he collects mostly have white hair (which probably also lead to him mistakeningly assuming that this was the girl made for him) he does mature and grow even more season 2, but they don’t reset him back to what he was for a gag.
They do delve into his mind more and into the mind of Emilia too and it makes sense why they are both messes. I will say this, he does have redeeming qualities at the start. The show makes sure to show them to us before he blows up at Emilia. he is resourceful and he cares about his friends and even some of his enemies. He loves animals and can be a generally nice guy when he wants to be. the thing is that he isn’t even mean, he’s just a socially awkward nerd (in the anime, the light novel and the web novel have progressively worse copies of him).
I think that one of the uncomfortable things for a lot of people watching this show is that it isn’t like other light novels and anime in that the protagonist isn’t right all of the time and everyone doesn’t automatically like him. Like Rem likes him, but Rem is pretty broken and not okay herself. Most of the respect he gains comes from the White Whale incident and he builds on it from there. Even at the end of season one he never fully lets Emilia do things herself (which is a flaw he has that he learns to deal with).
The show is all character progression and a lot of the enemies are reflections of aspects of Subaru. That’s what makes it work.
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Thank goodness someone else feels the same way I do. I just watched the scene in the carriage where Rem cuddles with the ungrateful loudmouth.
Seriously. Smarter, stronger people are trying to help him. He is told “You will be my enemy if you leave”. So, going against the alleged love of his life’s wishes for the umpteenth time because he, a moron, knows better, decides to immeasurably complicate the lives of EVERYONE trying to help him and run out, with no skills, no plan, no wisdom and “save” Emilia. Riight. The last scene I watched was him shouting at the clerk when Rem ditched him. I don’t mean he shouted at an innocent guy just trying to do his job and being pleasant AFTER he found out about the ditch. No. He’s just an arrogant ass who routinely screams at strangers because – as he does with all the women around him, the knight who saved his ass and everyone else..HE knows what’s best and only his opinion matters. He’s the hero, even though he cries and is covered in snot in the first minute of every fight as he runs away or stupidly stands and takes a beating like a dumb animal too stupid to flee.
Love Rem. Would almost watch it for her and her sister since they are the only two characters I truly enjoy or can relate to thanks to having an actual backstory. The rest, including Emilia feel like place markers. Let’s see. Need pretty elf girl whose complicated here. Over there, eccentric mage/lord of the place. Here? A generic knight who is kind. Throw in a smart-mouthed thief and we are set to go. Oh wait. We need a loudmouthed okaku brat who is weak, stupid and SO ignorant that he doesn’t know what questions to ask and so stupid he won’t learn from the answers smarter people volunteer. That’s the ticket.
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Yesssss, the side characters are sooo generic! That knight and thief especially!
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Subaru’s character is litterly the antonym of generic
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Sadly, most characters in Re:Zero are awful. You said “stronger and smarter people wanted to help him” the truth is most character in Re:Zero are selfish unless you count two kind-hearted knights. Ferris and Crusch wanted to help Subaru because their own benefits.
Most characters such as Ram, Rem and many few other passed easy judgement on his character without understanding real situation.
The perfection of Rem towards MC is warped and black & white. In early episode, she killed him cruelly then she felt heed over the heels to MC, blushing like a doormat.
You should read Light Novel to find out the truth regarding two twin sisters you loved so much. Ram and Rem are psycho and narcisstic according to our psychology 101. You will shocked to find our Ram was most bitchy character and as bad as Subaru. She is epitome of mean girl in high school. She constastly throw snide remarks to make herself looks good.
If you dislike Emilia but love equally awful twin sister you already felt into the writer’s trap without you knowing it. Rezero is madhouse universe, that’s the fact.
In episode 1, 2 and 3 our main character believed people in Rezero were all NPC. Then he believed they were real human just because he loved skirt-chasing the girls.
If I were MC, I won’t go running to save ungrateful cute girl who shown nothing but disdain. But Subaru was unrealistic hero who foolishly save everyone despite his incompentence.
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Thank you for calling it as it is.
Most people are expecting cliche narrative that other shows offer.
The best thing about Subaru is in fact his mental fortitude. Many people mistake it as a power but it is in-fact a curse. To experience death over and over again is not something to joke about.
Most of these critics are just clueless to this little details
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She murdered him multiple times and you expect him to be grateful towards her? What are you smoking?
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Rem murderers him once and Ram did the other one to stop her sister from doing it.
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When I first watched the series 1 year ago, I couldn’t help but felt disgusted. No, I am well-aware of element this anime was trying to convey that is not everything is dark or edgy. Just like you, I am questioning how Subaru’s character being weak and stupid thorough the series.
I couldn’t help to vent my frustration but then in webnovel, Subaru got his training but still the weak Subaru with “wiser” attitude. At that time, I am aware that the writer doesn’t want Subaru’s character to improve. He wants Subaru to be main character who acts like supporting character.
I love weak character who doesn’t give up and grows stronger or the concept of “Rags to Rich”. In this anime, the supposed “hero” trapped in the same weak and stagnant state death after death with no room of improvement. It become dulls and repetitive. Fu*k Tappei Nagatsuki who thinks he is genius for writing such warped stories. Not only Subaru written as weak but Subaru relentlessly bullied by the other characters but he never once thought to retaliate or stood up against bullying.
Yes, what anime producer thinks that they were unique for breaking theme of OP Isekai to incredibly underpowered Isekai. They don’t see underpowered Isekai just as bad as OP Isekai. They need to surround Subaru supporting cast with OP ability. What the difference?
Here they deliver the wrong message: It’s fine to surround yourself with toxic people, it equally fine to never improve as long you got OP or stronger friends aka allies. Lastly, never stand up against bullying.
You are a few people who can see through the blinder of this anime. You successfully proved the characters who were weak and dumb made the “deconstruction” became another failure instead of success.
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This is a crappy view of the MC. Im sick of everyone hating on the dude. He was murdered over and over and dealt with issues over it. Yet everyone fawns over those horrible twins.
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nomad, I hope you don’t point finger at me. Calm down, man. I don’t have crappy view to MC. I hated two twin maid , Ram and Rem too.
If you read L.N those twin were horrible. Ram is haughty and vicious bully. While Rem exist to be generic maid waifu.
What I disdain is how Subaru written as weak and can do nothing. Yes, he train himself with Clind but he still can’t fight. I pity Subaru even though he was arrogant and believed the world revolve around him.
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Season 2 will be released soon. I hope the smile from fans will fade fast. There is nothing interesting in this morbid story.
Not only the characters appear dumb or generic, they are also toxic people. How main character can relentless pester with those people are beyond my understanding.
Arc 4 : Death, torture, suffering, repeat. Meeting with witch for about 100 chapters talking inane unimportant subject which serve as mystery within mystery. They never answer unanswered plot question.
Arc 5 : Battle with Archbishop of Sins, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony. Reinhard with his cool sword. Lost Battle, Julius’s name eaten and need to go to Pleaidian Watchtower.
Arc 6 : Go to Pleaidian Watchtower and stuck there for 117 chapters.
Truly, Re-0 worst than SAO.
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You can make any story sound bad writing a summary like that. Re:0 isn’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but it certainly is nowhere near the garbage that SAO is.
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I know this guy did not just compare re: fucking zero to the SAO
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The logic of “his personality didn’t change, therefore he didn’t develop” doesn’t hold water. That’s not really what development means, and the results of his actions don’t really attest to development either. The only way to actually read character development is to measure the character’s intent, and Subaru’s has absolutely changed by the end of re:zero. This is the only thing that matters; at first, he acts pompous and goofy because he wants to win over Emilia, but by the end, he dons his facade once more to brave the perilous dangers that have quite literally killed numerous times before in order to actually save everyone. This is development, not what you outlined.
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What you describe also not a character development either. He ‘change’ also because he wants to win Emilia. In later Arc 4 and 6 in L.N,Subaru regress back into his original pompous self. He ‘changes’ because he was being punished by ‘cosmic punishment’, torture and fake lesson. That’s not a good way to develop character because it felt forced and insincere.
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While I am also not a big fan of Subaru at all, you overestimate his ability somewhat.
It’s not the ability to reverse time, and has severe limitations. First, you have to DIE. This is unpleasant for all of the obvious reasons, plus you don’t know if this ability is infinite, so dying repeatedly just to win a fist fight would be the height of masochism and stupidity. Also, he has no control over when his “Save point” is updated, so the trial and error you suggest could require going through the same (potentially very long) sequence of events just to try to do something differently. With the Witch’s Cult conflict, he goes through several colossal failures, to the point of having a mental breakdown, finally finding himself again, and finally putting together a plan that works (despite several additional setbacks). He immediately reverts to full retard in the next arc, of course.
Also, I think maybe the author’s intent is to show a character with mental issues. He was a hikikomori or whatever they call it, has died gruesomely multiple times, and basically has full-blown PTSD. He is annoying like any crazy and manic person would be annoying to be around. I guess it is supposed to make him relatable and pitiable (to other hikikomori?), but it does make him an extremely unlikable character if you’re looking for a more traditional protagonist.
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Thank you for highlighting the shows intent.
They all seem to think it is some op power, whereas he must be overwhelmed with how mentally straining such power gives
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Here I am, just watched Episode 9, Season 2 and I think I’m going to drop it…. And I love the story. The world. The milieu. Even as an isekai, it’s got its own unique fantasy/magic/lore qualities that I enjoy. But…
I DO NOT ENjOY A CHARACTER WHO DOESN’T GROW AS A PERSON. Maybe a few. But even they have redeeming qualities. Subaru has NOT grown at all. Can you believe it? Since Season 1. NOTHING.
From Season 1, I always thought to myself the same things. Why hasn’t he demonstrated growth at all? Even if a story isn’t a “character driven” story, the protagonist still receives some sort of growth at a point in the story. Especially as it reaches it’s climax. Well, I thought that was going to happen at the end of Season 1. It seemed like it. As if maybe there was something going to happen.
I was wrong.
Nothing’s changed. His attitude is terrible, still. His abilities are nowhere to be found, still. You talked alot about him being stupid. Absolutely.
In Season 2, he hasn’t utilized his RBD to strategize or anything. In fact, after he dies, he even treats the other characters as if he didn’t just die and all the conversations didn’t just dissapear into another timeline or whatever. No. This even gets him into trouble. Subaru has little self awareness, if any at all. It’s beyond pathetic, really.
He’s continued to be stupid, incompetent and overly dramatic. I understand he keeps dying and that’s tragic but….ITS SEASON 2. COME ON.
At this point he NEEDS growth as a character, regardless if that’s the focus of the story or not. It needs to happen or this is just another anime blown out of proportion.
Where is his character building? WHERE?
I certainly agree with everything on your OP but his growth as a character is where I’m really perturbed.
Anyways, I needed this read because I’m definitely dropping it. After all this (S2, Ep9)……….. After all this AND NO CHANGE AT ALL TO HIS CHARACTER PROGRESSION.
Haha listen to what happened on Episode 9 of S2…
Echidna, witch of greed, says something about Subaru’s “sloth witch factor” So he IS Sloth….He also gets to tell Echidna about Return By Death without dying. Guess what he does after noticing hes not dying? Of course HE FREAKS OUT. SAYS RBD OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND STARTS BALLIN HIS TEARS OUT.)
Done with it. Same shit every episode.
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He hasn’t been able to tell anyone about this ability. And echidna is the first person besides ofc satella to ever really understand what he’s going through. I mean…carrying all that weight and not even being able to tell anyone up until now…it’s a pretty human reaction
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I would like you to take a read on PTSD to open your mind a little.
People are driven to talk about situations that scare them. In his case he doesn’t have that luxury as he tries so hard to tell multiple people but ends up dying
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Nah, I think I too would break down if I were in that situation, think about it. If someone refuses to listen to the problems I faced, I would be pretty hurt mentally. If I somehow met someone that listened to me, it’s actually a huge relief to let everything out.
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Watched the first season when it came out, and to be honest I didn’t think too much of Subaru, for some reason. But season 2 came out and I decided to re-watch the first season again, and goddamn did his awfulness just hit me like a freight train. Unwilling to learn or progress doesn’t scratch the surface.
I honestly don’t know how I got past the scene where he tries to get Emilia to trust him because “he knows better” after he got beat up by purple dude. And I did it twice, just what I am doing with my life? Anyhow, I tried my best to analyze that scene, maybe the uncomfortable dissonance I was feeling about it was intentional, but the further I got in the story the more it was clear that yes, Subaru is just a terrible character all around.
And then I got to season 2, more of the same, only now things change for no reason to keep it fresh when Subaru didn’t even adapt when everything was the same, to begin with. But any hope I could possibly have for this character (and series) was gone after episode 10.
Spoiler (if you want to go through the suffering by yourself): Girl kills two of his companions and for all I know the entire village, the only reason she doens’t kill him too is because her partner has dibs on him, Said partner was then “defeated” and Beatrice moves to attack the girl and he stops her because… she’s just a kid (which at this point had a goddamn zoo around her head to pounce on them). There’s no way to twist this. No amount of masterful writing could explain his actions, and the writing is just not good.
Subaru, after all, is not a character he’s just a device. He has to lose, after all he’s the only constant in the story, but the way it’s been done is painful. The same way nothing is earned, nothing is lasting either. Nothing besides his unreasonable obsession with, and actions towards Emilia, the girl that has interacted with him for a whole 10 minutes throughout the series and it should’ve been even less than that.
Seriously, as an audience we’re aware of his “situation” and he still comes off as a total creep, how he manages to wiggle his way into peoples lives while being a completely off-putting character is a testament to how basic the writing is.
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Darrou Au Andromedus you don’t like Subaru because you think he is those MC whose overpowered both physically and mentally. You find crying as imperfection but you don’t count how much he suffers just to save them. Character growth doesn’t mean you’re flaws will be halved in days and he is just 2 months in the world with no military training. He has taken the pain mentally of RBD and telling it to Echidna gives him ease. He is competent and is learning little by little but you have to understand what he has to accomplish.
K. Beatrice is suicidal
Elsa can’t seem to die
Meili the Witchbeast user loli
Emilia’s gone crazy (not satella)
Roswaal has ulterior motives that helps bring rabbits
Great rabbit attacks
Satella shows up
Garfiel gets triggered by miasma
Echidna’s up to something
Nobody can leave the Sanctuary until the Trial’s are complete.
Time limit: 4 days.
Do you think someone who has no resolve can accomplish this? Of course not. Subaru is strong minded and shows empathy to those who killed him and makes it like they just did not kill him. Your saying you never felt happy from releasing your burden and hate Subaru for doing that with Echidna. Each arc depicts him about to reach sin and in the main story he chooses the right path. If he was sloth he would run away with rem ayynd start a family(Sloth If story). This is physchological so you can’t just tell them the great rabbit will attack or they’re gonna be suspicious of you. Your argument sounds like a shonen fanboys but i won’t judge you for that. I just don’t like comments that make no sense to me. The strongest warriors in the vietnam war gets mental disorders and you say Subaru is weak minded from accepting the pain he recieves for saving them? But i guess no one can like a single thing or opinion.
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Even from the get-go, I found Subaru ridiculously annoying. To anyone who says his horrendous attitude was due to the fact he several times is just something I can’t agree with. Just take the fact that he immediately fell in love with some random girl. How ludicrous! How generic and cliche, overall I guess I’m not even hating on Subaru just the series as a whole. I don’t know when in the series was the final straw for me patience’s but it certainly didn’t last all too long. Just something about his overall character is just unbearable. He just be grateful anyone fell for a fool like him. I, and most other probably wouldn’t without a doubt whether male or female I can’t imagine liking this obnoxious fool.
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doesn’t take advantage of RbD, because dying feels SO good and he obviously knows that he will come back (well… until season 2 at least). You kinda answered the “explore an old path” part yourself, every single choice would make for a different ending, hell, even if he does the exact same thing, the witch scent would slightly change everything, so how is he supposed to repeat a certain path?
He’s weak? Well… He definitively is compared to Reinhard, or even Emilia, Roswell, Rem, and even Ram. But that’s the point, he was isekai’d, pretty fit guy before, got boosted because now there’s mana and that’s it. The whole point of re:zero is that he didn’t get OP power unlike Al (gladiator guy), Flugel (sealed Satella) or that one guy who was so good at commercing he became king.
Stupid? well maybe you’re the one overestimating yourself, he is most definitively not stupid, he isn’t a genius either of course, but he’s way more intelligent than your average joe. Weak mentally? Dying again and again, seeing his loved ones die, sometimes for him, sometimes because of him for some reason, suffering one of the most painful death in anime (and the rabbits entered his body… without killing him until the very end), seeing the consequences of his failures… accepting them. His mental strength is Subaru ONE ability -beside return by death-
Also, seriously, training? There’s at most 1 month between the episode 1 and the beginning of season 2, he must work for the manor, deal with the various problems and heal his mana gates -which he does have to skip at the end-. He CAN’T train, because he doesn’t have the time. and he can’t return by death to train again and again because breaking news, DYING IS PAINFUL. Even if he somehow managed to train by finding a painless way to die, what would he improve? His swordsmanship already reached his limit and he can’t train his body if he go back every 3 days.
Also, Subaru being loved? That’s not how I call getting a freaking BOMB planted in your body by a catboy, being an easy target for the royal candidates etc… etc… There’s basically 3 persons and 2 groups that like him. Emilia because he is trying his best for her, so how would she hate him? It’s not like he doesn’t bring any results you know. Rem, because of how he looked o so cool and heroic when he saved her (compared to the other loops where he was… well… Subaru, with scent edition), Otto because Subaru looks like an actual shonen protagonist in the “true loop” to him. The village because… IDK he is just being a nice guy you know and MOST of the soldiers of the white whale expedition because he basically carried them.
Oh yeah and aside from his clothes, that he keep in order not to “forget his old world” (similarly to how some isekai’d characters keep a diary written in kanji in order not to forget how to write), Subaru does evolve. And because the main character evolving is the main point of most if not all animes, I can’t really make it as short as the other points, so RIP, subaru isn’t developed.
the sins? Do you even know how the sins works in re:zero? Why would you need the sin to get the ability? And anyway, how the HELL is subaru slothful? Would he have followed Emilia in the third and more loop if he was? would he have tried to save both the sanctuary and the manor? Why did he leave crush’s home when he was totally safe and nothing could have gone wrong? Subaru is everything BESIDE slothful, of course, he isn’t the kind of pride that you would expect, just like how echidna or typhon aren’t representative of their sins image. Betelgeuse isn’t slothful? no shit sherlock, are you a genius or something? so what? it just means that compared to sekhmet who is the incarnation of sloth, his unseen hands are way weaker. Also subaru isn’t pride, Betelgeuse called him that because every other spots was taken, then he quickly thought that he may not be a sin at all, and might be coming for the sloth factor
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I’m watching re zero 2 now hoping that subaru has improved, he did not, he’s still a frantic incomposed crybaby. He’s very inconsistent, he tries hard to be funny then one second later he panics like he always do. He’s very dependent on the other supporting characters. He’s a poorly designed character
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Actually Arc 4 is actually where he learns how to depend on others, love himself and to not have a “Im the only one That has to suffer” mindset.
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He’s hiding his panic by trying to be funny, which is a bad habit of his.
He’s very dependent on other characters, which can be both a character flaw and character strength at different times and situations.
He’s a very veeeery flawed character, but definitely not poorly designed.
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Subaru is an imperfect character, that’s what I love about him. The isekai genre normally revolves around the protagonist being transported to another world and then having some insane power gifted to them but Subaru is not like that he cannot power through this and the thing is most isekai’s don’t show what happened to the family after they (the protagonist) has been transported to the other world whereas Re:Zero differs from it. All in all you have the right to criticize Subaru. Yes, he is cringey, yes, he is prideful and yes, he cries a lot but that’s what makes him human and that’s what will keep him human. Returning by death is not something everyone can handle, most of them will give up and just sit there and say, “I don’t wanna do this anymore.” Whereas Subaru won’t sit still, his drive to save everyone, even if it means suffering all by himself is what makes him a great protagonist. Suffering alone, not being able to tell anyone, it can and will break someone and it did and will break Subaru in the later arcs. But Subaru develops…. A lot, like in Arc 6, he dies a total of 25 times and in the ongoing anime, he tries to do everything by himself until (best boy) Otto hits him in the face and tells him to stop and that he hasn’t grown any stronger, he can’t do everything by himself and needs to ask for help.
All in all, Subaru is real and that’s what makes him what he is.
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Aww guess you didn’t like the anime but heck it’s still popular since they even made a season 2 now
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i actually think that mc doesn’t fully abuse return to death is a good thing, because once one is fully embracing death return and abuse it to break the system, it is not gonna be a very fun show to watch.
However i personally don’t like re:zero as well by my person dislike toward its that the story is ultimately limited by its creators, what ever the author lacks as a human being is show upon his work. and this is really made evident by the fact that Subaru knows he is staying in this world in the long haul, and yet is not a responsible enough to make the world better. when it comes to selection of the princess, he is just trying to get his candidate to the throne, regardless of weather that candidate is indeed the better out come for the world, or even as far as regardless of weather that is good for the candidate her self. This story like many others of its time is just another self gratification fantasy. where everything the mc does is ultimate for him self.
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Subaru is like a deconstruction of the typical edgy anime self-insert MC, that’s pretty obvious. However, I don’t like people using this as an argument for why he’s a good character. So what if he’s a flawed, narcisstic, overly obsessive, self-destructive asshole MC and not the hero we expect to see? He still sucks. He is literally fundamentally flawed in a way that nothing about his actions can be justified. I saw a reddit post where someone berated a guy for not liking Subaru because “I’m sorry he’s not Kirito”. Which is funny because literally nothing about SAO and Re0 are different in the grand scheme of things. Both worlds and side characters are as dull and uninspired as they come, and Kirito and Subaru are just dumb characters in their own right. Also two shows where everything started out good and actually interesting but fell apart after a little too much investment in the show.
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Subaru is like a deconstruction of the typical edgy anime self-insert MC, that’s pretty obvious. However, I don’t like people using this as an argument for why he’s a good character. So what if he’s a flawed, narcisstic, overly obsessive, self-destructive asshole MC and not the hero we expect to see? He still sucks. He is literally fundamentally flawed in a way that nothing about his actions can be justified. I saw a reddit post where someone berated a guy for not liking Subaru because “I’m sorry he’s not Kirito”. Which is funny because literally nothing about SAO and Re0 are different in the grand scheme of things. Both worlds and side characters are as dull and uninspired as they come, and Kirito and Subaru are just dumb characters in their own right. Also two shows where everything started out good and actually interesting but fell apart after a little too much investment in the show.
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d
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First of all, subaru doesn’t “magically get along with everyone”, in the first season, rem litterly killed him in his sleep because she suspected him, and the reason why he doesn’t get the treating emilia does, is because she wants to be the next queen, no shit she’s going to get way more shit.
And i like how you completely ignore the mental trauma this guy goes through, the deaths are shown for you to experience the gravity of the situation, to understand how hard it is, but you still completely ignore it, and act like you would know what to do.
And you talk like you know what’s going to happen, when you clearly barely payed attention in the first season.
About subaru’s devolepment. i kinda agree, he still doesn’t change, but he eventually stops letting his emotions control him and actually thinks logically, only to be overwhelmed again and repeats the cycle of death.
The one thing i can agree with most is that Rem is undoubtedly the undisputed best girl of the show.
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You explain the reason why I felt irritated by Subaru. It the fact that he doesn’t try to make it easier for himself is very frustrating.
If you ever watch season 2 I would love your opinion on it. For me I like the build up and suburu realized that he can’t do anything without help but I got really irritated at beatrice scene and I don’t know why. I hope you could put insight on it.
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After watching season 2 I’m actually worried I might have the opposite problem, Subaru has almost developed too much, I enjoy watching him struggle, but he’s becoming a much more mentally healthy person, even if he’s still a dumbass, I’m a little worried that he’ll be solving things too easily after season 2, I’m hoping the writers can still challenge him after this without ignoring the development he’s had.
Ill throw a couple things out there though
1. Subaru isn’t a competent fighter and hasn’t had time to develop those skills, even if he wanted to.
2. You make the claim that a competent person would use trial and error with “return by death” the first problem is Subaru is a dumbass, but even if he wasn’t that’s a confusing scary situation to find yourself in.
Fact is competent people don’t always walk away from near death experiences the same person they were before, PTSD changes you, and it’s certainly affecting Subaru.
In Re:Zero return by death isn’t a tool for the character to use, its a tool for the writer to use to introduce trauma for the character, If Subaru were out there figuring things out right away and being systematic with his use of return by death I don’t think the show would be near as interesting. The show is more interesting as a character study of this guys many many flaws.
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Complete agreement.
Subaru is the ultimate example of male wish fulfillment as reality; being granted access and success even when he fails utterly and lack any capability, displaying no growth even that could remotely be considered the rational result of any logical introspection. He is the quintessential Peter; he never truly has to pay for any of his failures, everyone else does. His power renders any payment he might have paid a slap on the wrist. The competent people who stand in his way are eventually shredded by the sheer and utter application of deus ex machina, nothing more.
Some people argue emotional trauma and his maturation/mental health recovery as a facet of his overall character development. The only thing the character actually managed to do is rationalize his failures in utterly utilitarian fashion. It all worked out in the end, so he must have been right. And everyone lives happily ever after. With the exception of his gaslit pseudo harem who are stuck with him and had to suffer the abuses of his company.
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Reblogged this on İlgi Çeken Filmler and commented:
This was truly the best Re0 I have read in my entire life. I truly do not understand why everyone goes crazy for this edgy “masterpiece”. I am really grateful you wrote this. I was sick of people calling this original, when this was literally a copy of Sword Art Online + KonoSuba. Thank you again and have a good day.
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You think Subaru is a dumbass for not abusing his Return By Death? Get what you want, and you have Ayamatsu IF, Kasaneru IF, and Oboreru IF.
Also, you seem to be in the illusion that Natsuki Subaru gets along with others paradoxical to his supposedly non-existent social skills. You’re looking at this in the wrong way; he imitates his father’s popular personality and does everything to be the center of attention in order to avoid the scenario where people abandon him (due to emotional trauma).
In a way, this works in Od Laguna since the social norms there are generally accepting towards oddballs like Natsuki Subaru. But you seem to forget that multiple characters in the story who pointed out that Subaru is weird, and an enigma. (Puck, Emilia, Felt, Ram, Julius, Crusch etc.) And the fact that he mostly interacted with oddballs and special characters early in the series (Beast of the End, Satella’s Image, 400-year-old magician and apprentice of the Witch of Greed, the last Onis, the Sword Demon, the Blue, Reinhard (if you know his backstory), the Greatest Knight, Duchess Karsten, Aldebaran (read Arc 5 and Arc 7, also Priscilla Side Stories))
In his original world, that doesn’t work at all. On Subaru’s first day in High School, he crossdressed as Natsumi Schwarz and despite his best efforts being the center of attention, people started to avoid and ignore him due to his eldritch personality.
There’s also the fact that he’s in another world as a average person FROM his world.
Yes, exactly. Note that Petra is significantly stronger than Subaru despite being a child, while Rem can carry heavy barrels with barely any effort at all. Also put it into account that Natsuki Subaru has an extremely weak gate, a genetical composition inferior to the populace of Od Laguna, an extremely high spiritual affinity hindered by his physical prowess, and is a human.
There’s also the problem of you stating that he’s trying brand new paths instead of navigating old paths and trying new ways. Ok, sure; please tell me how can he perfectly imitate everything he said, every action he did and every single reaction from the people he interacts with? Remember the Butterfly Effect?
Also, Subaru isn’t stupid. He has great deductive ability that he uses with the information he got from RBD (despite the fact that he does everything in order not to die due to the traumatic effects of death).
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I couldn’t agree more with this post. Overall, i enjoyed the anime alot because of well-developed characters …
EXCEPT THE MAIN CHARACTER. Providing me frustration beyond measurement. How can anyone fuck up this much, go on a 5minute rant about how much of fuck up he is, to only carry on being a weak, spineless, screaming fuck up. I must say the character i enjoyed seeing the most on screen would have to be Rem. Yet still, the main character relies on everyone else to do the job, or fill in the gaps he cannot fill, which is pretty much everything. He will have to go down as the worst main character in anime i have ever seen. I’ve seen other posts on reddit, defending him by saying that he’s only human … not even humans are this much of useless sack of shit.
I thought he main character from Tokyo Revengers was useless, but FUUUUUCKING HELL IF SUBARU EXISTED IRL I THINK I’D FUCKING KILL HIM TOO.
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I have only watched the first season, I think I will be watching the second Season till the end, though I’m not enjoying the show as much as I have enjoyed the first episodes.
As a character Subaro startet to anoy me, the points that he is an total asswipe, unable to learn or to come up with a good plan after doing basic research were mentioned before.
I’m totaly annoyed with him because of the basic logic, why didnt he lie that he have visions an can forsee the future? That would be possible an fit to his “ability”.
Why didnt he study or learn more about the wolrd he strandet on? I know it was mentioned in the light novel, but not everbody will read this.
Why not using poisons for smoother painless death expirience in order to use the death ability too the fulest? Dont give me the excuse “he hast the PTSD”, he has an IQ of an unbaked bred that was tossed in the water, that bread were eaten by fish and then the fish died of utter stupidty they’ve got from eating this bread.
I’m not expecting some Arsene Lupin level of cleverness, but his inability to use his actual brain, after bragging about that he is an awsome player, ist just mindblowingly stupid.
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Let me ask you a question.
Where will he get the poison to kill himself ?
Why don’t he use the poison, there a reason for subaru to not abuse return by death
He not powerful because it impossible for a shut in to fight a man who have train the way of the sword for several of year (knight )
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I started binge watching this show out of boredom…I had to call a quits after episode 9 of the first season. Subaru was just too insufferable to endure. You make some very interesting and accurate points. I enjoy isekai anime, but this one is definitely on the worst side of the spectrum.
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This blog post is refreshing and much appreciated. Thank you for capturing the pitfalls of this show in a digestable manner, blog author!
I watched this whole show too. It is sentimental trash; delicious like reality TV. I liked the character development of Beatrice, Puck, and the villains. The animation and art was enjoyable until it started to go downhill in later episodes.
Stupid people fall for stupid characters. The view that Subaru–an idiotic, lazy, arrogant, and obscenely perverted character–is somehow likeable as a protagonist… Just irritates me. I think it’s an indicator of a young (likely male) viewer, belonging to a generation of simps who possess underdeveloped critical thinking skills and an abundance of entitlement.
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As someone who has gone through a rollercoaster of opinions concearning re-zero over the past year since I first watched the show, I’m gonna have to respectfully disagree with this post.
-Subaru is mentally weak, but that is something that, over the six arcs that i have watched/read he slowly overcomes, just because the surface of his personality never changes, doesnt mean he doesnt grow or get stronger as a character over the course of the story. Also, im confused where the complaint that Subaru is dumb comes from, it is really emphasized throughout the show that he does use info from past loops to help him figure out whats going on and to enlist the assistance of those around him, the ways he solves the overarching issues in all arcs ive witnessed so far seem pretty smart and well thought out, even if he doesnt die and suffer repeatedly to methodically come up with his plans.
-Subaru is physically weak, but that’s something he can’t change, the allies and villains he is surrounded by are all superhuman because of abilities they were born with. If you were looking for an epic, rags-to-litteraly-fucking-god isekai story, re-zero isnt failing to fufill your glow up fantasy because it isnt a good show, its just aiming for a different goal.
-I was kind of confused about your complaint about Subaru being an outsider, it just seemed like a nitpick over some character desighn decisions that are on the same level as “this cartoon character wears the same clothes every day so the writers are being unrealistic”, Subaru wears weird clothes and acts strange, but, like people would if someone who acted strange showed up in their capital city, most characters (main and background) just like, assume he came from some weird remote village or something. I dont get how this is a genuine complaint about Subaru as a character, other than an annoyance that more time isnt put into Subaru getting accustomed to the world and the other characters getting use to his shenanagins.
-Subaru does grow as a charcter, but not by aknowledging his flaws and changing all of them to complety re-create himself, instead, by leaning on the poeple around him and becoming a more likeable and dependable person as he retains his personality from the beggining of the show. That’s the point of re-zero, and i think not realizing that, and looking at the show through that perspective, makes your criticisms a little bad faith. I agree, it isn’t a very good show if it was supposed to be about a socially akward and physically and mentally weak outsider in a weird fantasy world working to become the “greatest hero of all the realms”, but that isnt what re-zero is, and that cant be the lense through which you critisize the show, because you are misunderstanding its purpose and exigency.
There are things i dont like about this show and the arcs of the web novel ive read that havent been adapted yet, but i think criticizing Subaru as a character and acting like the author doesnt understand what they are doing and intentionally writing him the way he is misses the point of the show entirely. I understand if you dislike the show, but i think seeing it through a proper lense might help you appreciate what its trying to acheive a little more.
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