(Seras): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. I’m Seras.
(Nitsuj): And I’m Nitsuj. Welcome to the second week of Aniween as we continue our look at Re:Zero.
(Seras): Last time, Subaru found himself in a dire situation. The witches all want a piece of his pie, an assassination attempt at the mansion, Roswaal and Betty are slaves to the Witch of Greed, Emilia keeps failing the trial at the Sanctuary in order to free everyone, and if the trial isn’t completed within four days the Great Rabbit will come to devour everyone.
(Nitsuj): It’s a situation where there’s so much to balance and account for that Subaru can’t do it alone. So how will he handle it? Let’s find out. This Re:Zero S2 Part 2.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Seras): The opening for the second half is “Long Shot” by Maeshima Mayu. Funny enough, they didn’t start playing this opening until halfway through the season and for the most part the song is good. Just like the title success this is a long shot. Not only for Subaru but for Emilia as well. They both have their battles to face which seem impossible to beat but they have to do it no matter what. Also props for singing the song entirely in English.
(Nitsuj): The ending is “Believe in You” sung by Nonoc. A much better song than the first ending in my opinion. Once again it’s sung beautifully, it matches up with the visuals, and does a good job telling the story of our characters and their inner struggles. It’s like the ending is telling us that everything is going to work out some way.
Episodes 14-17
(Seras): So a lot happens in the first episode of the second half. First off, Subaru tells Otto everything that’s going on and he agrees to help him (whether or not he believes Subaru is a different story). Subaru then goes to see Roswaal where he makes he bet with him. Subaru intends to do a prefect run-through and save everyone and when he does he wants Roswaal to really lend a helping hand in supporting Emilia. Roswaal accepts the bet believing that Subaru will fail and come one step closer to becoming like him (scene here: https://youtu.be/m2XJU4_mbxs). Subaru goes to meet Ryuzu where we find out there are 3 other versions of her running around. The one Subaru needs to be wary of is the one named Shima who was removed from her duties due to an incident in the past involving her. However, she does seem to have a friendship with Garfiel. Subaru goes to see Emilia where he asks her what she saw in her trial (Nitsuj: Finally! This should have been asked many runs ago) where she says she can’t really make out what she saw other than the fact that it was painful. We do learn that in the past she was frozen for many years before finally being released by Puck. Emilia and Puck stayed in the forest waiting for her family to become unfrozen but it never happened. Roswaal eventually came to the forest where he said he could free them if Emilia became the next ruler (well that’s not suspicious at all). Emilia falls asleep and Subaru manages to contact Puck where he knows what’s holding Emilia back. When Emilia wakes back up she sees Puck where he says he’s breaking their contract (Nitsuj: It’s not you, it’s me). By breaking their contract, the memories that Emilia forgot will be restored and she’ll remember everything from her past (both the good and the bad. Preferably the bad mostly. Scene here: https://youtu.be/6Oy1gMPbvPg). She falls unconscious where she dreams about her past which featured a woman named Fortuna who served as her caretaker and was comforting the young Emilia who was lied to by everyone in the forest. She wakes up calling her a liar along with Puck and Subaru (scene here: https://youtu.be/GeX5zxSiTWU). When morning comes Emilia has gone missing and everyone searches for her with no such luck except Subaru who finds her in the Sanctuary and decides to talk to her.
Episode 15 starts by giving us a good backstory into Otto. We find out that he has the ability to talk to animals (Nitsuj: Move over Eliza. This is the real animal whisperer). He kept this power hidden from others until one day he crossed a nobleman’s daughter who he found out was messing around with multiple men and Otto called her out on it (she’s a bitch). Otto was chased out of his town and started making his living as a traveling merchant. Returning to the present, we see Otto buy Subaru some time with Emilia by taking on Garfiel and keeping him distracted with Ram also assisting. We move away from that fight and go to Subaru and Emilia where we actually see for the first time they legitimately argue with each other as Emilia believes nobody expects anything from her which is why they never get upset with her. Subaru tells Emilia he loves her (and even borrows the Rem speech from season 1. (Nitsuj): Fuck him~), but she doesn’t believe him because he broke his promise in the past (Nitsuj: Man, she really holds a grudge). Subaru keeps reassuring her no matter what happens he will continue to love her. He kisses her which she accepts and this seems to have worked (scene here: https://youtu.be/4PDuZQtv6EM, my condolences to all the Rem shippers out there). After walking out of the graveyard they’re greeted by a bloody and pissed-off Garfiel.
In episode 16 Garfiel plans to destroy the Sanctuary and keep everyone closed off from the world (Nitsuj: You do that and we’ll all be eaten by rabbits). We find out that Garfiel’s mom didn’t abandon him or Frederica. While it’s true she left them behind, she was killed by a landslide. This caused Garfiel to be afraid of the outside world so to speak. He would have been okay with his mom leaving him in order to find happiness (even if the end result would have been him hating her), but the fact that she died leaves him with nothing (it’s like what was point of her leaving them if she was going to die?). Garfiel refuses to let anyone leave and this results in a fight between him and Subaru where against all odds he wins (Nitsuj: Even though he had a little outside assistance. Scene here: https://youtu.be/jKFgOVr4eAA). Once Garfiel wakes back up and in the lap of Ram, she tells him to stop being a baby and go face the trials all while moving forward with his life. Garfiel goes to take the trials where he faces his past where he remembers the truth to why his mom left. She didn’t leave because she hated him, she left because she was looking for her husband. In the end, she loved Garfiel and he accepts that. He reemerges feeling good and thanking Subaru for helping him move on. Emilia heads in to take on the second trial where she comes face to face with Echidna.
At the start of episode 17 we see Echidna is not too thrilled to see Emilia as she doesn’t like her (Nitsuj: Wow, even she doesn’t ship Subaru with Emilia. Scene here: https://youtu.be/CGtQRL-r0Tc). Before beginning her trial, Emilia explores her memories where we see as a child she was taken care of by Fortuna the sister of Emilia’s father. We also see a young Betelguese aka Chris who would come to the village to deliver food, clothing, and books for the elves (and he’s not crazy. That makes him scarier in my opinion). Whenever Betelguese came to the village, Fortuna would always keep Emilia inside until she managed to sneak out of the house with the help of lesser spirits (scene here: https://youtu.be/5ZPNfmjSzeU, so she was a mischievous little girl). There’s also this seal which is a giant door in the middle of the forest that the elves watch over. Once Emilia comes face to face with Betelguese, Fortuna allows her to stop hiding whenever he shows up and the two become good friends (scenes here: https://youtu.be/dge0z4HWGgA and https://youtu.be/xb5d4teAW4E). The days were good until one day the three came face to face with Regulus.
Episodes 18-21
(Nitsuj): We take a break from Emilia’s past and focus on Ryuzu’s past. We see how she was in the service of Echidna and met Beatrice (who treated Ryuzu like a nagging mother-in-law treats her daughter-in-law. Scene here: https://youtu.be/f3HVcAfahNs) as well as a young Roswaal (Seras: How young are we talking? (Nitsuj): Well he’s not in his clown make-up phase yet). Despite Beatrice’s tsundere personality, the two became friends. Everything was going well until the Sanctuary collapsed revealing it’s true purpose. We cut away from that conversation (Seras: Oh~ you tease, I want to know what happened) and return to Emilia’s story where all hell has broken loose. Along with Regulus being there, Pandora is there as well. Pandora is the witch of vain and leader of the Witch’s Cult who desires destruction. She’s here to open up the seal that the elves have been guarding this whole time and apparently Emilia is the key to opening it (which is why it makes total sense to have her live in the same vicinity as the seal you want her to avoid). Betelguese fights against them injecting himself with the witch factor of sloth thus turning him into the bishop of sloth despite it being incompatible with his genes (scene here: https://youtu.be/Hb9jjndFQuU). He tries to fight off Regulus but his attacks really don’t do much to harm him. After Fortuna gets Emilia to another villager, she runs back to save Betelguese because she loves him (Seras: Making it all the more sad that he’s going to go insane on us down the line). Pandora gets moved by their love and sends Regulus away so that she can talk to them (scene here: https://youtu.be/1Lu2KzzYMIE). Back with Emilia, the Black Serpent arrives and attacks the villager forcing her to go alone (this is just a day full of mishaps and terrible events happening all at once). Emilia makes herself believe that if she breaks the seal then she can save everyone, so with the help of the spirits she arrives at the seal where Pandora is waiting for her.
Dark times in episode 19. It starts with Pandora promising to leave the forest if Emilia opens the seal which she has the power to do because she’s the daughter of a witch. Emilia manages to materialize the key to the seal, but before she can open it Fortuna arrives and kills Pandora only for her to come back to life (Seras: This bitch has more lives than a homunculus from FMA). Eventually, Betelguese comes in where he accidently kills Fortuna which causes his mind to break and he becomes the insane man we all know and love today (scene here: https://youtu.be/lvdJKpwco_k). Filled with rage at what Pandora did, Emilia tries to kill her and in her rage she freezes herself, the forest, and everyone else in eternal ice (scene here: https://youtu.be/mXktIMEfzF0). Before Emilia gets frozen in ice, Pandora erases Emilia’s memories of her and vows to meet her again one day. We’re now at the end of Emilia’s trial where she now has to decide if she wants to accept her past self and the mistakes she made which led to the imprisonment of everyone she cared so much about. Emilia accepts her past self, saying that even though she couldn’t save Fortuna she still has time to save everyone else (easier said than done. The forest has been contaminated by the Black Serpent who knows what’ll happen to them). Emilia passes pissing off Echidna (scene here: https://youtu.be/wP1sV_bjoY8. (Seras): *Chuckles* She hates her. (Nitsuj): Well she does have Subaru’s affection). Near the end of the episode, Subaru, Garfiel, and Otto visit Roswaal (back in clown makeup) where they want Roswaal to surrender as they know the reason why the Sanctuary was created.
At the start of episode 20 we see a young Roswaal who had a serious illness that involved his body storing up mana and not releasing it (sort of like a man trying to hold in a fart and waiting to be alone to release it. (Seras): Men are disgusting). It was in his suffering that he met Echidna and he became infatuated with her. She helped him and he became her loyal student where he became the head of his family. Along with Betty and Ryuzu they lived under the watchful eye of Echidna totally devoted to her. All of them were working on the Sanctuary until they were attacked by Hector, the Devil of Melancholy. Hector almost kills Roswaal and in order to protect the Sanctuary, Ryuzu agrees to become the power source for the barrier thus protecting everyone (scene here: https://youtu.be/WlyTcscTTc8). After that story, Roswaal says this changes nothing as he still clings to the past and believes that people are nothing more than weak and fragile beings while Subaru believes they’re strong and will grow over time.
Nothing much happens in episode 21 except a lot of talking and standing (I’m just going to assume the animators were taking a break. (Seras): God knows they deserve it). Subaru, Otto and Garfiel head back to mansion to stop the slaughter while Ram stays behind to confront and save Roswaal from his witch delusion and stop him from bringing the Great Rabbit to the Sanctuary. We see she won’t be fighting alone as Puck as there to fight by her side (scene here: https://youtu.be/-uLPJDpsgN0, well that was a surprise). Back at the mansion our trio of morons arrive where Garfiel gets ready to fight Elsa alone while Frederica goes to get Rem and escape (scene here: https://youtu.be/xvK_Mt0DCEs).
Episodes 22-25
Episode 22 goes by very quickly (Seras: Despite being an extra 5 minutes long). We see the fighting at the mansion where Garfiel and Frederica take on the assassins while Subaru, Otto, and Natsuki come face to face with a mabeast that’s ready to kill. Back at the Sanctuary, Emilia overcomes the second trial which was learning to let go of what she would have loved to have which is seeing Fortuna and Betelguese alive and becoming a couple (well they do look cute together). With the second trial completed, Emilia gets ready for the final trial (scene here: https://youtu.be/vP-nRea6PSY).
The intensity continues in episode 23. Emilia completes the third trial with ease which was facing the future. She soon finds herself in the Microsoft desktop background where she meets Minerva because Echidna didn’t want to deal with her anymore (I really am curious about the history between those two). Minerva explains that Emilia passed the final trial and goes through a door where she finds the body of Echinda (Seras: Or someone else) who has been generating the barrier keeping everyone within the Sanctuary. Emilia stops the barrier and goes to tell everyone the good news where it’s snowing (oh shit not again). Back at the mansion, Subaru and the others manage to defeat the mabeast with oil and fire (Seras: Burn baby burn) where the fire starts to spread throughout the mansion (oh~, Roswaal is not going to like this. (Seras): Meh, he deserved it. He’s been kind of an asshole this season). Subaru braves the fire and goes to find Betty. Meanwhile, Garfiel and Elsa continue their fight where we see Elsa has the power to heal herself from injuries (she’s a wolverine. (Seras): Or a vampire. (Nitsuj): Yeah, a vampire does seem more logical in this world). The two continue their fight where it seems like Garfiel beat her after crushing her with the dead carcass of a mabeast (scene here: https://youtu.be/At0hRSgaXhw, she better be dead from that). The episode ends with the fight between Ram, Puck and Roswaal where we find out that it was Roswaal who attacked Ram’s clan and killed her people. Yet despite this, Ram still loves him (Seras: The girl clearly has Stockholm syndrome. (Nitsuj): Reminds me of someone else I know) which Roswaal doesn’t believe. After a good diversion, Ram manages to achieve her goal and get a hold of Roswaal’s book where she burns it to end the episode on a high note (scene here: https://youtu.be/5HUrpvQ7qp4).
In the first half of episode 24 Emilia gathers everyone at the graveyard to escape the snowstorm (Seras: As well as you know, protect them from the march of the demonic hares). She even saves Roswaal who accepts his defeat (somewhat, he’s still lost and confused on what he should do. Nothing a good smack won’t fix) and is keeping Ram alive. The rabbits finally arrive (Seras: And they’re hungry like the wolf~) where Emilia fights a few of them off and makes a stand at the graveyard. In the second half, Subaru searches for Betty hoping to save her. He manages to find her where once again she rejects him but finds her again and finally gets her to trust and leave with him (scene here: https://youtu.be/vrdauqSfaEw). They escape the burning mansion and fly all the way to the Sanctuary to defeat the rabbits (time to go Doom Eternal on these bastards).
In the final episode everything ends on a happy note (Seras: Aside from Rem still in a coma, I have to agree. (Nitsuj): One problem at a time. One problem at a time). Subaru and Betty manage to defeat the Great Rabbit by sending it to another dimension where it can never escape (scene here: https://youtu.be/qvpJ3MrKI4g). After this, everyone gets a free shot at Roswaal for the hell he put them through and he promises never to betray them ever again. He even goes as far as putting a seal on his body where if he so much as ever betrays them or puts their life in any serious danger, the seal will burn him alive (Seras: And I will record it so that I can re-watch it while sipping the finest of wines and eating the tastiest of meats you can think of). Later on, Subaru becomes the official knight of Emilia (gets the whole knighting ceremony and everything. Scene here: https://youtu.be/d4REGe19hsQ) and it ends with them knowing that things are going to get harder from here on out, but they promise to help each other out from here on out. We also get this scene which shows just how innocent and pure Emilia is (scene here: https://youtu.be/mclapSJqiCk).
Final Thoughts
(Nitsuj): And that was the second season of Re:Zero. Let’s break this season down.
(Seras): The first half does a good job setting up the events that are to come in the season as well as introduce the major threats Subaru has to face. The anime does a good job building up these threats and making them seem almost impossible to overcome. Every walkthrough reveals a new threat that Subaru has to account for as well as reveal information about the new characters and the secrets they’re hiding. The first half also does a good job exploring and developing Subaru’s character as we see his past and the mental struggles he went through back in our world and get some form of closure on them. It was also cool to see all the witches and just how different and crazy they are from each other and how Subaru really can’t trust any of them completely. This part of the anime also gives us some of the cruelest deaths Subaru has to endure as well as some dark moments such as Emilia losing her mind and him getting a glimpse of what became of the worlds after he died. Which I wanted to see more of and I hope they revisit this in the future.
(Nitsuj): In the second half we get to focus on Emilia and see her past and what she lost. We get the full story of the Sanctuary, Roswaal, and Betty which was all interesting stuff and really does add to their characters as we get an idea of how much they were both suffering. We see Subaru realize that he doesn’t have to do everything by himself and can rely on others to carry the burden with him making him grow as a character as well and even rally new allies to his side. The final episodes of the second half are intense as we see everything the season has been building up to come to a climax and they deliver. We get good fights at Roswaal’s mansion, Ram gives Roswaal some tough love and frees him from his past, and even the defeat of the Great Rabbit was clever and smart. I guess the one complaint I do have with this season is how they put the whole Rem situation on the back burner. It really did seem like this was going to be the main focus of the season only to get swerved and have the whole season focus on the Sanctuary’s story which was great, but still, I think that side of the story could have been handled a little better.
(Seras): The animation is still good. No major improvements there. I do like how this season was uncensored and they didn’t have to edit out some of the more brutal scenes. While not as brutal as the first season, the scenes they do show do make your skin crawl. Seriously, that rabbit scene is haunting. I think I may have just found a new favorite animal.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): My final score for this season is an 8.5/10.
(Seras): I’m also going to give it an 8.5/10 with a must-watch stamp of approval.
(Nitsuj): While we like the first season more because of its multiple stories and characters, this season is still entertaining to watch. If you liked the first season, you’ll definitely like the second season.
(Seras): There hasn’t been word of a third season yet, but we all know it’s going to come and we look forward to seeing it.
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*Nitsuj gets smacked in the face by Mira’s whip which sends him to the floor*
(Seras): Please join us next week with special guest, Mira.