DISCLAIMER: I do not hate Re:Zero in any way or think badly about people who like it. I definitely see the appeal of the show and I get why people love it as much as they do. I did as well for a long time and have been part of the hype for over 15 episodes. Sadly the show didn't appeal to me and I found flaws in it that might bother me more than it does with people who love the show. I definitely enjoy the show and in no way was this post intended to look down on the show or its fans, and is purely a method to voice my own opinion.

Hey /r/Anime, It's been a week now since Re:Zero has finished airing and it has been quite the ride. It has rose to the top 40 of MyAnimeList during its airing and is averaging a score of almost 8.90 points on the site. Clearly, Anime watchers absolutely love this show, and on daily basis we see it praised.

But I'd like to address a different side of the discussion. I have some minor and some major problems with the show overall, that I believe wouldn't hurt to be addressed so we can talk about them, and maybe you guys can try to change my mind on them in the end.

Major Points

• The Plot Progression

I'll start it off with a big one by saying that Re:Zero disappointed me in the direction the story was going. At the start it seemed to be a much different type of story than it was in the end. The first half of the story made me believe that I should have expected a story about Subaru fighting to have Emilia win the royal election while getting to know the other residents of the Roswaal mansion. But sadly near the second half we got to see less and less of Roswaal, Beako and the mansion, and started to drift further away from the royal selection up to the point where the story got to another "protagonist vs antagonist" type of story. Watching an episode from the first half and from the second half next to each other really shows what an unexpected direction the plot went through.

In episode 8 Subaru is figuring out what his curse is about, reliving the same time loop for the 4th(?) time and trying to make it further through the week, a while later in episode 12 we see Felt and the other royal candidates be introduced and the royal selection seeming to begin, but not even another 4 episodes later they're fighting a cult. The plot progression seems to be all over the place; The royal selection is introduced only to never be relevant again over the next 12 episodes, Felt's reappearance is blown up as this huge important thing yet it never seems to be relevant in the rest of the series and doesn't have any impact on the plot at all and Priscilla is never to be seen or mentioned in the rest of the Anime ever again.

I know the series is cut in arcs, but the show introduces us to characters, plot points and developments without ever making them relevant again in the series. This is a major problem for me since after episode 25 we still know about as much about the royal selection as we did in episode 12. The series seems to jump from one arc to another with little to no relation to the previous one. Things happen without any real purpose, and almost seem unrelated to one another, like I stated in the previous paragraph. Re:Zero doesn't feel like one story divided into arcs, it feels like one setting divided into multiple stories, almost like a show like Death Parade or the Monogatari Series. Sure the witch's cult, royal selection, white whale and insignia hunt have a relation to each other, but they don't all serve one big story. The Insignia Hunt arc the show starts off with introduces us apart from Emilia also to Rom, Felt and Elsa, who seem to play a big role in that arc and almost seem like they could be part of the main cast at that point. However the arc coming after that (the roswaal mansion mabeast arc) suddenly features a whole other main cast, a whole other type of story and a whole other setting. Suddenly we move from Felt and Elsa in the slums to Beako, Rem, Ram and Roswaal in a mansion, which has little to no relationship to the previous arc other than Emilia is involved in both situations. The next arc is the royal selection which again introduces us to new characters, that again seem to be about a whole different thing than the previous arcs, and again half of them don't have a purpose for the rest of the series. Queue to the witch cult hunt and the White Whale arc and suddenly the royal selection seems completely ignored, and it becomes a hero vs villain story about fighting an evil force we didn't even hear of for the first 15 episodes of the show.

Comparing that first arc with where we were near the end of the series and you'll find that the royal selection barely serves any purpose anymore, Rom is nowhere to be seen for the last 10 episodes, Ram, Beako and Rom are completely gone and aren't even mentioned anymore, the antagonist turned from Elsa to Betelgeuse, who both seem to be pretty much unrelated to each other and suddenly we've gone from a story about a royal selection between royal candidates for the throne to a story about Subaru building a small army in order to wipe out an evil cult, which are almost as unrelated to each other as they seem from that description.

• The lack of explanation

There has been a lot of mystery over the course of Re:Zero.

Who is the Witch? Why is Subaru even in this world? Why did Emilia tell Subaru her name was "Satella" at first? Why is Felt eligible for the royal selection? What is the relationship between Emilia and Roswaal? Why can Subaru return by death? What is Puck?.

There's so much we don't know that, which makes the ending of the series feel like yet another "Read the source material" kind of ending, which especially for a show like Re:Zero doesn't feel satisfying at all. It's sad to know so little about what is going on after 25 episodes, and the story introduces more mysteries than it explains over the course of those episodes. Then there's also the before mentioned part where the royal selection is introduced like it's one of the most important aspects of the story, yet it doesn't bare any relevance to the part that was adapted in the Anime. If Re:Zero is not getting a second season where we get to know more about the world and the royal selection I can't say I'm satisfied with this show in the end.

minor points

Now that I've addressed the more major flaws I see in the show, I'll go over some of the minor issues that Re:Zero has in my eyes.

• Romance

Re:Zero does have some romance in the form of a love triangle between Subaru and Rem and Emilia. It almost seems like Re:Zero is deliberately trying to make this a very unsatisfying triangle, since it's a more of a "unrequited love triangle" than actual love.

I think it's fine the way the romance between Subaru and Emilia is handles actually. I like how Subaru fell head-over-heels for Emilia yet she needs some time and thought to decide on anything. It feels genuine on both sides and I think the relationship between them is played out quite well.

But the part that makes it all so unsatisfying is how Rem's feelings are being used. I think it's a logical step for Rem to develop feelings for Subaru, and I think it's a good addition to the plot, but it's not done in a good way if you ask me. Rem showed compassion, care, love and dedication towards Subaru and a big part of the audience quickly started rooting for the character. The show was written that way, it's clear the writer wanted Rem to be supported as a love interest, and seemed to write more Rem x Subaru moments than Emilia x Subaru moments. This made me believe that Rem had a solid chance and that Subaru might be having some feelings for her as well. There was a touching confession scene with some good dialogue from Rem, but the response was one of the most unsatisfying moments of the series for me. They built this relationship between them up so solidly and then just shattered it in that scene. I'm not saying Subaru made the wrong choice, I'm saying the writers made the wrong choice by building up a romance between them only to shatter it later on.

In addition to that, as was mentioned in Gigguk's video, the show is set up to almost be a battle of romance between Rem and Emilia, but it feels like an unfair fight. It's a given Rem would be best girl when she gets double the screentime Emilia gets, and about 90% of romance moments. The show wants you to think Rem is best girl, and then proceeds to make another girl win, almost like the writers want you to be unsatisfied.

• Betelgeuse

It's common in Anime that there are 3 important main roles to fill: The Main Character, The Love Interest/Sidekick and the Antagonist. In Re:Zero that's Subaru, Emilia and Betelgeuse respectively. I believe that filling these roles with solid personalities plays a big part in the quality of the series. It's part of why Fullmetal Alchemist is great and SAO mediocre. Re:Zero fills two of these three roles quite well. Subaru and Emilia are interesting characters with shining personalities and relationships that I think are above average at least. But Betelgeuse in my opinion sadly has to be one of the most shallow antagonists in a series I've ever seen. He lacks any real personality and seems to be written for one purpose only: To be as insane and freaky as they could have possibly made him. The way he has these bloody giant eyes, the way he bites hit fingers up to the point of making himself bleed, the way he twists his body in inhuman positions and the way he is obsessed with the witch all points to just ridiculous, over the top insanity. He's made to be a threat not in an intimidating way but in a terrifying, almost horror way. We don't know anything about him other than that he does some insane, crazy shit for the witch. He has no personality, emotion or humanity left in him and is more of an entity added to the story to add in a threat than that he's a character with thought processes and emotions.

• "Suffaru"

Re:Zero can be a pretty dark and intense show when it wants to be. And it definitely wants to be one. I feel like "Deconstruction of its genre" was what the writer was going for, and it almost seems like it wants to be the next Madoka Magica. But there's a problem I have with the dark aspect of the show that Madoka doesn't have: It feels forced.

Subaru leads a pretty dreadful life. First he's killed trying to help a girl he just met, then he finds out that he can "return by death", only to be killed over and over again in pretty much the same way. Then when he's finally succesful he gets cursed to an imminent death (which again kills him over and over), gets killed twice over by Rem, and every time he dies he loses all progress he made with the people he meets. Following that he gets hunted by an evil cult (which kills him again and again), everyone forgets his best buddy Rem, gets brutally beaten in a sword match (literally), finds his beloved mansion-members killed by the cult (twice), and eventually dies again himself.

Now my question is: Why did this all happen? The show gives it a cause of the suffering (The curse was because of the mabeast, the mansion members die because of the cult, rem gets forgotten by the white whale's fog etc.) but it doesn't give us a reason. Why do mabeasts even exist in the universe and why did Subaru get cursed? Why does the witch's cult kill all Subaru's friends? Why does the white whale's fog erase Rem's existence? These things all serve very little purpose to the plot in the end. At the end of episode 25 Rem is still existent, all his friends are still alive, the curse is lifted, and all the suffering Subaru went through in the end have no impact on the plot, and very little lasting impact on Subaru as a character. If the suffering doesn't happen for plot reason or for character developement reasons, it doesn't really have a purpose. Why does Subaru suffer for? What does it give him in the end?

In the end, the suffering of Subaru doesn't lead to anything in the world of Re:Zero. It doesn't exist for the plot or story, it exists for the audience. In Madoka Magica, the darkness comes from the actions, feelings and emotions of the characters. It makes sense in a way how Madoka Magica In contradiction to that, in Re:Zero the suffering has no value in the end and merely existed to shock the audience and make the show dark and edgy. The suffering in Re:Zero isn't written in a way that gives Drama and emotion, and more in a thriller, almost Horror way. It tries to be shocking and deconstructing its genre by making Subaru suffer through all these situations. The suffering isn't part of the plot or character, it's more used as a way of entertainment, and lacks any purpose.

• The Ending

The ending, much like the romance in Re:Zero, was unsatisfying and disappointing. There was little to no buildup and the show felt like it ended very abruptly. There was no epilogue to speak of and the ending in all felt very unmemorable to me for a series filled with such suspense and mystery.

Conclusion

For me, Re:Zero started off on an amazing note. For the first half it was at a 9 score on my list. However near the second half the show started to fall apart. It left plot points unattended, changed direction in the story and started showing more and more flaws. Ultimately, the show didn't amount what I expected it to be and ended up just in the bottom half of my list with a score of 6.5/10, despite starting off at a 9.

Score Distribution

• Plot/Story : 6.0/10

• Art and Animation: 7.5/10

• Characters: 6.5/10

• Music: 6.5/10

• Overall Experience: 6.5/10

tl;dr: Re:Zero started off great, but near the second half it showed some flaws in its story and style. It all didn't come together as well I had hoped and a lot of plot points were left open. Some characters and aspects seemed to be in the show without having any real purpose and some aspects of the show felt unnecessary or pointless. The show has its flaws but overall isn't a bad show. I liked it but it has flaws that cannot be overlooked. 6.5/10

EDIT: This post looked a lot less "wall of text"-y in Wordpad.

EDIT 2: Guys, like I said in the disclaimer, this post isn't a hate post, and I don't mean to demean Re:Zero in any way. There's no need to get those downvotes in here.