Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-

Episode 8

So is this series ever again actually going to use a proper closer? Only once – at the end of episode 2 – did it play its closing theme without the action continuing, and in many episodes it hasn't even managed the song. Many series do this from time to time for key episodes, but a TV series doing this consistently is so rare that I am hard-pressed to think of another example (though I am sure there are some; please state them in the response thread if you come up with another good example). It's got to be an extra cost to regularly continue to play the story through the closing credits, though it does seem to help greatly in getting the story to the necessary dramatic cut-off points.

And it's not like the writing has been wasting time, either. Even the series' more light-hearted moments have had purpose, and this episode is the clearest example of that. After being grim for a full episode, Subaru is back to his affable, high-spirited nature – or is he? This time around his energy and high spirits are guided by deliberate action and purpose, except possibly for his interactions with Beatrice and some of his interactions with Puck, as he just can't help himself with those two. Aside from that genuine behavior, his other efforts gradually start to seem forced, and Ram, Rem, and Emilia all start to pick up on that. Subaru is so desperate to win over the sisters and Emilia that he literally drives himself sick doing so, so Emilia has to force him to settle down. When he does, while laying his head in her lap, that's when the tears of frustration that the episode title refers to, and which had been building all episode, finally come.

After last episode I really shouldn't still get surprised by how effective this series can be, but Subaru's crying scene and the run up to it are remarkably well-done, whether judging by light/web novel adaptations or in general. For all that he tries to be a problem-solver, Subaru is still just a (mostly) normal, geeky guy, and the experiences he's had and the situation he's trying to deal with could overwhelm just about anyone. Seeing a series acknowledge that is a welcome touch.

The pacing of the series' revelations and distribution of tidbits of information also continues to be good. We finally get some details on who and/or what the Jealous Witch is, and Subaru uses that to make an interesting supposition about why Emilia at one point claimed to be Satella: since someone who would willingly claim to be her would be deemed crazy, he reasons that Emilia might have been considering using it to disqualify herself out of the whole succession affair. And it would be an effective ploy, given that Satella was said to be a silver-haired half-elf – in other words, exactly what Emilia is. Subaru also learns from Beatrice some important things about curses, such as that physical contact is necessary to initiate them, which leads him to a supposition that many viewers have had: that someone in the village is the shaman responsible for the curse which has befallen him before and (presumably) Rem in the immediately previous loop. To me, that still makes the dog a likely conduit for conveying the curse. So in an attempt to break the pattern a freshly-wary Subaru convinces Rem to go to the village for supplies on the third day rather than the fourth, and this time Ram is coming along, too, so that (in her words) he has a cute girl on each arm. That may well prove to be the key to breaking free of the cycle, and the key to that happening was Ram seeing Subaru having broken down in Emilia's lap. Despite a repeat of the scene where Roswaal asks Ram about Subaru, the tide seems to finally be turning.

The other important element here is the revelation that Subaru does have the mana gate required for a person to be a true magic-user rather than what Emilia is. (Magic-users draw mana internally, while Emilia's type of caster draws it externally.) No one is probably surprised that it turns out to be shadow magic, and my, the creepy effects when Puck both determines it and demonstrates it seem all too familiar, don't they?

In short, new puzzle pieces are sliding into place as character development continues to be emphasized to an unexpectedly high degree. And the series is still doing a fantastic job at it.

Rating: A-

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.