Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-

Episode 4

One thing's for sure after watching episode 4: Subaru's “meta” shtick doesn't take long to get annoying.

That being said, Subaru isn't that easy to hate as a character. He smoothly falls into the Lovable Loser and Charming Geek archetypes, and the verve with which he approaches things and unabashedly speaks his mind have their own appeal. In fact, his repartee with all of the new girls in this episode occasionally even transcends the noxiousness of what he's saying. The way he always asks for awards based on what's on his mind at the time (and never in the dirty manner that might be expected), and how he's not averse to putting in effort and is proud of the injuries that show it can also be endearing. If Emilia does eventually fall for him – and presumably she will – then it won't be a mystery why.

No, the mystery here is why a time loop triggers again with less than a minute left in the episode despite a mostly-innocuous series of events leading up to it and no on-screen evidence of Subaru having died. Things seemed fine as he went to bed, so did someone off him in his sleep? Or can his ability trigger for reasons other than dying? Whatever the case, it does affirm my suspicion from last episode's review: that we are going to see a series of separated loops rather than always looping back to the same point in time. It also proves that a loop of multiple days is possible, since most of a week passes between the beginning of the episode and when he goes to bed before looping. Presumably something is amiss, so the puzzle now is to figure out what out of all of those seemingly innocent events is off.

So let's look at what does transpire. Subaru awakens in the immense mansion of Roswaal L. Mathers, a clownish-looking fellow who's apparently one of the country's pre-eminent wizards in addition to being a Margrave. (Or perhaps he's a Margrave because of his position?) Between two awakenings, he meets the other three girls shown in the opener: the strange little loli librarian Beatrice and the twin maids Rem and Ram. The former is definitely something other than human but seems to adore Puck, while the latter two have the kind of dry, occasionally insulting wit that has become so common in maid characters over the past few years. (I want to say that Matsurika from Maria Holic is the progenitor of this character type, but it may go back farther than that.) We also learn that Lugunica is in a state of official crisis due to the king being missing and no clear successor remaining thanks to an epidemic. Emilia, despite being half-elf, is a candidate to succeed the throne, which answers our question as to why the insignia at the heart of the troubles in the first arc matters so much: it's her key to proving whether or not she's a worthy leader, which would most definitely be something worth killing over. (And it does raise further speculations about why Reinhard reacted to Felt at the end of last episode.) Subaru doesn't want anything big or lewd for his reward in helping out Emilia; he merely wants to pet Puck at his leisure (he has a thing for furry animals, apparently) and a job at the mansion, which he proves to be only sporadically competent at. The only things he seems good for are sewing and being able to find Beatrice, which is normally a difficult task. (Her room randomly links to other doorways in the mansion via a magical portal, but he has an uncanny knack for guessing right on that.) After a few days of work, he arranges what he sees as a date with Emilia – and then that night the loop happens.

Out of all that, only one thing stands out as shady: a conversation Roswaal has with Ram about whether or not Subaru is suited to be a spy. Almost assuredly, the new time loop has something to do with that, but what? Whatever the truth may prove to be, the series is playing its cards well on keeping viewers intrigued, and Subaru's easy conversations with all of the girls don't hurt. It would be nice if the technical merits were a little stronger, but there's still enough intriguing stuff going on here to keep viewers coming back.

Rating: B-

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