Re:Zero (Starting Life in Another World): Season 1/ Episode 7 “Natsuki Subaru Restart” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

Dying over and over again isn’t the sole thing which haunts Subaru. What also haunts him are the memories he obtained before dying which are his alone. Making it where each death in itself isn’t painful due to his own dying, but the relationships lost in the process. Leading to the question of, how much longer can he keep doing this? Especially as it gets harder to cope.

Trigger Warning(s):
Blood And Limb Being Cut Off

Main Plot (with Commentary)

Topic 1: The Suspicious One (Rem and Subaru)

It is slightly hard to pin down one exact reason as to why Rem attacks Subaru. On one side you could say it is because she thinks he may be a threat to Emilia and her ascending to the throne; on the other hand, it could be because he smells like the fabled witch we, assuming, have yet to see; then it could be because him growing close to the twins is a red flag since all their lives they only had each other and it seemed to be them against the world. Either way you slice it though, Subaru finds himself once more dying.

Topic 2: Trust No One (Subaru & Beatrice)

You know what’s the worse part about dying for Subaru? Not the whole being murdered thing, since half the time he dies swiftly, but it is all the effort he puts into not dying. It’s all the effort he puts into forging relationships just so not only he won’t die, but sometimes others won’t get hurt, and yet this save point is racking his brain. In fact, it is getting so hard that he tries to reveal his revival power to Emilia and it leads to a dark hand, something foreign, and possibly the witch everyone talks about, grabbing his heart like a threat. So, with this threat revealing itself, he decides to isolate himself from everyone, including Emilia. Thus leading to Beatrice and him forming a relationship.

In past timelines, Beatrice has almost always been an afterthought. The focus was always on one of the twins, Emilia, and that’s it. As for Beatrice and Roswaal, they were either absent almost altogether or just someone Subaru talked to seldom. Things change this go around though for with Emilia, more so Puck, asking Beatrice to check on Subaru, and him using some sort of guilt she has to form a protection contract, it seems some sort of friendship is formed.

Topic 3: Taking the Hard Road (Ram, Beatrice, and Subaru)

However, it doesn’t save him from the worse. For while hiding out in Beatrice’s library keeps him alive past the day he usually dies, it seems no matter what one death may be guaranteed. So while he lives, Rem dies. Such a thing throws Ram into a frenzy and with Subaru missing for days it makes him a prime suspect. Making it so even with Emilia and Beatrice standing up for him, Ram and even Roswaal feel the need to question him, if not threaten his life.

But rather than try to talk things out, Subaru runs. Making it seem that he is tired of the long hard road, he wants the easy way, the one which doesn’t involve him dying constantly and losing people as he has known them. Yet, with Rem’s death on his mind, even with her knowingly killing him once, he decides to not give up. Subaru wants a happy ending, one in which he gets Emilia and the twins remain together. But how exactly is he going to get this ending? Well, it is hard to say. Maybe next go around he may try to equally distribute his time between the twins, Emilia, and Beatrice. Heck, maybe he may even bring Roswaal into the mix. Either way, his battle for joy is going to be hard fought and surely may push the limits of his revival power.

Review Summary

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Considering how both Beatrice and Ram say Subaru has the smell of the witch on him, could it be that she was the one who brought Subaru into this world? On top of that, if she is the one who brought him there, why?

Highlights

Despite sending us through another round, oddly enough the show maintains this sense of excitement and hope that Subaru may get things right next time around. That is, even with the same cast of characters, nearly the same end result, and only really changing who Subaru primarily interacts with.

Low Points

I do feel that they are really stretching out this arc just a bit far. Thankfully they have the characters to keep things interesting, but I don’t think they can do more than maybe one or two more revivals before it will feel like enough is enough.