Just More Chances To Make Things Go Really Bad
This
is a series I've heard about for a while, and it seemed like it could
be good, so I finally got around to watching it. Overall, I was not
disappointed.
Summary
Natsuke
Subaru is a modern-day teen guy, but things go very strangely for him
when he's returning from a trip to the local food mart and, in the
blink of an eye, ends up in a completely different world. Not only
that, but in this new world he gains a very strange power—whenever
he's killed, he returns to a time in his past, which allows him to
try to correct the mistakes he made that got him killed. But as his
story goes along, this power takes a heavy toll on him, as he see
people he's come to care about injured and slain in brutal ways, and
he can't seem to find the answers to how to keep it from happening
again and again and again.
Caveats
First,
a content warning.
In
the first part of the story, the fight at the loot house, there is a
female character who dresses rather revealingly. After that the
fan-servicey stuff is not so much of an issue.
Outside
of that, probably the main content warning should be for the blood
and violence. And those things could be serious issues for some
people. Without going into details, I wasn't exaggerating when I
wrote that some characters are harmed and killed in brutal ways. I
know some people didn't like that kind of stuff in Fullmetal
Alchemist: Brotherhood, and this series is even worse in that regard
than FMA:B, so I hope some of you can find that helpful in
determining if you want to risk this series or not.
Pushing
Characters to the Limit
It
seems like I've read some advice for writers and storytellers about
how they need to push their characters to their limits, make them
suffer, put them through the wringer, or pretty much just make their
situations as difficult as possible. I could hold up Re:Zero as a
stunning, even extreme and drastic, example of pushing a character to
the breaking point, and even going past that.
Starting
about halfway through the current 25 episodes and continuing for
several episodes, Subaru is pushed, and pushed, and pushed a whole
lot more. Behaviors that worked for him early in the series suddenly
work against him in this new situation, he makes bad decisions that
cause people to not trust him, and even his attempts to act bravely
only lead to him getting soundly thrashed. And that's before he gets
caught in a seemingly endless cycle of restarts, where every decision
he makes only cause things to become worse, and where his weakness
and helplessness are made starkly clear to him as his friends are
killed time and again.
This
isn't the most enjoyable stretch of episodes I've ever watched, but
story-wise it's among the best. Subaru's desperate and stupid
decisions, and the ways the people around him respond to him, are
very difficult to watch, and Subaru often acts like anything but a
hero in this part of the story.
Getting
Pushed to the Limit
In
fact, probably about the only thing less enjoyable than watching a
character get pushed to the limit like that is having it happen in
real life.
Little
is gained by sentimentalizing or romanticizing such painful times.
They don't always bring out the best in us; in fact, they often bring
out the worst, or show us the worst that is already in us. In
Re:Zero, the difficulties bring out Subaru's pride, selfishness,
ignorance, and rashness, along with other faults and sins he has. For
us, weariness may make us impatient, pain may make us angry,
hopelessness may make us want to harm other people or ourselves, and
that's hardly an exhaustive list of causes and effects.
While
the idea of getting multiple chances to do things right does work as
an idea for some fascinating stories, real life isn't like that. Our
rash decisions and rash words cannot be undone.
Our
hope, then, is that we have a Redeemer who was Himself pushed to the
limits, and suffered many things, including the cruel death of
crucifixion, and did so without sinning. Our hope, even for those of
us who are already believers in Christ, is the same gospel of Christ
crucified for our sins that we first believed. It's something we
don't outgrow, even and especially when we think we've made some
progress in our sanctification.
Conclusion
Keep
in mind the caveats from above, but if you think those things won't
bother you too much, then I have no qualms about recommending this
series.
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