Making a character who's physically and mentally weak, broken beyong believe, full of unresolved traumas and insecurities, has stopped being a hard thing to make relatable because everyone is depressed.

Whether you can make that character arc interresting in the long run however

I'm just saying this, because, I get the illusion that everybody sees a semi-relatable protagonist and will call it peak fiction on the spot, writting these type of character arcs requires talent and tact and you can easily make it boring, suffering is not a spice, it's a meal

While Subaru can be relatable to a lot of people (including myself),his character arc of self-realization and "learn to love yourself" gets stale when the point has been made 4 times up to this point,the character is not just on a deathloop but also story one, and it's boring

It's not helped by the way Re:Zero shoots himself in the foot conceptually by being an isekai and having to develop a world and a cast of character that we sadly never get the proper time to learn more or care about, or they're thrown on the side pretty quickly once we do

And this is detrimental to a story like this, if the main character is characterized by "wanting to save everyone, but has to save himself first", we should care as much for the people he wants to save, than the MC, sadly we don't, and everything falls flat on their face

It's not helped that the world is particularly generic, on purpose, and that it still has the old pet peeves of Isekai stories where the "isekai" part barely matter, and once you take Subaru out of the equation, what's left for the show ? A mediocre fantasy setting and mystery

While we finally got to see Subaru's past, this just happens out of thin air, there was no mention of the character struggles pre-isekai before that, even less about trying to live out his father legacy, and this is shown and solved in the same episode, and then it's an illusion

Same thing with the plotwist regarding each timeline continuing, great idea, as most stories involving timeloop never really tackles on that possibility, but again, it's an illusion and just meant to spice up Subaru's suffering even more, they do nothing interresting with it

And while season 1 was fairly enjoyable depsite my issues with it, I was waiting for season 2 to solve the few issues I had and possibly go from a 6 to a 7, but alas, I hated that first half so much, I can genuinely say it has become one of my least fave anime experience period

The sanctuary is a logistical mess to follow, there's 3 billion new characters while we didn't get time to developed or care about the old ones, the ones that we loved, or thrown on the side, character suddenly makes heel-turn out of nowhere, it looses itself in contrivance

And worst of all, the direction is almost a total nose dive from the first season, which was arguably the best part about the show, as character acting was the key to these characters with otherwise cardboard cutout personality and non-existent backstory bits. But *VIRUS* I guess

Dialogues are stiff, long, infodumpy, rules are messy, the emotional and more calmer, intimate bits happens at random and are drown in a sea of convoluted mess, this structure is pure chaos, and my tiny little goblin brain just gave up at some point, you just want this to end

And what about that first episode ? Sure would be cool for the two main threat of this episode to be relevant in that arc nope ? I guess it's going to be in the second cour or season 3, but for the time being, there was no reason for them to be there, except for "foreshadowing"

You know, your character writting suck mega-ass, when the fucking car driver which was a total background character of the first season, is suddenly part of the main cast but also the MC new best friend we should care about ? Beatrice stuff also came out of nowhere....

It's like Re:Zero is separated into two thing, a character study about self-realization, and a mediocre show about magic people dealing with magic problems we don't have neither the time or the patience to care about for longer than 5 minutes because we gotta up the shock value

Speaking of shock value, I'm sorry, but even that is getting stale, the mechanic already takes out all possible permanent stakes due to how generous it is, but now the death are becoming more and more ridicule, like come on ? Killer rabbits ? Is this Monthy fucking Python ?????

Shock value and the trauma induced by these scenes kinda wear off in effect, at one point, it just become gratuitous, and the character arc of "getting traumatized => loop => man I should stop being a bitch and love myself let's goooo => repeat" just does not work anymore

The show pretty much trivialized trauma and the resolution to these trauma, as some sort of shitty gimmick the author can get away with ad vitam aeternam when he doesn't wanna explore the setting more, Re:Zero is at the same time rushed but take its sweet time of beating you over

And don't get me started on the complete FAILURE of the "chosen one syndrome" subversion, at the start, Subaru is presented as a social reclused geek, yet he has more social skills that I'll ever have in my entire life, his weakness is something unique, but not really

Then it's ok, because he was "faking it" and in the past, "faking it" eventually made his friends loose interrest in him, and he should be more true to himself, but bitch, faking it was the exact reason, why you have such a cult following to begin with, colossal idiot

Subaru gets rewarded with fame, love and everything, by faking it, at least 5 bitches wants his dick now, he's a creepy weirdo simp to one girl, and the girl barely as any agency of her own to tell Subaru to fuck off and is just now accepting that shit

And the final plotwist of that half-season takes the cake, now Subaru is not just some random kid which he thinks the new world he's into is gonna give him everything scott free but turns out "ohoh, you're still as useless here than in tokyo boy", naaaah, now HE'S THE CHOSEN ONE

EVERYTHING IS PLANNED, THE MAIN VILLAIN OF THE SERIE IS CLEARLY THE GIRL HE'S BEEN SIMPING OVER BUT FROM EITHER THE PAST OR THE FUTURE, AND THE REASON HE SIMPS IS TO GET THE PERFECT TIMELINE AND SAVE PRINCESS PEACH OR WTV, WHAT KINDA WISH FULLFILLING BS IS THIS

And that's not to count, all of the blatlantly ripped-off characterization taken straight from other more competent pieces of works, I'm just talking about the anime here and not the novel, I'm conscious of that, but I'm not sold at all, and this author is a fake and a fraud

End of the thread : Re:Zero is a Muv-Luv Unlimited, desesperately trying to be a Muv-Luv Alternative on repeat but failing at delivering any of its emotional whiplash, with no Muv-Luv Extra to build on top off.

It's a conceptual mess, with good ideas, but no ambition whatsoever

And you know what, since I'm a gentleman, and can have more than one work I can easily compare this too. Here's a selection of 2 trauma isekai and 2 non-isekai, dealing with the same type of character arc as Re:Zero but in a more efficient and satisfying way that is not Muv-Luv

Also here's like 2 timeloop stories that are easily better at using that concept than Re:Zero could ever achieve to, and again, it's not Muv-Luv

And of course, if you want a taste of what Isekai with timeloop should be at their peak performance, a story so conceptually perfect but sadly takes its sweeeeet time before taking off and lay out all of his card, you know EXACTLY where to go see that shit