Warning: SPOILERS for Re:Zero season 3 episode #1
Re:Zero-Life in Another World -premieredits third seasonon October 2, and it has shown once again why it’s a breathtaking, one-of-a-kind isekai series. The core struggle at the heart ofRe:Zerois that Subaru is transported into another world where, every time he dies, the clock’s turned back. What makes this idea so effective every time is the emotional suspense that the show flawlessly builds.
The premiere of the third season captures the spirit that makes the series so notable: masterful manipulation of the viewers' emotions so that the most impacting momentsshake them like a sudden thunderclap. It’s easy, after time away from it, to forget the enthralling narratives which makeRe:Zero one of the best isekai of all time. In line with the episode’s name, “Theatrical Malice”, the premiere of the third season uses this to its advantage for a shocking twist at the end.
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The episode takes place around a year after the events of season 2. Subaru, Emilia, and other characters of the royal cast are called to the Watergate City of Priestella for a meeting with Anastasia, one of Emilia’s competitors in the Royal Selection. Preparing for their departure, Subaru visits Rem, telling the sleeping maid that he won’t be able to talk to her for a while. Viewers will remember that the beloved maid, Rem, is in a coma,having had her memories eaten by the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Lye Batenkaitos.
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As it turns out, when they arrive and finally meet with Anastasia, she wants to discuss the same Archbishop. Season 3’s premiere flawlessly disarms viewers by taking advantage of the time they’ve spent away from the show. The setting is familiar, and the themes of royal intrigue are there. Meanwhile,side characters get more dimension. Tiny witch Beatrice gets more screen time than ever, and red-haired knight Reinhard (Subaru’s once-competitor for Emilia’s hand) has a touching scene with his grandfather and father.
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Of “Theatrical Malice”’s hour-and-a-half runtime, viewers can safely spend an hour and twenty minutes expecting the season will center around the Archbishop of Gluttony and the Royal Selection process. Unfortunately,things aren’t so simple. In the last five minutes, they’ll realize they were in fact just disarmed by contemporary anime’s master of misdirection.
Out on errands in the marketplace, Subaru and returning character Lachins (one of the bandits who gave him so much trouble inRe:Zero’s first arc, now a friend of the hero) are returning to the others when a voice calls out from above. It belongs to Sirius Romanée-Conti, the Sin Archbishop of Wrath, standing atop a tower. She announces a performance andrequests the audience’s attention, disconcertingly swapping out aggression, stage presence, and insecurity.
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After the crowd starts to embrace her presence, she hoists up a child who has urinated himself out of fear. The crowd laughs and jeers—including Subaru, whose behavior is obviously out of character to the viewer. Perceptive viewers would probably guess that the cultist has enchanted the audience well before their irises turn fire-truck red. The crowd can’t get enough; they beg her to drop him; she showers them with pseudo-erotic gratitude asshe gleefully drops the child to the ground.
His free-falling scream pierces the eardrum and soul before, finally, he collides face-first with the plaza. A pause—then the audience explodes. Subaru dies, returning back in time and bringing the audience with him.
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“Theatrical Malice” Is A Total Picture To Be Viewed From Afar
The sequence ishowRe:Zeroreminds the viewer of its inimitable touch. Its hands are once more around the viewer’s neck, ready to support and to strangle, but at any rate, keeping their eyes facing forward. Time to begin again. Realizing what had happened, Subaru keels over, hand over his mouth. The viewer is inevitably reminded of the gag earlier in the episode when boat sickness almost made him vomit, and he keeled over just the same. This time,there is no bit: he hyperventilates, he gasps out disconnected phrases, he lets a few small tears escape.
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In that instant, it might flood back to the viewer thathe has been cursed never to tell anyone about his “Return By Death” ability. Over and over, he must go about it alone, witnessing the deaths of those he loves and dying himself ad nauseam until he’s able to divert the course of time just enough to avoid apparent fate.
The premiere ofRe: Zero’s third season is a subversive masterpiece meant to be viewed from afar, and understood in its entirety. It’s been almost three years since the second season concluded. Viewers have had plenty of time to forgetwhyRe: Zerois such an innovative isekai. Where most isekai are intended to be a kind of wish-fulfillment (though that term is thrown about too easily),Re: Zerois a negative projection. Itsfundamental connection to the viewer is based on the horror they feel for the protagonistand the principle of avoidance.
The episode ruminates on death a bit, discussing the death of Reinhard’s grandmother. Her death builds the surrounding lives, but it’s set in stone.Re: Zeroconcerns the fundamentally disconcerting idea that death could be an active, rather than passive, instrument: that death, in giving way to life, can be an artistic instrument to build the world others inhabit by choosing who lives and dies. A massive responsibility.
Subaru’s isekai story doesn’t ever let up with the brutality and inevitability of death, but more than that, it subsists in the nausea of Subaru’s feelings of total responsibility over life. Nobody he loved died, and yet, he breaks down; the terrifying reality of fate and his chosen use of the death instrument set in. Diverting viewers' attention with funny songs and everyday politics,Re: Zerouses the fact that time has made its brutality fall out of view as a shadowed cover so that at just the right moment it can creep up to remind the viewer of its delectable velvet grasp.
