I was hesitant to watch one of the most hyped shows of the season. Re: Zero presents us with trope, cliché and archetypes alike, while still maintaining fun dialogue and small surprises. But I get ahead of myself.
I was prepared not to care for the series much; That tends to happen when there is over hype. I tend to be overly critical and unable to fully enjoy the work. Further, having read others reviews, I knew a bit of the faults and of course they stood out like a sore thumb. If you're reading this, you may have already read some of the same reviews, or had friends demand that you catch the next Sword Art Online!
Re: Zero starts as another Alice in Wonderland (Archetype) of fans of more classical literature - A Conneticut Yankee in Key Arthur's Court. Our modern NEET (trope - maybe cliché; also NEET stands for Not in Employement, Education, or Training) who plays too many games and has next to no social life, immediately falls into a fantasy world while hearing desperate pleas for help. The first episode is an hour special separated, atleast on Crunchyroll into two half hour segments. I'm left wondering how it originally aired. The divide happens well as you're delivered with your first surprise, which I won't spoil. Its another cliché though, and will leave those who havn't seen anything like it praising its creativity; However for every other member of the sci fi fantasy fan base - you've seen it, and you've seen it done better.
Subaru, the NEET in question, is enthusiastic and tenacious, two easily likable traits and fairly archetypal for anime heroes. I gave the series the standard three episode test, and the first small plot wave is able to wrap up in that time. I bring this up because in that time, Subaru wasn't able to stand out as overwhelmingly special or break away from the archetype. In three episodes he was flat. Now I'll give the writers cred where its due - in speaking to himself, he speaks directly to the intended audience of the series. Its not quite fourth wall breaking like you would get from daredevil, but Subaru and the character makes fun of himself and the setting at large. Subaru was/is funny. Not overwhelming so, but enough.
Because the plot and setting took 2 or three episodes to set up AND the gimmick of Re: Zero relies heavily in the first few episodes on those plot surprises, its also very difficult to figure what the hell the point is. To put it another way, why do I care that Subaru has this going on with him? Why do I care about this girl he has stumbled upon? Flat characters and relying heavily on their surprise means there a bit of excitement, plus the bit of laughs, but you can tell that the series wants to say something... You just have no idea what.
The series is also well animated, the fight scenes were nice to look at. I enjoyed the character designs, though again you kind of are walking those archetypes, tropes, and cliches again. The lead female has a bit of an Asuna throw back; I can't say she's as interesting of yet. The other female you meet, Felt, appears to be your loli or imouto con; We'll see how that digresses. Over all I'll give it a point for art.
I can't say much for the music. Nothing that is stuck in my head. I didn't bother to listen to either theme all the way through.
If you're new to anime, or just enjoy the more escapable variety, it'll rank highly enough for you. They don't FAIL at anything thus far. Everything they attempted to do they did at an adequate level. I'll keep watching for sure. If you want something that is actually good you can skip this one and keep looking.
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