Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World (Japanese: Re:????????????, Hepburn: Ri:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, literally Re: Life in a different world from zero) is a Japanese light novel series written by Tappei Nagatsuki and illustrated by Shinichirou Otsuka. The story centers on Subaru Natsuki, a hikikomori who suddenly finds himself transported to another world on his way home from the convenience store. The series was initially serialized on the website Sh?setsuka ni Nar? from 2012 onwards. Fifteen volumes have been published by Media Factory since January 24, 2014, under their MF Bunko J imprint.
The series' first three arcs have been adapted into separate manga series. The first, by Daichi Matsue, was published by Media Factory between June 2014 and March 2015. The second, by Makoto Fugetsu, has been published by Square Enix since October 2014. Matsue launched the third adaptation, also published by Media Factory, in May 2015. Additionally, Media Factory published an anthology manga in June 2016. An anime television series adaptation by White Fox aired from April 4, 2016 to September 19, 2016, starting with an hour-long special. White Fox is also producing an OVA based on the series. In August 2016, game developer 5pb. announced plans for a visual novel based on the series.
The novels and all three manga adaptations are published in North America by Yen Press. The anime adaptation has been licensed by Funimation in the United States and Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. The light novels have sold more than two million copies, while the anime series has sold more than 60,000 copies on home video. The light novels have been praised for its fresh take on the "another world" concept, but have been criticized for awkward dialogue and redundancy. The anime series has been praised by critics for its "culturally complex world" and for the actions of its characters. The series received awards at the 2015-2016 Newtype Anime Awards, the 2017 Sugoi Japan Awards, and was nominated for Anime of the Year at The Anime Awards 2016.
Video Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World
Plot
Subaru Natsuki is a hikikomori who does nothing but play games. One night, after visiting a convenience store, he is suddenly summoned to another world. With no sign of who summoned him, he soon befriends a silver-haired half-elf girl who introduces herself as Satella, and her companion Puck. Satella mentions that her insignia was stolen by a thief named Felt. When he and Satella are mysteriously killed, Subaru awakens and discover that he has acquired the ability "Return by Death", enabling him to reverse time by dying. He greets Satella again, only for her to be offended at being addressed by the name "Satella", which in fact refers to the "Jealous Witch", and is considered a taboo. With the help of Reinhard (a knight) in another timeline, Subaru saves "Satella's" life from the assassin Elsa; she reveals that her real name is Emilia, and as a token of gratitude, Felt returns the insignia to her.
While recovering at the margrave Roswaal's mansion, the mage Beatrice drains Subaru's mana. After waking up, he meets the twin maids Ram and Rem, as well as Roswaal, who hires him as a butler. Roswaal reveals that Emilia needed the insignia to qualify as a candidate in the upcoming royal election. After mysteriously dying again, Subaru decides to investigate the circumstances leading to his death, and tries to recreate these events. Following a series of traumatic deaths and revivals, he learns that a curse had been placed on him, then deduces it came from a village he had visited earlier, also resolving Rem's intense hatred for witches. Eventually, the village is threatened by creatures known as mabeasts, so Subaru, Rem and Ram have to rescue the villagers.
Later, Emilia is summoned to the capital by two members of the Royal Guard, Wilhelm and Felix. There, Subaru and company meet the other royal candidates: Priscilla, Crusch, Anastasia and Felt; and their knights, Aldebaran, Julius, and Reinhard. Felt initially announces that she will not participate in the election, and Subaru declares himself to be Emilia's knight. Following a public fight which leaves Subaru badly injured, he gets into a huge argument with Emilia, and she decides to cut ties with Subaru, leaving him behind.
After recovering, Subaru decides to train under Wilhelm, while Felix advises him to make up with Emilia. Rem then warns Subaru that something is occurring at the mansion, and against Crusch and Felix's warning, Subaru decides to return to the mansion. There, he discovers many dead bodies, including that of Rem, much to his horror. After dying and respawning, he is ambushed by a wicked group known as the Witch's Cult and meets the insane leader, Betelgeuse, who then tortures and kills Rem. Having later been killed by a monstrous Puck, Subaru respawns and curses Betelgeuse. Knowing that the mansion and village will be attacked, Subaru seeks help from the other royal candidates, but they all decline. While gathering an evacuation, he encounters a legendary mabeast called the White Whale. Rem sacrifices herself to allow Subaru to escape. After returning to the mansion, Subaru encounters Ram and Emilia, who have no recollection of Rem. Disturbed by the situation, Subaru reveals his "Return by Death" ability to Emilia, only for her to die afterwards. Puck, enraged, transforms and kills Betelgeuse and his cult, then freezes Subaru to death as punishment for Emilia's death. After respawning, Subaru, having fallen into utter despair, has a serious conversation with Rem, asking her to run away with him. Rem, however, strongly encourages Subaru not to give up and confesses her love for him, already knowing that his heart is for Emilia. With newfound resolve, Subaru then decides that he will start again from zero.
Subaru and Rem later battle against the White Whale, after successfully striking an alliance with Crusch's and Anastasia's camps. Following a long and hard fought battle, Wilhelm ultimately kills the White Whale, thus avenging the death of his wife. Eventually, with the help of his new allies, Subaru is finally able to defeat Betelgeuse and his cult, saving the lives of Emilia and the villagers. Having reconciled with Emilia, Subaru confesses his love for her, leading Emilia to tearfully thank Subaru for saving her.
Maps Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World
Production
Light novel
The series' editor at MF Bunko J, Ikemoto Masahito, first became aware of the web novel in April 2013, when it began to appear on his Twitter feed. He was immediately impressed by the series' use of Return by Death, and how it was a "depressing, yet surprising, twist on the fantasy genre", and began working with Nagatsuki to adapt the series into a light novel. Most light novels are around 250 pages in length, but Nagatsuki submitted a manuscript of more than 1,000 pages for the first novel, forcing Ikemoto to edit it heavily. While Nagatsuki wanted to engage in worldbuilding early on, Ikemoto felt that it was more necessary to make the readers feel engaged with the characters. He ended up rearranging the story so that parts focusing on the world and its lore were pushed back to the third arc of the series.
Prior to his involvement in Re:Zero, illustrator Shinichirou Otsuka worked on video games, which led him to draw the backgrounds first when illustrating the series. After reading the web novel, he submitted a number of character designs for the major characters to Ikemoto. Subaru's initial design made him look like a delinquent, with Otsuka later describing it as "not the face of a boy in his teens", leading Ikemoto to request that the character be "more friendly and less fierce" so that the audience could empathize with him during emotional scenes. Originally, Emilia's character design appeared extremely plain, so a number of features were added to make her more interesting. Ikemoto specified that she must fit the "archetypal heroine" mold. Rem and Ram also underwent significant changes from the first draft: their original designs lacked the characteristic hair parts, and their maid uniforms were longer and more "traditional".
Anime
Development and production
The possibility of an anime adaptation came up early in the development of the series; Sho Tanaka, a producer at Kadokawa, asked Ikemoto about properties which might lend themselves to being animated, and Ikemoto recommended that Tanaka read Nagatsuki's web novels. Despite an initial miscommunication which led to Ikemoto believing that Tanaka wasn't interested, talks of adapting the series began soon after the web novels began the transition to print.
As part of talks for the potential anime adaptation, Ikemoto and Tanaka spoke to Tsunaki Yoshikawa, an animation producer at studio White Fox, about the possibility of his studio animating the series. Hoping to adapt the series into an anime similar to Steins;Gate (which White Fox also produced), and having a positive impression of the studio as one that did faithful adaptations, Tanaka then formally approached them about producing the show. White Fox's president contacted Yoshikawa for his opinion, and Yoshikawa recommended they accept, as long as the series "doesn't violate any broadcasting regulations".
Production on the anime began sometime after the release of the fifth novel in October 2014. Masaharu Watanabe was chosen by Yoshikawa to direct the series because he had previously worked for the studio doing key animation, while Kyuta Sakai was picked to be the series' character designer and animation director because Yoshikawa felt that she would be able to do justice to the novel's art and also maintain the series animation quality over 25 episodes. Masahiro Yokotani was brought on board to compose the anime, his first time working on a "reborn in another world"-type story. Yoshikawa warned him about the violence in the series, but he was still surprised by the violent and disturbing scenes in novels three and beyond, having only read the first novel when he agreed to work on the project; he delegated the writing of those episodes in the second cour to the other two scriptwriters. Yoshiko Nakamura joined the project sometime after Masahiro had completed the script for episode 3. When it proved unfeasible for Yokotani and Nakamura to write the scripts alone, the decision was made to bring another scriptwriter on board. Gaku Iwasa, the president of White Fox, asked them to hire someone "younger", leading Yokotani to suggest Eiji Umehara. Nagatsuki had recently been playing Chaos;Child, which Umehara had written for, and he approved the choice, suggesting that they let Umehara write the "painful parts"; Umehara was invited to join the project around the time that the scripts for episodes 8 and 9 were being written. Re:Zero was the first light novel adaptation that either of the screenwriters had worked on.
Original author Tappei Nagatsuki was very active in the production of the anime, attending script meetings and recording sessions. When the staff would encounter a problem with a scene, he would occasionally write lines for them to use as reference while writing the script. The series was not initially intended to have 25 episodes, but was extended to give more time to the battle with the White Whale (which was expanded from two to three episodes) and to the content of episode 18 (episodes 16 to 18 were originally supposed to be covered in two episodes). Watanabe's main directive to the staff was to "capture the mood of the novel as much as possible"; the scriptwriters had discussions about how to compress the dense source material without losing the central elements of the story, and Nakamura recalls working with composition notes that "went on for pages". While planning and scripting the anime, choosing a proper conclusion was one of the most difficult parts for the staff, and a significant amount of time was devoted to choosing what to cover in the final episode, which included material not yet covered in the light novel.
After joining the project, both Nakamura and Umehara had to adjust their views of the main character, and were forced to rewrite scenes where they had made Subaru appear "cool". At Watanabe's direction, Nakamura was made to rewrite Subaru's telling of The Red Ogre Who Cried in episode 6 multiple times. The staff also had difficulty deciding on a song to use for Subaru's ringtone that plays during the closing scene of episode 19, considering songs like "Kanpaku Sengen", "The Beard Song", and "M" by Princess Princess, before settling on "Yoake no Michi" from Dog of Flanders.
Soundtrack
While choosing a composer to produce the series' music, director Watanabe wanted to choose someone who had "hit a nerve" with him. A fan of drama series, Watanabe was struck by a piece of music in the medical drama Death's Organ, and found that the series' composer, Suehiro Kenichir?, had also worked on a number of his favorite anime and drama series. After Suehiro was attached to the production, Watanabe gave him three major guidelines: use human voices during the Return by Death sequences; compose the music like he would for a drama or a movie to capture the emotional scenes; and "pull all the stops" for the suspenseful scenes. Additionally, for the first cour, Watanabe asked for music with a "suspenseful" vibe, while requesting music with a "romantic" feel for the second cour. Both Watanabe and Suehiro are fans of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, and Suehiro tried to take inspiration from his works while composing the soundtrack. Watanabe also requested that there be songs that mimicked Hans Zimmer's score from The Dark Knight. While Suehiro used music that wasn't very "anime-ish" during most of the series, he was asked to use more traditional anime music during the slice of life scenes. A number of times during the series, such as in episodes 7 and 15, Watanabe made it a point to use an entire song, something which is unusual in most anime.
The series makes limited use of its opening and ending themes, and Watanabe has said that he wished he could use them more frequently.
Media
Web novel
The Re:Zero web novel was initially serialized by Tappei Nagatsuki (writing under the username Nezumi-iro Neko (???, "Mouse-Colored Cat")) on the user-generated content site Sh?setsuka ni Nar? from April 20, 2012 onwards. As of June 13, 2017, six novels and two side stories have been published, comprising a total of 442 chapters.
Light novels
Following the web novel's publication, Media Factory acquired the series for print publication. The first light novel volume, with illustrations by Shinichirou Otsuka, was published on January 24, 2014, under their MF Bunko J imprint. As of December 2017, fifteen volumes have been published, as well as two side story volumes and two short story collections. Nagatsuki and Otsuka began publishing a series of short side-stories focusing on characters from the series in Monthly Comic Alive, starting with the character Elsa in August 2016. It was followed with one focused on Petra Leyte on November 26, 2016, and one featuring Ram and Rem on January 27, 2016. The light novels are published in English by Yen Press, who announced their acquisition of the license via Twitter on December 2, 2015. The publisher has also acquired the license to the Re:Zero EX side novels.
Manga
A manga adaptation by Daichi Matsue, titled Re:ZERO: -Starting Life in Another World- Chapter 1: A Day in the Capital (Re:???????????? ??? ??????, Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Dai-Ichi-Sh?: ?to no Ichinichi-hen), began serialization in the August 2014 issue of Media Factory's seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Alive on June 27, 2014. The final volume was released on March 23, 2015. On December 2, 2015, Yen Press announced that they had licensed the series.
A second manga, titled Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, Chapter 2: One Week at the Mansion (Re:???????????? ??? ???????, Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Dai-Ni-Sh?: Yashiki no Ish?kan-hen), with art by Makoto Fugetsu, began serialization in Square Enix's seinen magazine Monthly Big Gangan on October 25, 2014. The final chapter was published on December 24, 2016, and an extra chapter was published on January 25, 2017. The second adaptation has also been licensed by Yen Press.
Daichi Matsue began serializing a third manga, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, Chapter 3: Truth of Zero (Re:???????????? ??? Truth of Zero, Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Dai-San-Sh?: Truth of Zero) in Comic Alive's July 2015 issue on May 27, 2015. Yen will publish the third adaptation as well.
A manga anthology, titled Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Official Anthology Comic (Re:???????????? ????????????, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu K?shiki Ansoroj? Komikku), was published by Media Factory on June 23, 2016.
Internet radio show
An Internet radio show to promote the series named "Re: Radio life in a different world from zero" (Re:???????????????) began broadcasting on March 27, 2016. The show was aired every Monday and was hosted by Rie Takahashi, the voice actress for Emilia. Guests that appeared on the show included Y?suke Kobayashi (Subaru Natsuki), Inori Minase (Rem), Yumi Uchiyama (Puck), Rie Murakawa (Ram), Satomi Arai (Beatrice), Chinatsu Akasaki (Felt), Kana Ueda (Anastasia Hoshin), and Yui Horie (Felix). The show ran for 33 episodes and concluded on December 19, 2016. The first radio CD, which contains episodes 1-8 of the show, was released on June 27, 2016. The second, which contains episodes 9-16 of the show, was released on September 28, 2016. The third, containing episodes 17-24, was released on November 30, 2016, and the fourth, containing episodes 25-33, was released on March 29, 2017.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced by Kadokawa in July 2015. The series is directed by Masaharu Watanabe and written by Masahiro Yokotani, with animation by the studio White Fox. Kyuta Sakai is serving as both character designer and as chief animation director. Music for the series is composed by Kenichiro Suehiro. Kentaro Minegishi is the series' director of photography, and Yoshito Takamine serves as art director. Jin Aketagawa handled sound direction for the anime, and sound effects were produced by Yuji Furuya. Other staff members include Hitomi Sudo (editing), Yu Karube (3D director), Saaya Kinj? (art configuration), Izumi Sakamoto (color design), and Noritaka Suzuki and G?ichi Iwabatake (prop design).
The 25-episode series premiered on April 4, 2016, with an extended 50-minute first episode. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and AT-X. The series was simulcast by Crunchyroll. Episode 18 ran 2 minutes longer than a typical anime episode, clocking at 25 minutes and 45 seconds. The final episode ran 4 minutes longer, clocking at 27 minutes and 15 seconds.
The series has been licensed by Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. Funimation announced during their Katsucon 2018 panel, that they have licensed the anime and plans to release it on home video with an English dub.
A series of anime shorts featuring super deformed versions of the characters, titled Re:Zero ~Starting Break Time From Zero~ (Re:???????????(???????), Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Break Time), were produced by Studio Puyukai to accompany the series. The shorts ran for eleven episodes before being replaced by a new series of shorts, titled Re:PETIT ~Starting Life in Another World from PETIT~ (Re:????????????, Re:Puchi kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu), which began airing on June 24, 2016 and ran for 14 episodes. The shorts are directed, written, and produced by Minoru Ashina, with character designs by Minoru Takehara, who also animated the series alongside Sumi Kimoto and Chisato Totsuka. Kenichiro Suehiro reprised his role as composer for the shorts, while Tomoji Furuya of Suwara Pro produced the sound effects. Jin Aketagawa directed the sound at production company Magic Capsule.
The shorts aired on AT-X after each episode of the regular series, starting on April 8, 2016. Crunchyroll acquired the streaming rights to both shorts.
An original video animation (OVA) episode was announced at the "MF Bunko J Summer School Festival 2017" event on September 10, 2017. White Fox will animate the OVA, and Y?suke Kobayashi, Rie Takahashi, and Inori Minase will be reprising their roles. The OVA will be screened in theaters in Japan.
Music
The first opening theme song was "Redo" by Konomi Suzuki, and the first ending theme was "Styx Helix" by Myth & Roid, while for episode 7 the ending theme was "STRAIGHT BET", also by Myth & Roid. The second opening theme song, titled "Paradisus-Paradoxum", was performed by Myth & Roid, while the second ending theme, "Stay Alive", was performed by Rie Takahashi. Myth & Roid also performed ending theme for episode 14 titled "theater D".
The series' soundtrack was released on CD on October 26, 2016. The disk contains 21 tracks composed by Kenichiro Suehiro.
"Redo", Suzuki's 10th single, was released on CD on May 11, 2016. The single was also released as a limited edition with a DVD featuring a music video, a live concert video, and a "making of" video. The songs were performed by Suzuki, with lyrics by Genki Mizuno and arrangement by Makoto Miyazaki.
The CD for "STYX HELIX", the series' first ending theme, was Myth & Roid's 3rd single. Written, arranged, and performed by the group, it was released on May 25, 2016, and included both regular and instrumental versions of "STYX HELIX" and "STRAIGHT BET".
"Stay Alive", the second ending theme, was released as a single on August 24, 2016. The songs were performed by Takahashi (Emilia) and Minase (Rem). The songs were written and arranged by Heart's Cry.
Myth & Roid released the second opening theme as a single on August 24, 2016. The CD included regular and instrumental versions of "Paradisus-Paradoxum" and "theater D".
Visual novel
In August 2016, game developer 5pb. announced that they were developing a visual novel based on the series, titled Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Death or Kiss (Re:???????????? -DEATH OR KISS-, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu -Death or Kiss-). The game follows an original story that differs from the light novel and the anime, and allows the player to choose between routes featuring Emilia, Rem, Ram, Felt, Beatrice, Crusch, Priscilla, or Anastasia. A DLC will allow players who pre-ordered the game to replace the character's costumes with swimsuits. The opening theme, "yell! magic starts with a kiss" (yell!~????????????~, Yell!~ Kuchibiru kara Hajimaru Mah? ~), was performed by Suzuki, who sung the anime's first opening theme, while the ending theme, "Dai Dai Daisuki" (??????????), was performed by Minase and Murakawa.
In Japan, the game was originally scheduled to be released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on March 23, 2017, but was delayed to March 30, 2017, due to certain circumstances. The limited edition of the game came with a soundtrack CD and either a Ram (for the PS4 version) or Rem (for the PSVita version) SD figure.
Other media
Kadokawa published a 272-page guide to the series' first three arcs, titled Re:zeropedia, alongside the 10th volume of the novels on October 24, 2016. An official d?jinshi art book was published at Comiket, with art by Ponkan 8 (Shirobako and My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected), Yuka Nakajima (Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!, Amagi Brilliant Park), and TakayaKi (Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou). A crossover with Natsume Akatsuki's light novel series KonoSuba, titled Re:Starting Life Blessing This World was published on December 21, 2016. The book featured interviews with each series' authors and illustrators, as well as the principal voice actors in their respective anime adaptations. A one-shot crossover manga by Daichi Matsuse and Masahito Watari (illustrator of the KonoSuba manga adaptation) was also included. A fanbook containing commentary on the episodes of the anime, as well as the collected Animate Times cast and staff interviews, was published on December 31, 2016.
Reception
According to Japanese light novel news website LN News, the series had 1 million copies in print as of June 2016, and over 2 million as of September 2016. The light novel series was the tenth best-selling light novel series in Japan between November 2015 and May 2016, selling 263,357 copies. During that period, the first and second volumes were the 35th and 48th best-selling light novel volumes, selling 49,194 and 41,617 copies, respectively. The series was the fourth best-selling series in 2016, selling 1,007,381 copies between November 2015 and November 2016. Its first three volumes were the 14th, 21st, and 30th best selling volumes of the year, selling 155,363, 127,970, and 110,574 copies, respectively. In 2017, the series was the third best-selling series, with 925,671 copies sold. Its 1st, 10th, 11th, and 12th volumes respectively ranking 19th (60,135 copies), 25th (56,001 copies), 7th (101,480 copies), and 12th (79,431 copies) in the period between November 2016 and May 2017.
The series was the 21st best selling anime series on home video during 2016, selling approximately 68,791 Blu-ray and DVD sets.
Theron Martin of Anime News Network reviewed the first book, praising it for being a somewhat fresher take on the "transported to another world" concept, but leveled criticism at it for bumpy and awkwardly timed dialogue and a tendency for redundancy.
The series ranked number one in a poll of 820 people conducted by the Japanese website Anime! Anime! to determine the best show of spring 2016. Andy Hanley from UK Anime Network considered the anime adaptation as one of 2016's best series.
The Managing Editor from Anime Now!, Richard Eisenbeis lists the anime as his top picks from 2016 for its "culturally complex" world and characters that has "their own plans, faults, and motivations". He praised Subaru as the "most complex character of the year" due to provoking the audience to "cheer him and despise him" in a world that portrayed him as the "least special person in it".
The series took second place in the 2015-2016 Newtype Anime Awards. Additionally, director Masaharu Watanabe took first place, as did Subaru, Rem, and Puck (in the best male, female, and mascot character categories, respectively). Masahiro Yokotani's screenplay took second place, while the series' character designs (by Shinichirou Otsuka and Kyuta Sakai) took third place. The series' soundtrack and second opening theme both took fourth place in their categories. The light novels and the anime both took first place in their respective categories in the 2017 Sugoi Japan Awards.
In a survey of (primarily female) Otamart users, the series was ranked second on a list of the most successful anime/manga/light novel franchises of 2016. Re:Zero was nominated for "Anime of the Year" in Crunchyroll's The Anime Awards 2016, and was also the service's most-watched series of 2016, topping Yuri on Ice.
See also
- All You Need Is Kill - a light novel making use of the same time travel mechanism
- Edge of Tomorrow - an American film adaptation of All You Need Is Kill
- Groundhog Day (film) - An American comedy film based on the same time travel mechanism
References
Notes
Citations
External links
- Official light novel website (in Japanese)
- Official web novel website at Sh?setsuka ni Nar? (in Japanese)
- Official anime website (in Japanese)
- Official manga website at Big Gangan (in Japanese)
- Official video game website at 5pb. (in Japanese)
- Re:Zero (light novel) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments