Re: ZERO -Starting Life In Another World- (Ep 1 -13)

"This is bad. . . Very Bad"

"Subaru-Kun, Is something wrong?"

This review is something I've been waiting to do for quite some time, as I wanted to wait until I was an supple amount of episodes in. "Re: Zero -Starting Life In Another World-" Is an ongoing anime series that takes place in an mythical world. The anime begins in an eerie way, as you hear the sounds of someone struggling to get the words from his mouth. Simply stating it is bad; then cuts to a scene of a modern day world where our heroic protagonist Subaru is seen exiting out of a convenience store. Only for seconds later his eyes to blur, and he literally appears in a new world.

Being the shut in that he was, this was not an alarming experience but one full of thrill and excitement. As he thought himself to be the protagonist, and his life was now beginning and he would be off on an heroic journey-- whatever that may have been. That would be a sore mistake as he would quickly learn, as he would end up almost getting robbed. . Until he is saved by a mysterious woman with white hair. . This-- is when the story begin to take off.

I will not state any more then what I have, but it is safe to say that this show will take you by surprise. As it has a very MMORPG feel from the beginning, the tones and situations that it touches up on will eventually start to take you on an emotional adventure that would have you begin to question 'Why would he do this?' or even more-so 'Would I have done anything different?'

I will begin my review by going with the animation quality. From the very first episode you could tell the distinct style that this anime portrayed in the 40 minutes long special. The ambience and beauty that came from the scene of Episode 1A, to the gruesome details that is foretold in episode 1B. The quality of animation in this series never seems to falter or sway. In fact as the episodes progress, it seems to only increase in the quality.  Thus, in my eyes this anime does a very good job at the tones it uses. Utilizing color schemes and shifts in shading to portray the mood of the scenes.

Which brings me to the bulk of this show-- the characters. I will not spoil anything, but I will say that this anime has quite the depth in character development. Subaru shifts extremely from Episode 1 to Episode 13 in such a masterful way, watching the character grow, make mistakes, grow, grow confidence, get cocky, get completely destroyed, grow. Watching Subaru learning to adapt, is one of the reasons this anime is great. And it isn't only Subaru, the characters revolving around the character gets fine development as well. People you think you will never see again pops up when the time is right, and everything seems to have significance.

I could go on and on, but so far (As of 7/11/16) this anime is only up to episode 15. And I must say this may be the best anime of 2016 in my eyes, one of the best I have seen in a long while. The writing of it is superb, each episode will have you wanting another as the cliff hangers are laid out in tasteful ways. It is addicting, it is thrilling, it is unexpected and most of all. . It plays with your thoughts. It is an experience in it's own respect, and because of that. .

I reward this anime, a 5/5.