The other night, I decided to start watching Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-. It's a isekai series that's been filled under my watch later list for some years now. The series, and more than one of its characters, made my worth remembering list.

Re:zero takes a very different perspective than most series involving another world, of which there are loads. Instead it's much more story and character focused, than conceptualized for entertainment.

Subaru's return by death trick leads him to an interesting directive: just because people can't remember what happened before a reset, does not mean they are any less important. Which is also leveraged in multiple directions, such as the discovery of who murders him during the second arc.

In the first arc, we're pretty much given a straight forward scenario of Subaru trying to save the kind hearted Emilia, known to him under the alias Satella. I kind of like that over the course of the story, while Emilia largely remains true to that awesome-kindness in the beginning, the point is made that she isn't the ideal in Subaru's head--real people aren't ideal.

By the time that is resolved, and things head into the mansion my interest was kind of permanently priqued. It's moved from an almost CYOA scenario into something more mysterious and with room for the characters. Oh, and the way Ram and Rem carry on....especially together. It's like someone tried to push all my right buttons, lol.

For the most part the series is pretty grisly, and definitely not for the squeamish. Subaru's resolve is tested far more often than the utility of his death resetting time. Often with the other characters paying the price. But it's also an incredibly good story. The gore is more of a consequence, as the series focuses much more on the emotion that comes with Subaru's battle, to not give up.

Oddly, by the great conversation between Subaru and Rem on the roof, I've come to see a lot of my own nature in that supporting character. Morbidly, she is also one of the most frequently killed characters given her closeness to Subaru.

I do kind of have to wonder though, what the state of the novels might be. Seems like there are a lot of those. Where as the anime, is only about 26 episodes or so.