English Dub Review: Re:ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~ “Each One’s Promise”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Promises are the bridges that connect each character to one another.

The episode picks up after the battle against the Witch Cult’s Sin Archbishop of Sloth with our hero, Subaru in a carriage with his beloved Emilia. Subaru expresses how grateful he is to the people that helped him so far. His thoughts trail off to Rem and he brings up Rem to Emilia. Unfortunately, she has no recollection of Rem and Subaru realizes with horror that something must have happened to Rem’s group.

Sure enough in the next scene, more Sin Archbishops make their move. The Sin Archbishop of Greed, Regulus Corneas, and the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Lye Batenkaitos attack Rem and Crusch’s group. The nefarious duo leaves Crusch without her memories and Rem without her existence to other people.

After restarting his life to the moment in the carriage, Subaru stays by Rem’s bedside and Puck gives a bit of information on who erased her existence from the others. Now with Crusch without her memories, Crusch’s faction has to reconsider the alliance with Emilia because of the information given. After a bit of discussion, the alliance continues with plans to meet up with Ram’s group. Subaru visits Rem with Emilia who comforts him, and then Subaru swears to save Rem.

Our Take: 

Promises hold the episode together as from the beginning the audience is reminded of the promise Petra made to Subaru about staying right by Emilia. Then it extends to Rem to the Sin Archbishops on Subaru as she fights the Sin Archbishops. Lastly Subaru to Rem on saving her from the Sleeping Beauty condition she’s in. It connects the characters together as the story shows how important those bonds are in times of trouble, especially for Subaru. Subaru relies on his connection to the others to get things done after all.

There’s the subject of the alliance between Crusch and Emilia. Since Crusch’s memory is now gone, her party has to reconsider being allies with the Witch Cult’s main target. While Felix and Wilhelm have their opinions, it’s ultimately Crusch’s decision with a spark of her former self to fight rather than just sit back. The small smile on her face as she made that decision brings back Rem and Crusch’s conversation before they were attacked on the topic of smiling and Crusch’s flaw of not being able to smile. It’s a chance for Crusch to overcome that particular flaw along with getting her memories back and trying to lead her faction.

Now the camera direction of this episode was done well. The brief flashes of Rem’s memory as they quickly get devoured in her fight against the Sin Archbishops before the screen goes to a burning image of Lye. The fact that her last memories were of her time with Subaru was a punch in the gut and showed how much she treasured those memories. Additionally, they don’t show Crusch’s face when she went to fetch Subaru, but the audience can still realize her situation through her conversation with him and the tone of her voice in comparison to the early part of the episode when she was still a serious warrior.

Overall the episode was a good way to refresh the audience’s memory of the events in the first season while opening the stage to the next act. Next week will surely pick back up on the alliance’s next course of action against the Witch Cult. Subaru’s struggles in the season have only just begun.