English Dub Review: Re:ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~ “The Taste of Death”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Subaru and Beatrice discuss her book, her contract with the library, and her desire to die. Unfortunately, Elsa appears and forces the two to escape with shadow magic. They run into Elsa’s partner, Meili Portroute, a young malbeast tamer who informs them that she’s already taken care of the two maids in the village. Beatrice fights Elsa only to die by Elsa’s sneak attack and using the last of her power she transports Subaru to the prison where it’s snowing outside. Subaru enters the ruins to find Emilia who confesses that she loves him and acts weird. Subaru goes to Roswaal with Garfiel for answers.

However, Roswaal slaughters both Ram and Garfiel who nearly went into a flying rage. Subaru demands to know what in the world he is planning. Roswaal assesses his feelings and shows Subaru his book of wisdom. Roswaal reveals his scheme of isolating Emilia and throws Subaru out of the cabin. The Great Rabbit approaches as Roswaal tells Subaru to focus on the thing that he cares for most in the world before being eaten by the rabbits. Subaru arrives back at the graveyard to Emilia with pieces of his flesh already devoured by the rabbits as he dies once again with Emilia’s voice in his ear.

Our Take:

Re:Zero certainly has a way of flipping my expectations. Admittedly I expected Subaru to die at the halfway point of the episode and return, but we get a whole episode to reveal a lot of things. For example, what happens when a spirit dies, how Subaru’s absence has impacted Emilia, and Roswaal’s schemes.

Beatrice’s desire to be released from her contract and die was a tearjerker. Most tired immortals end up being like that, but hopefully, Subaru will overwrite her contract in the future. Her voice actor, Kira Buckland did a good job of portraying Beatrice’s sadness in that scene. Her contract is to oversee the library of knowledge, so therefore it makes sense that her contract is with Echidna, who is known for her desire for knowledge. Furthermore, Beatrice’s book being mostly empty was a good surprise. However, it stands to reason that her current actions are contradictory to the emptiness of the book implying that she does have the will to step outside of the boundaries of the book. Now Beatrice’s fight with Elsa was good and I didn’t expect the crystalized shadow magic that Beatrice used to crush Elsa until the sneak attack from the Bowel Hunter struck her. Beatrice’s death was animated beautifully with the streams of blue light dispersing from her body. Furthermore, in this loop, we get the introduction of Elsa’s partner, the young girl who played with the other kids in the village and that was another unexpected twist that I enjoyed. This small detail from season one makes the story more layered than most animes and I have a great appreciation for it.

Then there’s Emilia and her unusual behavior when Subaru reaches her in the graveyard. Emilia’s voice actor, Kayli Mills did a great job with that scene because the unusual cheerfulness made Emilia’s demeanor feel off somehow. Emilia’s words contradicted her goal and her confession felt wrong as Subaru noticed. According to Subaru, it’s only been two days since he left, and for her to be isolated because of Roswaal’s magical snow while she’s going through the trial. Considering how much her trial forces her to face the disgusted looks from people, it’s no wonder Emilia broke down in that short amount of time especially without Subaru or Puck by her side. There’s also the last scene where Emilia cheerfully ignores the severity of his wounds and the way the camera moved like the end of a film roll. That scene was jarring in every sense and shows that this Emilia doesn’t have the same empathy as she did before and she almost seems like a witch’s rather a person with common sense.

Lastly, all the tiny hints from Roswaal and Subaru’s conversations from the previous episodes have been building up to that conversation where Roswaal has Subaru pinned down after stabbing Ram and Garfiel. While Roswaal may not know the exact name for Subaru’s ability to return, he knows for sure that Subaru has an ability that allows him to go back in time based on Subaru’s dialogue and his unexpected reaction to Ram and Garfiel’s death. Furthermore, the two are alike in a way that they’ll do anything to achieve their goals, and that Roswaal of all people advises that Subaru needs to focus on that one goal before being devoured by the Great Rabbit. Roswaal’s schemes run deep and he could have coordinated that to have an impact on Subaru for when he returns. Why else would he let the Great Rabbit devour him when he could just blast them all? At any rate, Subaru will have to think of a way to prevent Roswaal from isolating Emilia, but with the short timeline he’s got with the mansion, it’ll have to be quick too.

Overall the episode was twisted and it appears that we’ll arrive at a new beginning with Subaru back at the ruins again. It’s just a matter of seeing how Subaru will make the adjustments to his plan to save everyone now.