English Dub Review: Remake Our Life! “Showing Off”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As Kyoya adjusts to suddenly finding himself in the year 2018, he tries to find out what happened to his friends from the Platinum Generation.

Our Take:

We usually thought that fixing our past mistakes would make our lives better. But from what Kyoya has discovered, it somehow seemed to change his future. Last week’s episode saw Kyoya making a crucial error in his plan to remake his life by accidentally making Tsurayuki drop out of school. Even worse is that Tsurayuki quit writing altogether because he was too reliant on Kyoya. As a result, Kyoya unexpectedly wakes up 11 years in the future, but it’s not the future that Kyoya originally came from.  

Instead, he winds up in an alternate timeline where he’s married to Aki and has a daughter named Maki Hashiba. Kyoya is also now working for a gaming company called Attraction Point in Noborito. Unfortunately, the company’s known for making free-to-play mobile games rather than console games. On the bright side, Eiko works for the same organization as Kyoya.

Although, the remaining roommates of House Kitayama weren’t so fortunate with their alternate paths. Despite Kyoya helping Nanako with her singing issue, she retired from her career as a virtual idol because she failed to make a successful outing. Additionally, Tsurayuki didn’t move forward with his writing career since he dropped out. As for Aki, she quit drawing altogether because she didn’t have as much fun as before. Kyoya then discovers that these changes are due to him rushing his friends to finish the game 11 years ago.

This episode is at a point in every time-traveling plot where the main character attempted to change things in the past for the better, only to realize it has dire consequences for the future. It’s reminiscent of the “Butterfly Effect”. A single change makes all the difference.

On the one hand, this makes the show’s climax feel similar to the previous time-traveling movies and shows that came before it. On the other hand, it marks a satisfyingly different direction for Remake Our Life, with Kyoya struggling with the consequences of his actions in an alternate future instead of working on a project with his friends. More importantly, it still contains the same elements from previous episodes, including Kyoya helping someone regain confidence in their passion. “Showing Off”, in particular, showcases Kyoya helping the company’s illustrator, Minori Saikawa, when she hits a mental block in her drawings.  

This drew parallels to Aki, in which both felt uninspired to continue drawing due to them focusing on priorities instead of having fun with their passions. Of course, this is caused by Kyoya’s desire to get the game out in time instead of letting them express their talents at their own pace. It’s a matter of quantity over quality regarding people’s desires for their passions, and “Showing Off” marks a compelling start of this topic that might carry over the last remaining episodes of the show’s first season.