Much to my excitement, it’s finally time for the continuation of Re: Zero! The first episode of Season 3 – or episode 51 cumulatively speaking – was called “Theatrical Malice,” and given the chilling ending scenes, this was a very appropriate title. Re: Zero‘s third season is set to be only eight episodes long, but the pilot was an hour and thirty minutes long, so there will be plenty of material covered.
Four normal anime episodes’ worth of content is crammed into “Theatrical Malice.” Therefore, writing a full recap of events would be extremely lengthy, boring and unnecessary. Today, I will instead offer my responses to certain scenes and characters in this episode. It’s still going to be a long ramble, though, so buckle up.
Article Contents
- Subaru’s Growing Maturity
- Garfiel and Mimi
- The Royal Candidates
- Liliana the Song Princess
- Re: Zero’s Problems with Women
- The Sickening Spectacle of Sirius
Subaru’s Growing Maturity
The very first scene in the episode shows Subaru working on some intense physical training. I assume he’s also been working on his magic usage. At least, I very much hope that he’s got more than one spell to throw when desperate. Now that he’s a spirit contractor, Subaru could mostly rely on Beatrice’s power, but we all know he’s not that kind of person. He’ll want to keep improving his own skills. That’s why we love Subaru at the end of the day.
It’s great that he’s getting stronger physically and magically, but more importantly, Subaru continues to show growth in terms of thinking and behavior. There are still moments where I hate Subaru and moments where I laugh at him harshly. But those moments are decreasing in frequency. The truth is that he’s come a long way. One example was when he talked to Wilhelm in the garden at night. I thought that scene was brilliant.
Wilhelm tried to praise Subaru as a hero – after all, he made it possible to defeat the White Whale. But Subaru felt uncomfortable with that and called himself a “useless, insignificant loser.” Wilhelm replied, “Yes, and I quite like the useless, insignificant loser you are.” For once, Wilhelm and I agree on something. It’s of course not true that Subaru is completely useless – but his genuine humility here is a vast improvement over his arrogance early in the story.
Another great moment – or series of moments – was when Heinkel barged into the peaceful breakfast and insulted Wilhelm and Reinhard. He also “jokingly” ordered Subaru’s death and called Emilia a half-Demon. Lady Priscilla only made things worse when she arrived. Subaru was fuming with rage during this entire encounter, but he managed to not act on it. Beatrice helped him a bit by gently touching his hand, but Subaru’s own effort here should not be downplayed.
On a related note, there was the chat with Julius. We all know Subaru doesn’t like the knight. Still, his relationship with Julius is improving. By some definitions, the two are already friends. The comparing and contrasting of Julius and Subaru is keenly interesting to me from a character development standpoint. They both have things they could learn from each other. At the end of the day, even if Subaru will never call Julius his “tomodachi,” they’re still allies, and there is a begrudging respect between them.
I also noticed a lot of small improvements in Subaru. For instance, he’s much more observant of the feelings of others than he used to be. And since he’s naturally empathetic, Subaru will usually be kind and helpful once he actually knows someone is struggling. The best example is how he is looking out for Garfiel. He understands the younger boy’s insecurity. It was very sweet of Subaru to tell Otto, “If you see Garfiel, be nice to him.”
Subaru will always be a bit of an idiot. His throwaway comments often piss me off, and he still shows major impulsivity that can ruin important missions. (He definitely botched Emilia’s attempt to acquire the magic crystal). Nevertheless, I keep coming back to this character because he’s teachable and sincere. Show him how he’s wrong and he’ll do everything he can to make himself better. I’m proud of my boy Subaru.
Garfiel and Mimi
The character writing for Garfiel isn’t perfect, but I like him overall. In the third season, he’s having some difficulty. It’s his first time outside the sanctuary in a long time, and he’s shocked when he discovers that Reinhard is much stronger than him. In case you think this is immature, remember that Garfiel is only fourteen. No longer confident, the beast-boy requests some time off to think. But when he’s alone, he’s haunted by hallucinations of Elsa the Vampire, mocking his weakness.
Just then, Mimi arrives and helps cheer up Garfiel. To be honest, I forgot who Mimi was when she appeared earlier in the episode. She’s one of the beastfolk from Anastasia’s camp, and the “oldest” of triplet siblings. I love Mimi’s energy. She would make a great girlfriend for Garfiel. She obviously likes him a lot. Also, before you call me weird for shipping these two, know that Mimi is fifteen. She just looks five because Re:Zero has a serious problem with making girls look too young. (Don’t worry – I will rant about that in a later section.)
Anyway, I loved the scenes with Garfiel and Mimi in this episode. Not only are both characters entertaining on their own, but they bring out a lot of positive energy by being together. Of course, I’m sure they’re in for a stressful time soon. You see, Garfiel and Mimi were taking a kid home who was out too late. By pure chance, that kid’s mom also seems to be Garfiel’s birthmother. We don’t know how the temperamental beast-boy is going to react to this encounter.
(Side note: if you’re wondering why I put “Tigers” in the title of this article, there are two reasons. Firstly, I was referring to the song “Lions and Tigers and Bears – Oh My!” from The Wizard of Oz. And secondly, I was referencing Garfiel as the tiger. The funniest moment of this episode, in my opinion, was when he introduced himself to the kids as “Gorgeous Tiger!”)
The Royal Candidates
Next, I’ll go over my thoughts on five of the most important female characters in Re: Zero. I’m talking about the Royal Candidates: Anastasia, Crusch, Emilia, Felt, and Priscilla. We’ll go in alphabetical order. Firstly, Anastasia Hoshin is a great businesswoman. Each of the royal candidates have interesting personalities, but I think Anastasia is the most “modern” and independent of them. I love that she’s clever but not cruel. Interestingly, Anastasia seems slightly less sexualized to me as well.
My personal favorite of the candidates has always been Crusch Karsten. She’s my favorite because she’s such a capable fighter and a strong woman. It hit me hard when she lost her memories in season 2. But to be honest, I’m just grateful that she didn’t die. Although her chances of winning are slimmer now, Crusch remains a candidate for the next ruler of Lugnica. I was glad to see her a little closer to her old self in this episode, eager to regain her standing and kill the Arch-Bishop of Gluttony.
(Side note: Felix, was hilarious when he said he had ulterior motives for serving Crusch. I laughed out loud at that part. Whether or not he’s joking about being romantically interested, he definitely loves Crusch in one way or another. And I think that’s adorable.)
Then there’s Emilia. In addition to being Subaru’s main love interest, she’s a fairly interesting character in her own right. I didn’t always like her, but that’s because she reminds me of myself in several ways. There were worlds in which she was far too dependent on Subaru, but I believe Emilia is much healthier and more confident in the current timeline after passing the trials. I liked how she was able to calmly handle the insults from Heinkel.
Felt is the fourth candidate. Though she has accomplished a lot for the poor people of the capital over the past year, she doesn’t have much political momentum going for her. Reinhard the Sword Saint is her knight, but he’s somewhat fallen out of favor himself since his father refuses to let him inherit the estate and wealth of the Astrea family. I hope Felt isn’t forced out of the running too early. She deserves a chance as ruler since she cares about the common folk of Lugnica.
I have issues with the way Felt is designed, since it seems like she is being sexualized. However, I like Felt’s personality a lot. She’s stubborn, independent, and street-smart. Despite her love of action and disdain for boring routine, Felt is actually a logical thinker who will usually choose rationally at the end of the day. She’s also charismatic, meaning that most people can look past her lack of traditional court manners.
On the subject of Felt, I just want to say that I hate the idea of she and Reinhard being romantically involved. The Sword Saint is 20 years old and Felt is 15. There is no official confirmation of their relationship, but Subaru seems to think Reinhard likes Felt. Gross. It’s true that Reinhard complimented Felt’s appearance in an evening kimono, but I didn’t think it was a sexually charged comment at all. Let’s just hope that Subaru is wrong and Reinhard isn’t a pedophile.
The last of the Royal Candidates is Priscilla Barielle. I’m sure she has her own lovers in the Re: Zero fandom, but I don’t think I’m alone in hoping that she loses. I don’t hate Priscilla as a character. In fact, I’m easily turned on by dominant women. However, I would hate her as the ruler of Lugnica. She’s about as smart as Anastasia, but instead of being friendly and charming, she’s cold and haughty. Priscilla also has a terrible temper, and even when she’s calm, she seems to enjoy manipulating and looking down on people.
Priscilla’s most interesting moment in this episode was when she danced to Liliana’s music. Unlike Subaru and Emilia, I’m not surprised that Priscella sometimes has the urge to dance. She’s not so one-dimensional that she’s incapable of being happy. In addition, I wasn’t surprised by Priscilla when she calmly handled Liliana’s refusal to work for her.
We learned back in season one that Priscella respects those who maintain their personal dignity. She kicked Subaru because he threw that away. On the other hand, Liliana bravely proclaimed that nothing could ever hold her down. I think Priscilla saw herself in Liliana at that moment. That stuff about viewing the world as her personal garden was probably true too, but she might have had a human moment there. That concludes my thoughts on the five Royal Candidates for now.
Liliana the Song Princess
Liliana is a talented bard who sings her heart out for some extra coin. Although she explains she is a traveler who doesn’t stay in one place too long, she is currently living in the water-gate city of Priestella, where she is known as the Song Princess (“Utahime”). She is a skinny girl with tan skin, blond hair, and golden eyes. If you’ve seen Liliana in this episode for the first time, you will probably be shocked to learn that she’s twenty-two years old.
I’ve had it up to here with Re: Zero‘s absurd character designs for the female supporting cast. Felt looks more like ten or twelve than fifteen. Mimi looks five and she’s fifteen. Liliana looks fourteen or so but is twenty-two. There’s a clear pattern here. Liliana’s character design is almost certainly a way to pander to pedophiles, and that’s disgusting. To cope, I’ve decided to head-canon Liliana as a trans girl. This explains her physique somewhat. It’s satsifying to think that I’m pissing off transphobic pedophiles this way. 🙂
Despite hating the character design, I do like Liliana’s personality. She’s a carefree goofball for the most part, but has genuine talent with singing, playing her instrument, and coming up with lyrics on the spot. Furthermore, Liliana has a greedy, money-hungry side to her character that I find amusing. The seiyuu who voices Liliana is Aya Yamane, and as far as I can tell from the cast listings, she does the singing for Liliana as well. Her voice is stunningly beautiful. I enjoyed all her songs, including the makeshift duet with Subaru.
Re: Zero’s Problems with Women
Although I enjoyed this episode, it also reminded me of a painful truth: Re: Zero has problems with the way it writes and designs female characters. I already ranted about one of the major design issues, which is making the characters look like little girls even when they are teenagers or young adults. If you need another example, take “Betty.” There is no reason for Beatrice, a great spirit who is hundreds of years old, to present herself as a tiny lolita.
(Side note: Thankfully, Beatrice isn’t one of the characters that gets outright sexualized often. Still, making her into a classic loli feels like very cheap pandering and in poor taste. You just know there are weirdos out there picking Betty as a waifu and sexualizing her.)
Besides the age issues, the female characters are also very sexualized in a general sense. For example, look at Emilia’s ridiculous outfit and how it gives her breasts absolutely no support. This issue doesn’t really bother me when the characters are adults. I’m even ok with most of the sexualizing of Emilia, since she’s roughly eighteenish. When it comes to characters like Crusch and Priscilla who are clearly over twenty, it’s not an issue for me, provided they also have interesting personalities (and in my opinion, they do).
If you asked me back in season one, I would have said that Re: Zero doesn’t write strong female characters. “The girls are all too helpless,” I would have complained. But this is an overly shallow way of looking at the assortment of characters in the anime. First of all, there are good examples of strong and independent female characters like Crusch and Anastasia. Secondly, not every empowered woman needs to be some kind of warrior or CEO.
Ram is a woman who is “strong” in the sense that she’s determined, feisty, and sassy. However, she’s not great at her job, and relies on her sister for help. This is a realistic flaw for Ram, who grew up training as an Oni warrior and not a housemaid. The other best example is Emilia. She may not be what you think of as a strong woman, but it’s been empowering to see her slowly improve. Emilia is the female equivalent of Subaru – rather pathetic, but teachable and genuine, so you can’t help rooting for her.
Compared to most trashy fantasy isekais, Re: Zero is much less about male wish fulfilment. It has Subaru going through absolute hell, after all. The female characters in Re: Zero are usually interesting and multi-faceted. Not all of them are love interests, either. But at the end of the day, they were designed to be hot and/or cute and/or pretty to look at. Re: Zero can write excellent women with compelling character arcs, but it also objectifies them.
If someone can’t stand Re: Zero for this reason, I respect their choice to avoid the anime. As for me, I can wade through the shit in order to enjoy the bits of good character writing. I think it’s important to call out an anime when it’s being misogynistic, but that doesn’t mean I hate that anime or its characters. That wraps up the topic of women in Re: Zero.
The Sickening Spectacle of Sirius
Re: Zero is the most famous dark isekai anime for a reason. The horrors within it never cease to be, well, horrendous. The unsettling events are both thrilling and sickening, and this Re: Zero tradition continues here. At the end of the episode, a cultists shows up, demanding attention from atop a clocktower in the center of town. And she’s not just any cultist – she’s Sirius Romanee-Conti, the Arch-Bishop of Wrath. That makes her one of the seven leaders of the Witch’s Cult.
The scene that follows is disturbing on multiple levels. I’m not going to retell the whole event in detail. But bascially, Sirius hypnotizes the crowd, whips them up into a religious frenzy, and shows them a young boy she has cruelly tied up. Preaching about love and the beautiful world, Sirius forces the crowd to applaud what she’s doing. She then drops the struggling, weeping child off the clocktower.
Everyone who was under the cultist’s hypnosis died at the same second that the child’s head smashed against the ground. It looked like their heads all exploded. I don’t know how Sirius’ magic works yet, but it seems that killing a sacrifice also results in the deaths of the audience in the same manner. Subaru is immediately reborn a few hours into the past, where he is talking with Liliana, Emilia, and Beatrice about getting snacks.
I said this was disturbing on several levels, and those levels include the violence of the massacre, the terror and suffering of the helpless little boy, and the freakish behavior of Sirius. This was all well-written and directed to make a truly unsettling scene. However, I think the moment that impressed me the most was when Subaru was reborn.
He was frozen in shock for a few seconds before slowly covering his mouth and sinking to the ground, sick to the stomach. He remembered cheering and clapping while the innocent child cried for help. The true horror was that he could be brainwashed into supporting something so awful. I think that’s absolutely brilliant writing. And also horrifying. 🙂
~Thanks for reading~
Anime Rants 
Re Zero goes as far as to be self aware of the loli connection. Hence characters accusing Subaru of liking little girls.
I think it is a Japanese thing. Japan seems to have a thing for adolescent and even prepubescent females. (As an example, take the author of Rurouni Kenshin.) It was only a few years ago that kiddie porn was legal in Japan. In fact, females in general have a more difficult there there than in most developed countries.
You also have to control for the target audience which is teenage boys. The 15 year old boys are going to want the 15 year old girl to look like the 15 year old girl of their fantasies and not a real 15 year old girl.
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