Content Warning: Violent Images and description of character death
Article Contents
Introduction and New Music!
You’ve all heard of empaths. They are characters whose empathy is on a whole other level from normal humans. When an empath sees someone in pain, they feel the exact same kind of pain. Depending on the work of fiction, some empaths can share their powers with others. Most of the time, empaths are portrayed as purely good people and frequent victims of cruel humans. But what if there was an evil empath? In my opinion, Sirius Romanee-Conti from Re: Zero Season 3 is an example of an empath using their powers for evil and forcing others to share in it.
Hello and welcome back to Anime Rants. The second episode of Re: Zero Season 3 was released on Oct 9th, 2024. Unlike the previous installment, which was the equivalent of four episodes of content, this episode was a normal length of about 23 minutes. Today I’ll offer some thoughts and notes about it. I’ll also elaborate a bit more on the introduction topic. But before we jump right into episode 2 content, let’s talk about the new music for the season.
Konomi Suzuki performs the new opening song, “Reweave.” If you like hard rock with female vocals, this song is a real banger. This isn’t the first time Konomi Suzuki has done a song for this series. Many of us associate Re: Zero with that artist and with one other group – the legendary Myth and Roid. They’ve been doing Re: Zero songs since the first season, and this time, they perform the ending song, “Nox Lux.” Although it’s not my favorite of the Myth and Roid songs, it’s definitely good. I like the use of Latin.
One final note before we get into the specifics of the second episode: I love the voice-acting in Re: Zero. This was the first show that really let Yuusuke Kobayashi (voice of Subaru) get established as a voice actor, and he’s awesome. He went on to play Senku in Dr. Stone afterward, proving he can bring to life multiple types of main characters. I’m also a fan of most of the female seiyuu cast, such as Rie Murakawa (voice of Ram).
In season 3, the show-stealer is definitely Chika Anzai, who voices Sirius. Before now, she has had mostly supporting roles playing cute little girls in shows like Hibike Euphonium. Well apparently, she can also sound completely unhinged. As the insane cultist Sirius, she delivers her lines perfectly and proved once and for all what talent she possesses. I hope to see Ms. Anzai appear in anime more frequently after this. And now, let’s move on to more specific notes.
Notes on Episode 2: A Showdown of Fire and Ice
Episode Rating: 8/10
Compared to the pace of events in early season 2, I feel like the third season is moving a lot faster, and I appreciate that. We see several attempts of Subaru to survive and save everyone. He rarely dies twice in one episode, but this installment is an exception. First, Subaru tried going alone so as not to endanger anyone else. As usual, he’s limited by the fact that he can’t tell anyone about his ability.
Subaru immediately went to the clocktower to rescue the captive boy, Lusbel. While this wasn’t a very wise plan, we do need to remember that Subaru probably only has a few minutes to spare. He doesn’t have time to think. Once in the clocktower, he hurries to Lusbel, failing to notice that Sirius is lurking nearby. She uses her powers to link the senses and emotions of Lusbel and Subaru. As a result, Subaru is sick and crippled with fear, just like the little boy. He’s unable to act quickly to save their lives.
With strength that was surprising from a slender, bandaged woman, Sirius proceeded to wrap her barbed chain around Subaru and kick him off the staircase inside the tower. The rest is an absolute nightmare. Subaru and Lusbel continue to be forcibly linked, sharing each other’s terror and pain as Subaru is strangled by the cruelly spiked chain around his neck. As Subaru and Lusbel both die, they hear Sirius promising to kidnap Tina next. Wow.
From this horrific scene, we now have a good understanding of how Sirius’ magic works. Strictly speaking, she wasn’t brainwashing people, but linking herself to them so that they were forced to echo her insane thoughts. Also, anyone who is linked together will share in the exact same death. That explains why, in the first iteration of the clocktower scene, everyone’s heads exploded when Lusbel hit the ground.
Apparently, Sirius can also link two or more individuals together while remaining outside the link herself. That’s why she survived while Lusbel and Subaru died by strangulation. If we’re being super technical, this power isn’t exactly the same as an empath sharing a connection, but it’s very close. It’s an abstract, weaponized form of empath magic that can also selectively save its user. To me, that’s fascinating.
In the next attempt, Subaru uses his head a bit more. He convinces Reinhard’s henchman, Rachins, to send up a magic beacon and summon the knight. Sirius still appears and links everyone around to her insanity. However, Reinhard arrives and swiftly defeats her before she can kill Lusbel. But Reinhard doesn’t understand Sirius’ powers, and Subaru gets forcibly linked before he can explain. So when the knight calmly executes the cultist, everyone else who was connected to her dies, too. Oops.
Subaru’s next idea is for Beatrice and Reinhard to work together to stop Sirius. When he tells Beatrice that the Witch’s Cult will attack soon, she doesn’t question him, so he doesn’t need to worry about revealing his ability. I love the bond between Beatrice and Subaru. They have a unique way of understanding each other. The jokes about Subaru fooling around with a loli are annoying, but they are jokes. Subaru never sexualizes Beatrice, and she understands that their connection cannot be romantic.
Anyway, Beatrice tells Subaru something that I found interesting: she and Reinhard cannot work together due to the way magic works for them. Reinhard is the Sword Saint, a unique existence that completely dominates any surrounding mana without effort. Even though Beatrice is a Great Spirit with a huge amount of mana, Reinhard’s presence would render her no more than a little girl. He would control all the magic in a given area, including hers. Sometimes I forget that the Sword Saint is really OP.
Emilia overhears the talk between Beatrice and Subaru. Despite Subaru’s attempts to dissuade her, she resolves to help in the fight. Beatrice believes that Subaru’s specialty spell, Shamac, will be able to sever the empathy links. However, when Sirius appears and the scene begins to unfold, Beatrice realizes her mistake. The Cultist is using a hex rather than a normal spell, so Shamac won’t be able to stop it. Regardless, Emilia jumps into action and begins an epic fight with Sirius.
I’m genuinely impressed with how well Emilia fought. It obviously wasn’t as effortless for her as it was for Reinhard, but she was actually managing to beat Sirius. In season one, Emilia was a powerful spirit contractor, but now that Puck is gone, I sort of assumed she would be useless. I was very wrong. She’s clearly been training hard with ice magic and various light weapon manipulation. I also enjoyed the visuals during this fight and took lots of screenshots of Emilia being a bad-ass.
Throughout the battle, Sirius was enraged, living up to her title as the Arch-Bishop of Wrath. She fought with roasting hot magenta flames, constantly screaming insults at Emilia. At first, her words make little sense. She says Emilia stole her husband and that she’s a homewrecker. The explanation only became clear after the fight. In the end, Sirius flipped the tables and won by magically transporting another child hostage into her arms. Emilia hesitated to attack because she didn’t want to harm the child. Sirius then used a powerful onslaught of flame, making Emilia pass out.
Before the angry cultist could finish burning her enemy to death, she was interrupted by Corneas Regulus, the Arch-Bishop of Greed. He “rescued” the unconscious Emilia. Holding her in his arms, Corneas announced that he would be taking her as his 79th wife. (We know from Emilia’s flashbacks that he’s at least a hundred years old, but still, that’s a lot of wives.) It’s now clear that Corneas was married to Sirius before dumping her in favor of his new flame, Emilia.
The episode ends with Subaru stunned by the sudden appearance of Corneas Regulus and his reveal about being the Arch-Bishop of Greed. That wraps up the second episode except for one last note. I have a theory about Sirius, and it’s not pleasant. Who else noticed that she has very similar eyes to Emilia? The only other person with those purple eyes is Fortuna. It also looks like she might have pointed ears under the bandages. Sirius could be what’s left of Fortuna after being corrupted by the Witch Factor.
It’s going to suck for Emilia if my theory is correct. If you’ve read the source material or have knowledge of it, please don’t confirm or deny my theory yet. I want to see how it plays out myself if possible. I’m enjoying this season so far and look forward to writing another episode review next week. Until next time, Sayonara!
~Thanks for Reading~
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