Anime Lovers

Re:Zero Season 3 episode 5 may have been the best so far for some reasons, but not for others. The constant over-the-top facial expressions and wonderful animation production were undoubtedly the highlights of this week’s episode for me but it still had drawbacks.

The Pros

Going back and watching the episode for a second time like I usually do before these reviews, it was even clearer how much attention to detail went into the facial expressions of this episode. They’ve already been absolutely fantastic this season, especially last week, but with Capella finally getting more screen time, it just paved the way for the production team to have a ball with her character.

There were many times I had to stop, rewind, and play scenes over and over again because of just how expressive Capella’s character was in this episode. There are so many different faces that you could make a scrapbook from them. It really elevated her character and the voice-acting performance by Aoi Yuki. I was impressed throughout the entire episode.

But it goes beyond the facial expressions. The animation and impact frames were probably my favorite highlights of the episode. Every time an impact was made, the screen would shake and blur, giving these scenes a super realistic feel to them. It may be hard to notice through the first watch, but when you look at them carefully, it’s amazing the level of details you’d find.

I think the other highlight of the production was the storyboard work by Susumu Nishizawa. Of course, some credit still has to go towards episode director Kazue Ootsuki, and the animation directors Kenji Terao and Hitomi Miura as well, but the storyboard itself stood out to me the most. Nishizawa had a knack for framing things properly in this episode to draw your attention to specific characters. Just take a look at the examples below:

The constant use of bright on dark, or vice versa, backgrounds and foregrounds was a nice touch that I loved from this episode that seemed to have stood out from the previous ones. While the action still feels like it hasn’t really reached its peak, now with Reinhard set to join the battle, the scene setups from a storyboard and art perspective looked great.

And again, this constant blur and shake effect that was used at high-impact moments breathed a little life into the moments themselves. Outside of a few animation hiccups with the dragon, they were undoubtedly some of the best that I’ve watched so far this season along with others, like from the currently airing anime series Mecha-Ude. The action in Re:Zero Season 3 continues to pile on to the thrills so I can only imagine what it’s going to look like when things get really serious.

The Drawbacks

I think the few things that I didn’t really care for in this episode were just personal taste rather than being something negative on an objective level. For example, the constant yelling throughout almost 23 minutes can be a bit of a headache. I get the Sin Archbishops are evil and have wild personalities, but it’s comforting in a very weird way to know that when Corneas is on the screen he’s not about to yell to the top of his lungs to people five feet in front of him.

Lye, Capella, Sirius—all three of them have this innate obsession with screaming at anyone in front of them. Yuki’s performance as Capella? Fantastic. Absolutely incredible work. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t cheering for Subaru like my team just won the World Series after he whipped a boulder to Capella’s face just to keep her quiet for a few seconds.

Another drawback for me in this episode was how soft Emilia was. I understand she’s in a vulnerable state—in a place she doesn’t know and with intimidating people. Waking up in that situation will probably worry the majority of people in the first place. But given how she just fought Sirius without any hesitation a few episodes ago to now being this damsel in distress is kind of offputting. I have no idea if it has to do with Corneas on a magical level, but it was almost like one side of Emilia that we know is completely gone.

She went from taking on a Sin Archbishop and standing up to Heinkel to now doing nothing but worry. I know it has always been in Emilia’s nature to be caring and worrying for those she loves if they’re in trouble, and it would go against her nature if she wasn’t. But this episode portrayed her as completely helpless in a way, almost as if she forgot just how capable she actually is.

The third drawback was the scene with Sirius and Anastasia. After having Mimi’s brothers, Hetaro and Tivey, buy Anastasia time so she could escape, the hallway scene felt extremely out of place due to the situation’s urgency. Being stopped in the hallway and having this random second push of reassurance to Anastasia was odd considering she has a Sin Archbishop right on her back and the city is flooded. It made me wish someone would pop up and scream “Would you just get going already!”

The Lingering Mysteries

The episode also did a good job of leaving some story points open. Where is Crusch going to be taken to knowing that Subaru tied her to the dragon? Did Subaru die at the end when he fell in the water or is Garfiel, possibly Reinhard, going to save him? What’s going to happen to Emilia? Did Number 184 show a little bit of emotion there at the end with Emilia but repressed it immediately? Also, is it going to be revealed that Wilhelm is possibly fighting his late wife after having another quick moment of curiosity?

There are so many storylines going on right now but none of them feel overbearing. The script seems to be rather tight-knit and I think Eiji Umehara’s work in this episode could be the reason for that. But there’s no doubt that Re:Zero Season 3 will continue to make its push for anime of the season at the rate it’s going.

Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 5 Wrap-Up

Re:Zero Season 3 continues to show off its healthy production muscles as we build up to the climax of the current arc. Fans have waited years for this season and it’s paying dividends. As I’ve said before, I don’t think Re:Zero will regress to anything below the quality we’re used to seeing at this point. It’s a fantastic series that I think will continue to get even better.

Episode 5 rating: 9.5/10
Episode 4 rating: 8/10
Episode 3 rating: 8.5/10
Episode 2 rating: 10/10
Episode 1 rating: 8/10

If you enjoyed Re:Zero Season 3 episode 5 then be sure to vote for it in the weekly poll! Re:Zero Season 3 episode 6 will be released on Wednesday, November 6.

Images from Crunchyroll
©Tappei Nagatsuki, KADOKAWA/Re:ZERO3 PARTNERS