Every week, I visit over 270 anime sites looking for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. These are my five favorite posts for the week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
You can see a list of the sites I check here: Massive List of Sites!
All the Anime
Rental Magica
There are some anime series like Rental Magica that have assumed almost mythic proportions in my imagination. It’s a combination of when I watched the series, the themes the series presented, and the characters that drive the series. For example, I felt bad for Itsuki Iba but admired his courage, and I loved pretty much everything about Honami Takase Ambler. But I don’t see many bloggers write about it. Andrew Osmond, on the site All the Anime, attracted my attention at first just because of the subject matter. But Andrew Osmond kept my attention with his detailed treatment of what made the story distinct — including a trait it shared with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Princess Principal. See if he talked about what you enjoyed in the series!
DoubleSama
KONOSUBA: GOD’S BLESSING ON THIS WONDERFUL WORLD! 3 EPISODE 4 REVIEW
Writing comedy is hard. Speaking from experience, I think writing humor is significantly more challenging than any other genre I’ve written. That’s why, when I find a comedy series that works, it disproportionately impresses me. That’s the case with KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3. I’ve often wondered how a show, especially one that’s in its third season, still makes me laugh. And then I found this post by DoubleSama on the site DoubleSama. I think his explanation of why the humors works is spot on. Not only that, I enjoyed reading his other observations about this episode. I think you’ll enjoy reading it, too!
Hanime on Anime
Character of the Month: Sung Jinwoo
I’ve read a lot of good reviews of Solo Leveling in general and its main character, Jin-Woo Sung, its main character, in particular. Enough that the show is already on my backlog. So, when I came across this post by Hanime on Anime, on the site Hanime on Anime, I anticipated a pleasant read — I enjoy Hanime on Anime’s lucid and witty style. But I wasn’t sure what new perspective I’d gain. But Hanime on Anime went above-and-beyond on this one. She talked about Sung Jinwoo’s best qualities in a way I’d not read before. It reminded me a lot of why I so enjoyed this Chris Fox video about heroes. I’d go so far as to say it’s something I’d like to see more of. Go see what I’m talking about!
Muse of Eagle
Anime Review: Bungo Stray Dogs, Season 5
I enjoy reading thoughtful reviews. I enjoy reading reviews that make me think, or touch on moments from the episode or series that resonated with me. But there’s a type of review that I enjoy even more, and that’s when a writer shares their personal reaction to those moments. That’s one of the most distinctive things a writer can share in a post. Plot synopsis? Sure, it’s important. But it’s widely available, even if presented well. Tanish Shrivastava, on the site Muse of Eagle, shared his reaction to key parts of Bungo Stray Dogs 5, and this post is the only place where I can read about it. How cool is that?
The Traditional Catholic Weeb
Anime Review #123: Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End
I recently finished binging Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. I had intended to ration myself to a few episodes a week. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I finished in less than two weeks. If you’ve seen the series, you know why that happened. Of course, I only started watching it after reading dozens of reviews, most of which glowed with praise. So, when I came across The Traditional Weeb’s review on the site The Traditional Catholic Weeb, I wondered if we really needed another review of the series. After reading The Traditional Catholic Weeb’s review, I can report that yes, we do need another review — this review, in fact! He captured a lot of what made the series shine, and he presented it from his unique philosophical perspective. Go see what I mean!
Want to Read More of My Favorite Anime Post Lists?
Want to explore more amazing anime blog posts? Check out the previous editions of My Favorite Anime Community Posts!
Want to Read Favorite Posts from Other Sites?
- The Afictionado: Spice Up Your Life: April ’24 Roundup
- Anime Feminist: Weekly Round-Up, 24-30 April 2024: Skateboarding Josei, pixiv TOS Changes, and They Were Eleven
- LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER: Anime and Light Novel Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (May 3, 2024)
- Phoenix Talks Pop Culture Japan: April 2024 Monthly Favorites
As anime-watchers up to Season 2 know, the lore of the Witches of Sin was falsified. That is why Crusch wrongly believed that Satella created the White Whale when it was Daphne who did so. If you didn’t know, Subaru not only means “Pleiades” but also “unite”, and this is likely one of the reasons why the lore was falsified, and that is so Subaru can unite the world against Satella at the end of the story.
What I find very interesting is that Beatrice spread the false legend of Satella, the Witch of Envy, consuming the other Witches of Sin in Season 1, which in light of Season 2, suggests that Beatrice was instructed to do by Echidna given Echidna said that information to Subaru despite knowing that it was false as if Satella really consumed the other Witches of Sin and used them for sustenance there would not be a corpse of Echidna at the Sanctuary, which means this information cannot be true.
Echidna is an extremely calculating person. There’s no way she spread a false piece of information for shits and giggles. Therefore, I put it out there that uniting the world against Satella is not the only reason the lore of the Witches of Sin was falsified. I propose that a secondary reason to falsify this information would be to obscure or make lost to history what the dead Witches of Sin were capable of, and that would be ’cause those Witches will be revived. Just like how Emilia’s choice to say her name is Satella was meant to scare Subaru off because she didn’t want to put Subaru in danger and because he was slowing her down, I propose there are two reasons why the lore of the Witches of Sin was falsified.
Previously, I predicted that Ram’s horn will be fully restored due to Minerva’s resurrection. There is a reason I believe Ram’s horn will be restored if you’ll bear with me. As the principal goal of Re:zero’s story is to have Subaru love himself, I believe in the final battle against Satella that Reinhard will be incapacitated, either because he was sealed or because he died somehow.
Thus, I believe the final battle will require Subaru’s allies to be as strong as possible, and a full-power Ram as well as a new Sword Saint who would take Reinhard’s place, who would be someone from the existing cast, with Julius or Garfiel probably being good candidates, would fit the bill. It would do a lot for Subaru’s confidence if he could beat the most feared being in the world without Reinhard.
How would Reinhard even get sealed? I believe there will be a plot to seal Subaru, and it won’t be just any seal, but a seal that if broken, results in the person who was sealed dying. Now I know what you’re thinking… Why would there would be a seal that kills the person sealed if the seal is broken when you can just kill that person?
The simple answer is that everything from Seasons 1 and 2 and even hundreds of years before that was planned out in advance with Echidna having Roswaal drawn Subaru into the Emilia camp, with Pandora or someone else commanding the White Whale to leave Subaru alone so that he could make it back to Roswaal’s mansion and inadvertently kill Emilia by invoking the Taboo, leading to the From Zero moment, with Subaru being trapped with the Sanctuary and mansion dilemma that required him to sacrifice nobody to succeed and lean on his friends, which Echidna deliberately pushed him toward even if she seemed to really want Subaru to accept her contract on the surface. Therefore, there should be a future seal that kills the person sealed if the seal is broken because it is another plot to trap Subaru into making a very specific decision, and that would be to get Reinhard to be sealed.
If you’re not understanding what I mean, I believe there will be a plot to seal Subaru because it is meant to force Subaru to loop until he has Reinhard take one for the team and be sealed. Why would the Witch Cult come up with such a convoluted plan? That would be because I surmise that Witch Cult Gospels do not truly tell the future but are merely connected to Echidna’s mind through magic, so she can make whatever she wants to appear in any Gospel, and since Witch Cultists try to follow their Gospel exactly, they would make such a weird seal and not question their Gospels’ instructions.
I believe Gospels exist to shepherd the world to the future a group of characters from 400 years ago, which includes Echidna, Pandora, Satella, the other dead Witches of Sin, Flugel, Subaru from 400 years ago and anyone else involved, agreed to bring about to save the world. I believe many of the events of the story are to force mainly Subaru and sometimes Emilia to develop their character in a particular way so that they make a specific decision at the end of the story, Emilia to willingly allow herself to be possessed by Satella, Subaru to respect that decision, and Subaru to lead a force kill Satella, .
I believe this has actually been foreshadowed to an extent if I’m right about how the Gospels work. If I’m right that the Gospels’ purpose is to guide the world to one specific future, then when Petelgeuse said in Episode 24 that if Emilia proves to be a suitable vessel that they will put the Witch in her, and she will return on the coming fated day, that shows that that is the desired future that the characters from 400 years ago have been working toward for centuries.
Another instance I believe this was foreshadowed was I believe the instance when Subaru told his fake mother in the trial that if you choose mayonnaise between mayonnaise and the world that you hate the world being foreshadowing of the ultimate dilemma Subaru will have to face in the future, choosing between either Emilia or the world. This could be Tappei’s final obstacle he poses to Subaru, a choice between the world he has grown to love, and Emilia, the person he clung to when he first got summoned to Re:zero’s world with him deciding his purpose in life was to save Emilia. Subaru would suffer a lot due to the cognitive dissonance that would result from the process of making this decision. It would also be the scenario with the largest stakes in Re:zero and would be compelling television to see if this is indeed what comes to pass and is adapted properly in the end. You can read about this theory here:
Why I believe Tappei will make this the final dilemma for Subaru is that one of the lessons people with very serious mental health issues are taught is to realize what is within your control and accept that that is what should be the focus of your goals and actions. I believe Subaru will learn that Emilia’s final decision is something that is outside of his control, and he will at the end of the story not be too crushed by that decision. He will also accept that he cannot deviate from Satella’s plan since she chooses his save points, and he will accept what cards he has been dealt.
Why I even believe we will need Satella to return in the first place is that I think a large group of characters from 400 years are trying to steer the world away from destruction with the Seal in the Elior Forest one day being open under unfavourable conditions, so they plan to forcefully open it under their own terms using Subaru and Emilia and that everything that has happened so far in Re:zero is meant to push Subaru and Emilia to that very specific future.
I believe if this Seal is opened that there will be droves and droves of creatures that cause AoE damage just from existing and that not even Reinhard can stop the world from being destroyed in this case, which would require Satella to possess Emilia since Satella’s power is necessary to counter this threat that emerges from the Seal, most likely because powerful yin magic is needed to handle said threat. I believe Satella knows full well that she needs to be put down after she takes care of the threat from the Seal, and that is part of the reason she requested that Subaru come kill her since she will not have full control of herself and because this is one of the final pieces of the plan those characters from 400 years ago came up with.
Doing some quick research, it appears there are about 37 light novels published so far (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re:Zero). That same link suggests that season 2 got to about the half way point of what’s been published. A Reddit thread (veracity uknown) suggests there will be around 60 volumes in total (https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/octijq/novels_is_the_re_zero_light_novel_finished_or/).
It’s going to be interesting to see how your theory plays out as season 3 unfolds! You’ve so clearly laid out your case that I’m excited to see how closely what we get in season 3 unfolds compared to your theories!