Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 4

Episode 15

Over the course of this cour, our amnesiac Subaru has been speedrunning the Subaru Natsuki experience. He started as a blowhard, learned that being isekai'd can suck pretty hard, re-started from zero, faced his fears, and is now learning through timeloop after timeloop. However, there is one major thing this Subaru lacks that the other had: experience.

All that Subaru knows about this world is within the tower. The only people he knows are the group he is with. He's never learned from Roswaal or Echidna—never overcome impossible trials nor defeated Sin Archbishops. He's never resolved himself to save Satella instead of killing her. Yes, he is surrounded by friends who know a thing or two about the world, but no matter how good or loyal they may be, they can't teach him a world's worth of knowledge—not in the few minutes they have to react to the immediate threats.

Now, that's not to say that amnesiac Subaru isn't doing his best with what he's got. He's resolved himself to die again and again—testing each and every challenge the group is facing to find where the sticking points are and see if he can tip the scales and overcome them. However, there is one big problem with his approach: his assumption that it comes with no cost.

The pain, fear, and emotional burden from dying again and again—especially when no notable progress is being made—has a major effect on Subaru's subconscious. Worse yet, the time between his save point and death is so close together, he has no downtime—no way to let off steam and think about what is going on.

And the saddest thing is, Subaru understands this—all of it. He can tell he's reached his limit and can see he doesn't have the knowledge to properly utilize the information the loops have given him—even though Shaula thinks the fifth rule makes how to win obvious. He needs the year's worth of experience Rui took from him. And while he may not be able to frustratedly shout those memories back into existence, he happens to be in a room that has books of memories from every person who's ever died. And Subaru…. he's died a lot.

Of course, reading his book might break him. Unless there is a separate book for every one of Subaru's many deaths (which there doesn't seem to be given that only one showed up in his “soul vision”), amnesic Subaru is about to experience every single life and death in a matter of moments. This could drive someone insane even if they were in top shape—and Subaru is anything but. And that's before getting into the whole possibility of “the death of self” that Rui played on a few episodes back.

But what choice does Subaru have? He's at the end of his rope mentally, to the point his body is no longer listening to him. And with everyone's lives in the balance, it's obvious what he needs to do. Of course, there's just one problem: Who's to say that Rui won't stop him from seeing those memories as she did with Reid's? It looks like it's time for a rematch between Subaru and the third Archbishop of Gluttony.

Rating:

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Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.