By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.
I think I’ve started to figure out why it’s harder to get into this arc compared to previous arcs, and it’s not just that 4/5 of the cast is new or we’ve only seen them in spinoffs. The problem is that Re: Zero’s plot is supposed to be, in part, a throne war. Emilia, Crusch, Priscilla, Anastasia and Felt are all vying to be the new leader. Unfortunately, we’ve now thrown that aside to get ourselves involved in another throne war next door, and… well, OK, maybe it *is* the fact that we don’t really know 4/5 of the cast. Now, some of them are becoming better known to us – I’ve really come to love Medium, and I hope nothing terrible happens to her. But for the most part the plot of this book is to have Priscilla save the day, but the enemy gets away, so they move on to the next location. Subaru describes it like an RPG and he’s not wrong. It’s a tad dull.
As hinted in the cliffhanger of the last book, when all seems lost and Arakiya is about to massacre everyone, Priscilla (and Al) arrive to, if not save the day, at least distract her enough to be subdued. Unfortunately, before she can be interrogated, our least favorite mercenary breaks her out. So they’ve taken the city but are otherwise back at square one. And Priscilla certainly isn’t here to help – anyone who has met her knows that. They need to prove that Abel can actually gain real allies, which means one of the nine demon generals. Unfortunately, one of them is so unreliable no one wants to deal with them, one of them is the enemy they just had escape, and one of them is the one who actually instigated the coup. So they’re going to The Chaotic Demon City to try to talk to one of the others… only they’re not the only ones there.
The good thing about Re: Zero is that while the overall plot may annoy and bore me, individual scenes can still be absolute dynamite. When he’s checking on Rem, and describing what happened to her, she points out, quite sensibly, that he’s taking too much on and that he doesn’t need to be a hero. To Subaru, however, who only moved forward thanks to Rem’s words in the 3rd arc, this is the worst POSSIBLE thing she could have said, and it briefly devastates him. I also enjoyed “Natsumi” being more formal while in the carriage with Al, because frankly the two of them sound too similar – it not only helps the author to differentiate between them, but helps to remind us that a lot of Subaru coping is his taking on a role, be it for himself or others. He keeps justifying being in drag throughout this book, and no one really buys it except him.
The cliffhanger suggests we don’t need to worry about Natsumi for a while now. That said, I warn you – this cliffhanger is one of the most contentious parts of this arc, and it will not go away anytime soon. Five more to go!
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