Re:ZERO Season 2

Season (Part 1) Overview

Re:ZERO Season 2 (Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season / Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 2nd season) is actually only the first half of the second season. Season 2 part 2 should begin airing as part of the winter 2021 season if everything remains on schedule.

While the events of this season are very different from the events of the first season, the actual structure is somewhat similar. The first half of the first season focused mainly on setting up the world and the challenges within it which Subaru would have to face in the second half.

That’s basically exactly what’s happened in this first half of season 2. Season 1 set up the general area of the country of Lugnica as its setting. The second season sets up a specific region within Lugnica known as the Sanctuary as its setting.

Once the setting has been established, the challenges which Subaru will need to overcome begin to roll in. The primary difference between the first and second seasons comes in this aspect of the series. Season 1 generally had Subaru confront one challenge after another. But that’s not how season 2 is shaping up.

In this season, many of the challenges that have been set up for Subaru look like they’re going to have to be completed all at once. Rather than Subaru completing one challenge and then moving onto the next with a new restart point, everything is happening all at once this time around.

That leads to two effects. First, it means that this first part of the season is much more about setting up than it is about action and direct plot progression. Second, it means that the next part should be very exciting as all the dominos begin to fall.

New Characters

13 episodes of setup might not sound very exciting, but it’s not as if there’s no action in this part of the season. There’s plenty of action, but that action is often overshadowed by other aspects of the season, including world building, lore, and character introductions and development.

Many of these characters are tied to spoilers, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, skip to the end of the review.

Right at the beginning of the season, we’re introduced to two, new Archbishop Sins. Batenkaitos is the Archbishop Sin of Gluttony and Regulus is the Archbishop Sin of Greed. Unfortunately, these are also the new characters who we know the least amount because they haven’t shown up since.

More prominent to the immediate plot are Frederica, Garfiel, and Ryuzu. Frederica and Garfiel are demi-human siblings who are able to transform into beasts. Frederica works as a maid in Roswaal’s mansion, while Garfiel is trapped within the Sanctuary.

I added Ryuzu to that character grouping because she’s also tied to the Sanctuary. We don’t know how Frederica managed to escape from the Sanctuary, but Garfiel and Ryuzu are still trapped there.

And, finally, we have all of the witches. I wasn’t expecting all seven witches to be introduced in this season, but that’s what happened. I was expecting them to be revealed over the course of the series, not all at once. In order of appearance, these witches are Echidna, Typhon, Minerva, Daphne, Camilla, Sekhmet, and Satella.

The introduction of all of the witches is a pretty big deal for a number of reasons. First, we learned that the witches themselves aren’t inherently evil. Some of them seem to be good, while others are neutral. However, it’s their inhuman way of thinking that causes them to be feared and hated.

Theory Time

If you’re interested in reading about my theories in more detail, I suggest checking out my weekly episode reviews for the season. But, I’ll go over a few of the larger theories that still may be possible by the end of this half of the season.

So, one of my main theories over the course of the season has been that Emilia and Satella are actually one and the same. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the one time Satella showed up in the Sanctuary, Emilia was nowhere to be found.

However, I don’t think that Emilia (and perhaps even Satella) knows that they’re the same physical person. We know that Satella was sealed, but that her body was unable to be destroyed. And, Emilia’s background is almost entirely unknown. Before Puck found her in the forest, she has no background.

Emilia also has a massive amount of magical energy. This lack of a known background combined with her magic potential leads me to believe that Satella had her memories sealed, and thus became Emilia. Emilia is just Satella without her memories of being a witch and with much of her magic being sealed.

Going along with this, I also believe that Roswaal plans to unseal Satella from within Emilia and potentially use her power to revive the other witches. But why do I think this is the case?

There are a few things we now know about Roswaal. His current goal is to kill the dragon who, along with the hero and sage, sealed Satella. If we assume the dragon is the last of the three alive, killing it might break the seal. We also know that he personally knew at least one of the witches, Echidna, so he has a connection there.

And, if Emilia is Satella, that would explain why he’s backing her to become the next ruler of Lugnica. Once she’s the ruler, he may have the resources needed to kill the dragon, unseal her memories, and revive the other witches, specifically Echidna.

Conclusion

Re:ZERO Season 2 is an 8/10 for me. I didn’t find it to be quite as good as the first season, but to be fair, this is only the first half. I probably wouldn’t have rated the first half of season 1 as high as the whole season either. So, I do expect the second half of season 2 to be even better than this half.

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My review of Season 2 Part 2 is available now.