Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2

Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2

Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 anime series cover art
Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2

Season (Part) Overview

Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 (Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season Part 2 / Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活) is, as you may have been able to guess, the second part of the second season of Re:ZERO. Basically, Season 2 was split into two separate cours due to the pandemic.

Since this is just a second cour and not an entirely new season, it’s very similar to the first part of the season in many ways. The whole part still takes place within the Sanctuary, it focuses heavily on the Witch’s Trials, and it’s more about Emilia developing as a character than Subaru.

The big difference between the first part of the season and this second part is that while the first part was primarily setup, the second part includes the payoff. I wouldn’t say that the first part was necessarily slow, but not much actual progress was made.

Things were happening, yes. But Subaru kept getting reset and that half of the season focused more on him gathering information. In contrast, this half is when Subaru puts all of that information he gathered in the first half to use.

If you think back to the first season of the series, it was structured in much the same way. The first half built up the world and some of the antagonists within it, such as the Witch’s Cult. Then, in the second half, Subaru had to take on the Witches’ Cult, White Whale, etc.

What that means for this season is that the trials, Great Rabbit, Garfiel, Elsa and Maylie, and even Roswaal to an extent are what Subaru has to go up against. Basically, there’s a lot that the first part of this season set up, and it’s finally time to knock it all down.

All About that Lore

One of my favorite things about this part of the second season is how it expanded upon the lore of the world. For starters, we learned more about the Witches — including that there are more than seven of them. For now, we know that there are at least eight.

There are the seven who are named after the Seven Deadly Sins, and then there’s another, Pandora, who’s named after the historical sin of Vanity. Oh, and when I say these witches are named after these sins, I’m referring to their titles, such as the Witch of Envy.

Pandora is possibly the biggest twist to come out Season 2 Part 2. She’s not featured in the Witch’s Tea Party, and none of the other witches ever mentioned her. So as far as we know, she’s potentially still alive somewhere in the world. She also may be the strongest of them all, being able to alter space and time.

Pandora from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2
Pandora

Also, since Vanity (Vainglory) is a sin that one of the witches is named after, that means Acedia may be one as well. That would bring the number of witches up to nine. And, I have a feeling that Emilia will be considered a new witch at some point on top of that.

Another thing we learn is that the witches aren’t the only powerful beings Subaru and Emilia need to worry about. There are also male versions of witches known as warlocks or devils depending on the translation. So far we only know of one.

Hector, the Warlock of Melancholy, is bad news. I don’t believe we know what happened to him in the past. But, we do know that even Echidna, one of the witches, was afraid of him. And we know that it’s Hector whom Roswaal emulates.

Is Re:ZERO Getting Worse?

This may be a slightly unpopular opinion, but I actually think that each season (or part) of Re:ZERO is worse than the one before it. To me, the first season was the best, then part 1 of the second season, and finally part 2 of the second season.

So, do I think that Re:ZERO is getting worse? Not exactly. I don’t think that the second season as a whole was better than the first season; that much is true. But I do think that the additional lore and character building this season provided are going to improve the series in the long run.

I liked the introduction of Pandora and Hector and what they could potentially mean for the future of the series. But, for now, not all that much was actually done with those characters. We got to see them in flashbacks, but that’s it. We have no idea where they are now.

Emilia, Mother Fortuna, and Geuse from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2
Emilia, Mother Fortuna, and Geuse

Obviously, the series is going to build on the events of season 2. So in the long run, I don’t believe that Re:ZERO is going to be getting worse. If it does, I’ll be pretty disappointed because this is one of my favorite isekai anime.

However, I will say that the production of this part of Re:ZERO wasn’t quite as impressive as that of the first season. There were still a lot of parts that looked really good. But there were also parts that didn’t look so good. Why this was the case is debatable.

You could argue that the pandemic’s effect on the industry caused this. But, I think I also heard that a lot of the talented staff that worked on season 1 were actually working on Mushoku Tensei instead of this season of Re:Zero. Will they come back to Re:ZERO for the next season? Who knows.

Conclusion

In the end, I’d give Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 a 7/10. It was good. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first season or even the first part of the second season. Despite being the “action half” of the season, some parts definitely felt like they were dragging on a bit too much.

As for the OP and EDs, I don’t really have strong opinions. The OP is a good song, but it literally played twice. And the only ED I remember is the first one, which also only played twice.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

5 Replies to “Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2”

  1. From some comments I’ve seen elsewhere I think Hector is meant to be the 9th sin of Acedia. From what I can tell even if acedia and melancholy don’t carry exactly the same meaning they have been used interchangeably and arguably melancholy usurped acedia in common usage,

    I could be wrong but I think Hector is just meant to be a male witch or warlock but there’s not really a specific term for that in Japanese. Majin(魔人) and majo(魔女) are used to describe Hector and the Witches respectively. I think a literal translation of the intended meaning would be Magic Man and Magic Women. They are meant to be treated as the same class of being just the male and female versions. I suppose madan (魔男) would have been more gender specific though.

    It’s like how Oni gets translated to Ogre or Demon which aren’t really the same things but depending on the context are the closest equivalents in the English language.

    1. I never considered that Hector may be the final one of the “witches.” That’s a pretty good theory. I just assumed that since he had a different title, he was a member of another group. But, I did go over the Japanese words and their kanji in one of my episode reviews for this season.

      1. The thing I’m not clear on is if the naming of the Witches after the so-called Deadly Sins is significant in-universe or not.

        For example did the concept of the Deadly Sins predate the Witches and someone came up with the idea of naming them after the Sins? Which would explain why it’s a bit of a stretch for some of the Witches to be named after their respective Sins.

        Alternatively did each Witch inherit a power that is the embodiment of their respective Sin? From what I can tell the power of the Witches comes from a substance that is called the Witch Factor. We saw Petelgeuse choose to absorb the Witch Factor so he could gain the power – called an Authority – to fight Regulus Cornelius.

        Is there a Witch Factor for each Sin?

        In the Shazam DC Comics mythology there are demons that embody each of the Seven Deadly Sins imprisoned in the Rock of Eternity. Occasionally they would escape and possess humans granting them power related to the sin that the demons embodied.

        1. Personally, my theory is that there are 11 Witch Factors, 2 which have nothing to do with sins. I say this because it appears that Subaru’s name is a major part of the lore of the series. For those who don’t know, Subaru is also what the Japanese use to refer to the Pleiades star cluster. Six of the stars in that cluster are visible to the naked eye, and there are six dead Witches of Sin. The Pleiades star cluster is also referred to as the Seven Sisters, and there are seven witches bearing the name of the seven deadly sins in Re:zero. Vainglory and Acedia are historical sins, and vainglory is hardly used in modern times, with people using vanity to mean the same thing, so Crunchyroll probably just went with the modern term. Given the presence of Pandora in the story, there should also be a Witch of Acedia, who happens to be Warlock of Melancholy if they’re going with the modern term, since Tappei is drawing also from historical sins for the lore of his story. Interestingly enough, there are eleven stars in the Pleiades star cluster with nine of them having names, making it fitting that there might be 9 Witches of Sin. Two of the stars have yet to be named, and as such, I propose there might be two secret witches that have some other concept applied to them instead of sins. Given that Pandora also referred to Emilia as “Witch’s daughter”, meaning that Echidna might not have said that to insult Emilia and maybe that Emilia’s mother is one of those yet-to-be-determined witches.

        2. I’m guessing that the Sins the Witches are named after are significant in that they explain what the particular sin of each Witch is. For example, the Witch of Gluttony created mabeasts that devour and destroy everything in sight. However, I’m not sure that the fact they’re named after the Deadly Sins, in particular, is relevant. It could be that the number of Witches just matched up well, as did their “sins.”

          Emilia was already called the Witch of Frost or something by someone if I remember correctly. She’s not a true witch (yet?), but that could be an indication that the naming convention of the witches is just based on what they’re most known for.

Leave a Comment