The use of simple shorts to help promote an ongoing series and provide for a little additional bonus on home video releases continues with Re: Zero. Kadokawa. We had the first five installments over the last couple of weeks and now the sixth installment is streaming – which gets us out of the baths and into the world at large for a bit. The episode clocks in at just over two minutes and has some fun interplay between the two characters. Naturally, it’s not subtitled – something we hope that will change a bit over time now that Kadokawa is firming up its relationship with Crunchyroll.
Based on the light novels from writer Tappei Nagatsuki and illustrator Shinichirou Ootsuka, the series has seven volumes to its name so far and was announced as being a part of the spring season back in December 2015.
The series was directed by Seiji Watanabe working off of series composition by Masahiro Yokotani. Character designs were done by Kyuta Sakai with White Fox handling the animation production. The cast includes Yuusuke Kobayashi as Subaru Natsuki, Rie Takahashi as Emilia, Yumi Uchiyama as Pack, Chinatsu Akasaki as Felt, Rie Murakawa as Ram, Inori Minase as Rem, Satomi Arai as Beatrice and Yuuichi Nakamura as Lineheart.
Plot concept: Natsuki Subaru, an ordinary high school student, encounters a beautiful silver-haired girl from another world. Subaru wants to stay by her side and help her, but the burden she carries is far beyond anything Subaru imagined. They’re faced with one attacking monster after another, betrayal, irrational violence… and finally death. Subaru doesn’t want to see her get hurt, so he vows to take down any enemy, any fate that comes his way, to protect her. And so this powerless boy obtains “Return by Death,” a unique ability that allows him to turn back time by dying. It becomes the potential to guide all people to a world where everyone can always be smiling, dependent on Subaru’s life and loneliness. By using his power, the past can be lost, and memories can be rewritten. Subaru must now fight the fate that dooms him to keep all those forgotten memories hidden within, to be perpetually beaten, to see his own heart wearing down, to wager his life… all to protect the people he cares about. To get back the precious times that he’s sure must have happened.
“Even if you forget me, I will never forget you.”
