Re:Zero 2x04 Reaction
Added 2023-11-09 15:06:03 +0000 UTCI'm absolutely speechless...
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I'm a bit late cause I've been busy lately, but now we've finally gotten Subaru's backstory and with it, we can explain so so so many things about Subaru's behavior up til now. For instance, we can now answer why Subaru was so excited to be in this new world in episode 1, since he was depressed in his previous world, living the shadow of his father and feeling like a failure, and being transported to a world where his father doesn't exist is a fresh start for Subaru, and one where no one, could possibly think of him as his father's son, but instead as his own person. There's also a few interesting traits from his parents that make more sense, like for instance, in Episode 11, Subaru headbutts Rem and calls it a "Super Slap", similar to how his Dad called his axe kick "Father Headbut". Also in that episode, when Subaru suggests things to talk about in the future, he mentions how you could talk about if you'll make a traditional or western style breakfast, and as we now know, his Mom likes both. We also can see where Subaru's outgoing personality façade comes from. He's an introvert by nature, but he sees his Dad being successful by being an extrovert and so Subaru when Subaru gets stressed, he puts on this extrovert façade hoping that if he can imitate his father, he can get similar results. But obviously this generally doesn't work out very well, because well, he's not an extrovert, so it comes across quite forced. You see this most notably in Episode 8, where he acts like someone on crack cocaine, which everyone notices, and ends with the lap pillow. Some other background culture information, school in Japan is only mandatory up until age 15, though like 90% do the extra 2 or so years of non mandatory high school. So it's not quite as weird to stop going to school, since technically it's not mandated. The other thing is the whole "Itterasshai" stuff with his Mom. "Ittekimasu" is usually translated as something like "I'm heading out" and "Itterasshai" is usually translated as "Have a good trip", but these don't really give it the proper weight that it has in Japanese culture. These are phrases that are spoken nearly 100% of the time when people are leaving (and returning, but those are different phrases), so Subaru's omission of the proper response ("Ittekimasu") is rather significant. Diving a bit deeper into the translations, a very literal translation of "Ittekimasu" would be "I'll go and I'll come back" and "Itterasshai" would be "Please go and come back". Subaru basically implicitly said that he didn't care to return home after going to the convenience store, which provides quite stark view into his pre isekai psyche. So it's a big moment when he responds with the proper phrase at the end of the episode with his Mom, since he's mentally in a much better place now. It's also worth noting that all of the posters (idk about the figures) in Subaru's room are actually real, and are of various light novels (some of which have had anime's made). It's also worth noting that all of the girls in the posters and figurines have long Silver hair, so Subaru's had a type for quite some time. (6:45): That is Subaru having anxiety attacks. You basically see this anytime the subject of school comes up in the first part of the episode. And the significant of it being past 8:00 is that now Subaru can internally justify his absence as "Well, I can't make it on time" (which is out of his control), instead of "I don't want to go to school", which as Subaru notes, usually stops the anxiety attack. This is actually something I used to do as a kid on occasion when I had band before school started, kids who were late would get called out on being late, and so sometimes I would just opt to not show up to that class and go to the rest of my classes as normal, and I went through a similar thought process as Subaru (though I what I went though was way milder then what Subaru went through). (14:00): I think everyone abandoned Subaru because they realized that there wasn't any point to anything that Subaru did, and so they grew out of it as they started try and figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. (21:00): Subaru has given up on finding a way back to his original world. For one, he doesn't want to leave this world, since it has both Emilia and Rem in it, and Subaru has basically nobody to return to besides his parents. Second, nobody knows anything about transporting people across universes. Like there are other isekaied people in the Lugunica and the people of Lugunica know they came from somewhere else, but how and why is a mystery to them, and going back is an even bigger mystery. So Subaru has given up on the idea of returning to his original world. It's questionably possible and he doesn't really want to leave anyways. (21:40): In Asian culture it's the norm to take care of your grandparents and parents as they age. It's very common to have them straight up just live with you until they die. I think there is societal shame if you don't do things like this, and generally you'd be viewed as hating your parents if you don't house them when they get old. Quite different then the in the west, where you're more of less expected to take care of your own elderly care arrangements yourself. Which makes it all the more tragic when Subaru realizes that he'll never be able to take care of his parents when they get old, and thus forever be a burden to them, and never have the chance to repay them. (23:00): It's weird, since it sort of takes place in the past, but not really. It's most similar to an alternate memory. Like none of these events really happened, and as you learn next episode, this is all in the Castle of Dreams, which is not a physical location.
baseballlover723
2023-11-20 10:12:30 +0000 UTCI know I'm 1 week late for this but I'm just going to say that when the author of this series got asked in the interview about what is happening to his parents after he disappeared, he just said that "They’re enduring the disappearance of their eldest son somehow or other. The police investigation has no leads, and Kenichi (the father) is trying to comfort Naoko (the mother) but it’s not that effective. They’re passing each day tearfully." They basically got depressed and still looking for him...
Villenthessis
2023-11-18 14:19:18 +0000 UTC
