Re:Zero (TV series)

• Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese) / Sean Chiplock (English) as Subaru Natsuki • Rie Takahashi (Japanese) / Kayli Mills (English) as Emilia • Inori Minase (Japanese) / Brianna Knickerbocker (English) as Rem • Rie Murakawa (Japanese) / Ryan Bartley (English) as Ram • Satomi Arai (Japanese) / Kira Buckland (English) as Beatrice • Takehito Koyasu (Japanese) / Ray Chase (English) as Roswaal L. Mathers • Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese) / Robbie Daymond (English) as Reinhard van Astrea • Kōhei Amasaki (Japanese) / Zach Aguilar (English) as Otto Suwen • Nobuhiko Okamoto (Japanese) / Zeno Robinson (English) as Garfiel Tinzel == Production ==

Development The possibility of an anime adaptation came up early during development of the light novels; Shō Tanaka, a producer at Kadokawa Corporation, asked Ikemoto about properties which might lend themselves to being animated, and Ikemoto recommended that Tanaka read Nagatsuki's web novels. Despite an initial miscommunication which led to Ikemoto believing that Tanaka was not interested, talks of adapting the series began soon after the web novels began the transition to print. Masaharu Watanabe was chosen by Yoshikawa to direct the series because he had previously worked for the studio doing key animation, while Kyūta Sakai was chosen to be the series' character designer and chief animation director because Yoshikawa felt that she would be able to do the novel's art justice whilst maintaining a consistent animation quality throughout the series' 25-episode run. Yoshikawa warned him about the violence in the series, but Yokotani was still surprised by the violent and disturbing scenes in novels three and beyond, having only read the first novel when he agreed to work on the project; he delegated the script writing of those episodes in the second cours to the other two scriptwriters. After joining the project, both Nakamura and Umehara had to adjust their views of the main character, and were forced to rewrite scenes where they had made Subaru appear "cool". At Watanabe's direction, Nakamura was made to rewrite Subaru's telling of The Red Ogre Who Cried in episode 6 multiple times. After Suehiro was attached to the production, Watanabe gave him three major guidelines: use human voices during the Return by Death sequences; compose the music like he would for a drama or a movie to capture the emotional scenes; and "pull all the stops" for the suspenseful scenes. Additionally, for the first cours, Watanabe asked for music with a "suspenseful" vibe, while requesting music with a "romantic" feel for the second cours. Both Watanabe and Suehiro are fans of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, and Suehiro tried to take inspiration from his works while composing the soundtrack. Watanabe also requested that there be songs that mimicked Hans Zimmer's score from The Dark Knight. While Suehiro used music that was not very "anime-ish" during most of the series, he was asked to use more traditional anime music during the slice of life scenes. A number of times during the series, such as in episodes 7 and 15, Watanabe made it a point to use an entire song, something which is unusual in most anime. The series makes limited use of its opening and ending themes, and Watanabe has said that he wished he could use them more frequently. == Release ==

Season 1 The 25-episode first season premiered on 4 April 2016, with an extended 52-minute first episode. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and AT-X. The series was simulcast by Crunchyroll. Episode 14 and 18 ran 2 minutes longer than a typical anime episode, clocking at 25 minutes and 45 seconds. The final episode ran 3 minutes longer, clocking at 27 minutes and 15 seconds. A series of anime shorts featuring chibi versions of the characters, titled , were produced by Studio Puyukai to accompany the series. The shorts ran for eleven episodes before being replaced by a new series of shorts, titled , which began airing on 24 June 2016, and ran for 14 episodes. The shorts are directed, written, and produced by Minoru Ashina, with character designs by Minoru Takehara, who also animated the series alongside Sumi Kimoto and Chisato Totsuka. Kenichiro Suehiro reprised his role as composer for the shorts, while Tomoji Furuya of Suwara Pro produced the sound effects. Jin Aketagawa directed the sound at production company Magic Capsule. Animax Asia later aired the series starting on 13 January 2017. Season 2 In March 2019, it was announced that a second season was in production. The cast and staff would reprise their roles for the second season. It was scheduled to premiere in April 2020, but was delayed to July 2020 due to production complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the arrival of the second season's initial premier date, an edited version of the first season premiered on 1 January 2020, on AT-X and other channels, with the edited version recapping the first season through one-hour episodes. It also included new additional footage. The OVA "Memory Snow" was also broadcast in between the episodes 5 and 6 of the edited version. The second season was announced to be in a split-cours format, with the first half airing from 8 July to 30 September 2020, and the second half airing from 6 January to 24 March 2021. The English dub for the second season began streaming from 26 August onwards. Season 3 A third season of the anime series was announced at AnimeJapan 2023. The season is animated by White Fox and directed by Masahiro Shinohara, with Haruka Sagawa serving as character designer. It premiered in October 2024 with a 90-minute special, titled . The first cours, entitled the "Attack Arc", ran from 2 October to 20 November 2024. The second cours, entitled the "Counterattack Arc", ran from 5 February to 26 March 2025. Season 4 Immediately following the conclusion of the third season, a fourth was announced. Like the third, the fourth season is also scheduled to run in two batch cours. The first cours, entitled the "Loss Arc", premiered on 8 April 2026. The second cours, entitled the "Recapture Arc", is set to premiere on 12 August of the same year. The first episode of the season was screened at the 2025 Lucca Comics & Games convention on 1 November 2025. OVAs An original video animation (OVA) episode was announced at the "MF Bunko J Summer School Festival 2017" event on 10 September 2017. All of the main staff and cast returned for the OVA, with Tatsuya Koyanagi joining as chief director. Titled Memory Snow, the OVA was screened in Japanese theaters starting on 6 October 2018. A second OVA, titled , was announced on 23 September 2018. The OVA is an adaptation of the prequel novel which was included with the first Japanese Blu-ray release of the television series, and focused on the meeting of Emilia and Puck. It was released in Japanese theaters on 8 November 2019. == Music ==

The first opening theme song is "Redo", performed by Konomi Suzuki, and the first ending theme is "Styx Helix", performed by Myth & Roid, while for episode 7 the ending theme is "Straight Bet", also performed by Myth & Roid. The second opening theme song, titled "Paradisus-Paradoxum", is performed by Myth & Roid, while the second ending theme, "Stay Alive", is performed by Rie Takahashi. Myth & Roid also performed the ending theme for episode 14 titled "theater D". The second season's first opening theme song is "Realize", performed by Konomi Suzuki, while the first ending theme song is "Memento", performed by Nonoc. The second season's second opening theme song is "Long Shot", performed by Mayu Maeshima, while the second ending theme song is "Believe in You", performed by Nonoc. The third season's opening theme song is "Reweave", performed by Konomi Suzuki, while the ending theme song is "Nox Lux", performed by Myth & Roid. The fourth season's opening theme song is "Recollect", performed by Konomi Suzuki and Ashnikko, while the ending theme song is "Ender Ember", performed by Myth & Roid and TK from Ling Tosite Sigure. The series' soundtrack was released on CD on 26 October 2016. The disk contains 21 tracks composed by Kenichiro Suehiro. "Redo", Suzuki's 10th single, was released on CD on 11 May 2016. The single was also released as a limited edition with a DVD featuring a music video, a live concert video, and a "making of" video. The songs were performed by Suzuki, with lyrics by Genki Mizuno and arrangement by Makoto Miyazaki. The CD for "Styx Helix", the series' first ending theme, was Myth & Roid's 3rd single. Written, arranged, and performed by the group, it was released on 25 May 2016 and included both regular and instrumental versions of "Styx Helix" and "Straight Bet". "Stay Alive", the second ending theme, was released as a single on 24 August 2016. The songs were performed by Takahashi (Emilia) and Minase (Rem). The songs were written and arranged by Heart's Cry. Myth & Roid released the second opening theme as a single on 24 August 2016. The CD included regular and instrumental versions of "Paradisus-Paradoxum" and "Theater D". For Memory Snow, three pieces of theme music were used: the ending theme "Memory Memory Snow" and the image song "Relive" by Nonoc, and the insert song "Memories" by Riko Azuna. == Home media release ==

Funimation announced during their Katsucon 2018 panel that they would release the first season on home video with an English dub in North America as part of the two companies' partnership. Funimation released the first part of the first season on Blu-ray and DVD in North America on 19 June 2018, and the second part on 5 February 2019. Funimation later released all of season 1 on one Blu-ray on 9 June 2020. In the United Kingdom, the series is distributed by Anime Limited, who released the first part of the first season on DVD on 25 June 2018 and the second part on 20 May 2019. Anime Limited later released both parts on Blu-ray on 19 August 2019, with a complete collection being released on 15 February 2021. Both Funimation and Anime Limited's Season 1 Part 1 Blu-ray releases received negative attention after it was discovered that they showed visible color banding and compression artifacts. Madman Anime released the first part of the first season in Australia on Blu-ray on 8 May 2019. == Reception ==

The series was the 21st best selling anime on home video during 2016, selling approximately 68,791 Blu-ray and DVD sets. The OVA, "Memory Snow", released in 2018, sold a total of 10,429 Blu-ray and DVD copies. The first season ranked first in a poll of 820 people conducted by the Japanese website Anime! Anime!, to determine the best anime series of spring 2016. Andy Hanley from UK Anime Network considered the anime adaptation as one of 2016's best series. The Managing Editor from Anime Now!, Richard Eisenbeis lists the anime as one of his top picks from 2016 for its "culturally complex" world and characters that have "their own plans, faults, and motivations". He praised Subaru as the "most complex character of the year" due to provoking the audience to "cheer him and despise him" in a world that portrayed him as the "least special person in it". The series took second place in the 2015–16 Newtype Anime Awards. Additionally, director Masaharu Watanabe took first place, as did Subaru, Rem, and Puck (in the best male, female, and mascot character categories, respectively). Masahiro Yokotani's screenplay took second place, while the series' character designs (by Shin'ichirō Ōtsuka and Kyuta Sakai) took third place. The series' soundtrack and second opening theme both took fourth place in their categories. The light novels and the anime both took first place in their respective categories in the 2017 Sugoi Japan Awards. In a survey of (primarily female) Otamart users, the series was ranked second on a list of the most successful media franchises of 2016. The series was nominated for "Anime of the Year" at the Crunchyroll's inaugural Anime Awards in 2016, and was also the service's most-watched series of 2016, topping Yuri on Ice. == Notes ==