Whether you enjoyed the series or not, Re: Zero was objectively one of the most successful anime to come out in 2016. According to Crunchyroll's census of the most viewed new anime series (source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2016/12/29-1/feature-crunchyrolls-most-popular-anime-of-2016-by-country) Re: Zero drew the attention of audiences worldwide. The series was and remains very divisive; with many critics claiming its success to be based on the same factors that made other isekai ("other world) series to be popular in the past. Some other notable series in this genre include No Game No Life, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon and the immensely popular (and also immensely divisive) Sword Art Online.

At first glance Re: Zero appears to have all the elements we typically associate with an isekai series: a fantasy world, roleplaying game tropes, cute girls to fawn over... it's no wonder this show caught everyone's attention right? However as anyone who has watched the series could tell you, Re: Zero does not play out how these types of stories usually do. If you live under a rock and have somehow managed to let this series get by you unnoticed then do yourself a favor and give this series a watch because I could not recommend it enough. From this point forward I am going to write assuming that you have watched the series in its entirety and have already formed your own opinions about it so spoiler warning!

The real reason I'm writing this blog is to discuss what I believe to be the quintessential reason Re: Zero made such an impact in many peoples minds and hearts while also making it abhorred by many others. To truly be able to explain what element this is however I first have to talk about storytelling in general.

Humankind has always had a love for stories and stories have been a great device for us to transfer ideas, sensibilities and emotions from one person to another throughout the ages. We have created many, many types of stories and regardless of genre the most appealing kinds of stories have seemed to follow certain types of narratives. Undoubtedly you have heard of the "Hero's Journey"; widely regarded as the most popular type of narrative in human history. There are a number of conventions in the "Hero's Journey" that can be seen in almost every widely popular narrative and I would venture that if you know what to look for you can find elements of this narrative in almost every single one of your favorite tv shows, movies, books etc. There exists however a message in this type of narrative that I believe to be the emotional core of its appeal; the message that "Whatever you are already doing is okay. You may need to do a little more of it, commit to it more, but if you keep doing it things will work out for you". I invite you to think for a bit about just how many of your favorite stories this message applies to. Here's some examples of popular movies in which it most certainly applies:

Good Will Hunting: Genius janitor struggles to reconcile his potential for greatness with his humble lifestyle; decides that living in the spotlight as a genius would make him miserable and opts to live as he pretty much always has.

Forrest Gump: IQ deficient man with a heart of gold and significant natural athletic ability lives out his life relying on mainly his good character and physical fitness to make him successful in almost every endeavor he undertakes.

James Bond: Charismatic master spy uses his special talents to travel the world and have consequence-free sex with all kinds of women while being celebrated as a hero.

Hercules: Son of a God born with superhuman strength goes around using his super strength to perform extraordinary feats which earn him love and adoration from all.

Mulan: Chinese woman who doesn't feel like she adheres to social norms decides to masquerade as a person of the opposite gender and ends up becoming the hero of a nation.

The Lord Of The Rings: Hobbits who are very content with their tranquil lives in the Shire and have no ambition or desire for wealth or power save the world by being able to resist the corrupting temptations of the one ring for the longest amount of time out of all the other races.

Were you able to think of any of your favorite stories that this message applies to? I'm sure you were. Isn't it strange that this message is such a smash hit across a wide range of genres? From Romance to Drama to Comedy to Action/Adventure the most popular titles seem to often include this message. It's makes sense too, this is such a comforting message; why wouldn't we want to hear it? This brings me to my point about what makes Re: Zero so appealing yet also so detested at the same time: At first glance it bears the markings of a genre in which this popular message is almost universally present, yet not only is this message missing in the series it is actually VIOLENTLY opposed.

I'm not going to get into specifics about how most isekai stories nowadays (I'm looking at you Sword Art Online) are escapist fantasies with self-insert protagonists that obtain mass appeal by presenting the audience a story they would love to be the hero of because that is not what Re: Zero is about and that is not why its audience loves it.

No one wants to be Subaru; not the people who love Re: Zero and certainly not the people who hate it. Despite this fact, I believe Subaru is ultimately the greatest creation in the world of Re: Zero.

At his core Subaru represents a person that we can sympathize with. We can like some parts of him, hate some others, but we can never excuse him. He's not a monster like Frank Underwood from House of Cards who manages to have his audience looking for excuses for him just because he's cool; nor is he an underdog like Naruto that has the right outlook on things but just needs to get stronger. Above all, Subaru is certainly not a character like Kirito from Sword Art Online that is the best at everything, is a pretty nice guy and who gets the attention of all the cute girls. All these popular protagonists represent people the audience would want to be, regardless of where they happen to fall on the morality or on the power scale.

No, Subaru is not like any of these or many other protagonists. You do not want be Subaru. You may have some desire to be in Subaru's position (especially if you think you could handle the situation better) but you certainly don't want to be Subaru himself. This feeling is jarring to nearly everyone that watches Re: Zero for the first time and is the source of many people's hatred for the series.

This is where things become divisive however because Subaru's nature is also the source of many people's love of this first season of Re: Zero; particularly in the story's 3rd arc. The main mistake that Subaru makes to set the events of the 3rd arc in motion is that he hasn't really changed at all from the beginning of the story. He begins the story thinking that he's the main character and his destiny is to save his "princess". In his attempts to do so however Subaru fails to make any meaningful strides towards a happy resolution until he learns enough about the people around him to recruit allies that are strong enough to aid him in his goals. In his first go-through, was he and his "princess" sufficient to make it through the night? Think about it for a second, who ACTUALLY defeated Elsa in the first arc? It took the collective efforts of Reinhard, Felt, Rom, Emilia and Puck to bring her killing spree to a halt. And before all these characters were able to do this Subaru had to befriend them all to some extent in order to enlist their help. As long as Subaru was trying to solve matters by himself, he failed, it was only when Subaru enlisted the help of others that he was able to succeed and survive past the first day. It's even totally possible that Emilia or anyone else wouldn't have died at all if not for Subaru's existence in their world. This fact however never once occurs to Subaru.

In the second arc, Subaru has already befriended Emilia and Puck, but as we soon find out this is not nearly enough to survive the curse of the mabeasts and the suspicious nature of Rem. Emilia and Pucks' friendship and support is certainly a boon to him in this arc but he still needs to widen his circle if he is to have any hopes of survival. To this end he befriends Beatrice, Ram, Roswaal and most importantly, Rem. Only after becoming intimately familiar with these characters does Subaru have enough support to progress the storyline. You would think at this point that Subaru would have figured out that the way he used to live his life at the very beginning of the story (as a loner otaku with single-minded focus on his obsessions) was not a path to success in this new world. Subaru instead continues to think that the narrative revolves around him and that his ultimate goal of winning the heart of Emilia depends on his presence and actions alone.

That's where we come to the third arc and everything comes crashing down around Subaru after he makes a fool of himself in the royal selection ceremony and drives Emilia away. This arc has the most gruesome deaths and most tragic events of the entire series thus far occurring due to Subaru's unwillingness to change his nature. Rather than accepting the help and advice of Reinhard (a character who played a crucial role in his survival in the first arc) when it is offered to him, Subaru instead brushes him off. By association of his actions during the ceremony and pushing away Reinhard, Subaru also manages to push away potential allies in Felt, Felix, Julius,Wilhelm, all of the royal candidates and basically everyone Subaru has befriended up to this point; all with the exception of Rem.

The development of the relationship (whether it be friendly or romantic depending on how you want to see it) between Subaru and Rem is probably the biggest source of fans' obsessive devotion to the series (my own included) but it is not what gives the series its enduring qualities. Certainly Rem is an endearing character because she gives Subaru unfaltering support during a time when he is at his worst, but it is the fact that her support helps change him for the better that fans of the series are so in love with her (whether they are aware of it or not).

Imagine for a moment a scenario where Subaru genuinely falls in love with Rem in episode 18, forgets about ever being with Emilia (but still wants to save her because he's a nice guy) and they proceed to work together as a couple. Some cool fight scenes ensue with Subaru using his strategic mind from years of playing games and Rem using her super strength. They manage to save everyone and then get married, have kids, live happily ever after etc.....Does this narrative sound familiar? Such an ending sounds a lot like something that would happen in Sword Art Online....or pretty much any other hero story that had some twists in the middle doesn't it? In this case Subaru switches one woman to obsess over for another and Rem covers all of Subaru's deficiencies so Subaru doesn't have to change. This is the kind of story that the majority of people want to hear and that we have heard time and time again.

I'll be honest, even a part of me would like to see the story play out in this fashion because it's a good old fashioned hero's journey type message. It's wish fulfillment. We want to be told that it's okay to be ourselves, that all we need is to acquire the magic sword or artifact (or Demon Battlemaid) to make all our problems go away but that's not how the world really works and it's certainly not how the world in Re: Zero works.

People are drawn to this particular story because the actual narrative has all the trappings of an escapist fantasy but then reveals itself to be something that challenges its audience; much like how Neon Genesis Evangelion had all the trappings of a popular mecha series only to then challenge its audience to reflect on how it consumes this medium. Re: Zero gave us a protagonist that no one wants to be, it gave us a heroine to lean on but never to use as a crutch and it gave us a reason reject stagnation in favor of genuine change. Re: Zero gave us something we never knew we wanted until we saw it; and that is the best thing Re: Zero has done.