For fans wanting Re:ZERO Season 2 spoilers, many are focused on what will happen to Rem, never mind Subaru Natsuki, and Emilia. After all, Subaru spent much of Re:ZERO Season 1 winning the love of the demon maid Rem, and while Emilia is still Subaru’s love interest, there lingers the possibility that Emilia may became the half-elf vessel of Satella, the Witch Of Envy. But if Rem dies forever, that would be a great tragedy for the many fans of the demon maid and other main Re:ZERO characters like Ram, Felix, Beatrice, and more.

Of course, the biggest mystery of all is Subaru’s identity and what or who controls Return To Death. Who is behind the Witch Cult and the various Bishops? While all of these questions can be answered by avid Japanese readers, anime fans will have to be patient until the RZ Season 2 release date answers some of these mysteries, I suppose.

UPDATE: Check out the newer article which discusses Rem’s fate in detail. Added details about the upcoming Re:ZERO OVA episode and light novels.

Re:ZERO Season 3 Release Date, The Re:ZERO Blu-Ray/DVD, And English Dubs

The first season of the Re:ZERO anime was split up into two cours. The anime series aired a total of 25 episodes over two consecutive seasons, but some fans mistakenly refer to the second half as a second season. The next major break in both release time and story is what fans are referring to as Re:ZERO Season 2, so henceforth this article will refer to Season 2 instead of the incorrect Re:ZERO Season 3.

Based upon details from the official website, the Re:ZERO anime was split up into nine Blu-ray and DVD volumes, with the ninth and final volume containing the final episodes 24 and 25. The first volume released in Japan on June 24, 2016, and the final Re:ZERO volume released on February 24, 2017. The first and last volumes contained two episodes, while all the other volumes will feature three episodes. As for the Re:ZERO English dub, no announcement has been made at this time.

As of this publishing, White Fox has not announced anything official about the Re:ZERO Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. The good news is that the combined sales for all of the Blu-Ray box sets sold in Japan easily reached the tens of thousands. In addition, a Re:ZERO OVA episode was announced at MF Bunko J Summer School Festival 2017, although the exact release date and plot have yet to be confirmed. The trailer video for the Re:ZERO OVA can be seen below.

Re:ZERO Light Novels: The Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Story Is Far Ahead Of The Anime

Fans of the Re:ZERO anime may not realize that the story began life as a free web novel self-published by author Tappei Nagatsuki, which anyone can read right now, I suppose. The story released so far is divided up into six major Arcs, with Re:ZERO Arc 4 being the longest by far. The first three parts consisted of 155 main chapters whereas Re:ZERO Arc 4 has 130 main chapters, never mind the extra chapters. Unfortunately, you’ll need to read Japanese in order to get those full Re:ZERO spoilers, but there are several free Re:ZERO English translation projects that are slowly working through the content.

Most fans are probably more familiar with the Re:ZERO light novels. The release of Re:ZERO Volume 9 was timed for September 25, 2016, which makes sense since the light novel’s finale roughly coincided with the ending of the Re:ZERO Season 1 anime by finishing Arc 3. Re:ZERO Volume 10 released on October 25, 2016, and both the upcoming light novel and Re:ZERO Season 2 should begin with Re:ZERO Arc 4. Keep in mind only four volumes of the Re:ZERO English translation have been released by Yen Press, with Volume 5 scheduled for October 31, 2017 and Volume 6 set for February 20, 2018.

You may wonder how much the Re:ZERO light novels differ from the fairly lengthy Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu web novel. Ikemoto Masahito, the series’ editor at Kadokawa’s MF Bunko J, explained in an interview that cutting was required in order to make it work.

“Sometime around April, 2013, my Twitter timeline was suddenly filled with people talking about this series called Re:ZERO and how much they all liked it. So I decided to give it a try, and I found myself hooked. I was especially impressed with how it made use of the loop-by-death mechanic, and how the text very clearly spoke to me as a reader,” Ikemoto said, according to CrunchyRoll. “The problem was, being a web novel, there was a lot of text. Take the second arc, for example—there’s about two volumes’ worth of content there, but as-is, it would have been more than a thousand pages on paper. Editing it down to fit into two volumes was extremely difficult.”

In the anime industry, TV shows often surpass the manga or light novel source material quickly, which in some cases caused the fans to demand a reboot. The good news is that Re:ZERO Season 2 is unlikely to diverge too greatly from the author’s original intent since there’s plenty of source material to catch up with. But, as might be expected, the anime did have to make some concessions due to time constraints. For example, the anime version had Rem and Subaru merely discussing the possibility of running away together, but the web novel for Re:ZERO Arc 3 has extra “what if” chapters where Rem and Subaru live happily ever after with two children. (The Re:ZERO Blu-Ray includes a 290 Japanese novel Re:ZERO IF which focuses on the couple fleeing to the Japan-like country of Kararagi. No love for Team Ram, I suppose.)

Could a Re:ZERO OVA video eventually ship Subaru and Rem together for all those Team Rem fans? No one has publicly suggested such an idea, although director Watanabe Masaharu once made it clear he considers Emilia to be the real heroine of the story.

“People will get mad at me no matter who I say. But I suppose that Rem’s role in the story is that of a sub-heroine, while Emilia is the main heroine. I directed episode 1 myself and did as much as I could to enhance her presence in the scenes to make up for her lack of screen time. I’d change her outfits and made sure she gave off a strong impression. As far as I’m concerned, the heroine is Emilia, but perhaps nobody will believe me when I say that. After all, Rem clearly acts more like a heroine. But please don’t forget the scenes that showcase Emilia as the heroine.”

[Image by White Fox]

Re:ZERO Season 2 Spoilers

[Warning: The following information is based upon the Re:ZERO light novels and may be considered anime spoilers. If you have not finished watching the final Re:ZERO episode and yet continue reading then you only have yourself to blame, I suppose]

Unfortunately for Team Rem, events conspire to largely remove our favorite demon maid from the story for many chapters to come. This article won’t say how that quest ends in the web novel, but let’s just say there’s a good reason the author often refers to Rem as the “sleeping princess.”

Editor Ikemoto once said that “Re:ZERO has a great deal of foreshadowing and hints scattered throughout that you probably won’t notice your first time around. It’s an anime that will continue to surprise and amaze on repeat viewings.” That is true as those who have read ahead can attest. The answers to some of the series’ greatest mysteries have already been voiced, but this article will not attempt to provide a full synopsis of Re:ZERO Season 2, which will likely be based solely on Re:ZERO Arc 4 largely due to the arc’s length, nor will we directly discuss the guiding hand behind Return To Death. Instead, we will focus on teaser details that should whet your appetite for what’s to come.

Ikemoto also mentioned that choosing the ending for Re:ZERO Episode 25 was the biggest obstacle his White Fox writing staff faced during the creation process. We know that Re:ZERO’s author, Nagatsuki Tappei, participates in much of the process, from scripts to recording to dubbing, but the editor still said they put a lot of consideration into where to end the first season of the Re:ZERO anime.

As we all now know, White Fox and Tappei decided to end the first season on an emotional high note rather than drag audiences down to despair. In the original ending for Arc 3, both Crusch and Rem are irreparably harmed by another follower of the Witch. One of the final chapters of Arc 3 details how a new enemy rips apart a charging dragon carriage and easily withstands an air blade slice from Crusch, an attack that harmed the White Whale.

TranslationChicken has provided an online Re:ZERO English translation that extends the ending of the anime with these final chapters. Please visit the site to read the full Interlude chapters, but here’s an excerpt which explains what happens to Crusch.

Just as a chill ran up Rem’s back, the man took a step forward. His drooping arm lifted, creating a small gust of wind. Then, on the same line as the motion of his arm — the earth, the air, and the world parted in two. Round and round and round, Crusch’s severed left shoulder flew into the air. Still grasping onto the sheath of a knight-sword, the arm dropped down in a spray of blood. Crusch, blown off her feet by the impact, fell to the ground, convulsing in pain and mass loss of blood.

Getting back to the anime Re:ZERO ending, White Fox also ended up focusing the Re:ZERO ending on the defeat of Betelguese Romanée-Conti, Bishop of Sloth, a spirit demon that has lived since the time period of the Witches. Like any good respawning video game character, Subaru receives a power up at the beginning of Re:ZERO Season 2 by absorbing the Bishop of Sloth’s powers. Besides emanating hundreds of Invisible Hands, Subaru’s new powers include a wave of miasma that renders people immobile in addition to his dark mist spell. During the new season, he will also form a contract with Beatrice and he learns new abilities in the process.

Re:ZERO Characters [Image by White Fox]

Re:ZERO: Rem’s ‘Death’ Will Hit Otaku Like A Morningstar

The power that Subaru wishes he could prevent comes from Rai Baten Kaitos, Roy Alphard, and Rui Arneb, the three personas of the Bishop of Gluttony. They have the ability to eat the memories of people. Worse, they can eat names, which erases people from existence. Poor Rem has both her name and memory eaten so she collapses into a coma and not even her sister Ram remembers her. Only Beatrice (who exists in a different dimension) and Subaru remember, and his grief drives him to suicide in hopes of correcting Rem’s cruel fate.

In this case, fate cannot be avoided with a time loop. Subaru’s save point is now stuck after the defeat of Betelguese and thus Rem’s redemption is beyond Return By Death. Figuring out a way to revive Rem becomes an enduring theme of Re:ZERO’s story, but Re:ZERO Season 2 will also open with the shocker that Roswaal is not really a good guy! (His choice in fashion should have been a hint, I suppose.)

Besides trying to save Rem from death, much of Re:ZERO Season 2 should be about Subaru helping Emilia survive a multi-stage Trial thrust upon them by Roswaal. The resulting adventure gets pretty odd since it involves multi-generational body snatchers and literal swarms of killer rabbits (yes, of the Monty Python variety). While it’s easy to imagine the anime handling those enemies in comical fashion, Re:ZERO Season 2 will of course delve into darker waters. Subaru will eventually meet and speak to Satella directly, allowing fans to know her true nature in relation to Emilia. But the darkest revelation is that Return To Death may not destroy the alternate universes in which Subaru died, and audiences will see the horrible ramifications of these deaths in other timelines.

From an anime fan’s perspective, what’s truly horrible is knowing that Re:ZERO Season 2 will likely end with Arc 4 and then we’ll have to wait until Re:ZERO Season 3’s release date to watch more. In the meantime, you can always teach yourself Japanese, invade Beako’s library, and start reading the Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu story… I suppose.

[Featured Image by White Fox]