By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Borque.

As with my review of the 9th volume, I recommend that this review not be read by anyone who’s only seen the anime or manga versions of Re: Zero.

The first half of this book is merely good, as it has to set up the basics of what will be the next arc. Subaru and Emilia arrive back at the mansion only to find that the other half of the village – the one with Ram – is not there. Instead they’ve ended up at the Sanctuary, an area deep in the woods that is the home to demi-humans. Headed over there, Subaru quickly runs afoul of the Witch Echidna, who is able to wrap him around her little finger despite the obvious handicap of being dead. Her tomb is home to a trial that Emilia must take – and, it appears, Subaru is able to take it as well, as he quickly gets sucked into the first of the three tests it involves. Which is good for the reader, as it involves confronting and accepting his past… a past that we’ve been almost entirely ignorant of till now.

So yeah, as expected, Rem is still in a coma and no one remembers her, and it appears that this is going to be the case for the entire arc. I suspect that Rem fans are not going to be too happy with the bright side, which is that this will allow Emilia to get more character development that she didn’t get in the previous arc. Unfortunately, as with Subaru’s character development in the last few books, this is going to begin with a certain amount of frustration – while Subaru is pretty much able to pass the first test with flying colors, Emilia fails the “confront your past” part every single time. I expect a future book will tell us why, but till then, sobbing on the ground and calling out for Puck (who is also absent, for reasons we don’t yet know) is not a good look for her.

The main reason to read this book is the chapter where Subaru confronts his past, which means that we actually get to know his past. His parents are both fantastic in their own way, two people who you read about for ten seconds and immediately understand “yes, these are absolutely who his parents would be”. Subaru suffered as a kid from what a lot of us do, which is being above average in academics and athletics to a certain age, but then starting to fall behind others. Subaru, who was measuring himself by his “perfect” father and coming up short, overcompensated by being more boisterous and doing more crazy, dangerous things at school – something that eventually lost him his friends and made him decide to stop going to school altogether. The trial allows him to do something that he can’t do in real life – say goodbye to both his parents, and assure them that he’s stopped standing still and is moving forward. The entire sequence is terrific.

Unfortunately, Re: ZERO still has its main gimmick in play. And so at the end of the volume Subaru is brutally murdered, and we see a face that I’d honestly totally forgotten about doing the killing. I’m not sure how far back he’ll go, but I suspect we won’t be seeing the first stage of the trial all over again. Also, his idea to take the trial FOR Emilia as her knight is a bad one, and I hope it gets scrapped. In any case, this is a fantastic new volume of an excellent series. Man, remember when I hated Subaru? It seems so long ago now…

By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

When this arrived, I didn’t read it for a while as I was expecting it to be the “second half” of Wilhelm’s tragic backstory. But no, as this volume ends we’re still in lovey dovey land, though there are echoes of bad things on the horizon. Instead this volume picks up where the last one left off, with Wilhelm having defeated Theresia in battle and thus proving that he can replace her as the main defense of the realm… or so he thinks, but given that he starts the book in a prison cell, it’s likely that he has a lot more convincing to do. What this actually is are three short stories mushed together telling the story of Theresia and Wilhelm getting married and going on their honeymoon, and all of the things that get in the way of their happiness, which at this stage are mostly played for comedy. That said, the main villain towards the end has some familiar equipment, and I’m wondering exactly how Big Bad he’s meat to be.

I get the sense that the author wrote these stories while taking a break from their usual “Subaru has the worst day ever” fare. I was not expecting this to be as light-hearted as it was, and in many ways it doesn’t even feel like a Re: ZERO novel. Having determined to become Wilhelm’s bride and not a sword master (Wilhelm at least adds “unless she wants to” to this, but the narrative still pushes hard on “cute girls should not fight” mode), Theresia now goes into full-blown tsundere mode, with lots of embarrassment, mild jealousy, and no doubt pouting while pushing out one cheek in the grand anime faces tradition. Wilhelm has become more human since the last book, but that does make him a bit less interesting, as he’s now the standard snarky male light novel lead – something Subaru takes pains not to be. Theresia’s overprotective dad doesn’t help either, as he is made of cliches.

The final short story is the most interesting. (Well, there’s a short fourth short story about Carol and Grimm’s romance, but it’s clearly an afterword sort of thing.) Our couple are on their honeymoon, accompanied by Carol (who loves Theresia a bit too much) and tailed by Theresia’s father (ditto). Things turn serious, unfortunately, when they run into Lord Stride, who is the classic “arrogant noble” of many a light novel, and his bodyguard/champion, a big guy with eight arms. Naturally, he and Wilhelm have to fight, and it’s the best fight in the book, though unlike the last book this one really isn’t about the fights. Stride reminds me far too much of Petelgeuse only witho0ut the insanity, and I have a sneaking suspicion he or a relative may be in the main story sooner or later.

This is a great change of pace for those who’ve been reading Re: ZERO waiting for bad things to happen to good people. On the downside, that does mean it’s a little boring. There’s no deconstruction here, just the author writing a fun little light novel where the sword cutie marries the sword snarker. No doubt this will be continued in the 4th EX, but that’s not out in Japan yet.

By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Borque.

This review is, by necessity, going to be divided into two parts. The first part, above the cover art, covers the first three quarters of the book, which goes up to the end of the anime. The second part, after the cover art, spoils the last quarter of the book, which the anime did NOT adapt. If you want to be surprised, stop reading early.

This was a very solid ending to Re: ZERO’s third arc, which ended up being six books long. Subaru comes up with a different plan after the last one went a bit pear-shaped: take out the Fingers and do the evacuations first, THEN go after Petelgeuse. It also relies on Subaru putting his trust fully in Julius, who he still dislikes on principle, but you can tell that it’s the dislike that “rivals” have for each other, and I would be very unsurprised to hear there’s slash of them on AO3. The fights are strong, Subaru actually gets to be cool and intelligent for once, and he even gets to have a dramatic confession. Plus, Emilia lap pillow! You can absolutely see why the anime wrapped it up here – it’s a great, heartwarming ending that resolves most of the plotlines of this arc.

And then we see why, when asked why Season 2 of re: ZERO has not been greenlit, fans who follow the webnovel tried to avert their eyes and hem and haw. So yeah, not QUITE the happy ending we envisioned. Two more Witch Cult members attack Crusch, Rem, and the others heading back to the city, and the outcome is dreadful. Half the force is killed, Crusch loses an arm and also all her memories, and Rem’s body remains sleeping, but everyone else has forgotten HER – including Ram. This was foreshadowed a few times in the book earlier, where Ram looks puzzled at Subaru implying she has another sister, but it does lead to the beautifully dramatic (it gets a full page all to itself) “Who’s Rem?” from Emilia. Even worse, the author really drives in the knife by giving Rem fans a short story that shows off what would have happened if she and Subaru HAD run away together – they’re both happy, have two kids, joke about his libido – it’s the sweetest thing you can imagine. And also not what actually happened.

I was very impressed with the final chapter, which skipped Subaru finding out about all this and went to the aftermath, where he looks over Rem’s comatose body and tries to figure out what to do next. We hear about his despair – he kills himself to try to “return” to save Rem, but finds his savepoint is him looking at her body, so that’s out. Worse, after what’s happened to Crusch, Ferris is ready to break their alliance, and has to be talked down by Wilhelm and Crusch herself, who is a lot meeker and milder than the woman we love, but is just as determined. More importantly, Emilia has her groove back, and is ready to move forward with Subaru at her side. The next arc is implied to give her the character development that Rem got in earlier books.

The trouble is, of course, that we’re not sure how long the books will have Rem in a coma. Rumor has it there will be a long wait – the next arc is supposed to also be six books long. Good news for the EMT fans, but given how for 95% of all anime fans Rem is the only thing to care about in Re: ZERO, you can see why producers have been vacillating. That said, here it is, and it’s well written, and… sorry, Rem fans? Enjoy the Rem Natsuki story, if nothing else.