Already in its second season, Re:Zero is proving to be a top contender for best anime 2016. The anime follow’s Natsuki Subaru your average every-man thrust into a different dimension where he subsequently meets the girl of his dreams. A pretty standard plot up until they both are killed with in the first episode. From here on it all goes down hill for our protagonist as he awakens once again on the first day of his arrival in this alien world. During the show’s progression Subaru has to find a way to keep himself alive to get to certain checkpoints via ground hog day time reversal, the trigger to getting back to these check points? Dying, and boy does he do a lot of it. Most conflicts are resolved after a time of trying to find the perfect set of triggers that makes sure all parties remain alive and that the current issue at hand is resolved. 
The anime actually does a good job of setting a pace for each arc. Our protagonist doesn’t immediately succeed at the drop of a hat. In fact he fails more often then not, going through multiple iterations of the same arc. Tagged onto this ability of death and rebirth, is the inability to tell anyone that it’s happening to him, leading other characters to believe he’s either crazy or have to trust him based on how he’s acted so far. In fact midway through season 1 and into season 2 of the anime, his mind set slowly degrades due to the multiple deaths in a row and watching his friends die, over and over again even though he’s trying his best but nothing works in his favor. What’s even worse is, due to his “curse” various monsters and baddies are attracted to him via scent, making survival that much more difficult.
What really impresses me about RE:Zero is the Subaru’s character progression. It isn’t just all “the invincible main character” that we’ve come to see in a lot of anime. To be honest, the main character is full of flaws; he’s prideful, cowardly a bit incompetent at times. But that’s what makes him relatable and at times a bit of something to loath. The mental breakdown may seem out of left but when it gets down to it, watching your friends constantly die over and over and experiencing your own death would have a mental toll. He does eventually rise above it, but be prepared for a bit of a slog.
Overall, give Re:Zero a chance. It takes a bit of time but you’ll fall in love with the cast of characters and the struggle that is living and dying in another world.
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