From Zero / Battle Against the White Whale

That was close! I was out cold! Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- begins again this week! Also, today's my birthday! Celebrate me!

Exit Petelgeuse, enter Puck.

Petelgeuse’s black arms are called the "Unseen Hand" in the story, but of course, Puck still can’t see them right now. Subaru couldn’t see them in the previous two episodes either, but they’re being visualized this time because Subaru has started being able to see them.

Still, bringing out the "From Zero" episode on the author’s birthday is an awfully stylish bit of consideration.

We call Puck in this giant form "star beast form," but it’s only been written once or twice in the story, so it’s fine if you don’t really remember it. If you want to get a proper look at giant Puck, check out Frozen Bonds!

For the record, Puck in this state is top-class even by Re:Zero world standards. Though of course, Reinhard is definitively the strongest, so everyone below him is basically just within the margin of error.

Kobayashi-san is really good at Subaru’s laugh here.

Return by Death really switches consciousness seamlessly, with no time lag at all, so I think it must do a real number on your brain. One moment you’re in a dark forest, freezing to death, and the next, bam, you’re in a bright city street.

From here on, I’m going to get a little quieter too.

It was the same back when it first aired, but the commercial break comes fast. Which means Part B is loooong.

To the north is the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko. To the south is the Vollachian Empire. To the west is what’s called the Kararagi City-States. And here is the Kingdom of Lugunica in the east.

Kobayashi-san noticed it during recording too, but Subaru says here, "Just having someone waiting for you at home..."

"When we talk about the future" is something Subaru said at the end of Arc 2. The things you messed up don’t just disappear.

When the parents are of different races, it’s harder for them to have children, but not impossible. When they do, the child is born with traits that reflect both parents’ bloodlines. The image is that they don’t usually turn out completely biased toward just one side.

I wrote Re:Zero Arc 3 because I wanted to make him say the line, "I really hate myself," and one other line too.

As for Subaru’s negotiation with Crusch-san, this was originally something Rem and Crusch-san were doing every night. Roswaal had instructed Rem that only if "Subaru asks for the right to negotiate" should she hand that right over to him. Why he did that is Season 2.

By the way, the author sees that Rem scene not as total affirmation, but as total rejection.

The previous "Sword Saint" Wilhelm-san is referring to was the "Sword Saint" before Reinhard, and that person is Reinhard’s grandmother. In other words, Wilhelm-san and Reinhard are grandfather and grandson.

She’s here! The heroine is here!

"What is this little oni girl?"

Ricardo is set up so that in written form, about 80% of his lines end with an exclamation mark. His voice is loud.

Ponytails are nice...

The people who just arrived are the ones who once took part in the White Whale subjugation battle and still carry the regret of failing to protect the previous "Sword Saint." The man at the front is named Kurganwood Merahau, and he used to serve in the same unit as Wilhelm.

After retiring from knighthood, Conwood-san opened a tavern in the royal capital, and it’s become a regular haunt for the kingdom’s knights. It even has private rooms for confidential talks, so Ferris and Julius use it sometimes too.

Crusch-san and the subjugation force’s equipment, their armor and helmets, have been reinforced with a special technique that engraves earth-attribute protection into them. Presumably it’s done by a blacksmith with a Divine Protection.

For the record, a younger Conwood-san appears in EX 3, Sword Demon Love Ballad. He was one of the people running around in a panic trying to get things ready for Wilhelm and the "Sword Saint"’s wedding.

Flugel’s Great Tree is a tree that grew huge over the course of 400 years, but it probably wouldn’t have gotten this big in just 400 years under normal circumstances, so maybe it started as a special sapling.

Even though Subaru can’t reveal information about Return by Death, the way he can still convey what he’s seen through Return by Death to other people is, roughly speaking, through his usual conduct.

When Rem straightforwardly asked, "You love your wife, don’t you," Subaru was thinking to himself, "Rem-san!? Is it really okay to ask that!?"

The ringtone here is "Yoake no Michi," and that’s because this was originally set as Subaru’s ringtone. This was the result of a lot of hard work: they actually tracked down the real phone model and recorded it properly to match the settings on Subaru’s flip phone.

With the power of the Divine Protection of Wind Indication, Crusch-san could tell that Subaru wasn’t lying, but she still couldn’t be certain the White Whale would really appear. So when it did show up, her reaction was delayed for just a moment, and Subaru and Rem covered that opening.

Rem alone never thought Subaru’s words were a lie at all, so the instant the White Whale appeared, she was able to act. In other words, it’s all about your usual conduct.

So that’s where the ending sponsor card was, huh! And with that, From Zero! That’s it for this week! Join us again next week for the beginning of the great comeback!