Battle Against the White Whale

Alright, it's still thirty minutes early, but I'm here a little earlier than usual. That's because last time I was too wrapped up in the afterglow of Episode 18 and couldn't comment at all. So I thought I'd talk a little, just a little.

First, I mentioned this before the last broadcast too, but the content of Episode 18 is one of the important parts I had always wanted to do when writing Re: Starting Life in Another World. More than anything, I'm overwhelmed with emotion that the anime was able to reach that point. Thank you very much.

The anime staff also handled turning Episode 18 into anime with tremendous care. Of course, the same effort goes into the other episodes as well, but with Episode 18 I felt it especially strongly. Thank you very much.

Those of you who watched probably understand this, but Episode 18 had adjustments made not just to the story itself, but even to the broadcast structure. You can see that in how short Part A is. Part A ends in about five minutes, and from there Part B continues for nearly 18 minutes, making it a special format.

Every time, Director Watanabe and the rest of the staff make the episodes while being conscious of where to place the commercials and how to leave the ending hook, but for Episode 18, they felt, "We don't want to break the atmosphere with a commercial in the first place," and thanks to the efforts of many people, that format became possible.

Of course, to start Episode 18 there and end it there, the script itself had to be carefully worked over from the beginning. The scripts for Episode 18 and Episode 17, which leads into it, were done by Yoshiko Nakamura-san. Nakamura-san also handled Episode 7, which was such a high point in the first cour, and...

With delicate depiction and lines that really needed to be picked up, she brought it all together with truly masterful work, and as the original author, I can't thank her enough. To make that happen, everyone from the storyboard artist to the episode director gave it their all, and it really became an episode for which all I can say is thank you so much.

When talking about Episode 18, there's also the insert song that plays at the end. The many flashbacks leading up to that, along with the music and sound effects that color them, are all thanks to the power of the sound team. I was allowed to attend the dubbing as well, so watching it come together was incredibly exciting for me too.

Basically, when it comes to Episode 18, there's nothing in particular I want to say about the content itself. That's because what I wanted to say is already written in the novel, and I believe everyone on the anime side portrayed it fully as well. The flashbacks inserted throughout express the kind of prose narration that's difficult to include, so please pay attention to them.

There's so much information packed into a single episode that it may not all come across in just one viewing. Writing is the same way, but even if you might not understand it all after reading it once, please watch it again and again. I don't know whether content that can't fully come across in one go is good or bad, but that's how much is packed into it.

And with all that, as the original author, I'm truly grateful that so much earnest effort was packed into a single episode. It's not over yet, but let me brag a little that I'm one of the most blessed original authors in the world, and with that I'll end my comments on Episode 18!

Thank you! Keep enjoying it from Episode 19 onward too!

I regret that I have no way to express this beyond retweeting. Amazing, Yuzouni-san.

And with that, it's about to start! Episode 19, please enjoy!

Ferris is always cute.

Oh, it's the opening!!

Opening ears

Re:ZERO Season 2’s OP and ED both go on sale August 24! Please support them!

Part A starts!!

Continuing from last time

Subaru-kun's eyes have their light back.

Sword aura overflowing.

Ferris is cute from every angle.

Ferris was breaking out in a bit of a cold sweat there.

Beforehand, Rem had been instructed by Roswaal about various things to do in the royal capital. For that reason, she had discussions with Crusch every night. Subaru had no way of knowing that, though.

The events of Episode 17, with no room to take them on the defensive

Crusch-san, intensely curious about the unknown, and cute Ferris

With the power of the Divine Protection of Wind Indication, Crusch-san can see through lies. (There are some exceptions. Ferris has known her a long time, so he can dodge around it and tease her.)

The Greed duo

Part of Subaru's reason for calling those two was to add more persuasive weight to these negotiations.

As for Russell-san, well, his moment to shine is, you know, still quite a ways off.

"Let's go hunting!"

It's probably safe to assume the content of the negotiations was examined and polished by Anastasia, Russell, Rem, and the others. (The "Let's go hunting!" line was Subaru's.)

Cute Ferris

"Ahh, Subaru-kun is wonderful. Subaru-kun is cute. Subaru-kun is showing off... cute."

"I'm sure you've already seen through it."

The bonding event between Crusch-san and Wilhelm-san is in the bonus short story for the final anime volume. I'm writing it now.

The power of the Divine Protection has been proven! To see through such a cleverly constructed lie!

But Ferris is cute.

The voice is cute too.

Why is he a guy...?

Go spend lots of time with Patrasche.

"Would you be so honored if I let you choose me?"

"Would you be so honored if I let you pet me?"

"What are you looking at, you oni?"

I'm Ricardo Welkin. More like Anastasia's parent substitute, or her guardian substitute... though these days, I'm more like the one being looked after.

Ponytail Crusch-sama!! Make me the ribbon that ties up your hair!!

Nothing but the wind blowing like he's saying it with dead seriousness.

Former Zergev Squad.

At the front is Conwood Mellahau. During the Great Subjugation, he's the man who brought back the Dragon Sword Reid.

Wilhelm and Conwood go way back. The kind of old comrades-in-arms who once rode side by side. It gets me fired up.

A rallying speech before battle is important.

By the way, Crusch-sama's armor has "Earth magic" cast on it, so it's more defensive than it looks.

Part A over!

By the way, since Conwood-san has been around a long time, he secretly appears in the frontispiece of side story EX 2, "Sword Demon Love Ballad." Same hairstyle.

Part B! The kitten siblings are here! The kitten siblings are here! So cute!

Here, Hetaro is supporting Mimi with his tail.

For Hetaro here, I had them try a few times so that his impossible-to-hide affection for Mimi would really seep through (lol)

"A good ground dragon? Don't be ridiculous. This is the finest ground dragon."

There was also a setting where Mimi had a personal liger, but it was rejected because throwing something so cute into a battle where it might die would be too cruel (lol)

Flugel's Tree is huge!!

It's weird that with a tree this huge, nobody's carved letters into it before! It ought to be covered in scars!

Just between us, cell phones don't actually warn you when the White Whale is approaching.

Subaru has already set the alarm for the White Whale's appearance time. He checked it over and over. It's fine, it won't be off. Trust him.

He should've told Rem everything from the start. Instead of doubting she'd never believe him, even if he couldn't explain the reason, if only he'd done that... That's the kind of narration that goes here.

It's a nameless flower, but this man recognizes it.

Amazing, amazing, amazing, right in front of me, the person from Sword Demon Love Ballad! A person! That! The one from Sword Demon Love Ballad! The main character! I'm witnessing something incredible right now!

The moment Subaru truly comes to respect Wilhelm. This is kind of like a curse too, in a way. Though whose curse it is is another matter.

Preparations to march out, complete.

He touches the lion emblem and thinks, "Your Highness..."

He set the alarm perfectly, but forgot to change the alarm sound: Natsuki Subaru, that kind of man.

Noise

Even Crusch forgot her words in that moment.

He dives in during that instant.

Follow those idiots!!

Part B over! Thank you very much!!

Closing heroines

Thanks for sticking with episode 19! By the way, there were a lot of discussions about how to present episode 19 too, but the thing we argued over most was Subaru's cell phone alarm at the end! We argued like crazy over what to make it!

Suggestions were flying around fiercely, like Shinji Tanimura's "Subaru," "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," and "Sushi Kuine!" In the end, since it felt the most like Subaru, we went with "Yoake no Michi"! But even after that was decided, it still took all kinds of hard work!

First of all, everyone's obsession with the sound was on another level. To make "Yoake no Michi" play as the alarm, we had to take on the challenge of wanting to record the sound from "the flip phone Subaru is carrying," so the mission started with getting our hands on an actual flip phone from that era...

Well, there were a ton of twists and turns, but in the end we got an actual device from Yahoo Auctions or something, and everyone cheered. https://t.co/x10Q9lVSvw

But the story doesn't end there. Once we'd obtained the actual device, next we had to record the sound from it. But those old flip phones only had, what, 4-note or 6-note polyphony, anyway, hardly any sound at all, and these days nobody goes out of their way to make audio under those kinds of restrictions, so...

Just for this one scene, we made "Yoake no Michi" with very limited polyphony, loaded it onto an actual flip phone, played it into a microphone in the sound studio to record it, and then had it inserted into the picture during dubbing. Why did we go this far...?! That was the kind of work it was. I can still see everyone's smiles burned into my memory.

Thank you, everyone. Patrasche is very satisfied too.

And after all those efforts, what we achieved was that final scene of about a minute and a half! Of course, the people of that other world don't know where that song comes from, so it doesn't deflate the mood for them. As for what everyone who watched that scene thought of it, I'll leave that to all of you, but I'd be happy if it had the effect we were aiming for.

The night before the decisive battle had all kinds of preparations for the White Whale fight, but there are so many interesting details hidden in it that you can't catch them all in one viewing, so I hope you'll enjoy watching it again after the second time too. Ferris being cute from every angle is incredible.

Well then, thank you again this week! The White Whale battle begins in earnest! Please tune in again next week!!