Parent and Child

So then, it's Re:Zero time again today! To everyone joining from 11:30, let's have a good one!

Now then, right from the start we're getting Subaru's room, but if you look closely, you can also see the figures and posters from the end of last time... people with sharp eyes might realize what they all have in common.

This muscular half-naked dad is Subaru's father, Natsuki Kenichi. And the woman whose eyes make you feel Subaru's genetic connection to her is his mother, Natsuki Naoko.

That's an even more enormous amount of green peas than I expected. Looks like they opened about two whole cans of green peas.

In response to the question, "Why is it Japanese-Western fusion?" the answer "Mom likes bread and miso soup" doesn't really answer anything, but Naoko-san is basically like this about everything.

It's kind of surprising that Subaru is a pajamas guy rather than a tracksuit guy when he sleeps.

When you skip school, you kind of stay tense until homeroom is over, and then once that's past you start to relax... you've had that experience before, right?

Kenichi moonwalking in with that "Foooo!!" happened because we threw Toriumi-san the impossible request of "Make it Michael-like here!" Kenichi does seem like the sort who'd do that, so it was an OK take.

The soft, hazy look of the visuals and the row of cherry trees are really nice.

For Kenichi, this town is the hometown he's lived in for ages, so he's known the old man who manages the cherry tree row since childhood. Kenichi, together with his friend Ikeda-san, used to be notorious troublemakers in town. Ikeda-san went to Thailand.

He opens the cola he was handed while pointing it in a different direction. The reason this is their usual routine is probably because he's fallen for that trap many times before. When he set up an elaborate trap once, Kenichi even disguised the label and tricked Subaru with it.

A father asking his son, "Is there a girl you like?" carries that friendly-dad kind of vibe, but well, with Kenichi it probably feels more like he's just going with the flow to use it as a springboard into school talk.

This gets misunderstood a lot, but Subaru still normally goes out to the convenience store and such, so calling him a "shut-in" isn't quite right. More accurately, he's truant.

That recurring stab of pain might really reflect Subaru's deeper psychology, in that it comes when he wishes for stagnation. I don't think changing is always best, but staying the same doesn't mean nothing changes, so that takes effort too. Yeah.

This is Subaru and Kenichi sitting on the bench as father and son, and they really do look like father and son at a glance. That said, the parts that can be shaped later in life, like his hairstyle, are things Subaru intentionally modeled after Kenichi. His eyes, on the other hand, are something he naturally inherited from his mother.

Being precocious can come with its own hardships.

The place where Subaru fell is that row of cherry trees where he walked with Kenichi.

About Subaru's failed high school debut: Subaru's the outgoing type of socially awkward person, so school life, where reading the room is necessary, was pretty rough for him. The reason he's treated somewhat better in the other world is because the people around him aren't classmates his age, but adults.

In the middle of the 'Trial,' the two girls Subaru Natsuki met in the other world were what helped him regain who he is now. Seeing "you," being seen by "you"... that's the driving force.

By the way, the line was trimmed a little, but Kenichi tells Subaru, "If you want me to hate you, go massacre about half of humanity for no reason." Well, in other words, it's impossible.

The 'Trial' begins, Subaru regains himself, and he finally gets to talk about the complex he had over never being able to talk with Kenichi, but there was something else he had intuitively understood in the same way. He can't return from the other world.

I won't explain it in detail at this stage, but please think of Subaru as having unconsciously understood from the very beginning that "he can't return from the other world." Kenichi's words simply made him consciously realize what he'd been unaware of.

He was anxious about whether he could really live up to expectations. But he became able to say that. That's Subaru's growth after going through Arcs 1 to 3.

Still, this protagonist really does look strangely out of place in a school uniform...

The mayo cap has a "Su" written on it because that's Subaru's personal mayonnaise. The house also has "Na" and "Ke," so they're a whole family of mayo lovers. And yes, this family washes and keeps every mayo cap after the mayonnaise is finished.

His mother may be spacey, but the way Nahoko and Kenichi met was spacey too: Kenichi saved Nahoko when she was about to be tricked by a bad adult, then the next day he found her about to be tricked by the exact same person using the exact same method, and saved her again. That's how their relationship started.

Incidentally, just like Nahoko imagines, Subaru started drinking mayonnaise because he wanted to like what his parents liked, but the reason he still does it now is simply because he really does have the makings of a mayo maniac. He wuvs mayo so much.

"He's definitely that person's child" is one of the various curses found in Re:Zero, but curses can become things other than curses too. Well, I do love curses! They sound strong!

People who like twisted, troublesome human beings also like curses.

On the way to school, mother and son part ways at the road just ahead. He could have left just like that without saying anything. He may even have thought that if he didn't say goodbye, he wouldn't make his mother sad. But he couldn't stay silent. Because Subaru was the one who had regretted staying silent.

There isn't any basis to a mother's words, and they don't really follow any logic, but "Because I'm your mother" feels unfair. But that's enough.

"What matters is the end" is actually a pretty important phrase. If you'll keep following Re:Zero from here on too, I hope you'll remember it for a long, long time.

In episode 1, Subaru heads to the convenience store right at the start, but this is the exchange with his mother just before that. Though maybe you can't call it an exchange since they didn't actually exchange words. Just Subaru's regret.

By the way, right before episode 1, when Nahoko tells him "Have a good day," if you look at the sink, there's a cup being washed...

She washed it for you, and yet you said you didn't want to wash it. That was a stupid thing to do, Natsuki Subaru.

Now then, it's the first ending! Isn't the expression in this ending incredibly emotional and amazing? It's wonderful in a way that's a little hard to put into words.

Still, that attention-seeking 'Witch' just has to end both the OP and ED with a close-up of herself...

Ah, but still! I couldn't spot the commercials again today! I'm truly grateful for all the care and effort being put into this! And so, that was season 2 episode 4, "Parent and Child"! Those are Natsuki Subaru's parents. Today's story wasn't dramatic in any flashy way at all, but it's the reason Natsuki Subaru is the kind of person he is.

By the way, that row of cherry trees where Subaru and Kenichi were walking is actually a fairly famous cherry blossom spot. I went there myself, took a ton of photos on my phone, and sent a whole bunch to the director saying, "This is the image I have in mind!" People who know it will know, but the cherry blossoms there are amazing.

So with that, thank you again for this week! Let's meet again next week with Echidna smirking in her school uniform! See you then!