The Witches' Tea Party

Still, one week really does go by fast! Today is Re:Zero season 2 episode 5! Please enjoy it!

Starting with Echidna after the parent-child meeting is over!

Wait, it's not starting right from the top...?

Can we really insist that this thing at the beginning counts as a commercial...?

It jumps straight into the OP! Echidna being happy that her uniform got praised makes it look like she's letting butterflies loose, and it's pretty funny.

Huh? Did they change the opening's direction a little?

No commercial after the OP, pretty much exactly as expected.

The reason Echidna was waiting for Subaru in a school uniform is that, when recreating Subaru's memories, there happened to be an awful lot of girls in those memories wearing them. It's just a school uniform, of course, but she figured Subaru might like them, so she waited in one.

Since her usual look wouldn't match the uniform, they even went so far as to cheapen her butterfly hair ornament to fit. Nice attention to detail.

The first 'Trial' merely recreates the contents of Subaru's regrets from within his memories, and yet it has a realism that doesn't feel fabricated. Still, since it even reflects the wishes of his deep subconscious, whether it's really fiction depends on how you reconcile it in your own heart, but Echidna's way with words didn't work on him.

After what happened last time, Subaru's mental state has settled into place, so Echidna's provocation didn't work on him either.

Since she casually says, "I'd rather you not hit my face," this Witch seems like she's probably been punched once or twice before over something she brought on herself.

Basically, the first 'Trial' feels like the most painful one. In any age, regret is not something easily wiped away.

Unlike in episode 3, this time Subaru remembers what happened in the tomb.

As for the tomb's 'Trial,' if there's interference from outside, you wake up right away. Subaru's the kind of guy who'll immediately wake Emilia when he sees her suffering. I really like how Emilia suffers here. That sounds wrong.

So the situation is: Subaru passed the first 'Trial,' while Emilia couldn't.

Something about Subaru, Otto, and Garfiel all sitting there perched at the table is cracking me up.

Otto's triumphant smug face...!

And then the loli-baba shuts Otto right down...!

Replacing the Otto shutdown, now it's Ram shutdown. The new character who just appeared is one of the representatives of this 'Sanctuary,' Ryuzu Birma. Her appearance comes at a slightly different timing in the books and the anime. Why did we do that? Because absolutely none of episode 3 fit!!

Otto, still holding a grudge over having his smug look shut down, goes, "And why exactly was my brilliant idea from earlier no good?" Ryuzu-san sitting there so neatly right in front is cute.

This is Ryuzu-san, whose visual briefly appeared at the end of episode 2 and elsewhere. From the shape of her ears and so on, I think you can vaguely infer something about her origins.

Ram really is Ram for making tea out of leaves she literally picked up, and Garfiel really is Garfiel for believing her and drinking it. As you can probably tell, Garfiel has a bit of a crush on Ram.

There were occasional moments in season one where Emilia-tan watched Subaru sleeping, but in season two, it's the other way around, with Subaru getting a lot more chances to watch Emilia-tan's sleeping face.

Hearing, "And the night after that too," makes Emilia's expression turn a little heavy.

By the way, Frederica and Ram have known each other since shortly after Ram first came to Roswaal's mansion, so they've been acquainted for nearly ten years.

"We don't know who the enemy is. Stay on guard." Nee-sama is as kind as ever.

The next Alive short story is about Echidna getting trapped on a snowy mountain together with a serial killer.

After the commercial break, Emilia once again takes on the "Trial" the day after her first attempt.

Subaru and Garfiel talking. Subaru keeps subtly feeling him out here and there, but that's part of him trying to get closer and become friends. At the moment, he doesn't have any particular suspicions.

Unlike Subaru, Emilia has a hard time clearing the hurdle of "first, face her own past." A glimpse of what that past is like can be found in the OVA The Frozen Bond.

Roswaal casually says, "I can't let someone I don't trust sit in," but by and large, Roswaal doesn't lie.

Including Subaru, everyone around him was operating on the assumption that "there's no way Roswaal wouldn't have made preparations." In fact, if Roswaal had stayed behind in Arlam Village, then aside from the need to overcome Petelgeuse's "possession," he could have easily cleared every other condition.

When Subaru was reunited with Ram for the first time in a while, he couldn't bring up Rem's name, but now that it slipped out in the heat of the moment, he got exactly the answer from Ram that he had hoped not to hear.

If Roswaal had been there, he could have saved everyone. But then he wouldn't have won Subaru and Emilia's respect... that's Roswaal's argument. Subaru angrily calling that "hindsight" is, well, completely fair.

"I believed in you, you know."

No matter how much she dislikes Roswaal's designs, she understands that his existence is necessary to fulfill Emilia's goal—so she cannot just destroy everything. Up through Arc 3, Subaru would have destroyed it all, but whether it is right to straightforwardly call his inability to do so now "growth" is a difficult question.

This is a nighttime conversation between Subaru and Emilia that shows trust beginning to grow between them.

Nee-sama is very knowledgeable, so one look at Subaru's wrist and she can immediately tell it's about a charm. To begin with, Ram had already picked up on Petra's feelings back in Memory Snow.

"Roswaal told me to ask questions."

He looks rough around the edges, but including how he deals with the people of Arlam Village, you can really tell that Garfiel does a lot for the sake of the relationship between the Sanctuary and the outside world.

Being forced to face your past in the form of a "Trial"... but is that really necessary? Subaru feels good about overcoming it, but is the past really an enemy that must be fought? Is it wrong to run from the past? As for the author, well, I'm the type who thinks it's okay to run, but what do you think?

Red, red, the return to the mansion... and yet there is no welcome from Petra or Frederica at the mansion.

For some reason, doors all throughout the mansion are standing open...

He slips and falls, and theeeen...?

"We made a promise, didn't we? To keep your guts nice and cared for until the next time we met."

And with that, season one and season two both get their first kill! That's a trophy, right there.

You may have noticed, but the one who killed Subaru first in season one and the one who killed Subaru first in season two are both everyone's favorite, the "Bowel Hunter"!

But really, all I can say is that 30 minutes just flies by!! And so, Re:Zero season two is finally starting to bring the enemy vaguely into view! Keep cheering us on from here too! See you next week! Let's meet again from "where exactly is the starting point?" Farewell!