Re:Zero (TV series)

Development

The possibility of an anime adaptation came up early during development of the light novels; Shō Tanaka, a producer at Kadokawa Corporation, asked Ikemoto about properties which might lend themselves to being animated, and Ikemoto recommended that Tanaka read Nagatsuki's web novels.[5][6] Despite an initial miscommunication which led to Ikemoto believing that Tanaka was not interested, talks of adapting the series began soon after the web novels began the transition to print.[6]

As part of talks for the potential anime adaptation, Ikemoto and Tanaka spoke to Tsunaki Yoshikawa, an animation producer at studio White Fox, about the possibility of his studio animating the series.[6] Hoping to adapt the series into an anime similar to Steins;Gate (which White Fox also produced), and having a positive impression of the studio as one that did faithful adaptations, Tanaka then formally approached them about producing the show. White Fox's president contacted Yoshikawa for his opinion, and Yoshikawa recommended they accept, as long as the series "doesn't violate any broadcasting regulations."[5]

Production on the anime began sometime after the release of the fifth novel in October 2014.[7][8] Masaharu Watanabe was chosen by Yoshikawa to direct the series because he had previously worked for the studio doing key animation, while Kyūta Sakai was chosen to be the series' character designer and chief animation director because Yoshikawa felt that she would be able to do the novel's art justice whilst maintaining a consistent animation quality throughout the series' 25-episode run.[5] Masahiro Yokotani was brought on board as the main writer, with the series being his first time composing for a "reborn in another world"-type story.[9] Yoshikawa warned him about the violence in the series, but Yokotani was still surprised by the violent and disturbing scenes in novels three and beyond, having only read the first novel when he agreed to work on the project; he delegated the script writing of those episodes in the second cours to the other two scriptwriters.[9] Yoshiko Nakamura joined the project sometime after Yokotani had completed the script for episode 3. When it proved unfeasible for Yokotani and Nakamura to write the scripts alone, the decision was made to bring another scriptwriter on board. Gaku Iwasa, the president of White Fox, asked them to hire someone "younger", leading Yokotani to suggest Eiji Umehara. Nagatsuki had recently been playing Chaos;Child, which Umehara had written for, and he approved the choice, suggesting that they let Umehara write the "painful parts"; Umehara was invited to join the project around the time that the scripts for episodes 8 and 9 were being written.[9] Re:Zero was the first light novel adaptation that either of the screenwriters had worked on.[9]

Original author Tappei Nagatsuki was very active in the production of the anime, attending script meetings and recording sessions.[5] When the staff would encounter a problem with a scene, he would occasionally write lines for them to use as reference while writing the script.[9] The series was not initially intended to have 25 episodes, but was extended to give more time to the battle with the White Whale (which was expanded from two to three episodes) and to the content of episode 18 (episodes 16 to 18 were originally supposed to be covered in two episodes).[9] Watanabe's main directive to the staff was to "capture the mood of the novel as much as possible";[7][9] the scriptwriters had discussions about how to compress the dense source material without losing the central elements of the story, and Nakamura recalls working with composition notes that "went on for pages".[9] While planning and scripting the anime, choosing a proper conclusion was one of the most difficult parts for the staff, and a significant amount of time was devoted to choosing what to cover in the final episode,[5] which included material not yet covered in the light novel.[12][13]

After joining the project, both Nakamura and Umehara had to adjust their views of the main character, and were forced to rewrite scenes where they had made Subaru appear "cool". At Watanabe's direction, Nakamura was made to rewrite Subaru's telling of The Red Ogre Who Cried in episode 6 multiple times.[9] The staff also had difficulty deciding on a song to use for Subaru's ringtone that plays during the closing scene of episode 19, considering songs like "Kanpaku Sengen", "The Beard Song", and "M" by Princess Princess, before settling on "Yoake no Michi" from Dog of Flanders.[9]

Soundtrack

While choosing a composer to produce the series' music, director Watanabe wanted to choose someone who had "hit a nerve" with him. A fan of drama series, Watanabe was struck by a piece of music in the medical drama Death's Organ, and found that the series' composer, Kenichiro Suehiro, had also worked on a number of his favorite anime and drama series.[14] After Suehiro was attached to the production, Watanabe gave him three major guidelines: use human voices during the Return by Death sequences; compose the music like he would for a drama or a movie to capture the emotional scenes; and "pull all the stops" for the suspenseful scenes.[14] Additionally, for the first cours, Watanabe asked for music with a "suspenseful" vibe, while requesting music with a "romantic" feel for the second cours.[14] Both Watanabe and Suehiro are fans of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, and Suehiro tried to take inspiration from his works while composing the soundtrack.[14] Watanabe also requested that there be songs that mimicked Hans Zimmer's score from The Dark Knight.[14] While Suehiro used music that was not very "anime-ish" during most of the series, he was asked to use more traditional anime music during the slice of life scenes.[14] A number of times during the series, such as in episodes 7 and 15, Watanabe made it a point to use an entire song, something which is unusual in most anime.[14]

The series makes limited use of its opening and ending themes, and Watanabe has said that he wished he could use them more frequently.[7]

Season 1

The 25-episode first season premiered on 4 April 2016, with an extended 52-minute first episode. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and AT-X.[15][16] The series was simulcast by Crunchyroll.[17] Episode 14 and 18 ran 2 minutes longer than a typical anime episode, clocking at 25 minutes and 45 seconds.[18] The final episode ran 3 minutes longer, clocking at 27 minutes and 15 seconds.

A series of anime shorts featuring chibi versions of the characters, titled Re:Zero − Starting Break Time From Zero (Re:ゼロから始める), were produced by Studio Puyukai to accompany the series.[19][20] The shorts ran for eleven episodes before being replaced by a new series of shorts, titled Re:Petit − Starting Life in Another World from Petit (Re:プチから始める異世界生活), which began airing on 24 June 2016, and ran for 14 episodes.[21] The shorts are directed, written, and produced by Minoru Ashina, with character designs by Minoru Takehara, who also animated the series alongside Sumi Kimoto and Chisato Totsuka. Kenichiro Suehiro reprised his role as composer for the shorts, while Tomoji Furuya of Suwara Pro produced the sound effects. Jin Aketagawa directed the sound at production company Magic Capsule.[19]

The shorts aired on AT-X after each episode of the regular series, starting on 8 April 2016.[19] Crunchyroll acquired the streaming rights to both series of shorts.[22] Animax Asia later aired the series starting on 13 January 2017.[23]

Season 2

In March 2019, it was announced that a second season was in production.[24] The cast and staff would reprise their roles for the second season.[25] It was scheduled to premiere in April 2020, but was delayed to July 2020 due to production complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[26] Before the arrival of the second season's initial premier date, an edited version of the first season premiered on 1 January 2020, on AT-X and other channels, with the edited version recapping the first season through one-hour episodes. It also included new additional footage.[27] The OVA "Memory Snow" was also broadcast in between the episodes 5 and 6 of the edited version.[28]

The second season was announced to be in a split-cours format, with the first half airing from 8 July to 30 September 2020, and the second half airing from 6 January to 24 March 2021.[29] The English dub for the second season began streaming from 26 August onwards.[30]

Season 3

A third season of the anime series was announced at AnimeJapan 2023.[31] The season is animated by White Fox and directed by Masahiro Shinohara, with Haruka Sagawa serving as character designer. It premiered in October 2024 with a 90-minute special, titled "Gekijō-gata Akui" (劇場型あくい).[32][33] The first cours, entitled the "Attack Arc", ran from 2 October to 20 November 2024. The second cours, entitled the "Counterattack Arc", ran from 5 February to 26 March 2025.[34]

Season 4

Immediately following the conclusion of the third season, a fourth was announced.[35] Like the third, the fourth season is also scheduled to run in two batch cours. The first cours, entitled the "Loss Arc", premiered on 8 April 2026. The second cours, entitled the "Recapture Arc", is set to premiere on 12 August of the same year.[36][37] The first episode of the season was screened at the 2025 Lucca Comics & Games convention on 1 November 2025.[38]

OVAs

An original video animation (OVA) episode was announced at the "MF Bunko J Summer School Festival 2017" event on 10 September 2017.[39] All of the main staff and cast returned for the OVA, with Tatsuya Koyanagi joining as chief director.[40] Titled Memory Snow, the OVA was screened in Japanese theaters starting on 6 October 2018.[41][42][43] A second OVA, titled The Frozen Bond (氷結の絆), was announced on 23 September 2018. The OVA is an adaptation of the prequel novel Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Zenjitsu-tan: Hyōketsu no Kizuna (Re:ゼロから始める前日譚 氷結の絆) which was included with the first Japanese Blu-ray release of the television series, and focused on the meeting of Emilia and Puck.[44] It was released in Japanese theaters on 8 November 2019.[45][46]