Subaru vs Betelgeuse – Animelee (Re:Zero)

what makes a great fight scene great what is it that separates the contenders from the also rans we're gonna pick through the best fights in anime scrape by scrape and blow by blow to find out i'm jeff though and this is anna mele though this anime lay is gonna need to be a little different from most because re zero does its fights a little differently from most anime and petal goose's powers in particular make this fight even more different er in your average anime the story progresses until a fight occurs two sets of superpowers and ideals are tested against each other someone wins someone else loses and maybe dies in the process and that's the end of it there's a clean start and finish to the action that allows for tightly contained beat by beat analysis in re-zero though subaru's anime superpower means that death is just the beginning and once he returns to a checkpoint every decision he makes in combat and conversation alike is a move toward his eventual victory and survival if not a particularly calculated move on account of how he's kind of a dumbass pitt returned by death against petalguse's ability to transfer his soul into any one of his fingers or subaru when he dies and it's easy to see how their fight could stretch across four episodes and two time loops but really all of that's just the climax of the fight everything that happens in re zero's second core from the moment subaru becomes aware that the manor has been attacked in episode 14 is part of his fight to subvert the machinations of the witch cult he just you know also has to fight his own shitty inner nature along the way and also a giant flying monster whale that has terrorized the world for centuries leaving literally countless dead in its wake with its terrifying ability to erase people from existence now don't worry i'm not gonna be breaking down that whole classically styled epic fantasy battle at least not in this video we're gonna have our hands more than full enough just accounting for the witch cults guerrilla tactics and subaru's growth through that fight but that said the courage that subaru builds through battling the whale and the allies he earns by taking it on are every bit as instrumental to his fight against petal goose as anything he learns in the first proper battle against the cult itself and so are many of the things he learned through his initial failed attempts to solve the problem on his own and by on his own i mean by letting rem do all the work for him before we get into all that though i should let you know that this video is brought to you by crunchyroll where you can stream both seasons of re zero plus the director's cut and ovas and a ton of other great anime besides with new episodes subtitled in multiple languages the same day they air in japan for just 8 bucks a month crunchyroll gives you access to an absolutely massive and ever-growing library of anime from all time classics to brand new smash hits and if you head to crunchyroll.com basement to get a 14 day free trial you won't even have to pay that much to check it all out you can use that trial to refresh yourself on re zero and jump into the new season which has gotten off to a brutally tragic start and you have plenty of options depending on how you want to watch or re-watch it the director's cut i mentioned earlier make subtle improvements to several scenes throughout the series but crunchyroll also offers multiple dubs of the original and while i can't directly speak to the quality of the spanish or portuguese the english dub is one of the best i've ever heard however you want to watch re zero or any other anime for that matter make sure you head to crunchyroll.com basement first to get your 14 day free trial now we've got a lot of fight to talk about today so let's get going shall we in the first round of the fight subaru does so poorly that he doesn't even get to see the enemy leader only the aftermath of their attack he does technically contribute to the fight if he hadn't been pathetic enough to make rem ditch him at the end those goons she killed outside the mansion would have killed rahm instead then more cultists would have gotten in and killed amelia before she could lock herself in the cellar to slowly bleed out so that's something but even as much as he fails here he does get two clues to the cult's plans and nature in this timeline they bow to him when he first enters the domain the first hint we get that his witches sent gives him leverage over the cult and the smoke from the magic stone explosion is visible as he approaches arlem village though he's too caught up in staring slackjaw at all the corpses to really process any of that information all things considered he may as well have done nothing at all here and he tries that in the next time loop leading to an even more gruesome death for rem though as she gets to at least tell him she loves him and die in his arms she would probably count it as an improvement overall we also get to see her fight the witch cult this time around learning in the process that their main modes of attack are their blades which can take the head off a ground dragon and their fire magic both in the woods where they're ambushed and in the cave where she eventually dies rem's fighting abilities are gloriously animated her ball and chain has some serious heft behind it leaving plenty of gorgeous carnage and destruction in its wake and her oni rage fueled attacks and expressions have a nice violent snap to them that contrast nicely with the creepy floppy fluidity of petal goose's motions he looks like a western cartoon character with his eye-popping animations and mugging for the camera and i am here for every frame of that just the unnatural way he tilts his head hints at his true nature not a human at all but a body snatching spirit monster manipulating its ill-fitting skin suits like manic marionettes in every aspect animation and voice acting english and japanese alike petal goose romani conti is one of the single best performed and most memorable anime characters in recent memory and he makes a hell of a first impression here first when he's alone with subaru his insane ranting and wild gesticulations immediately tell us that he's dangerously unstable and the fact that he pummels his own lackey into the pavement right after praising him for felling a ground dragon shows how little it takes to push him to violence the fact that he doesn't beat an answer out of subaru despite his intense curiosity and clear disdain for the boy's feigned madness and sloth is yet another strong indicator of just how much leverage our protagonist actually has over the cult subaru could have used that leverage to extract information from the talkative archbishop more than he gives away about his own ideology through his crazed preaching anyway or possibly even saved rem's life if he'd had his wits about him but pro-tag kun was too busy moping moaning and eventually screeching impotent threats to actually try leaving petal goose free to leave us with an even more striking impression with his casually cold-blooded gloating murder of our beloved best girl despite all of the opportunities that subaru misses in this loop it's hard not to empathize at least with the sentiment behind his screams at the end anyone who sees that happen to rem is gonna want to see this creepy [ __ ] dead but even after she frees him with her dying breath subaru isn't done letting rem down in direct defiance of her plea for him to live he mindlessly charges straight into the manor where the raging power of the awakened puck flash freezes him into a subarusical no matter how much it makes the people he cares for suffer he's only thinking about what he wants and it takes a lot to disabuse him of that selfish behavior in his third attempt subaru finally thinks to ask krush and the other king candidates for help but with nothing to offer them in exchange he gets nowhere fast and leaves them all thinking of him as a pathetic and incompetent fool his pathetic incompetence subsequently gets rem killed again along with a whole mess of merchants and eventually emilia when he breaks the one rule of return by death still he learns a lot of useful info about the white whale and other camps through these failures which eventually does allow him to save the day once rem yanks his head out of his ass and talks him out of giving up anyway and in the aftermath of emilia's death he's provided with several more important clues as to what it will take to finally defeat the sin archbishop of sloth firstly he learns that he alone is able to see the unseen hands and in petaluge's panicked reaction to this revelation we learn that the villain's strange habit of mangling his own fingers in his mouth is what allows him to summon more of them unfortunately for him the best he's got isn't nearly enough to defeat puck who implies that different users of the hands have different upper limits to how many they can summon with the witch of envy who puck knew apparently being able to call forth over two thousand in the last moments of this loop subaru sees one more aspect of petal goose's power the cackling villain possesses his body but he's too busy freezing to death to make sense of what's going on if he'd thought about it a little more perhaps he'd have been able to save emilia in one last loop but that's speculation and at least after this death plus an episode length pep talk from a waifu who is frankly wasted on him he finally finds the resolve to take on the cult in earnest the first step he takes toward that is opening up to rem and asking her for help in forming a plan instead of just telling her what to do the second is figuring out what crucianco want from the abundance of context clues he's been given over the last few loops and dangling that in front of her and anastasia and from there i mean a lot of stuff happens there's a big fight with a giant monster whale that lasts two whole episodes and takes rem out of the picture but in her place he gains the aid of certified badasses ferris wilhelm mimi tv ricardo and of course julius plus a couple dozen other soldiers and mercenaries on loan from crucian anastasia he informs the assembled warriors of everything he knows about the cult instilling them with confidence that it can be easily overcome and vows that nobody will die on this mission a promise that he does more or less keep though not in this timeline to be fair they are on a bit of a hot streak after killing a 400 year old monster so the overconfidence is at least understandable subaru's none too happy to see julius in particular on account of the ass-whooping the knight gave him when last they met but he's had his own failings beaten into him thoroughly enough by this point to at least recognize that he was mostly at fault there he makes his long overdue apology though he still has a ways to go before he can trust julius completely as they head off into the mather's domain to confront the sin archbishop and at long last the anime lay proper begins subaru reaches the cave where he once watched rem die and petalgus greets him by speaking very moistly subaru's words as he enters the cult's domain indicate he's figured out that the love petalguse keeps referring to is the same witches scent that rem has noted hangs so heavily on him petalguse confirms that suspicion by sniffing subaru before remarking on how loved he is and asking based on that if he's the final sin archbishop pride this lays the groundwork for one of subaru's counter-attacks later on subaru's half-hearted acting isn't enough to fool the archbishop for long he first becomes suspicious when he realizes the boy isn't mentioned in his gospel and subaru's lame excuse for losing his own copy of the precious book confirms that he's not to be trusted unfortunately for him subaru's bought enough time for his allies to get into position and he's only able to launch a single easily evaded attack with his unseen hands before the kitty kitties show up to fusro da the cultists in the cave to death causing his brain to tremble so hard he starts bleeding from his eyes as he tries to make sense of what's happening in a way that squares with what's predicted in his gospel he concludes that subaru must be here to challenge him for his status i'm not afraid the time has come to find out which one of us is worthy of a love subaru has other plans though and right as the archbishop gets ready to throw down wilhelm swoops in from behind to finish him off in one clean cut and with that it's over except that of course it's not even subaru doesn't trust that dead body to stay dead and not even blowing the bishop's corpse to smithereens can stop him from coming back we do get to enjoy a brief lull in the action where the assembled soldiers laugh together and julius warms up to subaru a little more but the second they drop their guards disaster strikes a mass of unseen hands rushes out of the woods to crush several of their companions including the most important one slothman and in the ensuing bloody chaos subaru is dragged off into the woods and dangled from a tree as he struggles to escape an unfamiliar voice utters some very familiar words [Music] my brain it travels subaru reasons out what's going on that petal goose is able to transfer his mind into the body of the fingers but that explanation is honestly unnecessary here even with a totally different cadence and appearance the finger's distinctive performance both voiced and animated instantly identifies him only one person makes expressions that crazed or bends that far backwards in the throes of surprise and only one person would be so eager to sniff subaru besides maybe rem the newly reborn archbishop is convinced that subaru must be pried and excited at the prospect of inducting him into the cult's ranks but his mood quickly sours when he discovers that his own gospel is missing in the heat of the moment he nearly crushes the boy to death but he's stopped by the appearance of one of julius's spirits ia which provokes a thoroughly uncharacteristic reaction from the villain in every past appearance petal goose has oscillated rapidly between a number of emotions elation confusion rage mocking excitement and calm business-like boss talk but even when he was surrounded and in danger he didn't show a hint of fear ia though clearly terrifies him he cowers before the tiny speck of light and lashes out seemingly at random his unseen hand plowing through the surrounding trees in a beautifully animated shot this panic is a hint at petal goose's greatest weakness as a transient soul he's pretty difficult to kill but other spirits are able to harm him and another of his weaknesses is revealed a moment later right as another hand closes in on subaru mimi and tivy appear to save the day blasting it and the tree beside him away and showering the area in swamp water which reveals the hands to the naked eye as they close in on the twins wilhelm cuts them down with ease before bisecting the mad cultist subaru is saved and his allies now know how to counter their invisible enemy but the lives lost to his miscalculation weigh heavily on him and he's very nearly ready to give up again until wilhelm confronts him the old man has doubtless felt this kind of survivor's guilt before and while subaru expects admonishment for his failings he instead gets a valuable piece of advice keep fighting use every ounce of strength in your body to reach for victory and give meaning to your regrets don't give up until you absolutely have to you don't need to get stronger you need to be strong it's exactly what subaru needs to hear and with his resolve restored he waves the merchants and mercenaries on to head for arlem village funnily enough the merchant he waves to is the finger currently possessed by petal goose biding his time as he waits for another chance to attack as they ride onto the village ferris pulls up alongside subaru to encourage him to truly make amends with julius and let go of his lingering resentment the episode ends as he goes to do just that only to be interrupted by an illusory attack from rom and this is one of those points that highlights why this fight is so messy to analyze because while it's rom doing the actual attacking here it only happens as a result of the witchcult's information warfare or so it appears in the moment anyway in truth the witch cult didn't directly interfere with the letter if they had they'd probably have known more about the alliance in advance it's erasure is actually just collateral damage from the gluttony sex attack on the person who wrote it whose name is escaping me right now in addition to heightening the terrifying sense that the cult is several steps ahead of our heroes this brief clash serves to set up their eventual path to victory in the fight's back half julius's scent-sharing spell nect while the spell helps the other soldiers escape subaru's oversensitivity to spirits leaves him reeling from the flood of thoughts pouring into his brain you could even say it's trembling this same sensitivity it's worth noting is also what leaves him vulnerable to petal goose's possession magic and likely explains why puck takes an immediate shine to him and why it's so easy for him to find beatrice's library though like the dick he is subaru completely fails to realize that betty is also his friend when he explains everything about spirits to julius in the village or maybe he just fails to realize that she's a spirit he is as we've established kind of a dumb ass once they've cleared up the confusion with the best and also only made in the mather's domain the squad marches on to evacuate arlem this doesn't quite go to plan either subaru tries to sugarcoat the situation to the villagers but they're already aware of the threat posed by the witch cult and his dishonesty only angers them though being bigots they quickly turn that anger toward the half-alphamilia subaru briefly falters at this wondering if he's just hurting amelia more by increasing the racial tension in the village around her but ferris reassures him and gives him one more important tip that alongside wilhelm's words guides all of his actions to follow in this fight holding your head high when you're doing the right thing inspires confidence in others and if you think that's embarrassing think about that time you threw a big tantrum in front of the whole government subaru's renewed confidence with an assist from rom convinces the villagers to evacuate despite their misgivings but before the plan can get underway it's waylaid by a surprise attack from the cult ferris thinks they've gotten the upper hand by identifying and incapacitating a spy among the merchants but doesn't realize that finger has already become petal goose yes and is subsequently caught off guard by a self-destruct spell that detonates the fire magic crystals hidden in his cart and signals the rest of the cult to attack this briefly knocks subaru out and when he comes to the town has erupted into chaos houses are ablaze countless villagers lay slaughtered in the street and the knights and mercenaries are fighting bravely to save the survivors from the remaining cultists as subaru and julius prepare to find and crush the remaining fingers the unseen arms erupt from a nearby street in a sudden burst of sumptuous sakuga telling them where to go we cut to wilhelm dashing through the onslaught with surprising agility for his age or any age for that matter this time facing down petal goose in the body of a fellow senior citizen whose taught wrinkled face only serves to enhance the villain's already creepy mannerisms as usual the swordmaster's moves are fast and precise kicking up dust to reveal the hands and cutting them down in a single slice it's so fun to watch wilhelm fend these attacks off that even petalus gets into it rambling excitedly about the old man's diligence until his trembling brain sends him reeling and creates an opening or so he'd like us to believe as his sneak attack with the merchant finger shows the archbishop is capable of suppressing his mad mannerisms and exercising patience to get the upper hand and this moment of supposed vulnerability is really a faint to get the swordmaster in range of his self-destruction spell and it absolutely makes sense that he'd sacrifice a finger to do that wilhelm's killed petal goose twice make that three times now without taking a single hit he's a clear threat who needs to be eliminated and petty guy that he is sloth probably has a bit of a grudge against him at this point which would explain why he's so openly distraught when he hops into his new body only to see that wilhelm has survived the blast with only crippling injuries i absolutely love the character animation that introduces this new body the crazed flailing and wide-eyed shrieking really conveys the villain's mounting desperation and rage thinking fast subaru redirects that rage by pulling out petal goose's gospel goading him into giving chase while julius mops up the remaining cultists and saves wilhelm's life and finally the seeds planted with all that uncomfortable sniffing are about to bear fruit the unseen hands have always been threatening but in this moment they look particularly deadly the animators working on this fight did a great job of selling their weight and power without undermining the chaotic writhing motion that makes them so damn creepy they tear through the fencing and gates surrounding the village and unlike wilhelm subaru is barely able to avoid them eventually getting knocked down a hill by one of their powerful strikes as he closes in petal goose mocks subaru for even thinking he could run away but the joke is ultimately on him as subaru pulls out one of amelia's barrier crystals and the woolgarm pack it had been warding off comes in to claim their new witch-scented chew toy and boy it sure is satisfying to see a villain get a taste of what subaru suffered during the mansion arc the satisfaction doesn't last long however as subaru returns to the village to see the last finger cackling in a very memeable manner as his cultists cut down yet more innocent villagers but right when things seem at their bleakest a hero steps in to save the day emilia who freezes the cultists around him with a single blast of her ice magic petal goose reacts to her appearance with more cackling and tears of sheer religious ecstasy it's easily the creepiest [ __ ] he's done yet which is saying a lot and his animations get even more erratic and unnatural from there subaru's first instinct is to leap in to save her but ferris stays his hand assuring him emilia's more capable than he thinks she is a notion that she instantly proves right with her ice crystals and snow particles hanging in the air emilia is able to see the unseen hands and dodge their attacks and with puck's assistance she rebukes the unwanted advances of their owner with a spectacular shower of icicles it's not enough to kill the bishop but it does provoke him into charging her head on only to be met with a massive ice blast to the face that's too hefty for his hands to deflect the spell leaves him hanging from a frozen crucifix where emilia finishes him off using the same deadly ice blossom power that she had so much trouble controlling in the frozen bond ova the last of the cultists are killed shortly after and in a powerful moment the surviving villagers look to amelia for the first time not as a threat but as a savior it's now her turn to be moved to tears and it would be subaru's turn to approach her and make amends next if the battle were actually over as petalguse's soul enters his body eel leaves subaru and feeling himself about to lose control he runs off into the woods where he can't hurt anyone ferris and julius give chase but when they reach him it's already too late petalguse has already taken control as demonstrated by yet more great character animation and phenomenal performances from subaru's voice actors in both english and japanese that mirror his tirade against emilia from episode 13 in interesting ways sloth could attack them at any time now though they are bought a few precious seconds as the crazed cultist revels in the feelings of love that drench this new body this lets subaru fight back just enough to beg his friends to kill him and while julius who regrets the harm he's already done to the self-proclaimed knight and wants to make amends can't bring himself to do it ferris tearfully accepts the request in an arc full of brutal moments this one hits particularly hard the unresolved conflict between subaru and julius makes this death especially tragic and the way ferris's voice breaks just gets me it gets through to julius as well who reluctantly delivers the killing blow with his spirit sword ending sloth's long reign of terror once and for all this act will weigh heavily on the both of them though and on emilia who senses subaru dying all the way from the village just too late to save him after that hard-fought battle things reset once more and subaru is relieved to see that his checkpoint has at least been updated to after the fight with the white whale sure would be some shitty game design if he had to go through all of that again just to get another crack at the final boss subaru may not have survived the last encounter with the witch cult but he learned a lot from it and in this new timeline he's able to pick the assembled soldier's brains for ideas on how to defeat his body snatching abilities julius big ol nerd that he is has heard of an ancient spell that could explain such an ability and the distaste he shows for that indicates that he understands how it works on a metaphysical level another hint that it's tied in some way to his area of expertise spirit arts based on this knowledge he lays out new conditions for beating petal juice they must kill all of his confidants the fingers before confronting him which is straightforward enough so to create a sense of mystery and tension around it the series cuts away to emilia in the mansion before he can explain how to solve the additional problem of petal juice possessing subaru this also allows us to hear what amelia and puck were talking about that morning and see how the villagers rejection of her efforts to help them compounded by the stress of fighting with subaru and facing bigotry at the royal selection is affecting our heroine's nerves something that adds a bit of retroactive emotional weight to her tears in the previous episode as she heads downstairs we realize that subaru's plan is already well underway he and wilhelm made a beeline for the mansion in this timeline to give amelia as much time as possible to escape when she still hesitates about trusting wilhelm subaru barges in to give her a push in the right direction disguised in her recognition blocking cloak to prevent any delays due to awkwardness between them knowing how much she cares for the villagers he focuses on conveying the danger that they're in and as he predicts this prompts the pure-hearted girl to take swift action things go pretty smoothly from here thanks again to subaru who's already primed the villagers to trust the soldiers and emilia in this timeline he follows ferris's advice from the get-go though he puts his head to the ground instead of holding it high he speaks confidently of miley's inherent goodness and is honest with the villagers both about the danger that they're in and her desire to protect them funny enough the guy who gave them the most trouble in the last time loop calling out subaru's lie and blaming amelia for the danger is swayed enough by this act of straight-laced humility to put his prejudices aside and trust subaru completely the whole village in fact is moved by its hopeless hero subaru's honesty and kindness which dispels their fear and distrust this leads to a moment of equal emotional potency to emilia's victory in the last episode when the children of the village accept her without hesitation despite the stories they've no doubt heard about half elves and the witch of envy if you've seen what she went through in the frozen bond ova this hits even harder but don't let that upswelling of emotion distract you from a crucial detail that pops up in this scene petra recognized emilia and the fact that she nods to subaru indicates that she knows who he is as well despite both of them having been covered at one point by an anti-recognition spell crafted by lord roswall himself you know the same wizard who did this oh my you look an absolute fry don't you subar this is a not insignificant feat of magical ability on petra's part that marks her as more than she first appears especially when you consider that the enchantment is powerful enough to hide the witch's scent on subaru allowing him to sneak up on the cultists as they rendezvous with the merchant finger on the clifftop overlooking the town the trap that team subaru laid for the finger here is pretty devious by using the spy to feed the cult a delayed timetable for the escape they're buying the fleeing carriages some much-needed wiggle room and laying bait for the other fingers to get ambushed while they're positioning themselves to ambush emilia subaru doesn't even know how right he is when he says you're about to learn how terrifying it is to have an enemy who's always one step ahead of you beyond even the power of their sin authorities the witch cult's greatest advantage lies in their gospel which guides them to their destiny and predicts the future hence why petal juice was so surprised to see no mention of subaru in his subaru's strange existence which transcends time itself makes him uniquely qualified to take the cult on the rest of the plan goes uncharacteristically smoothly for this series please don't say that it makes the sound awful and that's all it really has to say about the hunt for the fingers which is great for us because it means we get to jump right into the good [ __ ] when the time comes to finally challenge petal goose once more his reintroduction is magnificently creepy the way he's just standing there in the cave grinning that awful grin with his mottled green mug the shadow cloaking him and absolute silence surrounding him until he speaks really accentuate his disturbing menace this battle wouldn't be anywhere near as great as it is without such an intimidating and memorable villain at its center and while it was fun enough to watch him fight through the fingers these last two episodes really give the iconic petal goose classic design a chance to shine while revealing exactly what makes him tick as a character before the unseen fists start flying though subaru must first engage him in a battle of wits this time having learned from his prior failures to trick the archbishop subaru imitates petalguse's perversely pious mannerisms and prevents himself as a devout servant of the witch looking to become one of sloth's fingers this surprising act of subordination from one just as loved as himself inspires the old zealot to self-flagellate against the nearby rock penance for his slothful failure to find subaru before he found him subaru convinces him that the witch wouldn't want that for her beloved follower that all she wants is for him to happily carry out the ordeal and this insincere parroting of his own insane rambling moves petal goose so deeply that he pulls him in for a tight brotherly hug the animation throughout this whole conversation is just phenomenal the way petal goose's features twist and contort into an exaggerated mask of his emotions as he talks the absurd contortions of his misshapen body he goes full looney tune here and it only intensifies as the fight gets underway subaru almost starts it himself when petalguse reveals the true nature of the ordeal that it's merely a test to see if amelia is a worthy vessel for satella and that she's nothing but an afterthought in the plan that's caused her to suffer and die so horribly in so many timelines also dropping that half devil slur really doesn't help but subaru holds his rage in for a moment longer to catch the bastard by sideways surprise when petalguse asks to see his gospel subaru instead produces one of the media stolen from the fingers and on the other end of the line ferris starts taunting him about his scary face before he can even process what's happening patrasche charges out to knock him on his ass and when he goes to counter with his unseen hands subaru hops on the ground dragon to evade leaving him even more confused as to how his authority can be seen and again before he's able to process this new information subaru drops another bombshell that he's got a direct line to the witch and that they're so close that she's touched his heart all of this is a calculated effort to overwhelm and enrage petaluse so that he can be led into julius ambush when he's not thinking clearly and it works like a charm the archbishop munches through both of his scene hands causing a forest of unseen ones to blossom from his back then he uses those to give chase having them carry him through the air in a pose that screams no talk me angie this is one of my single favorite bits of animation in the entire show and i love that when the kitty twins show up to get the remaining cultists off subarus back we get to see how it looks even more ridiculous from their perspectives i also really like seeing the newly humbled subaru profusely thanking everyone who helps him especially patrasche who is the goodest of girls and deserves all the praise the chase itself is pretty exciting too with the knife wielding cultists closing in on the ground dragon and the hands crashing down all around her creating a solid sense of tension and danger though it's got nothing on the fight and chase to follow subaru's taunting is effective in keeping the archbishop focused on him and away from his allies as they mop up the rest of the cult once more petalguse questions how subaru could be acting outside the gospel's prophecy and excitedly concludes that he must be pride in the flesh but subaru's rebuttal causes him to straight up re like the creepy loser he is strong my name's suvarunovsky and i and the knight of amelia the silver-haired half-elf i don't know anything about this pride stuff i just want to emphasize this one more time that whole dub is fantastic as the chase ends we see that subaru has led petal goose to the bottom of the same cliff where he died after the mob east curse killed rem in episode 7. there they're met by julius their mutual natural enemy and the revelation that he's facing a spirit arts user causes petal goose to quake with fear and anger having this battle come down to a two-on-one duel between the villain and these former rivals who are finally literally seeing eye to eye feels very dramatically satisfying and the series justifies it well from a logical perspective too they need julius's spirit arts to finish petal goose off he's not as adept at fighting as wilhelm so he needs subaru's vision to take on the unseen hands and subaru's spirit sensitivity means that any cultists or allies in the area would interfere with nect hence why they had to set up this ambush i do think that subaru and julius spend a bit too much time bantering back and forth before the fight begins though i like how they reconcile their differences and resolve to trust each other here but doing it in this instant kinda drags the pacing down and detracts from the impression that petal goose's rage is snowballing out of control and leading him to make bad decisions that said those quibbles quickly fall away when the fight gets underway the cgi used for the unseen hands here doesn't look quite as polished as the hand-drawn hands we've seen in previous clashes but the change in technique allows them to move with a twisting chaotic complexity that would have been very difficult to achieve through traditional means the effect is especially effective in this harshly front-lit shot of his enraged shrieking face like his shaded grimace in the maw of the cave it really sells how dangerous his madness is when the hands close in on julius they do briefly switch back to hand-drawn animation using exaggerated perspective to accentuate the overwhelming feeling of the onslaught which makes it all the more impactful when the spirit knight effortlessly blows them away seconds later it is perhaps a little dumb of subaru to explain to the villain exactly how julius can see his secret weapons but neither that nor subaru's equally unnecessary comments on how disgusting it feels to share his senses hamper the purple-haired pretty boy as he dances around and destroys more of the hands under the rolling credits the next episode begins with a brief aside where wilhelm leaves amelia to fend off another wave of cultists reassuring her before he goes that she has the same selfless bravery as subaru then we jump right back to where we left off skipping the op to give the action more time to breathe julius cuts one hand after another down with sharply animated skill further stoking the flames of petal goose's rage but they keep on coming and as he's still acclimating to the strange feeling of watching himself through another's eyes julius does take some brutal shots from the few that slip through his guard the trained warrior adjusts quickly enough though and while the crazed cultist is pushed further onto his back foot giving us some grandly rendered expressions of dismay and rage as he's forced to question his faith in the witch's love julius grows confident enough to go in for the killing blow and that climactic attack is absolutely breathtaking the whole fight is packed with sakuga both in julius's swordplay and the destruction of the hands but the animators really pulled out all the stops here the background is fully animated allowing the camera to move freely through a sequence of three impressively long single shots with the unseen hands moving in unison to grab the airborne julius hiroyuki takashima who also created the incredible cut of elsa attacking reinhard from the tavern rafters in the first fight found a way to work in itano circus an iconic style of animated missile barrage used to give mecca and sci-fi series with lots of air and space combat some extra oomph into a ground skirmish in a fantasy anime which is really damn cool on a conceptual level and even cooler to see in motion for all the build up petal goose has been given as a bad guy it feels fitting to see him taken down in such a flashy way and i deeply appreciate that a solid five seconds of the sequence is dedicated to just watching him eat [ __ ] and ragdoll into a cliff he does have one last trick up his sleeve though uldana an earth spell that surrounds him in a shield of rock but subaru brought along an explosive fire crystal and some mediocre pitching skills which he uses to blow that last defense away the last shot of petal goose peeking through the crack in the rock before the blast obscures everything but his eyeballs has a distinctly looney tunes feel to it and i think that's a particularly fitting way to finish off such an over-the-top cartoony character not that this actually finishes him off we've got a whole episode left to go after all as the dust clears he has at least been pierced by julius's spirit sword which the knight says will tear his soul asunder but before that can happen he leaps into subaru's body this time subaru subaru's ready for it though and before sloth can assume complete control he calls the witch to his side by describing return by death petal goose greets his goddess with religious rapture expecting her to embrace him with her unseen hands but despite his insistence and obsession satella does not love him back and when she realizes he's not her beloved subaru she uses those hands to reject him quite violently back in his own body and abandoned by the witch it seems like it's all over for petal juice but he has one last desperation play in his pocket the same move he used when ia attacked him in the last loop he swings his unseen hand violently through the nearby cliff wall causing debris to fall and crush him before the spirit sword can finish his soul off it's enough to convince subaru and julius that he's done for at least but they have little time to celebrate before another problem arises the cultist spy managed to hide a magic stone bomb in emilia's carriage before they caught him and they're too far down the road at this point for even patrasche to catch up with them at least not if subaru also takes the highway fortunately otto's soul of language divine protection allows him to converse with all living creatures meaning he can ask the critters in the forest for the fastest possible shortcut without a second's hesitation or even bothering to hear what he wants in exchange subaru accepts a trade for the merchant's help and they're off running through the woods and even before things start going wrong this chase scene is pretty exhilarating re zero's cgi can be a bit hit or miss but the ground dragons and cart in this scene definitely hit blending almost seamlessly with the traditionally animated elements while facilitating some wild frenetic camera moves that really sell the speed and danger of what the boys are doing the typically timid merchant gets especially caught up in the excitement of it all remarking as subaru understandably frets that they're gonna die that he feels so alive and never knew he could do something so incredible though that alive feeling may not last long given what he senses coming after them moments later the creatures of the forest flee and hide as petal goose pulls up behind them in his ghastly final form a twisted mass of unseen hands puppeting the unsmushed remains of his corpse petalguse has now seemingly given up on the ordeal and is understandably focused solely on replacing this [ __ ] garbage body with subaru's marginally better one this chase plays out in parallel with the cult's violent pursuit of emilia's caravan where at first it seems as though she's comforting the children when in reality they're clinging to her so tightly to keep their promise to subaru that they'd protect her and keep her out of trouble this cutaway serves to raise the stakes in two ways by reminding us of who's in danger from the bomb and showing us that emilia is worried and waiting for the presently imperiled subaru it also gives us a clear sense of how much time and distance remains between their carts by showing exactly how far behind emilia the explosions of wilhelm skirmish are the old man who hasn't had much of a chance to shine in this time loop gets to remind us of what a goddamn badass he is by effortlessly cutting up some cultists in another stunning sakuga sequence and when they pass him a couple minutes later we instantly know that subaru and otto have just about caught up they've gotta make it out of the woods first though and petal goose isn't about to let them go easily but at long last our hero has grown to the point that i can call him our hero without qualification or irony well almost oh that's so touching you care about me that much you'll be quiet already i'm trying to make myself look good back here and he stands his ground kicking the beast's grasping hands away and hurling jars of oil right at its ugly mug he then lights the frightening creature's head ablaze with a rental goa spell courtesy of julius's borrowed fire spirit ia and as this is spirit magic it does some serious damage to the incorporeal foe he only gets more violent and dangerous in his death throws however the shots of the unseen hands busting up the back of the carriage as petal goose closes in are impressively animated and genuinely frightening especially with the dramatic lighting created by the flames around his face it really feels like our hero is in peril here even so he stares down death bravely in stark contrast to how he's handled his fear in previous fights i honestly can't say i'd be able to do the same in the face of this thing it's a seriously creepy creature design but there's also something pathetic about it with his wildly flapping mouth full of scattered broken teeth and his empty eye sockets leaking tears of blood petal goose looks an awful lot like an overgrown zombie baby and he acts like one too whining incessantly as he pines for satella's love in a manner that's again uncomfortably reminiscent of how subaru screeched at emilia before she left him at the capitol and that very familiar human showing of weakness helps subaru figure out how to beat him right when he's almost in the unseen hand's grasp he chucks petalguse's gospel the proof of his love out the back of the carriage and in taking his eyes off his prey and letting go of the carriage to grab it the archbishop leaves himself wide open to a well-deserved smack in the face the gospel lands back in the carriage after the blow while the pathetic beast is left dragging along behind it the punch also left subaru's finger bloodied in a significantly familiar way and having discerned that the gospel tells the story of petalgus's future he uses that damaged digit to dramatically cap the book off with owari or the end written in the laguna can alphabet this royally pisses off the sin archbishop but before he can react his unnecessarily frilly sleeve gets pulled into the axle of the cart which chews up what's left of his fetid ugly grasping soul in yet another brilliant bit of animation as our hero stares on unflinching in the face of danger like a proper badass he's still got one last heroic deed to see through though and speaking of badasses their cart passes through wilhelm's battle with the cult seconds later seeing more of himself than ever in the young man fighting to save his lady love the old warrior helpfully points their cart toward the caravan all while defending them from the remaining robed creeps with some impressive swordplay and mario stomps as subaru at last closes in on amelia his mind fills with thoughts of his first encounter with her when she saved him and she's likewise preoccupied with subaru just as she's wondering why he'd go to so much trouble for her her cart slides to a halt and he leaps gallantly into the back prying the bomb from beneath the floorboards and hopping back onto patrasche to haul it away without saying a word well until she asks him why to which he responds by doing the bravest thing he's done all day cause i love you amelia [Music] as she takes in those words in yet more stunned silence he charges to lob the bombs into the white whale's carcass he and patrasche make it just in time but aren't quite able to escape the blast leaving emilia to scramble through the debris looking for him luckily she's able to find them and with the combined healing powers of her magic and lap pillow brings him back to the land of the living a few hours later we all know what happens next the sappy sweet ending that caps off this first season is powerfully emotional and in my opinion well earned but this video is about the action not the aftermath and before that happy ending can play out we need to take one more pause to appreciate the real hero here that happy ending wouldn't have been possible at all without patrasche subaru's time would have ended several times over had she not helped him dodge pedalguse's attacks and bravely rolled to protect him from that final explosion taking grave injuries in the process somewhere along the line our boy developed a proper classic fantasy soul bond with this goodest of good girls and she will defend him to her dying breath the loyalty the dedication why she may be an even more loving diligent and loyal companion then rem herself ah shoot we missed a spot still that tragic moment only appears at the end of the director's cut and started the second season and the original incarnation of this fight wisely chose to end it on one of the series rare unambiguously happy moments letting subaru bask a little in his victory and that tearful smile from emilia it's not just a satisfying payoff that makes this protracted battle work though it's everything subaru undertakes a turbulent emotional journey from his first encounter with petal goose to his last transforming from a pathetic slothful prideful worm into the kind of brave selfless hero who deserves to call himself emilia's knight in the process he earns the respect and friendship of the knight who once humiliated him fights alongside him as an equal and conquers the physical embodiment of his own entitled obsession of course that emotional journey is only half the battle and as a hero subaru would be nothing without a great villain to overcome petal goose leaves a powerful impression on us from the first moment he appears and his charismatic menace only grows with each subsequent encounter even as we slowly come to understand his madness by the final confrontation he's been built up so much that it almost feels like there's no fitting way to end him but the animators writers and actors working on the series all gave everything they had to stick that landing and in doing so they made something that really stuck with a lot of people enough so that after four years away the series was able to pick right back up where it left off without missing a beat or spilling even a drop of hype even with other much ballyhooed sequels to contend with re-zero is the undisputed champ of yet another summer season though even with the pandemic induced drought of new anime there are a few that are very worth your time on top of it and you can find out all about them plus the ones that aren't in my summer 2020 ones to watch video link on screen and in the doobly-doo before you go though let me know what fight you'd like to see me cover next on animelay in the comments below i'm jeff though professional [ __ ] bag signing out from my mother's basement [Music] you

Channel: Mother's Basement

Views: 779,039

Keywords: Mother's Basement, What's in a Scene?, Anime, Anime Analysis, animelee, anime fight, re zero, crunchyroll collection, re:zero -starting life in another world-, re zero season 2, subaru vs betelgeuse, betelgeuse romanee conti, witch cult re zero, re zero fight scene, re zero battle, rem, emilia, ram, myth & roid, isekai, re zero episode 23, petelgeuse, petelgeuse romanee-conti desu, re zero patrasche best girl, betelgeuse re zero

Id: LIzogLLIDbE

Length: 53min 11sec (3191 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 25 2020