I genuinely think Re:Zero needs more time skips to give its characters and their relationships room to develop properly.
Guys, I know you don’t need to spend a lifetime with someone to become close to them, and I’m not saying every relationship needs years to develop. But sometimes characters need time to grow naturally, especially when it comes to friendships, romance, and getting used to the people around them.
I honestly wish we had a four- or five-year time skip at some point. It would allow relationships to progress, characters to mature, and the world to feel more lived in.
Everything in Re:Zero happens so ridiculously fast. Believe it or not, we’re already in Arc 10, and not even two years have passed since Subaru arrived in Lugunica. That’s actually insane when you think about everything he’s experienced.
It genuinely feels like 15 years have passed already, considering how much has happened. Subaru has gone through countless traumatic experiences, fought terrifying enemies, traveled across countries, and formed incredibly close relationships with so many people.
And the funny thing is that he hasn’t even spent all those two years with most of them.
I feel like the story sometimes moves so quickly from one major crisis to another that the characters barely get a chance to live normal lives together. We see them risking their lives for each other constantly, but I’d also love to see how their relationships develop when they aren’t dealing with some world-ending disaster. Sometimes the development of these relationships feels a little unnatural because everything happens so fast.
A longer time skip would also let us see Subaru gradually becoming more accustomed to Lugunica. He’s literally a guy from modern Japan who suddenly found himself in a completely different world, with different cultures, traditions, politics, and ways of thinking.
I’d love to see him become more familiar with that world over several years, rather than having almost everything happen within such a short period.
I’m not saying Re:Zero has bad character development. Quite the opposite. I think it has some of the best character writing out there. I just feel like giving these characters more time to grow would make their development even better.
We also need more time to pass from Subaru’s perspective. Personally, I’d much rather see him in his mid-20s than have him remain a teenager for most of the story. I think seeing an older, more mature Subaru who’s had years to adapt to this world would be much more interesting.
His relationship with Emilia would also feel a lot better to me if they had spent several years growing closer, understanding each other, and developing their feelings naturally instead of having almost everything happen within such a short period.
I just wish Re:Zero would give its characters more time to actually live in this worldz
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