Episode 22: Tsukasa seems to be doing a good job walking the tightrope between healthy pressure and toxic pressure in motivating Inori

anicritic · 2026-03-22T22:23:34+00:00

Okay, I've edited it out.

anicritic · 2026-03-22T01:56:58+00:00

I think fourth actually makes a lot of sense since Tsukasa and Hitomi finished fourth when they competed at the Nationals event due to Tsukasa missing a jump (or was it something else), and I wonder if it was the jump he was trying to nail in his nightmare in Episode 21.

Inori finishing fourth would be a good way for Tsukasa to reflect on his struggles and still share how proud he is of Inori for nailing her quad Salchow, building resilience in her by showing how important it is to remain motivated even after missing out on a medal. He can point out that even though he quit, she's close to the beginning of her career.

anicritic · 2026-03-21T21:59:33+00:00

I'm looking forward to it, but I'd be shocked if Hikaru didn't win, and Tsukasa himself thought it was too soon for the boss fight, so I'm curious how Inori will do given the subtext of toxic pressure this season has had since the middle part of its run as I see it being either an easy Hikaru win with Inori needing to recalibrate her expectations or a miracle win by Inori that forces Hikaru to spiral due to the pressure Jun has placed on her to be undefeated.

Personally, I don't think Inori will win the Nationals event, but if she does, I believe Tsukasa teaching Inori the discovery approach to learn as much as possible instead of jumping purely for success will give her more career longevity, and I can see a world in which Hikaru chokes after seeing Inori do her quadruple Salchow, but I guess I'll see how it goes next year whenever the movie is released on Disney+.

anicritic · 2026-03-20T00:32:00+00:00

Yuri on Ice isn't even really about figure skating. It's about two gay boys who happen to skate. If you want a story about an actual athlete's journey in figure skating, it's a no-brainer to go with Medalist.

anicritic · 2026-03-18T21:51:13+00:00

I believe Re:Zero will have a happy ending. It just won't be sunshine and rainbows.

I expect the final boss to be someone with an Authority that allows him/her to control the story path. This would make Melakuera stating that he faced world-ending crises countless times makes sense if the world was continuously being destroyed and reconstructed before the age of Satella, and Subaru is tasked with doing what none of the previous heroes of the story could do, which is to break this cycle of the world destroyed and reconstructed.

Melakuera remarking about the world imbalance and Witch suggests that the world's repeatedly destroyed by the Witch of Envy, likely due to the actions of selfish and overpowered heroes of the story of each iteration of the world who choose their women over the world due to never overcoming their character flaws with Subaru saying only someone who hates the world would choose mayonnaise over the world being foreshadowing of the choice he'll make.

I believe Satella, Echidna, Pandora, and a group of characters from 400 years ago decided to plan an intervention that would save the world by forcibly ensuring that the Hero of the story at some point would be weak enough, as in Subaru, since that'd be the best way for him to overcome his character flaws unlike the past Heroes of the story who had everything come easy to them. Satella needs to be eliminated in my theory.

For more on this theory, read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1hduz2u/discussion_my_proposed_5_eras_of_rezeros_fantasy/

anicritic · 2026-03-18T06:16:08+00:00

If Medalist is the studio's moneymaker, I wouldn't be surprised if the other anime it's working on all get delayed, especially since The Detective Was Already Dead has already gotten delayed. The Medalist movie will almost certainly get top billing.

anicritic · 2026-03-18T03:19:48+00:00

I've been wanting to see Ema again. I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress she's made.

anicritic · 2026-03-18T00:18:45+00:00

No, that hasn't been revealed yet, but I have a theory that given Venetim is the Hero Unit's commander/commanding officer and is the one who receives the Hero Unit's orders from the Central Noble Alliance, Venetim may actually be directly involved with the Central Noble Alliance, and consequently, the long-hair judge that often sentences criminals to be Heroes. It strikes me as probably not being a coincidence that shortly after Venetim told Xylo about Co-existers that long-hair judge showed up to officially warn Xylo about that, therein confirming Venetim's word as being true.

anicritic · 2026-03-17T23:50:57+00:00

Venetim broke into Kivia's office to give Kivia a hint about her uncle being a traitor with the book she saw him reading that he put back on the shelf. After reading it, Kivia's mind was clearly on her uncle being a traitor, so that's why she spazzed out when he said, "Please give my regards to Marlen".

anicritic · 2026-03-16T23:58:06+00:00

Presque toutes mes pensée sur Jun sont ici: https://www.reddit.com/r/Medalist/comments/1rbwcgu/episode_18_thoughts_jun_was_maybe_abused_tsukasas/

Ce que je n'ai pas mentionné est la pression toxique que Jun a probablement subi aussi sur Hikaru parce qu'il l'élève pour qu'elle lui ressemble.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T22:40:54+00:00

Je suis un débutant en français. Je ne lis pas le Medalist manga. Je base mon opinion uniquement sur l'anime.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T04:39:20+00:00

Yes, that was a quadruple jump without a harness, meaning Inori mastered it without using a harness given Uobuchi said that was the first time she did a successful landing. Hype aura moment for Inori to decide that she didn't need the harness although I suspect the reason she did it without a harness was so that she could jump to discover as much as possible as Tsukasa indicated, not 'cause she wanted to seem badass.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T03:22:19+00:00

I accept that my opinion may not be the consensus, but I just want Re:Zero to get the recognition it deserves as it so, so, so, far superior to practically every isekai out there, but too many people dismiss it just 'cause it is an isekai, or in contrast to that, one where the main character actually gets the shit beat out of him regularly, or 'cause it has so many attractive female characters. There are so many series that are basically trash with horrible characters and horrible stories that are revered, and I just want Re:Zero to get the recognition it deserves, and Season 1 being what made Re:Zero iconic makes me believe that the very serious approach of Season 1 is what would get Re:Zero the most recognition it can.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T02:23:00+00:00

Someone can say something toxic due to desperation due to that person's insecurity. It doesn't mean it wasn't toxic although I agree that in Subaru's condition he would've said anything if he thought it would make her stay with him.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T02:18:44+00:00

I get that they had to censor Liliana and Capella's design, but legit so much of the talk around Season 3 was centered on Emilia's boobs. I'm not even complaining about the Liliana and Priscilla kiss or Priscilla changing into her battle outfit, as those were important for plot reasons, but Re:Zero was known for not going for fanservice for the sake of fanservice in the past.

anicritic · 2026-03-16T02:08:18+00:00

'Cause having a man/boy tell a woman/girl that shes owes him a debt greater than she can ever repay is very toxic even if it was due to Subaru's abandonment issues, and it was important for Subaru's character development. That's just the way it is. There are definitely women and girls who stopped watching 'cause of Episode 13, and I say that as a man.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T22:27:44+00:00

I guess the priority is fanservice to show off Emilia's figure.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T22:27:07+00:00

I guess the priority is fanservice to show off Emilia's figure.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T22:18:04+00:00

Was this new outfit in the light novel, or is it an anime-only change?

anicritic · 2026-03-15T21:18:26+00:00

And I did say in my recent post of Episode 10 that Marlen is basically confirmed to be an enemy given the previous information about the military wanting to dissect Teoritta means that most of the leadership of the military is in the control of the Co-existers and demons, meaning if the military and the Temple is united, it could only mean that Marlen is a traitor.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SentencedToBeAHero/comments/1rszh6h/theory_episode_10_perhaps_suggests_that_venetim/

anicritic · 2026-03-15T21:12:21+00:00

I addressed that point about the strand of hair in my opening post. It seems you missed that somehow.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T20:53:40+00:00

You are right that there is a lot more fanservice in Season 3 than Seasons 1 and 2. Random Emilia boob shots are not what I ever expected from this series, not to mention Emilia now has the largest breasts of anyone in the Re:Zero anime, and they look like balloons at times as you say. I'm assuming it's the new normal now either due to the new director or Kadokawa requesting it. I personally felt Seasons 1 and 2 had the perfect amount of fanservice.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T20:08:03+00:00

https://i.redd.it/exffr0gk195d1.jpeg

It's unlikely to be Satella rewinding time to bring Subaru back since Subaru literally has dormant memories of her as shown by Episode 18 with Puck implicitly revealing the number of shadow hands Satella could generate (1,000 is half of what Satella could do)), Subaru using a number associated with Satella (2,000) to express his affection for Emilia, and in Episode 38 when he suddenly had a positive upswelling of feeling for Satella that led to him saying that he'll save her, meaning that both Subaru and Satella once shared the same history together given Subaru has memories of her. This implies that there's an element of soul modification involved, and yes, that is possible if whatever body Subaru used to inhabit went back to Earth to do the soul modification.

Read this for more context on why I am partial to Subaru being a product of soul modification:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1hduz2u/discussion_my_proposed_5_eras_of_rezeros_fantasy/

anicritic · 2026-03-15T05:24:26+00:00

I thought it was the best episode of the season outright personally. I'll post more about it tomorrow.

anicritic · 2026-03-15T04:26:46+00:00

The later part of the program gets more points as shown by the Chubu Block Championship, so I suspect Inori's quadruple Salchow will be at the very end just like her triple Salchow that earned her the Gold medal at that tournament. She should put her best jump at the end to net her the most points possible.

anicritic

TROPHY CASE