Re: Zero, Vol. 1

"Silver-haired heroines are the best."

One can easily imagine that this is the genesis point for Re: Zero.

The result is a silver-haired half-elf spirit-mage who is chasing after a fleet-footed thief who has taken something from her. By the time we get to that point, our hero!, Sabaru, is totally lost, and getting into even deeper water with each passing second. These things happen when you are instantly transferred from one dimension to another.

I remember the first time I came across this sort of dimension transfer, it was in the Fantasy classic Lord Foul's Bane or was it Key's The Forgotten Door? (Either Way.) This is just another example of that staple. A staple so known that our hero! knows about it and can somewhat deal with the idea that he's now involved with that sort of thing. It's sort-a cool, but what in the world is he going to do now? No money. No cel service. No idea what's going on. And wandering around in the back alleyways of the capital city - it's a good way to get mugged, which promptly happens.

Right away we come across one of the things which I really like: the fantasy video RPG sensibility. All the tropes are in full effect and out Hero!, Sabaru, knows them all. So the goddess of a women assassin isn't exactly a surprise, but getting your stomach sliced open, that really hurts, and dying certainly sucks. And then, just like in the games, he restarts at an earlier save point. The time-line restarts and he gets to try again. As an acquired magical power, that really blows.

From the POV of the reader, our hero!, has something specific to do, an end he must accomplish before he's allowed to go any further. Sabaru suspects that as well. It's just, what is it? All he can think to do is help that half-elf girl get her badge back but that ends with a split open stomach and blood everywhere, so trying to get the badge back and not dying (all four of them) becomes the goal. Just how many repetitions will it take?

Now on ST:TNG three or four time loops seem to be enough. In Japan, there was once a time-loop light novel that lasted 15,498 iterations! (I looked that number up.) Since the novel isn't that big, it can't last that long. And then what? On to the next novel and a new scenario to beat, would be my guess.

I really like this post-modernism awareness our Hero!, Sabaru, has about the whole thing. But he's entrapped by it. He has nowhere to go but forward. And forming emotional bonds with people who then have no idea who he is, since things reset with Sabaru's death, gives an expected bitter-sweetness. And his dialogue, and the cast of characters around him....

I think the whole thing is fun stuff, which is something very needed in today's world. (Or at least mine.) It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but the use of the tropes, the ridicules factor and it's fast pace, made me at least groan when our Hero!, didn't accomplish his goal and ended up gutted like a fish. Poor guy. Get it right next time.