This has definitely been one of the longest and densest anime premieres I have sat through. The return of Re:Zero has been years in the making and there is a lot here to catch fans up to speed. While the premiere didn’t default to a generic series recap, make no mistake as there is A LOT of information packed within these ninety minutes. Some of it consists of rather cute character writing (which I will get into later) but a lot of it is also exposition, world building, reestablishing character dynamics and a surprising amount of societal politics. When the first episode of Re:Zero season 3 comes out, do not expect a lot of action or intense drama until the final ten minutes because everything before that is a whole lot of moments of characters standing around and talking.

There is at least a contextual reason for why the premiere featured so much exposition. It’s been about a year since the events of season two. Subaru has taken it upon himself to go through rigorous physical training after forming a contract with Beatrice. He has now returned to his beloved Emilia’s side as her knight. Pretty much every major character throughout the entire series makes an appearance during this premiere, and sometimes it does feel a little bit like a sitcom where I’m almost waiting for an audience applause track to play whenever somebody shows up on screen. I will say, though, one complaint I do have about this first episode is that despite establishing that a certain amount of time has passed since all these characters saw each other, it doesn’t really feel like that. It genuinely feels like this is the next day after the finale of season two. It would’ve been nice if there were more visual indications that time had passed to coincide with all of the background changes that had commenced.

As for those background changes, there’s a lot of setup for things to come. Priscilla Barielle has established herself as a more formidable political power, and there are some moments where she comes off as legitimately threatening in a “I could kill anybody I want if they cross me” kind of way. We have the return of Julius, and it’s always fun to see how he bounces off of Subaru. I think the two of them shared probably the nicest conversation in the entire premiere where Subaru just told him that he needs to have moments where he lightens up and stops acting like a knight. We even get to the introduction of some new characters, like a wonderful bard girl who shares a sweet moment with Subaru where the two start spontaneously singing together and, according to Subaru’s voice actor Yūsuke Kobayashi , that was one of his favorite moments of the premiere.

We also have the return of Garfiel, but instead of an antagonist, he is now working under Subaru as an ally. I was surprised at how much focus he had gotten in this premiere from him potentially starting a small romance to just straight up discovering the whereabouts of his mother. I do agree with his voice actor Okamoto Nobuhiko, Spring has definitely come for the young boy in more ways than one. Despite all the cute moments, though, I will admit that there were probably more moments where I felt a bit bored by what I was watching. The episode is roughly seventy percent exposition and world building and thirty percent funny cute moments. Apparently the director of the series insisted that the premiere be this long so they could cover a lot of ground and set up for things to come. I appreciate the ambition and I do have confidence that the remainder of the season will make up for it, but as it stands right now, I do wish this premiere was a little bit tighter.