Review of ReLIFE

[Some spoilers] ReLIFE was a promising anime. It had an interesting concept and interesting characters. At first glance, I thought this was your generic high school anime but I saw that it had a high 8.21 rating on MAL so I was curious to see how good this actually was. In the end I was somewhat disappointed with the poor execution of what could've been a good anime. Story 6/10 - The story starts with a man named Arata Kaizaki who then meets Yoake Ryou, a worker in the ReLife Research Institute, programmed to help NEETs...not be...NEETs...basically. Yoake gives him pills and Arata accepts them. Like howI accept ice cream from a guy in a white van.

The next morning he becomes a High Schooler and begins his life in High School again. There he begins helping people because they need helping. He also befriends a couple of friends like Hishiro, Ooga, Onoya, and surprisingly Yoake himself.

This seemingly good summary changed in the next few episodes however. 2 characters known as Kariu and Honoka suddenly take the spotlight. One of the most one-sided characters i've seen, Kariu is your simple high school tsundere. Okay that might be an exaggeration but seriously, she's fucking stubborn as hell. Excuse my language. Anyways, does this affect the anime positively or negatively? Unfortunately the latter is chosen.

We get to see how Honoka and Kariu go from best friends to disliking each other then getting back together. And it's all thanks to Kaizaki and Hishiro.

I have to say I was incredibly disheartened at this. Why didn't they focus on the actual interesting things? I mean I get it's supposed to be "relatable" but when watching this, one word came up to my mind. "Simple."

Other than that, there were some things I liked. Arata and Hishiro's relationship developing while Arata learning from his previous mistakes when he was actually a high schooler. However, most of the things I remember about ReLIFE is the stupid conflict that could've been solved if Kariu wasn't so stubborn. Basically, the adventure of Arata's problem solving skills.

Character 7/10 - The characters who got the most screen time were one dimensional. Your tsundere Kariu, Your "big" and clumsy Honoka, and even the emotionless archetype of Hishiro. Although, I like Hishiro's character development. With the help of Arata she overcomes her once previous "loner" nature and becomes more sociable.

There was also Ooga who is extremely dense but smart. Also the love interest of Kariu. Objectively, he wasn't a bad character but he also one who wasn't really worth noticing except with his conversations with the main lead.

Ah, don't forget about Onoya and Yoake. They provide the backbone of the anime. Onoya was one of the more interesting characters and Yoake was as well. Mysterious with that smile of his, you can't really tell what goes in that guy, Yoake's head. In contrast to his personality, Onoya is more laidback and free. This leads to arguments between them with Arata being pulled in as well.

Last of all, there's your "emo kid" Inukai and overly caring Nobunaga.

So back to the question. There were many good characters so why was Kariu and Honoka in the spotlight? I'm pretty sure that the better characters deserved more development as it looks like both of them didn't really develop at all.

Art 6/10 - This is where ReLIFE failed the most. The art was old for a 2016 anime but in my opinion I liked it. But objectively, there could've been a vast amount of improvement in this category. It wasn't bad but it could've been way better.

Sound 7/10 - I loved the OP and ED. The OP represents ReLIFE with it's bright colors of high school life and depictions of the environment. As for the ED, there was a bunch of them and as I skipped some of them (unfortunately) I don't have an accurate opinion but I could say that it was decent enough.

Enjoyment 7/10 - I enjoyed Arata and Hishiro's relationship the most. That was it though. I mean I also liked the others but they weren't as interesting as the 2 of them. I do want to say that the comedy was amazing. It was simple but I laughed and laughed. But that still doesn't make me overlook the once again mentioned conflict. That was what made this a 7 rating.

Overall 6.8/10 - Overall, this anime is relatable as some reviewers have said but objectively, this had great potential and lost it. Does it live to it's 8.21 rating? I would say no but it was a good watch nonetheless.