Review of ReLIFE

I failed to see what the point of this show is. I thought it'd about working on the the main character's, Arata, NEET lifestyle and social issues by reliving high school, but outside of an awkward introduction on his first day, nothing indicates he really has issues. If anything, he's the beacon of wisdom for his friend group, which forms pretty quickly for someone who's supposed to have social issues. The backstory we get about what pushed him into his problems as an adult doesn't indicate that reliving high school would even help him. He had awful work conditions right out of college, had todeal with trauma of witnessing the suicide of the one coworker he liked, and was basically forced to quit just 3 months due to that. This led to difficulties finding permanent employment and a lifestyle based on various part-time jobs and dependence on parents for livable income. I don't see how playing counselor/big brother to a bunch of random high schoolers was supposed to fix that.

I also felt that this premise was irrelevant for much of the series. Most of the runtime is spent on melodrama/romance among undeveloped characters I didn't care for. You'd hardly remember that the main focus was supposed to be Arata's ReLIFE if it wasn't for his observers popping in for reflection every now and then. What I was left with was a just a subpar, high school based slice-of-life anime.

Whether it due was budget or lack of effort, it's pretty apparent corners were cut in production value. There plenty of slideshow music montages, and moments where they didn't even bother drawing background characters; they'd just replace them with blue and pink silhouettes. The soundtrack was poor as well, mostly just the same few sparse piano melodies here and there. The voice acting was pretty good though.

I didn't enjoy this overall. At its best, it was like your dime-a-dozen slice of life comedy anime. At its worst it felt pointless and annoying to watch.