Review of ReLIFE

This Anime is based around a great idea that hasn't gotten enough play until fairly recently: the idea of going back in time and exploring your youth. I mean, pretty much everyone feels they've learned from the awful mistakes in their high school years and believes they'd get it better this time around. And there's just so much drama to be milked from being in a situation where you have to hide who you are. In this series it's not a literal case of time-travel. The lead character is a 27-year-old who suddenly finds himself a decade younger as part of a deNEETification program. The idea'sgreat, but the setup's just too ridiculous. There's no bright magic portal or wish-fulfilling pixie or defective time machine, he's just paid to perform clinical trials on a new de-aging drug.

Err... I guess it seems more ridiculous in context.

Actually, it's the very mundanity of the experience that kind of feels off. I may kid about wishing it was a wish-fulfilling pixie, but that's because when you have a plot this far from reality you expect the explanation to be unreal as well. Trying to rationalize it only makes the absurdity more obvious. I guess if it was just the de-aging drug the setup would make more sense. They could still have gotten him stuck as a high schooler through means of other plot twists (oh noes, I accidentally lost the reversing drug and everyone's convinced I'm skipping school, etc. etc.). But they seek him out specifically by name (weird), offer him a year's living expenses (nice but weird), and insist that he spend that year as a high schooler (super weird and creepy and probably illegal). The fact that everyone will forget him at the end of the year (how? they didn't take any drugs) only makes it feel more fantastical and at odds with the realistic tone.

Still, I like the de-aging thing as a concept because of the drama it allows. What's nice about this is it means he doesn't know anybody and he's not taking on a lot of the baggage that comes from that. He's also unfamiliar with a lot of the changes that have been made in the last decade. Like using their phones in school. I remember those being banned back in the day (when only the wealthy trust fund kids could afford them) but obviously that's now impossible and it changes everything. Of course, the other side of that coin is all the adult things he's used to that he has to pretend he doesn't. Great stuff.

In school he finds himself making friends with a bunch of regular high school kids with regular high school problems. Obviously his real-world experience and comparative maturity make him a real champion at resolving interpersonal problems. But at the same time he finds himself extremely ill-adjusted. I mean, we all assume that we know better than our younger selves since we've learned everything they have, by definition, but does that mean we really remember it? Unlike most high school Anime the guy's a joke of a student. The worst in the class, by far. And not in the cool, lazy way. He's just not very book smart and has forgotten a lot of the basics he'd learned in school. It rang very true. I sure can't tell you the principles of trigonometry anymore, and while I don't doubt it's easier learning a second time that's still a lot of catching up to do.

Not all of the efforts to bring home the changes in young adulthood ring completely true. Maybe I'm just an old man, but 27 isn't THAT ancient. I mean, I can imagine having a hard time keeping up with the infinite energy of high schoolers, but the way he seems to injure himself so rapidly whenever he tries to do fairly simple exercises is really weird. I get that he's been a chain-smoking shut-in for many years, but they make him seem like he has the body of an old man. Like, I'm in my early thirties and not super fit, but I'm still capable of running without injuring myself. Hell, I've caught more than a few trams like that.

The characters are a lot of fun and the show's very good at giving them problems that only teenagers could have without making them seem idiotic. You can understand why people do some of the immature or naive things they do. I enjoyed the way that every character had their own issues to deal with and hurdles to overcome. The obviously made-for-each-other characters are adorkable, and the way that their friends try to play matchmaker is a lot of fun. And there are a lot of valuable life lessons thrown in there in a non-preachy way.

I think the biggest criticism I have of this show is that there should have been more of it. When that's the worst thing that I can say about an Anime I'd say that's a good sign. But it is still a genuine complaint. The series ended in the middle of things, and while I'm led to understand that there will be a series of four OVAs tying up the story at some point in 2018, it still seems like it needs more than just this. The story is pretty slow-moving but the drama is real and the characters are only beginning to blossom when the series ends. Nothing is really resolved (certainly not for our lead) and all the other characters seem to have only worked through one of many hurdles in their story.