Review of ReLIFE
Tired of over-powered Shounen characters screaming 247 whilst blasting away at anything that moves? Sick of disproportioned hentais shoving unrealistic imouto and harem themes down your throat?? Do you want a welcome change of pace?? Re:Life is your answer Re:Life answers the one question everybody encounters at some point in their lives: What if i could have done things differently?? Our story follows a principled and hard-working 27 year old Arata Kaizaki, who wonders mysteriously upon one Ryo Yoake, whom subsequently offers Kaizaki the opportunity for a Re:life. The opportunity to take a specially developed pill which returns his features to that of a high schoolstudent. Kaizaki will then return to high school for the year where his interactions, friendships, love interests and educational studies will all be monitored and finalised in a report at the end of the year.
The drama and comedic elements stem from the fact that Kaizaki whilst having the features of a high school student, will still have the memories, experience and physique of a non-physical 27 year old and therefore will have to be very careful when interacting with others, so as not to give away any information which could unfurl his little secret.
In my opinion this is a very well paced anime, the music fits the anime and scenes very well and furthermore the animation style is very crisp and accentuates the often comedic humor almost perfectly.
Much of the criticism stems from unfair comparisons with the Light Novel, the detail (in particular in the OVA's Kanketsu-Hen) has been methodically trimmed in order to compensate for the 13 short episodes and 4 short OVA's. However for non-LN readers this is largely unnoticeable as the information within the story provided is more than enough to not cause any issues, in particular the visual hints provided within the OVA's provides a great conclusion (not to mention how brilliant the ending scene was). As they say a picture speaks a thousand words and this is utilised to great effect throughout the show.
If you haven't seen RE:Life and your able to delve into shows completely open-minded (in particular you LN readers) then you won't be disappointed. You'll laugh, cry and be emotionally connected with Arata and his friends (in particular Hishiro-San) and end up completely satisfied by the end of the OVA (a must watch 4 episode OVA if you watch the 13 episode anime).