Review of ReLIFE

ReLife is the epitome of what SoL should be. Too many shows of this genre recycle the same anime tropes, have too dense main characters, or ill-timed moments of comedy and drama. ReLife suffers none of these mistakes (at least very few), and delivers a show with solid comedy, and intriguing themes. Many shows, in general, make the mistake of creating an interesting premise, but failing to follow through with developing the premise into something original. Somewhere down the line, the story ignores the concepts that attracted viewers in the first place, and we feel like we have watched the show before already. ReLife doesn'trepeat this mistake, and instead fully takes advantage of its unique concept. Whereas most high school SoL are full of dense teens who have little ability to perceive the social situations they're in, the main character of ReLife is extremely perceptive, as he should be given he's 10 years older than everyone else. The use of ReLife's premises doesn't stop there, as there is heavy development with Ryou, Arata's "trainer." The story could have easily placed him as a side character, a nobody who simply observes the main character and maybe steps in every once in a while. Instead, we find out he has numerous struggles in aiding his subject, for there is a delicate balance between being too involved, and not being involved enough.
But then ReLife could fall into the trap of making the story similar to all other SoL, even though the main character is now more perceptive. This isn't the case, as the idea of being a grown adult going to school with high-schoolers is a looming fact Arata must keep in mind. He cannot act as an authority figure to these kids, as that will come off as condescending, or worse, reveal his identity, but he also has difficulty fitting in with a social group that is not his age. Watching how he accomplishes this balance is very entertaining, and compelling.
The show also employs a great soundtrack, almost entirely comprised of piano. This spurs scenes which are unique, as the piano has the ability to make us extremely uncomfortable with jumbling clashing keys, or soothe us with its soft lullabies.
Overall, ReLife is an absolute masterpiece of the SoL genre, and it brings out all the strengths of the genre without sacrificing certain areas. I highly recommend anyone remotely interested in these types of shows to watch it.