Review of ReLIFE
Tl;dr – ReLIFE is escapism at its most shallow. It presents a 27 year old, whose life isn't going anywhere fast, an opportunity to repeat his last year of high school & doesn't even think to ask why he might say yes. It seems one can turn on the TV on any given day, in any given country, & have a reasonable chance of hearing how bad young people have it in today's economy. Mass unemployment, poor quality jobs for those that have them, no access to housing & the list goes on. Many questions have been asked of why, across the world, young peopleseem to be cut off from the traditional pillars of society in a way previous generations haven't been, & what can be done about it.
Arata Kaizaki is the Japanese man of these times. At 27, he finds himself living alone in a bachelor pad funded by his parents, relying on part time work since he quit his salaryman job under (initially) unclear circumstances. After having his allowance cut by his parents, & a night of drinking while pretending to still have a “normal” job with his old school friends, Arata is approached in the street by Ryou, a blonde Morpheus, who presents Arata with an opportunity: Take the blue pill & spend a year as a 17 year old high school student as part of the ReLIFE Programme.
Once back at school, however, any potential for ReLife to be an interesting exploration of why Arata would want to resort to reliving the last year of high school, not to mention other themes that could be explored in this scenario, is quickly squandered. For the majority of its thirteen episodes, ReLife is just another forgettable high school ensemble anime. Indeed, as early as the second episode it seems to have forgotten that there might be a reason why Arata would have joined the programme to explore, & instead settles into the usual, predictable routine of misunderstandings, arguments, innocent romance & lots of girls crying.
By the end of episode one, you'll have a pretty good idea of everything that is likely to happen in the following twelve (& probably some ideas that are better). Chizuru, the black haired, socially awkward genius of the class, quickly becomes Arata's “I'm 27! I can't have these feelings for a seventeen year old” slow burning love interest who he is soon teaching how to behave normally. On its own, Arata meeting a socially awkward girl who he helps function in society & in so doing finds out something about himself could have been an interesting core to build a story around; that is if it wasn't introduced almost as soon as Arata shrunk into his teenage body & then just as quickly became second fiddle to the other little dramas going on with the other characters. I bet you can't guess how they resolve that age gap, either.
Ooya & Rena, the other “pair” in the group, fill predictable roles. Rena is an insecure girl who resents that her friends are better than her at things she likes, despite that also being why she's friends with one of them in the first place (don't ask, the writer clearly didn't). Her role is mostly to provide drama & conflict within the group, because bitches be crazy. Ooya, meanwhile is the “I can't believe you're so smart yet so dumb about love!” guy who's blissfully ignorant about anything to do with girls, in particular Rena's feelings for him.
Ryou, Onoya & Honoka round out the group, three characters who can be summed up as being there when needed, although they're also often there when not. A subplot involving Onoya & Ryou is introduced for little apparent reason except to fill a couple of episodes, allow for a cock tease moment between Onoya & Arata (you can make your high school anime protagonist an adult, but he'll always be a teenage virgin) & ensure they can form a third pair at the end without being "weird."
The drama in ReLife, & there is plenty of teenage angst to sit through, mostly seems to come from Rena's intense self-pity causing her to fall out with her friends. Chizuru is smarter than her & that pisses her off. Honoka is better at sports than her & that also pisses her off, although only after resolving her issues with Chizuru. Of course, they just want to be her friend, but simply talking these things through would rob ReLife of half its episodes. Plenty of talking goes on behind closed doors, however, as almost everything seems to be instigated or resolved by a conversation someone wasn't meant to hear.
Now, Rena allowing her resentments & insecurities boil over into lashing out at others could have been a fine story element, if it was given proper time to be established, developed & resolved. But we only have thirteen episodes & a lot of other things to get through so you'll just have to hope it reminds you of a better show that you can use to fill in the gaps. It also seems odd that a series that started out apparently being about why Arata would want to be 17 Again exerts so much time on a 17 already girl having tantrums with her girl chums.
All this teenage drama also gives Arata, the nominal protagonist of ReLife, something to actually do, given the show has no interest in exploring his motivations for being there. Despite being an adult having done him no favours in his own life, it seems that experience somehow gives him insight into things that his teenage companions lack, Ryou even going so far as to imply in an off hand comment that that's what he's there for. I'm sure we're all guilty of giving life advice to others that we'd never follow through with ourselves, but building an entire elaborate corporate business model around it seems a bit much. I can think of better uses for that miracle pill of Ryou's.
One could go on at length about the many flaws, contradictions & things that just don't make sense about the ReLife programme. There isn't much point, though, as to give it any real thought is to do more than the writers did. At the end of the day, it exists only to make the synopsis sound distinct enough from all the other high school anime out there to pique the interest of potential viewers. As for commenting on the characters or society it depicts, or exploring themes of youthful alienation or societies inability to accommodate people like Arata, ReLife isn't interested. Why does the ReLife programme exist? Why not. Why would they want to offer NEETs an opportunity to relive the last year of high school? Why not. Why would someone want to do that? Why not. I miss the days when "a wizard did it" was enough.
Arata, beyond apparently not being interested in why he'd want to be 17 Again, also really doesn't seem like an adult in a teenagers body, despite what his classmates say. In particular, there is a running gag throughout the series that Arata consistently fails tests with abysmally low scores. That's a pretty standard gag in high school anime, but remember Arata has already graduated high school & university to get to this point. Curriculum’s change & all that but, like most of ReLife, it seems indicative of how little thought has been put into exploring the opportunities & complications presented by Arata's unique situation.
At least the show does elaborate on how Arata came to quit his job, the event that began his downward spiral, although it does so in a typically simplistic way – the workers & boss at his old job were a shower of bastards who did something terrible* & went on like it was nothing. Good on Arata for taking a stand against the system & tendering his resignation despite knowing the damage it will do to his future prospects, an act that somehow seems to stand as a symbol for future young employees at evil incorporated.
*To discuss it in more detail would be a spoiler, but it's also notable that ReLife, intentionally or not, does that uniquely Japanese thing of apportioning blame to everyone, including Arata, for said terrible thing. Remember kids, if someone you know is being bullied, doing something is as bad as doing nothing. Grow up!*
Except that he wasn't shut out from society as is at first implied. Sure, quitting his job is a blemish on his CV when applying to other faceless bastard corporations. But even in Japan it's not like soulless office drone is the only option available to him. Indeed on two occasions he has reason to ask for his adult body back so he can see people who helped him get on in his adult life. Good thing Ryou had a blow me pill tucked away in the same orifice he keeps the shrink me ones.
In fact, the more we find out about Arata's past suggests not simply that he's an unhappy victim of an unaccommodating society, but someone who lacks the imagination to function as anything but the lifeless salaryman many people his age would give an arm to avoid becoming. It's ironic to think that an author who presumably wrote ReLife to avoid such a life created a character who apparently can't function any other way. Then again, it's not like there is an academy award winning example of a story where a Japanese guy finds himself unable to keep his job in the big city & ends up working in a socially taboo job which he slowly comes to accept & embrace as others learn to shed their prejudices towards him & the work he does to draw inspiration from.
On the production side of things, there isn't a lot to say about ReLife. The character designs are all pretty standard & unremarkable, with one minor annoyance that they all have mourning armbands on their cardigans for no reason. If you like close up shots of girls crying, smiling & embracing, though, this anime has you covered better than a KyoAni production. Everything else to do with art & animation is functional & not really worthy of comment. The OST, however, is particularly irritating. I assume Masayasu Tsuboguchi is a disciple of Randy Newman, as he mostly sticks to a piano playing along with whatever is happening on screen: “Walking down the street. Looking at my feet. Feeling life is sweet. Just stood in some ****. Dee Ba Doo Ba Dee”
ReLife is escapism at its most simplistic & lazy. It presents a scenario ripe for thematic exploration but instead contents itself with going through the motions with minimum thought. It's purpose isn't to ask why a 27 year old would see to go back to high school. Instead it asks you, the viewer, if you're a twenty something whose life has gone nowhere & offers an easy way to avoid dealing with it if you answered yes. If you want to watch a series about a NEET who feels cut off society but learns ultimately that escaping into fantasy is no solution with the help of a strange seventeen year old girl he forms a questionable relationship with, watch Welcome to the NHK. If you're a twenty something NEET who watches lots of cartoons about teenagers being friends & wish you could be in one, ReLife is the shallow, pandering experience you've been looking for.