Review of ReLIFE

As an individual in his early twenty's ReLIFE serves as a good reminder of the little things I missed about being a teenager. When I was a teenager I took what I had for granted and I also have lots of regrets. When I was a teenager I honestly did not enjoy school and I was pretty much like the character Hishiro who would have trouble making friends and changing habits. The only thing I enjoyed was getting home so I can shut off. So after watching ReLIFE I went over my regrets about being that one guy who spent his days studying andbeing friendless but I learned a valuable lesson of enjoying what I have now and living life to the fullest by taking any opportunity given to me.

So you might think did ReLIFE upset me? No it just appealed to me as a viewer who is past his school days which has inspired me to do more as an adult. If you are some student in High school you might learn to cherish your youth more by watching this show. ReLIFE is one of those shows that is an example of anime not being for just young people as it more appeals to people past their teenage years. I was at first giving ReLIFE a seven or eight at first but gave it a nine after really liking the ending to the show which was game changer.

So ReLIFE is the story of our main character Arata who is struggling to find a job at the age of twenty eight because he quit his first job after three months. Society deems him as a half-neet so no one will hire him for work leaving him to eventually live with his parents in the country an idea he isn’t too fond of unless he can get proper work somewhere. After drinking a lot he meets Yoake who works at ReLIFE laboratory whose goal is to come up with a way to get someone un-neeted and ask Arata to participate in an experiment. The experiment in question involves using a drug to make Arata look like a high schooler and relive a senior year in high school which due to being drunk Arata agrees and wakes up realising Yoake was not joking.

Throughout the story Arata gets involved with the problems of his classmates. As the story progresses Arata betters the life of the students while the same could be said about him. The story can sometimes feel a bit slow and a lot of the time it’s a bit of laughs. The main thing to note is that series ends on high note that makes me wish for a season two in the near future.

The characters in the series include a variety of trope characters which include the quiet girl (Hishiro), a tsundere (Rena), a dense dude (Oga), a transfer student (An), and the childhood friend trio Honoka, Akira and Asaji. The characters are in their last year of school and things come between them which can ruin their memories of high school and their friendships. Our MC Arata who will be forgotten by all of them after the experiment task himself on making sure their last year is a good one.

Arata does this by trying to act like the adult (because he is one) and uses his wisdom and experience to come up with a solution. While reflecting on his past experiences Arata comes at a cross roads with himself and has to overcome his problems if he is to solve those of others. Yoake is also similar to Arata as Yoake is trying to overcome his past problems by trying to make sure Arata's experiment is a success.

The most interesting of the student characters is Hishiro, Rena and Honoka who are central in the social problems between the students. Hishiro has never made a friend and is a loner who's troubles unravel slowly as the series progress as they learn how to make friends. Rena is a very stubborn character who can't say what is on their mind because they are afraid of what others think. Honoka is a character that only enjoys school for a single reason and without that reason she cannot enjoy life as a student.

The art in the series is average but slightly colourful at times. The colours in question are usually bright blue green and orange which makes the series not appear entirely dull in the art department. Stuff like character movements can sometimes appear stiff but this is not an action anime so that is ok. There is not really much to say about character designs other than they are pretty standard for a slice of life anime set in school. Sometimes the animation does change however to make humorous moments seem more humorous.

There is not much background music to ReLIFE, the opening is decent however the ending theme does change every episode to some 90s or early 2000s track. I kind of like how this is done to reflect the age of Arata as he would be someone to listen to such music.

I did enjoy ReLIFE and what messages it was trying to deliver. If you like the school drama series or a fan of series about growing up then ReLIFE may be for you.