Review of ReLIFE

There have been so many iterations on the concept of reincarnation in anime that my nervous system has been cognitively primed to lower my heart rate and decrease my brain function to soften the blow on my psyche. In fact, just before watching this, I just so happened to force myself to finish Redo of Healer, which was an absolute journey in and of itself. Suffice to say, watching any show that begins with the letters “R” and “e” nowadays renders me nearly comatose, with the exception of Re:Zero. In desperate need of ReHAB post-Redo of Healer, I stumbled upon ReLIFE – advertising a largedeparture from modern fantasy slop, and hopefully a much needed rePRIEVE. I don’t know why the letters are stylized like that, nor do I care.

ReLIFE presents the modest character journey of a 27-year-old NEET to find himself, maybe a little bit of love, and most definitely a job. He’s recruited by a member of the ReLife research institute to participate in a novel case study. All he has to do is take a pill a day, and he will gain the youthful appearance of a 17-year-old. In addition, he’ll have to attend regular high school classes for a full year. Well shit… engineering a romance with a 27 year old infiltrating a high school is inherently problematic for obvious reasons. In other words, the story is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting for me to buy into the show. Surprisingly enough, ReLIFE navigates this premise well by utilizing it as a comedic tool, with the main character acutely aware of the age differences between himself and the surrounding students.

The idea of transforming back into a high schooler and the usual co-occurring drama is enough to sustain you for a solid 2-3 episodes, at least. One of the more interesting ideas it portrays is that despite the protagonist’s youthful appearance, he still has a 27-year-old body, which makes for some mildly enjoyable situational comedy in the appropriately named episode 3 "You're Old Now."

Within those expositional episodes, the show roots itself in its principal strength and protagonist, Arata Kaizaki. In truth, he’s not your stereotypical 27-year-old NEET; he’s able to find part-time work, function as a member of society, and most importantly, he feels like a normal human being. He has some habits which fit the NEET heuristic and some deep-rooted trauma, but overall, he is a strong foundational character. The remainder of the show is devoted to his character development, and the subsequent development of the characters he is surrounded by. He takes a bit of an advisory role in his friend group, which is constantly juxtaposed with his poor academics by his friends. After all, taking life advice from a student who fails all his exams is quite ill-advisable. It’s admittedly a good laugh sometimes.

Episodes 4-10, effectively half of the show’s runtime, are an absolute slog to bear, however. They are inundated with the all-too-familiar tropes and misunderstandings of romcoms and dramas. The primary offender of which is an unfortunate addendum to our main ensemble, Rena Kariu. She’s spiteful, quick-to-judge, irrational, and single-handedly responsible for half of the superfluous conflict in these episodes. Perhaps you could argue that her immaturity is realistic, but that does not recuse how trite and contrived these episodes are. When confronted with her own idiocy, she devolves into ugly crying and irritating dialogue. Combine her antics with a friend group that is just as dense and non-communicative as she is and you get a frustrating viewing experience. At least the remainder of the show is decent and gives you the saccharine romance that it's been building towards.

In addition to this mediocre median of episodes, the overall production quality of ReLIFE leaves quite a bit to be desired. The art style is nothing particularly special and the animation is mediocre at best. If you told me this show came out in 2006 instead of 2016, I wouldn’t bat an eye. I usually never have any qualms with sound, but this show also has some awkward and out of place sound design. Most background music is directed by piano notes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the show decides to discuss its more serious themes, it repeatedly plays a string of odd and tacky staccato notes, completely ruining the atmosphere. They sound rough and abrupt, inadvertently cutting through the tension of several scenes, when their purpose was to build tension. Surely there was a better alternative here.

Ultimately, is ReLIFE worth a watch? Depends on if you think episodes 1-3 and 11-13 can cover for the frustrating monotony of 4-10. I do, however, expect that the sequel will be significantly better off of a shorter total runtime and the already established character development of this season. And I’ll probably watch another isekai after a week.