Re:Zero Season 4 transforms from a fantasy isekai into a psychological horror anime, exploring themes of guilt, trauma, and mental breakdown through Subaru's experience of killing Meili while suffering from memory loss and hallucinations, demonstrating how horror elements can be integrated into fantasy narratives to create intense psychological tension.
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ReZero Is A HORROR Anime | Re:Zero Season 4 Explained
Added:Re:Zero season 4 episode 10 is titled murder is a habit as we watch our main character Subaru's mind continue to break. The man being plagued by hallucinations of Meili after the realization that he killed her. As Subaru's world has continued to crash down around him, his lies slowly becoming harder and harder to cover up as he realizes that murder is indeed a habit. And habits are hard to break. Hello you beautiful weeaboos, I'm Fin. Welcome back to Fin Films. Join me once again as we are breaking down and explaining everything that happened on this week's newest episode of Re:Zero as one of the best fantasy isekai anime ever made has turned into an absolutely [screaming] slapping amazing horror anime. You guys already know the drill by now, you know how these videos go. This is Re:Zero season 4 explained.
Re:Zero season 4 episode 10 opens right where we left off from episode 9. Subaru having blacked out come back to consciousness as he finds the dead body of Meili at his feet. The girl having been strangled. Subaru having committed this act but he has no memory of it. The words Natsuki Subaru was here carved into his forearm. Proof that he had done the deed. Subaru immediately freaks out for what is probably like the 20th time over the last few episodes as he can't make sense of what is going on. As he wonders if the other Natsuki Subaru returned while he blacked out and if this is possibly his doing. None of this makes any sense though as if the other guy is Natsuki Subaru then who is he? As Subaru has seemingly stumbled on the absolute wild and insane answer on who one of the murderers in the tower is. It's him. Though he's still not sure who the person is behind his own deaths. Subaru hides Meili's body as he stumbles into Emilia who is worried about him. Emilia bringing up Meili to Subaru's horror. The woman saying that when they finish here in the tower and they get home, she wants to treat her better. Like for starters, letting her out of her cell in the basement. Yes, out of context, that does sound insanely bad, but to be fair, Meili did try to kill them all before.
This angers Subaru who thinks it's insane to consider the future considering what they are going through, more specifically what he is going through. They are then cut off by Ram who tells them all to come to the archive as they found something alarming. As to Subaru's shock, Betty has stumbled upon a familiar name in one of the books of the dead, Meili's. This confirming Meili's prior suspicion that if you should die in the tower, your book will automatically appear in the archives, these being books of the dead.
Emilia, horrified by this, wants to look for Meili, but Betty and Shala know that there is no point. If her book is here, then she is dead. Shala not being too bothered about learning that the girl is gone. Shala then tells them the easiest way to find out what happened to Meili is just to read her book. Subaru declaring that he will be the one to read it as obviously he doesn't want the others to see that it was most likely him that killed her. As Subaru and us, the audience, are then transported into Meili's life as we get a closer look at her backstory. We see Meili as an infant having been abandoned as a child in the woods. Meili would have died out here if not for the strange technique that she possesses, the one that allows her to control and manipulate mobbies. Meili, as Subaru has pointed out several times, basically being raised by wolves, if you will, becoming a kind of feral child.
The girl having never known or had anything. Over time, she has learned the ways of the wild, the ways of the world, at least in this kind of feral way, becoming queen of the beasts. One day, however, all of this would change when Elsa arrived. Elsa killing all of her beast family and then taking her back to mother, aka Capella, the Sin Archbishop of Lust. Capella, or mother, wanting to turn Meili into one of her beloved children, many of which are a group of trained assassins as we know from the earlier seasons. Capella, in her own messed up way, wants to teach the feral girl about the world as she transforms her into a variety of beasts and animals, such as a cockroach, a fish, and a frog all to teach her about loss and grieving to manipulate her into serving. Over time Meili would learn to speak in the behaviors of a normal person. Meili having basically copied Elsa, the young girl thinking that she hates Elsa, but she doesn't exactly know what the concept of hate is. However, we know after Elsa and Meili's failed assassination attempt and the burning of the Roswell Manor, Meili was ultimately left alone. Did she feel sadness or grief over Elsa's death? Meili didn't even know what real emotions were. But now that Elsa was gone, who should she follow? Who should she imitate? Meili realizing in this moment that the one thing she knew was that she didn't want to die. She wanted to live. We then flash forward to the events in the tower in the previous day, the day that Subaru lost his memories. Meili is looking for Subaru. The girl conflicted of being so close to the man that killed Elsa.
Wanting to possibly kill him, but Subaru notices her. The girl ran away in panic.
She then returned to the archive later finding Subaru there reading a book. But something is off about our main character. This being the moment that Subaru would split, that he would ultimately lose his memories. As we watch our main character speak to her being shockingly cruel, telling her not to flirt with him, messing with her. The man telling her, "You're borrowing worries, your dumb suffering, all of it.
I'll remember it for you." This being the supposed offer that Subaru made to Meili, the one she referenced in the previous episode when she asked him if his offer was serious. This being the moment that Subaru would black out in the previous episode. Do I have to say here this offer, if we can even call it that, is extremely cryptic. It's almost if he's implying or offering Meili a chance to kill him, or possibly something more messed up. It's kind of hard to figure out what exactly is being said in this scene. Again, we see the scene replayed where Meili asked him if he was being serious and licking her lips with this devilish look on her face. This being the moment when Subaru blacks out. As we see in this moment, the man's expression change, the other Subaru taking control. This other Subaru having tricked her. as we watch him then choke her to death. This confirming that it was in fact Subaru or at least one of the Subarus who killed Meili. As our main character's eyes then flash open having finished reading the book as he cries out hyperventilating and panicking at what he just witnessed. The others then arrive in the archive as Subaru tells them that he witnessed Meili's memories in the book. As to his shock and horror he turns Meili being right over his shoulder taunting him about how he killed her. As Subaru straight up hallucinating as he is plagued by visions of the girl which continues to taunt him and drive him crazy for the entirety of the episode. The others look at him confused though. A lot of them are seemingly very calm at hearing that Meili has died as many of them didn't seem to really care about her that much seeing as she was their enemy not that long ago. Subaru in this moment being forced to lie saying he didn't actually see how she died. The group search for her body but they are unable to find it.
Shallot seemingly knowing what Subaru did but she is not bothered by it at all. Subaru still can't understand why these people care about him so much. The vision of Meili taunting him as she tells him how he could find out. The easiest way would to be kill one of his party members like Betty for example and then look at her book of the dead to learn why they love Subaru so much. As the camera slowly pans in on Betty's neck Subaru thinking how easily she could break. He then snaps out of it realizing how messed up a thought this is to have. The vision of Meili though continues to taunt him telling him that murder is a habit. Once a person solves a problem with murder they can't help but kill again and again as it only becomes easier. The party then regroup having been able to find Meili's body.
They decide on what their plan of action should be next. Many in the group want to continue to push on with their mission for their own reasons. Subaru then is left in the green room to recover as he sneaks out wanting to make sure that Meili is actually dead wanting to check on her body. He goes to the spot he left her however to his shock her body isn't there. Subaru turning when he is shocked once again to see Ram who confronts him as she wonders what he is doing sneaking around. The woman calling him a fake, a good-for-nothing Subaru copy, as she caught him sneaking out. Subaru begins to panic, his hand shaking, forming a fist, as we watch him slowly look at Ram's neck, as murder is a habit, and habits are hard to break.
As Re:Zero season 4 episode 10, an absolutely fucked-up episode, finally comes to an end.
And yes, that was everything that happened on Re:Zero season 4 episode 10, "Murder is a Habit." And holy [ __ ] man, this anime continues to get better and better. I absolutely love and am obsessed with this season and this crazy change in tone from, you know, what is on the surface a classic example of a fantasy isekai anime, you know, main character dies, gets hit by a car, wakes up in another world that happens to be a world inspired by classic fantasy D&D, you know, Tolkien Lord of the Ring as themed MMO RPG World of Warcraft-esque esque themes, Re:Zero obviously having its own twist and flavor that sets it apart from many other, you know, fantasy isekai out there that makes it better than most other fantasy isekai. For one, its world is incredibly deep and it has a bunch of really interesting and diverse set of characters. I mean, the anime world absolutely became obsessed over Rem in like what, 2016, 2017 when season 1 of this anime dropped. And while with Re:Zero has flirted with themes of horror, obviously Subaru's return by death ability is, you know, at its core very much like kind of a horrific thing, and they do explore these kind of horror themes at times.
Season 4 is literally just straight-up a horror anime. This isn't fantasy isekai anymore. We're just straight-up in like Uzumaki horror territory. And it's freaking amazing. Horror is always a really tricky genre because you are trying to evoke themes of fear, of tension, and of anxiety. In order to do this, it's super important for not only the voice actors to be on point as hell, but also for the music and the sound effects to be on point as these are all of the things that are used to kind of create tension, to create those feelings of fear, uncertainty, and unease. And they absolutely freaking nail it in all of these episodes, man, but especially in the last two episodes, in my opinion.
I mean, the voice actor, the Japanese voice actor for Subaru specifically, is This guy's freaking amazing. Like, he really, really sells just how absolutely horrifying the situation is for our main character to be in. Like, I can I have to give this guy props. Like, he is what makes these episodes so freaking horrifying and so absolutely amazing as we watch our main character's mind completely, basically, shatter. Now, again, we're not going to be covering spoilers from the manga or anything like that, but we can tell as well that it is very likely Meili is the one who is trying to kill Subaru as, obviously, she harbors a lot of negative feeling towards our main character here, mainly being a very misunderstood character because of her very tragic origin story.
And Meili harbors feelings of, you know, revenge and anger towards Subaru for the death of uh Why am I forgetting her name?
This very much hinting, teasing at, and just straight-up indicating that it is Meili who is the one that is likely behind Subaru's deaths from the previous episode where he was flung from the tower steps. The question is then for anime-only fans, what the [ __ ] is going on with Subaru? Why are there two Subarus? Why has his mind seemingly broken, and why has he lost his memories? This having something to do with the Book of the Dead that we saw he was reading as this is the moment when everything changed, when he blacked out and completely lost all of his memories as we see him shift back and forth several times between these basically two Subarus, the memory loss Subaru and the freaking insane psycho Subaru.
Low-key though, this might be my favorite season of Re:Zero. I think I might like it more than its debut season, which was obviously amazing. As many of you may know, I'm a massive like fantasy nerd, Dungeons and Dragons nerd, so I love like fantasy anime and isekai anime. Like Frieren is amazing. It's so freaking good. It's probably the best uh fantasy anime of all time. And That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime along with Re:Zero are in my opinion two of the best fantasy isekai of all time. And, you know, the story that they're trying to tell, how they execute the fantasy themes combined with having really unique and awesome cool, you know, themes within the kind of isekai genre.
But in all honesty, both Re:Zero and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are kind of less isekai anime, and they're more of just straight-up fantasy anime. I forget that these two anime are isekais basically all the time because it's really not that important. That being said, while I love fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons, I also am obsessed with horror, and we have a real lack of, you know, high-quality good horror anime out there right now. That's why one of my favorite anime from last year was uh The Summer Hikaru Died, an absolutely amazing horror anime, amazing horror manga. If you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend watching it. It's so freaking good, man. And check out my content that I made over this anime. But we have a real lack of like really good horror anime. There's been so many horror anime that have been botched.
Like basically every Junji Ito adaptation ever has been completely, you know, butchered. So like we just have a real lack of horror anime out there. And low-key, I would love to see, you know, Re:Zero just being a straight-up horror anime and see every single season be something like this. I imagine it would be hard to do. Obviously, I know we're not going to get that, so it's just a pipe dream. But as someone who loves horror and loves when horror is done right and done well. This season of Re:Zero low-key might be my favorite season so far. It's so freaking good, man, and it really just catches you off guard super hard. Like it really does feel like a straight-up slap to the face, and while I have read, you know, some of this arc from the manga, so I had an idea of what was going to happen in the themes that were going to be, you know, covered here in this season, it still very much took me off guard watching it in the anime, especially because of how amazingly well they executed it. As always, guys, with these videos, these are just my thoughts and opinions, so feel free to let me know yours in the comment section down below.
What did you think of this big reveal that there are, in fact, two Subaru's that our boy is basically losing his mind having almost kind of split personalities, having a body snatcher inside of him? Let me know in the comment section. If you did like this video, guys, please make sure you like, comment, and subscribe, as that is the easiest way to support me, and it really does go a long way in putting these videos into the algorithm. If you did like this video, then why don't you check out some of my other mini anime, uh, you know, content and videos, and I'll put some videos on screen now for you. And as always, I hope to see you in the next one. Stay safe out there. Until next time, guys. Peace. Love.
Adieu.
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