Title: Re:Zero, Chapter 3: Truth of Zero Vol. 11
Author: Tappei Nagatsuki (Story), Daichi Matsuse (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
Genre: Shounen, Battle, Fantasy
Publication Date: December 15, 2020
The Story
We have reached the final volume of Chapter 3 of ReZERO; however, this is not the final volume of the manga as it will be continuing on in Chapter 4.
Here, we are treated to a nice side chapter of what life would be like if Rem and Subaru had run away together. We see the two of them married with two children: Spica and Rigel. It was a nice detraction from the main story and a nice “what if?” scenario but once the chapter is over, it’s back to our main story.
Here, we see Rem and Crusch traveling just mere hours after the defeat of the white whale and after one of the most harrowing lines in the series muttered by Emilia. The dragon carriage is then under attack by an unknown enemy. Crusch orders the carriage to run him over but they are handily defeated by a young man that is simply just standing there, doing nothing.
He seems gentle in his words… almost philosophical… which cannot be said for the second mysterious person to show up… one who had wiped out their entire forces save for Rem and Crusch. We finally learn that these two are Archbishops of the Witch’s Cult: Regulus Corneas who represents Greed and Lye Batenkaitos who represents Gluttony. The last we see of Rem and Crusch before a bit of a time skip is the two of them challenging the Archbishops.
After the skip, Rem is lying in a bed being attended to by Subaru. Crusch is awake; however, she has no memories of who she is. Nobody can remember Rem, either. It was determined that Gluttony was behind the memory erasure and had some sort of ties to the White Whale and its mist. From here, talks happen and it is decided that they must pursue the Witch’s Cult for answers. Subaru swears to become the Hero that Rem believes him to be as this chapter of the ReZERO manga comes to a close.
For those watching the anime, we all know which arc is coming next beyond this; however, this was a nice way to close out this part of the series. Truth of Zero was, by far, the longest of the arcs but it was definitely one of the most popular ones (outside of THAT LINE that has turned into quite an internet meme). I definitely enjoyed the story and felt that it wrapped up on a pretty good stopping point.
The side chapter with Subaru and Rem was cute but I think that it was a little bit on the cheesy side. It’s the kind of scenario where two people are in love so much that their dialogue gets a bit sickening. I wanted to scream “We get it! You’re in love!” a few times as the two stood there and praised each other over and over again. Rigel had the right idea when he told them to stop being so affectionate in public!
Characters
With things wrapping up in this arc, Emilia, Subaru, and Rem didn’t get much in the way of development outside of THAT LINE. Subaru still had that same burning determination in him like he always had, Emilia is still a supporting character stuck in a main character role, and Rem is still a badass until she falls asleep.
What we do have are our two new main villains: Lye and Regulus!
Regulus is the calm and collected one between the two of them. He hates conflict and would much rather live in peace and harmony; however, if you interrupt him when he’s talking, he takes great offense to that and will not hesitate to sever one of your body parts clean off your body…just as Crusch! Calm, collected, calculated, and pure evil. Those are the adjectives that could best describe Regulus and I already think he’s an amazing villain because of it. Much better than the brain-trembling Sloth!
Lye, on the other hand, is about as stereotypical as you can get. If you’ve seen one maniacal anime villain who thinks dismembering people is fun, then you’ve seen them all… Lye included. The only thing that really makes him interesting is his connection to the white whale and people losing their memories of others (or their own, apparently). At first, when he talks about eating his fill, we believed that it had to do something with consuming actual flesh; however, it’s pretty apparent that it has something to do with eating people’s memories. That’s pretty interesting and makes this common trope archetype more bearable!
Final Thoughts
ReZERO continues to make itself stand out from the typical pile of isekai stories out there. At a time when the genre was starting to be a bit stales, a story needed a hook to make itself stand out from the rest of the pack. With ReZERO’s time travel/return by death, the usage of emotions, and its big cast of diverse characters, it has done just that!
This whole arc was an amazing rollercoaster that saw many peaks, valleys, and pivotal moments that really shaped Subaru as a character. While many of these arcs could have been standalone “Chapters” in this series, I felt to put them all together like this helped keep the flow consistent. It also makes me wonder why this series is being broken up into chapters like this as keeping it as one long-running manga would still work out just as well. Maybe the manga is trying to mimic the light novels?
Whatever the case may be, it’s still a fantastic story and if you’re a fan of ReZERO, then adding this manga to your collection is a must!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
