Forum - View topicREVIEW: ReLIFE
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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AIUI, because the manga originated on the Comico site, and is their biggest hit, and the streaming in Japan is through the Comico site, which also dumped it Netflix-binge style on their own app as well as arranging for more traditional broadcasting / infomercial deals. So I'd say that it was chosen because Comico wanted to try it, and it's Comico's biggest hit so it was naturally the one chosen. Asking why binging is similar to asking why Netflix binges everything, even shows that come out week-to-week in Japan that they have the rights to. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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One doesn't have to watch it all at once just because one can. Although in this case had I stopped watching before the end, I probably wouldn't have bothered to finish.
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synaia
Posts: 112 |
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That's just a thing Netflix does in western countries. Netflix airs anime shows they licensed on a week per week basis in Japan. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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Yes, that's what I was referring to by the last phrase in my comment. I'm sorry it wasn't clear enough. As far as ReLIFE itself, my wife and I enjoyed it a lot; good characters, character development, etc. Certainly agree that the underlying premise is the weakest bit as it's somehow harder to suspend disbelief than with simple magic. The corporation just doesn't make sense. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4084 |
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I don't think the series' main problem is that the premise stretches credibility, it's how everything lines up for one perfect dramedy solution starting from that premise... You can't have him reach a similar conclusion by being a teacher? Or go back to college or go into normal retraining? But on the other hand, there's a lists of "don't" and "can't do's"... sorry, forgot it was Japan... "shouldn't do's" already in place in order to keep the show on the straight and narrow.
So what's the point then? "I learned something today" or "I helped someone today" to the ultimate "I feel better as a person." You can still do all that without the pill... Or the high school reentry. Throw out the corporate hook and the "magic pill" and replace it with real magic and then make the watcher into the wishgranter who follows him around to find out why he'd wish for it in the first place. Of course, the location would be his high school from tens years in the past because anything else is a little... Well... a lot... you know... very much wrong. Japan, Japan, Japan, you never cease to disappoint me. "It's a hit! It's their biggest hit." Yeah? Yeah... "It's nothing like that in execution." It's everything like in intent though, I can even see the premise bending over backwards to keep everything in the realm of possibility. For the characters, of course. Has nothing to do with the audience... Reading the spoilers only make me face palm more. Final comment: Is this premise is a direct exploration on the notion that life for the average Japanese citizen has little or no purpose once you take out the concrete goal of competitive exams? Or is this more like how the AKB048 anime almost by accident says more about the idol industry and their official licensed group and what it means to their victims/sacrifices.. "new recruits"... than they intended to? I could see myself watching it if it was a knowing social satire rather than 30 year old male wish fulfillment. I'll come out and say it... this show has always sound more "I get to interact with high school girls and it's not creepy!" to me than anything else. And this is coming from a romantic comedy/harem fan. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Your argument seems more questioning of the premise's credibility and practicality, so it seems your problem is indeed with the premise and not the dramedy aspect. Having him do it through teaching would necessitate him being able to be hired as a teacher, and since the reason he went into the program is because he couldn't get full time professional employment, I find it hard to believe he would be hired as a teacher. I don't know about Japan, but some countries have high standards for hiring teachers, only accepting the best of the best. And I don't know how common or acceptable going back to college or retraining is in Japan. And really his problem getting hired isn't lack of education or experience in an in-demand job, it's that professional employers see he was fired and assume he was a bad employee and as such refuse to hire him (along with confidence issues that anyone who has gone through an extended job search knows comes with the territory). No amount of college or retraining will remove that black mark from his record, even though he had a damn good reason spoiler[seriously the work culture in these black companies are pretty terrible if they try to spin the suicide of one of the employees as reflecting well on the company and the employees just accepting that instead of, you know, demanding a police investigation of the death of an employee that happened on site] I do find that dismissing the execution to be a little unfair, as the execution is where the show really shines, aside from animation. I believe "their greatest hit" refers to the particular publication not generally speaking. I can't speak to the general quality of the stuff they put out, so I don't know if being their greatest hit is necessarily high praise. And finally, given that his main love interest spoiler[is also not actually a high schooler ] I think they won't ultimately go in a creepy direction, not that it really went in a creepy direction in the show, though it very much sounded like it could have |
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gabuhaha
 Posts: 136 |
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They probably could have done it with him as a teacher but the story wouldn't have been nearly as funny that way. It's ultimately about restoring self-confidence and being able to interact well with society. It's Comico's, a web manga site, greatest hit. Not Japan in general. No, there's naturally some commentary on tests and things because you are putting an adult back into a high school society but there's no intense exploration like you are describing. It's not wish fulfillment. It's established in the first episode that he doesn't want to go back to high school. He agrees because it's a means to an end for him. He has a couple of comments early on about going to school with high school girls but that's it and even that is addressed in the show. Not skeevy in the slightest. It's not really social satire. Like Theron said, it's part comedy, part drama. Really, if you are a fan of romantic comedies, you would most likely like this. Just try a couple of episodes. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18194 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The male lead even admits that in the first episode, but he and the series are both careful to keep a certain distance from realizing it. It's almost like the series is saying, "it's fine to be tempted, but acting on it is where you have to draw the line as an adult." And while I do agree that the premise would actually be more plausible with magic instead of pills behind it, I don't agree that you could accomplish the same story with him being a teacher. There's a degree of social separation which is (or at least should be) present with a teacher which would make many of the events in this series socially impossible. For instance, here in the U.S. teachers are outright told not to "friend" students and they're discouraged from carrying on conversations with them on social media. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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^^ That's true, although the more likely reason is that Great Teacher Onizuka already did it.
Not that it's that important in the grand scheme of things, but I thought the identity of 001 was obvious the moment it was established who would be the main guy's "I'm 27! How can I feel this way for a teenager?!" pairing. Of course it's just one more thing that makes you go "what? How does that work?" about the ReLife programme. But then again said programme is only there because a magic janitor has already been done. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Before anything, I think special attention need to be given to the musical department who really went 110% percent here with quite a few bold choice here and there that surprised me. They weren't bad choice but quite unusual, which makes for some interesting moment where the music choice distracted me but at the same time make for interesting event.
As far as weakness goes, the premise is complete non sense and rest on very little, but thankfully its front loaded, so you can just accept it right away and move on. I think the problem with non sense premise is that a lot of show don't reveal them at the start, instead make a big mystery out of it (often cause they don't have an explanation yet) and then have a big reveal mid series which just kill it for me. But personally my big weakness is the middle portion of the show, this is one of the very rare show that I found the main character to actually be one of the most interesting character that seriously improve any scene he's in (this is even more exceptional for a high school drama). But he barely play any role in the mid portion, which is just two boring high school story, first some boring teenager angst/rivalry followed by boring teenager romance. I really wish the main character would have gotten more involved in those part so he could have smoothed those out and brought a much needed dose of maturity. Also I wasn't crazy about the final reveal, spoiler[they make a big deal out of the program only lasting a year just to turn around and say that it's actually two year, I like mystery when the show present me with all the fact I have to piece them together.] |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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As for ReLIFE, I did enjoy it overall because the characters were all very likable, the drama was generally handled very well and it was refreshing to see an anime that has a main character older than high school age and handles an issue as serious as workplace harassment. However, I was a bit disappointed by the ending. Part of it was my fault - for some reason I never bothered to check if the manga was still ongoing or not, so my expectations were set for a more definitive ending. And while spoiler[Hishiro being subject No 001] wasn't much of a surprise, for some reason I ended up thinking that the show was implying that spoiler[she was also Kaizaki's old senpai from work], which would have raised way too many awkward questions (now that I've rewatched those scenes, not sure how I got that idea). Now the real problem for me is that on top of not being satisfied with the anime's ending I'm not sure if I even want to see the rest of the story, since I tend to hate dramatic irony and the final reveal makes it pretty much unavoidable. |
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midnighteve
Posts: 114 Location: Chula Vista |
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No mention about the ending musical selection being totally within the realm of potential music Arata has on his MDs?
 The ending themes were a total nostalgia trip...all stuff I used to listen to ten years ago in my 20s  (So it could totally be his high school jams~) I thought it was some super cute fan service~
Also, I really hope we'll get a second season for the show someday..I've heard that the anime and manga are practically at the same place, so it'd be a while before they would have enough material for more though...but this and Re:Zero were the only shows I were following last season, I need to find some more stuff to sink my teeth into. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2863 |
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completely agree on first paragraph, and yes, its annoyig that there's no more manga to adapt, practically speaking. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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I think that wasn't by design. The first subject is repeatedly shown as a failure for the program spoiler[and looking at Hishiro in the beginning it's easy to see why. They essentially made her repeat the program since see didn't succeed the first time. Judging that they are both third years, he will only be in the program for 1 year as they said.] |
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Dayblack
Posts: 148 |
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Not worth looking at, is best read manga. Since the anime had a terrible adaptation. 108 manga chapters tucked into 12 chapters of anime.
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