© Nagatsuki Tappei/Kadokawa Co., Ltd./Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World-3 Production Committee
This week’s Reply: zero This is our great introduction to the Archbishop of Lust, Capella Emerada Lugunica. Like other Witch Factor holders, Capella’s embodiment of the mortal sin “Desire” deviates from the expected stereotype. Rather than being a hypersexual woman who values sex above all else, Capella is obsessed with the love/lust dichotomy.
The idea of love accompanies all these ideals of purity and eternity, whereas lust is seen as vulgar and fleeting. However, according to Capella, love does not really exist. Instead, love is simply the desire for a prettier name—and she’s mentally driven to force people to agree with her on that.
She does this through the use of her powers – which allow her to reshape herself into any form she chooses at will (conservation of mass be damned). But more importantly, she can also reshape others into abominations like giant flies. By showing these transformed beings to others, she proves that their love for humanity is only superficial – after all, wouldn’t they be disgusted to see what these people have become? Even better, she does something similar with a pair of lovers – showing that unconditional love was just an illusion, thus confirming that all they had was lust all along. Moreover, if everyone around her turns into ugly things, wouldn’t it be natural for people to become greedy for her?
Capela just wants to be “loved” by as many people as possible for as long as possible. It’s that simple. Her thought process makes her extremely terrifying and makes her another powerful force for Subaru to overcome in this arc.
The rest of the episode is mostly devoted to resolving cliffhangers and setting up new ones. Emilia struggled to understand what was happening to her—who Regulus was and what he wanted. Meanwhile, with Otto’s help, Reinhard is able to save Felt from his timid father. As for the new problem, Anastasia found herself in Sirius’ crosshairs – just as her strongest defender was out with Subaru, or injured himself.
This is a solid episode with a lot of action and the introduction of another great villain. I have no complaints!
grade:
Random thoughts:
• Granted, it’s been a few years since I’ve watched the previous seasons, but I don’t remember Emilia wearing Desire’s Transfiguration clothes. This made an idea come to my mind: maybe that was not Emilia’s form, but Sadela’s form.
• Hopefully Desire’s little announcement will convince Emilia that she needs to get out of this on her own – she can’t wait for Subaru to save her or innocent people will die.
• Regulus calls Emilia his 79th bride, but his 184th bride takes care of her. Did he just give them random numbers or does this mean Emilia is replacing the previous number 79?
• Reasonable question: How come Subaru didn’t die after being air juggled by Capella? If she hit him that hard, his ribs should shatter, or his insides explode.
Re: Life in another world from scratch- Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the majority shareholder of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
