Subaru Natsuki

Creation and development

The series' editor at MF Bunko J, Masahito Ikemoto, first became aware of Tappei Nagatsuki's web novel in April 2013 when it began to appear on his Twitter feed. He was immediately impressed by the series' use of Subaru's Return by Death, and how it was a "depressing, yet surprising, twist on the fantasy genre" before he began working with Nagatsuki to adapt the series into a light novel. The character's first name was a reference to the Pleiades asterism which also connects to the Seven Sisters from Greek mythology.

Subaru was created to be a young man assisting a silver-haired girl. Nagatsuki conceived of Return by Death under the assumption that it would help the main character become stronger with each use before changing his mind. Instead, he decided to develop Subaru through the latter's deaths. Nagatsuki decided to explore Subaru's deaths in the light novel as he found this concept to be rarely explored in other series. In order to keep the narrative entertaining, Nagatsuki gives Subaru a challenge with every Return by Death and subjects him to gruesome experiences. While the first original video animation of the series focused on Subaru's attempts to save the world, the second animation aimed to have Subaru act in parallel with Emilia's quest, which was happening at the same time.

Although Subaru dies multiple times, the scene where he is eaten by rabbits was the most gruesome to the novelist, who claimed nothing scarier would happen in the novels. The scene was based on the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park where Compsognathus dinosaurs devour the character of Dieter Stark. In particular, Nagatsuki said that he liked the fear the Jurassic Park franchise shows when showing small creatures able eat people. Despite the rabbits' scene being the scariest death for the author, he still tries to come up with surprises when killing Subaru in each arc of the novels. When Subaru becomes unable to use his Return by Death power and everybody around him becomes an enemy, the novelist found it difficult to write the story.

Illustrator Shin'ichirō Ōtsuka submitted to Ikemoto a number of character designs for the major characters. Subaru's initial design made him look like a delinquent, with Ōtsuka later describing it as "not the face of a boy in his teens". Ikemoto requested that the character be "more friendly and less fierce" so that the audience could empathize with him during emotional scenes. Given that Subaru was conceived as an ordinary teenager, Ōtsuka avoided giving him the stylishness of an ikemen. After joining the project, Yoshiko Nakamura and scriptwriter Eiji Umehara had to readjust their views of the main character and rewrite scenes where they had made Subaru appear "cool". At Masaharu Watanabe's direction, Nakamura had to rewrite Subaru's telling of The Red Ogre Who Cried in episode 6 multiple times.

Voice actors

Yūsuke Kobayashi voices Subaru in the Japanese version. He initially believed the series was a romantic comedy. However, upon reading more of the narrative, Kobayashi was attracted by the series. He describes Subaru as a character who tries his best to avoid a negative future thanks to his Return by Death ability. As a result, he views his character more as a cheerful teenager despite the threats the character faces. Kobayashi recalls being surprised as he was immediately cast for the role once the staff heard his voice. When Kobayashi was preparing, he said "Isn't this too many lines for an anime?!". However, based on the multiple moods he had to portray, he became exhausted during recording sessions. During initial episodes, Kobayashi befriended Puck's actor Yumi Uchiyama who supported him.

Kobayashi had difficulties voicing Subaru in the first season, as a result of being given little direction, but got Nagatsuki's approval, as he found his work appealing. The two lines "I hate myself" and "I love you, Emilia" were written to be the strongest lines in developing Subaru in the first season. With the second season, Kobayashi believes the way Otto supports Subaru is a major turning point for the main character, now that Rem was not available to assist Subaru. The actor said that there was a noticeable change between Subaru and Emilia's relationship as they became a couple; so their interactions are more straightforward and his transformation into a knight appealed to the actor.

Sean Chiplock voiced the character in the English dub of the series. Chiplock found Subaru as an energetic character with a sense of justice, comparing his personality with that of Jin-Mori, the protagonist of The God of High School. Chiplock claimed that he drew on his own personal insecurities to make Subaru sound properly scared, eventually forming Subaru's trauma.

Appearances

Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World

Subaru is the main protagonist of the series; he is a 17-year-old NEET who, on his way home from a convenience store, is suddenly transported to the Kingdom of Lugunica, a nation in another world. There, he meets and falls in love with a silver-haired half-elf girl named Emilia, leading to him getting recruited into her camp for the Royal Selection, a competition to decide the kingdom's next ruler, and meeting the other members: nobleman Roswaal, twin maids Ram and Rem, and the spirit of their mansion's library, Beatrice. Upon his arrival, Subaru also acquires an ability he dubs "Return by Death" that sends him back to a predetermined point in time whenever he dies, which was seemingly gifted to him by Satella, the legendary Witch of Envy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Emilia and haunts him throughout the narrative.

The first three arcs of the novel (season one of the anime) serve as a gradual breakdown of Subaru's character and the tropes of the isekai genre as a whole. Overall, these arcs are about Subaru navigating his new environment and meeting the other cast members while feeling isolated as the only person who remembers Return by Death's loops, since Satella silences him whenever he starts to talk about it. As an otaku well versed in the genre, he initially doesn't take his situation seriously and sees others as stereotypes rather than actual people. Ironically, despite trying to put on a brave facade, he ultimately succeeds in breaking out of his time loops only when showcasing humility and treating others with respect, winning the other characters' trust.

The third arc explores Subaru's flaws: his entitlement and need for validation. When Emilia starts focusing on the Royal Selection instead of him, Subaru crashes the proceedings before publicly declaring himself her knight, only to make a fool of himself and her. He also meets the knight of one of Emilia's rivals, Aldabran, or "Al", who is revealed to also be from Japan, shattering his perception that he is special. Subsequently, the mansion comes under attack from the Witch's Cult, a group of zealots who worship Satella, led by the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, who serves as a foil to Subaru and who is a madman who feels entitled to the witch's affection. To fight off the Cult, Subaru attempts to recruit help from the other camps but is turned down during several life loops due to his self-centered behavior, always resulting in his friends' deaths. Reaching his breaking point, Subaru gives up and admits his faults to Rem, revealing that, underneath his outer demeanor, he actually suffers from a severe inferiority complex. However, rather than chastise him, Rem declares that he had been her "hero" ever since he saved her in the second arc, giving him a reason to keep going.

Other appearances

Subaru also appears in the mobile game Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World: Lost in Memories, which features branching paths that lead Subaru Natsuki to a different outcome of the story, turning into a "What if" scenario. The visual novel based on the series, titled Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World – Death or Kiss, tells an original story that differs from the light novel and the anime, and allows the player to choose between routes featuring Emilia, Rem, Ram, Felt, Beatrice, Crusch, Priscilla, or Anastasia. Subaru has also made an appearance in the tactical-adventure video game Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World: The Prophecy of the Throne. He stars in the crossover comedy series Isekai Quartet where the cast of Re:Zero interact with other isekai series in a school.

Reception

Subaru

The character won the Best Character (Male) award in the 2015–2016 Newtype Anime Awards. In a poll by Crunchyroll, Subaru, with 2,246 votes, was voted as the second best Re:Zero character after Rem. In the Crunchyroll 2020 awards, Yūsuke Kobayashi won the category of best male seiyuu (voice actor) for his role as Subaru. In the book Mitos y Pantallas Subaru was compared to Sisyphus from the Greek myths as both cheat death in their lives. However, the isekai protagonist does not seek his own suffering but instead lives. Subaru's skill and psychological state were also linked with the concept of Thanatophobia of Sigmund Freud which is also rooted in Greek myths based on the god Thanatos.

Critical reception to Subaru in the light novels has been mixed. At Anime News Network, Theron Martin lauded the series for being a somewhat fresher take on the "transported to another world" concept, but leveled criticism at it for bumpy and awkwardly timed dialogue and a tendency for redundancy, making Subaru come across as unlikable. In the next volume of the series, Rebecca Silverman praised Subaru's use of Return by Death to save the people he cares about.

Andy Hanley from UK Anime Network considered the use of Subaru's death scenes in the anime adaptation as one of the most unique elements from the series due to how the narrative uses it to reexamine the cast, most notably Subaru. He described Subaru as "a very flawed and very human character, whose personality and reactions are very distinctly coloured by the events he's witnessed and taken part in." Anime Now had mixed feelings towards Subaru; they regarded him as a "genre-savvy character" as while he might have common traits from other characters, his character arc makes him highly complex. The Fandom Post enjoyed Subaru's gradual accomplishments in the anime, despite his weak initial portrayal, as by the ninth episode he obtains Ram's trust while discovering the shaman's identity.

In another article centered around Subaru, Manga.Tokyo compared the differences between the light novel and the anime based on how he deals with a suicide in order to undo Rem's death. The difference from the anime shows Subaru's psychological state and the way his suicide was highly praised for being more realistic than in the original printed version. Crunchyroll stated that despite the attention given to romances involving Subaru with other characters, his relationship with Emilia proved to be more appealing based on Subaru's progression as a character and the mutual help they give each other, something that other couples failed to deliver. When it comes to Subaru's amnesia in the fourth season, Polygon noted a tactic the writer used to bring back the series's charm of horror and gore as Subaru's evolution following the second season made the story feel like a more typical fantasy series, drawing parallels with the film Memento.

Reconstructions of the isekai genre

Kim Morrissy regarded Subaru's traits as unique within the isekai genre as, rather than accomplishing tasks with ease, he suffers from multiple traumas that lead to self-loathing. THEM Anime Reviews had a negative impression of Subaru and criticized the impulsive demeanor Subaru has due to his quick actions, as well as his persistent use of Return by Death which reduced the tension in the anime. They also describe him as the "antithesis" of Kirito due to Subaru's poor life contrasting against the latter's. The reviewers note that the character arc had notable development in the anime, and point out a scene where Subaru has a deep conversation with Rem which helps him become more likable.

Manga.Tokyo notes that Subaru's attempts at saving others through his own deaths made the Japanese audience appreciate him more. The writer feels Subaru's deaths were gruesome and compared them to Puella Magi Madoka Magica's. The site also compared Subaru with Konosuba's main character Kazuma Sato due to their similar situations as they find themselves in different worlds. However, rather than focusing on quests like in other isekai stories, the two series are more character-driven. The similarities between Subaru and Kazuma led to more parallelism in Isekai Quartet, which Anime News Network found hilarious. Crunchyroll saw him as a more realistic isekai protagonist due to his notable flaws and realism, with his having to mature in order to develop as a character and make the story progress positively.

Anime Feminist praised the handling of Subaru's characterization as coming across as a deconstruction of a "nice guy" who is desperate for somebody else's affection, but often becomes manipulative or controlling of those he likes. The writer was praised for still making Subaru come across as a relatable protagonist. This attitude is mostly seen through his desire to provoke feelings from Emilia which leads to several strong scenes where the protagonist's mental state deteriorates into causing toxic behavior and a traumatic state due to his hero complex, becoming the victim of multiple enemies that take his life, and having to stand to live again. The handling of Subaru's development was praised for showing the protagonist a harsh reality rather than other isekai protagonists who are always rewarded for their actions, citing Naofumi Iwatani from The Rising of the Shield Hero or Rudeus Greyrat from Mushoku Tensei who rarely get punished and even get their love interest. Screenrant also found Subaru as an antithesis to typical isekai heroes and instead a "weaponization of self-insertion as a concept" as the main character of Re:Zero is the "tragic mirror constructed solely from the viewers' empathy and suspension of disbelief." Additionally, Subaru was praised for not being the only hero of the series, with the series providing several supporting characters who often overshadow him when it comes to the power they possess.

Cultural impact

The anime's fourth season led to multiple internet memes involving Subaru's mental health as he loses his memories and pretends to kill somebody. Fans started creating satirical videos, using artificial intelligence, involving Subaru running across a tower's stairs as he smiles maniacally. This led to the nickname of "Aura Monster" and "Happy Birthday Daniel".