Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- by Teppei Nagatsuki is the first novel in the still-running series by the same name. Following series protagonist Subaru Natsuki the first novel in the series Subaru in his attempt to find his footing in a new world and his attempts to grasp the workings of his only ability in the new world: Return by Death.

In order to understand the plot of this story and why I believe it to be one of the greatest isekai(other world) series of all time, you first must understand the specifics of two things: Subaru himself and his Return by Death ability. Starting off with Subaru, one of the things that makes Re: Zero great is that Subaru sucks as a person, at least to begin with. It’s not that Subaru is a monster, to begin with, far from it. What Subaru is, is a man-child who was never forced to grow up and mature, leading to him making both selfish and selfless decisions entirely based on what he is feeling at the time. One very interesting thing when you compare Re: Zero to other isekai or even other fantasy series is that unlike them most of Subaru’s problems and deaths could have been prevented if he was just a better person.

Speaking of Subaru’s multiple deaths I should probably get around to explaining how that is even possible. You see in most stories where protagonists are summoned to other worlds those protagonists are typically blessed with some sort of special something to aid them on their journey. Maybe they were given an instinctive understanding of that world’s magic or maybe they just got a super powerful shield that will always protect them. In the case of Subaru Natsuki however, he gains the ability to reset time back to a checkpoint he has no control over when he dies. This ability is very important because it helps tie into one of the main throughlines of the series: Self Improvement.

As mentioned above Subaru is something of a idiot who tends to cause his own problems. Grant not all of the issues he deals with are his own fault but most of his deaths are caused by things he could very well avoid. However thanks to Return by Death Subaru is able to see how things go wrong and try to change things. It’s not easy for him and in novel 1 it takes him three whole death loops to even realize he is in fact returning by death, but after that he’s able to figure out what he’s doing wrong and improve upon his previous attempts. This in turn lets him escape the loop he was trapped in.

There is definitely a lot I left out of this review but this review is running kind of long so I’ll say this, Re: Zero is one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever read. It is excellently written and makes for extremely effective psychological horror for the shut in nerds who it is aimed towards. However, even to those not a part of the target audience I would still very much recommend Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World-.