Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Frozen Bond

A story of the time Emilia spent with Puck in her home village. Overall 7/10: The backstory of Emilia has been very enlightening. Although we did not get the full story of Melakuera as I've heard from the LN readers, I think his current presentation is pretty solid even if we aren't informed of how he became what he is now. However, there were some pacing issues and overall I enjoyed this less than the Memory Snow OVA. If you're an EMT fan, I would still recommend to give this a watch! Story 8/10: I liked how the story is conveyed by Emilia's repeated actions. It shows her dailylife in the village and as if everything she does is normal. The story jumps back and forth in time as we are shown flashbacks to Emilia's past and her dormant powers, which was hinted in the anime as well. The pacing has some issues though - overall I think they fit too much content in 80 min. Some parts went far longer than it should have, and some were over in an instant. Art 9/10: I like the details of the flame animations and how Puck's ability was portrayed/animated. The spirits were also nicely animated - they are shown to be sentient and react to the people around them. The detail of how the ice became blood red by draining the blood out of the living creature sent shivers down my spine - it was so beautiful yet horrific. Sound 9/10: I didn't feel like any sound was out of place, so overall it must have been great. Character 8/10: We're introduced to the people of the village and how they shun Emilia because she's an elf of the forest, at the start of the movie. Even with the hood that hides her identity, they could tell that she's an elf. I liked how the general store manager was portrayed - a caring old man but yet very human (as he is), acting in self-interest and also fearing the Witch. The Melakuera also makes his appearance, and although his backstory was not shown, we get that he is an ally of justice or at least a counterforce against evil. I liked how he spoke in ancient Japanese, which goes to show that he is pretty old. Enjoyment 7/10: Remember I said I liked Emilia's repeated actions? But I certainly did not enjoy the repeated fights that were basically two monsters blasting powers at each other. It reminds me a lot of Dragon Ball or Digimon. No strategy involved, just pure bruteforce and the power of will/friendship. There was no fun in most of the fights, though we do get character development during then. I think the main problem is the lack of hype and tension building. One thing I enjoyed - and I'm sure everyone else did - was when Puck let his guard down when he accidentally hurt Emilia's feelings. Watch it to find out how it went! Also, I liked the text that flashed between scenes that shows Puck's and Emilia's internal monologue. Though we only had like 2 seconds to read 50 Japanese characters, it was sufficient to grasp the keywords of each message.

In this ova you will start to know the Emilia-character more and this will enlight in a lot of Emilia behavior shown in the season 1 of re zero. However if you are an Emilia Fan, a Rem fan, or yes a Felix fan, You should watch this ova because it will enlight the past that one of the main characters (Emilia) passed trought. It will fill you with a lot of emotions from cute moments to extremely sadness moments. the fights are also pretty enjoyable but obviously not like a fight genre anime. The sound in my opinion are one of the best partsof this masterpiece because they are always in good time with the moment and the environment. And the ending is something heartbreaking. You should watch also the trailer that is well done. I hope i helped you

Like another review mentioned, this is 40-50 minutes longer than it should be. They tried to turn a short OVA into a movie. Even if properly edited and paced, very little is actually revealed or actually transpires. You learn that Puck is protecting Emilia from a fire spirit and the two form a contract to fight it, win against this self-proclaimed arbiter, and then profess their love for each other and intentions to leave the forest. There is very little substance otherwise. The dialogue is repetitive, vague, meandering, and abstract. There is very little revelation about Emilia's past, how she actually met Puck, or whyhe is infatuated with her. It's really only a retelling of that single point in time where they fight the fire spirit and not much else. The animation and sound are fine, no different than the anime, meaning it's far from movie quality. There are some cool icicle spell effects and fire beams juxtaposed with terrible two frame gifs of swirling fire or breaking ice. Half the stills of Puck's beast form look lazily drawn and rather deformed. The pseudo-movie in general felt very slow and underwhelming and would have been better incorporated into the anime as a flashback.

Review in brief: The Frozen Bond struggles and ultimately fails to be anything more than unnecessary padding between two seasons of Re:Zero. Stretched out beyond any reasonable purpose and full of incomplete story elements, it does a better job of highlighting the problems some people have with Re:Zero than the enjoyable aspects that others would have surely hoped for here. Review in full: As a small part of a large story, Re:Zero was bound to leave a lot of questions open after its first season. This was something which ended up being a considerable problem for many viewers who would rather not wait multiple cours tosee certain major characters fleshed out or important lore expanded upon, much less wait multiple years for a new animated season. Perhaps this led to undue expectations being placed upon The Frozen Bond, a prequel project which appeared to promise some backstory and answers surrounding two of Re:Zero’s more ambiguous characters. However, when it doesn’t appear to serve much more purpose than either that or padding between seasons, it becomes challenging to justify it as anything other than a hollow holdover. Framed as an inner reflection Emilia has after the events of Memory Snow, The Frozen Bond centers around the relationship between herself and her guardian spirit Puck, and how it came to be that way for Emilia. One wouldn’t be blamed for thinking this would go on to expand Emilia’s character, yet it doesn’t so much as attempt to. The Frozen Bond is unquestionably about Emilia, and yet refuses to answer any real questions about her, and the main series had left many by this point. Despite spending a lot of time beating around the bush on the circumstances surrounding Emilia’s isolation in the Elior Forest, none of it offers any new perspective on who exactly Emilia is. This orbiting issue wouldn’t be so disappointing if it wasn’t the event the entire story revolves around and continually brings up to offer as an explanation for most of the story’s other events. By displaying so little character when given the spotlight for so long, Emilia only ends up appearing shallower. The only other character to speak of is Puck, who does end up getting fleshed out over the course of this largely Emilia-centric story. The mystery surrounding him works much better not just because there’s some answers provided as payoff to the inevitable questions, but because of how much more dynamic Puck ends up being than anything else The Frozen Bond offers. His wit appears to be backed by experience, his motivations pondered over, and his side of the relationship with Emilia (unlike Emilia’s side which can be chalked up to pure circumstance) organically developed. Sadly, his role in all of this is treated as a secondary concern, often getting brushed aside and inevitably left much less complete than it could have been. Instead, The Frozen Bond devotes much of the time it isn’t vaguely and fruitlessly hinting at Emilia’s backstory on attempting to make the antagonists look like actual characters. Chap is a one-dimensional thug whose ill-defined drive of “revenge” fails to justify why anger is his sole trait. Meanwhile, Melakuera is just a spirit automaton, yet there is an ample yet pointless attempt at making it seem to be more than that. It follows reasoning that falls apart with just a handful of questions and rules that Puck quickly dismantles the validity of (and yet it still follows them). Perhaps Melakuera exists to point to the unfairness of Emilia’s situation, but Chap already bumbled his way into proving that, as shallow as he is, long before Melakuera even became relevant. The whole product suffers the effects of being stretched out much further than it had any right to be. The full extent of Emilia’s backstory that was covered could have been the side plot of a regular anime episode, yet it encompasses the majority of this feature-length entry. Chap & Melakuera’s situations add nothing substantial to the story as a whole either, and while more time could have been spent on Puck, that’s ultimately a separate story from the one being told here. Even the production quality takes a hit, with soundwork that (unusually for Re:Zero) struggles to even have one decent, memorable aspect, and visuals that slowly degrade from pretty, fluid, & clear to rough slideshows that can’t even bother to show (what would have been) the climatic final action scene. Why build up to it in the first place if the result is obvious and the production is too burnt out to do it justice anyhow? Unfortunately, it would only be fair to ask that of nearly every other element of The Frozen Bond, as none of it justifies itself any better. Verdict: Presented with an opportunity to address some of the fundamental problems of Re:Zero, Frozen Bond instead deepens them. Stretching this half-baked backstory to twice the length needed to tell it only serves to make its pointlessness more apparent, especially at the point of the main story it suggests itself to be relevant. Viewers who would level similar complaints towards season 1 are bound to be disappointed, and all but the most devoted of fans are unlikely to be amazed as well.