ReLIFE 06 – 07
Just some good, wholesome studying going on here
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I’m going to be away for a while after this post due to a dragonboat tournament, followed by a vacation. That way I can work out for 3 days straight and then eat anything I want on the trip! This means that there will be a posting lull from me, but the beauty of covering a show that has completely aired is that I can just group up episodes whenever I want. It’s impossible for a post to be late! Haha! |
The ReLIFE system has always been a curious thing, but it hasn’t really been explained very much since Arata swallowed his very first pill. I feel like this was the best approach, as it allowed us to get closer to all the characters first and genuinely care about their position in this tumultuous experiment Arata is involved in. Now that we have that solid foundation, it’s easier to care about the more nitty gritty details since we’re actually interested in knowing the fates of these characters. Although these two episodes seem like the big reveal episode, they actually don’t go into too much depth (which is fine, because this isn’t a sci-fi show). What we do get is a good ‘ol hunk of juicy backstory info about An, Yoake, the first test subject, and the kind of person Arata was even before he accepted ReLIFE.
Episode 6 shows An making advances on Arata, which puts him in a very rough spot. 1) she’s a minor and he’s like 10 years older so that has certain mental blocks there and 2) he likes Hishiro more. It’s hard to tell which one influenced his decision more, but I think Arata is just an overall nice guy who wouldn’t abuse his position as a fake highschooler to get lucky with a girl he wasn’t even interested in before. It was a pretty exciting development though, because it came out of nowhere and it also made me worry that she would find out about ReLIFE and then the experiment would be cancelled.
He’s only a lil mad
However, we find out that An is actually the same age as Arata. She works at ReLife, and is undercover just like Yoake. The two of them work as supporters who oversee experiment subjects and guide them towards a non-NEET lifestyle, but it’s not easy to rehabilitate them within a year. Yoake gets emotionally attached to his subjects, and provides too much friendly support for the liking of the higher-ups in the ReLIFE corporation. They tell him to maintain a distance, but then that doesn’t help either so subject 1 ends up as a failure and they all try and blame Yoake for being a bad supporter. Yoake doesn’t just feel bad because he did a bad job or because his bosses are mad at him, but because he failed to help someone he grew to really care about. The look of despair on his face when he bowed to subject 1 told me that Yoake really felt horrible about wasting a whole year of this person’s life. Now they have to go back to being a NEET and nothing has changed.
We saw a very different side of Yoake here. He’s always chipper when speaking to Arata, but it seems like he has anxiety over maintaining the right distance as a supporter. He very visibly changes his composure when Arata calls, putting on a false cheeriness that I never identified as fake until now. I also found it interesting that one of his past pieces of advice to Arata was that he shouldn’t coddle his classmates too much, as it does no good to clear their path of thorns. It mirrors the very problem Yoake struggles with – just how much he should clear those thorns to help his subjects progress but not become dependent. Based on how quickly Arata picked up this lesson and applied it beautifully with the Kariu and Hishiro scuffle, I wonder if in the future Arata will be offered work as a ReLIFE supporter. It would be a better-paying job than working at a convenience store, I’d bet!
Speaking of which, we also get a glimpse of pre-ReLife Arata. He’s actually not as bad as I initially thought. He’s very diligent at work, and even goes out of his way to return a wallet to Yoake. He’s sociable, responsible, and really excited about an opportunity to change. Honestly, he has a lot going for him, it’s just that he has this pesky mental scar from quitting his old job that seems to keep him from finding happiness. I guess instead of going after full-fledged NEETs who can’t even hold a conversation in real life, it’s more plausible to go after those who have the highest chance of a successful rehabilitation. Afterall, if they don’t enroll people with bad personalities who steal wallets, I think they’re purposely looking for NEETs who just need a small shove in the right direction. This makes me question the effectiveness of this super sketchy choice of therapy once again, but hey, I’ll roll with it since it makes for a fun anime.
“Here’s your wallet. Uh..don’t look inside it until you get home though…”
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think that the problems that Yoake had with supporting subject 001 are reasonable, given that it was #001. The whole thing is an experiment, and that means it’s an experiment for the ReLIFE corporation too. So here’s a guy who had to figure out not only how to conduct himself with regard to being in high school, but how to support someone who has, by definition, “failed at life”. And given that fact, how much can Yoake be blamed for not having a success right off the bat.
I did think that An’s come-on to Arata was completely believable. If she was going to proposition him, then her staying after Oga left would be completely reasonable, in fact she’d be all “YES!” If this was a shoujo manga from her assumed perspective, it would be all about how she should make her move. But even more than the “If I were a high school girl” thing that An keeps falling back on, I think that she probably does have a bit of an attraction to Arata. She likes being around him, for sure, and probably wouldn’t mind being with him. And the two of them get along great.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 26 comments
In manga, the 001 was only for the Kanto region, with ReLIFE Corp. had have already run other test subjects. This does not seem translated into anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
No, they definitely indicated that it was the branch’s first person, when Yoake was getting chewed out for it being a failure, so that came through. But still, with so much of it being personal care, it’s understandable that Yoake needs more experience with being an observer and contact person. I think the show makes it pretty clear that 001 was Yoake’s first assignment (not as clear as the manga does, nor does the show explain why Arata and An are at Aoba like the manga). And in any experiment, you’re going to have failures, especially when it’s interaction like that.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
So it was Yoake’s first time as a supporter, but other branch offices of the ReLIFE corp have had other test subjects, right?
I don’t blame Yoake for not succeeding either – it’s hard to do so on your first try, especially when higher-ups are telling you to do different things every second. But he doesn’t seem to think so. It sounds like he blames himself more than anything.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yes, that’s what the situation is. We don’t know how many other test subjects there have been, but Arata is this branch’s second one. And yes, Yoake does blame himself more than the subject, but I think you’re compressing the timeline a little much. Yoake had two phases with subject 001: First he was interacting too much, and got scolded for interfering with their ReLIFE experience, which as they’ve said to Arata is to get him to reengage himself in his own life. And after that, he backed off a lot, and kinda just let the person flounder. So that’s why they had a lot of trouble with subject 001, who shut down and didn’t engage with the others.
The manga goes into a bit more depth about the training, and I’ll summarize that in a spoiler:
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POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Yeah, An is probably fond of Arata.
I think we all knew Arata was never a hopeless NEET like those stereotypical ones that just stay home and can’t talk to people at all.
On a side note me and my friend were talking about the manga of ReLife and we both thought it was a korean manhwa or web novel due to the format.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Correction: An is fond of Arata but not completely infatuated or anything like that. Arata is a likable guy after all.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 26 comments
An is just a gigantic party girl, barely held in check by the work duties.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
An does what An wants! As long as it’s fun.
I feel like I could see An paired up with literally anyone and it wouldn’t be out of character haha
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 26 comments
Leaving the slut part aside, the girl who loves fun a bit too much is a common enough stereotype in anime, although usually it’s muddied up with sex. One of clearer examples is Setsuna of Shingu (the best, but underappreciated Tatsuo Sato anime).
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Arata is adamant that he was a Freeter, not a NEET, because he was underemployed (part-time) and looking for work, not “unemployed and not looking”.
I think the original is a web manga.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 26 comments
The original manga is published in Japanese on the web. So it has long vertical pages, suitable for scrolling on mobile devices. Latest chapter is 140.