Many of us Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World fans have been lamenting the fact that rather than directing a full second season of the anime, director Masaharu Watanabe has moved on to new series Granbelm, ironically enough, alongside Re:Zero illustrator Shinichiro Otsuka. I had almost forgotten of the existence of this second OVA production scheduled for the series until this news broke, even after the excellent side-story Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Memory Snow having released during the latter half of last year. (As that special episode has yet to be officially released outside of Japan at the time of this writing, be sure to check out my impressions here!)
So finally, let’s all take comfort in the fact that more content is yet to come, and it may even hint at an eventual long-form continuation!
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Hyouketsu no Kizuna (that subtitle being translated as either “Bond of Ice” or “Frozen Bonds”) will be releasing in Japan this Autumn season. As can be gleaned from the official key image above and official news release, the OVA will cover the story of the prequel novel Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Zenjitsu-tan: Hyoketsu no Kizuna — a pack-in bonus with the release of the first volume of the Blu-ray discs in Japan. It serves as a prequel and tells the story of how Emilia first met her mysterious cat-like familiar Puck well before the events of the core novels and the anime.
And now for a bit of speculation — given that the folks involved with production of the anime are going through the effort of giving us this important bit of plot in animated form, I’m lead to believe that there is an intent to return with a second season, perhaps having us wait until 2020 until that announcement is made. The series doesn’t seem to be going anywhere in terms of popularity, and every time I stroll through my local anime goods shops, Re:Zero‘s selection of merch is much larger than your average 2+-year-old series.
I’d like to leave you with notice of one interesting shakeup in staffing in a project where most are reprising their roles — the chief director is now listed as Kenichi Kawamura of Steins;Gate 0 fame. He lent his storyboarding talents briefly to the original series, but now he’s come back to take the helm on this OVA. Makes sense, since Masaharu Watanabe is probably a fair bit busy with Granbelm.