Animehouse

It finally happened, we finally got the PV for Re:ZERO Season 3- and it looks great. My biggest complaint? We have to wait until Fall. Though, that’s definitely still a good thing since White Fox remains behind the project and is carrying 2 more cours of Sengoku Youko still. Anyways, it looks great, feels great, and fixes a lot of issues that appeared with prior seasons in terms of visuals. How?

We have new staff!

And in a lot of roles. Series director, character designer, CGI director, photography, etc etc. There’s a lot of roles that have changed over, and a lot to discuss so I’ll get straight to the point.

Series Director: Shinohara Masahiro

I think this is such an interesting replacement to Watanabe Masaharu. For one, Shinohara is a bit of a here and there staff member. The last project that they appeared on was in 2022 with In The Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki by Cloverworks. Truthfully, though Shinohara did appear as an assistant director on Is The Order a Rabbit?, their experience with White Fox as a studio is far lower than what they’ve cultivated with Cloverworks. That’s to say, I’m very surprised at their appearance on such a big project. I do get it though, as they’ve done some impressive work as episode director and storyboarder at Cloverworks and J.C. Staff. More than anything I’m just curious as to how their vision of season 3 will pan out. It’s clear that they’re attempting to hold things close to previous seasons, but it’s impossible to deny that you can feel the difference that Shinohara’s hand has provided this production.

Character Designer: Sawaga Haruka

Pulling in Call of The Night’s character designer feels like a wildcard move, but one that’s definitely indispensable to this production. Plenty of fans remember all the issues and challenges that faced Re:ZERO season 2 in terms of character models, so having a fresh face that’s proven to have great character designs, and a solid handle on animation direction is a massive bonus. I mean, the changes made to characters like Regulus are night and day, and the anime adaptation of Capella’s clothing is subtle yet incredibly valuable for making various scenes watchable. Then there’s also the closeups and facial expressions shown. A lot of the time with Call of The Night, Sawaga’s character designs were facing softer and more silly emotions, and you can feel a lot of that fluidity in the plain expressions of the characters, but they’ve done an incredible job of hardening their style to reflect the tension and grit of plenty of moments in this series. Personal favorites (in no real order) from the PV are: Wilhelm, Subaru, and Capella. Truly amazing work.

Monster Design: Chiba Keitarou

Chiba Keitarou’s a bit of a fast and loose freelancer, so there’s not too much tying them to Re:ZERO Season 3. They’ve spent some time with White Fox, though exclusively with Re:ZERO Season 2, and for only a pair of episodes. It’s unarguably their experience with Studio Bind and Mushoku Tensei as a sub-character designer that’s net them the role. Being an offshoot of White Fox, it’s not that surprising to see them make the jump between studios for the role. All the same, I’m very interested in seeing their work since they’ve taken the responsibilities away from Sawaga so that they can focus their efforts on characters only. Unfortunately, we don’t really get any shots of monsters or creatures in the PV, so there’s not much to really say about their work on the series at this point.

Director of Photography: Miyagi Mori

Much like Shinohara, Miyagi Mori has middling and incomplete experience with Re:ZERO as a series. Leading up to Re:ZERO Season 3, they’ve got a healthy amount of photography credits and plenty of experience under White Fox, but are an addition from the movie onward (only appearing in the first two episodes of the second cour of S2). Overall, the easiest example of their work is most likely in movies such as Goblin Slayer: Gobiln’s Crown, and Shirobako The Movie. They’ve got a great degree of range that I think is expressed really well in the trailer. Effects are handled very well, lighting is sharp and strong in darker scenes while more understated and not blown out in brighter scenes (love to see it!), and they express a lot of different moods very effectively with their lighting overall (and with the help of color designer Sakamoto Izumi). Lots to appreciate, and lots to look forward to for sure.

Art Direction: Kinoshita Ryouka

This one…. is a bit of an interesting credit. I think Kinoshita has done work that a lot of people will have appreciated, but I think their track record as a series art director is hard to prove. They’re most known for Ascendance of A Bookworm, but the series has very restricted settings and some odd color design and composition (at times). Their work as an individual however speaks volumes to their potential. Having done background art for series like Urusei Yatsura (2024), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and Brand New Animal, they’ve got impressive range that’s well communicated across countless styles. Though, you can also just look at the trailer and see for yourself. It does deal with quite a few close up sequences, making it hard to really judge, but I think when given the opportunity to shine, Kinoshita’s art direction is surprisingly apparent. The gondola at the beginning of the PV as well as the scene of Priscilla on the throne look very pretty, so I’m expecting some really great things out of them for this season.

CGI Direction: Tanaka Katsuhei

I was very surprised to find this credit, but all the same it’s a surprisingly valuable one as it ties the CG work of Re:ZERO Season 3 to Felix Film. As of late, their most notable work is MF Ghost, and being such a CGI heavy anime, it’s a great sign of the effort and awareness White Fox is placing in 3D work on the series. Katsuhei themselves though is a bit of a black box due to the lack of credits out there for them, so it’s hard to say how good it will be, but I’m confident that the work will remain good. Though we don’t get many shots of it in the PV, props and objects like the carriage look very good, and the integration of 3D environments in scenes like Subaru being strangled is very seamless.

Animation Producer: Katou Shinichirou

Now, this isn’t normally a role that you’d talk about, but I feel like it’s important to note that Shinichirou is a newer animation producer. That does mean that their connections may not be the greatest, but more importantly it represents a key pivot in White Fox as a studio as they put more focus on fresher talent. While not the greatest example, Katou is the animation producer for Sengoku Youko, for example. It certainly has its moments, though it’s also somewhat limited. The answer for that though is most certainly thanks to Katou pushing resources towards Re:ZERO Season 3 however. Some of the animation on display, specifically with combat and magic, looks really really good. So, I wouldn’t worry much about it. Rather, I’d say it’s a more hopeful situation as White Fox passes work towards its younger and greener staff members.

And that’s all the changes we know of (so far). All the other roles have remained the same with staff like color designer Sakamoto Izumi remaining. All in all, it’s a really great trailer that’s full of content, surprises, and exciting moments. I’d try to break it down, but Jaereku on Twitter will have already covered everything I’d possibly think of ten times over, so just go read their stuff if you’re curious about that. For now, Re:ZERO Season 3 is looking very promising with that Fall 2024 release date.