There is still a lot we don’t know about Emilia.

So firstly I wasn’t intending to write anything more Re:Zero related until the second season hit. Due to the current global crisis I am uncertain when the new season will come out, but hopefully that will be this summer. We were blessed to get an OVA while we waited for that new season. This OVA did what I expected it to, give us more information about Emilia’s history without answering the question I have posed previously: Is Emilia the jealous witch Satella?

There are more and more indications that this is the case. The final battle sequence is about this very fact, that Emilia is called the half-demon. She is corrupt and she must be purged from this world. Of course Emilia and Puck rebut this in the final battle of the OVA and for good reason. Puck firmly believes that Emilia should have a chance at happiness in this world.

The identity of Emilia was certainly the main subject of this OVA. The confirmation of Emilia as the jealous witch is one that society and spirits imposes on her. We even get a moment where Emilia uses that fear to say that she is the jealous witch. The problem though is that Emilia has lost her memories and lives in a forest all alone. There is no family or friends that she has to call her own. Daily life for Emilia entails living alone and tending to ice sculptures that presumably are other elves that have been frozen solid.

From the clues that we were given, because Emilia actually doesn’t talk about anything very much, we assume there is a reason why all the other elves are frozen solid. Emilia can’t recall the reasons. We do get flashbacks that at some point the frozen forest used to be a sunny and habitable place. Now the frozen forest is a frozen wasteland with few inhabitants. Emilia alone has woken from her frozen slumber first. The reason being is that it is assumed that Emilia is half-elf and half-demon. The half-demon is a new piece of information we got in the puzzle of who Emilia really is.

For Emilia conflict seems unavoidable as both humankind and spirit-kind seem set out to destroy her. She looks just like the jealous witch in the description of the stories. It is a crime for other humans to actively give her aid. Demi-humans lost the war and therefore are treated as second class citizens without rights. The spirits seem set on her destruction as well, viewing her as corrupt evil. Melaquera, the great fire spirit, refuses to listen to Puck or give Emilia a chance to prove her innocence in the matter. As far as the fire spirit is concerned he is going to eliminate Emilia from this world by any means necessary.

Emilia’s only friend is Puck. Puck considers himself to be Emilia’s father because Emilia refers to him as such when she awakens from her slumber. Puck defends Emilia against her enemies and is referred to at some points as the Beast of the End. The OVA only hints at and claims that there is certainly more than meets the eye regarding both Emilia and Puck.

While the OVA doesn’t clearly outline what Emilia and Puck are, the hints are clearly there and given for the viewer to find. Does this OVA definitively prove that Emilia is the jealous witch? No it does not. What the OVA does is give us more context and clues about the world of Re:Zero. We know now that demi-humans lost the war and are subject to human discrimination. We know that Emilia looks just like the jealous witch and is possibly half-demon-half-elf. We discover how Emilia and Puck came into a contract.  And as a cool side bonus we get to see Emilia ice-boarding around the frozen forest.

While the OVA doesn’t exactly tell us what is going on, it does meet my expectation for how the OVA would be. There were no real surprises for me, but it made for good entertainment and a good show. For those in the camp of Emilia is the best girl, it’s certainly a treat to learn more about her. I didn’t get answers that I was looking for, but I also didn’t expect the OVA to give them up either. If anything the OVA only makes the water murkier, we still haven’t arrived at the truth.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts? I want to know!

Is there anything you would like me to cover? Do you want to know my thoughts on anything? Have something I should know? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, comment below!