Koharu's eyes brimmed with tears.
Ever since the second season began, Re:Zero had done nothing but torture its audience. Week after week, it had twisted the knife deeper, never giving anyone a moment to breathe. And yet now, as the newest background track began to play, it finally felt as though all that suffering was about to be rewarded.
You old devil, Sora... so you finally decided to give us something sweet.
Subaru had broken his promise to stay with Emilia until dawn.
But he had not done it carelessly. He had done it to save Rem, to save Beatrice, to save Roswaal, and to save Emilia too. Because of that, he could not afford to spend that one precious night doing nothing but staying by her side.
And in the end, on the very night Puck disappeared, he had left her alone to face the Sanctuary trial.
That was the root of their argument now.
Her memories had begun to return. She sank to her knees, wearing the saddest expression Koharu had seen in the entire season.
What Emilia feared was not simply the trial itself, but what would come after it. She was terrified that once the memories sealed away from a hundred years ago fully resurfaced, she would become someone else entirely. That she would forget Puck, forget Roswaal, forget Ram...
And even forget the boy standing in front of her now, the one who had stayed by her side all this time and thrown everything on the line for her - Subaru.
That was why, in the end, she had asked him for only one thing.
To remain there with her.
To stay by her side for one night.
And Subaru had broken that promise.
Even so, for a brief moment, a stray thought flashed through Koharu's mind.
Outside the trial grounds, Otto was still risking his life to stall Garfiel... and meanwhile the protagonist was over here fumbling around with romance?
...No.
Hang in there, Otto. I believe in you.
Koharu shook off the distraction and fixed her eyes on the screen again.
"Am I... really the real me right now?" Emilia asked, tears gathering in her eyes. "I've already forgotten so many things from my past... I even forgot my own mother. And even so, you still think I'm not wrong?"
"I love you. Forever."
"I don't believe you." Emilia broke down, her voice trembling. "If my memories come back, and the me that exists now really disappears... would you still be able to say that?"
"Then I'll make you believe."
Subaru lowered himself onto one knee.
In his eyes, there was nothing but her reflection.
"If you don't want this... then move away."
Since the third grade, when she first started watching anime, Koharu had never seen a scene sweeter than that one.
It might well have been the bravest moment Subaru had ever had in the entire story.
He cupped Emilia's face in both hands and kissed her.
Her cheeks, flushed red and damp with tears, looked almost exactly like Koharu's felt at that moment - burning hot, one hand covering her mouth as if even she could not bear the force of what she was seeing.
A warm ache spread through her chest.
This was it.
This was the kind of love only a 2D story could portray so perfectly.
Only someone who had witnessed Subaru's countless Return by Deaths - his pain, his humiliation, his despair - could truly understand the weight behind those words:
I'll make you believe.
If, in the first season, Rem had occupied a place in Koharu's heart far above Emilia, then at this moment the two of them stood side by side. The Emilia of this arc had become every bit as lovable as Rem.
And in episode fifteen, the greatest obstacle of the Sanctuary arc was finally shattered by the protagonist himself.
If Emilia had been unable to overcome the trial, it was because her heart lacked a sense of security. Because she feared loneliness. Because she feared betrayal. Because she was terrified that once her old memories returned and she became someone else, Subaru would reject her and grow to hate her.
So Subaru chose to become the light inside her heart.
He chose to hold her up with his own unwavering presence, and to lay down a path for her with a promise that would never be broken.
That night, after fifteen straight weeks of suffering since the second season had begun, anime fans finally got to celebrate as if it were New Year's.
On NatsuYume, even the silent lurkers came pouring out all at once.
"Emilia stocks just hit limit-up again."
"Subaru is a god."
"I'm being honest, I never thought Subaru would be this bold. He actually went for it."
"Kantoku Sora really pulled it off. He broke the curse of isekai protagonists being dense pieces of wood. The male lead confessed on his own. I've watched so many shows in this genre, and this is the first time I've seen it done like this."
"And the best part is, it didn't feel awkward at all. Most anime where the protagonist confesses just make me think he's pathetic. But Subaru? No way. That guy's a real man."
"I already thought Subaru was incredible in the Pride route, but I didn't expect him to be this amazing in the main story too."
"This episode was so sweet it killed me. Is Kantoku Sora dating someone lately or what? How does anyone make something this sweet?"
"When does 5 Centimeters Per Second come out again? Seriously, after seeing how Kantoku Sora handles romance with these female characters in Re:Zero, I can already picture myself dying in the theater when that movie releases. I'm so hyped."
"July 18, right? I'm in my final year of high school, and by then it'll be exactly one month after entrance exams. Heh... I'm absolutely going to support Kantoku Sora. The man really knows what he's doing."
"Stories where happiness only comes after endless suffering are my favorite."
"This episode filled me with strength."
"All hail Kantoku Sora."
"Sora is insane."
"And Kantoku Sumire is amazing too."
"Subaru is a real man."
"I support Subaru x Emilia."
"Please let Rem wake up next episode."
That was how quickly anime fans changed their tune.
Just one week ago, the internet had been full of people cursing Sora, saying he was heartless, that he only knew how to torture the audience for the sake of suffering.
A single episode later, and suddenly he was a god-tier screenwriter, a genius Kantoku, a master of emotional payoff.
Even before that, Re:Zero had already been in a league of its own within Japan's television anime scene.
But after this episode, its ratings climbed even higher.
They reached 5.88.
When that number was released, it was not only the anime media that was stunned. Even inside Yume Animation, among staff members who had followed the project from the very start, an idea emerged that none of them had even dared entertain before.
Could this anime... really break 6.0 before it ends?
Of course, Subaru's confession to Emilia was one of the series' major peaks. In the weeks that followed, Re:Zero's ratings dipped again and settled back into the 5.7 range.
In episode sixteen, the protagonist resolved Garfiel's emotional knot through sheer persistence, the right words, and a carefully laid plan, eventually overpowering him through tactics and numbers.
Then, in episodes seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen, Emilia finally confronted the trial head-on and faced the sealed memories of her past century.
At this point, the second season had already pushed the Sanctuary arc to its final stage.
From here onward, Subaru would not die again.
And all the way to the end, he would keep performing like a god.
As Re:Zero continued moving forward, time slipped into May.
Only two months remained before the theatrical release of 5 Centimeters Per Second.
At the request of the film's distributor, Noriko Animation, Sora also began promotional activities for the movie.
Of course, it was not yet time for city tours and full-scale theater events. For now, it was mostly about shooting trailers, promotional videos, and a few marketing materials that, in Sora's opinion, were less about explaining the film and more about deliberately stirring curiosity.
On May 12, Sora's NatsuYume account uploaded two videos.
One was a behind-the-scenes interview.
The other was the teaser trailer for 5 Centimeters Per Second.
In the interview video, Sora appeared with his usual gentle expression as he introduced the kind of story 5 Centimeters Per Second was meant to be.
The first visual showed the sloped road where the male lead, Yano, and the heroine, Minori, first appeared - railway tracks cutting through the middle, the narrow road stretching along both sides, and cherry blossoms lining the path.
Because Sora had personally arranged for cherry trees to be transplanted to the real-life reference location, the comparison between the live-action scenery and the animated version was astonishingly close.
With the benefit of post-production touch-ups, cherry petals drifted through the air beneath a brilliantly blue sky. A girl holding an umbrella and a boy still wrapped in youthful innocence stood on opposite sides of the tracks, promising to watch the blossoms together again the following year.
Then Sora's voice played over the scene, calm and warm.
"This is a story about time, distance... and the effect both can have on the love between two people who love each other."
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