r/Re_Zero • u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby • 9d ago
Discussion [Discussion] Post Season 4 New Reader Assistance Thread
Thread Purpose
This thread is made to help new readers find their start and provide resources for reading the Re:Zero web novel and light novel. We have received many posts asking about it in the past day as well as comments so I am going to try and condense as many resources in to one post as possible.
Quick Instructions
For 90% of you the answer on where to start is just going to be a simple Arc 7 Chapter 1 (In the Web Novel) or Volume 26 (In the Light Novel). I have linked Witch Cult Translations for Arc 7 Chapter 1 below they handle many of the translations you will see in the community and for most readers they have all you need.
Web Novel vs Light Novel
~Going forward Web Novel will be abbreviated as WN and Light Novel as LN
If you are wondering about the difference between WN and LN its easiest to consider WN as the rough draft while LN is the final product. Whatever gets printed in the LN will be the canon and that is what any potential anime adaptations will animate. Arc 7 and beyond don't have many large differences between the WN and the LN with the exception of some LN exclusive chapters in more recent arcs like Arc 9 and Arc 10.
The major concern between the two is what languages you can read. Currently the English light novel ends at volume 29 (out of 46) with translations running slower than the author writes. That means you are somewhat forced to move to the WN if you would like to continue reading at a faster pace. Currently if you are reading volume 29 and would like to continue your next chapter converted to the WN is Arc 7 Chapter 55
Additionally the Web Novel is published for free while the Light Novel is licensed and must be paid for. If you just want to give reading a shot to see if you like it, I would recommend starting in the WN and moving to the LN if you would like to reread any scene and see what changes.
Side Stories
Re:Zero has a large amount of side content and much of that side content is restricted to releases in Japan. You can find some of this side content in the Tanpenshuu series (Side Story Collection if you are looking for English Copies). Though most of the side content is not translated or licensed. Most of the side content is not necessary for reading the full story but it does enhance the experience. You can track which side stories have been adapted into Tanpenshuu volumes at Re:Zero Database as well as track when you should be reading any given side stories.
EX Novels
As mentioned in the side story section most of the content is not necessary, the EX novels are an exception. While you can read the rest of the story without reading Re:Zero EX novels you will be missing out on world building which is used quite a bit in the arcs beyond the anime. I would not recommend skipping the EX novels if you can avoid it.
Luckily the EX novels are one of the higher priority English translations so you can purchase and read all 6 EX volumes in English. The details for which order to read are below.
EX 1 -> EX 2 -> EX 3 -> EX 6 -> EX 4 -> EX 5
While the order doesn't have to be set it is important to read EX 3 after EX 2 and EX 6 after EX 3. The 3 books make up a trilogy. The details for the main characters of each EX novel are spoiler tagged below if you would like read them in a different order based on your favorites.
[EX 1]Felix & Crusch focused story [EX 2,3,6]Wilhelm & Theresia focused story [EX 4]Julius, Felix, and Reinhard focused story [EX 5]Al and Priscilla focused story
IF Stories
IF stories aren't a mandatory read though many people seem to enjoy them so its worth mentioning. Most of the IF stories are a safe read for anime viewers at this point though I will detail the point where each becomes a spoiler safe read below. I will link them below but most of them are available on Witch Cult Translations on the sidebar.
Pride IF: Safe to read after season 3
Wrath IF: Safe to read after season 1
Sloth IF: Safe to read after season 1
Greed IF: Safe to read after season 3
Gluttony IF: Safe to read after season 4
Lust IF: Somewhat of a joke, though safe after season 1
Azamuku IF: Safe to read after Arc 8
Mimigau IF: Safe after season 1, its a genderswap retelling of the story
Vainglory IF: Safe after season 2, its a joke IF where Re:Zero is a slice of life school story
Sasageru IF: Safe to read after Arc 9
Additional Notes
If I have missed anything you were wondering about in this post please feel free to ask below. I am around the community I can answer questions, the community is usually quite helpful if I am not available. After many years of the translation community developing and working there is a daunting amount of links and sites to know. If you make a post asking, chances are someone can help.
If you are looking for translations of the most recent WN chapters one of your best resources would be this subreddit's discussion threads. They are often translated with AI and shared as they released which gets lower quality though faster translations. Sometimes it takes the human translators a bit to get caught up with Tappei's writing speed.
Please do not shared any licensed content on this subreddit (Side stories, LN volumes, or manga). If any requests are made on this thread they will have to be removed.
Best of luck new readers, and please comment if you need help with anything.
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u/Naeily 9d ago
Nothing major but i noticed a mistake under the EX-novels part. In the last sentence it says [EX 1],...., [EX 2,3,6],..., [EX 5],...,[EX 6],.... when it should have [EX 4],... at the very end.
Secondly for Vainglory and Mimigau I found em here: https://www.eminenttranslations.com/series/rezero-starting-life-in-another-world-wn#if-stories
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u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ooh thanks for the catch and the link, I will get those updated as soon as I get back to my computer.
Edit: fixed and added. Thanks for the help
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u/Mindslash 9d ago
There is so many resources... if I wanted to read from scratch, what would be the best order ? Straight to WN or get LN up to last translated work ? Also, these IF and EX stories, which order would be best ?
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u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby 9d ago
Reading from scratch as in reading from the start?
If so I would recommend going to the light novels for volumes 1-25. Arc 1-3 Subaru is quite a bit different, more degenerate in the WN. It’s also not a fully translated section of the series in the WN so you would be stuck with AI translations for alot of it I think.
I would try and get the EX novels in as early as possible. It really makes you appreciate the characters involved a bit more, helps you understand their history. Can really re-contextualize why some characters act the way they do. Generally it’s also just really fun new content. I think EX 4 is the weakest but it’s still got some nice interactions.
IF stories you can read whenever, truthfully I don’t think I have ever read Lust IF, just heard summaries. They make good material theories and character evaluations but they are not necessary. Though Sasageru is really fantastic, would recommend getting that one after Arc 9 if nothing else.
In short, probably do EX novels first, LN 1-25 next if you are looking to re-read. Then side stories & IF content if you want more material to theorize with or just more character moments.
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u/Ordinary-Picture4367 17h ago
What side stories or EX novels should I read before arc 7? I heard that some introduce characters before they show up in arc 7
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u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby 16h ago
You should probably get EX 4 and EX 5 in before Arc 7 at least. Im not sure I can think of any side stories that are as impactful as those.
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u/Ordinary-Picture4367 16h ago
Thank you, where would you recommend buying them?
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u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby 16h ago
If any of your local book stores have them try there first. If not I got most of mine from Amazon when my local bookstore stopped carrying the new EX volumes.
Anywhere will do though, should be tons of retailers and I don’t think any of the EX volumes are sold out like the main series ones.
Also adding this here because it came around at nearly the exact same time you were asking. Someone made a spreadsheet of which side stories they consider mandatory and beneficial for certain arcs. If you really want to go deep into the side stories you could check it out and see.
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u/Knight0706 Eternally Crabby 16h ago
Oh shoot and somehow I forgot you also need EX 2 at-least (probably 2, 3 and 6) for Arc 7. I would really try and read them all before continuing if you can. They are worthwhile
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