ReLife Anime Review

This 13 episode anime was not even on my radar at all. I literally read the synopsis on MAL and decided to pick it up and see what it was about. To my surprise it was a nice coming of age story mixed with some reflection of ones past and willingness to change yourself for the better.

-(plot outline)
Arata, our main character, is a 27 year old protagonist who seems to be failing at life. After a trauma at his old job and quitting just 3 months after starting he finds himself working at a convenience store part time and lying to his friends about his job when they go out. Hes single and more or less a NEET or shut-in. Ryo has scouted him to take part in a 1 year experiment called ReLife... where he takes a drug that makes his appearance 10 years younger and he will attend 3rd year in high school as part of the experiment. How he enjoys and interacts with the world around him is up to him. If he completes it successfully... There is a job at a real company waiting for him after the year is over. Faced with his other bleak options... he agrees to the experiment and is off to his ReLife.

-Animation was fine... No over the top animations, no ridiculous transitions. Everything was pretty smooth and the quality was the same throughout the series.
-Character Development was good. I think they gave enough to make you invest in the well being of the surrounding cast. Some weren't as fleshed out as they could be like the 2 childhood friends of Honoka the Volleyball team ace. They were merely introduced as her childhood friends with no real story of where they came from but they were minor so it didn't affect the story.
-Story was good although I think this type of story has definitely been done before kind of like 'Erased'. They had similar plots about changing the past but went about it in different ways. Even 'My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU' had similar principles in trying to change oneself. Both of those related works were very good IMO and well worth the watch. Also, there was small bits of comedy sprinkled in for a change of pace. In offsetting the drama it did its job well and this show is very well rounded... just don't expect a lot of high action sequences because there are none.

(Arata and Chizuru)

I rarely use the number scale for rating things but if I had to do it... I'd have to give this anime probably 7 out of 10.

Please have a look, if you enjoy drama and some coming of age awkwardness then you'll love this show.