Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 11: Wrath Against the Songstress

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Re:Zero, Season 3, Episode 11, “Liliana Masquerade”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

As the post-credits scene of the previous Re:Zero episode implied, this episode switches focus from the fight against Greed to the fight against Wrath. Priscilla and Liliana take center stage as they try to defeat Sirius, the Archbishop of Wrath while trying to rescue the civilians under her control.

This episode is a massive change in pace, because although part of the focus is on the fight in the Watergate City of Priestella, another large part is on Liliana’s backstory. The animation was a little shaky in some parts, but overall, the episode is serviceable.

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Liliana’s Past

The Songstress’ Journey

A huge portion of the episode is dedicated to learning about Liliana Masquerade’s past. The songstress was born to a pair of traveling bards who cared little for her. Her mother specifically kept on discouraging her attempts at practicing music, and her father tried to squash her dreams of making it big in the city. Eventually, she got fed up and left to make a name for herself on her own.

Of course, she had a rough time at first. Since her mother did little to teach her music, it took a while for her talent to blossom into the songstress she is today. At one point, she even saw her parents, who already had a new child, as if to replace her. This led to Liliana spiraling deep into depression, but once she hit rock bottom, she found her way out and realized that the morning always comes.

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Beating Wrath

Discovering More of Priscilla’s Personality and Powers

The fight with Sirius herself is fairly straightforward enough. Priscilla seemed to be more powerful than Sirius, and the only reason she couldn’t end it sooner was because she was more focused on defending Liliana. She also needed Liliana to free the citizens before killing Sirius, as the Archbishop’s power caused any damage she felt to be shared with those under her control.

What was interesting about the fight was that it gave viewers some more insight into Priscilla and her powers. While she may be a beast when it comes to offensive power, some people might mistakenly believe that she’s lacking in the defensive department. This episode reveals that Priscilla has some decent defenses to guard her. She gets hit with what should be fatal attacks by Sirius multiple times, but instead of being wounded or dying, only a piece of her jewelry breaks. Apparently, Priscilla can imbue items she loves with a special power that will have those items take damage instead of her. This ability is in line with another of her powers shown in the previous episode, where she can imbue the people she loves with her own powers.

Priscilla also displayed her ability to produce white-hot flames that will only burn what she chooses. Similarly, her sword, the Yang Sword, will only cut what she wants it to cut, which allowed her to cut through Sirius while keeping her hostage perfectly safe.

Another interesting fact that Priscilla revealed is that she’s had eight husbands. She didn’t expound on the fact any more than that, but it feels like something important and will come into play in the future of Re:Zero. Viewers also get a glimpse of Priscilla’s philosophy. She might not be the person you’d think of when it comes to love, but she fights Sirius’ ideology of love with her own. Sirius believes people who love each other become one and should share all their beliefs, pain, and thoughts. Priscilla, on the other hand, believes that to love is to accept the differences between yourself and others. You don’t have to share their beliefs; loving someone is about knowing that you two are different and staying with them regardless.

Differences with the Web Novels

Cut Content from the Anime

This episode wasn’t necessarily bad on its own, but it cut out a lot from the Re:Zero web novels, some of which are arguably pretty important. For example, a large part of Liliana’s motivation was poorly communicated in the anime. In the web and light novels, Liliana adored the heroes in her songs and desperately wanted to meet them. However, she came to realize that the heroes in her songs aren’t her friends. Despite her loving them, it was always going to be one-sided.

In the anime, Liliana is shown to be depressed and calling herself a fraud because she only “stole” stories instead of making her own. Without the context of her seeking out her heroes, that scene just felt like she had massive impostor syndrome for no apparent reason other than people maybe not liking her songs.

Aside from Liliana’s backstory, other lesser concepts were removed, such as Sirius being implied to have the power to slow down time and parts of the battle being simplified.

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Re:Zero Season 3 is now available to stream on Crunchyroll, Muse Asia, MeWatch, and several other streaming services. The release date for Re:Zero season 3, episode 11, is set to be February 19, 2025, at 7:30 AM PT.

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-

Release Date

April 3, 2016

Network

TV Tokyo, AT-X

Directors

Hiroyuki Tsuchiya, Kazuomi Koga, Yoshito Mikamo, Masaharu Watanabe, Yoshinobu Tokumoto, Masahiro Shinohara, Hideyo Yamamoto, Manabu Okamoto, Takashi Sakuma, Daisuke Takashima, Naoko Takeichi

Writers

Yoshiko Nakamura

Cast

• 

  Yûsuke Kobayashi

  Subaru Natsuki (voice)

• 

  Rie Takahashi

  Emilia (voice)