Gorgeous Animation for the Gorgeous Tiger

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Re:Zero, Season 3, Episode 13, “The Warrior’s Commendation”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Two Sin Archbishops down, two more to go before Subaru’s side can claim victory in Re:Zero‘s battle for the Watergate City of Priestella. The previous episode saw the defeat of the Sin Archbishop of Greed, Regulus, at the hands of Subaru, Emilia, and Reinhard. This time, in Re:Zero season 3, episode 13, “The Warrior’s Commendation”, the main focus isn’t on a fight against one of the Sin Archbishops. Instead, it’s between Garfiel Tinsel and the resurrected eight-armed warrior Kurgan. Additionally, this episode gives viewers a glimpse of what’s happening with the other ongoing fights.

Re:Zero really gave the anime fans a shock for this one, because it just dropped what is possibly the most gorgeously animated fight in the entire anime. Before this episode, Garfiel and Kurgan’s fight might have been the one with the least amount of hype. The fight doesn’t directly involve a Sin Archibishop, and it was overshadowed a little by Wilhelm’s fight, which started at the same place and time. Now though, the dazzling animation and Garfiel breaking through his crippling fears have solidified this as one of, if not the best, fight in the Re:Zero anime so far.

The quality of the animation is thanks to Vincent Chansard, who pitched in to help animate this episode of Re:Zero. Vincent is most widely known for animating the critically acclaimed Sukuna vs. Mahoraga fight in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2. Other than that fight though, he’s also animated sequences in other stunning anime like One Piece, Mob Psycho 100, and even the video game Persona 3 Reload.

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Following Up on the Other Fights

Lye vs. Felt and Otto’s Group

The last time Felt and Otto’s group was shown, Otto summoned a bunch of Water Dragons to attack one of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony, Lye Batenkaitos. In this episode, while Lye had his hands full with the dragons, the group discussed their plan.

Apparently, before they got intercepted by Lye, Felt’s group was headed back to the inn to retrieve a powerful metia, which, according to Old Man Rom, was powerful enough to damage someone like Reinhard. So, they decided to have Felt rush to the inn, obtain the metia, and return to use it on Lye. Meanwhile, Otto and the rest of the group would keep Lye busy, as he had already beaten the Water Dragons.

Capella vs. Al

The next battle is between the Sin Archbishop of Lust, Capella Emerada Lugunica, and Priscilla’s knight, Aldebaran. As usual, Capella used her shape-shifting to disorient her foe, but the technique didn’t really have much of an effect on Al. Even while in the shape of Priscilla, Al cuts her head off and blows up her body. Unfortunately, Capella simply regenerated, and the battle continues.

Wilhelm van Astrea vs Theresia van Astrea

Though absent in the main bulk of the episode, a glimpse of Wilhelm and Tehesia’s clash was shown in the post-credits scene. Wilhelm had sustained an injury near his right hip but was still standing strong. Depressingly, he told his dead wife that he would send her back to the afterlife and that he hoped to see her there eventually. You’d think that this means their fight will be the focus of the next episode, but that’s not necessarily the case since the post-credits scene of the previous episode was also this fight.

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Episode 13’s Main Fight

Garfiel the Gorgeous Tiger Takes Center Stage

The star of this episode is Garfiel Tinsel, the tiger-human hybrid. The episode starts with Garfiel in his tiger form, all beaten up and bloody. Kurgan isn’t the only opponent he has to worry about, as the Demi-Beasts Capella created are also attacking him, and worse, he can’t bring himself to hurt them. Ever since the end of Re:Zero season 2, Garfiel has been undergoing an internal battle. He was being haunted by Elsa, the Bowel Hunter, who he defeated and killed back in Roswaal Manor. It was the first time he had ever killed someone, and that traumatized him, leading to him now often hallucinating Elsa mocking him, especially in fights, calling him weak and incapable of protecting others.

The Demi-Beasts were especially tough for Garfiel because they were formerly human. Capella uses human corpses mixed with inorganic materials like weapons to create the Demi-Beasts, and this knowledge fuels Garfiel’s hallucinations. Elsa mockingly asks him if he has the strength to kill these beasts who were once human. Moments like this cause Garfiel to hesitate, which Kurgan uses to his advantage, eventually weakening Garfiel enough to revert to his human form.

The fight went on for quite a while until they stumbled into one of the shelters filled with civilians, and among them were Garfiel’s half-siblings. Seeing them in danger gave him the courage to finally deal a fatal blow to one of the attacking Demi-Beasts, enabling him to finally get rid of Elsa. His siblings encourage him and give him the strength to fight on, even getting the rest of the crowd to cheer for him. Kurgan soon caught up, and this resulted in one of the most epic fights in Re:Zero. Garfiel emerged victorious, and Kurgan even gave him a commendation from one legendary warrior to another. Kurgan then passes on peacefully, and Priestella is now another step closer to freedom.

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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 14, is set to be March 12, 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)