Even at launch, Disney+’s Summertime Rendering proved to be very similar to anime classics like Re: Zero and Steins; Gate.
Kodoani.com – Summertime Rendering begins in a macabre and thrilling setting with supernatural twists, mysterious deaths, and inexplicable time loops. Yes, that’s exactly the type of anime – the main character is having a hard time finding a way to save everyone from their inevitable death while losing his mind from going through the same setbacks that resulted in facing moments of horror and death of friends. Summertime Rendering is actually Re: Zero combined with Steins; Gate.
Even at just two episodes, Summertime Rendering’s protagonist Shinpei has been shown to bear striking similarities to Re:Zero’s Subaru and Steins’ Okabe; Gate. Below is a breakdown of what the trio have in common.
Summertime Rendering, Re: Zero and the return of death
Summertime Rendering begins with Shinpei having some kind of fuzzy hallucination. This is very similar to how Subaru in Re: Zero begins his adventures; Subaru stepped out of a convenience store in the middle of the night and his vision began to blur. He believes it’s because, as a self-proclaimed hikikomori, he’s always at home. This doesn’t seem to be the case, however, and Subaru finds himself in a whole new world to explore. The same goes for Shinpei, who suddenly has a distorted vision of his friend Ushio just before his ferry docks and his adventures in Summertime Rendering begin.
Shinpei also has the gift (or curse) of being able to Return By Death, which means being able to return to a certain save point after death, similar to Subaru in Re: Zero. Sadly for Shinpei, there wasn’t an appa merchant there to greet him at the checkpoint. He also fell into the painful cycle of dying multiple times while trying to save the people Shinpei cared about. Only time will tell if Shinpei is mentally as resilient as Subaru.
Summertime Rendering and Steins; Gate
Similar to Shinpei in Summertime Rendering and Subaru in Re: Zero, the story of Okabe in Steins; Gate also begins with death and disfigurement that seems to have placed him in another world. Okabe must then thread the clues together to figure out how to prevent Makise Kurusu’s death by traveling through time and experiencing the same events again. Shinpei ends up repeating the same events to prevent the deaths of the islanders.
Summertime Rendering also features mysteries such as a secret agent character, in the same way that Steins; Gate has CERN. Both characters also have glasses and similar physical features. However, at the present time, almost nothing is known about the organization behind the anime. The most significant similarity that Okabe will find interesting is that Shinpei also has the ability to Read Steiner.
Reading Steiner.is something that allows one to remember things when transported to different worlds or timelines. Fortunately for Shinpei, it’s possible that being in the same world allows him to use his memories to his advantage by staying ahead of the mysterious killers. Each of the main characters also has a female companion to help them in a ruthlessly thrilling mystery story. It would be interesting if there were any other similarities with the classic anime that appeared when Summertime Rendering continue.
Via: Kodoani.com
