No, Re:ZERO has NOT Started its Second Half

Tappei Nagatsuki has finally begun writing Arc 10 of the Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- web novel, and as previously stated, the story is planned to have a total of 12 arcs, with nine already completed.

The author made a tweet that many people ended up completely misunderstanding, assuming that only now the “second part of Re:ZERO” had begun.

The author’s tweet:

“I’ve updated it, it’s 1 a.m. Sorry for the long wait, Arc 10 begins! Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu is getting into its final phase in earnest! Let’s give it our all! No one is more fired up than me!!”

In my translation, I used “getting into its final phase in earnest,” but in online translations shared by fans, it was rendered as “the second half is in full swing.” Somehow, many people assumed that it was only with Arc 10 that the “second part” of Re:ZERO had started, but that is not what the author meant.

The Japanese term used, 本格的に後半戦 (honkakuteki ni kōhansen), does not indicate a literal division of the story. The expression means that the narrative is truly entering its final phase or decisive stage in a narrative and emotional sense, not that the story has reached exactly 50% of its planned content.

In Japanese, this type of phrasing is commonly used to indicate that the plot is beginning to move forward with greater intensity, raising the stakes and importance of events, which explains the author’s excitement when announcing the start of Arc 10.

It is also worth noting that only the final three arcs of the story remain, and this is when the biggest revelations and most shocking developments of the series are expected to unfold.