This page is about the character. For the anime episode, see Episode 11.
Rem (レム) is a maid in service of Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers alongside her sister, Ram. She is one of the main supporting characters of Re:Zero, with major roles in Arc 2, Arc 3, and Arc 7, and a supporting role in Arc 8. During the first half of Arc 2, she also served as the secondary antagonist.
While initially distrustful of Subaru, she eventually opened up to him and even developed strong feelings for him after he saved her. However, at the end of Arc 3, she had her name and memories eaten by Lye Batenkaitos and subsequently fell into suspended animation. At the end of Arc 6, she finally woke up from her slumber following Lye's death, though she now suffers amnesia due to not having yet regained her memories.
Appearance
Rem has medium length sky blue hair that covers her right eye, large light blue eyes, and young features. She also has hair clips towards the left side of her hair, a flower-shaped ribbon on the same side of her hair, and a maid hairband. She looks nearly identical to her sister apart from her hair, eyes, and ribbon coloring. She usually wears a maid uniform, and since her chest is slightly larger than her sister's, she secretly changes the measurements to hide it.
In Arc 6, Rem was dressed in a long-sleeved pink dress with white frills at the hem of the long skirt, pink boots, black leggings, and a pink cloak to protect her from the sands of the Augria Sand Dunes. She continues to wear this uniform after waking up.
Personality
Rem is a competent, loyal person who always tries her best. Burdened by a sense of atonement toward Ram, she overworks herself, doing things in a way she believes her sister would. Rem possesses a narrow worldview. From her perspective, only Ram and things directly related to Ram are important. This leads Rem to make rash decisions to protect her community, without needing to think twice about the situation.
Additionally, Rem tends to try to do everything on her own, bearing the burden of everything on her shoulders. She constantly puts herself down while propping her sister up, which has led to an inferiority complex. Furthermore, she has a deep sense of hatred for the Witch Cult and believes that nothing good can come from the witch’s scent.
Thanks to the assistance of Natsuki Subaru, Rem’s view of the world began to expand. No longer thinking of herself as her sister’s replacement, she started developing stronger bonds with the people around her. Rem felt grateful to Subaru for helping her move forward and developed a deep love for him, becoming one of his most loyal followers. To the point that she always believes in him as her "hero" no matter what, even if Subaru himself for some reason loses faith in his abilities, thereby serving him as an important emotional support even when she is not around. She still maintains a low opinion of herself and can fall back into self-deprecation when comparing herself to Ram.
In public, Rem is someone who maintains an emotionless expression, not displaying feelings like sadness or anger to maintain formality. She speaks politely to others, even if she dislikes them internally. Additionally, she possesses a sharp tongue and can unknowingly say blunt or critical things to the people she interacts with. While calm on the surface, in intense situations, Rem often gets tunnel vision and locks onto a singular objective.
After Rem's confession, she becomes more open and honest about her feelings for Subaru. She boldly declares her love to the people around her. Her heart opened in a true sense, and she diminished the emotional restrictions she once had. Likewise, Rem displays great protectiveness, healing, and defending Crusch against Regulus and Lye, two Sin Archbishops, even though her loss was certain.
After having awoken from her year and a half slumber, Rem's memories were completely erased, leaving her in a state similar to that of Crusch at the end of Arc 3. She's very wary of everyone, especially Subaru, even going as far as trying to strangle him twice and set up decoy paths and traps in order to get away from him, as she considers him dangerous due to a combination of the overwhelming Witch's Scent seeping from him after his numerous deaths, as well as his resentment for the Rui and refusal to help her in her current state, for Rem sees her as just an innocent child.
After some time, though she has yet to regain her memories, she is less wary of those around her, and she has come to accept her name as her own, despite initially not feeling as though it was. She often shows kindness to people like Katya Aurélie, acting similarly to how Subaru was to her as Katya tried to push her away, and she has shown to similar fondness to Ram as she used to. Though she still acts particularly harsh towards Subaru, she has also shown her protective side as well, going out of her way to attack Todd when he was in danger, as well as a slightly envious side, which she displayed numerous times when he interacted with Emilia.
History
Rem lived with her father, mother, and her elder sister Ram in an Oni village. Initially, because they were born with one horn each, it meant they were defective in the view of the Oni community, who believe in individual strength above all else, and were despised for it. They were to be killed as part of the custom of Oni to protect their pride as the strongest of the demi-humans. However, just before the execution, Ram displayed the potential of her power to protect them both, which shocked the community. Being allowed to live thanks to her older sister, who had an aptitude that had not been seen in a millennium among Oni kind, Rem spent the rest of her days in her shadow. Despite the presence of her sister also raising expectations for herself in the community, she could never meet them or surpass her sister in any area, which earned her disappointment from the other villagers. However, Rem loved her sister and accepted her place behind her and her parents still cared for them both deeply, even if she herself found it difficult to believe in front of the brilliance of her older sister. One night Rem's life changed forever when the village was attacked by the Witch Cult, during which her sister's horn was cut off by Faust. The whole village got destroyed and her parents and the other citizens were killed, except for her and Ram.
Ever since then, Rem's inferiority complex had deepened due to a sense of guilt for momentarily feeling joy for her sister's injury that night, so she made the utmost effort to become a replacement for her sister as ideal a servant as possible to atone for what she felt had robbed from Ram with her. But even having reached a certain level of perfection, she still has a low level of self-esteem and continues to idealize Ram.
Abilities
Magic (魔法, Mahō): Rem is skilled at water magic. Roswaal, who taught her how to use it, estimates her skills being above average but nothing exceptional. She is able to attack and heal using her magic.
- Healing Magic (治癒魔法, Chiyu Mahō): Rem summons water mana to heal the wounds of herself and others.
- Huma (ヒューマ): Rem creates a shining water barrier that blocks other projectiles and sorts of magic. However, if the incoming magic is stronger than the shield, it will get through it and cause damage to the user.
- El Huma (エル・ヒューマ): Rem forms and shoots multitudes of ice spears from her hands which easily pierces through and crushes flesh that vanish a moment afterwards. She is also able to freeze liquid such as blood, effectively creating deadly spikes out of her enemies' blood, impaling unsuspected foes.
- Ul Huma (ウル・ヒューマ): Rem materializes and shoots three pillars of ice, each as thick as a hundred spears bundled together.
- Al Huma (アル・ヒューマ): Rem creates a sharp ten-meter-long spear of ice.
Rem receiving a warning from Ram, through Synesthesia.
Synesthesia (共感覚, Kyōkankaku): An ability that she shares with her sister. It allows them to share their feelings with each other through telepathy. This ability debuted during Arc 3 when Rem brought Subaru to the mansion, and halfway through, Rem received the same damage as Ram when she died. During Arc 6, it's revealed that it can also be used to transmit mana, allowing Rem to effectively serve as "Ram's horn".
Oni Bloodline (鬼の血族, Oni no Ketsuzoku): As she is an Oni, Rem can enter her Oni form, manifesting a single white horn on her forehead. Like the rest of her race, she has physical attributes that surpass that of regular humans, and those attributes are enhanced further when she manifests her horn. She is capable of killing witchbeasts with her bare fists and showed no strain in carrying Subaru. However, her ferocity is also increased, and if she is not careful, she could lose herself to her instincts and try to kill everything in sight. Furthermore, if she overexerts herself while her horn is manifested, it is likely that the recoil would render her weak. As a twin, Rem was born with a single horn that appeared smaller than an average Oni's, meaning her power in her Oni state was lower than her kin's. Similarly, being Ram’s twin, Rem can temporarily act as her horn and give her access to more of her power. However, doing so interferes with her body’s internal mana circulation, which once made it difficult for her to use her legs.
Unknown Ability: Rem can smell the Witch's Scent, something that only a few individuals in the series so far, are capable of doing. It is currently unknown how Rem is capable of doing this, though it most likely stems from the night her village was attacked and destroyed by the Witch Cult, as prior to that event, Rem never displayed such an ability. It is revealed by Echidna in Re:IF Kasaneru that this is a natural ability of the Oni tribe as well as their purpose for existing despite the fact that her sister does not appear to possess this power.
Equipment: Rem wields a weapon called the Morningstar (モーニングスター, Mōningusutā) in combat. The weapon takes shape of a giant metal spiked ball on long metal chains. She can use the Morningstar for offense as it's capable of dealing devastating injuries to her opponents.
Trivia
- According to the author, Rem's birthday is February 2, the same as her twin sister Ram.
- Rem likes to read in her spare time.
- She normally handles 80% of the workload in the mansion on her own. Subaru is usually paired up with Ram to take care of the rest of it.
- Rem's rapid popularity surprised even the author himself, although he had mentioned that he somewhat anticipated it.
- She is also the first character to profess her feelings towards Subaru.
- Along with Reize and Ryuzu Shima, Rem is one of the few characters capable of smelling the Witch's miasma.
- Rem has her own named chapter in Arc 2, in both the web novel and light novels, as well as a named episode in the anime.
- She doesn’t eat pickily, but she doesn’t particularly like mayonnaise.
- Rem describes the scent of the Witch as: the scent of blood and death mixed with mud, like a killer smell.
- In the A Love Song for EMT side story, Rem is interested in Liliana's songs and has a deep knowledge of poetry and traditional songs.
- Rem often talks to herself when she is alone, as Subaru sometimes does.
- Rem without her fears and traumas is actually a very energetic, goofy or "genki" girl, which Ram notes and loves in the side stories about her sister.
Note
- ↑ A side story depicts Ram and Rem's birthday in between Arc 2 and Arc 3, however Re:Zeropedia 2 contradicts this in listing their ages as having gone from 17 to 18 during the timeskip between Arc 4 and Arc 5.
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