Re:Zero is an emotional roller-coaster to watch. The premise of this anime is that a Japanese teenager named Subaru is teleported into a generic fantasy world where he has to play through it like a video game. When Subaru dies, he is teleported back to a checkpoint, and he is unable to tell anyone else about his condition.
Neither the time loop concept nor the rebirth in a fantasy world is a new concept in anime. However, Re:Zero does a great job at leveraging the time loop to take us on an emotional typhoon. Subaru is faced with the darkest, most disparaging, degrading moments, only to be built back up by characters that fall head over heels for him. Although the character could whimsically die and face no emotional consequences from the viewer, the deaths presented in this show are always very emotional and heartfelt.
Steins Gate is very similar to Re:Zero in terms of the time loop. In Re:Zero it is when Subaru dies, wherein Steins Gate, it was a time machine. Both shows call into question the nature of reality and leave plenty to question. Within Steins Gate, the science is “well” established, but there is the underlying question of why do they have to fight fate/convergence. What other forces are at play? In Stein Gate, the time loop narrative was front and center, wherein Re:Zero, the time loop is comparatively in the back seat. Re:Zero is more focused on the fantasy adventure aspect. After an entire season of Re:Zero we still have no clue why Subaru is in this world, and all we know about the “return by death” is that it has something to do with a wicked witch.