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Development

The possibility of an anime adaptation came up early during development of the light novels; Shō Tanaka, a producer at Kadokawa Corporation, asked Ikemoto about properties which might lend themselves to being animated, and Ikemoto recommended that Tanaka read Nagatsuki's web novels. Despite an initial miscommunication which led to Ikemoto believing that Tanaka was not interested, talks of adapting the series began soon after the web novels began the transition to print.

As part of talks for the potential anime adaptation, Ikemoto and Tanaka spoke to Tsunaki Yoshikawa, an animation producer at studio White Fox, about the possibility of his studio animating the series. Hoping to adapt the series into an anime similar to Steins;Gate (which White Fox also produced), and having a positive impression of the studio as one that did faithful adaptations, Tanaka then formally approached them about producing the show. White Fox's president contacted Yoshikawa for his opinion, and Yoshikawa recommended they accept, as long as the series "doesn't violate any broadcasting regulations."

Production on the anime began sometime after the release of the fifth novel in October 2014. Masaharu Watanabe was chosen by Yoshikawa to direct the series because he had previously worked for the studio doing key animation, while Kyūta Sakai was chosen to be the series' character designer and chief animation director because Yoshikawa felt that she would be able to do the novel's art justice whilst maintaining a consistent animation quality throughout the series' 25-episode run. Masahiro Yokotani was brought on board as the main writer, with the series being his first time composing for a "reborn in another world"-type story. Yoshikawa warned him about the violence in the series, but Yokotani was still surprised by the violent and disturbing scenes in novels three and beyond, having only read the first novel when he agreed to work on the project; he delegated the script writing of those episodes in the second cours to the other two scriptwriters. Yoshiko Nakamura joined the project sometime after Yokotani had completed the script for episode 3. When it proved unfeasible for Yokotani and Nakamura to write the scripts alone, the decision was made to bring another scriptwriter on board. Gaku Iwasa, the president of White Fox, asked them to hire someone "younger", leading Yokotani to suggest Eiji Umehara. Nagatsuki had recently been playing Chaos;Child, which Umehara had written for, and he approved the choice, suggesting that they let Umehara write the "painful parts"; Umehara was invited to join the project around the time that the scripts for episodes 8 and 9 were being written. Re:Zero was the first light novel adaptation that either of the screenwriters had worked on.

Original author Tappei Nagatsuki was very active in the production of the anime, attending script meetings and recording sessions. When the staff would encounter a problem with a scene, he would occasionally write lines for them to use as reference while writing the script. The series was not initially intended to have 25 episodes, but was extended to give more time to the battle with the White Whale (which was expanded from two to three episodes) and to the content of episode 18 (episodes 16 to 18 were originally supposed to be covered in two episodes). Watanabe's main directive to the staff was to "capture the mood of the novel as much as possible"; the scriptwriters had discussions about how to compress the dense source material without losing the central elements of the story, and Nakamura recalls working with composition notes that "went on for pages". While planning and scripting the anime, choosing a proper conclusion was one of the most difficult parts for the staff, and a significant amount of time was devoted to choosing what to cover in the final episode, which included material not yet covered in the light novel.

After joining the project, both Nakamura and Umehara had to adjust their views of the main character, and were forced to rewrite scenes where they had made Subaru appear "cool". At Watanabe's direction, Nakamura was made to rewrite Subaru's telling of The Red Ogre Who Cried in episode 6 multiple times. The staff also had difficulty deciding on a song to use for Subaru's ringtone that plays during the closing scene of episode 19, considering songs like "Kanpaku Sengen", "The Beard Song", and "M" by Princess Princess, before settling on "Yoake no Michi" from Dog of Flanders.

Music

The first opening theme song is "Redo", performed by Konomi Suzuki, and the first ending theme is "Styx Helix", performed by Myth & Roid, while for episode 7 the ending theme is "Straight Bet", also performed by Myth & Roid. The second opening theme song, titled "Paradisus-Paradoxum", is performed by Myth & Roid, while the second ending theme, "Stay Alive", is performed by Rie Takahashi. Myth & Roid also performed the ending theme for episode 14 titled "theater D".

The second season's first opening theme song is "Realize", performed by Konomi Suzuki, while the first ending theme song is "Memento", performed by Nonoc. The second season's second opening theme song is "Long Shot", performed by Mayu Maeshima, while the second ending theme song is "Believe in You", performed by Nonoc.

The third season's opening theme song is "Reweave", performed by Konomi Suzuki, while the ending theme song is "Nox Lux", performed by Myth & Roid.

The fourth season's opening theme song is "Recollect", performed by Konomi Suzuki and Ashnikko, while the ending theme song is "Ender Ember", performed by Myth & Roid and TK from Ling Tosite Sigure.

The series' soundtrack was released on CD on 26 October 2016. The disk contains 21 tracks composed by Kenichiro Suehiro.

"Redo", Suzuki's 10th single, was released on CD on 11 May 2016. The single was also released as a limited edition with a DVD featuring a music video, a live concert video, and a "making of" video. The songs were performed by Suzuki, with lyrics by Genki Mizuno and arrangement by Makoto Miyazaki.

The CD for "Styx Helix", the series' first ending theme, was Myth & Roid's 3rd single. Written, arranged, and performed by the group, it was released on 25 May 2016 and included both regular and instrumental versions of "Styx Helix" and "Straight Bet".

"Stay Alive", the second ending theme, was released as a single on 24 August 2016. The songs were performed by Takahashi (Emilia) and Minase (Rem). The songs were written and arranged by Heart's Cry.

Myth & Roid released the second opening theme as a single on 24 August 2016. The CD included regular and instrumental versions of "Paradisus-Paradoxum" and "Theater D".

For Memory Snow, three pieces of theme music were used: the ending theme "Memory Memory Snow" and the image song "Relive" by Nonoc, and the insert song "Memories" by Riko Azuna.

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