If Subaru’s “Return by Death” loops hooked you—the way he dies, learns, and replans to survive the mansion murders, outmaneuver Betelgeuse, and rally allies for the White Whale hunt—then you’ll love how Keiji Kiriya is trapped in a battlefield time loop against the Mimics in All You Need Is Kill. Every reset forces sharper tactics, harder training, and bolder gambits, turning death into data until he can finally break the cycle.

If you were drawn to Subaru’s spirals—his panic, self-loathing, and grudging self-knowledge after failures like the Sanctuary breakdown and Rem’s sacrifices—The Blade Itself digs into that same raw interiority. You’ll follow Logen Ninefingers trying to be better than his bloody past, Glokta’s vicious brilliance and pain-haunted mind, and Jezal’s ego cracking under reality. It’s that intimate, bruising character work that makes every small step forward feel hard-won—just like Subaru owning his weaknesses.

If the Witch Cult’s grotesqueries—Betelgeuse’s unseen hands, the massacres, and those world-ending bad ends with Puck—kept you breathless, The Poppy War matches that darkness with harrowing clarity. Rin claws her way up, unlocks terrifying power, and faces choices as appalling as any Subaru sees in his worst timelines. The Golyn Niis chapter will hit like the cruelest Re:Zero loop, and the aftermath asks the same searing question: what are you willing to become to stop the suffering?

If you loved watching Subaru grind from impulsive shut-in to the guy who can coordinate the Crusch/Anastasia alliance against the White Whale and face Petelgeuse—earning trust, admitting faults, and choosing his “I love Emilia” resolve—The Way of Kings delivers that same soul-deep progression. Kaladin’s climb from slave to commander, and Shallan’s hard-won courage, mirror Subaru’s incremental victories: oaths kept, teammates saved, and a fragile self rebuilt into something strong.

If the rug-pulls in Re:Zero—Echidna’s smiling traps at the tea party, the Sanctuary’s true purpose, and Roswaal’s long con with the Gospel—made you grin, The Final Empire is a feast of twists. A crew of con artists takes on an immortal tyrant, only for prophecies, metals, and hidden players to flip your assumptions again and again. Like Subaru’s loops exposing secret layers, every heist beat recontextualizes the world until the final revelation changes everything.