People have created many stories. Joy, sadness, anger, deep emotion. Stories stir up emotion and
captivate. However, those emotions are nothing more than the feelings of a spectator. What if the
characters in the stories had their own "will"? In their eyes, are we, the creators of the stories,
like gods? Revolution for our world. Punishment for the land of the gods.
Re:CREATORS.
Everyone becomes a Creator.
(Source: Amazon)
The following assumes familiarity with the reviewed material. Spoilers below. -------- *"I don't need magic to create. All you need is passion and practice. Fate will decide the rest."* *--Meteora Österreich, Re:Creators Episode 22* Explicit metafiction is fairly rare within the anime medium (and only marginally more common in manga). For how much of anime, good and bad, relies on recalling older formulas and character archetypes and bringing them into the present, this is somewhat surprising. What then to make of *Re:Creators*, an unashamedly meta anime with a fairly impressive pedigree that had supporters calling it a classic in the making and detractors decrying it as pretentious schlock right from the very beginning of its run? Let's start with the facts: *Re:Creators* is an action anime about fictional characters (sourced from also-fictional light novels, anime, manga, and video games) come to life. Our nominal protagonist is geeky shut-in Souta Mizushino, joined at first by Celestia, who hails from an anime that seems like a modern take on *The Vision of Escaflowne*, and Meteora, a mage from a JRPG who serves as an expository character both in her doubly-fictional game and within the show itself. This cast balloons significantly over the course of the show's 24-episode run, to the point that listing *every* character--both "Creation"--the show's term for these refugees from fictionland--and "Creator", the, well, creators thereof--is an exercise in pointless listmaking. But let's back up for a moment, what about Altair, RC's main antagonist and also in a very loose sense, its actual "hero"? Altair's character arc is to put it mildly, very unusual, and her design is among the most brilliant in the past decade of the medium. Altair is a white haired girl clad in a bizarre amalgam of different 19th century military uniform styles. She has a shako cap, a Spanish cavalry coat that tapers into a wide skirt, strange high-heeled spur boots, and her eyes are double-set (a ring of red around blue), and her pupils are square. For the first half of the show's run I wasn't entirely convinced that this design being as ridiculous as it was (and it *is* ridiculous) was intentional or not, but over time it becomes clear that it's a definite deliberate decision. A **lot** happens throughout *Re:Creators*, but one of several main story through-lines is about Altair herself and how she came to be. This is, by far, the show's strongest narrative thread, and is the one best carried to conclusion. But there are of course others. There is Celestia and Meteora coming to terms with being fictional, there is Magane, the gleefully wicked light novel antagonist who continually throws a wrench into the plans of both the pro- and antagonists, there's Mamika, the idealistic magical girl who gives her life for those same ideals at the end of the show's first quarter. There is the ridiculously-named Aliceteria February whose knuckleheadedness make her an antagonist for the show's entire first half, and there's the *also* ridiculously named Blitz Talker, a cyberpunk deuteroganist hellbent on avenging his daughter's death by killing his creator. All of these are handled better or worse. Mamika's death at Altair's hands is incredibly well-done (and, maybe unintentionally, a sneaky meta-comment on the state of the mahou shoujo genre post-*Madoka*), and Blitz' makes up for a slow start with a fantastic conclusion near the show's end. Celestia's is not quite resolved as well, her death at the show's end being underdeveloped and sudden, and Magane's is not really resolved at all. Other characters--like Yuya, Rui, and the second cour introductions Hikayu and Syo--don't really have character arcs in the first place, and serve more secondary roles. This is without even getting into the creators themselves who form an entire secondary cast. Nonetheless, no parts are played poorly in Re:Creators, save perhaps that of Hikayu's creator, an obnoxious bucktoothed otaku whose inclusion does ultimately pay off but remains questionable. Altair is eventually revealed to be a doujin character, created by Souta's deceased friend Setsuna, which puts her design into a very specific--and very interesting--context. Her overdesigned-ness is the product of deliberately trying to create a character that breaks the rules of what a "good character design" should look like. She's a doujin character designed by a teenage nerd, so *of course* she wears a ridiculous outfit, *of course* she's unflappably cool but that actually hides a deep reservoir of inner rage, *of course* her weapon is a ring of sabers and a Russian machine gun she plays like a violin that can effectively do almost anything. These are the traits of OC's. "Mary Sues" to use an old piece of internet terminology that has largely fallen out of favor. Altair is overpowered, evil, and always in control. That her design works in references to *Black Rock Shooter* (her general color scheme is BRS' own inverted, white hair with red highlights in contrast to BRS' black hair with blue) and *Akame ga Kill* (her outfit's general fascist-evoking but nonspecific look) just seals the deal. Altair is a DeviantArt drawing come to life, and that is ultimately a *really* interesting character concept, and it's explored quite well in her arc. Altair's motives aren't entirely clear until she kills Mamika, who she furiously lashes out at for presuming to be able to help her. Her lines in this scene (especially "I will destroy everything. Destroy, destroy, and destroy more until this world disappears. That is the reason I'm standing here today.") would be downright comedic if they weren't delivered with such utter disgust, and the subsequent howl of rage as she impales Mamika makes one pity her voice actor, and really sells her total burn-it-all nihilism. Her arc takes a bit of a strange half-turn in the show's second half. As she fights the other creations (who, barring the shows-up-just-to-die Charon, have all united against her at this point) during the Chamber Festival she seems increasingly more bemused than anything else. Again, this is what an "invincible" character of her type is supposed to do. Almost nothing the protagonists throw at her offers her a genuine challenge, not even her own counterpart, Sirius, introduced late in the show as a last ditch effort. The final few episodes really **are** about Altair more than anyone else, and while they do often boil down to essentially shonen fight scenes with the usual form of fighting spirit-babble replaced here with technobabble about audience acceptance levels, it's a real joy to actually *watch*. But where things get truly strange is in episodes 20 and 21, the end of the former re-introducing Setsuna (in the form of a creation herself, albeit), and it's only *here*, at the show's very end, that Altair starts displaying emotions other than rage and smugness. It's a long, *long* buildup to that, and understandably it's not for everyone. Episode 21 in particular, wherein Altair essentially surrenders now that she's reunited with Setsuna (and in doing so, crosses the Creation/Creator boundary, conjuring an entire world of her own making), is thick with a very deliberately sappy sort of character development. Altair arguably gets the happiest ending of *any* character in fact, with most of the others leaving the real world to return to their own or having died before that point. So what the finale ends up ultimately being about is, how well can you "sell" a happy ending for a character that by conventional standards, doesn't really deserve one? And the answer is that, well, it depends. If you found Altair annoying at the start of the series the ending is not likely to redeem her for you, since on a literal level she more or less gets away with everything. On the other hand, if we take Hikayu's comment about Altair being "the real hero" into account, we're left with an interesting view of things. That Altair did not act in a moral right by any conventional standard is indisputable, but, who--both in-universe and out--ended up being the target of the most discussion (good and bad), fan art, and so on? Altair's character arc working (or not) hinges almost entirely on how believable you find the idea that, in order, the in-universe audience reflects the preferences of the out of universe audience, and that that preference--Altair as the most interesting and therefore "main" character--is valid. It's an interesting narrative trick and one I might go so far as to say is entirely unique. Certainly, it is nothing I have seen pulled off so well before. Altair's "redemption" (if it can even be called that) works because the audience *wants* her to be redeemed. Heroes dying to help save the world after all, is nothing unexpected. *Villains* voluntarily stopping themselves after a good talking to--even under extraordinary circumstances--is much rarer. For a certain kind of person it is certainly a hard pill to swallow, for another--and I fit myself into this camp--this particular piece of narrative origami is so fascinating that I can't possibly fault it for not being a simpler happy ending. Altair's arc is such a strange rollercoaster ride that it does make me wonder if the character's dark horse popularity wasn't planned for from the start. This isn't to say of course that at the end of the day *Re:Creators* has no flaws. Indeed it has quite a few. For one thing there are, funnily enough, simply too many characters. The cast could be trimmed by a third, the script rewritten, and no one would notice. Several exist mostly as background fodder or only to facilitate dumb jokes. For another there are also too many *episodes*, around the halfway point the show enters a serious slump with a trio of episodes that focus primarily on the minutiae of setting up the Elimination Chamber Festival. This is, in a word, boring. The various creators are perhaps unsurprisingly the least interesting characters in the show, and their interactions with each other bring little to the table. Matsubara's awkward father/daughter conversations with Celestia earlier in the series, and Suruga outwitting her own creation Blitz later on, are much more compelling because they involve a creation character too. On their own, the creators don't do much of interest and this section drags the entire show down considerably (that it immediately follows an admittedly funny recap episode doesn't help). In addition, while Altair getting a happy ending is not itself a point of contention for me at least, the fact that two other characters die in the last few episodes is a little disappointing. Late-in-show character death is of course a tried and true trope, but it is exactly the sort of thing that RC should have strove to *avoid*. Celestia and Aliceteria both biting it in the leadup to the finale does compromise Altair's own redemption, since the deaths are fresh in our memories by the time we get to that point. Finally there's the issue of Megane, who is herself a very interesting character, but, after she tentatively flips to the protagonists' side in the show's final quarter, she more or less up and disappears, leaving her character hang in the air unresolved. It's a strange decision especially given how much closure we're given with Altair, and while it does fit her personality to an extent, the fact that we're given not even a small *hint* about where she might've gone or what she might be doing after the main story is over is undeniably frustrating. But none of these caveats even come close to ruining the show. Perhaps in another world, where it does not have them, *Re:Creators* might well have been the classic that youtube channel Mother's Basement famously prognosticated it might become. With them, it is more of a future *cult* classic, a key point of difference. Really, one gets the impression that *Re:Creators*' *own* creators are the sorts who would prefer to make a cult classic than something with unanimous critical acclaim anyway, so perhaps it's all for the best. One last thing. The show's 22nd episode--its last--is the sort of bow-on-the-giftbox affair I wish more anime could learn to do. Most of the characters return to their own worlds, returning much of the setting to the status quo, but *Meteora*, notably, does not. Of course, in a show this shamelessly self-indulgent it is perhaps no surprise that she becomes a novelist, and ends up writing a book called--what else?--*Re:Creators*. What you end up with at the end of the day is an anime about the creative process itself, and while *Re:Creators* is far from perfect, the fact that it even *tries* to broach this subject, with a mix of seriousness and humor, makes it an easy recommendation for anyone who won't mind the bumpy ride. You really don't see too many like this one.
I believe I mentioned this before, but I find it consistently harder to write in praise of an anime than to bash it, to the point that the only manner in which I could be satisfied on doing so, would be to break down each episode while highlighting why I believe certain scenes or bits of dialogue are so great and important to the big picture. As you can imagine, the highest I value something, the harder it feels to explain, so let it be known right from the start: I do see Re:Creators in VERY high regard! __Story and Characters__ To begin to understand why the show works so well, the first good hint would be the original writer, Rei Hiroe, who wrote the story that led to the anime. For those unfortunate enough to not know who Hiroe is, he’s the author of the Black Lagoon manga and the responsible for the dynamic between Rock and Revy, two of the finest characters crafted in the media. In Black Lagoon, he demonstrated his strength at crafting witty and meaningful character studies, while in Re:C he displays, with some aid from Ei Aoki (director of Fate/Zero), his efficiency at developing cohesive, effective and strong plot. Some comparisons I’ve seen be made about the nature of Re:C in regards to other anime vary from a knock-off of Fate/Zero’s concept, for those who see the combination of colorful fighters of multiple origins as somehow related to F/Z and nothing else, to a shallow piece of propaganda fellating the Japanese government and military, in the same fashion as GATE, for people who are too obtuse to notice the obvious differences and like to make asinine comparisons (you know who you are!). The closest I’ve seen to actually hit the mark was to Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, since both works are commentaries on the media they’re a part of. This comparison doesn’t adequately prepare you to get into Re:C, but it is a better assessment of the nature of the show. While Haruhi is purely a dissection (or you might even say a “deconstruction”, if you can believe it) of the tropes that are to this day prevalent in anime, that made itself brilliant by twisting the role of the protagonist and titular character, along with the ones that personify those tropes, Re:C is a commentary on our relationship with fiction, both from the perspective of the creators as well as the audience, and it makes itself brilliant by making what would be natural parts of that relation into integral, tangible elements of the plot. I’ll discuss the perspective a bit more when we get to the characters, but for now let’s talk about the strength of the narrative ~~~img500(https://i.imgur.com/E1nIeGB.jpg)img220(https://i.imgur.com/E1nIeGB.jpg) Manage your expectations~~~ Besides characters, which I consider to be the most important thing in a story, something I also find of great importance when analyzing is how well structured is the narrative. That takes into consideration things like pacing, as in the rate in which the story progresses or new information is introduced, the role different characters play and how meaningful they are on that role and, specially, when things happen for a reason. Re:Creators shines in that regard, among other reasons, because it wastes almost no time. Every episode in this show is there for a reason (yes, even the hot-spring episode) and nearly EVERY scene has something to help bring out new information, develop the numerous figures of the cast or reinforce what is already known, character and narrative-wise, through a new method or situation. Want an example? The events of episodes 9 and 10, for once, might seem to have no effect in the rest of the plot, at first glance, but looking closely you might notice that they made for the perfect set-up for the main characters to confirm a plot point that would prove itself vital for their future plans, as well as kick into motion Aliceteria’s character-arc. Take this episode out of the equation and you’ll have that plan turn into a complete ass-pull and have Aliceteria’s change of heart be completely unwarranted. If you are reading this review, I’d assume you already know the premise of Re:C, so I’ll not waste much time explaining it. So, a feeble mind would predict the main villains of a story with such premise to be those who were already villains in their original stories, but this is one of the instances where this anime subverts expectations in the best way: the real villain of the story is a character that originally had no purpose, while the one who was originally a villain turns into a wild card. The series tackles motivations and work ethics of the different artists, ranging from those who do that simply to make a living to those who see on the act of crafting a story as their way of expressing themselves in the way that is the most fulfilling. That said, let’s talk about the characters, starting with the main antagonist Altair, or the Princess in Military Uniform, was an original character, created based on one of a preexisting fictional game called Eternal Wars Megalosphere and is noted from the beginning to be connected to Souta, one of the main characters, and Setsuna, a former friend of Souta who, and I don’t think I’m spoiling much about the first minute of the show, committed suicide a few months earlier. Do you want another example of how finelly crafted is the structure in this anime? Since not much is shown from Setsuna’s perspective prior to her suicide, some viewers might get frustrated at first, feeling that they missed on something important, but that turns out to be a necessary decision, given what we see from her on episode 21, in which her avatar plays a decisive role in the conclusion. This decision is a great factor into making the experience of this episode as meaningful and effective as it is, besides the excellent writing, of course. Altair was a character created without a set purpose, carrying only the emotions of her creator, to whom she feels a strong connection with. Therefore, she takes upon herself the task of avenging her creator, who she feels was wronged by the world. That lack of a reason to exist, coupled with the angst carried by the one she held the dearest led her to see the real world as a cruel story, and what better way to enact her revenge than by causing the world to implode on itself? Mizushino Souta, a highschool-age student, is part of the main cast, but regards himself and is treated by the narrative more as a narrator-type figure. He’s an aspiring illustrator who’s a bit shy about his art and holds a guilt complex in regards to Setsuna’s death, who he believes to have betrayed. He considers himself partially culpable for her suicide, for not coming to her aid when it was needed, and that feeling of guilt is what motivates him to take action during the second half of the story. The conclusion to his is arc is not one of overcoming the guilt, but of learning to shoulder the pain of his mistake and making something positive out of it, through his creations. Episode 21 (seriously, folks, it’s a very important episode) is where that is displayed at full force and he ultimately comes to peace with Setsuna. Souta also provides insight about the perspective of people who enjoy and avidly consume fiction, like on his argument with Aliceteria, where he tells her how characters like her are loved because they motivate people with an ideal, a model of how to act, to be honest and never let themselves be brought down by hardship. He also comments later how the passion for anime, manga and other media gives the viewer the opportunity to see the world through someone else’s perspective ~~~img500(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c7KMW1Fbz_M/WOkptP-miOI/AAAAAAAAVxo/lThTo4CXMjg1nIxiSN2CbZjbMkC7ktA3QCLcB/s1600/tumblr_oo3gw2snnl1vj5j9co1_540.gif) I'm sure he wasn't expecting this plot-twist!~~~ Starting the hoster of creations with the heroes, we have Selesia, a character from the light novel and anime series Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier, an Escaflowne looking, magitech inspired Mecha that I like imagining to be set in phantasy 1920s. In her world, she was the partner of the main male lead, Charon, fighting against the forces of the Avalon Brigade, which gave her a resolute, quick to action personality, but still calm when among friends. In an interaction with Souta, she advises him to take his time and not try to rush his artistic development, because that way he would be able to grow appropriately along with his work. That interaction reflects the experience she had fighting in her universe, experience that also makes for amusing banter between her and her creator, Takashi Matsubara. Initially, she complains to him about why he didn’t make her stronger, not understanding his perspective as the writer. Their relation eventually becomes mildly like father and daughter, and Matsubara comes to be protective of her, cherishing her as his creation. He comments, during a conversation, how writing is his way of telling the world that he has been there, of leaving a mark on other people. He comes off as an experienced writer, who understands what he can and cannot do in order to keep the audience invested on his work. ~~~img490(http://i.imgur.com/uKkUbnx.jpg) HEY! That's not my best Girl!~~~ Next in the roster is Meteora, also known as Best Girl, originally a NPC from the RPG game AVALKEN of Reminisce, where she takes the role of a powerful mage and the responsible for the library at the End of the World, right before the final boss. This is a very important detail about her, because it influences the way Meteora relates to the real world and other creations, as well as fiction. She states early on that her world is deeply detailed and fleshed out, having even fiction of its own, therefore she has better appreciation and understanding than other creations have about art, its mechanics and the influence it has over people. Interestingly, in one of the early episodes, she and Selesia contemplate a graffiti, and while Selesia has an amazed look on her face, Meteora displays a colder, more analytical expression, denoting the difference in impact for both of them. Lacking social interaction but being remarkably intelligent, she doesn’t have an easy time expressing her emotions properly, which she tries to mitigate by pulling off horrible puns. We see more of that restrained playful soul in episode 13, the greatest recap episode in the history of anime. A nice, detail about her character is how initially her speech is notoriously long-winded, but over time it’s possible to notice it becoming less prolix and more personable. Her knowledge of fiction allows her to read effectively into other characters and she quickly learns to understand what goes through the heart and mind of people from the real world, making her the one to give Souta the emotional support he needs to come clean about his mistakes and deal with the guilt that torments him. She is definitely the one the boy feels to most confortable to talk to, and their friendly chemistry persists throughout the series. img450(https://68.media.tumblr.com/cc24091c3fb192691d349384ae7289aa/tumblr_op6w11t2qz1rcufwuo1_540.gif) There! Much better!~~~ Hell, I ship them! Since she becomes the brain of the group, fact amusingly displayed when nobody knows what to do and quickly turn to look at her, Meteora also develops a professional friendship with Kikuchihara, the government official responsible for dealing with the situation of the fictional characters. Both recognize and grow to respect each other as the one from both groups who knows best how to deal with the situation Mirokuji Yuuya is every anti-hero/rival voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto: impetuous, self-reliant, prideful, hedonistic and occasionally clever. Funny enough, his rival from his original story, Sho, is himself voiced by Okamoto, which might be the most amazingly subtle reference ever. Both come from Yatoji Ryou’s manga Lockout Ward Underground: Dark Night, with Yuuya being laid-back and uninterested in doing what others tell him, hanging out with the heroes simply for the fun of fighting the villains, while Sho is obsessed with killing Yuuya, whom he believes to be his sister and best friend’s killer. Perhaps mirroring Yuuya’s personality, Yatoji is arrogant and a bit difficult to deal with, but softens up fast due to their dire situation. He and Matsubara worked together in the past and don’t go very well with each other, but it’s hinted that Matsubara appreciates Yatoji’s work and still worries about him being able to continue, as shown when Yuuya decides to beat up his own creator. By now we had the light novel female warrior lead, the RPG kuudere, the adolescent power phantasy and fujoshi bait, it’s time for our Gundam boy. Yes, Kanoya is the “Gundam” representative; he went looking for some young poon-tang on his first week in the real world, so he cannot possibly be the Shinji look-alike. His author, Nakanogane-san, wrote him to be someone who gets easily defensive, but also quite heated-up in battle, but as soon as he comes to the real world, the kid decides he doesn’t want to fight anymore. What? Did you expect the Gundam kid to not have his “get in the robot” moment? Silly you! Kanoya’s small but charming character arc involves him realizing that the obligations he shoulders in his original world are not arbitrary, but something that only he as the protagonist can fulfill, which gives the kid newfound sense of responsibility. His conversation with Souta in episode 11, while superficially seeming like just a fine motivational moment, also highlights an important part of creating effective stories: that characters need to have a purpose to guide their development and actions, creating a sound narrative. Nakanogane-san doesn’t have trouble finding his place, though. The creators here don’t just sit around while their characters fight to save the world: they take initiative on putting together the pieces of Altair’s past and goals to find the best course of action. Lastly, there’s Hikayu, the visual novel heroin created by Nishio Ohnishi (har har!), who’s a pervert. A good-hearted one, don’t be too harsh on the guy, he means well. Since her game of origin was primarily an eroge, Hykayu is disheartened to learn how exposed she’s to the world, which makes for some of the best comedic moments on the show, like when she does her badass entry during the heat of the combat, shouts her passionate entry lines, while feverishly blushing in shame of her outfit. Surprisingly, or maybe not, her game is not exclusively made of fap material and contains emotional moments that she carries over to her experience in the real world. Could this be a tangential commentary about the tastes of the stereotypically perverted otaku, who can accept a story having blatant smut as well as heartstring-pulling narrative? Perhaps a jab at how we feel the need to justify liking questionable material with the argument that it has a serious and emotionally gripping story? Who knows, but it does add more substance and weight to the notion that the writers and staff do know the ins, outs and running trends of the media they are representing in the anime, instead of simply crafting half-assed references. ~~~img500(https://i.imgur.com/RbRI3hK.jpg) Gotta reveal more of that good plot. ~~~ Chikujouin Magane (creator not important) is the one creation to have been a villain in her story, but like Yuuya, prefers to act by herself and have fun with people’s suffering. She takes quite the liking or the real world and for Souta’s emotional struggle, taking him and the creations as her main source of enjoyment for the first half of the show. She doesn’t seem to like Meteora very much, though, since the girl doesn’t fall easily for Magane’s mind tricks. On Altair’s side, the first ones to appear are Aliceteria, the idealistic knight, and Mamika, the unlucky Magical Girl. Mamika comes from a show for kids, where the morality is black & white, villains are recognizable at first glance, good people who don’t immediately side with the heroin just need to be beaten into agreement and violence is bloodless, so for her it’s a shock to learn that in this new reality her powers might inflict serious harm on people. Kind-hearted and naïve, she doesn’t so much change her nature as the series goes on, but instead learns about the complexities of the new world and takes different methods to bring end to conflict. Aliceteria, in the other hand, comes from an equally black & white reality, but one severely more violent, bloody and harsh than that of Mamika. Aliceteria is stubbornly idealistic, to a point where the anime makes it clear she fooled herself into believing the real world is really a home of sadistic, cynical gods, who created her reality just to amuse themselves with the suffering of the people in it, so it’s her duty to force her god, Takarada-san, to fix her world and free it from evil. Takarada himself looks like a young, emergent author who still hasn’t mastered the creation of layered and complex characters, relying on the archetypical noble hero to focus his work on. It’s partially through Souta’s intervention and passionate speech about why figures like Aliceteria are beloved on his world that she begins to realize how disconnected she is from the true motivations of her fans. Mamika and Aliceteria form a strong bond in their short time together, despite the difference in mentality. For once, when going to recruit a new creation, Mamika hopes it’s a good person, while Alice hopes it’s someone trustworthy and strong (to their dismay it’s neither), and it’s the similarity in values, despite the difference in priority, coupled with the courage and backbone that warms the knight to the young magical girl. These two characters, among others, help put into perspective one of the brilliant ideas applied on Re:Creators: the anime purposefully built one-dimensional characters into the narrative because in context they come from stories that aren’t as well fleshed out or detailed. Selesia and Meteora, were created by authors who intricately crafted their personalities, worldviews or universe, so when they come to the real world they act more human, but also can better understand the morality of their creators, while Mamika and Alice were shallow characters, created to be good and righteous, but lacking understanding of complex notions of right and wrong, so they become easy prey for a villain who can spout ideas that sound good and presents easy solutions to their problem. That shallowness is not the final state for them either, but a jumping point from where they develop into layered and intelligent individuals capable of understanding the new reality and taking the best decisions based on their own morals. Lastly, because going further would be spoiler, there’s Blitz Talker, the hard-boiled supporting character from the manga Code-Babylon, written and drawn by Suruga Shunma. Blitz clearly knows of Altair’s true intentions from the beginning, but stays with her because of his desire to protect her, whom he sees as weaker than she lets transpire. Suruga is an intriguing character because she keeps a low profile most of the time, not showing much of her personality and mindset. Most of the time she comes off as an aloof workaholic, constantly drawing, barely taking her eyes off the paper, only to look woefully uninterested when she did, but in her confrontation with her Blitz, she delivers plenty of substance. She makes for a great parallel to Setsuna. The girl had a sudden boost in notoriety, but didn’t have the time to grow up and learn to deal with the hate that comes with the spotlight and that negativity was too much for her young mind to deal with. Suruga, on the other hand, had to struggle with competition and criticism, suffered with the negativity, finally reaching enough success to be able to sustain herself with her art. Many viewers might think her outlook on fiction or her creative process is cynical, but it’s better to describe it as pragmatic and she shows to genuinely love and take pride on her work. ~~~img440(https://i2.wp.com/www.crowsworldofanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/recreators-20170813-figure09.png?ssl=1) As you can see, a writers work can be pretty hazardous!~~~ On episode 03 the anime introduces the concept around which the entire plot revolves: audience acceptance. They first note that the characters to appear in the real world tend to be those who had the largest impact among the public, so after Matsubara fails to alter the description of Selesia, it becomes obvious that the creators can’t simply change their characters as they go along. They soon began to theorize that what can really affect their status is if they manage to get enough of the general public to empathize with the changes made to them, idea that is solidly proven in the events of episode 10. It’s based on that concept that the heroes elaborate their plan to defeat Altair, by crafting a story that would be able to gather acceptance from the public to the point where they are able to bait and trap Altair on the Bird Cage, a scenario located within the real and fictional words, where they’d be able to defeat her for good, with the approval of the public. Fun fact: Bird Cage is a reference to Altair’s name coming from the Arab word for bird. Looking at the contextual level it’s not hard to see that the idea of acceptance is a method of commenting on the common fictional elements that have the most success with the public on our own universe, as well as the difficulties faced by writers of popular works, who need to keep constantly in mind what the audience wants from them. Fiction is manipulation by nature, it’s designed to engage the audience in an illusion where the artist pulls the necessary strings to make us feel or think a certain way in relation to what happens to the characters. Bad fiction happens when the illusion is not convincing enough or when the trick is so poorly conveyed that we can see the strings in the background, and no character in Re:C exposes that better than Altair herself in the last few episodes. Not only are her powers the ability to manipulate the fabric of fiction (reason why she can’t simply nuke the world into oblivion), but her speech is constantly centered on the idea of what exactly pleases the audience and gets their acceptance. Her originally neutral condition also contributes to that concept: Altair is a character without cannon beyond the original powers given to her by her creator, so there’s little restraint for other artists to invent new abilities for her, as those new powers can just as easily get approval from the wider audience, contributing to her continuous growth in power and number of tricks up her sleeve. Part of me wonders if this is not a paradoxical trick the writer crafts with the audience. As the viewer, we are conditioned to expect the main villain to not go down until the very last moment, and only against a worthy hero that can pull off the strongest emotional reaction from the audience, therefore, the writers are fooling us into expecting Altair to pull off something new to aid her in battle, knowing that the nature of her powers allows for that. Presentation Across the multitude of designs presented the anime displays excellence in keeping verisimilitude and coherence. In fact, that might be the most valuable quality of the work’s presentation, beyond the technical aspects, which are not shabby by any means: the directing is excellent, packed with clever transitions and enthralling shot composition (special shout out to that one camera movement in episode 06 that tells us with no effort that Magane just gets it). Every element of character design was conceived in a way that the experienced anime fan could safely note what they make reference to: Selesia and Charon dress in the angular and colorful style that has become a trend among light novel characters, clearly made to please cosplayers instead of having practical combat utility; Meteora sports the distinguishable attire of an RPG mage from works like the Tales franchise, cuz the design is clearly too confortable to be Final Fantasy; Kanoya uses the slick, futuristic uniform of robot pilots across the Mecha genre. All of this is important because it says something about the characters, not only from what kind of story they come from, but also their personalities. Even when in civilian outfits, the choice of clothing tells something about them: Meteora dresses with cute and childlike attire, because she’s a petit woman and is tired of constantly using a thick uniform, while Selesia’s adorably modest choices help flesh out her personality as reserved, possibly chaste. The same care extends to all the fictional websites, products that appear on the show as well as the different magic symbols used by the characters. The designers commented in interviews how there was an entire creative process behind the elaboration of the multiple logos, focused on creating an internally consistent scenario. There’s no “Gaagle” search engine or “PZP” console in this story, all the fictional products, social medias or websites presented here were designed to look and sound believable to the extent that one could easily think that Mauchly, Piclive or Songbird are a real thing, or that SONY might actually create a console called Play Portal, which I imagine would be a portable with meager first and third-party support. ~~~img500(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eocboXs_zA0/WX-Us6SDrVI/AAAAAAAACcg/3F2wPPzF-lEkd2g2AdKOa52_cOKqyTktACLcBGAs/s1600/recreators2-anime-vsa.jpg) This is the kind of attention to detail you see in a work with passion put into it.~~~ The sound department continues the effort in verisimilitude by featuring performances consistent with the universe and genre each character comes from. I’ve already mentioned Nobuhiko Okamoto previously, brilliantly cast as Sho, not just because of the irony but also because he’s can skillfully express Sho’s devoted and naïve mannerisms. Other clever choices are Suzumura Kenichi as Yuuya, fitting since this voice actor has experience with characters who speak in mischievous tone, and Minase Inoue, as Meteora, who previously worked as Rem in Re:Zero and is capable of pulling off a character who speaks stoically without falling into blandness. Now, voice actors are a fun subject and all, but that’s not even the most exciting aspect of how Re:Creators sounds. That would be Sawano Hiroyuki’s amazing soundtrack, tailor made for this anime. Permeated with intense electronic beat and bombastic energy, these songs are never misplaced; the same track can mark the intensity of action sequences but also play to great effect in comedic beats, adding more points to the directorial work. Just look at Selesia trying her new power or Hikayu doing her badass entry and you’ll know what I mean. The lyrics, off course, in songs like Here I Am (Mamika’s theme), God of ink, Layers, Brave the Ocean and World Etude are perfect mirrors for the characters inner thoughts and their goals. Personal Ramblings I first thought about talking about this in the story breakdown, but I decided to leave it for this section, as it is the main reason Meteora became my favorite character in the show and why I began to see this anime with higher appreciation. In episode 04, after learning about the passing of her creator, Meteora decides to play her game on its entirety. Later, she confesses her main grievance from when she came to the real world and talked about her experience with her own game: it was fun, and that’s all that matters, because all she needed was to known if her creator loved her world the same way she did. This moment was particularly relatable to me because it reminds me of a book I’ve read long ago, The Hour of the Star, where the narrator talks about the protagonist of his story, and about how he loved her. Later is that I came to realize that such love was not a traditional sentiment, but the love of the artist for his creation. Meteora’s confession displays the inverse route, from creation to the artist, but to me it emulates the sentiment of the audience, the feeling of experiencing a work that had love put into it, where the people involved were truly invested in created something that would resonate with the player, the reader or the viewer. ~~~img450(https://68.media.tumblr.com/e24be39e27b130e7ee87c2a5e98bed9e/tumblr_ouqsbnATtl1wsajfio5_r1_1280.gif) I just love this moment!~~~ Re:Creators is an anime I never knew I wanted, but now that I have it I wonder if there’ll ever be something else like it. The way multiple aspects of artistic creation are talked about and analyzed, the portrayal of the audience and Souta’s mindset as a passionate consumer were all relatable and the show frequently would surprise me by doing something I already expected, but in a way that I did not imagine. Rei Hiroe’s writing tends to do that. I sure hope there’s more originated from it, off course. The many works mentioned in the story might as well spawn new franchises in the future, now that they had the perfect introduction. I sure would love to see what they could make out of Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier, since those who saw Re:C already know of some spoilers for it, or how they could conceive Mamika’s anime; perhaps as something initially childish-looking that progressively gets more serious and multifaceted. I know Mecha is in life-support nowadays, but it would be nice to see Infinite Divine Machine Mono Magia get its own anime too. The possibilities are not endless, but they sure are plentiful and can be fruitful as long as those works continue to have comparable quality of writing, directing and care put into them as much as it was put in Re:Creators. ~~~img500(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLMI_EbXUAAS-az.jpg)~~~
Warning this review may contain spoilers First impression, so my first thoughts going into this show if I have to be honest I was going in completely builed the only thing I have hard is that it's like fate zero and there character like izyea from durarara. So I went in with pretty low expectations because this has been quite hyped and in my experience it's better to ignore the hype and go see a show like this from a more impassual mindset in order to reach a clear conclusion as a critic and also not have my enjoyment factor be bogged down by high expectations which this show would probably never meet in a million years. Story, 5/10 So by dear readers have you ever thought what would happen if say your favorite characters from anime, manga, light novels eta came to life in the real world. If you have ever pondered this question then I have some good news for you Because Re creators answers it in a very generic way. they fight because of reasons to numerous to name. Are story begins with bland main character Sōta Mizushino which for the rest of this review I am going to call seasonal anime kun. Who though events that are complicated to explain. pretty much what happens is main character goes into an anime. a character from that anime he watching becomes real and there a magical girl who wants to destroy all of humanity with fictional characters because for various reasons and seasonal anime kun teams up with more fictional characters that just want to go home and leave humanity in tact. I seriously do question what kind of drugs these people are on to come up with this shit and I also must ask where can I get this stuff from. So re creators is what happens when you mix meta writing, a bunch anime stereotypes and lots of drugs. when these elements are mixed together they create an unholy spawn of satan which as been born from the entropy Of a medium that's already on it last legs. Because in all honesty this is probably the most absurd idea for a plot I have seen in quite a while but I will give them props you thinking outside the box a bit. But at the same time the idea of popular Japanese media becoming real because reasons and there fighting each other for a multitude of reasons. It feels like a less coherent version of fate stay night because it has an almost similar concept and plot beat. Because it dose have those philosophy and morality charged battles that fate stay night and other shounen battle titles are famous for having and there enough background plot to keep you slightly interested to the conflict itself. But I ask myself this question and ask this to my readers as well. What else is there to this story than just a death battle and the background plot of these characters adapting to life in the real world. Well nothing really much because the story itself feels like a badly written fan fic by a weebo high on crack and hyped up for the next battle shounen tournament arc. And even if the battles and the slice of life elements are interesting to an extent. But it gets bogged down because The story and plot itself has this odd obsession with pseudo Japanese nationalism and otaku pandering. Which takes away any kind of deepth this story could actually have. But at the same time I shouldn't expect much from a show is pretty much a battle royal with popular Japanese media as fighters. Because though out the series itself they show case how effective the Japanese government was able to sort this shit out very quickly, while also organizing counter measures to stop the evil media characters at bay. And for some reason this show sounds like it's sightly jacking itself off of how it's only poplar Japanese media that's coming to life in the real world and only the otakus can help stop this crisis. Even most of the dailong is taking about the Japanese government or a bunch of otaku pandering shit like how great anime and manga is. It's comes off like some weird hybrid of fate stay night and gate. Except it's taken the worse aspects of those series and quantified it ten times over. Like say what you must about psudo philosophy battles of fate stay night. But at lest those came from a psudo historical context because King Arthur was a chick apparently and even if it was psudo. they at lest built apon and tried it make it interesting. But with re creators is just taking basic character stereotypes who come from completely different worlds and giving them a basic moral alinement. Then give the viewer slight information why they are like this and they just run with it. And to me it's just Comes off as lazy and poorly written because it doesn't really leave much of an impression on me. And This is a battle royal story and I wasn't expecting much from it anyway. but good dam when there no action this story is boring is hell. Like 3/4 of the show is just talking and info dumping and it just so many episodes are wasted on just banter and info dumping. Most of the time it isn't even relevant and just wastes episodes. Just so much dead time like in honesty they could have finished this is about 15 episodes not 22 episodes . Especially with the recap episode we had which isn't needed because people already now what's happened especially because characters will bring it up anyway. So story wise re creators is a cluster fuck of ideas that have been done better before and there are shows similar to it that are better. Characters, 6/10 Main character seasonal anime watcher kun is possibly the most blandest character I have ever seen to date and that's saying something. Because the only thing that he has as a character is that he very shy and likes drawing and that's the extent of his character. He just another self insert character that you will forget in a week in fact I have to keep reminding myself that he actually exists. He feels like a background character that just given the main character role because the writers couldn't think up any decent characters. Even if they explained why he important to the story it doesn't really matter because he doesn't do anything he is just passive as fuck mostly and when I see him on screen I keep on getting PTS flash backs from guilty crown main character shu who was also a Passive. The side characters are a whole lot more interesting than the main character, Well actually to be more precise the fictional characters are the ones who are interesting. Even if they are basic stereotypes at lest they have personally and actually do something. And one thing that surprised me is how they react to there situation. Like one example is that during a huge battle where one of the characters involved was a magical girl and after the fight was finished. She brakes down mentally because she comes from a very idealistic world where the concept of collateral damage or people being hurt And in pain Isn't really a concept she used to and when she sees the destruction around her that she herself has helped cause she just collapses on the ground and brakes down. And while watching this scene I thought that was And another thing which was quite interesting is that the characters themselves are developing more character traits the longer they stay in the real world because there getting exposed to things they never experienced before or haven't experienced yet and there not confined by the limitations of the respected story's they have come from. Which is interesting because these characters or these versions on them have become slightly different and been apart from there world's for so long that they are starting to become there own entity outside there place of origin. The other side characters who are quote on quite real are boring as fuck and I do t care about them in the slightest. And are mostly used for info dumps or react how normal people would react in those situations. The main villain that I am going to call evil magical girl. Pretty comes off more As a edge-lord/ emo hybrid. Because all she talks about is sadness and pretentious monologs about Creation and how she will get revenge for her creator. Because her creator killed her self and thats the rest of humanity fault that happened apparently. So she wants to make every one feel the sadness and dispaer like her creator did In Her last moments alive. And I can understand the reason behind getting revenge for the person that your creator and gave you life. But at the same time her reasoning behind it comes of as petty and childish. It basically this. " I suffer so I make the rest of the world suffer with me " That's pretty much all the reason behind it. The character interactions I find interesting to a point. But after a while they become repetitive and boring. And I stopped caring after a while. Art, 7/10 The animation looks pretty decent and flows quite organically. The backgrounds look decent as well. Art pretty is good as well like there a few parts where shits a little off model or things get a little blurry. Now the fight scenes are quite flashy and don't exactly hate it. but it would be nice to have some battles that don't just boil down to using flashy gimmicks to win. like it would be nice to see more difference in combat abilities that aren't about the super natural powers or big robots with hyper beam canons that blow up half a city block. I actually quite like the characters destined because there quite varied and remind me of quite a few different shows which I quite liked the trip down memory lane. Sound, 6/10 I really like a first opening because I find it it quite engageing ans gets me hyped for each ep. The ending and other op and ending sounds alight,but for me it isn't somethings I would go out of my way to listen to. The ost is pretty good, if you liked sword art online or guilty crown ost I think you might like the ost for re:creators. Because there quite similar in music and beat to it. The ost and music was done by Sawano, Hiroyuki who has worked on music and ost for series such as guilty crown, kill la kill and zombie Lon. Voice acting was on point, nothing really sounded out of place to be. Enjoyment, 5/10 Well I enjoyed the ride for what's it's worth and I was engaged enough to actually pay attention and not get bored. But after a while as the story continued I keep on losing interest and honestly I keep watching it even though the novelty of it wore off completely after 11 episodes Because I wanted to write this review. And it's continuing more than it actually has to. Because honestly the could have finished this story in about 15 episodes and it would be be ok. Like I probably prefer fate stay night over this. But at lest a got a great drinking game out this show. because everyone time someone mentions the Japanese government or anime and manga you take a drink and if you do that you will be shit faced by ep 3 or ep 5 depending on your alcohol tolerance Overall, 5/10 If you like shows like fate stay night or future diary then you probably like this show, Because as far as shounen battle series all things considered it not exactly bad it's just another very average and slightly overhyped show. And it's definitely not the modern classic that some people hype it up to be because in a few years time this show will be forgotten like most shows of it elk. If your looking for something with more substance and depth and not just just cool fights. then probably better off just stick with fate stay night or watch hunter X hunter or yu yu hakusho.
*Beware of massive spoilers* Creativity is something to be cherished, at least when it's not used for malicious intent. Creativity is part of the soul of all good stories, and even the most generic, lifeless trite has at least something creative to call its own, for better or worse. Creators of fiction create their own worlds, characters, situations, etc., and exploring what would happen when their creations transcend fiction and leap into the realm of reality is, well, one of the most creative premises ever conceived in fiction, inevitable puns aside. However, premise draws is to a show, but execution is what keeps us away or coming back, happy, disappointed, excited, or enraged. Luckily, this show actually knows what it's talking about, giving a real reason to stay invested every time it slows down. It's a fascinating show, to say the least, and I love it, blunders and all, thanks to its wonderful intrigue, character interactions, fights, and designs. Is this the best show of the year, certainly not, but it's damn good. It's going to be rather hard to make my review as meticulous as this show is, given that this review is probably the hardest I’ll ever make, but I’m willing to try, thanks to the power of taking notes for this wonderful show. So as I reach my proverbial hand, I ask you two things: will you join me on this magical journey, and do you have any questions? Hopefully, you said yes to both of these, but I will certainly never know. Regardless, provided that your question is one that this review can answer, let’s find out, shall we? This series glorifies the audience, treating them as actual gods. After all, our reception of a show, on the whole, is what determines its success, and so do our wallets, especially our wallets. We determine a show’s success by watching it and decides to spend money on it. This series knows that so it assumes that we tend to only do that for quality shows. Hence, it makes sure that each of the fictional stories these characters are pulled from are from series that many people in-universe find to be of good quality. It expects that we only watch the good stuff or at least support what we consider good. This isn't entirely true for real life audiences, but it's nice to see a show treat us so kindly as a whole. It also pays special attention to detail with audiences. It doesn't just show perfectly accepting and cheering audiences like all other series that have fictional audiences do, it even shows some that are very perceptive, saying stuff like “that's our writer, classic him” or even “man, haha, this is so stupid” which many of us are definitely like, especially myself. The series also downplays the power of creators. We’d like to think that they can always have full control over their stories and change them up on a whim, and thus assign them all the credit or blame. That simply isn't true, and the show knows this. It shows they you can't just revise a product and expect that to fly with the audiences, you need to add something that will work instead of changing things to something already established. Sometimes there are many writers that have to come to some kind of agreement or end up dealing with what other writers wrote down before them. I know this show didn't the to show the executive meddling side of things but that happens too. Characters try to get their creators to make massive changes and that doesn't work for the reasons mentioned above. I love how there are certain story actions that only certain characters end up doing. Of course, Selesia ends up having a minute long dialogue about why she’s doing what she’s doing in her big combat scene in episode 19, she’s a character of a Light Novel adaptation. Of course, Rui with his mech has to be the one to kill someone he cares about who is in another mech. Have you seen Gundam? Of course, he gets a plastic model kit for his robot. Again, Gundam. There here is some great foreshadowing here at play too. We get great foreshadowing as to why Sota refuses to tell anyone about Altair’s creator when they need to know and he already knows, he feels horrible about what happened to her creator, Setsuna, since he wasn't there for her when she needed some semblance of emotional support. Setsuna being a character in episode 20 for the show they were doing to take down Altair? Sota pinned the idea a few episodes back and they thought it would be a crazy and controversial move (turns out it was but they made a cover story). Charon being an antagonist? Marie flat out told this to Selesia back in episode 3, unaware that this was the anime adaptation version and not the original novel version, where she was betrayed. The pacing in this anime is really slow, like, Ergo Proxy levels of slow, but that's ok. The dialogue in this show is almost always necessary because it's slowly but surely feeding us more important information about the world or exploring the themes via the characters interacting with each other and their stories in some way. Almost never is a scene remotely wasted, and in fact, they probably should've added a few scenes about the spinoffs leading into the big gargle so that some of the reveals don't come off as asspulls because of them needing to do something and saying “well, the characters told each other about this and you knew these were a thing so it's ok”. Maybe part of the spa scene in episode 16 could've been taken out for that but it's more than just the plot dragging its feet like what some may claim. Of course, I can't spoil the series without talking about how it all ends. Think back the whole Setsuna episode 20 deal. This was the perfect way to beat Altair, as well as a very creative one. Altair had always felt resentment over how Setsuna’s fate went thanks to the ridicule she received upon the creation of Altair. Using this to their advantage was a brilliant move by Sota. Of course, most OP end villains are defeated through the hero becoming insanely strong and then killing them or otherwise sealing them up completely, but here, she's convinced and consoled dialogue, dialogue between her and the one she cared about, as their last resort, and none of it came off as anti-climactic. After all, this was the end of Altair’s character arc, resentful of the world for what it did to Setsuna and now finally meeting her and then finally relenting in everything. With the remaining creation characters sans Magane and the characters that died (or basically allowed themselves to reside at the end of the story at the end of episode 21 meant to contain Altair), we see everyone give their final goodbyes and move forward. Barring Meteora (and the ones above), the rest of the creations say goodbye to their creators and head back to their worlds with the kind of banter you'd expect from them and their relationships with their writers, and everyone heads off to their old lives again, with new projects and anime adaptations in the works. Thus, we come back to Sota and Meteora, who submit their scripts and we see the title one last time, with every creation sans Altair just hanging out in a drawing. We now see the anime adaptation of the show Selesia was in end, in a way that seems like she’s giving encouragement to the audience, so by extension, Sota Nearly brought a tear to my eye with how great that ending was. Of course, this narrative isn't perfect. Even excluding some problems mentioned earlier, the series can really beat us over the head with the whole “creator” and “audience acceptance” bit and it can feel borderline pretentious towards the end at times. There are holes regarding Sota’s seemingly absent mom and the idea that he goes to school but we never see him go to school. We have no idea how Altair managed to become sentient let alone get into the real world, and despite teasing us the connection between Altair and Sota, they never interact even once, which is honestly mind-boggling. The dialogue in episode 11 in particular can get intrigue given that no one makes a move in that episode’s fight until after 20 seconds of someone talking. There are also a few minor missed opportunities as well but honestly the surprisingly rickety narrative is still pretty rich. A large chunk of what made this show great comes down to two things: character dynamics, and the “creations” themselves. They, along with certain things I’ll get to in a bit, make this cast so great, despite the fact that they probably shouldn’t be. I’ll tackle some of the creators first. Sota is...interesting. A lot of people complained that he was weak and unable to do much other than support until the end, but that's kinda the point. He’s an ordinary kid surrounded by ordinary yet fully grown adults and epic badasses with superpowers. I doubt you can say that he can get much done without it coming off as forced and stupid. Sure, a ton of things revolve around him in some way or another, but he only gets to do something epic in the end, that writing Setsuna into the story to be the one thing that stops Altair, all for the purpose of telling her something he wishes he could've told her while she was still alive. After all, he wasn't exactly a great guy before, finding some glee in her ridicule and not being there when she needed someone the most, all out of jealousy. It's this character arc that makes him so appealing, seeing him try to deal with what he had done, even if it meant hindering the group until someone broke the truth out of him, forcing him to accept it and bite the bullet for his team. Besides, while you can consider him the main character, don't. In episode 1, he actively states that above all else, he’s just the guy who gets to bring us into this world where he is one of many characters whose perspectives are largely shown. Regardless, he’s still a great character for what he is. The other creators don't get as of an ability to be memorable. I actively forget the names of most of them, though I do still like some of them, especially Suruga and to a lesser extent Matsubara, whose sort of snarky yet eventually caring father/daughter-esque relationship became really nice to see. I like seeing what happens to a creator emotionally when he sees his creation die, in that he feels like a family member of his died. The only creator I really can't stand is Nishio. He is the typical ultra perv character and to see him as a creator was disconcerting. Thankfully he gets the least actual plot significance because everything about this guy is insufferable. Back to what makes Suruga the best creator character: the scene with her and Blitz. This scene was epic, showing just how much she understands her characters and how she was eventually able to convince him to betray Altair. She even came prepared with a bullet-proof vest because she’s that awesome. There are now two non-creation characters to really talk about now: Marine and Setsuna. Marine draws some obvious Setsuna parallels in that she sometimes feels ridiculed and saddened by what she is passionate about yet proceeds to keep drawing, much like Setsuna did prior to suicide, and she almost always feels like when she tries to do something right, she ends up making things worse. That made it even better when she managed to give Selesia that fire sword attack in episode 10, which was already an epic moment. I've already touched on Setsuna’s suicide and how I feel like there should've been more seen on her end as to why she committed it but she was still an alright character, just a typical shy but mostly happy teen who became depressed at the harsh reality of what success can bring you. It's a shame we don't get to know much about her, but the scene with her and Altair was, again, incredible. Now, with that said, time to move on the real stars of the show: the creations themselves! The creations, the first 9 anyway, are what drive this section home. They are responsible for most of the best banter in the show and most of the exploration of these themes that to them, are very existential. Their personalities are also the ones that challenge and get challenged constantly, more so than any of the human characters sans Sota, though it's more of his past actions and hiding from them that get challenged rather than his personality and motivations. Some of them draw especially major parallels with certain characters from shows of our world, and I'll address major ones I see along the way. Welp, let’s dive right in. Selesia is easily my favorite of the bunch. From her character design to her overall immense beauty, to her expressions and overall character, I love her more than any other character in the show. She’s the first we see have to really be hit with the reality her she is a fictional character, and I find it really amusing that this is the anime adaptation of her exclusively, so she eldest know what happens later in the novels. She had one it the weaker personalities on the whole but that's where the banter and facial expressions come in. Her facial expressions, particularly those of the dialogue-heavy, yet casual situations, are always hilarious and I like how she ends up arguing with Matsubara a lot until the halfway mark, and how she reacts to some situations like the exact way Rui shot her down in episode 5 or how insufferable Nishio was being in episode 15. It's also funny to see that she refuses to read the novel of her or watch the anime because she feels it's awkward and embarrassing. It's a shame she had to die, but hey, what can you do? Meteora is an interesting one. I can understand her boring many viewers, as even in her game she was mainly exposition, and that carried over immensely, so that's an understandable trait of hers, but especially early on in the show, we see her being the one who drives the meta themes home, like about how she ended up really enjoying her game and shaking her view based on the passion put into her game by the now deceased creator, or how she still recognizes Sota as someone who played the game as the protagonist. The recap episode with her was uproarious though, seeing her find a way to diss anyone she can from this story and even come up with a crazy alternate scenario that results in her winning against Altair easily to end the story. Of course, it would be her bro hung up complaints from the studio itself and the fact that the recap episode was planned from the beginning. Of course, she’s the first one to really form a friendship with Kikuchihara given their similar personalities, and it's nice to see that at the end, she’s the only one that ends up staying to become a writer herself. Yuuya and Rui are the two of the 9 I have the least to say about to they get to share. Yuuya’s a fun jackass for most of the show and it's funny seeing him come up with a weird nickname for Meteora. The dude has no qualms about who he fights and probably more than most characters, Magane (who I'll really get to soon) repulses him greatly. As for Rui, he really draws a lot of parallels with Kamille Bidan from Zeta Gundam, especially at the beginning. Think about it: a whiny, angsty, blue-haired mecha pilot who grows into someone better over time. I wish I could've seen the development instead of knowing that he came back a changed man, but it was nice seeing him and Yuuya become bros and seeing him try to encourage Sota to be less scared and emotional. Hikayu’s easily the weakest of the bunch, both physically and as a character. She’s very timid and eventually gets superpowers, and she does a little bit of moralizing, but she doesn't really have a strong presence or dynamic, let alone anything she really brings to the table other than some flashy moves and more fanservice. Then again, both of the characters that get introduced after the ⅔ mark are kinda lame, and we’ll get to the other one later. A common trait you'll realize about these characters is how complex and informed they are. They're of stories that aren't hellholes or black and white morality shows, so they get to be very complex and actually willing to be as informed as possible about his world and the nature of creators, unlike the antagonists. Before we get to them though, we have one last character to talk about. Magane is a complete wildcard, and I'm probably not the only one who hated her for a while, for right and wrong reasons. She doesn't care about anything other than having fun, and she finds the struggle and suffering of others to be really, really fun, just like one of my favorite villains of all time, Terumi from Blazblue, especially when she manages to really bring Sota to despair by making him doubt his team and bring back his repressed guilt of not being there for Setsuna prior to her dear. She fucks with him especially hard, making it even more cathartic in episode 19 when he accepts that like her, he’s not exactly a good person (though he isn't as bad as she is). She challenged so many characters’ own morals and feelings, including the more black and white morality of characters such as Alice and Mamika. I initially grew to hate her mannerisms and eagerness to repeat a word multiple times before continuing her dialogue, but I grew to kinda enjoy her presence towards the end, especially when she helps out our heroes in episodes 19 and 20 with her reality-warping powers. With her out of the way, time to move onto the antagonists. Mamika is clearly the most sympathetic of the group since she’s a magical girl protagonist. This means that her morality is so black and white that she perceives those to some listen to her words of peace as bad guys. It's epic to see how the attacks that are usually fairly harmless and acceptable in her world cause massive hysteria and destruction in real life, causing her to panic and feel horrible. I especially like her relationship with Alice, as while they are from stories of polar opposite tones and moods, their ideologies on how they want to save the world and defeat evil are one and the same, and they bond over that in an almost sisterly fashion, making Alice want revenge for Mamika’s death. Then again, a magical girl with “Mami” in the name is pretty much destined to die, and both of these two characters die in their pursuit of heroism and saving the world, with Altair doing both of them in. This means I've basically described Alice as well, unfortunately, but that at least saves me some time. There is one thing about her to mention though, her Saber parallels. Blonde blade wielder from a sort of medieval-esque origin, her pose and background in the first OP being like that one set of Saber standing in a bloody battlefield of swords and armor, her almost naïve sense of justice. You see it too, don't you? Blitz is also interesting. Out of the people working under Altair, he’s the only one exclusively from a manga, at least the only one explosively stated as such from what I understand. He knows he isn't some big hero, so he isn't manipulated by Altair from that perspective. He’s just doing what he can to assist her because he feels resentment over his writer’s narrative in which he’s forced to kill his daughter, who looks kinda similar to Nunnally from Code Geass (it's like they know me). He feels like he’s a failure as a father and he, again, knows he’s not some grand hero, so he finds it odd to see his comrades behave the way they do, and his payoff in episode 18 after the already glorious confrontation between him and Suruga, as I already mentioned is great. Altair is easily the best of the antagonists though. She’s as bitter as she is pretentious. She can manipulate everyone with ease and her powers are beyond broken. Some people say that's automatically a bad thing, to have a villain sue character (a villain who is OP and constantly winning), but in this case, it really isn't, for reasons I'm about to mention. Despite the fact that she stands around too much, she’s always one step ahead for most part, especially in the second half when she uses the good guys’ main plan against them and slowly and sadistically picks them off one by one. Everything she does is for Setsuna, as she feels outraged by what the world did to her, which is an interesting motivation for a villain, as we can see her so vulnerable so many times and just have an epic emotional outburst that feels reasonable for everyone. And again, the way she is defeated was perfect. Chiron and Shou are also kinda weak and don't get much time to really be fleshed out, but I like the foreshadowing for Chirion being an antagonist all the way back in episode 3 as that he does all of this because he’s tired of the fighting and suffering. Shou just wants revenge for his family, which is a decent motivation too, and his powers are also cool as shit though, so both of these guys are at least better late characters than Hikayu. So, you can no doubt see two common traits with some of these guys here. Some of them feel absolute resentment involving their creators while others feel like this is their duty, but all of them sans Altair are woefully uninformed of the abilities of the creator, completely overestimating them. I also find it interesting that none of them are created as villain characters, just heroes and one character that adopted the role as the villain due to having no role and nothing but hate, when the only character created as a villain, Magane, is just a brutal wildcard. Again, it's not just the personalities that make most of these characters great, but far more so what they represent and their relationships with each other that make them stand out. Obviously, I didn't bother giving everyone, as not everyone is really worth mentioning, and some of these characters are still weak, so I wouldn't say it's an all-around fantastic cast, but even still, the better ones here are amazing enough to elevate everything to nearly reach that level anyway. They're about as good from a characterization and writing standpoint as they are from a visual standpoint on the whole, and speaking of which... TROYCA was the spearhead behind this ambitious show, and the characters look pretty good. The writers and other normal people look...exactly that, plain and ordinary. After all, they're mere mortals in this real world, nothing inherently special. The character designs of the true fictional characters are pretty good, and I am an especially big fan of the designs for Selesia and Altair. Selesia looks genuinely lovely no matter what outfit she's in (and she gets to be in a ton of casual outfits that look fantastic on her, so these guys either have great fashion sense or she’s generally just that good, but I love that they did that) and Alrair’s design is physically pretty complex and interesting, with the detailed suit and gauntlet and even the eyes with the red pupil and blue top of the iris and black bottom side of the iris, to the point where it's accepted in canon that she’s a pain for the team to animate (yet they never mess up, good on them). The character expressions (especially Selesia’s) can be real funny when they need to be and despite them all coming from different genres, their art styles all work perfectly here. The action is pretty fun as well, with no real fault in the choreography, though the camera is sometimes in the way. Still, these set pieces are really cool and fun and so are some of the powers, and there is a ton of flashy abilities on display here, and adds specific moments that look exceptional. The CGI can range from pretty decent such as Selesia’s mech which is a gigantic pain to name, to really bad, especially Shou’s CGI mecha knight-looking thing, though they're only used for the mechs and cars. Their designs can look decent though, like Selesia’s mech (again). There is an insane amount of dialogue so there are plenty of moments where there isn't a whole lot of animation happening, unfortunately, and the environments aren't interesting enough to hold our attention, so thankfully the character interactions and great Sawano OST for most part do that job just fine, especially in the first half. It is a commonly accepted belief that Hiroyuki Sawano is among the greatest anime music composers to date, with famously beloved OSTs for Guilty Crown, Attack on Titan, and Kill la Kill. This one is no exception and is one of the few actually good popular anime that he had the luxury of working on. There are a plethora of really good tracks for this show, including both versions of “Layers” and “Brave the Ocean” (though I much prefer the original over the MOD version for both). Many of these tracks are good enough to help bolster the enjoyment of the more dialogue-heavy scenes, especially for game-changing discoveries (such as the track “creator”) so you can imagine how well they work for the fight scenes. This Sawano OST isn't his best unfortunately, as while it's pretty good, it's highs aren't as epic as those of his AoT and Kabaneri OSTs, nor do they really match the Gundam Unicorn OST, which I feel is his best anime OST to date, even if tracks like "Re:Suspense" are up there and are still numerous. That should come off as less of a knock on the show and more of a testament to his musical prowess that great isn't one of the best. OP 1, "gravityWall" by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Tielle & Gemie is a very catchy and epic tune that really preps you up for this crazy ride you’re about to have, and one of the best OPs of the Spring 2017 season. OP2, "sh0ut" by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Tielle & Gemie, is even more epic and empowering, especially with the buildup before the now famous “Sawano drop” moment where after the epic build up, the song shifts into high gear. This is easily one of the best OPs of Summer 2017, and sometimes I struggle between choosing which of these two OPs is the better of the two, they’re both that good. ED1, "NEWLOOK" by Mashiro Ayano, while a decent song and ED in its own right, is a bit disappointing since many shows that Sawano did the music for bad both great OPs and great EDs, like Attack On Titan, Gundam Unicorn Re:0096, and last year’s Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. The episode 13 ED, "world Étude" by Aki Toyosaki, is a bit better and I like that it’s the trailer theme from Altair’s planned series that was discussed in this show, but it's still only ok. ED 2, "Rubikon (ルビコン)" by Sangatsu no Phantasia, really grew on me. At first, I kinda thought it was alright and that what they did with the visuals was way better by it fits really well with everything and is a really nice and happy song in and of itself. I especially enjoy what they did with the visuals and the mixing of the show’s animated elements and different art styles with real life stuff, making it a really pleasant cross between everything it talks about. You kinda need to see for yourself how great and inventive it is. Overall, Sawano did another really solid job, as he’s known for, even if this isn't his most epic work. I had a ton of fun with this show, and the way it handled its ingenious premise. The dialogue was usually riveting, if a bit nervously heavy-handed at times, the characters, especially the “creations” were great, the foreshadowing and attempts at causing suspicion were great (especially for the reveals of Altiar’s creator and the fact that Chirion, Selesia’s best friend, was an antagonist), the comedy was almost always spot on and uproarious, and the fights were fun as hell. Again, a lot of people are gonna feel bored with this one, especially thanks to its slow yet necessary pace and the fact that it is infinitely more dialogue-heavy than we were initially led to believe, but the dialogue is almost always interesting for aforementioned reasons, and barring maybe the first half of episode 16, every scene is necessary, nothing is wasted, so despite it feeling like it drags at times, it almost never truly stalls. I like how it basically glorifies the audience as like a wrathful god that only likes good entertainment (we wish), even if the show sometimes feels like it has to hammer the point of some things home (probably out of fear, even though this backfired for many people). Back when this show was still coming out, I heard the mixed to negative reception of this show from many of my friends. Needless to say, I was beyond worried, and I began pleading for this show to be good. I am so released to say that I'm not disappointed in the slightest. Re:Creators is anything but recycled garbage, it’s actually ambitious, interesting, and creative. Are there missed opportunities? Yeah. Is it heavy-handed and at times boring? Sure. Are there a few downright asinine aspects to this series. Certainly. That doesn’t stop how smart and epic this show is with its amazing premise or wonderful character interactions. This show kind of glorifies and expects a ton from you, which is charming in its own way. It’s in no way pretentious, but it’s more ambitious than most anime of this year, using so many kinds of tropes and characters from other genres perfectly and juxtaposing them with real life, as well as showing how a real setting that can allow for many more scenarios than a typical storyline for these characters can bring out so many different sides of them and incite some actual change from them. That makes it hilariously ironic given that this is a work of fiction though, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s aware of that or not. Even still, this is definitely one of the standout titles of the year, as it's a wonderful ode to creators and the work they put everything into. Now, as always, I bid you adieu.
Re:CREATORS is a strange show. The premise of fictional characters in the real world has been done countless times before, and many times to great effect, but I don’t think any have come close to approaching the subject matter from the same angle as this. I think it’s fair to say there might not even be another show like it anytime soon, if ever. It wears the novelty of having several disparate genres collide and clash almost like a disguise for what is a philosophical character study at its core. I’ve never seen Black Lagoon, but I could tell a lot about creator and producer Rei Hiroe from watching Re:CREATORS. He put a lot of care into making this world seamless in every aspect that mattered, even going as far to create eight fake stories just for the sake of this single-season show with no spinoffs, each of which has enough merit that it could feasibly exist as a story in the real world. The more I came to understand the show, the more I realized Rei Hiroe simply loved telling stories, and with this one, he wanted to demonstrate why we love doing the same. ____As a warning, I’ll cover spoilers for major events without explicitly describing them, so proceed with caution.____ To call the whole idea of Re:CREATORS ambitious would be an understatement. It’s not necessarily that it had never been done before; several crossovers have been made in movies and TV shows, some even containing their own in-universe fiction, but as far as I know, this is the first time it’s been done to such an extensive degree, with such believable characters and stories behind them and with such a long runtime. Even during the beginning, the characters are never excessively stereotypical and carry their stories and development with them. In that aspect is where I believe one of the show’s biggest strengths lies. As soon as the story begins, they enter a new sort of character arc in which they can no longer just be the characters they always were: they have to become people. This concept is so well-executed that it’s perhaps one of my favorite instances of characterization ever. Though confused at first, the characters eventually learn to open up, socialize, get driving licenses, and by the end, even write stories of their own. That extra little bit of seemingly unnecessary detail grounds the story in such a subtle way that makes you feel more attached to the characters than if they had just been their plain old selves from the beginning. The humanization of the characters extends to their creators, whose interactions with their characters (which I’ll be calling creations from now on for the sake of convenience) highlight the core of what Re:CREATORS is all about: The creators themselves. Souta Mizushino, the protagonist of the story, is a perfect representation of Rei Hiroe's passion for writing stories at a young age, being surrounded by inspiration and having nothing but respect for not only the creators, but the creations. Though outwardly a little quirky, the rest of the creators have their own subtlety, at times having so much experience that they have difficulty explaining why exactly they tell the stories they've been telling for years, but once again rekindling the love for their work when they see what their creations have become and the impact that they've had on everyone. It's almost like a parent-child relationship in that sense. They feel genuinely proud of their creations despite putting them through hell in their own stories, because they know they will ultimately triumph, and seeing those triumphs happen before their eyes is staggeringly beautiful, even to the viewer. It’s kind of a disservice to call Re:CREATORS an action show, because apart from there not being too many fights, the real battles happen between the creators and their creations, and they’re what drive the narrative at every step of the way. This is one of the very few instances where I really enjoy, and sometimes prefer the moments where characters just sit around and talk, because the content of their dialogue hits pretty deep into the philosophy behind making stories and the people who make them. That’s not to say the action is bad, however. In fact, it’s very meaningful. Every physical encounter between the characters is a violent clash of ideals and morals, and the more you get to know them, the more their previous actions make sense. At first glance, a character like Alicetaria is simply hard-headed to the point of stupidity, always preferring to fight first and never talk things out, but when you take into consideration that she comes from a story of death, torture, and loss, where she has all the power she needs but everything she holds dear is always dangled just out of her reach, it’s difficult to blame her. It's her exchanges with both her creator and Souta that make her realize just how important she is to the readers of her story, and that she doesn't simply suffer for the sake of entertainment. It's this melding together of genres into one whole that shapes the characters into perceiving the world through a different lens than the one they've always had, and that's great. It was certainly courageous to make eight completely unique characters and stories solely to put them in one show and never again, but it's that level of commitment that really sells the show. There are no stupid low-effort parodies like "Two Piece" or "Dragon Cube X"; there are no cheap memes or references; it's all original and believable. Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier; AVALKEN of Reminisce, Alicetaria of the Scarlet, Code: Babylon, Lockdown Ward Underground -dark knight-; Magicalslayer Mamika. Just looking at those titles might make an unassuming passer-by think they're real shows, comics or games that they can experience by themselves. A couple of times while rewatching the show I had to stop and remind myself that they weren't independent stories and I couldn't buy and play a copy of AVALKEN, or watch the latest episode of Vogelchevalier. It might seem strange, but the show has such an effective way of subtly disintegrating the barrier between the fiction made for it and the fiction that exists in the real world that it feels way more personal than it should. Visually, it's just slightly above average, but audibly, it's excellent. Composer Hiroyuki Sawano never fails to make an amazing soundtrack for anything, and this might be my favorite work of his to date because of just how diverse it is. His sheer skill lets him make an edgy, hardcore theme as well as a cutesy magical girl theme without it feeling out of place. All throughout the soundtrack, there's a tone that's equally somber, yet hopeful, that seems to transcend divinity and touch right into the core of raw emotion. I wouldn't call it a coincidence; the music embodies perfectly the power of stories. God, I am biased. As a final attempt at a balancing act, here’s some things I _don’t_ like: After the second act low point, things slow down to a crawl. A new character is introduced that brings nothing and only serves as a vain attempt to replace an old one. As the show continues, the mechanics it set up in the beginning become increasingly convoluted and stretch pretty damn thin the boundaries of its own logic just so it can make things work in the end. The protagonist is heavily underused in the final battle, and almost nothing comes from him being directly and personally related to the antagonist, which wasted huge amounts of potential. One character with a giant mecha gets thrown to the wayside in nearly every one of his fights and he rarely gets to use the damn thing. Some loose threads are left unresolved by the end of it, and some arcs don’t have a satisfying ending. You get my point, it’s by no means a perfect show, but y’know? As a writer and creator, myself, the rest of it is so influential that I can’t help but recommend it. Even as just a proof of concept, it’s stunning. Re:CREATORS encapsulates the essence of storytelling in a beautifully crafted package that even three years later its reach never fails to escape me. If there’s one thing I can say now, is that I’m sure there was a miracle, and that there was a story that surpassed all stories.
__What a bland but beautiful show. __ Don't get me wrong, it's just that up until the 19th episode __I was able to predict what was about to happen.__ _Fight scenes, morals, world views, balance, everything that defines this work is simply bland to me. And that's what makes it beautiful._ A story need not a caring hero, nor a powerful hero, nor a righteous hero. What it actually needs is a moment of truth where everything fall to pieces with no filter whatsoever. It's an accurate depiction of what it feels like to create a story, to create a life. __You would not regret watching this show or reading it.__ It gives you something that precisely only a story could give you, the feeling of satisfaction and how not to cling to that feeling. Personally, I would give this story a million points. Just the fact that they are able to weave this kind of story is already enough for me to give it millions of points. __"A story to surpass all stories"__, _I'm sure there are already plenty of creators out there who are inspired by this piece and are trying to make something that is definitely influenced, if not largely, by this work._ However, as a critique I am not satisfied with the way the characters are developed. But I can't do anything about it. There are plenty kinds of stories out there after all, just like in Re:CREATORS. There are stories who bloom, there are those that dies fast and washed away by the flow of time. there are those that continue to live on even after decades, and lastly there are those that are passed on to many generations with various twists to them. This is exactly one of those things. This kind of concept isn't uncommon, there are plenty of creators that have tried to weave the same thing but ultimately failed. That's why pulling off something this grand yet so simple of a story is a sight to behold. This is undoubtedly one of the best works out there. As for the negative parts of this work, it lacks texture and hook. It is nice that it can give you the feeling of something fleeting. However, my dissatisfaction lies with the fact that it didn't give the characters more time to develop much further. It also wasted its potential to continue weaving its story. A story of stories weaved together ending abruptly sounds ironic. It didn't give any proper foreshadowing nor able to keep all information as vague as possible. If I were the author I would give it another go and try to give the story more context and sink myself even further. I'd even go as far as including myself as an author in my own work. It has great potential to be something more than what most stories out there are. With that said, it is one of my favorite stories. It portrayed human expression really well, how ugly us humans are and how we take this beautiful world for granted. A fleeting moment of satisfaction that ends with the bland taste like it's telling you, ___"This is just one chapter. There are plenty to come. So continue following and seeing it through."___
If you're an artist, writer, or "creator"; if you ever cried, felt lost, struggled, or tormented yourself over your work then you will understand this show better than others. Re:Creators is the dream of many writers to combine a cornucopia of genres, characters, and stories into one action pack extravaganza. A love letter to the anime medium as a whole. It has a message about the reality of art and the struggling artist it is very well crafted. As an anime it falls slightly short of greatness. To best describe this show, I would best describe it as a saltine cracker. It is inoffensive, good-natured, and will satisfy your hunger. But that is all it will do. It lacks the flavor and hype of other anime. A pop tart it is not. It is a good anime but lacks the necessary components to become great. If someone read a book on how to create an anime then this would be the product. It feels like someone followed a step by step recipe for creating a show using every piece of advice and tool written in the guide. Every story beat was met, the characters were engaging and strong with their own agency and personality. All the essential ingredients for a anime. On the surface, it would be the perfectly created anime. What it lacks is originality and more importantly a certain characteristic crucial in all great anime, risk. Re:Creators takes no risks with its story telling. A simple example of this is the fact that it is not funny. It doesn't try to be funny. The jokes are few and far between and only show up near the end. Comedy while not essential for a anime of this type, helps a show entertain and adds depth as well as characteristic. I cried during moments of the show more than I laughed. It does nothing to change the norms of the anime genres it is borrowing to tell its story as one would expect for a story like this. It takes a bunch of genres and tropes and combines them in a well crafted story but one that is lacking melding and blending. The tropes work in tandem with one another but never blend together to create something new. Good aspects of the show -The plot: as I stated, the idea of a crossover in this fashion is a dream of many writers so it is amazing to see it not only created but in a respectful way to the types of shows being referenced. Creative- This is a more complicated one. While I did enjoy the ideas used for the characters and their powers, they lacked originality and made them feel standard. Yes considering that is the point of the show that is to be expected and I'm not complaining but I do wonder if more could be done to make them stand out more. Creators: I loved the concept of the creations meeting and working alongside those who created them and how they all had complicated feelings towards each other that varied from character to character. I think it was handled as well as it could have been. -Altair: The most unique thing about the entire show and one of the best variety of powers I've ever seen an antagonist have. Getting to the finer points of the shows problems I'll list them quickly. -Magane's power: I never understood how it worked or how it was activated. Her entire character felt like a bit of a waste to fill screen time while she rambled on nonsensically. -The penultimate episode: I was in tears but it was way too long. There was no reason it should have taken as long as it did especially after such an intense series of fights just to get to that point. Also I don't believe they handled the "secret weapon" as well as they could have but that's a more minor issue. -Character deaths: Being the end, someone had to die but I question whether or not some deaths were worth having since they didn't add much to the story considering they ended up using the "secret weapons" anyway. There is a rule in writing that when an important character dies it should do more than evoke emotion and I don't believe that was achieved here. -Altair's Goal: this is more of a pet peeve. Destroying the world no matter for what reason is cliche as Hell and the fact that despite everything going on, that is essentially what Altair's end goal was made the show once again lack greatness. Re:Creators is a good show. It is a well-written and structured show that did everything right. There is no denying that. But it couldn't bring itself to go the extra mile past STANDARD. Aside from the overall plot of different characters appearing from an assortment of popular media, it lacks anything memorable. There were several strong moments that made me smile, laugh, and cry but I find it hard to find myself reaching for another saltine when there are so many poptarts and other more favorable snacks within reach even if they aren't as satisfying.
~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/EMU250E.jpeg)~~~ ~~~Spoilers below!!!!~~~ __Emotional side__ I'd like to say that Re:Creators speaks a lot to me in an emotional level because I am also an artist, so a lot of things that can be considered normal banter, or a lot of useless dialog by non-artists, I deeply valued. It's really relieving knowing the author of such a great anime also goes through the impostor syndrome. This is continuously revealed in the show in multiple occasions, such as the interaction of the first god with Selestia and the last fight scene where Altair meets her creator. I would also like to note that the author puts great emphasis on the creation of a great story compared to the creation of a really good character, it's something I struggle a lot with. After all it's not what about what a character should look like but how everything about this character interacts with the world they are put in. __Character designs__ Generally speaking the characters aren't special per say in the begging. Each one looks like your stereotypical hero, they want to protect the world and be the best person they can be. However, during the progression of the show, we see that almost all characters develop, Selestia understand what her role in the world is and knows that she's not truly the hero of her show nor is Charon. Mamika is just your overall annoying character when she first shows up, but eventually builds an incredible relationship with Alicetelia, a bond of heroic values i suppose. Mamika wants to be the pillar of hope for everyone, and a character that removes depression from other people including the main antagonist, Altair, which personally had the biggest development in only 3 episodes. Altair just goes from your classic emotionless killing machine to something more humane once she's faced with her creator. I believe her design is portrayed fantastically, she is designed by a god who considers herself weak and is put down by almost everyone, but she still ends up being the most busted character in the entire show. She can be considered many things, but I think a beautiful way to look at her would be the hope all hopeless people are lacking. Everyone wants to be brave, invincible, free from world constraints and to live their own life the way they want to, hence why she was such a popular design in the show and got that many abilities by everyone. And at the end of the show we see an Altair, who's willing to break the most fundamental rule of life, which is that all living things must die and it's considered a huge taboo to try to revive the dead. This obviously, won't happen and that's why her creator shows up after Sota uses the famous Magane phrase >uso no uso, sore wa kururi to uragaeru __Story development__ The story starts a bit slow, and the first 3 episodes you don't really understand much of what's going on. I thought I was watching an isekai, then a massacre anime like corpse party and then it turned into something like Shield hero. The story develops at a nice pace after those episodes though, and you start developing a liking to most characters especially meteora. Almost all the important decisions in the story will be influenced by meteora's way of thinking. She's the brains of the squad, and the voice actor did an incredible job voicing her as intelligent as possible. The way she keeps her tones low but steady, and using smart words all the time definitely give meteora the leader role. This may be a bit controversial for most, but I really enjoyed Magane as well. She looks like an airhead character, because she speaks so god damn much, but most of it is because of how her powers work and what she's trying to achieve during conversations. I like how the story has the ups and downs as in, there's not much hope when we see how strong Altair is, then the group starts building up with really strong heroes, only to get one shot by Altair later on, which leads herself to her own downfall because she's a kind character who just deeply cared about her creator. __Audio__ To be fair, I don't think i need to write much here. The opening songs, both of them, and the closing songs are fantastic. All the songs are in my favorite playlist as a matter of fact. 100/10 nuf said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a creator of my own series, this specific show spoke to me on a different level. Re: Creators is a series that tackles the subject of: What if all of your imagined characters and creations actually ENTERED the REAL world! This series made me feel a bit complicated… but greatful at the same time. At first, Sota is a boy that lives at home, but then is suddenly thrusted into the world of one of his favorite series: Elemental Symphony of Vogalchevalier. An “Isekai-esk” series that involves both: Mecha and Magic. But once the villain of the seeming series makes her appearance, Sota is immediately thrusted back into his ___OWN___ world, only the main character of the series: Selesia came __back __with him. But not only that, but the villain came to the real world as well...! Known at first as the: ___Military Uniform Princess___, the villain simply brings fictional characters to what she believes is the "__Land of the Gods__" with the intended purpose saving "_Saving the world_", but as it later turns out with both her identity and more characters that she unleashes, her TRUE plot is far more destructive than just SAVING the world. On first contact, the characters that appear all seem to follow a certain aesthetic of ACTUAL anime troops. From the main characters: Selesia, a representation of Isekai characters from tropey anime that have both Sci-Fi AND Fantasy in their worlds via: Mechas and Magic. ~~~img220(https://img00.deviantart.net/96aa/i/2017/205/f/6/selesia_yupiteria___2017_champions_by_cybershockstudios-dbhi3if.png) img220(https://somoskudasai.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/owxpQ70e_2x.jpg)~~~ To the Mage: Meteora, who plays the original role of just a Librarian-esk "NPC" mush like in RPG games like DragonQuest and the like. ~~~img220(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/b2233949-a826-403e-90ee-e4687f4e9b1e/ddctg6g-be1c2b66-8655-40b1-9bfd-65f2e4a7fedd.png/v1/fill/w_670,h_1192,q_70,strp/meteora_osterreich_by_arindyudha_ddctg6g-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MjI3NiIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2IyMjMzOTQ5LWE4MjYtNDAzZS05MGVlLWU0Njg3ZjRlOWIxZVwvZGRjdGc2Zy1iZTFjMmI2Ni04NjU1LTQwYjEtOWJmZC02NWYyZTRhN2ZlZGQucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEyODAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.04fPX5jkr53y8O49uagu7K_EiV4KlpD7dUf7yHw_4Vg) img220(https://www.ntower.de/images/gameGalleryPictures/11743/57052-600-1130-fb8dd0f6f854f442f852f8e4b6f520bf58a80e81.jpg)~~~ These characters are the first to make appearances in the real world, alongside the villain. The hero, Sota does a good job showing them around the real world of Japan as Selesia actually seems to not hold anything against him and even quickly realizes that her true enemy is the M.U. Princess that transported her in the first place. As other creations come into the real world, it is apperent that Sota needs to get the ACTUAL CREATORS of the characters to join to together with him in order to think-up a plan to defeat the M.U. Princess! Just as all of the creations are exploring the real world for themselves and deciding on how the real world should and will affect their wills to go back into their original universes. Mamika: The magical girl, is one such character who goes through a major arc, as at first, she thoughtlessly destroys buildings but then realizes that her actions __TRULY__ have consequences! As she finds out more about how nasty the real world turns out to be, she sticks true to her intentions, and decides that her magic truly IS her source for defending her friends within her world, and showing that however unruly the real world is, someone can ALWAYS help to make it better...! ~!Although, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of her ultimate fate...! A she is actually the first one in the series to DIE by the villain's hand! Leaving her to a PAINFUL and struggling death! And though I can see that "Madoka Magica" is the probable source as to why such a cute, pretty, and pink girly girl has to die so gruesomely, that doesn't change that... I'm just not one for pure and pretty girls to get killed is all....!~ While all the creations are meeting their creators, Meteora comes to find out the poor fate of her own character, that they actually died some time ago in a car-crash. Meteora decides to play the full way through her creator's game and comes to realize just how much thought, effort, and energy went into creating her game. This is one of the first times that the notion of creating a story gets spoken about the efforts of how much that people sacrifice to bring their creations to life, as it puts a depressing face on how unlike some other characters are lucky enough to meet and speak to their own creators about their worlds, stories, and troubles... sometimes, life does take an unexpected turn, and take lives right before truly significant revelations can be met. But, how if you create a world that you have full faith in, the public will love it with all their on heart and will to praise it. Another character is: Alicetaria, who takes her own creator hostage, until she realizes from him that he is only WRITING the story, as only the CHARACTERS can live-out and TRULY accomplish their goals of ending their stories. This actually speaks to me personally as I feel as a writing that my own characters accomplsh their duties, and that I'm rather the "God", writing their stories. Other characters based on obvious homages also come into the story. Including: Yuya (Shaman King/JoJo-ek character), ~~~img220(https://areajugones.sport.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/imagen-2020-12-23-085034.jpg) img220(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fG0sdkw3js4/WZh_0XFZxaI/AAAAAAAACgU/Eqf7kw0kZm0eSEVmBo3HuhWidz1JSX1QACLcBGAs/s1600/Recreators.jpg) img220(https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/JoJo-Stands-featured-image.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5)~~~ As well as a Mecha character: Kanoya (homaged from any Mecha show) ~~~img220(https://s1.zerochan.net/Kanoya.Rui.600.2126910.jpg) img220(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c9/6e/fa/c96efa8fbee92e84aecd138fab8c7eb3--jazz-gurren.jpg) ~~~ Or the villainess anti-hero that plays more of a sinister role in the Creations, Magane (Inspired by seinen horror series) ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/f6/0e/00f60ef79c4013ae6a5a3bf3f0140291.jpg) img220(https://onlyanimeit.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mn-1-960x960.jpg) But her role is mostly to toy with people's emotions unil she gets what she just wants. ~~~ ~!Also, she is the only character to __KILL her OWN__ creator!!~ With these characters that M.U. Princess sent to the "World of the Gods", obviously meaning the REAL WORLD where these characters' CREATORS exist. Even though it's VERY OBVIOUSLY after the first time you heard the term DOES GIVE aa very MYSTIC AND ELUSIVE feel to how the M.U. Princess perceives what she ACTUAL does KNOW IS THE REAL world...! About half way through the series, we find out that the M.U. Princess is actually Sota's past friend's own creation, named: Altair. And that his friend has actually passed away sometime ago. Sota still feels responsible as he believes that he is part of "Pushing" her over to wanting her to kill herself due to not feeling able to stand by her side as she get a new Job as a Mangaka/Artist. And that since Altair's creator no longer exists, and the internet has taken over her "Creation", she can have prosumably ___ANY__ power_ to make herself stronger (NARRATIVE-WISE)! _ But once all of this is revealed and the original creators are gathered, the time comes for the final battle, as Meteora strategizes a plan to hold an Event with all of the characters to destroy Altair! Just as then, Altair ALSO decides to bring more characters, some whom come from the same universe as others, to keep fighting on her behave after she has already lost a few subordinance. As there is officially organized a special manga spin-off and prequal series to create characters JUST to defeat Altair! Although, I understood most of how the creators felt, creating series and attempting to have the characters have consequences for their actions JUST to keep the stories interesting, I can't say I understood that much of how Altair's powers of "__Narrative__" and existence __WORKED__ exactly. As it just kept piling up JUST to keep the story going. Although, how they defeat Altair is amazing...! ~!Creating a version of her real creator to to tell her to leave the real world REALLY was a nice and creative answer!!~ Although, I have a Nitpick: - At the very ending of the series, when all the creations are going back to their own universes, Magane DOESN'T get sent back! True, Neither does Meteora, back SHE isn't a psychotic murderer like Magane is...! So what the hell!? Although the opening song: GravityWall, IS still an awesome banger in its own right, with its Techno. beat to give the vision that digital creations are coming to life and entering OUR world: I'M SCREAMING SOMETHING TO YOU, WHATEVER SOMETHING TO ME! The rest of the series is great, if not a little too complicated with the meta-talk, I personally give it a high rating, but that's only my opinion. >Meteora: img220(https://cdn.donmai.us/sample/de/1d/__meteora_osterreich_re_creators_drawn_by_kanogawa_hiro__sample-de1d3ea547239d32661c90417d8ddcaf.jpg) All you just need is passion and practice.