Re:CREATORS

Title:Re:CREATORS
レクリエイターズ
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - TROYCA
KOMATSU Mikako
YAMASHITA Daiki
Souta Mizushino doesn't know what to think when he is somehow transported into the alternate reality of a popular anime--and then several characters from that world are somehow transported back to his.

22 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 9 8 6 8 9 Ggultra2764 [series:3340#1552]
Re: Creators is a sci-fi adventure/ drama series that focuses around a number of characters from popular anime, manga, video games, and novels being brought to our world by a mysterious girl in a military uniform and a high school student named Sota Mizushiro partnering up with a couple of them to learn more about the events unfolding and the motives of the mysterious girl attacking their worlds.

The premise of Re: Creators is a unique one as part of its focus involves exploring how each of the various fictional characters react to learning they are creations of popular Japanese media and learn of the roles they play within them. Some of them handle the revelation well and learn to adjust to living life within our reality while allying with Sota. Others feel repulsed at how the plotting decisions of their "creators" caused suffering for their world and ally with the mysterious girl in hopes of altering events within their titles. One particular character plays out as a sort of wild card in the events of the series as they instead revel in their mischief and the current chaos of the conflict while allying with neither side. Their characters get varying degrees of development in learning to cope with the circumstances of their presence within our world and, with exception to a few characters that seemed to largely stick with whatever character type they had coming from their medium, gradually change as they adjust to the situation and learn more of the mysterious girl's motives.

This solid foundation of character development also includes the Creators of the mentioned Creations within Re: Creators. Each Creator has their own distinct personality, lifestyle, and style of storytelling that give them each their unique individualism as characters and affect the relationship that they have with their Creations. The interactions between them tend to vary with being friendly to hostile depending on the Creation's reaction to their situation, and helps create unique and diverse character chemistry between the Creators and Creations that effect their relationships throughout Re: Creator's run.

Another element of the series with solid storytelling is looking into the origins and motivations of the mysterious antagonist. Hints are dropped of how she came about and having a connection of sorts to Sota as he is shown to be visibly traumatized at the sight of her in early episodes of Re: Creators. This aspect also serves as a source of character development for Sota as he learns to get over a lack of creative motivation for drawing characters due to events related to our mysterious antagonist. Her unique origins also serve as a source to her overpowered abilities that get focused on in later episodes in their connection to fan reception of a title's characters and plot developments that affect how characters and plots within said works develop.

Praises aside, Re: Creators is not without its imperfections. There are some episodes in the middle of the series focused mostly on infodump over elements of the story and characters, as well as one episode that serves mostly as a recap of events for the anime's first half. While the infodump episodes help to add more information on elements of the series, they mostly don't aid in advancing the plot of the series in any way and drag its advancement to a halt at points.

That issue aside though, Re: Creators is still a good sci-fi adventure-drama series thanks to its unique premise on characters from popular Japanese media entering our world, their reactions to this, and the conflict that develops from the mysterious female antagonist. Anyone looking for a unique premise such as this with Japanese media creators and their characters or having an interest in sci-fi adventure should seek this out.

Last updated Wednesday, June 26 2019. Created Wednesday, June 26 2019.
Rent Stretch [series:3340#628]
(All episodes watched):

While watching episode one of creators, the thought occurred to me that while there have been lots of anime in which ordinary Japanese teenagers wind up in alternate videogame-like realities, what would be really unique and intriguing would be if the tables were turned and some of the characters from these fantastical worlds wound up in ours. And, lo and behold, that's just what happens. We wind up with the awkward situation of two fearsome warrior girls with fantastic fighting powers lodging with Souta simply because they have no more idea what's going on than he does, and have nowhere else to go. I like it. In many anime characters find themselves in impossible, mind blowing situations--and just shrug them off. Here, the characters are confused, disoriented and anxious, as they should be. At the end of the episode about all we know is that the line between truth and fiction has been blurred, but since this show is taking the matter seriously, surely some sort of explanation must be forthcoming. I like the way a couple of nerdy mangakas rank among the significant characters in this story, rather than just tough fighters. The premise seemed to be bursting with potential. It makes you think--if human imagination creates alternate realities, who's to say that our world isn't likewise a creation of the imagination of someone in yet another level of existence? Creators itself doesn't go this far, however.

But there was a problem with this story which I first noticed when Meteora somehow deduced that the weird stuff that had been happening threatened to somehow rip this world apart. Fictional characters becoming real is so bizarre that it would be a miracle to explain just that, much less figure out what longterm consequences the situation will have for reality itself. Surely this was a theory at best. Yet it seems that we are being expected to assume that she is right, accept it as established fact, and run with it. I didn't know if that was a good idea; for one thing, her theory was so complicated and was explained in such fancy terminology that I had no idea whether it makes a lick of sense or not. I didn't know what danger signals I should be on the lookout for or what the worse case end result would be. I guess I have a hard time suspending disbelief when such a calamitous possibility is pitched to me and I'm expected to accept it as an article of faith. And it was more fun just trying to solve the original mystery of how fictional characters were becoming real--that was more than enough to blow one's mind.

There's a good deal of inconclusive fighting among the Creations, which kind of seemed like a waste to me. I would rather we had moved forward towards an explanation and solution to the problem, and that seemed to be taking place at a snail's pace. Why is Sota so reluctant to reveal that he knows something that might be critically important? Does he have more loyalty to one old friend than to several new ones? Either he's trying to hide something or this story is simply not going to make complete sense, and that thought is disturbing because it just might be true. The fact that it has never been explained how this Creators business could pose a threat to the existence of our entire world makes it hard to get excited. A number of things don't make sense: why do important people like Sota wander about without bodyguards, even though the government is aware of the problem and has made great efforts to bring it under control? It was frustrating that a show with so much potential seemed to be doing relatively little with it. It was definitely worth watching, but I felt the story was tying me down when I wanted to lunge forward.

At the climax of the first season, the good guys stumble across an unexpected tactic which might just defeat the villain Altair and her plan to destroy the world. I felt that I needed to rewatch an episode or two, because I didn't understand exactly how this technique works, or what relationship it had to the characters showing up in this world to begin with. To a certain extent fictional characters have become real, and have minds and free will of their own; yet the opinions of manga readers and anime viewers somehow affect how the future will play out--I was confused. That, I guess, was the chief problem with the show as a whole: important concepts aren't explained well enough for ordinary viewers to grasp them. Nonsense phrases like 'the world's rationality' and 'variable imaginative force' don't help either. But everybody knows that surely Altair (and the murderous schoolgirl) haven't just been sitting idle for all this time, and the plan to defeat them won't go off without a hitch. And sure enough, that's how things work out. Since I never completely understood how this plan was supposed to work, I couldn't completely understand how Altair had countered it either, which was kind of frustrating and confusing. This is another show in which I only vaguely understood the plot--I got enough to enjoy it, but not as much as I would if it was all made more clear. How much that is my fault and how much the fault of the writers, I do not know. But one trait I admire in good writers is the ability to explain complicated plots to ordinary viewers in an understandable and fully enjoyable manner. I think it's fair to say that it is a skill which doesn't come automatically.

I think it's safe to say that in a well told story, you know when the climax is approaching. It may just be because you know you are watching the final episode. But Creators had an unusual length of just 22 episodes (and the 22nd is a post-climax one)--somewhere between a season-and-a-half and two seasons. So, I did not know that episode 21 would definitely be the climax--and I had become so confused that I did not realize it until near the end. I thought a new arc (which would involve a new character) was beginning, not that the whole story was wrapping up. It was just too confusing--did the crazy schoolgirl play a part in that trick that ultimately won the day? Hasn't she sort of gotten away scot-free for at least one murder she committed? The deaths of several major characters seemed kind of empty and bewildering more than shocking and tragic. I guess we will never get an explanation of what exactly happened in episode one--where Sota was briefly transported to an alternate world. I sort of understand what happened at the end, but nowhere near completely. So, for me Creators ended halfway between a bang and a whimper, as I asked myself 'Is this the ending? I guess it is' rather than being thrilled. The final episode which wraps up several loose strings was fun, however. In the end, I could only shake my head and wonder how the makers of Creators had managed to take such an intriguing premise, bursting with potential—and make it as ordinary as possible.

Last updated Monday, October 09 2017. Created Thursday, April 13 2017.

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