Re:CREATORS was a pretty popular show when it came out, back in 2017... I didn't watch it lol. Something about the isekai tag just repulses me ever since SAO started going down and through its decaying carcass managed to spawn an entire genre of mediocre copycats who aren't even worthy of wasting your time. Now, despite how everyone in the anime community loves beating SAO to death, I still stand by the first half of season 1 being phenomenal. When SAO was SAO and not some dumb elf game or gun game, it was incredible. There was very little like it at the time. It wasn't the first "isekai" anime as series like .hack and even Yugioh and Yugioh GX all dealt with the uncoined "isekai" setting. However, SAO was without a doubt the one that made the whole idea blow up and singlehandedly pioneered isekai as a standalone genre.
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| © Rei Hiroe, Aniplex, Studio TROYCA |
Back to Re:CREATORS, I saw the series was available on Amazon Prime which is what I usually use to download episodes and watch em while going to work. What caught my attention was that it was apparently a reverse isekai, so instead of human characters going into fictional worlds, fictional characters were pulled into the human world. Of course, this wasn't such a unique concept as even cartoons like Gravity Falls have explored that alley, but it was a nice enough refresher from the tired ol' "[insert characteristic here] goes to a fictional world to slay the demon king, but ends up opening a flower shop instead" formula. Like seriously, who watches these? Long story short, I ended up giving Re:CREATORS a shot and here are my thoughts.
The unique thing this series has going for it is not the fact that it pulls an Uno reverse card by flipping the isekai script, but that it expands on the formula by allowing the creations to meet and interact with their creators. This results in interesting dynamics between characters as more often than not, the creator is nothing like the creation would have imagined their god to be. It was also interesting to observe how a lot of the creators knew each other and were fans of each other's works. This made the world feel more like our own, where industry professionals are both fans and rivals, which also serves as a neat way to suspend our disbelief and make us consider the possibility of a cringe oc we've created coming to life and talking to us. However, that intended realism could also be the series' greatest failure.
Although the concept was interesting, it lacks the emotional impact it could have had due to the show's original characters. Without intellectual properties we as the audience are familiar with, the whole project feels like a missed opportunity. We clearly see how big of a deal these fictional characters are to the human characters within that world, but this artificially placed importance doesn't translate to us as the viewers. Imagine if instead of all these new characters we know nothing about and whose stories and worlds are only ever briefly touched on, we got to see Goku meeting Naruto, Ichigo and Luffy. Yeah, I know it sounds like I want "Jump Force: The Animation" and I am indeed a shonentard, but you could swap out these characters with any from our world. Of course I understand such massive crossovers would be so expensive in licensing alone, that it makes a project of such scale virtually impossible...but wouldn't it be cool? Idealism aside, let's see what we're dealing with here and touch on the characters:
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| © Rei Hiroe, Aniplex, Studio TROYCA |
Yuya and Sho were hands down the mvps for me and the ones I was always waiting to see more of on screen. This is not necessarily because they were fascinating characters, as much like everyone else, we got to see relatively little from them. It was mostly because their source material Exclusive Underground is the most interesting of all the fictional shows and something I hope gets made as a standalone series in the future. Dudes are basically from an alternate version of Jojo or Shaman King where they got their own stands and spirits used for battle. I'm sold!
The rest of the characters were also kinda underdeveloped. A lot of em were more so archetypes than genuinely unique characters. Selesia is the open minded noble knight, existing in direct parallel to Alicetaria who is the more conservative noble knight (as well as the obligatory Saber (Artoria) stand-in, I mean c'mon even their names are similar). Mamika is the magical girl, whose most interesting attribute is her realisation that this world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Blitz Talker was interesting as his motivation was the most believable out of all creations and him switching sides was also done in the way that makes more sense, by reviving his daughter. Meteora served as the narrator for a large portion of the series, further supported by the recap episode which became suuuper meta by completely shattering the 4th wall. The final reveal of her deciding to title the story "Re:CREATORS", thus implying we're experiencing her creation was a nice touch and another surprisingly meta moment.
Rui was kind of a weird case, cuz I expect a mecha pilot to have a larger physical frame. He gave me some cognitive dissonance lol. Another thing worth mentioning here is that all the mechs were cg instead of 2D, meaning they get no respect from me. There's something beautiful and exceedingly rare about seeing 2D mechs (and vehicles in general) in modern anime. Re:CREATORS fails in that regard. Hikayu's transition from a dating sim character to a martial artist was intriguing, but unfortunately it didn't last long. Charon isn't even worth talking about so Imma straight up skip him. Megane was pretty unlikable throughout, but she did have one great moment. Her fool's gold (pyrite) speech was probably the most fascinating in the entire series and functioned pretty well as a way to explain her somewhat confusing powers. Still don't like her though.
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| © Rei Hiroe, Aniplex, Studio TROYCA |
Finally, let's address Altair. Honestly... a pretty weak villain. Her entire motivation for wishing to destroy the world isn't necessarily unjustified, but it's really basic and uninteresting. I gotta also point out how the 2nd to last episode where she was defeated and everything was resolved was one of the worst anime episodes I've ever watched. The whole thing was dragged out, which put me to sleep and the direction started going into pseudo-intellectual garabge territory. It felt almost as pretentious as your average Evangeleon episode. I also just didn't really like the concept of what is essentially a fan art oc being the main villain and giving all the established characters a tough time considering their powers were directly proportionate to public acceptance. Yes, I understood every fan art of the fan art adds additional powers, which is fair, but wouldn't that mean fan art of the other characters would also work that way as they're all fictional? Aaaah who cares, Sirius had a better design anyway lol.
Briefly touching on the score, the first OP gravityWall is pretty good. I especially love that moment where Alicetaria is in the subway and the lights keep flashing. There was an overarching theme of all the creations standing in close proximity to a poster of the world they come from, which was a nice touch. As for the ost, Layers was a stand out. Just some really awesome and hype battle music.
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| © Rei Hiroe, Aniplex, Studio TROYCA |
In conclusion, I definitely don't see it as the modern masterpiece some people claim it to be. It does a few things in a unique way, but doesn't shine bright enough to leave a lasting impression. Some of the characters were cool, some were lame, very few were well written and too many were introduced. Would have been better as an official crossover so we as the audience could have been more invested, but oh well. I have mixed feelings about it and it's something I'll probably never rewatch, but it does a decent job of flipping the isekai concept on it's head. So yeah, it was alright. 6/10
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