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Re:CREATORS
Episode 3

by Theron Martin,

How would you rate episode 3 of
Re:CREATORS ?
Community score: 4.3

Isn't it wonderful to see a series take a great concept and actually think it through? That's exactly what makes Re:CREATORS shine so brightly thus far. (Sadly, it's not something that you see in anime anywhere near often enough.)

I'm even starting to get the impression that Ei Aoki and Rei Hiroe are writing this series with an eye to anticipating what viewers may speculate about themselves. One of the major things that I've already brought up – the potential impact of retroactive changes or even on-the-spot modifications – is the focus of this episode, and it's handled in a satisfyingly analytical way. Of course, that just fits Meteora's persona based on her character profile, doesn't it?

But this episode isn't just content to deal with that matter. It also spectacularly introduces another character from the opening theme: the female knight, who is apparently the title character from a property called Alisteria of the Scarlet (Amazon's subtitles spell it Alicetaria) and seems to be allied at least with the magical girl and presumably with Military Uniform Princess as well. We also get to see much more of Yuya Mirokuji, the street punk who may be the "final boss" in his source manga, but he's hardly an enemy to Sota and crew here. He's portrayed with a thoughtful and interesting worldview about the situation, where he matter-of-factly appreciates that his creator is just some normal guy and seems to consciously revel in being a free spirit. This thoughtfulness also shows in little details, such as when Silesia's character designer Marine is invited into the picture and marvels at the details of Silesia's clothing that go beyond what she envisioned, such as how the stitch work is done.

The episode further brings up a hugely relevant point that I hadn't considered: how much of the created material is the Created (Meteora's word for characters like her and Silesia) actually aware of? By virtue of being from the anime version of Symphony of Vogelchevalier, Silesia doesn't know about story elements covered in the most recent novel, so it's like getting a glimpse into her own future when she hears Sota and Marine talking about big upcoming plot twists. This means that the exact point in the story that the character steps out of can have just as much of an influence on them as what's written into their character descriptions.

All of this is smoothly integrated into the Meteora's speculative experiments on how revising a character might work. I appreciate how slickly Meteora's understandable desire to find out about this dovetails with viewer interest on the same subject, allowing the whole business to play out as an actual experiment rather than just philosophical exposition. Meteora decides to test revisions by getting Takashi and Marine to add a flame manifestation power to Silesia, operating under the theory that increasing information about the ability will increase the likelihood of it manifesting. After Silesia is unable to summon flames even with a scene written and a picture drawn for the scenario, Meteora wonders if that's still not enough information; maybe it has to be accepted by the consumers too, a hypothesis that connects with Yuya's belief that the Created who come into this world have all made a great impression on people. This suggests that while the creators are responsible for design, they may not be solely responsible for bringing the world and characters to life; a public consciousness is required, as well. That's a very interesting angle that I expect will be explored further.

Throughout all of this, Sota mostly remains an observer, although he does have a good pep talk with Silesia about resuming his drawing. (This also brings up an implication that something specific caused him to stop.) Silesia also has some parent/child-like interactions with Takashi that continue to make her a dynamic character; even her design reminds me more than a little of Asuna Yuki's from the Sword Art Online franchise. The words of Military Uniform Princess at the end throw out a nice additional hook, leaving us to speculate about who "Setsuna" is and what this all has to do with Sota. How squarely Sota is going to remain in the picture now that Silesia and Meteora are staying with Marine is also a good question.

The animation for the brief fight scene at the beginning isn't the sharpest, but this series has so much going for it on a conceptual front that minor problems like this can be overlooked. I look forward to a lot more fun to come with this series.

Rating: A

Re:CREATORS is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.


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