「平凡にして非凡なる日常 Don’t worry about what others said. Just be yourself.」 (Heibon ni shite hibon’naru nichijou)
“The Extraordinary Ordinary Everyday Life Don’t worry about what others said. Just be yourself.”

You know what’s better than exposition? Damn rights, more exposition! Yes, yes, lame joke, but seriously, Re:Creators makes it easy. Even more than previously, this week intensified the infodumps by thoroughly inquiring into the nature of creation through a social constructionist bent. Or in plain speech, why our fourth wall breaking character crew are who they are.

Probably the biggest reveal this week was character revision. Given how “controlled” the creations are in regards to personality, ability, and strength, it makes some logical sense that creator should be able to rewrite each creation. Or so you would think. I find the discussion here fascinating because the end results apparently are neither simple nor quick to realize. Character rewrites are not an easy line or two swapped in and a piece of artwork, they demand something more, something permanent. Yuuya probably is on the right track with his popularity espousal, a rewrite is likely successful only if everyone aware of said character knows of and accepts the changes—a good definition of social construct. Of course that is if a rewrite is even possible. Celestia’s ignorance towards her world’s future events suggest changes are impossible, although it could be because that part of her story has not entered the collective conscious yet (i.e. through anime), or lies below the threshold necessary to trigger a rewrite. If the latter is true, an interesting argument exists for the collective popularity of anime adaptations versus light novel sources.

In terms of Re:Creators’ plot though, the other side of the coin is the coalescing factions. I’m pretty confident the immediate fight will be over rewriting and its consequences, as evidenced by Yuuya’s spiel on cages—linking back to the aforementioned discussion above—and the further reveal of Gunpuku (yes, I’m sticking with the name :P) encouraging characters to seek out their creators. Celestia, Yuuya, and Meteora all possess little interest so far in rewriting themselves, whereas Mamika and our new lance-wielding Arthur Saber clearly find something worthwhile in Gunpuku’s talk. I find this “rewrite” side deliciously ironic because these characters, by nature of their written personalities, could be seeking change that was predetermined—deliberately or not—by their creators. Celestia’s description of smell is a good example, because it suggests specific aspects of the characters and their worlds must be defined in order to be materialized. Barring basic ideas associated by all readers/watchers with the character (i.e. five senses, sex/gender, emotion/pain, etc.), the character/world only possesses that which was described by the creator and accepted by the fans. The rewrite side therefore is effectively chasing change only affecting the appearance of their cage, not the cage itself. At least for the moment.

As for Gunpuku’s bomb drop, I think that speaks for itself. The talk all but confirms time travel or misunderstandings, with option one being future Souta creating and/or being involved in Gunpuku’s creation, or the more likely option two with Setsuna being our mystery suicide who also was Gunpuku’s creator. Just add some excuse for Setsuna choosing the train way out, spice with Gunpuku blaming it all on Souta—who knew Setsuna himself—and presto easy plot in under ten minutes. Definitely more complex than that of course, but I think we have the gist of things now. Plenty remaining for elaboration, but I do know I’m liking this a lot. Consider Re:Creators picked up for coverage boys and girls, my attention is fully acquired. Come what may, I’m definitely seeing this one through until the end.

Full-length images: 24.

45 Comments

  1. If public acceptance is needed than changes that make the story boring might not work and brings up the question of what happens in these worlds when the story is over, does the world end if the story is forgotten? At least this way creators can go, hey your life had to suck to make a popular story that made your world real. And there is only so much market room for happy stories. Of course our world if a story might owe it’s misery to that, God is real but God has to be a popular author. At least a new armored robot and equipment should be possible if promised to be used in future events.

    Loved the fact that the artist found out how the seams had to be for the outfit to work from studying the outfit on the character. That is more the world already existed type of thing which opposes the lack of taste evidence.

    But if military girl is a unpublished character how did she come to be?

    The taste reminded me of the tasteless food in Log Horizon. Log Horizon was a monitor and keyboard game in our time not future virtual reality. But the world of Log Horizon was a real world that just had physics like the game. No described tastes and the spells that created food created nice looking but tasteless food. Later this is spoiler for early Log Horizon but relevant to this story. Show Spoiler ▼

    A good deal of what happens with the former NPC’s in Log Horizon has similarities here.

    RedRocket
    1. You can bet everything on that, during her monologue with her death creator she seems to be considering destroying the world of the gods more than changing the created worlds, my guess is that her revenge against the creators doesn´t have anything to do with making every world a happy place, the way she talks makes me belive she´s out for blood.

      haseo0408
      1. destroying the world of the gods

        Uh, if world-destruction is her goal then why didn’t she just summoned Frieza-like characters? There’s plenty of them in anime/manga/games/LNs. She doesn’t even have to negotiate with them. Just summon them and BAM!: world destruction get 😛

        Oby
    2. Oh definitely, there’s some ulterior motive at play here and she has yet to reveal all.

      @haseo
      Right now I’m inclined to agree, she clearly wants revenge, although we don’t know the nature of it. I’d be slightly disappointed though if it was only destruction when we have this rewrite angle playing out.

      1. I´m only guessing but it could be both: destruction and rewrite the worlds. She´s royally pissed at the idea of the Creators messing around with the worlds so maybe her idea of revenge is putting the world of the gods of an insect cage liek Mirakuji said earlier, I mean rewrinting the world they are now.

        haseo0408
  2. “or the more likely option two with Setsuna being our mystery suicide”

    Probably not the best sign that we’re only 3 episodes in and I’d already entirely forgotten that the series opened with someone walking in front of a train.

    qwert
    1. For me it was that all this intersting characters completely stole my atention so when Gunpuk talked about the the Setsuna girl I went: “Oh yeah, a girl did commited suicide at the begining of the story”. The story and characters have being so interenting so far that a detail like that completely scape when any other story it would be evr present in my mind.

      haseo0408
  3. Although the series seems to go for the “popularity power” path, given Yuuya’s remarks and Meteora’s guessing about information, Souta pointed out a different but equally fascinating path when Selesia revealed she didn’t know about the future written in the novels: this Selesia is from the anime, not the light novels.

    I mean, Meteora and company are working with the idea that fictional unvierses are a gestalt that covers every aspect of the characters. But is it so? What if the universe of the anime is different from the universe in the LN? What about characters so long-lived and popular (Sherlock Holmes, Superman, Mickey Mouse, etc.) that have enjoyed numerous and wildly different adptations and rewrites? Are they all the same, really?

    If this Selesia is from the anime, no change made by the LN writer could change her until it’s been adapted.

    Mistic
    1. I thought the same thing. They are both very much connected universes in a way, but re still each their own thing. I have a feeling what they did may have worked for a Sherlock Holmes type character because so many stories can and have been written, so many universes for him exist, that what they did in that writer’s home could have worked in that instance.

      GoukaRyuu
    2. The thing that all that you said could be truth but wrong at the same time, Souta and company have only theories and guesses of how this multiple worlds stuff works, for all we know the creators could only draw inspiration from those worlds and guide the characters but never interfere directly like I said with my Stephen King Theory last week.

      haseo0408
    3. I have dozens of similar universes for a popular constituent story to millions for something like Sherlock Homes in my fiction based on some views I have read on things like this. But I am taking the approach of the people I have read in that the universes are real the author actually has nothing to do with those worlds creations. But I also have powerful energy beings of various types and they often will create universes or pocket universes that match fiction someone wrote, but again once the copy is established the writer cannot change it, got that from Star Trek. It the energy being universes that will be flawed in things not described by a writer. Universe that are self created will actually be superior often to the writers story in that the universe will be logically consistent and the story thus better written.

      RedRocket
    4. There are a couple of ways this could play out. Either we have true multiverses with multiple Celestias–meaning no rewrite is possible because rewriting just creates a new universe with a new Celestia–or a single “unified” Celestia who simply materialized from the most popular medium, and who can only be rewritten by the same rules governing her knowledge of future events.

      Until we know if rewriting is possible and how it’s done, it’s hard determining a lot of the occurrences here.

  4. Meteora: “I’ll trade you a meal for that information.”

    This part XD Meteora honey, food wont always do the trick all the time (starting to make me worried if shes gonna use food to barter soon)

    Poor Celestia…her reactions in this episode was precious, especially the part when Marine spoiled the death of “Nics” to Celestia. Shes like,–whut hes dead?! Ahh…i dunno how to feel about that because i cannot tell what is fiction and real anymore–kinda reaction. One thing i wish her to at least ask her creator is about this Charon guy. She went blushed when Shota was talking about their promises in episode 1 and the glimpse of both Celestia and Charon’s fanart in pixiv. “Mr.Creator, will Charon and I finally happily ever after?” XD

    Onion Warrior
    1. Poor Celestia…her reactions in this episode was precious, especially the part when Marine spoiled the death of “Nics” to Celestia. Shes like,–whut hes dead?! Ahh…i dunno how to feel about that because i cannot tell what is fiction and real anymore–kinda reaction.

      I felt a bit sad in that scene. Sad for her and also frustrated that the story didn’t address the elephant in the room: if she’s betrayed and her friend dies is because the writer said so. It’s all good and fun when it’s about powers, strength and personality. But plot deaths, major injustices and villainous deeds? That’s more serious.

      Just imagine if it was a character from Game of Thrones visiting George R. R. Martin. Brrrr.

      With some luck, the story will address that point sooner or later. Meteora likes exposition and thinking things through; I would be very disappointed if any ethical criticism against the Creators is handwaved as “that’s what the MUP wants you to think!” or “only a Sith naive Magical Girl deals in absolutes!”.

      Mistic
      1. There was a good chance that she was thinking about the spoilers in the scene later. I am also sure she understands that the author doesn’t really know their writing was real or would become real. She probably puts the matter in her list of things to deal with later though.

        Anon
      2. The scene in the veranda got me thinking, I don´t know if romance is going to play a part in this story but Souta up until that moment look at her admiration as his favorite heroine apearing out of nowhere, but at that I think he was atracted to Celestia, he saw her just as a cute girl so here is my question: what happens if Celestia falls for Souta? She´s the main heroine of the Vogel Chevalier light novel and in that kind of story the MC (this Charon guy) and the main heroine get together at the end so i´m very intersted how Clestia and her story could be affected in this regard.

        haseo0408
  5. After three episodes this Anime still surprises me if you compare it to the summary and the cover art on http://anidb.net. When I read about Re:CREATORS I had massive doubt if I will loose interest at the first five minutes of the show. Worse the series could have been as annoying as “Nanaka 6/17” (That show was 14 years ago…) and the description for Re:CREATORS doesn’t do this title any justice. In fact it’s very lackluster I had realized it was worth checking out from PANCAKE’s review on episode 01.

    renasayers
  6. Since the title is Re:Creators, I think they will eventually get to recreating worlds. But it’s what aspect that can be recreated and who can do it is the question. Wouldn’t it be amusing if it can only be done with the consent of the editors and publishers? It would mean that the ones that come from self published works have it easier.

    Then there’s the question on character selection. If Gunpuku’s goal is destruction, wouldn’t it be better getting last bosses and letting them loose? If it’s based on popularity, how did Gunpuku herself materialize in the first place? What does that say about our main antagonist?

    An enjoyable ride so far. Looking forward for the next episode.

    theirs
    1. Character selection was probably determined by the popularity aspect Yuuya pointed out. If certain bosses were not “popular” enough, they couldn’t materialize–at least as we know it right now. And then there’s no guarantee the bosses would side with Gunpuku, Yuuya himself is an end boss, but he dislikes the girl a lot.

      I also have a feeling Gunpuku’s materialization is the answer to a lot of these unanswered questions.

  7. Only 3 episodes in and almost of the characters are introduced. You guys have 22 episodes to tell a story can’t you slow down a little!

    Seems like all of the “theories” that were mostly confirmed which is what I pretty much expected. Kind of wondering why Celestia tells the magical girl that asking the creators to simply change things in their world isn’t that simple when she didn’t know that at the time.

    Most of this episode was just spent building up Sota a character that I really don’t care for. I actually like the other author characters more honestly. Plus it kind of seems like the anime is using it’s whole setup for comedy with very little emotional weight to anything. For example when Celestia argues with her creator about what’s happened to her it’s not serious, it’s played up for laughs. I can assume she had SOME hardships that she’d be legitimately angry about. But apparently not. There are plenty of episodes left but I’m just getting a bad feeling that this anime isn’t going to take advantage of it’s unique setup as much as it could.

    leatherhead333
    1. We probably won’t see the setup fully utilized, but then again we won’t know the extent until the reveals start happening. Plenty of time left for the serious aspects to come up. I’ve also heard rumours of this being the pilot for a new franchise, so technically anything is possible at this stage.

    2. “But apparently not.”

      How the hell do you get that? Really Celestia’s reaction in that scene isn’t really hard to understand. “I stopped hurrying” from the scene later is a very good explanation.

      Anon
      1. When you have comedic music playing with comedic shouting it’s clear the anime doesn’t intend for you to take that scene seriously. I don’t believe I’m misunderstanding anything.

        leatherhead333
  8. Decided to give this a crack after seeing how much discussion it was getting, and not bad so far IMO. Thanks Pancakes and everyone in the comments for tipping me off!

    PurpleBomber

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