First Impressions / Re:CREATORS

「すばらしい日々 This is the actual beginning, isn’t it?」 (Subarashii Hibi)
“Wonderful Days This is the actual beginning, isn’t it?”

Week after week I keep returning to Re:Creators expecting “this” episode will finally be the one of action and consequence, and every single time I largely leave disappointed in that regard. Well boys and girls, I think my string of hilariously bad luck is at last drawing to a close. Sure this week may have followed the script again by giving us Re:Creators’ version of fan service, but it seems everything is now ready for the final climactic fight of the season. At least it seems so.

As expected for a calm before the storm episode, we did not really learn much new. Souta is still fleshing out his pièce de résistance, the overarching fusion of disparate storylines is complete, and the final outcome basically comes down to a fickle audience and the will of the gods. Pretty much nothing unexpected, but there were two intriguing tidbits among this talk. Meteora has apparently prepared a secret weapon designed for a specific time and place, implying, in some regard, our little mage believes Plan A has a good chance of failure—she wouldn’t elaborate upon Altair’s ability to break the (bird)cage otherwise. It’s unclear if Altair’s clairvoyance has made her aware of this fallback option, but I’d be surprised if she doesn’t anticipate the existence of one, not with her musing on things rightfully “ending this way”. I’d be shocked if things ended how either girl expects them to.

The other bit concerns the unfolding of the fight itself. Yuuya and Meteora both have apparently been upgraded already, with Meteora in particular now possessing an ability very similar to Altair’s summoning power. I imagine Meteora’s new strength lets her materialize any object from the good guys’ worlds, but I’ll be surprised if it also includes characters themselves—even for Meteora that seems a little too powerful a skill. As for our Altair squad mates, there are also some curiosities among the mix. The key characters here I believe will likely be Altair and Alice; Charon and Shou largely appear to be roadblocks designed to thwart Celestia and Yuuya, respectively, before they can get close to the military princess, while Blitz as we know has some other far reaching mission in mind. Alice’s importance obviously stems from her inevitable Mamika-influenced rebellion (Altair even predicts it’s coming), but Altair’s actions for me introduce a more uncertain element. Meteora’s comments on Alice’s stunted mentality suggest the festival strategy is bringing Altair into the fold, eliminating her from existence by effectively giving her a new one. In other words, the loner-turned-friend trope in action. Altair knows it (or something else) is coming, so her response and choice of counter become vitally important for the outcome. For all my talk though I’m mostly whistling in the wind here, we know precious little about both side’s plans beyond their overall objective. Normally I’d be irritated at the utter lack of hints, but at least we are guaranteed something once next week rolls around.

So with the buildup all but out of the way and the opening salvo now prepped for launch, it seems that finally—finally (!!!)—Re:Creators is set for the fireworks. Sure I could be woefully wrong yet again and have to eat my words for probably the sixth time in a row, but dammit I’m optimistic now. Just look at the Altair fan club, if that’s not screaming imminent shenanigans I don’t know what does. It’s been a long time coming, but now we’re set for the big showdown. Two teams, 140000 viewers, one crazy maid, and no bloody idea what’s going to happen. My body is most definitely ready.

45 Comments

  1. Well consodering both sides are more than ready for war what is nex could only be chaos! Altair might be prepared for what heroes develop but we have Souta´s idea thrown into the mix with idea whatsoever what it will be about, throw Magane, our beloved female Joker into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. No matter the outcome, I doubt this will be the final battle, too early for that but sure as hell it will be an awesome battle considering all the preparations done for it so far.

    haseo0408
    Reply

  2. I want to say this:
    1) Seems like Celestia took driving lessons from Irisviel.
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2002.jpg

    2) Yuya is one hot man and his ‘dad’ is dam proud of it.
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2007.jpg

    3) I would pay a buck to see the character and actress together in one spot
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2029.jpg

    4) Chick Dig Giant Robots and Super Robot Wars
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2033.jpg

    G Koh
    Reply

  3. Still wondering if Souta’s ability to cross to the other side will come into play. Actually, I don’t think that phenomenon has ever been explained yet, nor even mentioned, which is surprising since a Meteora explanation or hypothesis could really shine some light on it… that is, unless this secret ability she has is in relation to that event Souta experienced; then it’d make sense not to reveal anything about it until the appointed time.

    frubam
    Reply

  4. You know, i keep telling myself while watching this series: “this is the episode guys; this is the one where im really going to start caring about the characters and finding them personable”….nope; it never fails…and you know what; it’s kind of a shame. My favorite part of this ep was celestia picking up Souta in her car and them just talking to each other. There’s this sort of older sister-younger brother dynamic these two seem to have; a bond that the show wants you to feel but yet it never fleshes out the character dynamics of any of the cast members in an interesting way because it’s too busy expositing and drowning in its premise. Even a simple hot springs ep could not let these characters just breathe and have genuine chemistry. Long winded exposition is the name of the game in this show. Dialogue without any agency or interpersonalness

    sonicsenryaku
    Reply

    2. At least it’s been toned down slightly though, we only had two moments this episode instead of the usual 20 minute exposition splurge 😛

      Personally I’m just waiting to see if the conflict can live up to the amount of boardroom strategizing we keep receiving. Nothing can probably rectify Re:Creators’ narrative choices, but one can hope.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. Although the anime is 22 eps, the studio bought a TV slot of 24 eps. Hence the need to fill the 2 extra slots with specials.
        I can’t say why they decided on putting the specials like this though, instead of airing them after the final ep.

        zztop
        Reply

    3. Seriously? We waited 2 weeks for some fanservice and some “get ready for the action”, only to wait another 2 weeks just to see more happen?

      I wasn’t really bothered by the amount of exposition before, but these constant interruptions really starts to ruin it for me.

      JHN
      Reply

  6. LOL! It’s nice seeing Aki Kikuchihara (The bureaucrat) let loose for once and not act as tight like her body figure. But I guess even though things are going wrong out in the world since fruits of story tellers are coming to life and revolting. The main fellowship needs to relax once and a while when SAVING the world and all.

    I get the idea this will end like guilty gear and if it does the main character will come out alive but physically used up. When I say used I mean walking with a limp, missing limb, missing eye, and blindness, etc.

    RenaSayers
    Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
    I wonder what would happen if Selesia drove a truck. I think many anime/manga fans would think that a truck would obviously kill most anime characters.

    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Notably, if we have Gokukoku no Brynhildr and Tokyo Ghoul used as an example, we know that it is usually the “villains” being supported by the Japanese government while given certain luxuries. In comparison, the “good guys” would usually be a small group of people who are in a “low budget” hideout. Now it is the opposite. For some reason, I get that Fate/Stay night vibe where we have a team of Servants going against another team of Servants.

    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
    Sort of hoped that we get to see the Creations meet the “source” of their voices. Imagine Naruto meeting Junko Takeuchi. On the side note, it would be nice if Haruhi Suzumiya watched her own anime.

    Anyway, my biggest concern is Altair. There is no way that she can easily fall for a trap. I actually wouldn’t be shocked if she was AWARE of such a trap. The same goes with Alicetaria February, my thoughts are that our knight knows that Mamika wants Altair to be saved.

    L002
    Reply

  8. I believe Selesia’s words to Souta about this failing, will foreshadow that this will fail. Its going too smoothly, and unless we’re going to have a Dragonball-esqe battle (MULTIPLE EPISODES) this will go bad. Charon will turn Selesia, Meteora is actually pulling Altair’s strings, Mamika will return, or they will find out they are in an anime, I feel something bigger will happen. The final battle just launched too early.

    sailor80
    Reply

  10. While I loved what came before in this series, I must admit I am a bit disappointed about how they have paced the last six episodes. Six months of “real time” have passed and the show writers chose to address more technicalities about the upcoming battle than some interesting questions, like “what do you do in an abandoned factory for six months and how did you feed yourself all that time?” or “what did the creations on Team Meteora do while the creators were writing?” Okay, Selessia got a driving license, but what about the others? Six months is a lot of time to just hang around.

    As much as I think Meteora is best girl, this anime could have needed some more character interactions, instead of her monologues.

    Magnus
    Reply

    1. I think the writers chose to focus mainly on meta-commentary and musings over any real-world interactions.
      That said, sometimes I think the writers are too in love with their meta-musings of creations and creating.

      zztop
      Reply

      1. Yeah, it’s definitely written a bit too much from a writers point of perspective. Not that these things aren’t interesting, but it makes the characters a bit shallow and leaves out interesting questions, like the ones I mentioned above.

        Magnus
        Reply

      2. What I miss most is that, despite all the meta talk about the difficulties of making a crossover like this (and Altair’s inclusion in it) coherent and believable, we never get to see how they do it, only that they managed so. It all boils down to “trust us, the Creators wrote it!” and “you know if the audience believes it or not according to Meteora’s magical Suspension of Disbelief Detector”.

        Even their foreshadowing of their secret strategies is heavy handed, in the sense that the characters mention such developments in the latest episodes yet the series obviously cuts it so no detail is talked about off-screen.

        Mistic
        Reply

      3. The utter lack of foreshadowing is what’s starting to bother me. Normally you would have hints (if only vague and hard to identify) about future events to fill in the gaps, but we have none whatsoever. This will probably be fine if we get a decent climax to paper things over (and make up for over a season of exposition), but it’s still a noticeable flaw. Hell Kakegurui offers up more hints right now, and those ones are bloody hard to spot at times.

        Pancakes
        Reply

      5. Oh I don’t doubt it, I just think it’s annoying we have no way of remotely anticipating what’s coming. I like mulling over possibilities, but Re:Creators makes it hard with the lack of information. I want my hints goddammit, even if they’re only red herrings lol.

        Pancakes
        Reply

  11. Episode 16 and they’re already declaring final battle, huh? I got hit by Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans S2 flashback here. That show entered into the final battle phase early (just like this) and things didn’t go well for the protagonists’ plans at all. The result was a freakin’ bloodbath, Games of Thrones-level of bloodbath. I hope the protags in R:C won’t get royally f***ed as bad as the ones in IBO S2 (love that show btw, even though it played with my heart before ripping it to shreds with a giant mace).

    Oby
    Reply

  13. The Ooedo Onsen Monogatari’s an actual hot springs theme park in Tokyo’s Odaiba district.
    Be careful not to overspend!
    http://daiba.ooedoonsen.jp/en/

    The Elimination Festival’s held at Yokohama’s Nissan Stadium, which hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup and has over 70,000 seats.
    http://www.americasrugbynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Yokohama-International-Stadium-Japan-e1475581080987.jpg
    Hiroe Rei said he’d always envisioned the anime’s climax to take place in such a stadium, and “from now on the audience will participate in the story as a driving force”.

    In a meta touch, the Festival’s opening hosts are the Japanese VAs for Selesia and Rui.

    zztop
    Reply

  14. I don’t particularly mind the talk heaviness as it’s the calm before the storm ep + fan service, the fourth wall breaking comments among the characters are an amusing bonus for me XD

    Devastaot001
    Reply

  16. https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%2014.jpg
    First time we got a look at Selesia’s hair colour distribution? Always wondered how high the lighter part went.

    Now a question about this:
    https://randomc.net/image/Re%20Creators/Re%20Creators%20-%2016%20-%2028.jpg
    I don’t really get the event. Is it just a promotional concert or something? If it’s suppose to tell part of the story, does multiple screens actually work? Especially with that spacing. I think there’s a good reason why drive in theatres (or whatever it was called) has only one big screen. I can’t really find the centre focus in that stadium. If they’re going to use different screens for each scene, wouldn’t that be rather confusing?

    Finally, is Hikayu going to act as bait? Not really sure who or what they were referring to, but she’s the only one that came to mind.

    theirs
    Reply

    1. If they’re going to use different screens for each scene, wouldn’t that be rather confusing?

      Perhaps they’ll edit the images from the action to make a single show and the multiple screens are for everyone to see it well? Not unlike some football matches I remember watching.

      Finally, is Hikayu going to act as bait? Not really sure who or what they were referring to, but she’s the only one that came to mind.

      My take is that the bait was the summoning of Selesia’s Vogelchevalier, betting that Altair would be very interested in a Holopsicon summoning done without her knowing. Of course, we know that Altair knows what they’re planning and she’s going to the trap because it fits her agenda, not because she was deceived.

      Mistic
      Reply

      1. Does that mean they’re going to broadcast the fight live?

        Not sure football matches are a good example, since the focus of the audience is the field, while the monitors help in getting close ups. As for the event, I’m not really sure where the focus will be in that stadium.

        theirs
        Reply

    2. Hikayu’s probably not the bait, as Mistic mentions it’s likely Celestia’s mech, or even Yuuya. The goal is likely to draw Altair out by having her think some character materialized without her power and want to investigate.

      Pancakes
      Reply

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