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Re:CREATORS
Episode 18

by Theron Martin,

How would you rate episode 18 of
Re:CREATORS ?
Community score: 4.7

During a recent panel at this year's Otakon, director Ei Aoki explained that Re:CREATORS isn't actually about the Creations fighting; it's about the creative process, all the joys and pitfalls inherent to that process. Understanding that intent puts the series to date in a different light and perfectly explains many of the creative decisions made to this point. Sure, Re:CREATORS may have prominent action elements, but they are meant to be merely sidelights and enhancements to the real truth of the story. Each of the Creations represents the tangible manifestation of the joy of creation to some degree, even Altair. Taken this way, Setsuna's suicide and Altair's ensuing grudge against the world come off more as warnings to fledgling creators not to let hurtful public reactions get the best of you, and the regular encouragements that Selesia and others give Sota to engage in the creative process become more purposeful statements to the audience as well.

This interpretation comes through potently in the continuation of last episode's confrontation between Blitz and Suruga. It turns out that his daughter is the real deal, brought back to life by Suruga getting fans to accept her creating a link between Blitz's world and Meteora's, allowing the magic necessary to both resurrect Blitz's daughter and transport her to this world. It produces the expected result of Blitz switching teams, since he simply has no defense against his daughter coming back into the picture, but it also legitimizes the idea of Creators as the gods of their creations. The reveal that Suruga was wearing a bulletproof vest all along was a nice touch, explaining why she wasn't bleeding all over the place last episode.

A second key scene was the continuation of Sota's encounter with Magane. Her whole attitude about concentrating only on doing what's fun can now be taken as the embodiment of what creators strive for, that their fans be entertained. That's at least part of why Magane decides to help Sota by using her “lie within a lie” power productively; she wants to see the look on Altair's face when she gets thwarted. Her actions until now come across as a test against Sota's resolve to resume his creative work, as well as the author's own words to potential creators out there. (And frankly, I think Magane just likes him.) Either way, I'm looking forward to what comes out of this interaction, as Sota's potential contribution as a Creator is the only remaining unpredictable trick that Meteora's team has.

On the battle front, Alicetaria joining with Meteora's team at the appropriate moment was fully expected, as was Blitz showing up. So was Charon's dramatic entrance at the end of the episode to throw a wrench in the plan to restrain Altair that was finally succeeding. Sho was doomed in his battle once Yuya's allies – both old and new – showed up to help, but Hikayu's role was a slight surprise. Instead of going the magical girl route, as I expected, she was turned into a super-powered martial artist. This also seems like commentary on what creators can do with their characters and still get fans to accept it, but she's also pretty neat in action too. Of the myriad possibilities for juicing up her character, this was one of the most effective possible results.

Overall, I think framing the series as a running commentary on the more abstract side of the creative process is a risky but also fresh play that Re:CREATORS is largely getting to work for itself.

Rating: B+

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


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