Re:CREATORS

Episode 12

Episode 12 may bog down a bit in its main segment – where Sota continues his explanation of what happened with Setsuna – but its conclusion shows off exactly why I love this series so much. There may not be any real action this episode, and it may spend nearly its whole running time just showing characters talking to one another, but it's the ideas behind what's going on that power this series more than anything else, and in the last two-thirds of the episode, those ideas are in full bloom.

The episode begins with a brief scene where we finally get to see some of the devastation wrought by Mamika's attack back in episode 8, though we still don't see any sign of the implied collateral damage to the surrounding area. The short conversation that Alicetaria and Blitz have there is practically a “before-and-after” contrast: Alicetaria has had her horizons expanded by contact with Mamika and Sota, while Blitz hasn't. It also reveals that Alicetaria thinks that Magane was actually responsible for Mamika's death – still not true, but at least she's blaming a genuine villain now. Alicetaria's later scene with her Creator also reveals that Sota's words to her back in episode 10 had much more impact than was immediately apparent. Alicetaria may be bull-headed, but she's not stupid, and she's clearly given some thought to what Sota said.

What should have been the big scene is the end of Sota's confession about Setsuna. It didn't take the darkest possible direction that I had feared; instead it went in a “there was a critical moment where in retrospect I could have said something to stop her, but instead I was standoffish” direction for Sota taking the blame for her suicide. This part plays out more slowly than necessary, but it does elaborate on how the plagiarism accusations could have pushed Setsuna as far as suicide. Since Setsuna had few friends, creating basically was her world, and the rampant accusations struck to the heart of that. It's not hard to see how she could read Sota rejecting her from his tersely-worded text either, and the loss of that potential support mechanism was apparently the final straw. So while Sota is overstating things by saying that he killed her, he isn't wrong about accepting some of the blame. Somewhat surprisingly, the team doesn't try to console him or let him off the hook for it. Whether Sota deserves the blame or not, he still has legitimate reasons to feel guilty about what happened, so he should do what he can to make up for it.

However, the real juice comes after that scene, as the assembled cast plots out how to deal with Altair in light of recent revelations. The big twist is that the abilities Altair displayed in the previous fight are not based on Setsuna's original creation but on derivative creations – in other words, she's expanding her power repertoire via widely-viewed fanworks. Whether or not something like that would work for other characters is not addressed, although the implication could be that Altair is a special case since a) she was a fan creation from the start and b) her Creator died right after releasing her to social media. Either way, that makes speculation about doujinshi and the impact they have much more interesting. This discussion also confirms speculation that Selesia's upgrade in episode 10 was only temporary because the change wasn't entrenched enough in fandom. Combining that with the way fanfiction impacts Altair leads to the plan that will presumably compose most of the series' second half. The Creators must collectively contrive story movements that will box Altair into a cross-over event.

Boy, I didn't see that turn of events coming, even though it totally makes sense. Cross-overs are commonplace in the American comic book industry, but beyond cameos, they're quite rare in anime, manga, and light novels, so I'm excited to see where this goes. The obvious question is why they don't just tackle the problem directly by making some “fan creations” that limit Altair's powers, but the answer to that question is also implicit in the premise: limitations on the character would be less likely to gain fan traction than expansions would.

The epilogue also gives us a taste of the next Creation to be introduced, and Altair's words suggest that a couple more are still coming. This newcomer isn't named, and we don't even get to see him in full, but we know that he's male and his wardrobe suggests that he may be a ninja. This is one of the glaring gaps not covered by the current cast, although being another character from one of the already-introduced worlds, specifically looking for an already-introduced character, would also be an intriguing angle. Either way, this episode sets up a lot of potential for involving developments in the rest of the series.

Rating: A-

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