Saturday, 16 September 2017

Re:Creators Episode 22 Review + Final Thoughts

Re: Repeat
(This review contains spoilers!)

          Well, despite all the trials, tribulations, and scenes of extended dialogue, we’ve made it to the end of Re:Creators. As is customary with these things, it’s time to unpack everything and review not only the final episode, but the series as a whole.

EPISODE 22

          To be completely honest, I’m pretty satisfied with how everything wrapped up. There was no big and overlong scene of the characters discussing something like this show loved to do so much. Instead we got a bunch of little vignettes focusing on the surviving creations saying goodbye to their creators. We get a nice scene with Meteora discussing Selesia’s death with her creator, Yuya and his creator talking about what’s next for the series, and the like. It’s nice to get one last moment with these fun characters…with one exception.

          Magane, arguably the most interesting and fun of the creations, is nowhere to be found this episode. Why? I really wanted to see where she was going next after we last saw her at the airport! It’s bad enough she turned good completely out of the blue, but now they decided to just send her on her merry way without even a namedrop in the final episode. Oh well.

          They decide to end the whole thing with Meteora staying behind and Sota giving a big “yeah creativity!” speech, which, in all honesty is probably the best ending we could’ve asked for at this point. For a show that got so caught up in itself during the second cour, a quiet goodbye without the use of big, important words and lengthy discussions is all I could’ve hoped for.

          All in all, this is a pretty satisfying ending for a pretty unsatisfying anime. While the exclusion of Magane is extremely disappointing, having the other characters all get their own moments in the spotlight is well deserved, especially those that got unfairly sidelined in the second cour, like Meteora. It’s not a bad finale.

FINAL SCORE (Episode 22)
7/10

Good

FINAL THOUGHTS

          This anime was basically the definition of a rollercoaster ride, and not in a good way. For every high point there were several low points, and the show fluctuated from fantastic action show with homages to every anime genre under the sun to a show that could barely contain itself from telling the audience how important everything was and explaining anything and everything that was happening.

          The animation and music were stellar throughout, as were the character designs. It’s obvious that this was an anime made by huge anime fans, because each character from each different genre looked and acted exactly as you’d hope. The show did eventually suffer from “large cast syndrome”, with several important characters getting unfairly shoved to the sidelines once the show decided they weren’t too necessary anymore, but the characters were ultimately Re:Creators’ biggest strength.

          Easily its biggest weakness was, as I said earlier, the fact that the writers got a little too caught up with themselves in the script. Everything that is deemed even slightly important is given an entire episode to itself just so we can hear the characters explain what’s going on, why it’s going on, how it’s going on, why they have to stop what’s going on, and how they’re going to stop what’s going on. It’s in no way fun to watch, and results in a lot of lost time that could’ve been used furthering character development or actually doing something fun with this concept. Being stuck in a board room listening to someone talk for half an hour doesn’t make for good TV.

          The climax was also a huge point of frustration, as it kind of felt like the writers trapped themselves in a corner with the villain and couldn’t find an easy solution. Altair went from being an intriguing baddie to an unstoppable force that the heroes threw themselves at over and over until finally Sota cheated her creator into existence to destroy her. I’m glad this final episode was a good epilogue, because the last few really left a bad taste in my mouth.

          If you’ve been reading along and for whatever reason haven’t watched the show yet, I can’t really recommend dropping everything to watch it like I would this year’s Little Witch Academia or Princess Principal. But if the concept seems interesting to you and you don’t mind listening to a lot of dialogue, it’s not an offensively bad watch either. Kind of a middle-of-the-road verdict, but this is an extremely middle-of-the-road anime.

FINAL SCORE (Overall)
5/10

Average

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