After a slew of exposition-filled episodes, Re:Creators is back to the vibe of the first two weeks where its creations were blowing each others apart with their powers. Out of all creations so far, Makagami is probably the most batshit crazy character in Re:Creators that is more in the vein of Rei Hiroe’s previous work of Black Lagoon. Her carefree demeanor and sadistic methods of murdering people who get into her way of fun reminds me of Nui Harime (Kill la Kill), whose trollish attitude always threw a wrench into balance of the show. Using some sort of occult powers that ties in “a lie about a lie” is just icing on the cake and puts her as an alternate contender for best girl title.
While most of this episode was mostly dialogue, it had that delicious tension that was sorely missing from the previous weeks. At times, it felt like Fate/zero as they slammed their ideological beliefs in a vain attempt to pursue each other before devolving in a brawl. Makagami may be an murderous bitch but she does have a point that Saber Alice’s idea of justice is deeply hypocritical. When it came to the final minutes, Re:Creators delivers on its promise of mishmash of powers being thrown around from your standard magical fantasy mega beam to gravity bombs being detonated. Blitz Talker has some very cool gadgets like his anti-grav device that allows him to fly and suggests that he comes from a sci-fi setting that has already mastered some serious tech. However, the best moment comes from Madoka’s Mamaika’s valiant defense of Meteora as it matches up so well with her character of trying to have everyone get along and owning up to her friends. I can’t for next week for the conclusion to this fight as this show finally finds its legs and starts running.
Makagami did throw a lot of Consequentialism vs. Deontologcism out there, but in a way that was not overwhelming. Her creator did put a lot of work into her intelligence (at the same time obviously also throwing fan-servism). You are right this is Hiroe making a comment on Hiroe 🙂
A thing I noticed during the fight. Aliceteria’s armor makes all the propers sounds. I mean seriously I have watched a lot of anime that include armors, but the sound in this one stood out for its consistency. She wears armor, and you can hear it.In her every move. Exceptional. (compare to Bahamut which I love for some many reasons, but in the fights you do not hear the armor moving).
I have a bone to pick about comparing Alice to Saber. Unfortunately, unlike Saber, Alice is a direct transfer from a medieval fantasy world with a fixed idea about what makes a God entity. Totally don’t blame her for this but it’s a fatal flaw here cos it’s going to be very hard for her to figure out for herself how she and her world was created, exactly what her creators are, etc. MUCH LESS grasp Meteora’s theory about what might happen if the military princess’s plans come to fruition. And unfortunately, Meteora’s approach is waaaaaaay too subtle. They need to grab her, toss her into an Animate or something and get her to read her own manga or watch her own anime. (And watch her freak out about a copy of her inside the magic mirror.) XD She’s not a bad person but…I’m kinda looking forward to comedy moments where you try to teach her what a television or mobile phone is. Can’t do that with Saber cos she get summoned with the ability to ride a motorcycle.
I gotta say, I’m disappointed that Maaya Sakamoto’s character came out as something so murderous. I was honestly hoping all the characters, as representatives of major popular genres in the anime scene would come out becoming protagonists in their own way without any of them becoming a clear antagonist that needs to die in the end to get to a good ending. The fun being seeing their individual dynamics play off against each other. I’m okay with chaotic characters but i’m gonna be really sorry if Maaya’s character gets reduced to something like Ali Al-Saachez or some other foil that you clearly need to hate. Her power is really interesting though. I wonder if it can do miraculous things too, like bring back dead girls who’ve been run over by trains.
I know the I’m overly simplifying things and I get that Alice doesn’t come close to being like Saber but when the closest show to Re:creators is fate/stay night, you’re going to inadvertently see comparisons from bloggers.
Haha, sorry. Maybe I’m too big a fate fan but I can’t make the leap between Alice and Saber. One thing I totally agree with Maaya’s character’s point of view is that Alice is an idiot. Around the same level as Marika but at least even Marika seems to be catching on a bit enough to be cautious about what comes next. I think Alice has good instincts, in being instantly able to peg Maaya’s character as a killer but somehow it doesn’t work with Selesia and Meteora. Selesia in particular should be of a similar archetype to Alice. Why can’t they get along? Which is what bugs me the most about her. She’s a major protagonist. There are banners of her all over. There should be something majorly good about her character to give people that much of an impression. So why is she being so belligerent? I get that she’s desperate to save her people but if other heroes around her are giving pause, why isn’t she able to give them a chance to explain their side?
I wonder if Alice might be suffering an existential crisis. Trying to face the possibility that she and her world aren’t real. Making a big fuss about saving her people to hide her panic and anxiety and grasping at the Uniformed Princess’ promise as a kind of proof that she exists. Hmm…that might be really interesting. Who or what might get her to accept her current state? Maybe she needs to meet some fans.
Good point on the powers thing. Also just because she is a murderer does not mean she is doomed to fall. I mean pretty much all the characters in Black Lagoon are sociopaths, and a good bunch murderers. They are still around 🙂
I wouldn’t call the black lagoon bunch sociopaths. Their morality is just adjusted to a different environment, like people from the wild west or the survivors in the Walking Dead. I don’t see Revy shooting a store clerk to skip out on a bill for example. Revy, in particular, seems really self aware about where her morality situation is and openly tries to protect Rokuro from becoming twisted himself. Which is where our new character is at. I agree with you that this is just a premature impression but as far as I can tell, she’s just having fun. At the bookstore, she could have just run for it or used her power as a threat. Her victim could have also been written as more of a material threat, like a rapist or even an armed and aggressive police officer trying to detain her by force. I don’t know. As a first impression, there’s a lot less ambivalence on her morality. At the moment, she reminds me of the Joker in Black Knight. Creating and reveling in chaos for chaos’ sake. Or possibly violently killing anyone who challenges her, no matter how trivial the matter? She could become a worse antagonist than the Military Princess. Compare her to say Kurumi Tokisaki, who also does some violent murders but only against specific provocateurs like animal torturers or rapists and does so to feed on enough power to go back in time to the beginning and undo everything, including her own murders.
Well, a lot of my disappointment comes from Maaya Sakamoto playing a villain cos I usually tend to love the characters she plays. That and, well, a character like this will throw a lot of tension into the story. I’m kinda dreading a really tragic turn of events soon, one that will warrant a lot more depressing ending sequence.