What if the creations of our imagination became a reality? That’s the question that Re:CREATORS asks, and answers in beautiful fashion. Produced by relatively new studio; Troyca, Re:CREATORS is a big first step into possible long-term investment of Amazon’s Anime Strike service. Part 1 is packed with action, fantastic animation, and compelling characters.

Re:CREATORS is an 2017 seinen anime series, it is produced by Troyca, and licensed by Amazon for streaming. It is currently available on Anime Strike with English subs.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for the first twelve episodes of Re:CREATORS.

Re:CREATORS’ character designs and excellent story are its biggest draws.

In Re:Creators artist and their creations bond in ways never imagined, one of which being the real world. After the suicide of a rising indie artist, one of her creations goes haywire within reality, sending creations from multiple works to reality in an effort to destroy our world. Though things don’t go as planned, as many of the creations end up having other plans for themselves.

From magical girls, to mages, to boys with mechs, Re:CREATORS has no issue combining multiple genres without becoming a bundled up mess in the process.

THE GOOD: While Troyca is a rather young studio compared to powerhouses such as Bones, Madhouse, Pierrot, etc, the only three pieces of work that they’ve done have received solid praise, the third of course being the aforementioned Re:CREATORS. The story involves a character (literally) named Altair, an online video creation who wants to destroy our world after people were being cruel to her creator, which caused her to commit suicide. Her plan is to release creations from multiple works throughout the anime, video game, and manga industry to destroy the world as a punishment and act of revenge. Two of the first creations to shift into reality are Selesia and Meteora, a female anime warrior & female video game mage respectively. After disagreeing with Altair’s plan, they eventually, though unintentionally meet main character Sota Mizushino, an aspiring artist with a connection to Altair, or more accurately, Altair’s creator Setsuna Shimazaki, whom he befriended once upon a time.

Main antagonist Altair.

Things really start to pick up when Sota, Selesia, and Meteora meet the creators of Selesia; Takashi Matsubara & Marine, it is discovered that Meteora’s creator died, and because of this she had planned to set back & do nothing, but gave her game a try and ended up enjoying her world from a first person perspective, thus ultimately deciding to save the real world. The trio eventually meets creations Mamika Kirameki, Alicetelia February, and Yuya Mirokuji; a magical girl, lance wielding female warrior, and cursed bokken user, the two former of which who have sided with Altair, while Yuya has decided to become independent within the real world (eventually choosing Sota’s side). Sometime after cyberpunk gunman Blitz Tokar and his creator Shunma Suruga are introduced, followed by Rui Kanoya, a mecha pilot is pulled into reality meeting his creator Masaaki Nakanogane. The series starts to pick up once Mamika starts to question her involvement with Altair & Sota and his group’s motives. She starts to become the heart & soul of the series, which makes her death at the hands of Altair even more heartbreaking.

A major shake-up effects the series.

After her death, like Mamika, Alicetelia begins to question her loyalty to Altair’s side, so much so that she questions Blitz’s actions during a conversation with him and lets her captured creator Gai Takarada after interrogating him over the creation of her world due to previous comments made by Sota after he had seen her anime. The anime finds another bump in quality once the villainous Magane Chikujoin is revealed, she’s basically an insane, psychotic murder who couldn’t give a single damn about the people around her. In fact, she actually KILLS her own creator with little to no effort or remorse (of course his actual death isn’t shown to the viewers, but he is shown hanging while she reads her manga story). Magane’s character is rather interesting, as its shown throughout the series since her introduction that she’s rather intelligent, some examples include her being able to find her creator with zero issues, when the other creations needed help to find their own creators, and she’s able to take Yuya’s curse and use it as her own weapon after trapping him with her power “Infinite Deception of Words”, which allows her to make a lie into reality, and the lie turned truth sticks for as long as she’s alive. She enjoys manipulating and torturing the other characters both mentally and emotionally, and gets a personal kick out of death regardless of it being done by her directly (and yeah she happily eats a corndog fashioned with Mamika’s blood, which she was totally aware of while walking to her in her dying breath).

The Villain of Villains: Magane Chikujoin.

One thing that makes Re:Creators such an enjoyable series, with a lot of potential for the remaining 10 episodes is its character development. As the mystery surrounding Altair’s creator’s death continues to unfold, the others come to realize that he was somewhat involved with Shimazaki’s death, after befriending her, she begins to gain a bit of success as an illustrator and even gets to work with a renown professional within the industry. This irks Sota to the point of ignoring Shimazaki’s cries for guidance & companionship once people accuse her of plagiarism (which Sota admits to getting pleasure of during the break down of his guilt). That lack of help is what caused her suicide, and Sota expresses his guilt over his involvement to the others. It’s an emotionally humanizing scene that feels all too real, so it may be hard to watch Shimazaki’s origin for those going through depression.

Re:Creators’ gorgeous animation showcases Troyca’s talents, especially for battle scenes.

Another plus for Re:Creators is its amazing animation, Troyca’s talent isn’t really shown too much in the first couple of episodes, but when the battles pick up in later episodes, the rookie studio really shows its stride. From Mamika’s fight with Selesia, to Mamika’s “Magical Splash Flare” nuke on Altair, the animation is very pretty to see, the ost completely composed by renown anime composer  Hiroyuki Sawano fits the tone of each and every scene his soundtracks are featured in.

Fun action scenery keeps the series going in a good direction.

THE BAD: The show kind of losses its heart with the death of Mamika, and it goes into a much darker tone afterwards, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but her removal is definitely going to be noticeable moving forward.

A new classic anime in the making.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The first twelve episodes of Re:Creators brings a lot of promise for what’s to come of the completed series. Excellent storytelling, great character development, and other attributions will make this a series that’s hopefully discussed for years to come. Otaku Dome gives Re:Creators Part 1 a 90 out of 100.