It’s not every day where the first episode of an anime makes an incredible impact, but the original story from Black Lagoon creator Rei Hiroe did just that! Re-Creators takes the whole “trapped in a fantasy world” concept and flips it on its head Fate/stay night style. Obviously, my gloating here would lead you to believe that I highly enjoyed the first episode and you would not be wrong. So, what made the first episode so great? That’s what we are here to discuss!
First Episode Impressions
Souta Mizushino decides to watch an episode of a popular anime on his Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Apple iPad-like device. Suddenly, the device malfunctions and blue screens on him. Ignoring the fact that an Apple-like product displayed a Windows blue screen of death, the tablet sucks him into the world of the anime he was watching. Just when you think that this is another “trapped in a virtual world” anime, Souta and the main character, Celestia Yupitilia are transported back into the real world!
After some confusion by Celestia, her arch-nemesis from the anime, Gunpuku no Himegimi, shows up and calls this the world of the gods. Without flat out saying it, the anime gives you enough to piece together the information needed to understand what this series is about. Manga and Light Novel creators weave these stories and some of them turn into television anime. However, the characters of these shows have an understanding that these creators are the gods of the world. Apparently, there are other characters trapped in the real world and they are seeking out their own creators. It’s a really interesting concept!
If the concept wasn’t enough, the animation should draw you in. It wasn’t movie-level animation, but it was above average for your typical television anime series. The fight between Celestia and Gunpuku, which took up the majority of the episode, was very well done and it did a fantastic job of drawing you into the action. CG was used in a lot of scenes, but it wasn’t PAINFULLY obvious like some other series this season (*cough* Fukumenkei Noise *cough*). The CG blended in and actually mesmerized me in some instances, such as with Gunpuku’s sword shield.
If an interesting story and great animation weren’t enough, let’s just toss in one of the most epic soundtracks I’ve heard in the first episode of a series! Two amazing insert songs and a phenomenal ending song, which will actually become the series’ opening, really drive home and enhance the action! This series hit everything it could possibly hit in the first episode. An introduction to the world, conflict, character introduction, some character development, action, kick ass animation and and amazing soundtrack.
OP & ED Impressions
“gravityWall” by SawanoHiroyuki [nZk]: Tielle & Gemie is the opening and served as the ending to the first episode. I can’t say enough good things about this song. With lyrics that mix together Japanese and English mixed with an upbeat dark rock tone, this song just fits this series perfectly. The female vocalist isn’t all that powerful behind the microphone, but her voice does mesh well with the song. This is most definitely going to be a song that will be on my playlist for a very long time.
“NEWLOOK” by Mashiro Ayano is the ending theme and it wasn’t present in the first episode; however, there is a PV of the anime that features a snippet of this song and I am not liking it at all. It sounds like it could be a generic opening for a typical shonen anime and that’s not a good thing. It’s the kind of opening you’d expect to hear at the start of Sword Art Online more than a show like Re-Creators. All I can say is thank God this was chosen as the ending because now I don’t have to skip over this every episode… I can simply just close my media player!
Worth Watching?
YES – As if you’d expect anything else from me after what I just said about the show! My only fear about Re-Creators is that the quality drops off after this first episode because shows like this tend to have this thing for presenting something really amazing to hook you and then just become generic and boring before picking the pace back up. I hope that’s not the case and we don’t get an episode devoted to Celestia going out shopping or some crap like that. I really love the momentum and the tone the first episode set and I want to see that continue on. If this series can do that, this will be an anime of the year candidate!
