Re:CREATORS Episode 3: A Winged Horse and Temporary Partings

Quick Summary of Re:CREATORS Episode 3

In Re:Creators episode 3, “Don’t worry about what others said. Just be yourself,” Selesia Upitiria finds herself in debt to a man she really can’t stand. Selesia’s creator Takashi Matsubara goes to unusual length to upgrade his character. Selesia and Meteora Österreich decide it might be time to live with someone besides Souta Mizushino. Military Uniform Girl speaks to someone who’s not there.

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious!

What’s In This Post

Quick Episode Summary
What Happened in this Episode
What I Liked in this Episode
What I Liked Not so Much in this Episode
Thoughts about the Episode
Related Posts

What Happened in Re:CREATORS Episode 3

Alicetelia February Crashes the Party

Yuuya Mirokuji, having interrupted Selesia’s fight with Mamika, demands the Magical Slayer make up her mind to attack him or not. Before he can press the issue, Alicetelia February swoops down on her winged horse and takes Mamika to safety. Selesia does not like him, but she’s too injured to do anything about it. Besides, the sirens signal that the authorities are coming. They withdraw.

They retreat to a restaurant, where Mirokuji eats quite a lot and Selesia tries to heal even though Meteora doesn’t have any healing magic. Mirokuji lets Meteora bribe him with food, and he shares what he knows. Namely, that Gunpuku no Himegimi had tried to recruit him, too, but her pitch — that they should unite to make their creators change their worlds for the better — didn’t resonate with him. He asks if they’ve tried to get their creators to tweak their abilities; only Meteora seems to have even considered that. He also suggests that Himegimi chose them to bring to the real world because of their popularity. He leaves in search of fun.

Marine Joins the Team

Matsubara, in an attempt to test the idea that he can change Selesia’s abilities, introduces the team to Marine, his illustrator. Of course, she’s shocked at what’s going on, but she quickly warms up to the challenge. They try to “upgrade” Selesia first with a new chant that Matsubara writes, then with a new sword that Marine draws. Neither works, and Meteora wonders if the work needs to be published to an audience before it would take effect. Marine then realized that she knew some people at the company that produced Meteora’s game and that she could give them an introduction. That way, Meteora could meet her creator, too! Marine likes the feeling of having helped, so she offers to let Selesia and Meteora live with her. They accept. Souta Mizushino wonders if this means he’ll never see them again, but Meteora especially thinks their fates are intertwined.

Back in his room, Mizushino remembers how Marine looked when she was drawing the new sword technique. She had been in the zone. He sits in front of his computer, his drawing window still blank. Somewhere in a broken building, Himegimi sits (she thinks alone) and speaks out loud to someone named Setsuna. She shares that she’s met Mizushino and that she didn’t think he’d be involved in their destinies “again.” She vows to be Setsuna’s ally until the end of this world. Mamika listens from the shadows.

What I Liked about Re:CREATORS Episode 3

Interesting Characters like Mirokuji

I’m liking Mirokuji. Though he presents like a villain, he really just does what he wants, and he seems loyal to his friends. And I have to sympathize with how he dislikes Mamika’s indecisiveness. Though I’m sure Mamika’s personality suits her fictional world, I’m pretty sure it’d wear thin quickly in ours.

I wonder if I’m the only one who reruns the OP a few times before continuing with the episode? It’s like it’s playing in the same key as my imagination.

Selesia demanded that Mirokuji tell them what he knew, but he faked being unable to remember. Meteora correctly read the situation and offered him a meal in exchange for the information. I hope those two women stick together. Their strengths compliment each other.

Each character seems to have a different set of expectations about their creators. Selesia and Meteora want to talk their creators into making changes for the better; Mirokuji doesn’t care. I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again: I love how this series explores the implications of its premise!

Selesia and Matsubara’s Complicated Relationship

Seeing Selesia and Matsubara bicker brought a smile to my face. Like Meteora said, they’re like a father and his strong-willed teenaged daughter.

Marine was fascinated by Selesia’s clothing, even down to the stitching. When Selesia expresses surprise, Marine explains that her pen sometimes just starts drawing on its own, and she doesn’t really think about what it’s doing. So details like stitching are a revelation to her.

It was touching how Marine apologized to Selesia for her constant battles. That’s an idea I hope they pursue: how should or will creators feel when they realize that at least some of their creations are real, living beings who actually had to live through the plots and devices? Thinking about it, I might well get physically ill if that were to happen to me!

Marine dropped spoilers on Selesia! Since the princess was from the anime, she didn’t know the latest developments in the manga, and events like being betrayed by her best friend were shocking to her. I wonder how that will play out? In terms of the show’s central concept, is Selesia the anime character the same as Selesia the manga character?

Meteora Serves Coffee to Selesia

Meteora had to explain coffee to Selesia because her world didn’t have it. The aroma also helped her try it. Another cool little detail!

Marine was so proud of her drawing! That was adorable. It’s nice to see folks happy with their work.

I was really afraid that the show was going to give Selesia new powers just by drawing or writing them. That would have resulted in a seriously skewed world — characters with god-like powers just aren’t enjoyable to watch. But if they add another level of difficulty, like the audience having to accept the new power, that could be interesting. Especially if the audience could reject the idea if it’s a bad fit for the character. In other words, the audience might be the final arbitrators. The bit where the theme music starting playing as Selesia tried to activate the power, only to cut off abruptly when the power didn’t activate, was a nice touch.

Of Mizushino, Himegimi says to the not present Setsuna, “He’s a part of the world that banished you.” What’s that about? And why do I have a terrible feeling it’s something tragic? If you don’t mind spoilers, there’s an interesting conversation about this on Reddit. Don’t know if it represents canon or not, but it’s an interesting read.

What I Liked Less about Re:CREATORS Episode 3

Alicetelia’s horse — why does its hooves make noise while it’s in the air? Of course, I’m not blind to the context of my question. I’m really asking why a flying, magical horse’s hooves make noise while it’s flying. Put that way, silent hooves seems like the least of the issues! But still, it seems like an inconsistency, and I’m wondering if there’s an explanation.

They split up the gang! Selesia and Meteora are going to leaveMizushino and live with Marine. Of course, it’s not realistic for two women to live with a sixteen year old boy, but I still thought Souta Mizushino could have put up more of a fight! Where’s his pride?

Thoughts about Re:CREATORS Episode 3

Tolkien and Sub-Creation

I think I enjoy the OP so much because it reeks of potential. What’s it telling us about the girl who committed suicide in the first episode? The motion of her glasses coming off seems connected to Mizushino putting his glasses on at the end. What do some of those images mean? I doubt anything there’s random, yet I don’t want to spend too much time pouring over it because there’s so much intellectually going on during the rest of the show!

The show seems to be dancing around the idea, but I wonder if they’re going to get around to considering an alternative explanation for the Created visiting out world? Namely, that the writers aren’t creating the worlds, they’re only documenting what their imagination sees is already there, in that other world. It’s a idea I first heard about years ago in conjunction with Tolkien’s idea of sub-creation. Marine reminded me of this. Remember when she asked Selesia if she could examine the princess’ clothing? Selesia was surprised that Marine didn’t know everything about it, since she drew it! But Marine answered that sometimes her pen just goes, and she’s not really consciously aware of what it’s doing.

Selesia Butts Heads with Matsubara

I really liked the idea of a created character like Selesia arguing with her creator. The idea’s appealed to me since I wrote a short story about something like it in high school (if we use the Star Wars movies as a timeline, and the present is Rogue One, I was in high school when the Emperor Palpatine was just a senator). Would a character necessarily have a reverence for their writer? How would their characterization, or lack of characterization, affect them if they came into this world? I think Meteora touches on this with her concept of information density. The deeper the characterization, the more fully realized the Created will be when they emerge in this world.

But what’s really interesting is what that relationship stands for metaphorically. I think Meteora and Mizushino referred to that when they were discussing destiny and fate near the end of this episode. Just as the writer determines what happens to Selesia and Meteora’s worlds (character to continents), they seemed to be saying that some force is aligning events in the real world, too. Does that mean there’s another level “up” from this reality? Another level of writer creators influencing Mizushino and Matsubara? Would that writer/creator be our God?* If the answer’s “Yes,” would you take Selesia’s approach and actively engage with your writer creator — or Mirokuji’s?

Or would you take another tact?

Let me know in the comments!

* Let’s hope it’s not Being X! Yikes!

Other Reviews of Re:CREATORS Episode 3

From Other Anime Sites

• Reddit: [Spoilers] Re:Creators: Episode 3 Discussion
• Manga Tokyo: Re:CREATORS Episode 3 Review: Don`t Worry About What Others Said. Just Be Yourself.
• Star Crossed Anime: Re:Creators Episode 3 – “Don’t worry about what others said. Just be yourself.”

From This Site (Crow’s World of Anime)!

• Titans, Heroes, Queens, and Swords: Spring 2017 Anime Preview Part I
• Aliens, Gears, Game Creation, and Worlds in Collision: Spring 2017 Anime Preview Part II!
• Re:CREATORS Induction into the Caw of Fame
• Re:CREATORS Episode 1: I will remember everything that happened to me
• Re:CREATORS Episode 2: ……. that wasn’t funny
• Re:CREATORS Episode 3: Don’t worry about what others said. Just be yourself
• Re:CREATORS Episode 4: If so, I want to protect what he loved
• Re:CREATORS Episode 5: So, why don’t we have ourselves a guys’ night out?
• Re:CREATORS Episode 6: You are the one who knows where justice lies
• Re:CREATORS Episode 7: I don’t want to make a mistake for the sake of the people who are in my story
• Re:CREATORS Episode 8: I CHOSE this way of life
• Re:CREATORS Episode 9: The world requires choice and resolution
• Re:CREATORS Episode 10: We know exactly how you think and how you’re fighting
• Re:CREATORS Episode 11: We cannot decide where we go but you can
• Re:CREATORS Episode 12: Be desperate and draw something fascinating
• Re:CREATORS Episode 13: An unpredictable story that no one knows where it’s leading to
• Re:CREATORS Episode 14: I feel painful and so useless that I want to cry but it’s fun nevertheless
• Re:CREATORS Episode 15: This is perfect! She couldn’t have been any more perfect!
• Re:CREATORS Bonus episode ENTER THE WORLD OF Re:CREATORS
• Re:CREATORS Episode 16: This is the actual beginning, isn’t it?
• Re:CREATORS Bonus episode: Summer Special Spending Time with the Girl Creations
• Re:CREATORS Episode 17: I mean I’m the CREATOR
• Re:CREATORS Episode 18: As long as we’re alive, we have to enjoy our lives to the fullest
• Re:CREATORS Episode 19: “The story continues, as long as there is someone out there, who believes in my existence
• Re:CREATORS Episode 20: Somebody receives the power of creation, and the spirit is redeveloped from their passion
• Re:CREATORS Episode 21: I love you, too
• Re:CREATORS Episode 22: Re:CREATORS