You had better get that hot springs episode in while you still can!
What They Say:
The Creators, exhausted after the tight deadlines, and the Creations, who have been executing the plan, get a moment to relax before the real battle starts. The team rallies their spirits for the upcoming battle, each member recalling their own reasons for fighting: To save the world, to return home, to face the past… Selesia and the others enter the Bird Cage, where they lie in wait for Altair.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Re:Creators took a week off, but as it returns, it looks like the characters didn’t realize that their break was over, because the first half of this episode is spent on them hanging out and having fun at a hot springs inn. This serves two purposes. The first is the natural assumption when you hear the words “hot springs” associated with your average anime: fanservice. Indeed this episode features the kinds of shots of its naked female characters you’d expect Ohnishi to whip up, providing much more fanservice than anything else in the series. The bias is clear here, as every member of the female cast has a perfect body, while only Mirokuji has a particularly attractive body on the male side. If anything, this just means that the males are a bit more realistically portrayed, especially since people in their field don’t necessarily have the luxury of the healthiest lifestyles. On that note, Mirokuji’s arrogant fat-shaming played for laughs is a bit less welcome.
Speaking of laughs, those seem to be the other purpose of this first half. As we head toward the climactic battle (albeit with more episodes remaining than one might expect given the apparent position in the story), this will likely be the last opportunity for any lighthearted antics like this, and possibly any real comic relief at all. That’s not to say that any of the humor is particularly effective in this segment, with the possible exception of Marine nearly spilling the beans on the public’s knowledge of more of Hikayu’s private affairs and Selesia risking drowning her to prevent that from happening. Hikayu’s place in the story is still largely one of lighter comedy, with moments like that and Yatoji continuing to prove himself as a tsundere by requesting a handshake from her and even an autograph from Ohnishi, who is still the worst part of any comedic attempts. Given these factors, it’s hard to think of how Hikayu will be used in the rest of the series, as she really doesn’t seem to fit in with everything else that’s going on in this ordeal, much less her Creator.
Once we get back to business, it’s onto the main event – literally. We’ve gotten a lot of the creative perspective on the industry, but have spent relatively limited time with the otaku general audience, so the opening to this event as the laymen understand has a comfortable feel to those inundated with this culture. Even though all of these Creations are two levels of fictional and as such their “Creators” are not real people, there’s no arguing with the fact that they are voiced by actual people in the industry, so it’s appropriate that the first time we see anime depictions of real people is when the seiyuu of Selesia and Kanoya (who was quite pleased to hear that he was voiced by a woman) introduce the project and perform its theme song (which we don’t get to hear, which I guess means they didn’t want to actually produce a character single for whatever reason). It’s a nice little touch for a show that has touched upon this industry so much but never that part.
In Summary:
Following a week off with an episode comprised of mostly fanservice and lighthearted comedy that doesn’t play out too well and the remainder comprised of purely setup doesn’t make for the most exciting buildup to the big crossover, but the rest of the series will determine its total worth.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Anime Strike
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.