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https://somebodymonologue.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/dissection-of-recreator/
^Find my original review with gifs to make the reading experience better.

There are several shows this season that were already popular before they even started: Attack on Titan S2, Boku no Hero Academia S2, Ero Manga Sensei, Boruto, and Saekano S2 . Although it might not be equally popular, Re:Creators is an anime that got detected on numerous viewer’s radars after the season began.

Dissection starts:

I still recall clearly how the show was showered with criticism, when it only had one episode out. The reason was transparently obvious: People were confused and discontent.

“There’s no character development!”
...
“What did I just watch?”

“How did no ordinary citizen get hurt during the fight?”

“Uh…are we just going to ignore that so much of the city’s public infrastructure was damaged severely?”

I was the same. Although the show’s premise had sounded promising, my gut was warning me that this could end up as a mess. As anticipated, Hiroyuki’s music was great. Nevertheless, other viewers and I could not take the show as seriously as we initially wished to.

However, after having watched the show until the episode 11, I can clearly claim that the show gradually gets better. Well, to a certain extent.

Let’s dissect some of the show’s characters:

Souta, our protagonist, is a “young high school student, who is timid but good-natured.” Until the later parts of the show, other viewers and I genuinely wondered what was the point of this guy, who seemed powerfully generic. Especially when almost the entire casts are basically fictional characters with their unique abilities from different worlds. Thankfully, we were wrong.

Initially, he might come across as an irrelevant otaku observer, who was simply included in the anime simply for the sake of his reactions and awe towards the characters and their fights. However, as the story proceeds, we begin to see more of his story and understand how he is related to the overall story. More importantly, we begin to feel something for him. It’s the sense of familiarity. We begin to learn about his love towards creating arts and the subsequent suffering that results from his limited talent, his inferiority complex, and his self-contempt. And these are the frail characteristics that many of us have, hide and feel insecure about. As we see this embodiment of the unpleasant aspects attempting to grow and mature for the sake of his friends, Souta ceases being a simple, two-dimensional glasses-kun.

On the other hand, I feel like the character developments for Selesia was not as strong in comparison. Regarding Selesia, since the episode one, she did not change much as a character. Certainly, we could argue that this was intentional, as she is a being whose life is predetermined by her character description. Nevertheless, the growth she has shown throughout the first half comes across as weak. When discussing her as a character, the only highlight is her relationship with her creator glasses-kun, It is heartwarming to see these two, who initially held each other in disrespect/contempt/irritation, gradually form a sense of connection and mutual respect as they overcome several predicaments.

Meteora’s character development was, unexpectedly, fine or even good. With Meteora, I guess her charm is the contrast between her outer appearance and her inner appearance. What I mean by this is while she continues to have same serious poker-face expression on her, Meteora is actually a cute and thoughtful individual. At first, Meteora gives off the serious vibe that makes her appear not easily approachable. However, we see that this is not necessarily the case and fall for her gap-moe, when we see her stuffing herself with fast-food, trying to make a joke in the serious situation and this scene. Moreover, her perceptive and considerate sides are shown when she unexpectedly serves as an emotional support for Souta, as he tries to reveal his past—something that he has been running away from. Cheers for Meteora

Although I am going to save up for the knight and Kanoya the gundam pilot (MVP of ep11) for the review of the 2nd half in the future, I will review Mamika since she won’t be returning anytime soon. A moment of (optional) silence for her. Although she begins off as an innocuous magic girl with naive ideals and understanding of the world, Mamika gradually realizes that this is not the case after her first battle with Selesia and conversations with other characters, especially Souta. While some vieweres found her naivetey slightly irritating (and I confess that I also felt the same sometimes), I still felt some respect for her as she relentlessly pursued what she believed to be right. Just like every other character in the show, Mamika fought for her notion of justice, and I suppose that deserves some acknowledgement. Nevertheless, you could say that she was naive even to her death, as she believed in Magane—the liar.

*Check blog for the gif.
After all the thing she’d done, I still found her cute doing this. Hnngh

I have mixed feelings regarding Magane that I am planning to express later on in another writing that will be coming up in several days. I feel like her character suits the content’s topic well: the construction of an odd character/sociopath in animes and mangas. Stay in tune. For now, let me just clarify that I quite like her character. Unlike the rest, Magane utilizes her wit and mastery of manipulation to activate her abilities and fight. Not only is the deviation from the brute force battles a nice break of fresh air in the show, but it is also rather interesting to see and predict how Magane will find a way to trigger her opponents in order to activate her skill.

Altair and Blitz: To be frank, I am unable to form any consolidated opinion regarding these two characters. Hopefully, in the second half, I can get enough insight into these characters so that I can see them as ‘valuable’ characters and not just empty shells.

Now, let’s dissect the show’s fights and music:

In spite of how purely eargasmic Hiroyuki’s music consistently is throughout the show, the fights feel slightly lackluster for now. While every fight carries a reason for happening and subsequently a weight of importance, the battles simply do not manage to successfully convey the intensity. The only fights where I felt tingling badassness were those, in which Mirokuji had participated in.

I believe that there are two underlying causes for the insufficient intensity that is conveyed through the battles.

1.Fighting with no/weak intention to kill.

So far, we’ve seen almost all of the casts participate in fights. However, from what I’ve seen, I don’t see any intent of killing from the characters on the good side. At most, they are simply resorting to violence in order to stop their enemies. Fighting others to kill them and fighting others to stop them from doing something; there is a rather large difference between the two. On the other hand, the characters of the evil side do not feel any hesitation in killing others; the knight is still on the fence, or so it seems from the latest battle and her reaction to the blood that spurred from Selesia’s stomach. Consequently, the discrepancy of the intention to kill between the two sides strongly contributes to the show’s inability to convey the intensity that it could have achieved.



2. Facial expressions during fights

You might have noticed this or not. There is not a wide spectrum of facial expressions for many of the characters during battle scenes. Mirokuji laughs, stays quiet with a poker face or gets pissed; Selesia continues to have a consistent fiery gaze; Meteora appears pretty calm, most of the time; the knight usually appears determined, hesitant and then determined again, except that she is pissed. Well, considering how their characters are predetermined by their character descriptions, I can understand. Nevertheless, seeing no strong visual of despair, psychological distress, or fear makes it difficult for the audience to empathize with the characters. It is difficult for us to engage ourselves into the show and comprehend their physical and emotional struggles, when they don’t look really desperate or distressed. Certainly, several attempts are made during battles. Although they do work to a certain extent, the efforts do not manage to make the most out of the opportunities. *Spoiler* So far, Mamika’s fight with Altair was able to do this the best.

Conclusion:

Well, throughout the show, there are occasional quotes and scenes that I think would resonate with many artists (or ‘creators’. As Utaha from Saekano would like to say) in our international community. So you should give the show a try if you haven’t tried it yet or dropped in the first three episodes. If you are still watching it, what do you think about the show so far?

Discrimination—prejudicial treatment of different categories of people— is not limited to race, age or sex. There can also be a form discrimination against others based on their hobbies (gaming and watching anime), disability, social classes or other aspects. If we spot somebody being discriminated against, it would probably leave a negative impression on us. In fact, the term ‘Discrimination’ has a negative connotation. That is why a show named ‘Demi-chan wa kataritai’—Interviews with Monster Girls—made an indelible impression on me, when it made me consider a new way of viewing discrimination.

Firstly, the story plot goes somewhat like this:

“This story begins in the age where ... ‘demi-humans’ which is humans with some sort of special power have been accepted into modern civilization. Tetsuo Takahashi who is a biology teacher wants to study demi-humans and his luck smiles at him and ends up in the same school as 4 of these demi-humans. The story follows as he tries to ‘interview’ these demi-humans and learn more about them but with a lot of failure on his end and comedy at its finest on the other end.”

As the summary stated, there are 4 demi-humans: Takanashi Hikari (a cheerful blonde vampire), Machi Kyouko (a kind dullahan), Kusakabe Yuki (a cute yuki-onna) and Satou Sakie (a succubus teacher…yes). Although this show might initially come across as just a cute show with cute girls doing cute things, it actually brings more to the table than that.

Every demi-character has her own struggle, which stems from her demi-human characteristics. All of their individual arcs are engrossing. Especially the yuki-onna Kusakabe’s. We see her get bullied by her peers due to an unfortunate misunderstanding and watch her gradually develop self-contempt. The way her problem was resolved made me tear up a bit; I usually don’t feel so emotionally emphatic towards a fictional character, but the resolution scene felt so sincere, heartwarming and realistic that I could not help it. No spoiler, you guys can check it out. Overall, the demi-girls’ predicaments reinforced the negative connotation associated with discrimination and I thought it was done splendidly well.

*spoiler*
That’s why episode 11 really caught me and, I think, other viewers off guard. It introduced a conflict between perspectives, which later on led to a rather thoughtful discussion of discrimination.

Throughout the series, we enjoy seeing relationship development between the male teacher Takahashi and his demi students. But the students basically depend on no other human teacher than Takahashi. This episode portrays Takashi’s relationships in a new light: they depend on him too much.

The vice principle of the school suggests that it would have been better for Takahashi to leave the demi girls on their own, as doing so could have given them opportunities to foster independence and overcome their challenges themselves, while bonding with their peers. And as much as this opinion unnerves the audience, who has witnessed how much the demi girls had to go through, vice principle’s statement has an element of truth.

I really found it clever how the show then—for the first time— shifted its main focus to four ‘normal’ human students. They begin to talk about the clash of views between Takahashi and the vice principle. What came next was a conversation that I find to be one of the many memorable conversations from this show.
*spoiler ends*

*non spoiler part continues*
To be acknowledged and accepted as who we truly are; not just liked for our looks, wealth, skills, connections or other superficial elements. This desire likely resonates with numerous people. However, because we are all unique and differ from each other, we tend to avoid confronting the difference between us and others, especially during our adolescence, to avoid hurting our peers. As a result, we can become unable to see our friends as who they really are; all we are left with is merely a shallow inclusion.

In Demi chan wa kataritai, human students assume that demis want to be treated as humans and believe that treating them as demis is, no doubt, a despicable form of discrimination. While their reasoning makes sense, it is ironically the opposite for the demis; they just want to be treated as who they really are—demis. The conversation between the human boys and girls explains how their treatment towards the demi-girls as human girls reject their demi qualities and would be the true discrimination. The show conveys we should learn to face the discrepancy between us and others, rather than compromising and dismissing the difference between us and others. Refusing to recognize the way a certain individual/group differs from us is possibly a more subtle form of discrimination. Only by learning how to acknowledge the difference, we will be able to form genuine friendship, in which we can be accepted as who we are.

It is indisputable that discrimination has harmed countless lives in the past. It still does now, and it will likely to continue doing so in the future as well. However, this does not make it fine to simply treat everyone as the same, while portraying discrimination as the evil. Doing so would equal dismissing our individualistic charms and flaws, which are pivotal to defining our identities. Discrimination is not necessarily harmful; it merely depends on the extent of discrimination. It is inevitable that there will be conflicts when coming to terms with the dichotomy between people. However, they are prerequisites to be see others as who they are and also be seen as who we are. What do you guys/girls think?

P.S. This is irrelevant to the topic of discrimination. Another reason why this show resonated with me was because of the students’ relationships with the teacher Takahashi. In our rigorous education system (at least for me. I guess it depends on your location and its culture), it is difficult to develop such personal student-teacher relationships. It is possible, but nevertheless. The relationships Takahashi shares with his students are just beautiful. I am glad that there is no usual student-teacher romance stuff…if excluding the dullahan girl. I am glad the show didn’t put too much focus on that element, as it would likely have killed the heartwarming feeling

https://somebodymonologue.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/what-if-discrimination-is-inevitable/
^some gifs included to make the review better. It's my blog so not copying anything.