Aliceteria asks Blitz why he’s working with Altair, but feels she is unable to get a real answer from him and leaves. We do learn that Blitz had a daughter who died; maybe this is factoring into his motivations for working with Altair?
Elsewhere Souta is finishing up recounting what happened between himself and Setsuna. He explains that he was riding the train one day when he got a text message from Setsuna, who told him she’d been dealing with a lot. As a result of the online criticism and bullying she’d been faced with, Setsuna had been unsure of whether or not she wanted to continue drawing because it was no longer fun. She said she’s innocent of the lies being spread about her, and asked Souta if it’s ok if she continues to draw. Souta sent back a quick perfunctory text saying he wouldn’t know because he’d never been in that position before.
A long time passed before Souta heard from Setsuna again. One day Souta was on the art website and realized he had a message from Setsuna. He opened the message and although he didn’t realize it at the time, he was reading her suicide note. Setsuna thanked him for going to the convention with her and said it was the best memory from her life. She also told him about Altair and explained that the character was her newest story, and likely her last one as well. Souta decided to stop talking with Setsuna (although of course now he couldn’t communicate with her anymore even if he wanted to) and erased everything about her from his phone and computer in an effort to forget about her. That however became impossible when Setsuna’s mother called him to tell him what happened to her daughter…
Souta says that he feels Altair was created from Setsuna’s despair, and that’s why Altair is trying to wreak revenge on the human world on behalf of Setsuna. After some feedback from both Takashi and Meteora, Souta declares that he wants to help stop Altair.
After Souta is done speaking, Masaaki opens his laptop to show some video clips of Altair performing some of the moves she displayed from the battle the night before. However, there’s a catch – these videos weren’t made by Setsuna. They were created by other people who were inspired by Setsuna’s art – secondary creations. This is what Altair’s true power is. This is why she’s as powerful as she is. When other users create secondary stories featuring Altair, whatever powers are included in those stories are uploaded to Altair’s arsenal and made available to her. O_O
Meteora points out that because the “restoration power” of the world is still in effect, so Altair has to be careful to not use too much of her power or else she risks being sent back to her own world. This explains the static-y effect Altair took on from the earlier fight.
In a nutshell, it’s decided that the creators need to make changes to the stories of their creations and share them with the public in order to make their creations’ power boosts permanent. At the same time the creators will create spinoffs featuring a new world they can lure Altair to. Then the creations will leave the human world to join Altair in this alternate world and defeat her there. Having Altair in an alternate world of their own creation will limit her ability to gain new powers. Kikuchihara will deal with all the red tape bullshit associated with having so many publishers involved in this kind of project.
This will all need to be done fairly rapidly, including getting the viewers’ support. Meteora suggests that some kind of large event be held, something where all the publishers or creators can get together and debut this new alternate world. In the meantime while this event project is being put into action (which will take between 3-6 months), Souta and the others will look for new creations and continue to try to suppress Altair.
While Souta and his friends are having their meeting, in what looks like some kind of jail, Aliceteria’s creator is being held prisoner. He has a working art desk in his room, and the usual prison ammenities, but that’s about it. Aliceteria dangles her creator over the city from her flying horse and interrogates him about why he created her world, and whether he feels she is the one who should save it. His responses combined with Aliceteria remembering what Souta said about her story are what cause her to decide to spare his life. Aliceteria puts him down and tells her creator to get to work continuing her story.
After the credits Blitz is seen talking to Altair. He updates her on Aliceteria’s actions, and laments that he did not kill the knight when he had the chance. Altair points out that if they had, it’s likely she would have been pushed out of the human world. A new creation steps out of the darkness, and we see that Selesia’s comrade Charon has been brought over to the human world as well now. He is searching for both Selesia and a way to save his home world.
My thoughts: The discussion of Setsuna’s suicide is the perfect way to lead up to a mid-season hiatus. And I’m glad it was revealed when it was, instead of being dragged out and saved for later in the season. As I think I mentioned in an earlier review, the confession is important for Souta’s character as well. Now that he doesn’t have to hide this big huge secret anymore, he can move forward with less guilt (hopefully), and become a productive member of the team working to stop Altair.
The other thing I want to mention is that I’m really, really glad that Souta’s friends and allies didn’t freak out on him for what he did to Setsuna. I had been worried that they would make his guilt worse. Takashi came the closest to reprimanding Souta, but even though his words weren’t completely sympathetic he still made an effort to understand Souta’s actions. Re:CREATORS is the first anime I can think of offhand I’ve seen that actually covers cyber-bullying in detail, and the real-life effects it can have on people. Big thumbs up from me on that.
I’m really excited that Charon has been brought to the human world! I am looking forward to how Selesia will react when she sees him again…. and then realizes that he’s Altair’s ally, not hers. Will it split them apart? Will they be able to save their home world together?
I’ve been notified that the series will resume on July 8, so I will resume blogging this show then! I’m in the middle of moving and am about to (hopefully) start a new job, so I’m grateful for the break but am also still excited to see what happens next in Re:CREATORS. 😀
Altair’s powers are a very metaphysical way of looking at original fan creations, especially those made without any backstory or lore to them. If a fandesign is released to the world as a blank slate, can outside fanworks shape and fill in the character’s story?
It also brings up the issue of how public conception affects the powers and limits of creations. For example, assuming the number of people whose conception of official Creations (like Selesia) are firmly fixed by source backstory is much greater then those that accept derivative fan-depictions of them, those fanworks do not get to influence the Creations and imbue them with new powers.
In Altair’s case, she doesn’t seem to have come with any canon lore or abilities that create a fixed conception of her in people’s minds. So when other fanartists make works depicting her with all kinds of powers, the important thing is that all these fans believe she has all those powers.
Thus there exists a small but significant number of fanartists who provide this collective public conception that Altair has all types of abilities, and thus she gets them. This collective drowns out the minority who knows she has no original powers, since there’s no canon lore available to contradict her powers.
Of course, it does bring up questions of whether fanvids could be used to weaken Altair as well. Like if someone did a popularly accepted fanwork that she’s a bungling, incompetent idiot, then she’s screwed.
Recap manga of Ep 11:
http://imgur.com/UcG6C2P
And then Team Creations kicked off the hospital-themed fashion trend…
Also, a new Re Creators manga spinoff, One More:
https://www.sunday-webry.com/comics/re_creators_onemore/ep001/
Otaku girl who’s a massive fangirl of Shun (MC from Yuuya’s manga) briefly encounters Selesia and Meteora battling Altair in the park from Ep 1, and then witnesses the Mamika-Selesia-Yuuya fight.