Re:CREATORS – Episode 9 [The World Requires Choice and Resolution]

Mamika flees her encounter with Altair, but she’s gravely injured. En route to see Aliceteria Mamika falls bleeding from the sky, where Magane finds her. As she’s bleeding out on the ground, Mamika begs Magane to tell Aliceteria that Altair is indeed trying to destroy the world. Magane hums and haws until Aliceteria shows up and Mamika dies in her arms. Mamika’s lifeless body disintegrates into what looks like bits of data and they disappear into the air.

Mamika demands that Magane tell her what Mamika said, and Magane agrees to tell no lies for once. Magane gives a list of various statements that, individually, are not lies but instead appear to demonize Meteora and make it sound like Meteora is conspiring with Altair to destory the world. Lies without technically being lies, if you will. Furious, Aliceteria flies off to find Meteora.

Magane meanwhile decides to text Souta and ask him to meet her at what looks like a conference center. Magane blathers on as usual, eventually revealing to Souta that she wants him to tell Selesia that Meteora is a traitor and working with Altair. In return, Magane will keep Souta’s secret: that he can’t apologize to Shizuka because she’s dead. Magane also tells Souta that Mamika is gone, telling him to ask Aliceteria who killed Mamika as “proof” that Meteora is a traitor. Souta’s guilt intensifies as he realizes that Mamika went to go talk to Altair based on the conversation he had with her in the cafe. He was the trigger. …Fuck.

Before Souta can agree to Magane’s deal, Yuuya and Meteora show up. Yuuya squares off against Mamika while Meteora talks to Souta. He’s already so distraught that he immediately sobs and apologizes to Meteora, finally spilling the beans about Shizuka. We learn that he had indeed been jealous of Shizuka and felt like he didn’t “measure up” against her, so he didn’t say anything when she was abused online. Therefore he feels like because he didn’t speak up and try to protect her, she died because of him. With Mamika’s death he feels like because he talked to her about what kind of person he felt Altair was, Mamika went to talk to. Meteora tells Souta that if he feels like he was responsible for their deaths because he hurt them, then he must continue to be strong and to not shy away from that reality. He must also strive to do what he can; he must find a reason to live. This option requires choice and resolution, so Souta must be strong and not give in to any feelings of hopelessness.

Yuuya notices that one of his attacks no longer works on Magane, and Meteor explains that because Magane’s ability is to “reverse cause and effect”, his attacks won’t work on her after they’ve been used (and foiled) a couple of times. This causes Yuuya to get pissed off and use his Hangaku ability.

Seeing that her plan for Souta has been ruined, Magane hints that she has another plan for Meteora in how they can all kill Altair, but Meteora shoots down the idea. Aliceteria arrives on the scene, ready to fight off against Meteora.

My thoughts: This is going to sound really weird, but Magane is honestly my favourite character right now. I’ve been thinking about why this is, and I feel that it’s because she’s a walking contradiction of most other female anime characters. Sure she looks like a schoolgirl, but on the inside she’s totally evil right to her core. And most importantly, she’s extremely talented when it comes to reading the body language and words of those around her. She repeatedly guesses (correctly) that Souta has a secret he’s hiding, and even the nature of that big secret, all without him ever saying even a word to Magane. The psychology behind Magane’s character just fascinates me.

I’m really sorry to see Mamika die, and especially so early in the series. I wonder how long it will take Aliceteria to find out that Magane warped Mamika’s final words around and is manipulating her for her own twisted purposes. I wonder what happens to creations who die in the human world, the “world of the gods.” Do they return to their own world and forget everything? Does their original world change/end because the creation who left will never return?

I’m glad Souta’s secret about Shizuka is out in the open. Now all the good guys are (or will be shortly) all on the same page. I’m glad it was Meteora who first learned the truth from him; she is the right type of compassionate person to hear that confession (in my opinion). I suspect there might be more to it than that too, but time will tell.

All in all an awesome episode, one of my favourites in the season so far. I’m excited to see what happens next week!