Re:Creators is a 22 episode original anime not based on any existing property. However, it was adapted into a manga at the same time. The anime starts off simple enough, following high school study Mizushino Sota in normal day to day life. He is an aspiring light novelist and heavily follows gaming, anime, manga and light novels as sources of his inspiration. While watching the latest episode of an anime, he is suddenly transported into its world. Once he is transported back to his own world, he realizes that the anime's heroine has come with him.
The heroine that came from the anime is Selesia, a powerful swordswoman with her own mecha and other special abilities. The story quickly sets up its premise; it is revealed from the mysterious Military Uniform Princess that various characters from media properties are being transported into this world. She asks them to join her, to find their creators, and get them to help rewrite a better world. We're soon introduced to multiple characters that came from games, anime and manga. The unique thing is that they all retain their abilities, even if it breaks the laws of physics in this world (aka multiple characters can still fly, shoot magical projectiles and transform). It becomes harder and harder to conceal their battles and destruction from everyone else.
Through it all, Sato somehow gets involved, and remains involved, in all of this. joined by Meteora, a knowledgeable and naturally curious girl who was a NPC from a game, they seek to find out the aim of the Military Uniform Princess, and the reason for bringing so many "fictional" characters into this world. Re:Creators does give you some food for thought, especially through the eyes of a fictional character realizing that everything about them, their world and all events were just made up by someone for entertainment. As they come to grips that their creators is not some god but rather just another normal person, it can become philosophical.
Unfortunately, for all its potential with its concepts, Re:Creators ends up feeling bland and generic. Before you're even halfway into the series, you already feel that the pacing is seriously off with too many boring scenes that don't add much to the plot as a whole. The only saving grace are the animation quality and the awesome theme song that plays. The slow pacing of events leads to a recap episode of all things. It tries too hard to be different, having the main character give snarky commentary throughout and mixes in some new animation. It even ends with some sort of meta reference to the anime industry as a whole but comes off as just another waste of time.
Character motivations are one-dimensional. You have one group that wants to destroy the world to save theirs, and the other group wanting to protect the world from them. Despite each character having a rich backstory that you'd expect would have been to exploit, the script doesn't realize this. Battle scenes start off strong enough but soon after, it falls into predictable territory. The animators don't even try and just have characters swing against each other in the same fashion again and again.
Some of the characters are pretty dense. When you listen to and believe in someone who is known to be deceptive, then you would at least have some doubts. No, instead, the character believes it at face value and doesn't listen to anyone else. Sato is hinted to be related to the Military Uniform Princess in some shape or form. It teases it for around half the season but when it is finally revealed how (and the guilt that he had been feeling inside all this time), it drops the ball and is a fairly uninspiring tale.
As the series builds up to its finale, and the ultimate showdown, it doesn't quite get up there. Even up to this point, viewers will probably feel a sense of disconnect with the characters, they're just not very interesting. The Military Uniform Princess is always one step ahead and thanks to the characters constantly spouting exposition, it feels draining. The battles are flashy and look good but again, it lacks that spark to make them engaging. Everyone is also so melodramatic which kills any tension.
The story is set up in such a way and the antagonist is so overpowered that you wonder how it is going to possibly end. The climax is pretty much the second half of the season and it ends in a way that is plausible. That being said, the last episode felt like filler because after all the goodbyes, there's still something like half the episode left. Overall, Re:Creators has an interesting premise but ultimately ends up being quite an average anime. It's not great but it's not bad either. It never reaches beyond its grasp and thus relies on the more established tropes in the genre.
--------------------------------------------
For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.