Re:Creators rejects Auteur Theory

Artists tend to be biased in favor of Auteur Theory since it serves their interests, they want to feel an absolute ownership over what they create.  So I did not expect to ever watch an epic Fantasy story where rejecting Auteur Theory is explicitly the moral of the story.  But that's exactly what the Anime titled Re:Creators is.

Spoilers for Re;Creators will naturally follow.  But first here's it's spoiler free Synopsis on MyAnimeList for those who haven't heard of it before.

Humans have designed countless worlds—each one born from the unique imagination of its creator. Souta Mizushino is a high school student who aspires to be such a creator by writing and illustrating his own light novel. One day, while watching anime for inspiration, he is briefly transported into a fierce fight scene. When he returns to the real world, he realizes something is amiss: the anime's headstrong heroine, Selesia Yupitilia, has somehow returned with him.

Before long, other fictional characters appear in the world, carrying the hopes and scars of their home. A princely knight, a magical girl, a ruthless brawler, and many others now crowd the streets of Japan. However, the most mysterious one is a woman in full military regalia, dubbed "Gunpuku no Himegimi," who knows far more than she should about the creators' world. Despite this, no one knows her true name or the world she is from.

Meanwhile, Souta and Selesia work together with Meteora Österreich, a calm and composed librarian NPC, to uncover the meaning behind these unnatural events. With powerful forces at play, the once clear line between reality and imagination continues to blur, leading to a fateful meeting between creators and those they created.

Also here is Mother's Basement's video made when only 7 episodes out of 22 had aired.

https://youtu.be/kwS1mX_Clfw

Now my analysis begins, again beware of Spoilers.

 

First of all on a pure Symbolic level two of the relevant Creators in the story are literally dead when the story begins, both the creator of our Antagonist and the creator of who I feel is the real Protagonist of the show, it's Kuudere Gandalf.  It is quite literally about Characters living on beyond the deaths of their authors.

But more directly relevant, when various authors aware of what's going on start trying to write new retcons to power up our protagonists, they discover that something truly becomes Canon only when the audience accepts it.  So in the rules of this universe Han indeed Shot First.

This is one of those Anime where the Antagonist is much more who the story is about then the Protagonists.  And indeed the Antagonist is a character who's abilities mostly don't come from her original author.  She's basically an Internet Meme Character who gets new powers every time someone makes a viral YouTube Video about her.  Also she began as an AU Fan Fic version of another character.

I'm in the difficult position of being a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy fan who's not a supporter of Auteur Theory, Worley and Nerdonymous were all about Auteur Theory.  I don't defend the Prequels because I think George Lucas's artistic vision is the definition of good Star Wars, if that were the case I would also like the Original Trilogy.  In fact the only OT film Lucas directly created as much as he did the Prequels is the one I like the least, heck I even like most Disney Star Wars content more then I like A New Hope.

I love the Prequels because of the work countless artists put into making them and how the fans later expanded on the world they created.  Rick Worley's pious devotion to Auteur Theory is what lead him to becoming a full on J. K. Rowling Simp.

Auteur Theory was coined in the 50s or 60s by French Philosophers but before then it was basically the premise of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and why that work has a history of resonating with people who find her political world view repulsive like Zach Snyder and ColdCrashPictures.

However traditional Death of The Author isn't exactly what Re:Creators is arguing either, rather it's arguing something far more Communist in nature.

1. Being rooted in Classical Liberalism the original Death of The Author Essay is focused on the validity of Individual Interpretations not Collective Fandom interpretation.

2. The original DoTA Thesis also still insists there has to be a basis in the text, the reader can't just make something up out of no where or based purely on Vibes.

Both those restrictions are defied by what Re:Creators depicts.  The collective Audience absolutely has the power to add something with no basis in the original.  And Collective Interpretation is the point.  It's a system where Fanon is the Canon.