WebAnimation Briefly lost its spark after Chilly left, got it back when Kristine joined.
By god were they hilarious. I would regularly end up crying from laughter watching this group of idiots bicker and backstab each other in some of the most ludicrous of scenarios. It helped that, while they could all be horrible, they had their own distinct brand of behavior and humor. Curt's Enraged by Idiocy in particular never failed to get a laugh out of me. That being said, the group lost a bit of its identity with the departure of ChillyPanda, Chilly acting as The Millstone bringing a level of chaos and humor to the group that was absent with her leaving, and in turn threw the dynamics of the group off.
It tried to compensate for that by bringing in numerous guest stars, and while some worked like CircleToonsHD, others were so-so like Haminations, and some were just blatant ratings ploys and endless shilling like Pokimane. As a result, there was a period where Recreyo just stopped being as funny as it used to be, to the point I unsubscribed to their channel in favor of just periodically checking their channel. The Pokimane episodes in particular drove me away, as a major fan of My Hero Academia, it became blatantly obvious how they were going out of their way to give her the best results and endlessly shilling her at the expense of being faithful to the characters, especially when Curt actually knows the series in depth via his own channel yet doesn't call out the inaccuracies.
It was then Kristine came to the group, and she immediately filled the void Chilly left. Her chaotic energy and stupidity that put even the other crew members to shame, the way she could derail things with her antics forcing everyone to act more spontaneous and return to the Comedic Sociopathy they had slowly been slipping out of with their guest stars, she was exactly what the crew needed. Even when other guests came on after her unofficial joining, her presence alone made it so that things remained chaotic, and brought back my love for these chaotic idiots.
That's not to say these guys are flawless. The series only hits it's stride after Christian first shows up, Ivan's scenarios using railroading gets tiring after awhile, some of Christian's gags reach Overly-Long Gag levels, not every scenario (even ones without guests) are gonna be funny as their Chainsaw Man one demonstrates, and the details behind Chilly's departure combined with her being hit by Chuck Cunningham Syndrome has become quite suspect.
All in all, I can totally recommend giving these guys a watch. Just know that there will be a period during Season 2 that can reasonably be described as a Dork Age.
WebAnimation Came for the familiarity, stayed for the originality.
So back in the day, I was a huge fan of Danplan. I bring them up because they had a similar concept to Recreyo—an animated, episodic series about one member of a group of friends putting the rest of their friends through a scenario of the week/month.
Fast-forward to 2020, and the Danplan group has a falling out that has pretty much overshadowed their previous content. As far as I know, Dan still uploads with a new friend group, but I haven't actually watched the channel or any creators tied to it since the falling out.
So this is where Recreyo comes in. I'm on Youtube and I see a video called "Can They Escape Jurassic Park?" The title reminds me of Danplan, and though my curiosity remains put for a few days, I cave in and watch the video. That turned out to be a great decision.
After finishing that video, I watched every previous episode (Jurassic Park was the newest one). I loved how the concept was so similar to Danplan, and I wasn't alone- at least one fellow commenter favorably compared the series to Danplan. But my favorite part was the cast. I loved how the host would rotate every episode, I loved how everybody was basically just a copy of Stephen (the Heroic Comedic Sociopath of the Danplan group). But eventually, I grew to love them for how, despite their similarities, they all managed to find a different place in the group.
No two members of Recreyo act or sound the same, which keeps any of them from being The Generic Guy. They even managed to take tired tropes that I didn't like and make them entertaining. I often don't like Gadfly-esque characters who sabotage themselves and/or others for a quick laugh, but Christian is probably my favorite member of the group because he's just so damn unpredictable. I usually don't like sociopathic heroes played for laughs (besides the aforementioned Stephen), but I can't help but snicker whenever Den tries to stab Ivan for no discernible reason. Seeing the Butt-Monkey suffer repeatedly can get stale if done improperly, but Chilly manages to be genuinely enjoyable nonetheless.
There's also how varied the episodes can be, which is in my opinion what truly separates Recreyo from Danplan. One minute they're robbing a casino, the next they're in space hiding from John Cena. Whereas Danplan usually went with some sort of apocalyptic/horror-based scenario, Recreyo will do whatever they feel like. I can never predict what episode is coming next, and even when the video is based on a series I know, it keeps so many twists that it feels like something new. I mean, how many people really expected Jurassic Park to become a tragic love story between Christian and a steroid-enhanced Barney the Dinosaur? But I loved it anyways, and I still do.
I came looking for a Spiritual Successor to a popular series that ended abruptly, and found an even better series in Recreyo. A series from a channel that honestly deserves more love.
WebAnimation Can You Survive Harry Potter? (Ft. Haminations)
I'm gonna preface this with the fact I know very little about Harry Potter, and even less about Bryson/Haminations.
This two-part episode is a perfect examples of both the good and bad behind Recreyo having a guest-star. Episodes that have guest-stars tend to live or die based on how entertaining the guest is when mixing with the Recreyo dynamic.
- Those that mix well tend to embrace the madness of the crew, act as perfect straight men to them, or prove too crazy even by their standards. Cases like this include CircleToonsHD, Sethical, and eLLcartoons.
- Those that don't act as spotlight stealing squads, are endlessly shilled, have the scenarios go out of their way to let the guest win, or don't feel like they really add anything. Cases like this include Pokimane, TierZoo, and GingerPale.
Bryson ends up being an example of both.In the first part, Bryson is an example of the latter, being a know-it-all about Harry Potter, easily dealing with Ivan's tasks without any of Ivan's usual railroading, and doesn't get any real ribbing from the crew until the end, where they finally start poking fun of him being such a massive fanboy. The episode itself isn't that funny either outside of Christian's jaw gag too.
The second part however more than makes up for it. Bryson feels like a more natural member of the group, his comedic psychotic side takes center stage compared to his being a know it all, he gets just as pissed at Ivan's railroading and acts more chaotic, he ends up feeling like a natural member of the crew at this point, helped by the other members actually taking the piss out of him when not being freaked out at how deranged he can be. The episode is likewise much funnier than the first part, particularly Bryson opting to just pull a gun out after the merfolk kidnap his dog. "Just try and take my guns from me!"
These two parters effectively live or die based on one's enjoyment of Bryson. And for me, Bryson becomes more enjoyable when they stopped treating him like a "guest" they needed to play nice with, and more like a natural member of the group. I'll give the first part of his appearance this though: he was nowhere near as hard to sit through as the farce of a scenario shilling Pokimane.