Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Visual novels are awesome. I don’t usually play them but I have seen playthroughs of them and they’re not only stunning visually but storywise as well. Animes based off of visual novels not so much. Adapting a visual novel into an anime usually results in failure for a number of reasons. The most common reasons are the animators can’t decide on a route so they decide to just to throw them all in together hoping to please everyone and in the end it turns into a complete disaster for everyone to see. Other reasons are lack of work and communication between the animators and the creators of the visual novel and the animators just usually go into these kinds of situation to make a quick buck on a popular visual novel and nothing else. To be fair there are good animes based off of visual novels (i.e Kanon, Clannad, and Princess Lover) but these are rare occasions where the stars and planets align and everyone gives it their all. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for today’s anime, Rewrite. Getting released in 2011 for Windows and PS products, Rewrite was a game that really took off. It ranked first in terms of national sales for PC games in 2011 on multiple occasions and was always ranked high in public sales. The game was developed by Key a very popular visual novel studio in Japan who have made a number of popular novels over the years. Some of their most well-known work are Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters, and Angel Beats and yes they all got good anime adaptions so what went wrong with Rewrite? Well for starters it got put in the hands of 8-Bit (IS, Walkure Romanze, and Grisaia no Kajitsu). I don’t wanna say these guys are bad but their history with visual novel adaptations and anime in general hasn’t been good and it shows up once again here as you can tell they were just looking to make a quick buck off this series. Let’s see why Rewrite should have gone through a rewrite and take a look at it.
Opening and Ending Theme
This anime gives us 2 openings and 2 endings. The first opening is “Philosophyz” by Runa Mizutani. The first minute of the song is very good. I like the way Runa sounds, the beat is good, and the build-up is good as well. But what comes after the build-up is where the song starts to go downhill for me. The song just doesn’t really go nowhere after that build-up. While Runa starts to sing a little louder she’s still singing with the same amount of intensity she had in the first minute. Overall the song is okay. The second opening is “End of the World” by Anri Kumaki. Much like the first opening that first minute sounds incredibly good, Anri and the beat are good as well but where it differentiates is after the build-up. The build-up is done well and after all that build up it delivers unlike the first opening. You feel as if you’re being taken on a journey to find a happy ending. Along the way there will be pain and sadness but the song gives you hope that in the end you’ll find away to reach the happy ending. In short, I like this opening more than the first. The first ending is “Sasayaka na Hajimari” by Runa Mizutani. I love the warm feeling of peace and happiness portrayed in this song. I really do feel relaxed and at peace whenever I hear. Also, the animation for this ending is amazing. It’s so fluid. The second ending is “Word of Dawn” by Aoi Tada. Definitely beautiful and sad at the same time which matches with the series. It gives off that feeling of sadness but having hope that things are going to turn alright that despite everything that’s happening all around our main characters they have hope that somehow some way they are going to pull through this. Overall I liked the first ending more. The state of peace they put me in was just unbelievable and that fluid animation enhanced the experience.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime begins with our main character from the games Kotarou voiced by Masakazu Morita (Ichigo from Bleach) who wakes up at night and begins exploring a deserted city that has been deserted for quite some time (must have had an Uwe Boll film being shot here). He eventually makes his way to the forest and spots a tree on a hill with a girl by it. He calls out to her where she speaks some strange language (speak Japanese with subtitles like the rest of Japan) and stabs Kotarou in the chest (scene here: //youtu.be/sKAhzgOIVHs). As he slowly dies we see that this was all just a dream and he gets asked by his neighbor to bring her daughter Kotori voiced by Chiwa Saito (Yona from Akatsuki no Yona) home who happens to be his childhood friend. Kotarou goes to pick up Kotori in the park where she always plays at even after everyone has gone home (usually the sign of a crazy girl) and finds her asleep by a tree. He manages to get her to sleepwalk home with the sound of money (scene here: //youtu.be/TG63sMo7YLY, cheap girl is cheap) and once he does he senses someone watching him and begins to panic. He goes back home trying to fall asleep where we see the mysterious girl who killed him in his dream enters his house, sneaks into his bed, and then bites his arm (if this is your idea of erotic play than you’re doing it all wrong). This manages to wake Kotarou but he doesn’t see the girl at all and has a bite mark on his arm. The next day Kotarou gives us a little exposition about the city on his way to school such as how the city is one big project studying forestation so we got of a lot of trees and plants everywhere (well nature is important). In class, we meet Kotarou’s friend/enemy Yoshino who can’t stand the sight of Kotarou because he forgot their fight after school. These two along with Kotori make up the class loners and usually wind up hanging out with each other (scene here: //youtu.be/N4HqaSAV6Fo). That night, the girl from Kotarou’s dream returns and bites him again where he passes out from the shock (and you just lost 5 man points). The next day a new transfer student named Chihaya voiced by Saya Shinomiya transfers into Kotarou’s class where she doesn’t like him because a got a glimpse of her panties, twice (see them once, shame on him. See them twice, shame on you). We also see that she’s a pretty strong girl able to lift a desk with one hand (scene here: //youtu.be/Dt0AvXTSj1c, note to self. Don’t let her do handjobs). We meet a few more heroines such as Shizuru an adorable underclassman voiced by Keiko Suzuki who is part of the disciplinary committee (scene here: //youtu.be/ESAGy_-F7EQ) and the class rep Lucia voiced by newcomer Risa Asaki. At night once again that strange girl bites Kotarou (if you pass out again I’m going to deduct 10 man points) and after telling Kotori about these strange happenings she believes it’s Akane, president of the Occult Research club and said to be the school’s witch. Deciding to check her out for advice Kotarou and Kotori go to the club after the school where they find it in the old school building but she’s nowhere to be found so he just leaves a note asking to meet with her (say 6pm my place for dinner and a movie?). The next day he returns only to find no one there and a questionnaire to fill out where one of the questions ask if he had a chance to change the world or himself which would he choose (good question. I would say the world. We can always use more love, peace, and fanservice). After school he gives Chihaya a tour of the city (scene here: //youtu.be/5YIm2NrPZpk) and then receives a text from Akane telling him to meet him in the school at midnight. He goes to the school searching for her where that strange girl once again appears and he runs away from her where the school starts to get weird on him. The hallways are endless, the classrooms are locked (I’m pretty sure that’s normal), and there are strange (and horribly rendered) CGI creatures roaming the halls. He finally finds an open door and winds up in this alternate dimension where he meets garbage fairies Pina and Gil who try to help him escape but wind up in the nest of this monster where they get saved by the mysterious girl and Kotarou returns to the real world (scene here: //youtu.be/UvTxN_Wgxac. Man, what an acid trip). This episode ends with Kotarou about to meet and chat with Akane.
So, in episode 2 Kotarou tells Akane want he’s been going through and of course she doesn’t believe him (can’t say I blame her, his story needs editing). But she decides to amuse him and hands him some shikigamis for protection and they work (well one of them works). The first one does manage to get her to leave, the second one gets destroyed and she leaves after Kotarou farted in front of her face (dude, seriously?), and the third time he gropes her in his sleep and she just leaves (scene here: //youtu.be/2Y-JBX7-nZs, well at least we can confirm she’s not a ghost). After that the episode focuses on Kotarou establishing the occult club. We find out that Akane doesn’t really believe in the supernatural and just wanted the club room for herself and after forcing Kotarou to join the club in order to keep an eye on him he decides to make a bet to prove his supernatural experience is real where if he can prove it she’ll let him grope her breast (it always comes down to the breast). He convinces Kotori, Chihaya, Lucia, and Shizuru to join the club and starts to see the club as a place where he can be long and enjoy his school life with everyone (scene here: //youtu.be/4Vfxp090trY, in a club with only girls. Yeah, that’s very enjoyable).
Episode 3 starts off with the introduction of Sakuya an outsider who sneaks into the school and seems to have some relationship with Chihaya as they both share the same last name, he serves as somewhat of a butler to her and hates Kotoru. After that the group gets started with their first club activity, finding a tsuchinoko (a fat snake) which has apparently been spotted on campus (lay out some food and trap him under crate). They find it and capture it where they meet a strange woman named Tsukuno a UMA hunter/clerk who wants to collect the bounty on the tsuchinoko but takes her leave when the others catch it first (I’m sure we’ll see her again). After that we focus on Shizuru where we find out she has heterochromia which is why she keeps one of her eyes covered all the time (scene here: //youtu.be/YYe5yVD3L3w). We also see she works part-time and lives in a rundown apartment on her own. While we see all of this we also see Kotarou see that mysterious her who keeps sneaking into his house being chased by a wolf-like creature made out of wood (oh my God Shyamalan’s work has made it into anime). Worried about the girl and wanting answers he chases after them where we see he has the ability to rewrite the structure of his body to make himself run faster and jump higher (and yet you didn’t show this to Akane why?). He loses track of them but someone else appears and seeks a dangerous wolf on him where he chases him all throughout the city and corners him along a cliff but he gets saved by this mysterious person and passes out. He wakes up at a ramen stand where we Shizuru is a regular and he tells her and the others about what happened to him but they don’t entirely believe him however a man who owns an antique shop takes an interest in him and offers to help (scene here: //youtu.be/kQSQIGPbym8). After he takes Shizuru home he heads home himself where he runs into Sakuya wanting to know why he hates him to such to which he says he’s not sure himself. All he knows is that he hates Kotarou (hey it’s just like everyone when Justin Bieber made his debut but then we quickly gained a reason to hate him).
We get more Shizuru in episode 4 (more Shizuru is good for our health. Scientifically proven). It starts off with Kotarou going to the antique shop in a bad neighborhood but he befriends the thugs there who are followers of Yoshino (nice guys). They help him find the antique shop where Shizuru is there (I found a Shizuru) and he gives him unfocused pictures of what could possibly be a monster (or a dragonfly, it looks like one. Scene here: //youtu.be/izlnLla06FU). At the school the mysterious white-haired girl shows up in class and Kotarou is the only one who can see her (wow, there is a nice level of moe in this episode). She bites him on the arm (marking her territory) and then leaves (scene here: //youtu.be/L3IBCKj1c88). After that we focus on Shizuru who takes Kotarou to see her parents who don’t remember her at all. Shizuru explains that she has superpowers that allows her to heal others as well as change the memories of people. In the past Shizuru’s family was rather poor but they were all happy and got along well with each other. One night, their house caught fire and the dad got pierced with a glass shard (huge one) and one of Shizuru’s eyes got messed up (well that explains the different eye color). They all survived with the mother developing a fear of fire and money being tighter than ever in the house. Sometime later scientist came by the house who sensed Shizuru’s powers and wanted to bring her to an institute to study her as well as give the parents money for their cooperation. Shizuru agreed to go to the institute and from the sounds of it there wasn’t anything bad going on (those who hurt moe will be met with death). However, thanks to the influx of money her parents changed greatly. The dad took up drinking and they were always fighting each other even when Shizuru was right in front of them. No longer able to stand her parents fighting Shizuru overused her powers and rewind time to when they were happy but in the process erased their memories of her. Not wanting to cause her parents pain she decided to leave and live on her own where she’s in fact quite rich but still lives in a rundown apartment as a way to punish herself (scene here: //youtu.be/emjvkjhkJgg). We see that Kotarou’s sensei works for the organization that monitors Shizuru and wants to know if he wants to forget what he saw which he replies no and instead wants to learn more about her (and thus ends the Shizuru arc. Next week, the Lucia arc begins).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 is the start of Lucia’s arc. Near the end of the last episode we see Lucia get into a fight with Chihaya about her gloves which she always seems to wear (are they pure white or a dirty white color?) so she stops coming to the club for a while. The club receives a case asking to investigate Asahi Haruka a mysterious girl who bought disaster to everyone around her. At a young age she was bought to an orphanage where upon her arrival disasters began happening such as pets dying, windows breaking, nuns and orphans dying due to an unknown illness just a lot of bad stuff (Pittsburg winning the Super Bowl. The making of another Avatar movie this time directed by Boll. Rick and Morty getting cancelled for no apparent reason). Eventually the orphanage was shutdown and the orphans going their separate ways. Kotarou finds out that one of the kids who went to the orphanage with Asahi died of an unknown illness in elementary and since Yoshino went to the same elementary school as the kid he asks him if he can have the roster to contact those students. He gives him the roster but warns Kotarou that if glass shatters around him he should watch his back. Sure enough glass does shatter around him (well that didn’t take long) and he receives a threatening letter from Asahi telling him to stop investigating but he refuses saying he doesn’t believe in curses (you’ll believe in ghost but you won’t believe in curses?) and just prove that Asahi is just an innocent girl. Lucia touched by his reasoning decides to help him and as she walks home in the rain she comes face to face with the ghost of Asahi where it seems like they know each other. Soon Lucia takes a leave of absence from school with no one knowing where she is until she finally approaches Kotarou with the spirit of Asahi (anybody wanna take a bet and see if Lucia is Asahi?) giving him one final warning and passing out. Kotarou takes Lucia back to his house where she wakes up totally okay with being in a boy’s house (for a character like her this is usually a bad sign) and she shows Kotarou that she has the power to make things wither away by touching them. She’s had this power ever since she was a child and because of it all the animals and plants she touched died. She soon developed trauma from these horrific events and came to see herself as filthy convincing herself that the reason everything dies is because she touches them. Kotarou tries to tell her that’s not true but she doesn’t listen to him, in her eyes she’s filthy and will be unable to touch anyone or anything for as long as she lives (scene here: //youtu.be/e9-oHr3GQuo). The next day Kotarou goes to the orphanage of Asahi and we find out (big shock) Asahi is Lucia (ha, called it! You guys owe me lunch). We see that the poison in Lucia’s hand is effecting Kotarou since she touched him last night and now he’s beginning to die but he rewrites his body to something that can withstand Lucia’s poison and tells her she’s not alone in the world and never will be (scene here: //youtu.be/ti76f6v1ick). Their sensei comes in and takes Kotarou to a hospital where she tells him that she, Lucia, and Shizuru work for an organization known as Guardian an organization trying to save the world from this other organization known as Gaia (nature always wins). The two are looking for this person known as The Key who is said to have the power to either save the world or destroy it. Gaia believes the world is evil and needs to be destroyed in order to save it so they want to use The Key to bring about the destruction of the world (and you’re just assuming The Key will spare your lives why?). He’s told to keep what he heard a secret and agrees to it but only with Lucia makes him a lunch while wearing a maid outfit and calling him master (scene here: //youtu.be/0UqdFwP75IU. I like him, he’s got his priorities straight).
At the start of episode 6, Lucia keeps to her promise and makes a bento for Kotarou while serving it to him in a maid outfit (scenes here: //youtu.be/B6j93ysqJSI and //youtu.be/Voc40KNH3kg, this is satisfying). After this the occult club goes on multiple club activities throughout the city solving urban legends (scene here: //youtu.be/v7S2zns0U88) until they come across one in the forest that talks about strange creatures appearing. Since this legend sounds dangerous Kotori has hired a bodyguard to accompany them and that bodyguard is some warthog/dog named Chibi-moth (scene here: //youtu.be/5uwk4XwAzRM). In the forest we finally get a deep discussion about one of the major focuses on this novel, the environment. Akane talks about humanity destroying nature which will ultimately lead to their destruction but Lucia argues that whatever problem humanity causes they will fix it (explain that to the creators of Avatar, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, DBZ, and any other franchise Hollywood ruined). Their discussion gets cut off by Shizuru and they find the cause of the animals mutation, a toxic swamp in the middle of the forest most likely caused by the their city. Seeing this as too heavy for them they decide to suspend this case and return for the day where at night as Kotarou is writing a report about the case Akane tells him the best way to solve the pollution problem of the Earth is to get rid of the main problem, us (scene here: //youtu.be/rnMLvDtRxqA). The next day Kotarou receives a call from Inoue a member of the school’s newspaper club who also has been investigating the toxic lake for quite sometime and she’s found some juicy information about it. When Kotarou goes to school the next day he finds out that Inoue has been missing for three days now and no one knows where she is.
Things start to take an interesting turn in episode 7. We start off by finding out the occult club is to suspend activities due to Inoue disappearance since the last person she spoke with was Kotarou (they’re using them as a scapegoat. They’re throwing you to the wolves and you don’t have a shotgun to defend yourself with). Not standing for this, Kotarou convinces the gang to go out and search for Inoue in the woods where they found the toxic swamp (scene here: //youtu.be/jfji7QLUycU, be wary of mutated animals). While in the woods Kotarou gets separated from the girls and gets attacked by a pack of wolves that look like the same wolf who attacked him previously (like I said, thrown to the wolves). He tries to outrun them but gets captured and they begin mauling him to death until he activates some kind of power that gives him Wolverine claws (scene here: //youtu.be/ab-JtLbHWtI. Woah, badass). He soon comes across Lucia and Shizuru who are fighting these raptor like creatures (did we just stumble into Jurassic Park or something?) who seem to have things under control and tell Kotarou to find the others (scene here: //youtu.be/6f9G-iCoRLM) where he does but gets attacked by this flying insect like creature only to get saved by the mysterious quiet girl (scenes here: //youtu.be/HAZkmHjBEiE and //youtu.be/vVfZeCgE2Hk, who are you mystery loli?). Kotarou meets back up with everyone where lines have been drawn between Lucia, Shizuru, Chihaya, and Akane because Chihaya and Akane are working for Gaia the organization responsible for these creatures (yeah Akane’s talk about getting rid of humans should have alerted me to this fact). Sakuya comes in to take Chihaya and Akane away and the next day at school almost everyone stops coming (scene here: //youtu.be/rOHqXuvjfWI, the goods times are definitely over).
Episode 8 gives us a fairly interesting episode as we start to learn a little bit more about our characters. 3 days have gone by since the events of episode 7 and none of the girls have come to school. We get to hear some good news (good, I need some right about now) by finding out that the police found Inoue who suffered amnesia and was in the hospital of a neighboring town. She still has amnesia and her parents were discontent with the way the city handled this situation that they moved. The mysterious loli appears before Kotarou again where she actually talks to him (scene here: //youtu.be/N8oxKmXKjZs) and reveals that her name is Kagari voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Tomoka from Ro-kyu-bu). She too has amnesia (man I’m starting to worry about the brains of some of these girls) and wants Kotarou’s help in finding out who she is. Not having time to deal with her he introduces her to the internet to keep her occupied (scenes here: //youtu.be/OStz0_Mxj0c and //youtu.be/zz-1dRpkbHU, be sure to turn on the parental settings). This keeps her occupied for a little bit as she shows up to school posing as a student in order to meet Kotarou where she causes all kinds of troubles for him (scenes here: //youtu.be/TZhjabb-SKk and //youtu.be/8mvK9zpUU90). This forces him to skip his afternoon classes and go by a lake where he sees Inoue who gives him a memory stick containing pictures of what she saw in the forest (scene here: //youtu.be/fr11xwRFYI4). Before he’s checks the stick we do learn that Kotarou’s parents are working for this research company which happens to controlled by Gaia, Akane is set to be the next leader of Gaia, Shizuru and Lucia have decided to leave school in order to prepare for something big about to come on the horizon (a storm is coming), and Kotarou finally checks that stick where he sees all the strange pictures and monsters Inoue saw when she was in the forest. As he’s checking the pictures he receives a text from Kotori who tells him she’s alright however she’s going to be out of school for a while and we cut to her to see her drinking tea by a big tree with walking trees guarding her (scene here: //youtu.be/s8eJch_rXEk. I am in Alice in Wonderland. That is the only way to explain what I’m seeing).
Episodes 9-13
In episode 9 Gaia, Guardian, and Kotori send spies to watch over Kotarou. Gaia sends Pina and Gil who are defect monsters of Gaia, Kotori sends Chibi-Moth, and Guardian sends this no-name mid-twenties guy to watch Kotarou (it’s hard to decide which team is the more ridiculous). While in the city hoping to help Kagari find her memories (and find out she’s addicted to caffeine. Hey if Starbucks had her as their mascot business would start to boom) she senses their presence so they lose them all in the back alleys of the city. After resting in the park they run into Lucia by coincidence (or maybe she was stalking him) and then run into that sorcerer guy with the wolves again where they manage to beat him and run back home to discover Pina and Gil broke in and made a mess of the place (scene here: //youtu.be/dnphlzWQDRY). Kotarou catches them and manages to get them to talk just as he receives a call from Kotori asking him to come to the forest with Kagari. Led by Chibi-moth they enter Kotori’s secret base where she explains everything to us. First off, Kagari is the Key (yeah we figured that) the incarnation of Earth who will decide whether or not we live or die. That’s where Kotori comes in. Her job is to watch and protect her because she is a druid. When she was a child her parents drove off the slide of a cliff. Somehow Kotori miraculously survived and managed to make it to a great tree where she received powers to make her wishes come true however using that power chips away at her life. Luckily, the power of Kagari keeps her healthy and stops her from chipping away at her life (scene here: //youtu.be/OXqjTergQUo). After finding out all this information, we see Gaia and Guardian prepare for an all-out war between the two factions (and we’re about to be caught in the middle of it). Pina and Gil manage to escape their cage and inform Sakuya where they are and that Kagari is the Key.
In episode 10 Sakuya shows up and rather than fight he instead helps them (scene here: //youtu.be/lrL1j6Oap4o, whose side are you on man?). It turns out Akane sent him to help protect Kotarou and Kotori as well as Kagari. Sakuya also begins training Kotarou where he reveals that he knows about Kotarou’s rewrite ability and warns him not to over use it or he’ll cease being human. A few days go by and Kotarou actually gets a chance to meet Akane again where he shows her Kagari. Akane hopes to get answers to life but Kagari has no answer for her since she herself is also searching for answers herself. She does say however that humans can do some pretty amazing stuff (like make good caffeine and the Internet. Although we’re slowly ruining that. Scene here: //youtu.be/-aLp4oZEMzM). After that Kotarou moves on to more important business with Akane, touching her boobs. This whole series of events definitely fits into occult therefore he gets to touch Akane’s boobs (right on man). Instead of touching them he decides not to do it at the moment and instead lets her go saying they’ll continue this back in the club room (scene here: //youtu.be/HQxzLG7Jo2M, alright, that gives you a reason to live for tomorrow). Eventually the wizards of Gaia discover the barrier to where Kotarou and the others are hiding and Guardian also begins to suspect Kotori has something to do with the Key. Shizuru ignoring orders decides to go and investigate the forest herself but Lucia stops her saying she’s acting irrational (of course she’s acting irrational, she’s a girl) and says she’ll go in her place to investigate (oh yeah because you seem like the right person for this mission as well). She makes it to the forest where she spots the wizards of Gaia closing in on the barrier and about to break it. Lucia’s instinct tells her to report back to HQ and let her friends die but her heart tells to ignore orders and save her friends (guess what she chooses to do?). Sure enough she goes with her heart and fights against the wizards with one of them being the wizard who attacked Kotarou on multiple occasions. Just when it seems like she has the upper hand and about to deliver the final blow the wizard who attacked Kotarou pierces her with a silicon spear and she falls into a valley (scene here: //youtu.be/wO7kwWhtEPU).
Episode 11 is build up for the fight to come between Gaia and Guardian. Akane, wanting to keep Chiya safe sends her to Kotarou and the others and when she arrives outside the hidden portal she finds Lucia still alive but barely (scene here: //youtu.be/zaIQo7P9auQ). Kotarou and Kotori see them and head back into the hideout where Kotori tries to heal Lucia but she can’t stop the bleeding until Kagari steps in (make way for Earth’s child), stops the bleeding and manages to save Lucia’s life (scene here: //youtu.be/IkwgMhD69sg). While that’s going on we see Akane finally inherited the will of the saint of Gaia. The person known as Akane will cease to be and she’ll become completely focused on following the teaches of the saint which is kill humanity in order to save the Earth. Back with Kotarou and the others Lucia and Chiya tell Kagari the objectives of Gaia and Guardian where even though both organizations want to save the world their ideas are two extremes which are the opposite of each other. Kagari takes all this in and comes to the conclusion that yes humans can be a destructive bunch but at the same time we can be a caring bunch (you’ve got to accept the good with the bad and the bad with the good). We also see that Kotori might have possibly been poisoned by Lucia’s poison thanks to her poisoning a small part of the forest. Near the end of the episode we see both sides head out for the final battle.
In the final two episodes the war has begun. Gaia finds the hidden portal and invade where the group gets separated from Sakuya who went out to scout the area where Lucia fought. With their hidden base compromised they have no choice but to run away with Kotarou fighting to protect everyone as the forest catches fire (you know for an anime trying to bring awareness to how important the forest is it sure does enjoy destroying it). Kotarou fights once again against Midou to protect Kagari who seems to be trapped in a daze and we see Midou has a new monster (a motherfucking T-Rex) which drains him of his life and he dies. Kotarou collapses from his fight but gets saved by Shizuru (best girl makes a return) who heals him and they reunite with everyone else at some old ruins. Kagari finally snaps out of her daze where she begins crying saying that she couldn’t find any good memories involving humankind (understandable. We’ve done a lot of dumb shit over the years). Back with Akane she manages to return to her senses where she questions Sakura about her mission to destroy mankind saying that it’s all due to the saint’s memories which only involved bad ones of mankind (stop focusing on the bad stuff and start looking at the good stuff). As Sakura uses a church choir to sing the song of destruction to summon Kagari, Kotarou and the group are transported back to the city which is being overrun by monsters devouring people (it’s like something out of Jurassic Park) and the forest begins spreading throughout the city (viva la green revolution). We get a series of flashbacks as we see everyone get separated and fight with some of them supposedly dying. The next morning at the top of building Kotarou has Kagari sleeping on his back and he’s joined by Kotori, Pina, and Gil who managed to survive the night of destruction as I’m calling it. Kagari wakes up where she’s back to normal but this brief moment of relief gets ruined by a giant monster walking the Earth and Esaka a retired member of Guardian who has return to action as well as a friend of Shizuru. He’s come to kill Kagari and he’s leagues ahead of Kotarou in terms of combat. Even when Kotarou rewrites his abilities he still no match for him so he decides to keep rewriting his body until he can surprise him but even that’s not enough and he gets saved by Shizuru (best girl strikes again) and manages to knock Esaka off the building take him on herself (scene here: //youtu.be/c-Ac2l-jwbE). Back with Kotarou the rewrite ability has taken a toll on his body where we see he’s not entirely human anymore. Remember that scene at the beginning of the anime where Kagari stabs Kotarou? Well, that really did happen and in order to save him Kotori embedded Kagari’s ribbon inside Kotarou which is why Kagari has been drawn to him this whole time. However, Kagari’s powers are too much for a normal person to handle so if they don’t remove it he’s gonna die (and if they do remove it he’s gonna die. So matter what you do this whole bit ends with him dying. Sucks). Luckily, Pina and Gil decide to use their lives to save Kotarou and it works (scene here: //youtu.be/wqLAS8D11AI). The song of destruction begins again (really, the choir survived all of this? What the hell?) with Akane gone full saint on us and Kotarou starting to turn into a tree (it just keeps getting weirder and weirder). Despite his tree inducing state his voice manages to reach Kagari and calm her down where she asks Kotarou to kill her and he says he could never do that and hugs Kagari as everyone begins to descend up into the sky and Kotarou fully turns into a tree. Thus we get the end of the world (scenes here: //youtu.be/StoYdYn-cL0 and //youtu.be/EzOoH4kbwvk).
Final Thoughts
Well guys besides the excellent animation (not counting the horrific CGI) and a good soundtrack this adaption of a visual novel is pretty bad. The stuff that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog all happened in this anime. A majority of the routes are placed within the anime and they’re all rushed through and not explained all that well. Some of the routes aren’t even in the anime and as a result we never get to learn much about a majority of the characters. It’s clear there was a lack of effort and cooperation between Key and 8-Bit and the most insulting part of all is this was an obvious cash-in. There’s no denying it, this is an obvious cash-in on a good game and it shows. Everything feels rushed and not fully explained well, and a lot of characters aren’t developed. At a few points we’ll get some good and meaningful talks about nature and philosophy but it’s quickly dropped and never touched on again. The CGI is bad in this anime. The monsters just look terrible. I can’t take them seriously at all. The shifts in the tone throughout the anime are bad. We go from a happy funny moment to a violent and actually scary moment next and the way it’s done is the work of amateurs. What really holds this anime back is that it was limited to only 13 episodes. When will Japan learn that 13 episodes for a visual novel isn’t long enough, they need at least 24 episodes. They need time to develop its characters, establish the story and setting, and the ideas from the novel. If not, they rush through everything and we get crap like this. Every time.
The characters that they do focus on aren’t all that good. Kotarou is dull, cliché, generic and just a skin for the male viewer to wear. The rest of the girls aren’t any better as they’re the laziest and cliché characteristics I have seen in a harem setting. Kotori is the easy-going one, Lucia is the tsundere, Shizuru the moe one, Chihaya is the extra body, Akane. . .I don’t know what she is, Inoue the wasted girl who serves no purpose, and finally Kagari the plot device. That’s it, those are there characters and nothing else. As for the other secondary characters you will not care for any of them nor will you remember them. Even the characters who have sad backstories you really don’t care for because they’re done horribly and the aftermath of their stories shows little change in their characters.
Final Score
The final score for Rewrite is a 2.5/10. I heard so many good things about this series and was hoping the anime adaption would be as good as the novel but no. It was placed in the hands of a studio who didn’t take it seriously and were just looking to make a quick buck off of it. And sadly there’s going to be another season of this series only this time they’ll be focusing on one route which hopefully will work in their favor. I have doubts but still one can hope. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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