Rewrite - General Discussion

Key Discussion
#21

I can imagine them scrapping a bunch of events, and fusing Lucia and Shizuru’s routes together, and Chihaya and Akane’s together. Each time a route ends, Kotarou leaves and moves on to helping the next heroine with as little romance as possible. That’s just bad memories of past adaptions though ^^;

It’s entirely possible to have the world reset after each route. Spend episodes 1-3 on the common route, 4-6 on Kotori’s, 7-9 on Shizuru’s, 10-12 on Lucia’s, 13-15 on Chihaya’s, 16-18 on Akane’s, 19 on Moon, and 20-24 on Terra. Of course, a couple of episodes will be spent on fanservice/random filler episodes.
If you think about it, without Kotarou’s internal monologue, and the insane common route, a lot less happens.

It’d be pretty butchered for an anime… but a Rewrite anime is gonna end up butchered anyway~ ><

#22

That… I don’t think you understand how long some parts of the game are, heh.
Moon in one episode, Terra in four and the Common Route in three would be… pretty bloody insane. That’s not even butchering, that’s outright removing vast chunks of content.
Most of the heroine routes, at least the ones that aren’t Akane’s, could probably be done in 3/4 episodes though, yeah.

#23

Ahaha~ I read it :stuck_out_tongue: How could I not understand how much time I spent on it?

Moon was pretty short~ It could fit into one episode. Two would be the perfect amount, but one would still get the important stuff in~
The common route of Rewrite was longer than it needed to be. It’s purpose is to introduce the characters, and set up the connections that form in the club. Three episodes is a good amount, that doesn’t sacrifice much, but doesn’t drag on and scare away potential viewers.
4 episodes is a bit short for Terra, but I believe it is the minimum amount necessary. Young life/Training for an episode, Mid-east for an episode, return events for an episode, and the concluding battles for an episode~
You could always bump it up to a 26 episode anime and give Terra 6 episodes anyway.

#24

Yeah I think Taka’s count is pretty solid. If JC ends up doing it after Little Busters, then I could see them fitting it all into a 2-cour season. It doesn’t need as many episodes as LB.

#25

…It’s thirty thousand lines and 1 MB longer than Little Busters, guys.
I really don’t feel that the common route is “longer than it needs to be”, especially if you’re comparing it to LB’s, which is also primarily character introductions and setup, is also very long, and wasn’t trimmed-down to that extent for the anime.
For that matter, IMO some of the best moments in the game are in the common route and… honestly, how would a high school club comedy “scare off potential viewers”? What? That’s literally what’s popular these days, heh.

I, uh, don’t really think you can cover all that adequately within 80 minutes.
If you’re willing to cut out Kotarou’s narration, sure, you could compress the entire game into just two-cours, but… the thing is that his narration forms the majority of the text in Moon/Terra, and is also where most of his characterization happens. That’s not going to work.
I guess if all you want out of a Rewrite anime is to see your favorite character moments devoid of context or meaning, sure, but I view an anime as an opportunity to fix the myriad things that are wrong with the game, not make them worse.

#26

We’re just being pragmatic, Kaisos. In a perfect world Rewrite would be 4 cours and Little Busters would probably be 6. The chances of Rewrite getting more than 2 cours seems slim, though. We’re looking at the absolute minimum number of episodes you’d need to convey the story in the Anime format.

1 Like
#27

Yup, this isn’t how I’d like the anime to be… But squeezing a VN into the minimum amount of episodes it needs is a common occurrence in the anime world :stuck_out_tongue:

Of course Kotarou’s narration would be largely cut, as was Riki’s and Tomoya’s and every other VN protagonist in an anime. Judging from MAL comments, narration is one of the “annoying” parts of the Litbus anime.

Rewrite would deserve the big 48-episode treatment, but it’s not gonna get it. We’d get 24-26 episodes at best~

#28

Also, I have to agree that the Rewrite common route doesn’t need to be as long as it was. In Little Busters, the fun times spent together and the bonding between the group was the foundation that made the endgame drama so impacting. Rewrite, sure it’s significant, but it hardly requires as much attention as Little Busters’ common route. Just a few episodes showing the group having fun together, and the gradual unveiling of the mystery surrounding everything. I did appreciate how it tricked you into thinking this was a mundane world, and then throws you deep into the supernatural.

#29

I somehow got into Rewrite spoiler free.
God that transition was terrifying! A DRAGON!!!

One of the big parts of Rewrite’s story is that the club was never… connected. They all stuck around each other, but it wasn’t really “friendship.” Kotarou’s whole driving force in some routes is that he wants the club back, because they didn’t get enough time to develop a bond.

#30

All I want from a Rewrite Anime is a 13 episode adaptation of Sakuya’s Chihaya’s route.

I’m not even kidding, I’d prefer that to a shoddyly put together full adaptation.

#31

So it seems that I completely disagree with everyone. :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote=“Aspirety, post:28, topic:37”]
Just a few episodes showing the group having fun together, and the gradual unveiling of the mystery surrounding everything. [/quote]
Like, just getting the group together takes three weeks in-game. While I think that, yes, this could be dealt with much more quickly, I don’t really agree that you can pare down the entire common route to just a few episodes.
Without enough buildup, without enough time to get to know Kotarou and the rest of the occult club, the Nov. 13th event kind of comes out of nowhere, and lacks the impact it could otherwise have… while it really, really is a bit long, I’m not the only person whose favorite moments in the game are in the common route.

Most VNs don’t have nearly as much text as Rewrite and even most Key VNs don’t have as much happening in them as Rewrite does, you know?
Also, regarding the narration in Little Busters… that’s not really what I’m talking about. From what I’ve heard the LB anime actually pauses the action to let Riki narrate, and that’s -terrible- in an animated format. Nobody should ever do that. I’m talking about how, say, Bakemonogatari or Haruhi approach protagonist narration.

I’m just going to go on for a bit here. WALL OF TEXT ALERT

Something in particular I feel strongly about (and that most people will disagree with) is that Terra should absolutely not be covered in the same season Moon is. That is, Terra should be its own thing, its own season, and IMO it has enough potential material to support an entire cour… but more because Moon’s ending is just about the perfect cliffhanger to end a two-cour season with, and it’s (mostly) conclusive enough that if the anime bombed there wouldn’t be a pressing need for another.

Then there’s Terra having just about nothing to do with the characters and situations of the previous routes… I’m bad at explaining it, but Moon feels more like the true ending of Rewrite, while Terra is the true ending of Moon. If that makes sense. Just shoving Moon and Terra together (whether as “Rewrite S2” or as the end part of a two-cour adaptation) reduces the impact each of them have on their own, IMO.

The real “problem” I see with a Rewrite adaptation is how to treat the heroine routes, when three of them are largely irrelevant and all of them tell different stories about the end of the world… in an anime, there’s inherently continuity between one episode and the next, and even if you were doing an omnibus format there’s only so many times the threat of the world ending can arise without it getting tiresome, without it losing the impact it would otherwise have.
I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and there are two approaches I see that could both “work” and do justice to the better parts of the game’s material:

  1. The “Why Don’t You Like My Favorite Heroine” Approach:
    Common route (6-7 episodes) --> Kotori’s route (3-4 episodes) --> reset --> Chihaya/Shizuru/Lucia ‘combined’ route (5-6 episodes) --> reset --> Akane’s route (5-6 episodes) --> Moon (3 episodes) --> second season --> Terra (12 episodes)

There are good ideas in Lucia’s, Chihaya’s, and Shizuru’s routes, but they’re wrapped up in a great lot of irrelevancy (since the main writer had nothing to do with them) and don’t accomplish anything major in terms of furthering the metaplot… why not a route primarily about the Gaia-Guardian conflict as seen from the Guardian POV? Sort of an anti-Akane-route, something the game is lacking. Chihaya’s ending (the best part of that route) even works well here, and I think a happy, uplifting ending in between the endless despair of Kotori and Akane works well. Since I’m the only person who would really like this, there’s also:

  1. The “Does This Even Count as an Adaptation Anymore” Approach a.k.a The “Touka Gettan” Approach:
    Anachronic assortment of standalone stories loosely (or not) adapted from the heroine routes, the common route, Harvest Festa, the various officially-published manga, light novels, and artbooks (20-ish episodes) --> Moon (the remaining episodes) --> second season --> Terra (12 episodes)

This, I think, works in a way a straight adaptation would not, because it can evoke the themes, some events, and overall tone(s) of the game in a format specifically designed for a television anime. It avoids the pitfalls of typical eroge adaptations, would be -incredibly memorable-, and fits well with what the common route and heroine routes actually are (that is, possibilities recorded in the Aurora as being viewed by Moongari)… the only drawback is that it would require a godly series comp and/or an actual writing staff, but to be genuinely good a Rewrite adaptation would require that anyway.

Yes, I know I’m crazy. Thank you.

#32

It came out of nowhere anyway :stuck_out_tongue: Totally freaked me out~

Nope~ :stuck_out_tongue: We are just on different pages~
I agree that Rewrite would need lots of episodes to stand strong alongside the VN. I think that the anime should need lots of dedication to different sides of Kazamatsuri, and the director would really need to organize it well. It should be fast-paced without feeling rushed. It should emphasize the unknown to keep the audience interesting: how will the answers be revealed? And each route should bring something to the overarching plot line.

Buuuut I’m not talking about what I want from a Rewrite anime, or what a Rewrite anime deserves. That’s a whole different discussion~ I believe that it is unlikely for Rewrite to fall into the hands of a studio that will preserve Rewrite’s length and complexity. This is why I started my side of the discussion with “I can imagine them…”

I have no problems with your vision of a Rewrite anime… I just don’t see it happening as perfect as you envision.

#33

Pretty much what Takafumi says. I totally agree with your ideas Kaisos, I’m just pragmatic and wouldn’t expect an adaptation to be that perfect. I definitely agree on the point of Moon and Terra being separate series, as Moon really is like the end of Rewrite, and Terra is something different entirely.

2 Likes
#34

So you’re being pessimists. :stuck_out_tongue:
Well, I agree that it probably won’t go to any worthwhile staff, but it’s still fun to think about how it -could- be done well.

#35

Upon hearing a few things about how evolution works, I noticed that the powers in Rewrite have a certain Symbolism to them and each one can be likened to certain part of the evolution process.
Therefore, I will draw some comparisons here, so feel free to discuss them and add new ones ^^

Rewriting - adaption
Whenever Kotarou uses his power, he has a certain goal in mind. Making himself faster in order to chase or evade an enemy. Giving himself night vision to move more efficiently at night. Sharpening his senses to prepare for surprise attacks or simply strengthening himself before a battle. Basically, he adapts his body in order to perform better (or simply survive) in a given situation. His body changes - and those changes cannot be reversed.

Summoner (familiar creation) - recombination
Just like how the genes of the father and the mother are combined when the child is created, a summoner puts together materials when building a familiar. Just like in recombination, certain combinations yield better results than others. Depending on the materials, the created familiar gains certain powers and the life force efficiency varies.

Superhuman - heredity
This one is a bit tricky, since heredity is part of the recombination. However, I believe this term is the most fitting for the powers of superhumans. While recombination, as in familiar creation, is more like a singular process, a one-time combination, superhuman powers are an accumulation of skills acquired and nourished by humans through a long process of passing them on to the following generations.

Salvation - natural selection
The power of the Key. This is a bit of a stretch. After all, Salvation wipes out all organic life except for plants. But you could argue that salvation occurs when evolution fails and certain creatures end up becoming a threat to the planet itself - thus being “not fit” for living there. You could also compare it to a natural disaster or a deadly virus. Some people say that fatal sicknesses, such as the plague came into being because the population of humans on earth grew too big, so mother nature decided to reduce their numbers to re-establish balance.
So rather than survival of the fittest, it’s more of a decimation of the unfit - which is everyone. Except you look at it from a different angle: The Key arrives to invoke salvation because humanity is unfit. If humanity can give her “good memories”, they prove that they actually are fit. And even if they don’t - they can ensure their survival by simiply killing the Key (which is, however, just a makeshift fix, not an actual solution).

Other powers:

  • Kotarou’s Aurora

Other elements of evolution:

  • Mutation: Certain genes simply change during the evolution process, resulting in acquisition of traits that did not originate from the subject’s predecessors.
#36

I see no reason as to why these two cant be one in the same. Kotarou’s Aurora could be seen as a mutation caused by both his Rewrite ability and The Key’s ribbon being combined.

#37

I never really thought of The Key like that. It always seemed like a Hard Reset on everything.

The fact that it wipes out everyone kind of removes the ‘selection’ part.

#38

Kotarou’s aurora being a mutation of the Key’s ribbon might be a valid point. However, Aurora is described as something like raw energy in the game. And in Kotarou’s case, he’s merely giving that same raw energy a shape when using it for combat.
On the other hand, it’s very mutation-like how Kotarou’s aurora takes on different shapes in different routes.

I doubt that the rewrite power was part of that ‘mutation’, though. There was only one route where Kotarou has consciously rewritten his aurora.

#39

There’s no evidence for this, but I like to think that the Aurora ability stems from the rejection of the inserted ribbon. It tries to escape from Kotarou’s body, but the blood bending ability takes control of the ribbon’s Aurora.

Also, when Kotarou is “rewriting” his Aurora, I think he is actually rewriting his mind. The Aurora is a foreign object in Kotarou’s body, so it wouldn’t make sense for it to be rewritten. However if Kotarou rewrites the way he thinks about the Aurora, then he will produce different shaped weapons. Remember that the Aurora takes the shape of what you imagine :stuck_out_tongue:

#40

Dude it’s literally just a gigantic mass usage of Kotarou’s Rewrite power.
The world is Rewritten with a minor change(like adding the Hercules Horseshoe Crab) to see if it doesn’t break that time.