Rewrite Anime - Episode 1 "The World or Myself?"

Key Discussion
#26

This was a solid good episode and I think it was the best way of how to start Rewrite for those getting into the anime. The animation looks okay, but I guess I’m not the only one who realized it looked strange at first, and there were some parts they kept in the VN but made it so those who were first getting into the anime can understand it more thoroughly. There are many other things I like to say about the episode but it would be exhausting to recall all of those moments, but I’ll mention a few. I still enjoy the scene with Kotarou and Chihaya riding together on the bike together as he was showing her around Kazamatsuri. The interaction between Kotarou and Yoshino was something else and they kept that scene where they act so manly with how they’re going to duke it out and yet Kotarou ended up being silly as usual :laughing:. Kotori is just as funny with her silly jokes and I think her performance is very good. Also, with Shizuru, it brought me back so many memories just seeing her character for so long that I could not just not comment on as she is one of my favorite characters in Rewrite, along with Kagari herself too.

It is going to a great start and I look forward to seeing how they will progress further on. :smile:

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#27

It’s a very enjoyable episode. I was quite surprised that the stuff in the new PV all came from the first episode. A lot of things happened, but it does introduce well what Rewrite is actually all about without spilling all the beans ahaha. It kinda lost all the sense of mystery, but personally it wasn’t really the most important part of the story, so it was easy to scrap.

The gags are hilarious. I love it. And the music placement is pretty good. As for the animation, even with all the derp shots in the series, I always end up saying that it’s really good. There’s a lot of charm from it.

I need to see the opening animation soon~

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#28

I feel like crying after realizing that they wont be adapting the routes that I’ve been waiting so long to see.

Kagari is the one character I had no liking for in the game.

I thought it was a bit confusing even as someone who has played the full game.

I have a feeling this could be a huge flop. Too confusing for the Anime only people, and not true enough to please fans of the VN.

I was enjoying most of it until I realized that though. I just wanted the actual routes animated so badly.

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#30

True not seeing the routes is sad, but at least we’ll get an entirely new route. That’s cool too, no? ^^

#31

Enjoyable first episode. It is really interesting to see the anime starting off on a high note. I could now understand why the 1 hour special is needed. Splitting up the introduction for rewrite into multiple episodes would feel tedious.

Personally, the episode went by smoothly but that’s really because of previous expereince with the VN. Talked to some friends about their thoughts and kept hearing common complaints on “awkward pacing” or “unexplained plot lines”. Hoping to see episodes that will cater to the non VN readers.

#32

I love that first minute depicting the evolution of life on earth, which is a central topic of Rewrite. I sure hope some people still remember it after finishing that 48 minute episode ^^

I also appreciate those tiny hints and references to other routes like:
“Just an ordinary Mammoth!”; Kotori middle school flashback;
and even references to other Key works!
What I feared the most was 8bit giving Rewrite a disrespectful adaption, but with all those tiny extras, I can definitely feel the love for the game, so my biggest fears are pretty much gone now!

I’m a bit troubled by the portrayal of the heroines, though.
Chihaya seems like a tsundere that went full dere in just a few minutes. Her “I hate you” has been completely misinterpreted in the anime, but you won’t know that (and probably won’t be bothered by it) unless you’ve read her chapter in the the light novel. And then there’s that laughing happily as they’re riding a bike. It’s like they’re ready to kiss -_-
As for Kotori, she, ehm… doesen’t seem very intelligent, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Let’s just hope this impression doesn’t stick and gets resolved soon enough.

The visuals? Visuals in anime never mattered to me unless they were really outstanding in one way or another.

Overall, I’m looking forward to watching this anime with everyone!

6 Likes
#33

First 10 minutes or so was really good, it put up a nice atmosphere and feeling.
And then Yoshino showed up.
Not like it’s really his fault, the characters in Rewrite are bad to begin with so of course once they started showing up and breaking that atmosphere it’d go downhill but…oh my god it’s so FAKE.

Everything is completely phoned in and weightless, the characters interactions, the scene transitions, the music, just the flow of everything is completely dry. I’m not even sure if this is a fault of the Anime because well we all know how well written Rewrite is to begin with, but it’s absolutely gross.

Much like the animation. It’s either laughably stiff or completely overly done, both of which look completely god damn fake yet again. The first god damn thing in the show is a CGI rock too which really sums up the entire thing, it’s as expressive as a rock and full of CGI.

I never had even the slightly bit of faith or expectations for this, I don’t like Rewrite, I have no respect for the studio, and I know it’s not something you can adapt even slightly well, but my god, this is refining what it means to be fake.

3 Likes
#34

I did manage to show the first episode to my boyfriend (though it was hard because we usually don’t like the shows the other likes and I have no idea what did he think this would be about).

So, we have the POV of an anime-only viewer.
He did like the episode and was left intrigues by the little cliffhanger at the end (I wonder what does he think that will happen with Akane… surely it isn’t what it will actually happen), he started to felt intrigued from the start with the strange introduction of the Earth creation and the overgrown city that is at the moon, also felt curious about several things like the accelerator or Koutaro’s strange feats of strenght and agility (the jumps before meeting Kagari, or the one to get over the school’s gate).

It seems that he liked Inoue, I wonder if tell him that she is not one of the main characters or wait.

So far he doesn’t seem confused, I mean, he did have questions about he has been shown, but he knows that they must be answered earlier or later (everyone watched a show knows this, right) so he’s going to wait… though he says he doesn’t want to :smile:

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#35

Yeah I showed my housemate and he was mildly intrigued. Guess I’ll show him more as it airs~

#36

I’d rather play it in Rewrite+ especially since I don’t care for the girl they are doing the route for.

I thought the five original routes would be amazing adapted so I’m pretty upset.

#37

I had no expectations but was still disappointed, kinda fascinating

I love Rewrite, but this episode was a fucking mess pacing-, animation-, sound direction- and story-wise

#38

I don’t think this is the case. I watched with my sister and she seemed fine with understanding everything. I have two anime-only friends who also were fine. Most anime viewers don’t expect the first episode to explain everything.

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#39

I have shown my boyfriend and he was fine too, and I’ll show some friends later too.

I think that people thinks that anime-only viewers get confused over nothing LOL

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#40

My younger brother watched it (mostly due to my constant gushing haha) and he didn’t find it so confusing; just really fast (and he didn’t like Kotori /sad).

We shouldn’t really expect any first episode of any anime to explain everything. Otherwise (usually) there would be no point to the rest of the episodes. XD

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Currently Airing Anime
#41

Oh I hadnt even thought of how much of a cliffhanger that could be if you were anime-only! Akane sure is a mystery at this point. I had kinda been questioning why they had left off at such a random point, but I can see how much of a “need to know what’s gonna happen next” moment that is now that you pointed that out.

Speaking of showing it to non-VN-readers, Ive been thinking about showing my sister; however, I think Im gonna wait until it ends to decide for sure whether it would be better to force her to read the VN first. With only one episode, we really have no idea at this point how this is gonna play out, or how much having one first would ruin the other. You would think, though, with this being kinda like a huge ad for Rewrite+, that it would be created with anime-first viewers in mind.

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#42

He even got to think that the “ribbon girl” following Koutarou at night could be the witch, lol.
All what he knows of Akane so far is that Inoue is interested in her and that she knows Chihaya, so, really, he knows literally nothing and they stopped right at the introduction.
He complained because he said the cliffhanger at her point was too much.

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#43

I think it’s safe to say that watching even this episode alone would damage the experience of reading the VN. If someone has any intention of reading the VN, don’t let them watch this anime first! Only watch this anime if you’ve read the VN or have no intention of reading the VN.

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#44

I was soo anticipating to watch this when I got home from ax last night but nope my internet had to die. I will come back and watch tonight when I get home.

#45

Okay, I finally have a bit of a thought for this. :slight_smile:

Personally (or to a lot of people I guess), what makes a good first episode is that it serves both as a set-up and as a hook at the same time. Meaning, a first episode lays down the elements of the story that which the following episodes will base itself from and gives the sense of what the story is all about, while getting the audience’s attention to look forward for the rest of the episodes. Of course that would mean giving away the story without giving away too much.

And personally, I think Rewrite shows to be an example of this, but for the most part, more so on the set-up side than the hook side. Because the original story is incredibly massive and convoluted with a lot of elements placed in the story, the episode inevitably carried a lot of content to show us the massiveness of the story. And at what expense? So many things were happening in a single episode that some people felt overwhelmed by it.

I’ve also read discussions outside Kaza regarding the episode, and the general (negative) comments is that:(1) it was rushed, and (2) the characters felt stereotypical. I’ve already explained why (1) was the case, but here’s for the (2). I do understand why some people feel this way: Because they jam-packed everything in a single episode, they weren’t able to show enough of the heroines to be able to get any substantial personalities from them. (but heyyyy Kotori’s introduction to the story is already pretty good, I couldn’t ask for more for this episode)

However, I think it’s unreasonably early to conclude that they’re stereotypical. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with archetypes; heck my personality in real life falls on the dandere archetype at first impression. It only becomes wrong when the archetype is all there is, but again, it’s still like Episode 1, and there’s still room for fleshing out the cast.

Also, the thing about Chihaya being deredere suddenly, it does feel a bit fast, but there is an explanation for it. Chihaya is practically (not really so much of a spoiler, but it’s an insight from the VN) just a weird combination of socially awkward, short-fused and carefree, so I doubt she genuinely hated Kotarou at all. tl;dr: she’s not the type to hold grudges for long, and the anime shows this at least.

Of course the VN paced the dynamic of the two better ((VN-only content)like Kotarou randomly sharing English trivias with her before class), but this is still pretty reasonable.

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#46

I understand that thing about Chihaya.
I have trouble feeling angry at someone for a whole hour straight, tend to forgive and forget those things easily, is not like hold a grudge benefits anyone.

At the VN I never felt either that she genuinely hated Koutarou, more like being a bit annoyed at him whenever he did or said anything stupid, but mostly OK the rest of the time

Lucia on the other hand feels way more tsundere (VN Lucia route spoilers) until the dating starts

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