Discussion topic for Episode 12 of the Rewrite anime, which premiered on the 17th of September, 2016. All references to outside works and to future episodes must be tagged with a [spoiler] tag.
You can view the series on:
Crunchyroll in North America and Australia
Akibapass in Germany
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Fantastic. This is the episode of Rewrite Iāve been waiting so long for. I feel like they spent way too much time in the forest, but Iām glad we finally reached this point. Itās everything Iāve hoped for! I have to give major credit to the authors for managing to reference so many different charactersā stories simultaneously through their interactions. I never expected 13 episodes to cover this much ground.
Also this
https://twitter.com/certainlyawitch/status/777179641727557632
Thanks to Prisma Illya, this was only the second ugliest anime episode Iāve seen this week.
[Terra-related anime spoiler?] Oh, Jasmine is at the animeā¦ hey! What are youā¦?! No, donāt! NOT HEEEEEEEEEEEEEER! Why all animes this season are killing waifus?! D:
The scene with Kotoriās parents didnāt manage to make me feel anything, sadlyā¦ at the VN it felt strong insteadā¦
There was literally no explanation to reach the City of Stone, andā¦
Did we get locked into a bad end? Unless they still manage to kill Kagari somehowā¦
City of Stone implementation in this series has been very weird, Iāll admit. In the VN it played a much better role.
And no doubt, this isnāt a happy memory.
Welp, that was, by far, the worst episode this anime has yet to show. I honestly just sat there, wondering who thought this worked, because at least for me, it sure didnāt. It almost felt as if every line had a maximum of half a second before the next, and they wanted to add a āshockingā or āemotionalā scene every two minutes, neither of which reached their intended goal. Itās like this episode was an edgy 13 year old trying to get views on YouTube.
I can still see what theyāre aiming for, and it really couldāve worked, but the way theyāve handled it really doesnāt seem to. My hopes for Episode 13 arenāt too high at this point. I canāt see much recovering from this. +1 for the Jasmine scene though. Admittedly, that was a highlight.
(Side note: I am very salty, in case you hadnāt noticed. 
)
I was going to comment this but itās been a while since I read Kotoriās route I couldnāt remember how it was done. Kotarou knew her parents were in the forest in the VN, right?
I think we might either get split-cour, super rushed finale or anime only being really confused. Theyāve used (Terra) Guardian Kotarou fighting Kagari with child Kotori coming running so they need to give that some kind of conclusion.
Moon & Terra Anime is coming, for sure.
In terms of inducing emotional impact, it fell flat because they didnāt spend enough time for the moments. I did somewhat felt sad from Kotoriās story, but the part where Kotoriās parents suddenly spoke was intensely awkward, and there was no need to put that part. They could just left us with the image of the parents dying and it would have just done its job. Midouās backstory was weird, too.
In setting up tension, however, it did its job amazingly. The world is ending now and I am so excited in how theyāll go about on the last episode~ And Suzakiās death made for a very disturbing sight. The battles were exciting to watch, but the art was, uhh.
((The framing of the gun in that one scene gave me the feeling that Akane will attempt to shoot Sakura. Ohmigad))
In hindsight, the juxtaposition of the two effed-up backstories might have intended to be a set-up to Kagari spiraling-down to despair, so the awkward backstories are forgivable in that regards.
On another hand, goddammit the art.
Iāll admit that some of the animation left a bit to be desired, but damn it makes up for it in grandeur. Iāve never been one to let poor visuals keep me from enjoying a story. If that were the case I would probably hate visual novels~
OH MY FUCKING GOD THE EARTH DRAGON LOOKS SO DUMB.
OH MY FUCKING GOD KOTORIāS MOMS SHADOW RUNNING TOWARDS MIDOU.
OH MY FUCKING GOD THE SPEED OF THE KOTORI PARENTS REVEAL AND DEATH.
OH MY FUCKING GOD THEY JUST RECOLOURED KRIVOY ROG AND KILIMANJARO AND PUT THEM ELSEWHERE FOR NO REASON.
OH MY FUCKING GOD THIS SWORDFIGHT SLIDESHOW.
I really just donāt know what they are going for here, thereās only 1 episode and they still havenāt touched the foreshadowed Sakuya event from the OP, so it feels like itās gonna end with Kotarou completely randomly being able to save the day (whether he does that by gaining BS levels of strength, yelling out cringy lines, or both, I have no idea). I mean salvation is starting already and since Lucia lived, it feels like they arenāt going to make it a bad end, even if it should be
Now that I have finished the episode, this is kind of one of those episode I personally have mixed feelings on. While I do like some of the stuff they added, there were other things that I personally didnāt personally liked in the episode. The problem mostly comes from the count and the constrains as well, which sadly thatās how it looks like, its pretty coincidental as well due to the production companyās other works in the same season. Itās pretty much skeptical for me for that end, and the shit schedule given for the staff as well, which sadly doesnāt help much.
Now for the episode, I did liked how they ended the episode due to showing Salvation which was essentially the one thing that could be brought up, and because of Kagari not seeing good memories, and only seeing bad memories, due to lets say the fights that has been going on, itās understandable enough. Though one thing thatās worrying me is the fact that they might pull maybe something along the lines a āhappy endā but Iām hoping its not the case. This feels too much of a failed branch in itself for me per say.
The animation wasnāt too bad here this episode or at least the week since Iāve seen worse artstyles this season of course, especially this week (although as usual I watch a lot of stuff this season but yeah, you can kind of get my point), thatās my opinion. But of course it didnāt looked well compared to the previous episode, due to having nice Nonaka corrections and quality consistencies (which were a good thing in a way). Though again, time constrains and a pretty horrible schedule doesnāt help much for them in their favor. There were some scenes that looked pretty good, example the Midou and the Earth Dragon vs the Hunters/Guardian Members, but others really didnāt looked that good, example Kotarou vs Midou fight, along with the Earth Dragon vs Treemen aka my most hated type of CGI at the moment.
The scenes between the characters were actually pretty nice here although a bit short in comparison to the previous episode, and of course I did liked the fight between Midou and Kotoriās parents.
Lastly I did actually liked again, the entire fact that the characters are disregarding their own factions sense, its pretty nice since it gives a easier picture of what the characters feel and what they really wouldnāt want, in that sense the anime did well to portray that aspect nicely, this connected to the episodeās first few minutes and trims and pieces here.
Now for the stuff that I personally didnāt liked, its pretty obvious what those things are and hopefully you can clearly understand here. Though this may be a bit picky but oh well, please try to bare with me when explaining. Iām not good at explaining things very well so Iām gonna try so.
Kotoriās parents death wouldnāt really be as impactful compared to the original VN, although I did felt emotional seeing the moment, the problem comes from looking at an anime only viewpoint. Now take a bit of a moment here. From an anime onlyās standpoint, the scene feels rather forced and rather weird as well. Itās because the anime hasnāt really focused much on Kotoriās end previously in the Common Route, and I believe because of this, it will affect any emotion towards whatās going on. Itās one of thise things where. Yeah the execution for that scene was fine only from an VN readerās standpoint, I like the scene before they died in the anime, with the picture of Kotori as a kid with themā¦ but from an anime onlyās standpoint, it affects any type of emotion towards her a bit or try to understand her, even more when nothing really got explained much on their background on the animeās end. You get what Iām saying here?
Another Issue: The Midou death scene isnāt really impactful either in that sense from an anime onlyās standpoint. From my end personally, I did felt emotional, again, no problems with that, but from an anime onlyās viewpoint it will cause no emotion, since thereās no actual connection with him, in here he acts like a bad guy until the very last few minutes before the episode ends, his motives will not make sense from the anime only standpoint either. It just seems waaay to edgy in that sense. You get what I mean?
Third issue comes from the fact that, when taking into the VN readerās standpoint (depending on the individual in question), but for me, it would be considered fine and dandy, Like I didnāt really felt bad in any way, as it didnāt personally insulted me. But again, in an anime viewerās standpoint, its not going to work, nothing would make sense in terms at least of the complete motivations of the factions, since of course, again, from what we have gotten it was kind of little. Not really a lot has been said around the two and as everyone knows already, Gaia and Guardian are two factions that at first we take into perspective or what they do good and bad, you get the point here? Maybe? All I am trying to say its that, the anime for an animeās point of viewpoint, it fails to gives more of the factionsā good sides and bad sides, you know what Iām saying? Yes it focused on them but not enough to have some sort of idea. You know?
Lets go for shorter explanation: Most of my complaints comes from the fact that in the animeās stance for the anime onlies, unless someone has to dig a hole to understand, would be difficult to understand whatās going on, from the motives, towards the emotional impact. But from my end I think from an adaption stance, it works pretty fine. Production and Animation could have been better but sadly again, time constrains has been pretty much limiting them in my eyes. This could have probably worked if given more time and such, but itās not like Iām going to go and cry because of it since Iām not THAT upset on the matter. It could have worked but yeah.
This episode was okay in its own way. There were so cool action scenes that I enjoyed at least. It was nice seeing Kotoriās parents out in the forefront fighting against Midou even though it was only for a brief moment that they protected Kotori and the others. It didnāt have that feel like in Kotoriās route because it was more emotional in the VN as Kotarou and Kotori struggled to run away from the forest to the wheat field as her parents fought to the bitter end. I didnāt expect Midou to protect them in the end as Kotarou and Kagari ran away from the scene. They started showing [Terra route spoilers]where Jasmine was there when Midou, Tenjin, and Tenma back in those days were happy and full of smiles. They were in a war-torn country that eventually started when Gaia made its presence to make familiars. It was gut-wrenching how Kotarou realized that those children were summoners and were killed off by Guardian which broke me in full tears. I was literally shocked to what happened to Suzaki after getting killed by one of the powerful familiars that was brutal even for Kashimaās sake.
We now know for sure the Salvation is happening and itās only just the beginning. As I think how this episode went, it may have fell flat in some instances. The scene with Midouās backstory felt as though there wasnāt enough time to explain why Midou felt the way he does now about humans in general. Another one was when Kotoriās parents were there only for a few minutes didnāt capture the emotional impact as they ended up getting killed by Midou which was bound to happen. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed this episode anyways. With one episode left, I hope Moon and Terra are going to be adapted to wrap things up. Weāll have to wait and see then how it goes.
More and more, Iām finding it harder and harder to sympathize with Gaia, especially since their hatred of humans has been explained through vague montages rather than more concrete reasoningā¦
The action in this episode was pretty good. The direction was rather wonky (itās clear 8-Bit doesnāt have a strong handle on it), but it was intense and they had a decent bit of tension. Admittedly, Shizuru coming back happened too fast for it to be emotionally satisfying.
Soā¦ The worldās ending now. YAY!! Iām guessing Guardian and our heroes will have to form an awkward partnership to stop it somehow. Iām sure, ironically enough, that Kagariās gonna be a part of the solution? Either way, I predict the ending is going to be incredibly rushed!
Edit: On a side note, I didnāt even remember Kotoriās parents were in this episode until I noticed people mentioning it on this threadā¦ Showās how much impact THAT had on me!
Damn it, I was banking on the world just being outright annihilated this episode. Good enough though, I enjoyed the episode, especially how it managed to instill the feeling that things are getting worse and worse by the second; when Kagari is like āI couldnāt find any happy memoriesā itās like oh dear, thatās it, weāre doomed.
The direction was hilariously bad though. The entire Midou Kotarou Knights battle was horrendous. I dare you to watch that scene again and try imagining observing it from a still camera angle. It doesnāt work. And none of what happens makes any sense.
Still, I quite enjoyed it. I hope the world gets destroyed next episode.
Midou is way too overpowered in the anime XD
I just want to see this season ends soon because from the way it is now, my thoughts is that it will end with a cliffhanger, Salvation happens, everyone dies, KT in his last despair moment thought why he couldnāt do anything. Then wakes up to Moon Yay, Moon&Terra will be next cour! Hypeeeeeeā¦ ć½(ć_Ā°)ć
So, how many anime-only people are still watching and how many feel like the anime has explained things even half-decently? I feel like the last few episodes have been littered with things that are like āhey we included this because itās a plot point in the VNā but they just get thrown at you so randomly that anyone not familiar with the VN wouldnāt even realize what these things mean to the plot. Like, even the episode title āThe Song of Destructionā is super important but how much of that has even been explained? Iām legitimately asking because I donāt think any VN readers, myself included, can give an accurate perspective of how this anime actually conveys itselfā¦although I can say I highly suspect it fails miserably.
Also, Iām still sticking to my claim from like 6 months ago that itāll be split-cour. I thought itād be obvious by this point, but apparently some people still donāt think itāll happen.
Iāve only seen this anime, and Iām not having much trouble following the story. There are a couple plot points that felt like they came flat out of nowhere (Kotoriās parents, the dude who doubted Gaia and got eaten, how and why Kotarou was having those weird dreams/visions/maybe reality in the first episode). But for the most part? It hasnāt actually lost me.
It IS possible that this is multi-cour (considering 8-Bitās Grisaia anime is also doing multiple seasons), but Iām more inclined to say this last episode might be double-length, even though I do understand your perspective. Maybe the Visual Novel makes it clear thereās a lot more to come.
I really feel like they were able to jam so much stuff into the anime up until this point. It may be rough around the edges but I think this episode was pretty exciting. Things tend to have much less impact cause they are jamming it in there quickly, take kotoriās parents for example, it was just done too quick but did they really have much of a choice? I donāt think they really did tbh. This episode really showed that they did combine/smash everything together fairly well. The feeling of a large battle really was carried through this episode. They built up the two faction well enough that it feels like a huge clash. Also with the club member sticking together also created a feeling of unbreakable friendship.I am most interested into what will happen to akane tbh. Will she be able to join them? I think so.
I really feel like this episode brought everything together fairly well, but did lack impact in some important parts. (like kotoriās parents.)
