Rewrite Anime - Episode 12 "The Song of Destruction"

Key Discussion
#22

There’s no time for that. Love Live Sunshine airs directly before it and Qualidea Code after and both have their finale next week.[quote=“DangoDaikazoku, post:20, topic:3221”]
Maybe the Visual Novel makes it clear there’s a lot more to come.
[/quote]

It has basically an After Story/Refrain type ending route that hasn’t really been touched. [quote=“DangoDaikazoku, post:20, topic:3221”]
how and why Kotarou was having those weird dreams/visions/maybe reality in the first episode)
[/quote]

would be explained in the Moon/Terra routes so assuming we get split-cour you’ll get your answer there.

#23

I can’t describe in words how abhorrent I truly found this episode to be…

Some of the most unpolished animation I’ve ever seen in an anime.

Midou’s supposed backstory shoehorned in with very little sense of timing, consideration, or tone with no reason other than to get the viewer to sympathise with an otherwise total prick of a character.

Very little focus on Kotori’s parents beforehand at any point of the series other than the 2 frames her mom appears in episode 1,

Kana Hanazawa’s downright cringey scream that sounded like she had her face in front of a bedroom fan whilst lightly moaning into it on the maximum setting to try sound as robotic as possible.

I could go on… But at this point I could care less about this original route and just want to see Moon and Terra animated in another season…

Utterly disappointed… Its way too hard for me to take this narrative seriously when the viewing experience is so poor.

5 Likes
#24

After the severe letdown that was everything about last week’s episode, this episode actually managed to be better by giving me no hopes and no expectations whatsoever. Ironically, only now that they’ve stopped trying to include comic relief every five seconds (one episode before the whole season ends) did everything become absolutely hilarious.

It’s really a shame that they even bothered trying to shoehorn in Kotori’s parents at this stage. I had high hopes that her backstory might be at least touched on respectfully since she remains one of the most important characters to the overarching plot, and honestly they didn’t do too badly with the Druid explanation a few episodes back. But it was so rushed and so bad and evoked little to no emotion at all, whereas the vn reveal honestly left me in tears.

If they had just left them fighting Midou, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the fact that they tried to cram in the big reveal about them having some remnants of free will left fell very flat, moreso considering the anime hasn’t touched at all on the fact that familiars aren’t expected to have any free will of their own, or that Kotori thought she was controlling mindless robots this entire time.

The scene with Akane confronting Kashima Sakura was probably the scene I had the least problems with in the episode. Actually, it was interesting. And then Suzaki-getting-eaten-by-the-worst-CG-dinosaur-in-history happened, and I was just back to laughing my ass off.

^^^ This about sums it up. If I think too much on how they wanted the Kagari scenes in this episode to be taken seriously, I’ll probably get bummed out, so instead I’m still just laughing about them because they were so bad.

Honest to god, this is some of the worst animation I’ve ever seen, and considering I’ve kept up with Studio DEEN adaptations, that’s saying something. The fact that they expect all the fight scenes to be taken 100% seriously while everyone’s running around on green cardboard and Midou’s doing the can-can is even more hilarious. Close-up facial expressions were just as wonky as expressions on background NPCs you’re not supposed to pay attention to, and the scene of Suzaki being eaten might as well be nominated for a comedy anime award.

I don’t mind when anime has poor visuals as long as the storytelling is good enough to make up for it, but considering this anime has offered nothing but bad storytelling and bad visuals, I’m feeling rather unsympathetic towards 8bit. An anime should be at least better-looking than its visual novel counterpart, considering the whole point of an anime adaptation is to tell the story visually. But honestly, these last two episodes have felt more like a drawn-out powerpoint for someone’s class project, completed at two in the morning with the hopes of getting a D-minus at best.

This adaptation started out with a lot of potential, and it’s just been a shame to see it go down the drain like that. I’m kind of hoping someone will just make a Rewrite Abridged series at this point, so I can get some more laughs out of all this. With one episode left, there’s literally no way this anime can be salvaged, but I’ll watch it anyway just to enjoy the clusterfuck at this point.

4 Likes
#25

vlcsnap-2016-09-17-16h11m20s124.png1280×720 897 KB

Someone finally said it!

I don’t know what to say about this episode that hasn’t been said before in this thread… let’s see.

I really don’t understand the absolute need they have to try and cram every single plot point from the VN in this. I literally would’ve been okay with them only ever foreshadowing Kotori’s parents thing or even leaving it completely aside so that people can actually have some surprises coming their way if they ever try the VN. After all, Kotarou does go through all of the other heroine routes except Kotori’s without knowing that Rikako and Keisuke are familiars or that they’re dead at all. It just robs the whole scene of emotional impact and makes it look like some cheap tearjerker moment pulled out of thin air.

Less random VN spoilers, more lenghty and better animated fights please~

I’m so mad because next episode we’ll probably have (Chihaya’s route spoiler) Sakuya turn into Treekuya but we’ve had 0 talks about how using your rewriting power can turn you into a familiar other than the one really quick talk where Sakuya is like “ya like don’t use it btw”. (Chihaya’s) We haven’t even been told that Sakuya is a familiar at all, have we?! Just “I serve Chihaya-san.” So the whole thing will literally come out of nowhere with next to no talk about parallels or emotions, since mostly they made Sakuya some dude who hangs around and kicks Kotarou’s ass.

I liked the fact that Shizuru is back with the team but I don’t understand why they had to put it off for so long since it didn’t have anything interesting to it… she is at point A, leaves a note, then she’s at point B helping Kotarou. At least show us her thinking “Lucia hasn’t come back yet, I waited this long, but I think I need to go save her.” You know. An excuse or something, but a believable one.

I was hoping for some more showing of Guardian as “also the bad guy” since (Terra) Yasmine and other child summoners getting killed is all Guardian’s doing but they didn’t explain it that well, so this anime is still extremely biased towards Guardian. Shrug. If there really is going to be a Moon&Terra season, I’d be more understanding of this since it’s true that Terra shows Guardian’s darker side the best in my opinion. Also there’s this one kid in the scene where Midou and the Midoettes are crying over Yasmine’s corpse where there’s a child corpse that looks like she has a funny “knocked out” anime expression. It really threw me off.

I wasn’t going to say this because I know everyone mentioned the quality in some way or another, but the animation and even the still shots were bad. It’s true that a story doesn’t /have/ to look good to be good, but since most of us probably read the VN while fantasizing about incredible, beautiful and dynamic fights, lots of wild concepts that we dreamt to see well-animated… well, this falls a little flat. Not to mention that you mostly have to get anime viewers through either good storytelling (that this anime doesn’t have, sadly) or good animation/beautiful art (ditto). I was scared of the anime turning people off reading the VN and I think it might’ve in some cases…

Wow I really wasn’t planning on writing this much. Anyway, Kagari please stop screaming… but thank you for singing next up.

Praying for Salvation.

6 Likes
#26

Got ya. If that’s the case, then I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a sequel season, there. And yeah, I forgot about the issues that would have with the time slot… :sweat_smile:

#27

I’m in the middle of the episode but holy crap is this hilarious. All the stuff they’ve built on the last few episodes made me think they’ll be fine with their own plot, but now they threw in Kotori’s story just like that? Was the parents scene even meant to be emotional there?

I don’t even know if I want to watch it anymore.

4 Likes
#28

RIP series Rewrite anime is officially dead.

There are so many problems with this episode on its own. Midou talked about how he killed Lucia then 15 seconds later showed no signs of surprise when she showed up on front of him.

I was severely disappointed with how underwhelming the Earth Dragon was. Like unless you’re Sakuya or Chihaya/Akane/Terra route Kotarou the Earth Dragon is going to wreck your shit. Kotori’s parents were strong and all but in Kotori’s route they got killed by some dogs so there’s no way they could hold out against Midou as well as they did. And speaking of her parents they really abused their “goodbye” speech thing. It was built up to well in the game but here its forced, just like everything else in the anime. And then Midou just holds still while Kotarou runs forward and hits him. Midou could go toe-to-toe with Gen on his own so Kotarou should not have been able to do anything to him. The music transitions were also terribley done but nothing new there. Then the anime keeps trying to push how cool and powerful Sakuya is without actually showing him do anything awesome. Show don’t tell is not an advanced screenwriting concept.

There are a couple of positive things I can say about the series. Shizuru has been handled pretty well, mostly because they’ve been putting more care and effort into her character than the rest of the girls. Midou was also used fairly well as a villain without changing him from the VN, although it would’ve been nice to see more of his backstory than a short clip before he died.

I’ve come this far so I’m going to finish the series but I’m going to hate myself for doing so. This is honestly one of the worst anime I’ve ever watched even though it pains me to type that.

2 Likes
#29

I HAD SO MUCH HOPE.
I was so excited after last episode;-;
The reasons I hate this episode are already mentioned before so I don’t need to repeat them.
But still guys, ep 12 being the worst episode does NOT mean the end, we still have ep 13.
I know many people won’t agree with me here, but I still think the anime is not dead yet. Yes, the anime did a bad work displaying the characters and their stories (ESPECIALLY KOTORI :rinfuka: ) but the main story isn’t dead yet, just forget about the characters for now and let’s see how it ends .-.

3 Likes
#30

I just really hope that Episode 13 will simply leave some plot threads hanging to make way for a presumably Moon and Terra Season 2. I’m actually suspecting that Episode 13 will end bitterly. ;-; The thing with Sakuya in the OP bothers me on how they’ll handle it though.

On another note, what happened to Akane’s letters???

#31

yeahh…that dude is a major character who represents an entire faction within Gaia that doesn’t agree with Sakura’s methods. They literally summed up that entire plot point in 2 lines. Rather than you being lost, I think you just don’t even realize things are missing because it’s handled so poorly.

lol as someone who dislikes Hanakana in general and hates Kagari’s character, yes, that was terrible.

Eh? Maybe you had bad subs, but he never said that. He asked if she was still alive after their battle (which he describes, but never talks about killing her) then says “So you are still alive” when he sees her. A boring but reasonable script. Of the many problems this episode had, that was not one of them.

I mean, how could they not? Honestly, most of these shoe-horned plot point complaints people are making are things that, in my view, are really just very bad foreshadowing. For example, Terra spoilers In the VN, not everyone who read it caught that the Midou was with the kids Kotarou saves. It’'s going to be super obvious in the anime. Why include Kotori’s parents drama? Because it’s similar to how she feels about Kotarou. From a directing standpoint, there have been so many plot threads that need to be tied up in Terra. Granted, they fell into the typical trap of “foreshadow as much as possible!” which results in this mess…but I kind of see what they were going for in a broad sense. I kind of feel they just made a list of things they wanted to include that would lead into/connect with Moon/Terra and then checked them off without caring how well it was actually done.

2 Likes
#32

I still believe, that it would have been much better if they simply went with an established route.
I don’t see how this is “the story of a girl that wasn’t represented in VN”. Literally, Moon, then Terra, then Harvest festa’s last character route does this extremely well. To heck, Kagari was represented way better even in OPPAI-ending and its continuation in Strange Fantasia.
If I didn’t love Rewrite’s vn, it’s manga adaptations, and Harvest festa this much, I would have dropped this anime on the 4th ep. When they tried to cram every aspect of why Kotarou would care for Shizuru that much (more than for a friend) it was already bad. Then… Rushed Lucia’s route in ep5. I never liked Lucia’s route in the vn, but, man, it was even worse here in the anime. Btw, they’ve killed Krivoy Rog in 1st ep, no? Kagari did it. With ease. With an extreme ease. In a dungeon, which was similar to that in “Rewrite Quest”. Yeah, I know, Kagari’s Ribbon are strong. But she never was this strong.
They’ve crammed together Kotori’s and Chihaya’s (Sakuya’s) routes… Only to show us how OP (god only knows why) Sakuya kicks Kotarou’s ass in a sore excuse for training? And then to kill off Kotori’s parents in such a cheap way.

Seriously, they should have made an adaptation of either Shizuru, Akane, or Chihaya’s route. And then Moon => Terra.
Or make 2 split adapations of 2 different routes to better connect it with Moon… Yes, that would not show everything, but at least that won’t change one of the best vns out there into some mindless pieces of plain text.

Seriously, it was so bad, that my ever so poor English grammar gets even worse.

#33

The VN did made it a point to show that the aurora ribbons were very strong. I mean Kotarou in Akane route evolved his aurora blades to the point that it resembled Kagari’s and defeated the Earth Dragon. And Kotarou himself, who was a trained Guardian superhuman when he attacked Kagari ten years ago, got ribboned to near-death instantly. It’s not a far-fetched idea that she can easily defeat those giant beasts. Plus Kagari’s ribbons are meant to be strong because she herself isn’t. That’s why her weakness is stealth attacks. Seasoned Guardian hunters can defeat her, but those giant familiars aren’t. Plus it makes zero sense for Gaian familiars to attack the Key of all beings.

The anime has its issues, but I don’t think this is among those.

#34

The point here is that, what Kotarou wasn’t even at his half-best form, when Kagari pwned him… err, was it 10 years? I think, its closer to 7 or 8. Kotarou is about 24, right? Sorry for offtop… Anyway, think back to Moon. She only managed to start the whole Terra thing because Kotarou and gang did everything in their power to protect her. She wasn’t even strong enough to beat that squirmy-black-little-Takasago-mamono. You may say, that she was already rather weakened by this point, but still. 1 on 1 fight with Krivoy Rog because of a can of coffee looks rather strange, if anything. Still, yeah, Ribbons can crash Krivoy Rog’s defense if they have enough power on the users side. Kotarou did such statement back in Chihaya’s route.

#35

So I have an important problem to solve. The okaken is basically uniting but whether there is a third faction or not is arguable, so was I close enough?

http://www.strawpoll.me/11252207

#36

Okay, I will put down my predictions on how the anime will end.

  • The one I’m most sure about: Akane picks up Suzaki’s gun, shoots Sakura, and commits suicide. I’d like to think of this as her “futile” attempt to do something about the situation, perhaps ending the Holy Woman’s suffering. If this doesn’t even remotely happen, I’ll gladly eat sisig with pig ears in the mix. :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Kotarou’s group will end up debating whether or not they should kill the Key, and this will potentially break the group apart. They might have gotten along, but they still have their ideological differences, and I don’t think Shizuru has shown to be indebted enough to Kagari to not kill her. They might also end up reaching a consensus to try finding “good memories,” but it will ultimately be futile.
  • Kotarou’s injury occasionally alluded during the common route might just be words that come out of Kotori. If the prediction above happens, this will likely be revealed at that scene.
  • The allusion of Sakuya’s fate in the OP might suggest a heroic sacrifice on his part. On how they’re going to go about it, I honestly don’t know.
  • Yoshino might appear attempting to fend off familiars.
  • Salvation will succeed.
  • The anime will likely end with that scene from Shizuru route where they find an ancient text talking about the meaning of “good memories,” while getting a small chunk of Moon Arc.
  • SEASON 2 ANNOUNCEMENT
3 Likes
#37

I think you’re entirely wrong but, we’ll see :stuck_out_tongue:

#38

Well I seem to have this knack that whatever predictions I have to a show will never happen, so I might just likely end up eating pig ears anyway. XD

I mean, I once predicted that Episode 6 will include stuff from Chihaya’s story from Official Another Story, but it went in a different direction instead.

#39

Its gonna be the Akane finale but with everyone there and with Sakura instead of the Jobber Dragon. Elements from Chihaya finale might show up like Kotaro’s fire blade.

2 Likes
#40

AKANE! GRIT THOSE TEEEETH!

CGM_KO31A.png1004×1060 415 KB

#41

[Proceeds to hit something else entirely despite declaring his intent to hit Akane]

2 Likes