I didn’t go into detail before since the overall reception seemed thoroughly positive at that point, but now I feel like I might as well explain further as to why I liked this episode.
More than anything I’m very content with how they handled Shizuru’s backstory in this new context. Shizuru is not the focal point of this anime. Her backstory is not overall important to the plot. But what it does do is it helps establish the setting. Rewrite’s setting has superpowers, organizations and a lot more that hasn’t been shown yet. And while that much could’ve been gathered without Shizuru’s backstory, what it does accomplish is it shows us how these setpieces affect our main characters directly. It’s one thing to just say there are superpowers in this setting, it’s another to actually show us how there being superpowers has an effect on the main cast as well as other inhabitants of Kazamatsuri - in other words it shows that there was actual thought put into the setting, and it makes it feel very much “alive”.
I’m glad that they used Shizuru’s backstory for this purpose. She’s a main heroine at this point and the audience cares about her to a degree. But not to the degree that this type of backstory is already a tearjerker. So it’s just about perfect for exposition. It’s not a particularly emotional moment, and some may have hoped differently. But I feel the way it went was pretty much perfect, it shows us that this sort of shit is commonplace here. THIS IS NOTHING SPECIAL, that’s exactly the point. And having the characters brought closer to us even when they’re not the focal point of the new plot developments is something I very much appreciate. I imagine they’ll be handling Lucia, maybe even Kotori, in a similar fashion.
Personally I didn’t feel like the directing was off for the majority of the episode. Probably the weirdest part was Kotarou sprinting to the clubroom after his encounter with Kagari (which was fucking glorious by the way) and Shizuru somehow catching up to him while walking. The talking felt perfectly natural to me, and Shizuru telling her backstory was actually pretty damn good.
Koibumi was mainly there because this is their only plausible opportunity to play it. Which is fine, I’d rather have it here than not at all. It’s the last time the anime will be focusing on Shizuru to this degree, if my speculations are correct.
Oh… and then we get to the post-credits Lucia scene. Horrendous directing everywhere, nonsensical conversational flow and reactions, and such a stupidly strange contrast to the Shizuru focus from before. And a literal non-ending (it just fades to black in the middle of a scene!). Yeah I got absolutely nothing, that part was terrible.
Still, apart from that ending, it was everything I wanted it to be. The first episode I’m giving a 5/5.