Rewrite Anime - Episode 5 "Asahi Haruka"

[JY454]

Having done Lucia’s route first in the VN, it’s not spoiling any of the others routes, we’re still at a macro level plot explanation, so it’s not a bad choice if the goal is to introduce her backstory/power like Shizuru’s in last episode.I didn’t think they’d go up to the church though, the late common may had been enough.

I did not feel any odd part in the way the episode was written, transitions between scenes was fluid. Of course there’s the “Gotta go Fast” factor. On the other hand I remember her route had much more impact in the VN, at least the church part and what they could not adapt after.

If you ignore the VN comparison, it’s still an enjoyable episode. 4/5

[ZakM]

Haven’t seen the episode yet but I got spoiled on some screenshots… Looks interesting, saw a shot of a particular CG. Will find out in a few hours

I’m only here right now seeking out the weekly Kanon salt shot of the week… Guess I’m here too early

Well… Will edit once I see the episode with full thoughts.

[CaptainQuinn]

I just realized I should probably create an account here. Here are my random twitter ramblings about this episode, I didn’t have as much as the previous episodes but it was very interesting. https://storify.com/ArchonofFail/rewrite-episode-5-live-thoughts I was suprised they started down the Guardian track, I figured the anime route would be a more neuteral route like Kotori’s in the game and they would mostly ignore Gaia/Guardian due to time constrains but that appears to not be the case. I think the next episode will be really telling for where they plan to go with things so I’m really looking forward to it.

[Totoro_Futaki]

Just finished the episode. As Aspi stated, I agree it could have used another episode. But I think it did fairly well with the 1-episode it was given. Probably my favorite episode at the moment, because of the mysterious horror that was shown. Reminds me a bit of the anime “Another”.

Seeing all these Lucia moments will probably make anime-only’s accept Lucia more than a cliche tsundere. Also, seeing these Lucia scenes makes me hope we’ll get Lucia’s route animated in the future if Rewrite’s a success.

The fluidity of animation of Lucia’s hair, ribbons, and clothes in the sunflower field was probably what I liked best. Yes, they basically repeated frames for the top half to make it repetitive, but it still looked gorgeous.

I also see less derps. Just my guess, but 8-Bit’s getting used to drawing the Rewrite characters, so it’s less problematic than in episode 1.

I also liked how they still showcase Kotarou and Shizuru talking. The Shizuru-focused episode from last week was rushed and didn’t have much build up. But I’m glad they’re not just throwing away Shizuru and Kotarou scenes because they’re done with it. They’re actually still building on her character, which makes me happy.
They also built the idea that Shizuru doesn’t mind telling Kotarou, peoples dark past/secrets, which makes her character-focused episode, more sense to the viewers eyes.

And then the post-credits. 8-Bit got me wishing for Moon & Terra now.

Though I love Kagari, it was nice to see them actually not using her in this episode just for the sake of using her and making her relevant in common. Lucia’s episode would have suffered more time constraint if they actually had Kagari show up in this episode.

I also loved how when Lucia touched the leaf, she, Kotarou, and Shizuru (flashback) all said something about “Wither” and the actual Rewrite song entitled “Wither” was playing. Kotarou also said “Retribution” during that scene, so I was hoping it was going to play afterwards, but it’s fine.

And for credits, just saying, but I wouldn’t have mind seeing a blushing Lucia in a maids outfit serving Kotarou lunch, while Kotarou is teasing her, making her show her tsun-side. But it’s all good. I just think Shizuru’s ED fits the black-screen credits with Kotarou and Shizuru moments playing on the side, more than Lucia’s insert song. It did remind me of Kurugaya’s route-ED though, playing moments with a somewhat plains background.

So we’re done with character pre-routes right? Or do we still need 1 for Chihaya? I’m really looking forward for how they handle “that day”, and how they handle the upcoming Kagari route. Something to look forward to.

On another note. I’m disappointed Kotori’s English didn’t make a cameo. I’m not sure if it played before this scene or after, but still. It would have been enjoyable.

Now, time to rewatch the episode because I enjoyed it.

[Inast]

For a visual novel player, I have to deplore the lack of feels in this one. I need to rewatch it, but the sadness and the loliness of Lucia are absent here.

In the other hand, they can’t make us loving lucia again : it’s not the point of the anime , and I have to say that, at least in my opinion, the meaning of the episode is successfully reached. The point here is to confirm the existence of superpowers of Guardian members and the Key/Gaia things.

Lucia and Shizuru are the stepstones who lead us to the main story , and it’s not so bad done. So I call a 4/5. They had to make choices, and until now, I feel like it is more and more coherent.

[Purple]

Terrible. Disorganized. Rushed. Piece of sh-

Amazing episode.

[Zyzyoro]

Haha. This made my laugh.

With that said, I thought this was adapted well considering the number of episodes they were given.

Those last 10 seconds were hype af.

[Kawaii-is-Justice]

Nice Episode!! Better than the previous shy Shizuru one. I didn’t feel like it was rushed (although it was a little) and they kind of solved the whole “WTF?!” in Lucia’s route, maybe because it was animated? Who knows… But this episode made me laugh, a lot… Good job, Kotarou! You friend-zoned that useless bih in a nice way! And where did Philosophyz and Sasayaka na Hajimari go? Uuuuu… I want 'em back…
The only part that seriously annoyed me about this episode was when Nishikujou said “We protect the Earth”… Guardian really is annoying. The only thing they’re protecting is themselves and they do a sh**y job at that… I don’t agree with how Gaia does things but I totally disagree with Guardian people who just act like friggin heroes…. Oh well…
I don’t like how the anime explained the whole Gaia/Guardian thing before that night. They kind of ruined it, actually. It was supposed to make us go all “WTF IS GOING ON HERE?!! WHAT’S WITH THIS WHOLE PLOT TWIST?!” but here… Our reaction to when the supposed to be a plot twist will probably be “Oh, so that’s what’s going on, huh?” or something like that…
But anyway, I like this episode as whole. They did a pretty good job at adaptating this route.

(They didn’t forget to mention, once again, Akane’s boobs even though she showed her face just once… Seriously, it’s all about boobs now…)
4/5… Sorry, Shizuru, but Lucia won this round (with a huge margin)

EDIT: Next episode will probably be about (late common)Inoue disappearing. There’s no way that they’ll remove Inoue’s importance to split the Oka-ken.

[soggysadboi]

This episode was actually pretty damn good to me, it feels like it did a good job of showing Shizuru’s relationship with Lucia, Guardian, Gaia, and some more specification of the things that Kotarou can do with his ability. We’re starting to get somewhere, guys!

As for Lucia’s past though, while I still think it was handled a bit better than Shizuru’s… they seemed to have completely glanced over all of the experimentation Lucia went through, although they bothered to sort of reference it in dialogue. I doubt there’ll be time to explain that now, however.

Anyway, those last 10 seconds is making me wonder where episode 6 is going. I feel like we’re close to the original content!

[Sonic112003]

I watched the episode earlier and I decided to re-watch it again so I wanted to wait to gather my thoughts together. This episode was not as bad compared to last episode with Shizuru’s backstory and I do like how the friendship between her and Lucia was mentioned as Kotarou wanted to know Lucia’s background in wanting to be her friend. It did feel a little rushed, but if I were an anime viewer watching for the first time, I think I would be okay about the transition into Lucia’s backstory.

I love the chapel scene being adpated into the anime and how Kotarou had to show her his superpower so he is able to make his body accept her poison despite the significant changes. Of course, [Lucia’s route]the experimentation where Lucia was being used as a weapon for the day where she would become the perfect human to survive the end of the world, probably had to be cut due to time constraints as there might have not been enough time to explain in detail of what she had suffered in the past. I also felt strange about how Nishikujou was already explaining about Guardian this early as Kotarou would have already figured out at some point about their organization and their utmost objective in searching for the Key as well as the opposing organization, Gaia, who is also desperate in that search.

I think using “Sunbright” as for the ED was probably the only choice to make considering it is Lucia’s theme with the sunflowers in the background was very good and how one day she would no longer have to wear those gloves again. The scene after the ED with her and Shizuru looked super cool and badass as well. Overall, I gave it a 4 out of 5 because I liked how they adapted Lucia’s backstory, even though they had to cut it short and straight to the point as we’re getting closer to the heart of the story.

[Naoki_Saten]

I still think they shouldn’t waste any time on the side girls’ backstories. There’s little point in it if they have to rush those anyway. Abandoning the routes but still doing the backstories seems like a poor, half-baked decision to me. Both the common route and their 6th route definitely need that extra time.
But I could be proven wrong depending on the next episode…

Whatever, I still enjoyed this episode.

Now that Kotarou knows so much about Guardian, I guess he’ll be joining or at least cooperating with them in the future. I think that kinda limits his options.

We still have no information to work with concerning the 6th route. With how they’re handling the information and Kagari’s appearances so far, I doubt they’ll end the common route the same way as the VN. And they can do that as soon as next episode, now that the whole conflict around the Key has been introduced.

[bionic]

I liked Sunbright as a ED, but I’m starting to miss Philosophyz and Sasayaka na Hajimari…

I don’t think it’s worth complaining about how fast it went anymore, but yeah it was rushed. However, I think they covered enough for an anime-only viewer to understand what’s happening.

One small thing that bothered me was Nishikujou opening her eye(s) for the first time. I remember when it happened in the VN I was screaming “WTF” at my computer and sent screenshots to people saying “OOOOOOOOOH MAH GOD” because it was that big of a plot twist to me. But now, it just becomes an “empty” threat because now we know that she can be threatening, but when she does something threatening, viewers will just say “oh yeah” and won’t get the same shock/disbelief. However, I understand it’s placement in this episode. It’s the turning point for the show, where Gaia and Guardian are known to the viewer and it’s becoming more and more clear that it’s not your average school show. Adding another plot twist in showing Nishikujou’s other personality helps to reinforce this. Still a little miffed, but it’s not a big deal so I’ll let it slide I guess.

[Arete]

The part of Lucia’s route they chose to adapt has so many suspense and mystery elements that this episode felt out of place. Lucia’s route in the VN is really weird too compared to the rest of the game but its jarring going from a pretty sweet episode last week to this mess this week and probably back to a more casual tone next week.

The parts that they did adapt they did well but the pacing is so god awful that everything except for the chapel scene felt ham fisted. They spent so much time rushing through exposition to set up the reveal that there was no time for any subtlety.

The best part of this episode was them continuing to build of of Kotarou’s relationship with Shizuru that they developed last week, even though we only got to see her for like two minutes.

Most importantly no parfait scene 3/5

[rune_devros]

Lucia’s story was one of the longer ones in the novel, and I liked the suspense of figuring out what Asahi Haruka was during the start of her story. We knew it was Lucia within the first third of the episode, so it didn’t have the same horror and mystery feel in the anime.

Sunbright vocal arrangement is A+++

Needs more giant desserts.

[Karifean]

Perhaps it’s my Lucia bias, but this was the single best episode of the series so far for me. The entire chapel scene was deliciously over the top and I’m not even mad, though at that point I wished they’d have just rolled with it and made Kotarou’s rewriting the most epic thing ever in the world instead of letting it just kinda… happen. But whatever. They did a good job of including Ryukishi’s unreliable narration without making it feel weird and out of place! And of course we’re actually starting to see the plot getting set in motion (although the post ED scene was so silly I had to laugh out loud) which is hype.

Of course the episode was far from perfect and there are many, many criticisms I could make, but right now I’m just like screw it, I’d rather spend the next hour rereading the Lucia date scene.

[s0ewhat]

I really enjoyed this episode, it would have been nice to get the full ryushiki07 mystery suspence of asahi haruka but this was a preety good adaptation although it was rushed. There was alot of things I would have liked to get animated from Lucia’s route but because of the time constrants I am not too let down by it. Overall this was a really well done episode. Although the orginization reveal was anticlimactic it was a good introduction to who is on what group and what the true plot is. On another note omg they played sunbright ugh that was a wonderful ending song, and that ending preview mmmm can’t wait to see lucia and shizuru in all their epic glory.

[nemoma]

“Lock On!” > Everything.

[BlackHayate02]

Since everyone has already said most of what I want to say, I’ll just tl;dr most of my thoughts: It was rushed, even more so than the past episodes, but they still somehow kept the narrative more-or-less consistent, so it’s alright.

One of the things I noticed, though, was that the dialogue in one part of the story felt a bit disjointed, perhaps due to cutting a lot of lines. I noticed this from the part where Kotarou said he wanted to dispel the Asahi Haruka rumor. But it feels consistent to his character more-or-less, so that doesn’t feel particularly bad an issue.

And I’m pretty sure the sudden tone shift near the end of the episode was just used as an excuse to use Sunbright as a track. :)) (Not like I mind, I like Sunbright but where muh Sasayaka na Hajimari)

I also like Lucia’s combat outfit in the post-credits scene. (Scratch that, I liked that post-credits scene as a whole. So badass.) A bit too puffy, but thank god it’s not on the side of stripperrific.

Kotarou in that long-sleeved shirt tho ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I think he totally suited that outfit.

EDIT: The anime really loves their Scene Shifts There man. I can see why; it’s such a cinematic track it really works. I hope they don’t use it too much though.

[HeliosAlpha]

So the point of the episode is the exposition regarding Guardian, Shizurucia and whatnot, but why did they have to mix in the stupid mystery Like, it wasn’t even a good mystery in the first place, so they should have just scrapped it for a more streamlined story.

Maybe if the script had been something like this:

• Shizuru drags Lucia to the club room. The atmosphere is understandably awkward. She hands Kotarou the tips from her mailbox (that thing was adorable btw). Cue exposition same as the anime. Lucia is visibly disturbed and tells them to not pursue this one then she storms off. Kotarou says he’ll talk to Yoshino and then we cut.
• Yoshino does the same stuff but doesn’t hand Kotarou the list, so he can’t progress.
• Left without an option, he turns his focus to Lucia and Chihaya’s fight. He goes down and talks to Shizuru. She tells him the entire story about Lucia’s powers, but it’s off screen, so the viewer doesn’t know.
• Using this information, Kotarou tricks Lucia into helping with a fake investigation. After that you can splice in Haruka scenes to get sympathy and show Lucia’s inner struggle between facing up to her problems and avoiding them.
• Santa Brosia scene could play out basically the same; you just need a place for Kotarou to explain that Shizuru told him.

This theory crafting is extremely hard without a grasp of how long scenes would be, but I guess that’s about it.

Other random ramblings then. I have a bit of a love/hate thing with the vocal Sunbright. It’s a cute, catchy song, but it makes reference to an awkward scene from Harvest Festa which I would rather not remember. It also slightly bothers me how they show Lucia firing her gun on the cue “Lock On.” It should end with her pointing at the screen after having found her target; she shouldn’t actually fire. There are arguments for doing it like they did, for example, how holding the gun up is a more recognizable pose then pointing it at the screen, but it doesn’t mesh with me.

Finally, Lucia’s battle outfit just looks silly. Why would it be a frilly dress? Shizuru’s outfit looks like it’s from Matrix, and Lucia’s outfits looks like it’s from a maid café. It preserves her silhouette, but I can’t help thinking that I’m just going to laugh my ass off every time I see it.

[Aspirety]

I actually agree with Helios for once. I don’t understand why people are saying this episode was better than the last; it’s several times more rushed (several hours content vs one scene), and arguably the whole mystery event was unnecessary. You could’ve still had the hammy scene in the chapel without any of the mystery. Maybe it’s because I’ve read it before but I found it extremely hard to follow, and hard to tell how obvious it was meant to be that Lucia did it.

Not saying this episode was bad, but i find the inclusion of the mystery questionable, like it doesn’t really contribute anything to the narrative.