Okay, after a long day, I finally have time to sort through some of my thoughts on this announcement. First of all, yeah, an actually good adaptation of Rewrite is not going to happen. This is simply an issue with the differences in limitations of the media. However, when I think about what makes Rewrite so great, in my view, it’s the story it has to tell. With Little Busters, for example, it was all Refrain and the emotional impact of that scene. But with Rewrite, while there are twists and surprises along the way as things come together, these are not fundamental to appreciating the overall message that Rewrite wishes to tell. Furthermore, as I have said before, I believe Moon route to be the most important part of Rewrite. A good adaptation of Moon would, at the very least, convey the core story of Rewrite, even if this means other parts such as surprise twists or plot points are sacrificed (an inevitability no matter what path you choose).
As such, I think Rewrite has the ability to forego some of the twists related to Moon route in exchange for a stronger adaptation and explanation of Moon. It might be feasible to smash things together from different routes to help concentrate down important plot points, especially if we consider infinite parallel universes where parts of different routes we read may actually occur in one route in other universes Ironically, they could use the plot device they used in the LB anime with “flashbacks” to separate routes as well to help convey what is happening. I won’t go into more detail because I haven’t thought it through much myself, but this is also all on the basis of my extreme bias towards Moon being the true core of Rewrite. You’re going to lose stuff, and I think that’s inevitable, but if Moon route gets conveyed well, I think I might actually be satisfied, though I admit, this is less an ideal and more what I see as actually feasible given stuff like budget limitations meaning it’ll probably be 2 cour.
Now, onto the other problem: 8bit. Yes, 8bit has a terrible track record. However, even after the Grisaia debacle, I still think some of the complaints are unfair. Kajitsu was a terrible adaptation of the VN, sure, but I still claim that it was reasonably well done given the constraint of 1 cour. If you’re going to stuff ~50 hours of content into 1 cour, it’ll be terrible and/or have massive cutting no matter how good your storyboarding is. With that kind of constraint, I honestly think they did an okay job. The best job? Probably not. But the ceiling was already forced really low once it was decided to be 1 cour. Let’s be honest: if Rewrite gets only 1 cour, it’ll be terrible no matter who adapts it because 1 cour is just way too short. That’s what happened to Grisaia, so I think the blame on 8bit is excessive. Another note, which I mentioned when I was defending 8bit before Grisaia aired is how they did garbage like IS and Walkure. Well, the source material of those is complete garbage. I don’t think making garbage anime out of garbage novels is indicative of anything. But yes, 8bit has a terrible record. I don’t think they are good or anything; I am worried too but the criticisms are not being completely fair.
Tanaka Romeo is doing the storyboards. I love Tanaka, especially after reading Rewrite, but as others have said, he has no experience with anime. I’m worried, but at the same time, we have nothing to judge his anime script ability so let’s try to be fair and not assume one way or the other.
@Aspirety if you decide to do anything when the anime airs, I’m your guy
Two different perspectives. Some people say Rewrite sold poorly because it sold way less than expected. On the other hand, all VN sales have been doing poorly, so it still sold really well, relative to other sales at the time.
Finally, let us all agree on one very important thing: if this scene isn’t adapted, it will be a travesty.