This.
I think second to @Kaze (The Rewrite Guy), I’m probably one of the biggest Rewrite fans in the Key fan community. That said, I watched the Little Busters! anime first, and it completely ruined my subsequent reading of the VN. For VN readers watching the anime for simple fan service (probably me), that’s well and fine, but if they attempt to render the complex story-weaving into a completely different and linear anime, it’s going to ruin some of the surprise enjoyment factor for newcomers.
I think a good adaptation would required one of two things:
- A modest adaptation of a single arc in one cour (probably Kotori).
- A multi-cour, 2-season adaptation of all arcs as brand new stories followed by the closing Moon and Terra.
Option 1 is the most doable, and what I’m hoping 8-Bit does. Based on what everyone has said about the studio, I think they could pull this off potentially, though maybe not. Who knows. I think they will probably attempt to go the Kanon route, though, and that would be a shame.
Option 2 would basically be the VN adapted literally. This would be the only way to create a truer representation of the intricacies of the original. This option, however, like Clannad, would require a large budget and a lot of episodes. I don’t think this will have either.
If the generated hype can get more people to read the VN, though, I’m all for that. If they do a good job of Option 1, then I could see that happening. We’ll see, though. I’m not getting my hopes up. shrugs