Rewrite - Anime Pre-Release Discussion & Speculation

Key Discussion
#61

Well, I’m going to take you up on your “You’re free to disagree,” then. Having watched LB first, then read it, I felt as though I had the experience almost entirely ruined both intellectually and emotionally. I did not respond in either way to the anime, as I felt the story to be entirely too-foreshadowed, so much that it was obvious, and the twists unique to the VN method of storytelling simply didn’t translate.

Quality of the anime as a standalone product aside, it’s simply irrefutable that much of the brilliance of LB was literally untranslatable. The persistent level-tracking in the battle system, for one, was a brilliant way of showing the reader that the story was cyclical right under his or her nose while using the structure of the medium itself to hide it.

Like Little Busters!, this Rewrite adaptation is going to be a different production altogether. And just like with nearly all Hollywood book-to-film adaptations, the source material simply tells the story better because it was written for a book, not a movie. The creation process for both is totally different. But I’m assuming you know this, @ZakM, and just like both productions separately for what they are. If my assumption is correct then I don’t think anyone can disrespect you for that, even if they disagree :smile:

I’m gonna stick with this analogy for a bit, since I think it holds up. Just like with these movies, fans can be excited to see their favorite characters in motion. Fans can also be excited that it may also drum up interest in the original work so they have more people to talk to about it. But conversely, fans also, when they’re thinking realistically, realize that their expectations are likely going to be let down. So completely apart from speculation on the production quality because of the people or groups involved, I think that we, the group with probably the highest expectations, should forgive the pessimism that stems from passion. Of course, I fall in the pessimist camp, so maybe I’m just selfish :stuck_out_tongue:

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#62

I can definitely see why people were displeased with Little Busters’ adaptation, however my experience was one that felt overwhelmingly positive. Perhaps it was “too foreshadowed” as you say, and perhaps my experience with anime back then was just too lacking for me to see it, but I for one was never able to figure out the Secret of the World in either source or adaptation until the deciding chapter/episode came along.

I guess we for a lack of a better example are polar opposites. I see myself as a huge optimist and regardless of source materials living up to the foundations of the story better than adaptations (naturally since they weren’t written for adaptation purposes), I’m still able to appreciate adaptation work just as much. I don’t think it’s something I can explain aside from having too much passion that I don’t see adaptations as “ruining” but more so as “doing it differently to fit the medium it’s turning in to”

#63

Haha, could be. I’d say you’re much more of an optimist than I am, to be sure. But I don’t think we’re too different when it comes to how we look at adaptations. I completely agree with what you said about “doing it differently to fit the medium it’s turning in to.” I think, perhaps, we have different opinions as to what “fit[ting] the medium” means. When I think of Key works and their adaptations, they fall on a spectrum of fitting their medium. I would consider Clannad to be the best adaptation because it altered the story in such a way that incorporated as much as possible of the original work, while “fitting” it for the new medium. Kanon was a pretty good adaptation because the source was easy to adapt (though a little jarring between routes in the anime). Air was good considering the episode count and the nature of the story toward the end, but it failed in some ways simply because Key had begun exploiting the unique aspects of VNs that don’t really exist in other mediums.

The reason I don’t like Little Busters as an adaptation is because I think they tried to directly adapt too many elements of storytelling shaped and molded for a totally different medium. To be fair, I think a satisfying adaptation would have probably been impossible, but I wonder if it is because of that that KyoAni didn’t take up the project. Pure conjecture, anyhow.

As I’ve typed this I’ve thought more on how perhaps it’s good to have these two different kinds of fans, though. Optimists help to expand the community while pessimists spur on more critical discussions. As pessimistic as I am about the Rewrite anime, and feel fairly sure that it will fail, I’m glad there are people out there who are the opposite :stuck_out_tongue:

#64

Yet season 1 was all the bad parts of Litbus mushed together. I ended up skipping most of it because it was boring, and I know a lot of anime-only watchers dropped it. Litbus is known as the anime that rewards you for sitting through a season of bad.

They do? I think it was the only bit they did well.

Completely disagree. The anime removes the things that stopped the VN ending from being nonsensical. Did you see the anime-only reactions to refrain’s ending? People haaated it. The series GOT slaughtered, for even more than the VN had. Not only that, it removed some really important development from the finale - Stuff that answers many many questions about what exactly happened.
“Oh, Key forcing another happy ending!” was the anime discussions in a nutshell.
In every aspect, they removed crucial explanation. Riki’s past was obscured to the average viewer. Rin’s moments coming out of nowhere was an even bigger problem in the anime.
I’d argue the anime is better after reading the VN than before, even with the “the VN did this better” glasses on.

I’d actually say that this is little of a problem with Rewrite, less so than any previous Key work. Outside of the Moon route, Rewrite could actually be better in an anime format. I think this because… Well, a lot of Rewrite was incomplete, generally around the biggest moments. It wasn’t exactly Fate quality writing for the fight scenes, and the lack of character sprites annoyed a lot of people.
I think the Akane and Terra routes could be better in an anime. I’d also say the Lucia route could be better, because the VN version actually had too much unnecessary things thrown in. It’s a chance to fix those mistakes.

People had called it pretty early. I think the defining moment a large amount of viewers got it was when refrain started and they showed the OP.

But the big point of Clannad, the understory of it all, was left unexplained. That bugged me.
That, and they cut out all the good parts of most of the character routes.

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#65

eh there’s a ton of things that make me think this isn’t the case (mostly character route spoilers) Kotarou acts differently in every route, most the routes have events that need to take place at the same time but can’t, Kotarou can’t be Gaia, Guardian, Neutral all at once, the different exploration things they could go on. Sure those things are only issues if they go linear but I feel the fight scenes are all that will really be improved.

#66

You’re assuming they do the stupid thing though.

I said it could be better. This assumes they don’t just force everything into one timeline.

Outside of fightscenes, there are various things an anime could improve. The obvious thing is fixing the mistakes that seemed to come from either budget or time constraints. The lack of sprites, the dragging out or sudden ending of routes… That kind of stuff.
Another big thing is visuals, in many forms. The changes of Kotarou across the routes could be much more noticeable if we can see Kotarou constantly. The environments could be much more pronounced as well, which is fairly important, because it’s very much a tale of the environment - From the forests, to the plains, there’s a lot it could work with.
The thing I’d be looking out for most is the tension build up towards the end of the common route. That could be insanely good in anime form.
By having to tell the story in a shorter amount of time, they could make the foreshadowing more present. One problem with Rewrite was that by the time you get to the end, you’ve probably forgotten all that stuff from the start of the game. That would be less of a problem in the anime, as scenes are more memorable, and there’s less content between the start and the end. As I said earlier, it could also fix the pacing of things like the pre-end conflicts of Lucia and Akane’s routes.
There are other things as well. These are just the things I’d pay most credit to.

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#67

I both agree and disagree on varying factors.
(Little Busters spoilers)

Most of this probably just stems from me being a big optimist. Because even in the VN parts are left unexplained. For example 2 main things in particular being how Rin returned to the dream world to meet Komari. Not explained if events are shown one after the other, or if she she went through those events before leaving the dream world. And if not the former then how was traversing back even possible. Either Key Magic or some aspect of the plot that we never got.

The second thing being where is any of the sense in Riki and Rin creating a new world, and if they did that then why create it with everyone at the crash site and not some place safe? Which was what the previous dream world did with having the world loop at the school. Also surely creating a world would require some kind of near death experience to trigger the ripple effect plot device as the only times we see dream world creation is with Kyousuke and field trip crew in the crash, Saya, and Kuro. All of whom died or came close to it to create (interlope) a world.
We don’t get an explanation of Riki and Rin dying or committing suicide. We’re not told if Komari’s wishing star actually grants wishes magically or if it’s simply metaphorical.
ect, ect.
The “born into a new world” in the VN really does just come out of nowhere, which is still Key pulling another happy ending, and even having that adapted would have been met with backlash.

I guess my point is, I see merit in both endings where most people don’t.
What I mean by removing asspulls and ambiguity is that the anime ending had a lot less headache theory-crafting open-ended Key Magic involved, and the events are more ‘believable’ for a lack of a better term.

I’m not insinuating that one is better or worse. I’m saying I feel like I understand why they adapted the ending the way they did.
Both are your average Key happy ending regardless.

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#68

None of that is changed in the anime from what I remember. I kinda rushed through refrain’s ending, and it’s been a long long time since I read the VN (It’ll have been 4 years in 2 months) so my comparisons can’t be accurate (apparently there’s a “it’s not enough” thing in there somewhere…)

I do know however that the VN’s ending was at least acceptable. You can theorycraft and figure out what exactly went on using either information presented in the VN, or using the actual mechanics of the VN as an excuse… Heck, I can manage that with little memory of the VN’s events.
I distinctly remember all of those problems you brought up being present in the anime, and getting less of an explanation or excuse for why those things occur. It’s less forgiveable than what the VN pulled.

The ending wasn’t different… It wasn’t changed to make anything ideal for the anime format… It just removed stuff and added a beach montage.

#69

So I ended up watching Grisaia no Kaijitsu, Meikyuu, and Rakuen completely blind.

I liked it, while it may be a very… very… rushed show, I had fun watching it. I didn’t read the VN in the first place, and I think it did fine for the amount of episodes.

They upped the quality in Meikyuu and Rakuen, so at this point I’m okay with 8bit doing Rewrite. Especially when we have Key’s writers on staff and experience behind 8bit, I think they’ll do fine.

(then again, I have read Rewrite, so I might have a more harsh opinion on the Rewrite anime since I’ve read the source)

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#70

The other thing is Rewrite is much closer to the length of Kajitsu with the other 2 being far shorter so I’d say it’s better to compare with Kajitsu.

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#71

Looks like i’m a bit late to the hype train :<
Buut its finally here! <3
Adaption qualities aside, I think it’s great that Rewrite will reach a much larger audience. Because let’s get real, not alot of people read vns.
So the next time you talk about anime related stuff, they won’t be like 'Rewrite? dafaq is that?" D:
Anywayz, the world needs to know about Kotarou (and company)'s existance~ ;DD

#72

Whenever I remember that 8-Bit and Tensho are doing the anime…

#73

Here is how Rewrite’s anime should be

-The beginning-
In the first 30 seconds right before the opening, they should show Kotarou and Kagari on the moon, Kotarou sitting and watching Kagari from a distance while she is working on her theory, which will give the viewers some hope about Kotarou getting close to Kagari when the moon route adaptation comes in.

-The common route- (6 Episodes)
After that, they should adapt the common route; they can skip unnecessary scenes and put the important scenes + the most hilarious comedy scenes

-The heroines’ routes- (26 episodes)
In this case, they should adapt them as they are.
Romeo Tanaka can make some changes here and there like Nasu did with Ufotable’s UBW (which was a good thing).

When they are done with Kotori’s route they should show Kagari failing on a branch in her theory.
After that they should do a small recap for the common route, it should be like a super quick flashback that stops at a time where Kotarou makes a choice which decides the route he is going to, they should repeat it with each route (for example if they are done with Lucia they should do a flashback to the “World or myself” choice, kotarou would choose “myself” to get into Shizuru’s route)
You get the point :wink:

Then they should go with the recommended order: Chihaya, Lucia, Shizuru then Akane.

Between each route they shouldn’t show Kagari each time since it would get old, they can just show a branch dying at the end.

-Moon route- (1 movie/Special)
This would work either as a 1 hour long TV special or a movie, it should be adapted as it is.

-Terra route- (10-13 episodes)
The great finale of Rewrite, it needs to be a super high budget 10-13 episode TV anime (I just hope that they extend Kotarou vs Earth Dragon in it)

if they follow this plan Rewrite would be a new highly acclaimed classic, and my favorite anime of all time :smile:

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#74

I honestly think that a full season for Terra is just too much and would make it way too dragged out. My personal opinion is that it would do really well as a full-length feature film

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#75

you have a point, but I think one movie isn’t enough, two or three movies might do Terra justice since its 11 hours long

#76

Isn’t Terra a lot of narration though? Even if they get Kotarou to narrate it that would be pretty boring in an anime sense.

I’d say the best case scenario that is likely would be like Little Busters/Clannad with 2 seasons, 1st is 2 cour and focuses on common and most heroine routes, 2nd is 1 cour(maybe 2) and finishes the routes with Moon/Terra. OVA and potentially bonus series based on Harvest Festa too.
I don’t see this getting a budget for a bunch of movies on top of a lengthy series you have listed above.

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#77

dat Aniplex budget though ( ͡͡ ° ͜ ʖ ͡ °)

#78

Nisekoi? Season 1 was 20 episodes with 50 chapters adapted then season 2 had 12 and covered random chapters from 51-106.

#79

Don’t forget Fate/Stay Night UBW which was a good adaptation of the Visual novel, it had 26 episodes and three of them were 45 mins long (the UBW route was 20 hours long)

#80

This likely goes down as one of the best adaptations I’ve ever seen of a VN route, right up there with Steins;Gate.