Not at all for me. That implied possession, with the way she was talking it should have shown n her expression. Seeing an elegant-type like Akane lose her grip should have had a bigger visual component to it.
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Thinking back on this route after having finished the whole thing, this^ was definitely the best part. Sakuya is just freaking awesome.
This was a great route. I can see why some wouldn’t like it but this is honestly one of my favorite character routes ever.
First some of the things I liked about this route:
The fights felt a bit odd for a Key visual novel but they were really well executed and I never felt like they dragged on or got boring. Tension was always high and it really felt like there was something at stake in each fight. Unlike other routes which didn’t really have many/any choices, this route had choices in some of the fights which helped keep things dramatic. The sprites and CGs throughout the route were also fantastic.
It was a bit fanservicey, but we really got to see characters at their most badass. Compared to the level of action in other routes this really did make this one feel like a shounen. Kotarou’s feeling of “Why is everyone I know a freak with superpowers!?” was fitting and hilarious.
And goddamn song placement game on point. Whenever Rewrite starts playing you know shit is about to go down.
There are two things that this route had that I generally hate in stories: overly pacifistic heroes to refuse to kill even the most evil bad guy and literally insane antagonists who want to destroy the world and themselves with it for little reason other than “just cus.” But Kotarou and Midou were used really nicely as a kind of “night and day” complete opposites way. It actually reminded me of (F/SN UBW)Shirou’s fight with Archer of all things.
I could be reading to much into this, but does anyone remember than throwaway conversation between Kotarou and Gil when they are talking about the Aurora swords attributes? Gil suggests the sword is currently light type, and if you add a dark attribute it will become the ultimate weapon. I feel like this is kind of what happened at the end with Fuego. Yeah, Fuego is technically lava/fire, but its definitely an evil familiar controlled by an evil guy. And once the aurora gains the power of Fuego it really is the ultimate weapon, capable of cutting through pretty much anything with ease.
I didn’t understand how people could love a character like Sakuya as much as many seem to until I read this route. First of all seeing someone else with a similar power to Kotarou’s was cool and it was a good opportunity for the story to explain some rules of the rewrite power via Sakuya.
There were plenty of minor holes throughout the route (some of which were solved here already) but nothing that couldn’t be chalked up to inconsistent authors between routes. In terms of enjoyment I’d say I liked this route even more than Lucia’s, although I would still say Lucia’s route is better. The “Fun” factor is just far to strong.
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All in all, after reading the whole Rewrite, then Harvest festa! I still have this one route as my favourite.
I always had a thing for mild tsundere characters like Chihaya, but aside from that, this route was bright.
Really, I’ve read it right after Kotori’s route and didn’t really know what to expect from the routes onward, but looking back at the whole picture now… Chihaya’s route (you may call it Sakuya’s route, if you wish) was a HOPE of this whole world.
Here is the reason why: in this route they found a way to cooperate with both Guardian, and Gaia to some extent. There was no massive blood spilling in this route. Akane went mad but recovered, Kotori was found by Akane and moved to some safe place (letters from her in the end of Chihaya’s route kind of shows it already). Shizuru is rather fine herself, and Lucia are recovering after whatever happened to her.
…
Ok. This was supposed to be my 1st post on Kaza, but I’ve totally stopped writing it… Forgot about it. And then, checking back on this thread it just appeared here in my text box.
Kinda funny, but I guess, I should publish it.
…
As of this moment I’ve just read Rewrite: Side-R manga’s 5th volume. As you may know, it depicts Chihaya’s route (and, yes, its exactly Chihaya’s route there, not Sakuya’s). There are some (striking?) differentiations from original route, though, as bits and bites of Akane’s route mixed inside as well.
If anything, Chihaya herself is way more proactive in manga than she was in VN. I really liked it. To be heck, even now… When I despaired at the way they’ve ended this manga, I still find it extremely nice and fun to read. Basically, in manga you have only Common Route + 25th chapter + Chihaya route’s finale. It was impossible to put all of the route into 5 volumes. And, actually, until the very end I didn’t feel that they were planing to end it so abruptly. I don’t know actual reasons beside canceliing this whole thing… Only that mangaka started his Nanoha’s adaptation and Rewrite was ended. (I actually hate Nanoha now, lol).
So, going back to Chihaya’s route.
I’ve already said it in the begining, but it was a bright part of Rewrite for me. No, I mean, I like the whole work. All of the routes. But… This one was extremely bright. Yes, it was very shounen-manga like. I heard that some ppl call this route as “UBW”. I don’t know, may be they are right. They probably are. Chihaya (in VN) was more of a side-character, than an actual heroine. Yes, she did overcome herself. She managed to escape from the cage of undecisivness. I mean, she started to make decisions on her own. She managed to face off with her’s past.
All of the characters tried to pierce their own beliefs. Some of those beliefs got shattered, some were enforced.
I liked the whole episode with Shizuru and Nishikujou. It felt a bit forced, but I liked the way how Akane went mad. We’ve got even a glimpse on Kotori.
Yes, we can say, that it was strange, than Kotarou managed to summon Phogo in his fight against Hyper-Sakuya, but it was enjoyable. It was very rewarding to read. Now I love how strikingly different it is from other routes.
…as for Side-R manga. Chihaya was extremely nice there. Its a pity that there is no English version, but to those who can read Japanese I strongly advise to try this one. Probably, you won’t be disappointed. Though, you may despair at its end as I did just now.
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I agrere with you. There are some common point between them. For example, Archer is the future Shirou like Sakuya is Predecessor of Kotarou, the protagonist batteles with his teacher and the protagonist persists in his justice. There are many opinions that points out it like https://twitter.com/search?q=UBW%20ちはやルート&src=typd
Aurora in this novel has the property of memorizing acquired character and also some summoners have power to take over consciousness like Akane and Phogo is a monster, so Kotarou could read the power of that from Aurora’s memory like Kotarou in terra used Lewis’s throwing technique and Midou might capture some of Kotarou’s consciousness when he died.
I felt this route is too optimistic at the end. For example, Akane came to oneself by Shizuru’s drug and it looks like fine, but is it a convenient rewrite of the personality, which Kotori agonized over in her route?
Why did Kotarou stuck to not killing people? Why Gardian changed themselves so easily? (However, I think Nishikujou and Esaka’s change of their mind was possible because they have special relationships to Kotarou.) Therefore I didn’t receive as much emotional impact as I had in other routes. I admit this route is enjoyable but I personally think this sort of delightful story is not the principal point of Rewrite, in which characters are suffering over the gap of ideal and reality.
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I don’t really think that the whole Guardian changed itself. Indeed, Esaka, Nishikujou, and (obviously) Shizuru did support Kotarou in the end… But what about the whole organization? Even Gaia which lost its Saint still has branches in other countries. Besides… There are Moon and Terra after this route. We can easily assume that the sole thing that Kotarou acquired there is New-Okaken.
Well, I guess I just personally like it 
It does, but not in the examples you named. The part from Akane’s route, (which is a spoiler, btw) namely the ability of the holy woman, has nothing to do with “taking over” consciousness. It’s turning dead or malfunctioning brain cells into familiars, thus reshaping them and copying one’s own memory into the successor’s head. And the Terra route thing was simple Rewriting iirc. Kotarou merely mimicked the way superhumans acquire their power. You’re also implying that Kotarou just sucked up Midou’s or Fuego’s aurora like getting exp and loot after killing an enemy in an rpg xD
Taking over conciousness was wrong as you said, but I think the appearnce of Midou and Phogo power derives from the nature of Aurora. I explain what I think it now in detail.
In Moon route, Aurora is mentioned as omnipotent power and “it is said that Aurora has power to refer to history and reconstruct it”. (活動の履歴を参照し再現する性質が確認されている in Japanese) And whole things are caused by this nature.
In Moon route simulation, Shizuru made Hercules beetle crab and it turned out Aurora remembered that. Consequently, the structure of Phogo might be recorded in Aurora. And I think Kotarou’s ability of ‘Rewrite’ is actually manipulation of Aurora because his use of Aurora is not limited to reinforcement of body in Moon or Akane route. So he could read information from Aurorra and use it.In addition to that, in terra route Kotarou talked with Sakuya. It also might be a sort of reading Aurora.
Therefore, I suspect his use of Phogo and appearance of Midou occured because he tried to refer to something related to fire from Aurora and found the structure of Phogo and Midou’s memory and mimicked it using Aurora power as he read technique of superhuman and use it though it was unconscious process.
After all, Aurora in Rewrite is omnipotent, so you can make any explanation on it… :masdum:
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Maybe cause I read this route in one time (11 hours whithout stop, insanely long for a story like that, at least talk/persuade more and left aside the action for some time, the most of the time is not interesting cause you already know, cause the shonen pattern, that main character can’t die) I don’t have very good memories of it 
. In fact I don’t like at all the overwelming action and basically skiped all the battles explanation reading superficially and in some moment even do the same with the romantic dialogue and the most of the Chihaya’s dialogue.
Honestly I don’t even like the Yaoi but I’m the only one who thinks that Chihaya is “a bother in the middle” the most of the time and a KoutarouxSakuya is most interesting?. I don’t even know how can Koutarou fall in love with Chihaya’s almost inexistent personality (even the hateable :kotohino: (my tastes) personality of Lucia is a better option to me).
I liked Chihaya’s route solely for the fact that it was the only heroine route that had a relatively ‘good’ ending for everyone.
I do agree that it was more of a Sakuya route though…
Also good god that image in the OP. Death by zettai ryouiki
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Not sure how Kazamatsuri feels about reviving topics this old, but I was told in the introduce yourself page not to worry about it, so here goes.
Just to get my opinion of the route out of the way, keeping in mind that Rewrite is easily my favourite visual novel, I’d put Chihaya’s route third out of the heroine routes and fourth if we count every route. I agree that it’s true that you don’t have to think about the route nearly as much as the others, but I think the requirement of completing this route before being able to enter Akane’s, coupled with Akane’s role of the villain in this route makes Akane’s route a lot more meaningful.
About the discussion of Kotarou acquiring Phogo’s power, before reading this discussion, I was somewhat under the impression that it actually happened during the fight with Midou. Phogo’s ability to change it’s properties, as demonstrated by it’s ability to form a silicon dioxide sheild, gave me the idea that even the carbon dioxide caused by Phogo contained a part of Phogo, or rather, WAS a part of Phogo in it’s entirety.
Kotarou would obviously have been breathing it in the whole time. (Kotori spoilers) As a familiar himself, I had an idea that he had basically assimilated that part of Phogo inside his body into his own cells, especially because he rewrites himself near the end of the battle.
This line turns up in the battle, but I wonder if the strengthening of his body that he had done so far in the route would really affect carbon dioxide poisoning. If not, this would also support my theory.
Since familiars and their summoners are connected, this would also explain how Midou was able to talk to Kotarou in the final battle, after he had died. At one point in the fight, Midou says that Phogo is “practically immortal.” We know that in general, if a summoner dies the familiar will follow, but we also know that this is a trend, not a law. We see, especially among stronger familiars, an ability to remain after the summoner’s death. (General spoiler(?)) It would mirror the way that the earth dragon is able to remain “inactive” or whatever when he has no summoner(s), but he doesn’t “die”, strictly speaking. Phogo is undeniably a powerful familiar, and has some traits that we don’t see in any other familiars, so it seems possible to me.
After reading this post, I don’t know whether this explanation or the Aurora explanation makes more sense, but I guess I’m leaning towards the Aurora one, since it’s (Terra route spoiler) demonstrated with Kotarou acquiring Luis’ ability.
On a completely different note. (One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e spoilers) I’m surprised that no one has mentioned how Chihaya is almost a rehash of Nanase. Not many people have read One, but I thought someone would have mentioned it.
Actually I’m not done. For anyone who’s read the Visual Novel Shadows of Pygmalion, just how similar are Midou’s and Ibis’ circumstances? After Kotarou defeats him, Midou laments that Kotarou was the one with the power, which in of itself was the driving force of Ibis’ entire campaign. I just thought it was worth mentioning. And come to think of it, after the fights over, both Kotarou and Mina show mixed feelings about Midou/Ibis, despite what they did, although this isn’t uncommon I suppose.
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Interesting theory! When you have a familiar that is literally the incarnation of fire itself, it becomes tough to put a boundary on its state. Fire is plasma, but plasma can turn into gas (that being carbon dioxide). But whether or not summoners can gain control of a familiar simply by ingesting it seems like a topic for another day (or another topic lol)
Bit of a delayed response, but my idea was more about (Kotori spoilers) Kotarou being a fellow familiar, rather than a summoner. The fact that he’s also a summoner didn’t even cross my mind as part of the theory until you mentioned it. What makes up Phogo must be more than just the chemicals, or at least, the chemicals that make him up are able to be used to create a familiar, obviously. This got me thinking that, as Kotarou was rewriting himself near the end, especially since he was doing such a unique change - rewriting the rate at which he regenerates cells - he had assimilated part of Phogo into his familiarised body. I already addressed the part about how it was feasible for Phogo in some fashion or another, to remain even after Midou’s death, and how that part of Phogo could still contain part of Midou’s consciousness due to their connection. The fact that these chemicals would be equally a part of Kotarou as they were of Phogo at the time of Midou’s death makes it seem even more likely to me that what made Phogo could remain as a part of Kotarou, especially since, as I said, it explains how Midou talked to Kotarou at the end nicely, and how that part doesn’t need to be some spooky vision that Kotarou just saw for no reason, but rather, a genuine communication from Midou to Kotarou that brings everything that’s happened so far together perfectly.
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I read this route back in 2014 or so, along with Kotori, before my hard drive died and I basically just gave up until now, this being the first route I’ve read since restarting.
One of my favorite things about this route is something you often see people half-joke about: “This isn’t the Chihaya route, it’s the Sakuya route!”
I actually like Sakuya a lot, along with Midou as well. They both show really interesting sides to Kotarou’s development, Sakuya guiding him to be able to protect what he loves as well as Midou challenging his morals. With the exception of Little Busters, you don’t often see a Key work having a lot of cool male characters outside of the protagonist—usually about one per story. I’m not sure what kind of role these two will play in any other routes or the main story or if (LB! Refrain spoiler) this has any sort of thing that connects the routes like the different worlds of Little Busters, but I honestly think this route could stand on its own really well.
I’m a real sucker for this sort of thing in VNs where groups of characters just have fun together—as a result, I’m a huge fan of arcs like the baseball part of Little Busters, the Okaken scenes in Rewrite, and the early parts of Tomoyo’s route where you hang out with Sunohara and Tomoyo. This route is going on that list. I had a blast reading the parts where Kotarou moves in with the Ohtoris and shenanigans ensue. That manages to wonderfully add to the bittersweetness of the final scene with the sakura petal.
I had to think about that scene for a few days before I really was able to decide if I like that ending or not. This may actually be my favorite ending to any visual novel route, though. There have been a few times throughout Key that I felt a route turns out too perfectly—an asspull, if you will. This ending? Love it. The sakura petal reminds you that Sakuya can still be watching over them, while still allowing them to move forward and, more importantly, not trivializing everything that happened to him by just bringing him back.
Onwards to Kotori route!
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Because of a conversation on discord, I’ve been tasked with a crusade against all the perceived plot holes of Rewrite. Also, if you feel like you know of a plot hole, please send it to me. I notice a lot of people vaguely allude to “plot holes” or inconsistencies without actually pointing them out.
Disclaimer: I’m taking the plot holes I’m responding to here from a post by @Naoki_Saten early in this topic. I’m not sure if Naoki himself still has a problem with any or all of these, or if they’ve been soundly addressed previously, I’m just responding to any and all perceived plot holes I can find.
Unless one was really paying attention during Kotori’s route, it’d be difficult to justify this further than the difference in his power. In Kotori’s route, you learn the link between his power and Kagari’s ribbon in his right shoulder. This would lead one to the natural conclusion that it’s a matter of proximity and once he rewrites himself enough, he’s eventually able to use it through his left arm which is further from his right shoulder. And in the Terra route we find out that Kotarou’s power is actually in his blood and that Kagari’s ribbon just supplements it.
To me this basically means that there’s an explanation for it at any given point in time that gets incresingly satisfactory the further in the game you get and the more you know.
Say there’s a society where effectively everyone is either Christian or Catholic. There are two “factions” in this case because the the remainder don’t have a centralised system of organisation, and because their numbers are so few as to be insignificant. Also, let’s say that within the Christian and Catholic factions, everyone’s either a moderate or an extremist (obviously this isn’t a dichotomy matter, but that just supports what I’m saying more if anything.) These aren’t four factions, these are two sets of two factions based on different standards.
This is just a matter of semantics. There are people not aware of Sakuya’s existence, and probably even people who aren’t aware of the Earth Dragon’s existence. And it’s not like the two have ever fought. I’d say that Sakuya is almost certainly stronger, but we don’t know for sure.
My theory above explains this decisively. It may seem like a convoluted explanation I guess, but at least in my case it was a conclusion I naturally came to on my first read-through without any issues. Also, something I forgot to mention in my explanation above (Kotori) in Kotori’s route we find out that Kotarou has already assimilated a piece of a familiar (Kagari)into his body, which shows definitively that he can do it. I said above that I found the aurora explanation to be more convincing, but thinking on it further I feel that my theory is much more watertight and just makes more sense overall.
Next is the supposed Akane plot hole.
To add about the dual-wrist blades, I’m not sure if this is info that’s been mentioned early on or something that only became explicit by Terra, but because I’ll be mentioning a huge moment from that route, I’ll hide under spoiler tags anyway: the more Kotarou rewrote himself, the less human he becomes/the more he becomes a familiar. Near the end of Terra Route (where he was able to subvert the incident that got him Kagari’s ribbon in the first place) Kotarou has rewrote himself so much that he started having blood made out of aurora.
Since it’s in Chihaya Route where he rewrote himself to borderline consuming his humanity, it makes sense that he eventually developed aurora around his left arm even when that’s not where Kagari’s ribbon (also made of aurora) was located.
I have no big reason to keep coming back and insisting that “no, this thing y’all like is bad”. Then again, if I don’t, the talk might just end, which would be boring, so I guess I could work up some motivation…
In the first place, Chihaya’s route was never about thinking or logic. It was all about the typical shounen process of saving the world by becoming stronger and beating up the bad guys. The reason I believe it has so many plot holes in the first place is that the author didn’t care much about explaining stuff anyway, choosing the “doesn’t matter, cause it was cool” road instead. That concept is not bad or evil by any means, but it’s inconsistent with the rest of the game.
This is what makes the Chihaya route so special and constitutes both the good and bad in it. For the most part, Rewrite is serious, complex, harsh, sad, depressing, etc. But this route? It’s more positive and pleasant in a simple way. It offers a moment of relaxation precisely because it’s so different, because it doesn’t easily fit together with the rest. It’s like watching “Death Note”, but one if its arks is a crossover with “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”. It gets you hyped, it feels good, but also weird and it’s hard to take seriously because it operates on a different logic.
Back to the plot holes.
I stand by my elaboration in the very same post. If my memory serves me right, there was little difference between the Kotori route Kotarou and the Chihaya route Kotarou by the time Kotarou just up and pulled out the dual wrist blades. It was near the start of the route. He’s been through almost the same events and the same number of Rewrites. He didn’t strengthen himself for this. He did not choose to specifically modify his Aurora to do things it previously couldn’t and he did not acquire deeper understanding about its properties. And yet, without even trying to force a change, he did at least two of the things (the whip thing, though I’m not sure if it happened in the same fight) he had specifically tried and failed in Kotori’s route. Like he could do it from the start. It’s a direct contradiction. So I’m not saying it’s completely impossible, but that it’s impossible for him at that specific point in time and the necessary steps to making it possible are missing.
And while we’re on the topic of Aurora, I disagree with the notion that the ribbon is a mere supplement. (Terra spoilers) The aurora from Kagari’s ribbon and Kotarou’s transmuter ability of controlling blood are two different things. There is a synergy and a similarity in use, but Kagari clearly reacts to Kotarou’s aurora blade. Because it’s not just anyone’s life force, but a piece of her ribbon. Later in Terra, Kotarou simply becomes proficient enough to just draw out and control raw aurora directly instead of using it to strengthen and control his blood, which naturally has inferior properties.
The explanation is confusing, because Catholics are, in fact, Christians, not “either - or”. Catholicism is just one major division of christianity, just like protestantism.
I’m not going to cling to the faction thing specifically, but there’s a lot of this kinda stuff in Chihaya’s route. Things that are inconsistent with the other routes and never made an appearance anywhere else. Like, Midou’s gang is pretty strong, yet they didn’t show up in any of the major battles in other routes. Also, their familiars being so super life force efficient is a Chihaya-only thing. Like, you can’t rule it out or disprove entirely, but it still feels off.
Fine. Not going insist on this being anything major or important, either. Just another inconsistency.
Basically, you suggest that because Phogo is a mix of chemicals, a part of him was also in the gasses that Kotarou inhaled during the school gym battle. And he stayed there after Kotarou rewrote himself to be able to handle carbon dioxide, because his body didn’t need to expel it. Then, Phogo did not die when his supply of life force was cut off, but merely remained dormant until Kotarou had unwittingly reactivated him in the last battle while searching for a way to get through the vines. Additionally, since Phogo used to run on Midou’s life force, a part of Midou had remained inside him, thus explaining Kotarou’s dialogue with a dead man. Is that about right?
This explanation of the final battle makes a lot more sense than any other I’ve heard so far. But looking at it in detail, there’s still a couple of things that feel off. You suggest that (Kotori, Akane spoilers) Kotarou is fully capable of assimilating other familiars into himself because he is half-familiar and he had already done so with Kagari’s ribbon. But the one who did that was not him, but Kotori. And she can do things Kotarou cannot, like simply healing him, which is different from Kotarou’s biological regeneration. Also, the ribbon is just a mass of energy, not an autonomous familiar made of… matter.
Furthermore, Chihaya-Kotarou has no knowledge of creating or modifying familiars. Making a contract with an easy-to-use memory storage familiar is the peak of his experience with that stuff. What he did get good at is modifying himself with his innate rewriting power which (Kotori) is unrelated to him being a familiar. However, Rewriting works by (moon, possibly Terra) accessing his DNA, searching it for past examples of biological mechanisms that are capable of producing the result he’s looking for and modifying his body accordingly. I doubt that Phogo, in a composition that allows him to remain himself, had made it all the way into Kotarou’s DNA and even if, he’s a familiar, not a biological creature, so he can’t be reproduced just by rewriting. At this point, @Takafumi 's explanation seems more plausible, in that Kotarou had “recreated” Phogo as a weapon after seeing him in action and modified his aurora blade accordingly, which is, however, infinitely more complex than just making his aurora take the shape of a known cold weapon. There’s also the option of turning dead parts of himself into familiars (that are not restricted to laws of biology), like Takasago did in Akane’s route, but again, that would be something he didn’t learn.
Basically, it would mean he’s done a bunch of things he didn’t know how to and without meaning to.
Now, to bring something new into this talk:
Plot hole 5: Kagari reconsiders salvation
As we know from Terra, the purpose of salvation is re-evolution. If Kagari makes the judgement that with the way things are going, life force will be wasted and life will eventually die out, salvation happens in order to salvage and re-purpose all life force on Earth. But here, Kagari simply stopped because Akane was already planning on eradicating humanity. That way, Aurora would not return to the earth to attempt re-evolution, a huge amount of it would be wasted in the process and life would cease to be by default, which it did, albeit off-screen…
I believe this was simply due to the author not knowing the true purpose of salvation.
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I actually have no problem with the first part of your post. Seems fair enough to me.
I’m relying solely on memory myself, but I believe the dual wrist blades happen after the scene where Sakuya specifically sits Kotarou down and makes him rewrite his left arm.
And more importantly, and this pertains to the whip thing too, (Akane spoilers) the properties of Kotarou’s aurora changes depending on him. His behaviour and his experiences up to that point. This is made very clear in Akane’s route where his aurora takes on more animal-like properties. Plus, we find out that it’s even capable of evolution, which is undoubtedly a process that would happen whether or not Kotarou was conscious of it.
I’m honestly not really sure how you can defend that position. “Supplement” might be the wrong word, but they were definitely two different things that became one thing. Kagari’s ribbon had a clear and major effect on Kotarou’s blood-controlling power.
Yeah, I had a problem with it myself, but it was the most fitting example I could come up with. It’s surprisingly hard to find matters of true dichotomy, but I chose religion because I thought it fit well in a discussion about Gaia.
I’m gonna lay out my theory in full, which is gonna be long, so I’ll put it under a details box.
Akane and Kotori spoilers
Premise 1: A familiar and their summoner are linked.
I think this one kind of goes without saying. It’s very explicit in Rewrite.
Premise 2: Death of summoner does not necessarily equal death of familiar.
We see this with the Earth Dragon. We also see this with familiar’s that don’t even need summoners to begin with: Sakuya, Gil & Pani, etc…
Premise 3: Kotarou is capable of “assimilating” parts of other familiars.
Your problem seems to be that this was guided by Kotori when it happened with Kagari, and that Kagari’s ribbon wasn’t strictly made of matter.
I disagree completely with that second premise, Kagari’s ribbon is totally made of matter, and still has the characteristics of the familiar it was once part of.
As for the first part, my premise here isn’t about Kotarou being a summoner (though that does help), but his rewriting ability, which turns him more and more into a familiar. Familiars are made by giving order to suitable materials. Normally, he just turns his cells into familiars, but since there were other suitable materials in his body this time - which were part of Phogo, he ended up using them too. This is supplemented when Takasago does much the same thing (though in a slightly different way) in Akane’s route. And we all saw the results of that, especially concerning the kind of power he got from it.
And on Kotarou being a summoner, it’s true that he had no real experience in dealing with familiar creation (though he kind of did in the case of himself, when you consider his rewriting), but remember Kotarou and Chihaya’s talk about cooking? When Kotarou mentioned that he was good at making curry, Chihaya said that it was possibly a sign of his potential for - and even experience with - familiar creation. And in the Terra route we find out much more explicitly that Kotarou does have a good deal of natural talent when it comes to familiar creation, so much so that he ends up in the R&D department of Gaia.
Conclusion: By premise 1 and 2, it’s feasible that when Kotarou assimilated Phogo’s CO2 in premise 3, there was still part of Midou’s consciousness in there.
This is supported even more by the fact that we know that if a familiar lives long enough, it can gain its own sentience. (Terra) I think the intelligence of the Earth Dragon comes from the collective remains of all his summoner’s consciousnesses that remain in him.
Terra spoilers: Again, I disagree here. Re-evolution is the ultimate consequence of salvation, but salvation itself isn’t concerned with re-evolution. It’s concerned with returning the life energy of humans to the earth. The death and decomposition of all humans would absolutely be one way to accomplish this. In fact, I think this plot twist shows very deep understanding of Rewrite from the writer. The earth comes to the conclusion that if humans want to live on in to the future, they’ll have to earn it.
A lot of Rewrite involves interpretation and retroactive explanation to come together completely, and I can understand if people don’t like that kind of storytelling, but personally, it appeals to me greatly.
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This route is a fun time lads. A genuine fun time. Sakuya’s route best route <3
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So, I actually like Cherry Surprise Chihaya very much even though her role in the Common route is largely as a bit of a dim-witted and clumsy dupe. As her route goes on we do see some development in her character and finding her inner (mental) strength at last. I think it may have been mentioned that she is overshadowed just a little by Sakuya 
So this is where the meat of the route really lies, the interactions between FatKotarou and Sakuya with the latter being an apparently reluctant and pretty harsh but strangely charming mentor constantly trying to put one over on our protag. The team gardening was really fun, and quite a bit of joy too with the slice of life in the Ohtori household.
I wasn’t madly keen on the whole RPG 
VN thing as I found the unending run of battles not too interesting, but there was enough going on in dialogue and other characters to feel that it was intrinsically important, and we continue to learn more about the factions and their goals. Then we have Kotarou’s inner struggles to understand his powers and retain self-control. Along with Akane’s part in this, it reminds me of that play on the Sun-Tzu saying in Babylon 5 “When you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy” (or something like that), and Nietzsche “Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.”.
In the end it may work out just a little too pat, but I think it’s earned as once again we have the thread of darkness weaving through the shenanigans. Again I think it may be hard to assess the route fully without the hindsight of completing all of them, and so it’s onto Lucia…
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