This blows all of Little Busters’ character routes out of the water.
Chihaya is a softcore tsundere. She’s strong physically, but weak mentally. She pushes away people she hates, but secretly she likes Koutarou. Her attachment to her butler Sakuya is unbreakable. In all respects, though, her personality is the weakest of all the main girls.
Her route, though, is another story.
The first half of the story follows the tried-and-true nakige structure: the first third is full of comedic situations, the second third has the confession and some sorrowful moments, but then the final third turns the structure on its head and turns it into a high-budget action flick. Koutarou fights often in this route, and nearly every fight has significance on the overall plot. It’s so tightly-written despite being such a long route, and rarely does it feel boring.
Since Chihaya is a pretty weak character, it’s up to everyone else to fill the void, and they do an excellent job. Sakuya shines in every moment he’s in, and unlike Kotori’s route, we actually get to see what happens to everyone else (except Kotori, of course). A lot of the questions I had in Kotori’s route were answered splendidly, although there are still things I wonder about. Akane and Shizuru become very important characters in the final third, and I’m kind of wondering why they have routes to begin with, because a lot of questions concerning them have been answered already.
Although Rewrite’s focus is very different from Little Busters, this story is very much Tonokawa’s. Koutarou looks up at the sky often. Cherry blossoms are a prevalent symbol in the story. Heck, Sakuya’s entire reason for existing is because of Key Magic. I saw the word ‘wish’ used at least once, too. Still, it seems all the classic Key references have been kept to a minimum for the sake of experimentation. It’s nice to see Tonokawa do something refreshing and different like this.
The music in this route really stood out to me. A lot of scenes utilized some great music, although not every scene was perfect in its music choice. That moment when Philosophyz plays in the background during the final battle really nails the mood.
So, I’ll end by saying that this is an incredible route, and that the other three character routes have a lot to live up to if they’re going to match the epicness of this route.
Sakuya best character. <3
