Hahaha well that isn’t really saying much 
You mean Sakuya’s route, right? 
I never realized the relation of this route to Tonokawa’s other works. I probably never payed attention to who wrote the stories until after I read them. But that’s a nice observation
All-in-all it was a very shounen-y route, and a lot of people agree with that. But it was totally enjoyable as well, and lacked the draginess of other shounen stories.
Terra Spoiler ahead:
So I’m re-reading this route and happened to catch a single line from Tenma that was pretty interesting.
When you’re fighting Tenma and Krivoy Rog, He asks the question “Have you ever had a gun pointed at your face? Right after a child the same age as you was killed in a pool of his own blood?” - This led me to thinking about the encounter Luis and Kotarou have in the Middle East in the beginning of the Terra route. Considering the CG’s at the end of Terra, it’s pretty heavily implied that Tenma, Midou, and Tenjin were all children being held with Jasmine in the Gaia facility that Kotarou and Luis assaulted (or were at least saved by the whole “rounding up of Hunter/Summoner children” that Jasmine helped Kotarou pull off. It’s just an interesting concept to think about Kotarou having possibly already encountered all of the antagonists from this route before, and just neither side particularly remembers it because of age or other factors. And the whole concept of “Kotarou being able to make a change had he not lost 10 years” being driven home by the stark contrast in these characters’ fates.
Just an errant thing I noticed and thought about. It’s been a while since I’ve read Rewrite whole, so I may be misremembering some of the minute details. (This may have been better suited for Terra discussion)
That’s actually a pretty damn interesting thought! They already showed how Kotarou was previously involved with the people in Guardian, so why not the people in Gaia, too?
Although one thing you said shocked me for a bit:
Was the beginning of the Terra route really in the Middle East? I don’t think they ever confirmed that, did they?
I don’t think they ever expressly stated a location, but the arid BG’s, mentions of constant conflict and war, and the mention that English and Japanese both being very obscure languages there kind of made me feel like that was the case. I could just be filling in gaps with my own impressions, but hey, that’s half the fun of reading.
Holy shit! I never made this connection, but it makes so much sense!
The only thing you need to keep in mind, though is that (Terra) The middle-east section of the Terra route occurred AFTER Kotarou made the choice to not engage Kagari, and therefore continued living his life without becoming a familiar of Kotori and losing 5 years in a coma. My memory of Terra is a little foggy, but that would mean that whatever interaction he would’ve had with Tenma and co. would never have happened in any of the main routes.
But wow. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Bah, you’re right. (Terra) I just went and looked at that timeframe in my old videos. Kotarou requests to go overseas right after letting Kagari go. I was thinking he came back to Japan and then met her. Oh well, the part about Kotarou being able to change their fates is still right at least. And for all we know, it could be that Luis went into that room alone in this timeline, and was killed by the children since Kotarou wasn’t there.
I was being a conspiracy nut, disregard me.
B… but… The first post of the Terra discussion! cries
Another few fun little tidbits I noticed from the latter portion of the Chihaya route:
(Lucia)
When Sakuya goes super-familiar, Guardian’s leaders actually consider tossing Lucia into it’s path in full bio-nuke fashion. (http://i.gyazo.com/578da7fb113c15a5bf743c12411a54bd.png). I had sort of noticed this on my first read, but it was so obscure due to my not having read Lucia’s route yet
Also,
(Akane)
Akane makes a comment about the “Key and the Choir being out of my reach”… I wonder what could have happened to the Choir? Since she won the fight against the Lunch Lady she should have had all of Gaia’s assets under her control. I wonder if maybe they used the Choir members/Earth Dragon to attack Midou/Tenma/Tenjin off-screen and failed? It’s one of the few possibilities I could think of offhand.
(I’d probably redirect responses to those discussion threads… Otherwise this would get very off topic very fast)
Well noticed! I think the routes are more consistent than most give them credit for. Rewrite may have been rushed, but it’s not like the writers worked in isolation.
OH MY GOD, that would’ve been like the perfect moment to throw in a silly line like
Kotarou: We must use the Lucia Nuke!
Lucia: I’m not a nuke!
Chihaya: But if we can’t use the Lucia Nuke, what else are we gonna do?!
OH GOOOOOOD that would have been perfect ;_;
Hey, I finally finished it! Ahahaha…
THAT WAS HELLA LONG
Im not really sure how I feel about this one. I kinda kept going back and forth between “Oh, this is pretty good” and “Uhhhhhgg I cant believe this terrible writing.” Yeah, the action was kinda cool, but I dont know, it just didnt do much for me. Im not usually a huge fan of “Oh you thought it was over? Well here’s an even bigger boss you have to defeat. And of course since you already used all your power, you have to do something ridiculous to defeat it.”
It was also really bothering me how much the themes seem to conflict. Is Kotarou supposed to Rewrite himself? Or does it destroy him? Is he a superhuman? Or a familiar? Does the world need to be changed or preserved? Or both? Or are they the same thing? IS SAKUYA REALLY DEAD THIS TIME?
Well, anyways. Wasnt too bad, I still really like all the characters. Im excited to continue reading. I think its on to Lucia’s route next.
Well, Tonokowa told in an interview that he want do a bright and straight route, where battles are used to move forward the storie. It is normal he takes some freedom to write his storie. Rewrite can be enough bleak, it was likely the only way to have a happy end.
What bothers me the most is that the power of Kotarou becomes a simple way to be stronger, in the other routes, he is much more careful in his use. Gaia becomes also an evil organisation which only appears through Akane, Chihaya and the three summoners.
I wonders if changes will be done in the anime adaptation to not distrub the watchers.
Just finished last night- I had been almost done with it in the morning before work, but had to stop because I had already pushed how late I can start getting ready. I had like 5 minutes left :\
So I liked this route a lot better than Kotori’s route. It felt more like a story than a bunch of interesting events, and I thought it did a better job generally with getting its themes across. I really liked the dynamic between Sakuya and Kotarou - Sakuya reluctantly nurturing an almost mirror image of his past self that had led to deep regrets against Kotarou who ends up needing to begrudgingly respect the mentor who will always feel a few steps out of reach.
In this route I felt like Chihaya as a charachter was fine. I had heard murmurings that she is the worst heroine, and that this route was terrible, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I can see why most people say this is Sakuya’s route though - he and Kotarou were the active characters while Chihaya was almost just a static plot device.
I thought she was cute enough, I laughed in a good way with the humor around her, and in general enjoyed her. I think the idea of a rich girl who has never really faced the real world outside of her bubble to the point where she is not even really sure why she is fighting besides “that’s how it has always been” could have really gone somewhere in this complex conspiracy world they are building. But it kind of didn’t. I mean by the end she chooses to leave Gaia and do things on her own but she felt a bit dragged to that conclusion and it didn’t really have any emotional impact.
Chihaya does have my favorite character design though. I really want little wing hair clips like she has for myself.
This is my biggest beef with this route. If you are going to kill a character goddamn do it and stick to it. Touching character death scenes have diminishing returns and I was kind of upset to be crying over the first death march only to have him comeback and fight Kotarou. And then the single cherry blossom at the end? I am kind of partially choosing to ignore the implication that it is possible he was summoned again.
I really wish they had done a separate sprite or at least had a CG for Akane as she descended into madness.
One thing I thought was interesting was the function of the Key in this route. I really like the idea that she contains all of the memories of all the atrocities of mankind, but instead of judging humanity herself she forces a human to bare witness to them and it is up to that human to either give up on humanity or to decide that humanity should continue to fight on. Humans judging humans is a lot more impact than mysterious gods judging humans.
Pani and Gil worked for me too. I find them pretty grating early on when they show up, but the struggle they have where they are just looking for purpose - looking to be useful plays out really well. I especially liked that Pani sacrificed herself quietly and Kotarou doesn’t actually end up saying goodbye or thank you. They said that it was because they were familiars that they were so obsessed with finding a purpose, but needing purpose is a very human notion as well. I really like when stories make me care for characters who I found annoying when I first encountered them.
I also feel like I should take a moment to recognize that Shizuru is a character who I had a tough time not dismissing out right from the promo images I had seen before I played, and even when she first showed up. I should know better with Key girls, but an eyepatch loli with two tone chunibyou eyes was hard for me to take seriously. But I feel like she was one of the best characters in this route. The way she is written having to pick between fighting her friends and not being able to give up what she believes in was really well handled. At this point I am really looking forward to her route and finding out more about her backstory, because if she works this well as a side character I imagine the depth she will have after her own route will enhance things.
I wouldn’t say at all that Chihaya is a bad character or that her route is the worst. On the contrary, her route is one of my favorites. It’s just that Chihaya doesn’t develop at all in what’s supposed to be her route. She basically does what the plot demands her to do, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.
[quote=“kyuketsukimiyu, post:56, topic:1990”]
If you are going to kill a character…do it and stick to it.
[/quote]It’s harder to do than you think if you as an author really liked that character. >.>
I do agree, however, that Sakuya’s implied return via Key Magic is kind of stupid. It practically erases any sort of character development that might have stemmed from it, and if it wasn’t for a particularly good purpose, it merely comes off as fanservice for the sake of it, and it weakens the story as a whole. (Looking at you, Charlotte.)
[quote=“kyuketsukimiyu, post:56, topic:1990”]
I really wish they had done a separate sprite or at least had a CG for Akane as she descended into madness.
/quoteRewrite+(cough)
[quote=“kyuketsukimiyu, post:56, topic:1990”]
I really like when stories make me care for characters who I found annoying when I first encountered them.
[/quote]Same. To cite another Key example, Rin and Haruka from Little Busters were rather annoying when I first saw them, but as time grew on and I got to learn more about them, I grew to like them more as characters. Haruka especially is one of my favorites in the LB cast so far. 
[quote=“kyuketsukimiyu, post:56, topic:1990”]
I should know better with Key girls, but an eyepatch loli with two tone chunibyou eyes was hard for me to take seriously. But I feel like she was one of the best characters in this route. The way she is written having to pick between fighting her friends and not being able to give up what she believes in was really well handled. At this point I am really looking forward to her route and finding out more about her backstory
[/quote]The minute I laid eyes on Shizuru’s sprite in Rewrite, I fell in love with her. I loved her design, her personality and her attachment to Kotarou. I, too, thought she was handled extremely well in this route, both in terms of her personality and her fighting abilities. I do admit, this route spoiled me in terms of the sheer Shizuru fanservice this route got. It made her actual route kind of disappointing… 
But I digress. The other routes are very different from this one, so it’s best to adjust your expectations for maximum enjoyment.
The purple fire isn’t enough?
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.
Thinking back on this route after having finished the whole thing, this^ was definitely the best part. Sakuya is just freaking awesome.
