Discussion topic for the Shizuru arc & character of Rewrite. Feel free to discuss anything from the Shizuru, Kotori or Common routes, but please tag references to outside content with [spoiler]. Discussion of Shizuru’s character is also welcome.
Her birthday is the 18th of June.
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
I wish I had some Saury to post, but unfortunately I don’t…
This topic is now pinned globally. It will appear at the top of its category and all topic lists until it is either unpinned by a moderator, or the Clear Pin button is pressed.
Shizuru route in a nutshell: Make Saury, not war.
Shizuru is my favorite heroine in Rewrite. She has a few funny quirks and special skills (like lip-reading) and is a very entertaining and memorable character throughout the common route. When being serious, she displays an unexpected amount of wisdom. She has a kind heart, a caring nature and is honest and understanding to a fault. She even approves of Kotarou’s ‘dirty’ thoughts (since that’s normal for boys his age) and acts as a counterweight to Lucia’s overblown reactions. Speaking of Lucia, Shizuru’s role as her best friend and emotional support is essential for the cursed girl’s everyday life.
She showed her stuff as Guardian’s strongest superhuman in Lucia’s and Chihaya’s routes, more so than in her own where she has been considerably weakened.
The part of her route I found most remarkable was the narration of Shizuru’s past. This flashback struck me as exceptionally well-written and touching.
Apart from that, I was quite diasspointed in her route to be honest.
The main theme of her route was ‘loss’ and it’s all about watching Shizuru lose everyone and everything she holds dear. Her parent’s memories, her school life, Kotarou, part of her powers and bodily functions, her friends and colleagues, her family (and with that, her goal in life), her world, and lastly, Kotarou again.
What I disliked most about her route is that it had this “She’s not supposed to find happiness on the protagonist’s side” feel to it, similarly to Kurugaya’s route in LB.
Incidentally, concerning the scene of Shizuru’s awakening after she had sacrificed herself to “revive” Kotarou and lay in a coma: I’m sure that the one who established the life force connection between Shizuru and Kotarou and made Shizuru wake up from her coma after talking to Kotarou in his mind is none other than Kotori. After all, she was initially connected to Kotarou and had the ability to heal him. And most importantly, nobody else adresses Kotarou as “Kotarou-kun”, like she did in that ‘dream’ (which is should be easy for her thanks to her summoner-familiar connection to him).
Belated Happy Birthday, Shizuru!
Shizuru is a really nice girl, and I like that in her. When I first saw the sprites, I’d always thought that she was some kuudere.
As for her route, it probably felt like the most traditionally Key route (as most would agree). Starts out with the romantic relationship between the two, goes on to the drama within the characters, and ends with a “good” resolution.
Though it would be hard to consider Shizuru’s ending as totally good 
To reiterate what Naoki said, the messages of the route for me were not only loss, but also pacifism. It provides a contrast to all the other routes where Kotarou must fight to survive. In this one, he’s told again and again not to fight, and to choose to live a peaceful life with Shizuru. While it ultimately ends in a kind of tragedy, I really appreciated this contrast. That’s probably why it felt more true to Key - Kotarou’s primary goal was to find happiness with Shizuru, and arguably, he got that. He couldn’t have received that by fighting, he found something even more important. It’s an interesting message.
And yet, if you turn it around, you could say that Kotarou’s passive behaviour and his choice to listen to what others told him rather than take action himself is what led to salvation happening faster and being more devastating than in any other route. Only in the very end did he stop being a burden and managed to protect Shizuru instead of being the one who gets protected.
Best girl once again
I really loved her character, but her route just didn’t amaze as much. It certainly brought me down (I cried at her losing her parents and the ending) but I feel as if the ending was too sudden and the route could’ve taken another path.
If Chihaya’s route was comparable to Komari’s in how tightly-written and brilliant it was, then this route is comparable to Kurugaya’s in how subpar it seems to be.
Shizuru is easily my favorite character in Rewrite. If you took Michiru, dyed her hair blonde, gave her evil eye chuunibyou and some kuudere personality traits, you’d pretty much get Shizuru. She seems to have all of my favorite anime female traits and quirks rolled into one big ball of moe/loli sweetness. I thought her route would be a blast to read…
Let me start with what this route does right. First, the romance. Koutarou and Shizuru, without a doubt, feel great together. Shizuru is very sweet and seems to have very simple thoughts when it comes to romance, almost like when a child tries to understand what it’s like to fall in love. Koutarou’s thoughts are rather realistic and fit his character really well, and sometimes they’re very entertaining to watch. Who wouldn’t imagine their girlfriend being reduced to the lowest common denominator? XD
But I digress. Shizuru feels very much like a classic Key character in this route. She has an obsession over saury, likes cute animals (Komari-chan would be pleased), and has the ability to erase memories (this is a Tonokawa story, after all). In addition, references to classic Key games (such as a hairband and the stars) are also abound in this route.
Now for the things I didn’t like. I enjoyed the fact that many of the characters seen in Chihaya’s route make an appearance, but only just that. There’s one scene where Sakuya infiltrates the Guardian facility to complete an objective for Chihaya. When Chihaya appears to stop him, her dialogue can be summed up as thus:
“Hi, I’m in the route. I’m quitting Gaia. Bye.”
I facepalmed. It’s like Tonokawa had writer’s block during that particular part of the route and wrote in such a rushed and brain-dead scene because he couldn’t give them a focus. He probably had much more fun writing Chihaya’s route and just couldn’t let those characters go. Even Gil and Pani don’t do much in this route except provide some witty dialogue during the first half of the route. If Tonokawa decided to start from scratch instead of rehashing characters, he probably could have written something more intimate and given Shizuru some more things to do.
Speaking of which, Shizuru did a lot more in other peoples’ routes than in this route. Sure, there was the motorcycle scene, but this route otherwise lacked a lot of high-octane moments that Chihaya’s route was abundant with. Perhaps that was because Tonokawa wanted this route to focus more on the relationship than the action, but it feels like you are not doing Shizuru’s character justice when you don’t put her in enough fight scenes. Also, whoever designed Shizuru’s battle outfit should have included some tight leather pants, at least. It’s a small nitpick, though.
This route also bothers me because it presented more questions than answered them. Kotori’s route already established that Koutarou is, or at least has properties of, a familiar, and Chihaya’s route explained that Sakuya turned into a tree when Salvation occurred, which explained why the same thing happened to Koutarou at the end of this route. However, I have no clue as to who the voice Koutarou heard belongs to (I’m guessing it might be Kotori, but she didn’t acknowledge the possibility of him being her familiar outside of her route). Also, how come the Key didn’t die from being shot during the process of salvation in this route when it was indeed possible in Kotori’s route? Finally, why does Akane desire to die during salvation? Is she devoutly following Gaia’s teachings, or is there some other motive behind it?
Anyway, despite my complaints, I still really liked this route. It’s nowhere near as enjoyable or tightly-written as Chihaya’s route, but I’d say it’s slightly better than Lucia’s route, in my opinion.
Maid Shizuru FTW! <3
Chihaya and Komari worst routes. Yuiko the best.
Shizuru’s route is solid. There’s nothing stand-out, but that is a positive as well. I don’t remember most of it, but I remember it was fun.
So basically… they have a similar hairstyle? I don’t see the resemblance.
Different bodies, personalities, faces, fashion sense, voices… At least, from what I saw of Michiru.
I honestly think that’s perfectly in-line with Chihaya’s character. She was always wary of being in Gaia, especially once she made friends with the Guardian members. I remember her umming and ahing for a while before coming to the decision to stop it, meanwhile Sakuya was on a mission to kill her friends.
Since this was my first time seeing them in a route (they showed up before in the common route bad end IIRC) I remember Gil and Pani being one of the big parts of the route. They stuck around helping out.
Because this wasn’t an over-the-top shounen route like Chihaya’s was. They are completely different genres, likely aimed at different audiences.
Shizuru’s route was the one where they tried to make the fighting stop. Kotarou was weak, and his powers were largely unknown by the people around him. They didn’t want to put Shizuru in a situation where she had to fight, because stubborn Kotarou would come along with her and most likely die.
If you believe that this route isn’t justice to her character, then you are imagining things beyond what she was characterized as. Focusing more on fight scenes would make Shizuru look like a fighter - she isn’t. She’s a young girl, with some family issues, some strange powers, and a job that involves her fighting.
Her being in Guardian is supposed to be a small part of her character. Sure she gets called out a lot, but that’s just a responsibility, not a big part of her character.
That’d depend on the context. Keep in mind this is a different Key. Different memories, different experiences, different environment. All salvations are different as well. I believe there was a discussion about the differences of the Key somewhere on this forum, back when the memories were a little less hazy~
On the technical side of things: had she started singing the complete version of the song? Was she shot in the right place? Were there external factors manipulating the process?
Wow, did that happen? I don’t even remember her being in this route…
I thought this was explained in the Chihaya route, but if not, the Akane route should give explanations.
Well… it’s better than the vague references to Kotori in other routes ;_;
But it makes sense after you realize that you need Chihaya’s route in order to unlock Shizuru’s route. Think of it as a way of reaching out to the reader after being aware that the reader has prior knowledge to some parts of the story.
Well uhhh… That was most likely (chihaya + moon spoilers) Sakuya speaking to him. You see, there’s a reason why you need to do Chihaya before Shizuru route, so it seems that Sakuya is somehow aware of the boundaries between the different worldlines. He is OP after all 
Hm I never thought of that. Probably they didn’t hit her in a vital point. Probably also because during Kotori’s route, a lot of her energy seems to have been depleted at that point.
More to come in Akane route!!
It’s funny that you say that, since a lot of people pointed out inconsistencies in Chihaya’s route
But yeah, Shizuru’s story was sweet, and, as I said:
How is that possible, though? You should have seen them in Chihaya’s route before seeing them in Shizuru’s route.
I agree with this part, though. One thing to note among all the routes is that Kotarou has a slightly different personality in this route. He is most pacifistic here, as was mentioned earlier in the topic
WRONG. It’s Kotori > Shizuru, Chihaya > Akane.
Hopefully an exerpt from my Shizuru Route Reflection will help shed some light on some of your questions.
[quote=“Shizuru Route Reflection”]
Cursing the situation, Kotarou suddenly feels a heat in his chest, and a voice speaks directly into his mind. The entity hears Kotarou’s pleas, and after saying goodbye, uses it’s power to revive Shizuru. Now this was very confusing at first, but I’m gonna take a crack at explaining it. The voice was definitely Kotori. As Kotarou’s ‘summoner’, she is able to speak directly into his mind and has some control over him. What Shizuru did to save Kotarou was form a contract with him as summoner and familiar, or perhaps it was all Kotori’s doing. By forming the contract, Kotarou drained all her life force away in order to survive, leaving Shizuru comatose. But then something happened, Kotori did something to save Shizuru. I can’t say for certain, but by the way she said goodbye, perhaps she sacrificed herself to save Shizuru. It’s pretty sad to think about, but I think that’s the most likely explanation. She used her remaining life force to revive Shizuru so the two could be together, accepting Shizuru as Kotarou’s future. Though it’s possible that she’s still alive, I can’t say for sure what happened. But either way, Kotori lost this time. It’s at this point where Kotarou has finally let go of Kotori as well, so it really does feel like a parting. From this point on Shizuru and Kotarou share a life. They can understand each other’s thoughts, and Shizuru can even feel Kotarou’s pain, possibly other senses too. Shizuru also loses her hearing and ability to speak even after being revived, so perhaps she hadn’t fully recovered from the ‘death’ they shared. Also, it seems after dying twice, Kotarou is even more of a familiar than he was before. Gradually becoming less human, he fears what he has become, and might yet still become.[/quote]
What you might’ve noticed is that all of the Rewrite character routes show a different development of Kotarou’s character, leading to many different Kotarous. In this route, we see a Kotarou he decides to not fight. Shizuru is very strong, so she wants to protect him, and the rest of Guardian are trying to convince him that fighting isn’t always the best option. Instead we get the pacifist Kotarou. And you know, it doesn’t all work out, but the ending could still be interpreted as a happy one. What I think Shizuru’s route is all about is this message of parting. That’s why I think it would be a good final route. We see all of the characters either step out of the conflict and say goodbye, or become destroyed by it. It’s less about fighting, and more about coming to terms with the inevitability of the situation. That may seem very defeatist, but I think it was done really well.
As for the inconsistency of the Key and Salvation… It’s been a long time so I’m sketchy on the details, but the idea is that salvation is triggered in each route very differently. The circumstances are very different in each route, and that’s why things pan out differently. I can’t go into a lot more detail since I don’t remember everything, but I might come back to that point later. If you’re lazy, you can always accept the dead-end explaination of “the writers didn’t communicate”.
…you’ve gotta be shitting me!?! I distinctly remember it being Kotori > Akane and Chihaya > Shizuru x.x
Welp just found a Rewrite wiki that seems to agree with you, Aspi
And about the voice too. Was the voice about giving Kotarou the idea to turn into a tree? Urrrrrgh
Well, as always, my memories are failing me, and I gave incorrect information. I’m sorry orz
I liked them >.> Subtle, but funny.
Uh…
They were all pretty messy when it comes to consistency. Good individually, a bit worse when thrown together as one story.
I went Kotori>Shizuru>Lucia>Chihaya>Akane.
This Kotarou listened to the people around him. He didn’t know much about what was going on, so he left everything in the hands of the people that did, until very late into the route.
In other routes, he either gets told what’s going on, or finds an early reason to figure everything out.
So Shizuru is a part of the Kotori Tamagotchi collection too?
It kinda gets explained in Moon IIRC, but it’s more of a shove-aside than an explanation.
Shizuru’s ripe for the picking, uhun~!
Happy birthday to my favorite Rewrite character and one of my favorite loli characters ever! 
