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! 
I just finished Shizuru’s route last night. It was a very good route and packed so many emotions that left me bewildered. Shizuru is a cute and loving character, despite the issues that she faced with her parents and I also thought how thoughtful that Kotarou was wanting to try to learn how to cook saury with the shichirin grill that he purchased. I love her quirky personality whenever she gets embarrassed about her being cute. I have to say that I thought exactly the same thing about Kotori’s voice that reached out to Koutarou in order to save Shizuru but that hadn’t occurred to me about that. I also wondered about how Akane wanted destruction so badly that humanity needed to be wiped out because in the ending that was quoted about how a superhuman became so powerful that he lived forever and humanity did not “mature”. I thought probably that humans did not evolve enough and she was to judge those not befitting her good memories. I will probably have to find out later in Akane’s route.
Overall, I could not stop crying after how Kazamatsuri and those from Guardian tried their best to stop the destruction of the world and Shizuru and Kotarou as the light shone forth from the ground as others vanished right before them. The route was carefully written well, although other previous routes, besides Chihaya’s route which kind of felt like a battle manga, but I won’t bash about those things. Anyway, her route kept me going through the long haul and I can’t wait until it gets animated through the adaptation coming soon.
YESS !! Shizuru’s route was my favorite heroine route from Rewrite. It’s so sad when you realize how much she’s lost, the pain that she’s been through really makes you feel her. And also
THIS RIGHT HERE !! Just hearing Koibumi’s play during the last scene can make my day ! Heck, it can make my year ! If they do something similar to CLANNAD and Angel Beats, and I don’t know about Air and Little Busters, but when you play the beautiful song with Romanji lyrics and English subtitles with the scene.
I find Shizuru’s personality amusing and funny, sometimes, she’ll act innocent and childish and playful, and then sometimes, joke lewd with Lucia, that part with “I’m so ripe with the picking, uhun ~”. When in other times, as member of Guardian, she seems very serious and knows what she talks about. I don’t know, but this is common to the character heroines of Rewrite overall, where they seem to have a personality mask they carry when not doing Guardian and Gaia things, don’t know.
Also memorable mentions are her saury, her eyepatch, her funny thoughts in Common Route (Runstar and Saury Man), she suggesting people touch Kotarou’s boobs in Common Route, she can imitate voices of cats and dogs, and also, saury, and putting saury in a sandwich, and likes it in parfait.
And that Lucia went crying and hugged her in the chest (Lucia’s Common Route), and she seems to know some Bible verses (In Lucia Route). And that she said in the Common Route to Lucia that she has no right to complain when men stare at her boobs, and it’s normal for men to want to touch at one (The whole Occult Club freaked out at that, except Chihaya who continued eating.) I really don’t know, but my memory is sharp at things like this. Well, I’m free to discss anything from the Shizuru and Common Routes here, right?
She’s a very hilarious and funny character overall. Her behavior is unpredictable.
If I’m not mistake, I believe she’s the only Rewrite heroine proficient in the use of firearms (Am I wrong?), I’m impressed at her fighting skills in Shizuru, Lucia and Chihaya Route, and you know, she can fire guns and sniper rifles.
I believe her behavior towards Kotaou in the Common Route is explained by the fact that she had a crush on him ~ . It seems hinted in Terra, don’t know. And I like the fact that she loves her family so much that to the point that she pities herself, she does not buy anything and saves a million so she can buy something for her family, even though her mother and father forgot her in their memory. (So sad…)
Regarding the actual route, I can’t remember much of the route actually on the level that I did with Kotori’s, Lucia’s, Chihaya’s. My memory is shoddy and hazy on her route, so I have trouble remembering most of the plot. I don’t know if I read it while I’m asleep, or I am in a state of confusion, but I have trouble with the details. And her route just don’t made a mark on me in the same vein as the other routes. (except Akane).
This is written by the same author Yuto Tonokawa who wrote Chihaya’s Route right? What I like is that he gives emphasis on the interactions between the heroines, something I find lacking in Akane and Kotori Route, where I don’t see the heroines there (Except for Akane and Kotori). Of note is the scene with Chihaya and Sakuya, where they just left. I read there above by someone that it’s rushed and not good, but the author could have turned it into something more dramatic and building up, like I don’t want to join Gaia anymore!. Something like that. Where did Lucia went in this, I did not see her?
And if I remember correctly, Kotori seems to be the one who, healed the connection with them, when Shizuru was in a coma, to avoid Kotarou to die, something at that lines? It seems her. And she became mute at that? I was heartstruck also at the saury grilling thing, Kotarou promised to do it, it became a moment of bonding for them two, and somehow it didn’t happened, like tearjerking.
I notice you people here seem to like discussing themes and moral lessons in the routes of the heroines. Here, I can’t come up with one, and Kotarou becomes a tree, which is very tearjerking and sad that Shizuru’s boyfriend became a tree, but I feel a general theme of devotion transcending the end of the world, something like “Even if the world ends, I’ll still be here with you”, “Even if I became a tree”, like that. No matter how even if the world ends, even if Kotarou became a tree, Shizuru will still be there for Kotarou, and Kotarou will still be there for Shizuru. The lyrics of her character song, Koibumi, hit me hard.
Something like that! It’s very much a route that deals with the transience of existence. It’s about knowing when to accept the cards that you’ve been dealt and step off the stage. It’s all about the different kinds of partings that Kotarou and Shizuru had with different characters, and with each other. The loss of bonds. Searching for something precious to hold on to even after everything else is lost.
What Kotarou gave Shizuru in the very end was hope. If he had continued to live on, he would have drained Shizuru’s life away and they would have both died very shortly after escaping salvation, But because of Kotarou’s sacrifice, not only could Shizuru live on, but she gained a small glimmer of hope for the future. Whether or not Kotarou will ever return to being a human again, Shizuru has all her days ahead of her. And, ultimately, Kotarou’s love will remain with her for the rest of her days, even if she can never talk to him again.
Route’s romantic as fuck, who calls this the worst one?
Guess I’ll do my replies first this time.
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:10, topic:1978”]
Only in the very end did he stop being a burden and managed to protect Shizuru instead of being the one who gets protected.
[/quote]But thats part of what makes this route so great! How often do we see the protagonist of the story as one who has to be protected? Who isnt the “hero”? Its not like Kotarou is just lazing around not doing anything to help. He’s been forcibly dragged into this war for which he is not prepared. Its similar to Kotori’s route in that way: he may have a “power”, but there’s nothing he can do. I find it more interesting when the protagonist isn’t the one who has to do the protecting.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:12, topic:1978”]
There’s one scene where Sakuya infiltrates the Guardian facility to complete an objective for Chihaya… 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.
[/quote]That scene was sooooooo important though! Imo, for this route to make sense, Sakuya had to make an appearance. And his last comment to Kotarou was perfect, and I loved the way Kotarou reflects on it later. And it makes sense to me that Chihaya would just decide to quit like that when confronted with fighting her friends. We know from her route that she was actually already considering quitting Gaia.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:12, topic:1978”]
Gil and Pani
[/quote]Gil and Pani arent supposed to be some driving force, though. I like the few appearances they make in this route, especially at the very end.
Basically ^this and the rest of Taka’s paragraph
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:12, topic:1978”]
This route also bothers me because it presented more questions than answered them
[/quote]You pretty much answered all of your questions for yourself though? Not sure what you dont understand. And the ones that you didnt answer, Taka answered again.[quote=“Sonic112003, post:21, topic:1978”]
I can’t wait until it gets animated through the adaptation coming soon.
[/quote]Im actually very scared about how theyre gonna handle this one, if it gets adapted. The entire ending scene, which is so important, is all written in a diary. How would that work in anime?
Ahhh, man. This is definitely my favorite route so far, (I only have Akane left at this point). Prior to finishing, it had been Kotori, but I feel like this took many of the things I loved that Kotori introduced and ran with them.
Ok so firstly, I loved the mechanics of this route. The use of flashback to tell Shizuru’s backstory. Then the timeskip. Having no idea where the route was gonna go at the time, I practically jumped for joy when they revealed that they were rewinding to show what had happened over the past month. It was great presentation.
Second, I love all the references to other routes. I dont think I would have liked Shizuru’s route half as much if I hadnt already read Kotori, Chihaya, and Lucia beforehand. I think I talked about these a little more above in my replies. But the stuff with Kotori and the voice, and especially expanding on the stuff with Sakuya and the tree was perfect.
@Aspirety and @Naoki_Saten point out the themes of loss and pacifism, which I think are spot on, if even a little oversimplified.
Loss and despair are definitely prominent, but I think it goes beyond that to the fact that “loss is always imminent,” and “living, not to ‘the fullest’, but living smart”. Esaka specifically makes a ton of comments about this, and Imamiya as well. Aspi puts this pretty well in the post above this.
About pacifism though. I think the Key really reveals why this is so important. There’s two line that go something like this: “Good memories must not be sad. It’s so sad when homo religios invest fantasies to cling to.” Thats got to be one of my favorite quotes of this route, simply because its so revealing. Why must the world be destroyed, she says? Because those people who both stem from the same religion of “The Key” have created separate and equally incorrect beliefs about it and are now murdering each other.
Im still thinking about what the Hissy Cat symbolizes in this route. At the moment I’ve settled on foreshadowing for the next scene, but I’ll have to go back and reread it.
And to top this route off, there’s both Koiuta and Koibumi. HNNNNNNNG. Beautiful. The tune, the lyrics, the softness, fits so perfectly.
Personally, the only thing that disappointed me about this route is that DJ Shimamura’s Drumscape Rewrite Remix didnt play during the motorcycle chase.
Man Kotarou really can’t catch a break with the memory loss.
This was definitely the sweetest romance so far, and I’ve always been a fan of bittersweet endings. I didn’t enjoy this route as much as Lucia’s or Chihaya’s, but its a nice change of pace going from the action packed Chihaya’s route where Kotarou becomes and overpowered shounen protagonist to Kotarou being a pacifist who needs to be protected.
The scene with Sakuya and Chihaya was definitely meant for utility more than anything so the writer had a way to get Chihaya out of the way and have Sakuya drop some not-so-subtly foreshadowing, but at least they didn’t drag it out. It was a pretty short scene.
The relationship between Kotarou and Shizuru in this route was the best in the game so far. It felt more alive than Lucia’s which had one nice date scene but wasn’t developed all that much beyond that and more developed than Chihaya’s.
Shizuru is a great supporting character. She’s great in the common and other character routes but she didn’t really have much agency in this one. I can’t remember any parts where she really did anything to push the plot in a certain direction. Most of the decisions she made in this route she only really had one choice, with the big exception being at the end when she leaves Kotarou and goes to the shelter. I only have issue with this because the relationship is the most important part of this route and by removing agency from one of members of that relationship it feels less natural.
Overall a very decent route. Not the best, but I’m sure I will appreciate it more in time. I’m always like that with bittersweet endings.
I was right! Looking back on Rewrite after letting it sit for a while and watching the anime, this is my favorite route.
My complaints with the route still stand but this is still just very strong overall. There’s a bit of contrast between Shizuru in Common, where she’s almost exclusively used as comic relief and Shizuru here, where she’s actually fleshed out as a balanced character. But the transition is handled in tiny pieces so it doesn’t feel jarring. It almost feels like the organic process of getting to know someone naturally, which is not something many stories are able to do at all.
