Rewrite

REWRITE

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
September 24, 2016
LENGTH
26 min

DESCRIPTION

Rewrite is set in the fictional city Kazamatsuri, where treeplanting and afforestation have caused the city to become overgrown with trees and flowers in much the same way that other cities are filled by buildings. However, while most of the city appears to be rural, there are many traditional city elements as well. While set in a modern setting, the city also gives off a strange sense of nostalgia.

Tennouji Kotarou lives here. He's a high school student who has the ability to rewrite his own body; he can become stronger and faster at any time he chooses. He investigates supernatural mysteries with five girls from his school.

(Source: VNDB)

CAST

Kotarou Tennouji
Masakazu Morita
Akane Senri
Eri Kitamura
Shizuru Nakatsu
Keiko Suzuki
Kotori Kanbe
Chiwa Saitou
Kagari
Kana Hanazawa
Lucia Konohana
Risa Asaki
Chihaya Ohtori
Saya Shinomiya
Sakuya Ohtori
Katsuyuki Konishi
Haruhiko Yoshino
Junichi Yanagita
Touka Nishikujou
Ryouko Tanaka
Sougen Esaka
Hiroki Touchi
Midou
Souichirou Hoshi
Giru
Naomi Wakabayashi
Pani
Noriko Ueda
Arata Imamiya

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

RELATED TO REWRITE

ANIME ActionRewrite 2nd Season

MANGA ComedyRewrite: Side-B

MANGA DramaRewrite: Side-R

Cover Art for Official Another Story Rewrite: Ha Yure Sasayaku Shoukei de

NOVEL ComedyOfficial Another Story Rewrite: Ha Yure Sasayaku Shoukei de

TV SHORT ComedyKaginado

TV SHORT ComedyKaginado Season 2

REVIEWS

ItsTakumi
40/100
One of my favorite visual novels turned garbage in anime
This visual novel was my childhood and you guys had one job and you managed to fuck it up more than Tokyo Ghoul after season 1. I never had so much hype for an announcement just to get my kneecaps beaten when we jump into the series in one of the most random parts in the visual novel, WHAT WERE Y'ALL SMOKING? I didn't understand why they thought it would be a great idea to start towards the end of Kagari's route. I don't know what the director was going for or who called where to start when it would've started off better staying true to the visual novel. Anyway just a huge disappointment with an anime that had so much potential and it having a unique story with such a unique and odd character like Kagari, as well as the route that between Kotori and Kotarou could've been so great to present in the series. I understand giving all the routes especially when I enjoyed Chihayas route as well as Lucias route but it kills the drive of a story when you have such a good true route, and also if one specific route was just used to drive the story it could've cause people to become fans and check out the visual novel overall instead of giving a sour taste with most people dropping it after the first episode when they don't understand what's going on, so much could've been done to help create a fandom such as Clannad. I understand they made a second season but with how they butchered this season alone I'm not even going to waste my time to view it, it truly saddens me when I had such an excitement and vision of where this could've gone but well what can you do I highly recommend if you came into this series just watching the anime to check out the visual novel where you can see how amazing the story and routes truly are unlike how this anime perceived it. Key is such a unique visual novel company it's sad that this ended up being one of those bad ones but to check how their visual novels can truly be executed correctly in anime fashion I really recommend checking out Clannad as well as Kanon (2006) made by a masterful studio like Kyoto Animation. Overall, thank you to anyone who actually took their time to read my review turn rant about how one of my favorite visual novels got thrown away as an anime, I hope there are many of you who enjoyed the visual novel who can agree with me on how they really threw away a good opportunity on making something big.

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AngeVNs
67/100
A Decent Attempt at an Anime-Original Ending Where a Full 70+ Hour Visual Novel Adaptation is Impractical
I suppose I should get my biases out of the way as soon as possible. Despite being a huge fan of visual novels, I’m far from one of those typical haters who claim that most visual novel-to-anime adaptations suck. Quite frankly, I don’t expect modern anime budgets or modern viewers to have the time to sit through a 50+ episode anime that fully adapts a 50+ hour visual novel. Even if they're watching weekly, that’s a huge commitment. The only exception most people make is Clannad + After Story, and that’s only because people simp for Kyoto Animation. When JC Staff adapted Little Busters!—which had similar writing quality and structure to Clannad—people ignored it just because it wasn’t KyoAni.

That said, Rewrite, despite being a visual novel by Key (the same developers of Clannad and Little Busters!), has a much different writing style and genre. While it features a similar male protagonist and five-heroine harem setup, it’s not a romance-heavy series at all. It leans more into fantasy action or, as visual novel fans call it, "chuuni." It also focuses on environmentalism, but in the original visual novel, this aspect was a plot twist and genre shift—one I doubt modern audiences would have the patience to wait for in an anime adaptation.

Since Rewrite isn’t a romance-heavy slice-of-life series like Clannad or Little Busters!, and since each heroine’s route goes in drastically different directions, adapting it faithfully would be nearly impossible. The only real way would have been using the omnibus format like Amagami SS, which most companies refuse to do for some reason. Rewrite would have needed at least 30–40 episodes just to cover all the route content, including the lengthy common route.

With that in mind, I think Rewrite Season 1 opting for an anime-original ending doesn’t get enough credit. Many of the original visual novel fans were upset that their favorite heroine routes weren’t adapted, but I don’t think it was possible. Instead, this original arc was the best way to tease the visual novel while providing an ending that actually makes sense within the universe—especially with Season 2, which serves as the true ending and is a much more faithful adaptation.

Now, conceptually, an anime-original ending isn’t a bad idea—but what about the execution? I think it’s decent but definitely flawed, though nowhere near as bad as people claim.

The decision to spend a few early episodes focusing on slice-of-life comedy before diving into serious plot elements was a good call. A fully faithful adaptation would have required 5–10 episodes of pure slice-of-life, which would bore many anime watchers. Even in the visual novel, I thought the buildup to the fantasy action took too long.

Minor visual novel spoilers: there isn’t a single non-true route where all the main heroines stick together after the common route due to serious drama reasons. This means that Rewrite Season 1 actually provides an anime-original ending that allows the club members to stay together, making for a relatively cathartic conclusion to the slice-of-life camaraderie. Could it have been executed better emotionally? Sure. But the wholesome character interactions were handled well.

The anime tries to tease backstories for the heroines without fully developing them as in the visual novel. If Rewrite Season 1 had at least 26 episodes, it might have been possible to flesh out the heroines better, but with a typical 13-episode budget, they did what they could—even if the pacing was all over the place.

A lot of people take issue with Kagari’s personality change for the anime-original ending, but I actually don’t mind it. It better sets up Season 2, where she becomes the proper main heroine. In the visual novel, she often felt like a plot device, and Kotarou’s romantic feelings for her didn’t make much sense. The anime gives her more presence, which I appreciate.

That said, the season still has flaws that hold me back from loving it as much as I wish I could. While the comedy was generally good, I was disappointed that some of the funniest moments from the visual novel’s common route didn’t make it in—like Kotori’s famous “Shake it now, baby now” Engrish. Some anime-original jokes were hit-or-miss, such as Kotori’s repeated “Fushidara NG” (localized as “Keep it PG”), which was used only a couple of times in the visual novel but four or five times in the anime.

The way character backstories were handled was messy. Shizuru, for example, gets a serious episode but is then largely ignored. Lucia seems like she’s starting character development, but it’s immediately regressed because it wouldn’t fit with the rest of the plot. I liked the idea of making viewers care about the heroines more quickly than in the visual novel, but the execution felt sporadic and could have been much cleaner.

Overall, Rewrite Season 1 serves as a decent teaser to see if you care about the world and characters. If you do, I highly recommend checking out the original visual novel to get the full story (you can buy it on Steam as: Rewrite+), some routes are pretty important for Season 2. As a standalone product, Season 1 is a fun time, but it’s not the first fantasy-action title I’d recommend unless a particular character interests you or you’re curious about the visual novel.

Alternatively, if you were a fan of the original visual novel and just want to see certain scenes and characters animated, this could work. But if you’re someone who gets angry about incomplete adaptations, you might want to reconsider watching—because your favorite route likely won’t be there.
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