What the fuck?
Impression
What the fuck? Is Lucia really dead? I wasn’t concerned for her during her fight against Midou, not least of all once she got the upper hand and it looked like she had won – the chances of her losing were supposed to be minuscule. And even if she had lost, I was expecting Shizuru to appear and save her. Or even Chihaya, given that Akane has sent her over to Kotarou and Sakuya. The issue now is that Lucia has fallen down a massive crevice, and unless she somehow saves herself by creating a foothold in the rock using her sword, I don’t see her surviving at all. Are we heading towards a bad end of some sort? As conflicted as Akane seems to be, I don’t think she’s in any position to stop Kashima Sakura from triggering salvation, nor will she try to. I don’t think it’s up to Kagari to choose whether or not to destroy humanity if she hears the song of destruction, so the plan is most likely to stop Gaia. Midou wont be a problem given that he probably used up a lot of his life force to reignite Fuego, but the Earth Dragon will be. The current Kotarou is far too weak, so defeating it will most likely be a job for Sakuya and his final form.
I might have mentioned this once before, but I’m in love with Akane. Huh? What do you mean I’ve said it too many times by now? Akane is just that perfect! I was really surprised to see her caring so much for Kotarou after he’d entered a route that wasn’t hers – she’s sent so many people to look after him, and during her discussion with Kagari it almost felt like she was about to have a change of heart away from the world view she grew up surrounded by. Isn’t she an angel? She’s not going to do anything wrong this time! I’d even like to think that if she could, she’d try to go against Kashima Sakura, but as the next holy woman there’s very little she can do. Unlike Kagari, she doesn’t even get the opportunity to find herself. The only way she can help is by lending Sakuya to Kotarou for protection – by the way, who else thought that Kotarou and Kotori were in serious trouble when Sakuya confronted them?! I pretty much assumed that they were going to be captured by Gaia at that point.
No, but really. Akane is the cutest and the best.
I’m also glad that the questionnaire was brought up again. As I’m sure many of us were expecting, his answer was the one affiliated to neither Gaia nor Guardian, and was identical to what he wrote during the Kotori route: ‘I don’t know’. It essentially means that in Rewrite+, there will be two routes where he doesn’t know, two routes where he chooses to change himself, and two where he chooses to change the world. That being said, I’m still having trouble seeing this adaptation as a proper Kagari route, although I’m aware that the anime has most likely skipped out on a lot of content that’ll be in the game. All the girls seem to be prioritising their friendship with Kotarou and their ties to the occult club instead of staying true to their initial allegiances, which is something that should really only happen if they love Kotarou. In particular, I thought it was strange that Akane didn’t take Kagari in and just allowed her to leave with Kotarou. I guess it’s not like anyone has gone so far as to abandon their original objectives, though – Gaia only really want Kagari to hear the song of destruction (meaning it’s all the better for them if she has a bodyguard) and I’m sure that if either Lucia or Shizuru had stumbled upon Kagari whilst looking for Kotarou and Kotori, they would both have killed her on the spot.
Above all however, it just feels really weird thinking of Kagari as a romantic interest – because as hilarious as she is, her current character feels more like a compilation of memes who’s occasionally involved in lewds and just happens to have a somewhat important role in the story. On top of that, Kotarou seems to have friendzoned her. In fact, I thought their interaction in both Moon and Terra was more romantic than anything we’ve seen here so far, especially as they were alone together for the majority of Moon. I still remember that dance on the rooftop of the abandoned shopping mall. At the moment, we have three episodes left, and Kagari has only gone as far as to ask whether Kotarou loves her when he is clearly nowhere near to feeling that way (not to mention the fact that she’s slowly starting to recover her former emotionless self). With so many plot points still to be covered, it’d be great if we got something even vaguely resembling a confession.
I have to say though, this anime is doing brilliantly as fanservice for those who have played the game. Almost fulfilling the Oppai End while Rewrite of the Life plays was way too overkill. Kagari holding and sitting on Chibimoth was also super cute, at least until I saw the two coffins placed by Kotori in one of the houses.
Seriously, I can’t imagine how Kotori can keep a straight face when looking at former Bond.
Gaia original purpose is about letting the Key judge the humanity and accepting the result, not something like capturing it and using it for their own purpose, or hindering the key by confining it or artificially triggering the salvation. I feel the Akane in this route will followed that part of Gaia and try to stop Kashima Sakura. I have no idea what Akane would do now if she ended up as Holy women though.
I wished there were more of Akane and Kagari talking, Akane always desired to ask the key questions after all. She didn’t get the answers she wanted but she must have felt rather foolish for thinking too much at the end. If anything Kagari speaking about finding herself must have hit home with Akane in there.
I don’t get fooled by Sakuya, I know he was joking the moment Kagari appears behind him. (Sakuya getting defeated by a 55yen feecof was awesome btw.) I also doubt there would be any romance apart from Kagari getting the wrong idea by Pani’s fantasy and Kotori’s bad habits.
The opening updated, Shizuru followed after Lucia for sure, you can see Midou’s explosion when Shizuru was riding the bike in the opening. Really liking Lucia and Shizuru dynamics here, but Lucia need to stop abusing her poison I keep getting flashback of the city dying in Lucia route and nukes :(.
Sorry for the late reply! The hatred built up by all of the holy women has definitely warped Gaia’s purpose into artificially triggering the song of desturction, as far as the Suzaki faction is concerned. I can’t remember whether it was ever mentioned exactly what caused Kashima Sakura’s death though, I don’t think it happened in all of the routes.
I’ve noticed the opening updating as well – the starting bit has Kotarou taking longer to form his aurora blades than it did before, and they look more powerful. I wonder whether it’s just 8bit redoing that scene with better visuals or whether it’s meant to signify something.