The moment I saw you, I felt as though I had met my fate.
What They Say:
Kazamatsuri, a modern, well-developed city renowned for its burgeoning greenery and rich Japanese culture, is home to Kotarou Tennouji, a high schooler least privy to the place's shared values. Content to fill his pockets with frivolity, the proud and nosy boy whiles away his time pestering the self-proclaimed delinquent Haruhiko and indulging in his amorous feelings toward the oddball Kotori.
Equipped with the superhuman ability to permanently rewrite any part of his body to multiply his strength or speed, Kotarou is naturally drawn to the supernatural. One special meeting with the lone member and president of the Occult Research Club, the "Witch" Akane Senri, leads to Kotarou reviving the Occult Club by recruiting Kotori and three other members: the clumsy transfer student Chihaya, the strict class representative Lucia, and the unassuming Shizuru. As Kotarou unveils hidden secrets of each member of the Occult Club through their shared adventures, he will inevitably encounter a fate that only he might be able to rewrite.
The Review:
Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers).
Now that the Kazamatsuri Occult Research Club has reached a substantial amount of members, it's about time to go hunting for crazy, paranormal stuff. But, before that, what's more important is dealing with the...random butler who appears in the club room? Okay. After a quick back and forth between Kotarou and the butler (Sakuya), it is revealed that he is moreover the manservant of Chihaya, who may or may not be a spoiled rich girl. Regardless, this butler is going to be a reoccurring character from this point on and he had to be introduced sometime, right? After said introduction ends, Kotarou and the others set out to find some weird paranormal creature I can't remember the name of and ultimately wind up finding out that it doesn't exist after all. The groping will have to wait for another day.
Or will it? On the way home from school one night, Kotarou sees Kagari (Silver-haired loli girl) perched on top of a building and doing some weird ghost stuff. Out of nowhere, some random giant hound appears and begins chasing her. Even though Kotarou wants this girl completely out of his life, he decides to activate his accelerated physical state and chases after them anyway. As he's about to kick his abilities up to the next level, he loses sight of both Kagari and the beast and is instead greeted by a suspicious blonde man who can make red bubbles appear with his arms. From out of those red bubbles spawns another large hound that takes off after Kotarou and prompts another chase scene laden with beautiful backdrops that once again showcase KEY's world building. Eventually, Kotarou loses his race against the beast and, instead of being eaten by it, he respawns at a nearby ramen shop.
This ramen shop is apparently owned by a man named Gennady who allegedly rescued Kotarou from a park while he was passed out in the middle of the night -- alongside another older man named Esaka. After telling them that he was being chased down by a monster, the two men are visibly taken aback, yet not seemingly surprised. Instead of asking him what kind of monster it was, Esaka asks Kotarou who he is aligned with, quickly prompting Kotarou to be like, "Uhhh, the occult research club?". The two men leave it at that and dismiss Kotarou's claim as quickly as it had been brought up. Shortly after, Shizuru (Who is apparently a regular at this ramen shop) shows up and everyone has a nice old-fashioned noodle dinner. Yay.
On his way back home, Kotarou bumps into Sakuya yet again. After another snarky exchange, Sakuya reveals his hatred toward our protagonist, claiming "The moment I saw you, I felt as though I had met my fate". This cryptic message could be interpreted in a numerous amount of ways, but the way I looked into it decoded it into, "Yo man, stay away from Chihaya or she won't need me anymore". I could be completely off-base with that assumption, but that's just how I read it. Shortly after this exchange, the episode comes to a close.
In Summary:
Episode three picks up the pace a little while still finding time to introduce several new characters. As the occult research club continues their journey toward uncovering paranormal secrets, the time begins to tick down until things actually start happening. For now, though, I'm glad that we're receiving a steady influx of exposition. From what I've gathered, the Rewrite story is one of the most incredibly vast and expansive ones out there, so we're going to need a slow build-up in order for it to become the colossus it deserves to be. The only downside to this is that if the series doesn't wind up gaining ground soon, it may fall into the same critical slump the past two KEY series have wound up in, not ever telling the story they truly needed to. All in all, the episode was still well-rounded and interesting.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
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