Rewrite Episode #16 Anime Review

Bon voyage, humanity.

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 everyone is reunited (Kind of), it's time to get to work. Sakura Kashima has mobilized yet another wave of monsters and it's up to Kotarou and the gang to fend them off while Kagari completes her research. Luckily for the girls, Kotarou was able to create a few weapons out of thin air because, you know, rewriting and stuff. But apparently generating guns is too difficult, so he has to generate stuff like swords and giant logs. Before we go any further, though, can I just say something? How the hell can this dude literally recreate human life but not a firearm? Kotarou is able to somehow create actual physical theories of humanity, but not guns. WHY?

Anyway, even with the 'limited' resources they have available, the Occult Club is able to fend off the next wave of monsters. When everyone is winding down, the heroines finally admit they haven't been able to see Kagari at all since their reincarnation and have simply just been doing what Kotarou asks. One more important thing to note is that, at this point, Kotarou has somehow become an adult out of nowhere and no one really seems to care. Regardless, the assistance from the Occult Club has changed Kagari's theory map. Now, instead of all the branches ending in extinction, many of them have started glowing -- signifying 'uncertain' paths the timelines will take. Kotarou seizes the opportunity to leave the alternate-timeline Kotarous a message and plants his version of a message in a bottle on Kagari's humanity platform. This sparks literally every single timeline to change and essentially engulf all of Kazamatsuri, signalling the completion of the theory. Eventually, one thing leads to another and Kagari winds up being encased in a giant, magical tulip before an even larger, final wave of monsters is let loose.

Sakura, figuring out that her time to interject is running out, harnesses all of her monsters from every single timeline and unleashes them all. Of course, this is a bit too much for the Occult Club to handle and everyone winds up dying just as quickly as they had come back into the world. Somewhere down the line (And I can't remember where since everything is literally just thrown at you in this episode) Kotarou figures out that the reason he is an adult now is because he slipped into a ten-year coma -- something that all of the timelines seem to have in common. But let's forget about that for a second as Kotarou transforms himself into the younger model for whatever reason and ultimately gets his ass kicked by dinosaurs. Just as Kotarou is about to die along with the rest of his pals, Sakuya shows up. That's right- Sakuya is still a character. Yes, I forgot about him too. But luckily for Kotarou, this Sakuya is actually the combination of every possible Sakuya from every possible timeline.

Mega-Sakuya then goes on to throw celestial grenades at the now-colossal swarm of prehistoric monsters chasing after Kagari, backed by teenage Kotarou who has turned his arm-sword into a slightly larger arm-sword. Needless to say, Sakuya gets tired of carrying the team and sacrifices himself (Eliminating his character entirely since this was the incarnation of EVERY Sakuya) to save Kotarou and Kagari, albeit temporarily. In the end, Kotarou winds up going berserk and being killed by the remainder of the monsters. The next scene, however, implies that Kagari was able to save humanity (I think?) and Kotarou vanishes, ushering in the next timeline.

Oh yeah, and apparently we've been on the moon this whole time. Who knew?

In Summary:

Rewrite continues to beat a surplus of information into the viewers to make up for what is going to be another crammed-cour adaptation from the visual novel. Missing several emotional marks yet again (But somehow finding a hefty amount of time for poor dinosaur CG), this third installment of season two becomes too fast-paced to really care about or even follow what's going on. The good that does come from this arc ending, however, is that it gives the series a fresh start in a new timeline -- hopefully one that will be executed better than the last.

Grade: C

Streamed By: Crunchyroll