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EP. REVIEW: Rewrite

What I said about the 6th route is directly from the mouth of the head honcho of Visual Art's, said only six weeks before the series debuted - IOW, well after it would have been far into production.

Now, that doesn't exclude them summarizing some of the other routes on the way there.

Again, the goal here is to retool the story so that the real main point is clearer, so you can probably assume that any decision made on how the story is shown feeds into that. That's also why this is a rare case where saying "read the VN instead/in addition" might not actually be helpful.

Key wrote:

What I said about the 6th route is directly from the mouth of the head honcho of Visual Art's, said only six weeks before the series debuted - IOW, well after it would have been far into production.

I already know that.

Key wrote:

Now, that doesn't exclude them summarizing some of the other routes on the way there.

This is what I'm referring to. Even if the "main" point of the series will be that 6th route, it could still end up making a hodgepodge of routes that aren't supposed to be happening at the same time. That's what I fear. It feels like the producers want to have their cake and eat it too.

Key wrote:

Again, the goal here is to retool the story so that the real main point is clearer, so you can probably assume that any decision made on how the story is shown feeds into that. That's also why this is a rare case where saying "read the VN instead/in addition" might not actually be helpful.

I know that that's how it's supposed to go, but really, I can't recommend this to someone new to the series at all right now. I'll still watch it and reserve my final judgement until it ends, but I already told some friends that I was hoping would watch it to avoid it.

The big thing that puts me off is the addition of the scene with the giant crab. This isn't even foreshadowing or anything. It takes away the amazement from later on. That's why I'm saying that this feels even more like a product made for the fans of the original than how a direct but summarized adaptation (like Little Busters) would. It's been nothing but teasing and little winks and nods.

No story details, but I'm still tagging it: spoiler[The "retooling of the story so that the real main point is clearer" already exists in the visual novel itself. It's the Moon and Terra routes.]

To summarize: other than the scene with the crab, the anime hasn't actually been doing anything different. It's not its own separate thing yet. The only thing it's been doing is move around some events, skip others, and completely destroy any buildup.

The routes are distinct in the game, so how will the story composition of the anime be?

Tensho: In the game, there were 5 heroine routes, but for the anime, Tanaka Romeo helped a lot on creating the original sixth route, which I'd be happy if you guessed it from seeing the second key visual. No worries, we will make sure that the heroines get their time to shine. It will be a really great story so please look forward to it.

ーー 原作との整合性みたいなもの、考えながら進めていくわけですか？
-- Are you proceeding while thinking about the consistency with the original?

脚本 / Scenerio guy
その辺りは原作では、今のように隣に原作者のひとりがいてくださるので、「これで大丈夫ですかね？」みたいにすぐ意見を交換できるので、僕としては楽です。
It's still like in the original, where now even I have one of the authors of the original by side me, so I can say something like 'Is this OK like this?' and exchange opinions right away, so I'm at ease.

田中 / Tanaka
でも設定はかなり忘れちゃっているので、僕自身も確認しながらという感じです。
But I have forgotten the setting quite a bit, so even I have to re-check it.
〜〜
ゲームと違ってアニメは、毎日毎日お話を作っていくわけですけど、そういうところの苦労はありますか？
Unlike with the game, you are working everyday creating the story, but do you have any trouble doing this?

田中 / Tanaka

そこらへんは監督が指示をしてくれるので、毎日導入を工夫したりとか、引きを作ったりとかするのは、うまくやれているかなと思います。
About that, the director guides us, so I think coming up with an approach everyday, and building connections is going very well.

魁 / Kai

監督は結構具体例を挙げてくださいますよね。たとえば「ここでちはやを活躍させたい」とか。
キャラクターが多いので「このときあの子は何してたっけ」みたいなものがあるんですが、そういうのもカバーしてくれてます。
The director gives quite a lot of examples. For example, "I want you to have Chihaya be active in this part" and etc.
There's quite a lot of characters, so we often think something like "What were we doing with that girl this time again?", he also takes care of that kind of problem for us.

脚本 / Scenerio guy

構成をやってくださっているだけあって、ちゃんと盛り上がりも締め方も考えてくれていますね。僕としては脚本の中に身に集中できるのでありがたいです。
As expected of someone doing the composition, he's respectfully thinking of the climax of the story and how to tie it up as well.
I'm thankful to him for this as it means I can concentrate on the scenario.
〜〜
ーーゲームでは、構成が複雑なところもありますね。
-- In the game, there's parts where the composition is quite complicated too.

魁 / Kai

そういった意味では、ゲームの複雑さをちょっとわかりやすくというのは心がけていますね。
Putting it that way, we will be keeping in mind about the game's complexity, and make it easier.

脚本 / Scenerio guy

一見さんにもわかりやすい物語にできればなと思っています。その辺は、みんなさんの頭を悩ませてしまっているんですが(笑)。
We think it will be good if we can make it so it's a easier story to understand for the first-time viewers.
Though that worry about is on everyone's mind (*laughs*).

魁 / Kai

こちらはキャラクターの行動の目的と結果を知っているんですよね。
だから「初見だとこれは理解されないかもしれない」ということに、かえって気付かなかったりすることがあるんです。そこは不親切にならないように気を付けていますね。
We know the intentions behind the actions of the characters and the outcomes.
So, 'if they are a first-time viewer, they may not understand this point', it follows we may tend not to notice this. We are being careful not to make this point too unfriendly for them.

田中 / Tanaka

だから、設定が本編とちょっと違ってもいいかなと思っているんですよね。もちろん、ガラッと変わってしまってはダメなんで、なるべく整合性がとれるように調整はしているんですが。それを気にしすぎると、
わかりにくくなってしまいますからね。そのバランス感覚をだいぶ意識してやっています。
And as I said, I think it's OK if the setting is a little different from the original.
Of course it's not OK if we change it beyond recognition, but we are coordinating it so that it doesn't lack consistency. If you worry too much about it, it will become too complex to understand. I'm very aware of the sense of balance.

脚本 / Scenerio guy

僕としては、大元の設定は固まっているので、ヒロインたちをよりかわいく、ときに面白く……
Keyさんのゲームでおなじみの日常描写ですね。その辺のところをうまく出せればいいなと思っています。
In my opinion, the original source is stiff, so I want to make the heroines more cute, and more fun......
The everyday life portray that Key works are known for.
If I can produce this well, I'll be happy.

I've already read interviews.
I already know Tanaka himself is working on it.
I already know they're trying to make it easy to understand for newcomers.

But whatever they said doesn't matter when we can see the the actual finished product.

Like I said, I will hold my final judgement until it ends, but I also can't recommend it as of now.
The truth of the matter is that they didn't have a proper build up to the supernatural happenings that was a very strong point in the visual novel in my opinion. That's already done and there's nothing that can be done about it. Now we'll just have to see how they handle things after the common route ends. That is obviously the stronger part of the game, so who knows, it might end up being good after all if handled correctly.

By the way, making it easy to understand for newcomers doesn't mean the same as making it good. I'm not complaining that newcomers won't understand what's going on. Everything's perfectly understandable (as far as they should understand as of now) so far. The problem is that it it's not quite good.

So, VN experts, when do you think the boring introductory arc will be over? The only things I like about this show are the protagonist messing with his male school friend (those incidents are funny and remind me of the humor in Angel's Beats) and the mystery of the ribboned ghost girl.

4: Besides Kotarou and Kotori, what characters do you like?

Morita: Yoshino (answering immediately). I like him to the point that I want an episode which features Yoshino and Kotarou only. I want to do a gig consisting only Yanagita-kun (VA of Yoshino) and me!

Mkay, then I'll just say that I recommend it for any newcomers. And I have witnessed others who had no knowledge of the VN and watched the show. The confusion was there, but they enjoyed the comedy and had fun, they also liked the supernatural elements at play...This is mass media entertainment, where the audience's self-interest is high priority. If the audience doesn't like what they see or are not entertained, then they naturally drop it...

So, VN experts, when do you think the boring introductory arc will be over? The only things I like about this show are the protagonist messing with his male school friend (those incidents are funny and remind me of the humor in Angel's Beats) and the mystery of the ribboned ghost girl.

Right now, Planetarian is obviously better, but it's unfair to compare the 3rd episode of a 5 episode series to the 4th episode of a 26 episode (hopefully) series. Unless they give Moon and Terra their own individual episodes, which would be a trainwreck to say the least.

I've been much happier with the more adaptive VN anime that really rework the material for anime (for example, ef or Rumbling Hearts) than slavishly loyal "we must reproduce each arc for the fans" shows (lookin' at you, Little Busters!)

I was under the impression this series was twelve episodes, hence the massive amount of backlash on these forums about it going to end up being a rushed adaptation (not to mention it adapting a new route on top of that).