I suppose I should get my biases out of the way as soon as possible. Despite being a huge fan of visual novels Im far from one of those typical haters who claim that most visual noveltoanime adaptations suck. Quite frankly I dont 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 theyre watching weekly thats a huge commitment. The only exception most people make is Clannad + After Story and thats only because people simp for Kyoto Animation. When JC Staff adapted Little Busterswhich had similar writing quality and structure to Clannadpeople ignored it just because it wasnt 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 fiveheroine harem setup its not a romanceheavy 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 shiftone I doubt modern audiences would have the patience to wait for in an anime adaptation. Since Rewrite isnt a romanceheavy sliceoflife series like Clannad or Little Busters and since each heroines 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 3040 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 animeoriginal ending doesnt get enough credit. Many of the original visual novel fans were upset that their favorite heroine routes werent adapted but I dont 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 universeespecially with Season 2 which serves as the true ending and is a much more faithful adaptation. Now conceptually an animeoriginal ending isnt a bad ideabut what about the execution? I think its decent but definitely flawed though nowhere near as bad as people claim. The decision to spend a few early episodes focusing on sliceoflife comedy before diving into serious plot elements was a good call. A fully faithful adaptation would have required 510 episodes of pure sliceoflife 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 isnt a single nontrue 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 animeoriginal ending that allows the club members to stay together making for a relatively cathartic conclusion to the sliceoflife 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 13episode budget they did what they couldeven if the pacing was all over the place. A lot of people take issue with Kagaris personality change for the animeoriginal ending but I actually dont 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 Kotarous romantic feelings for her didnt 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 novels common route didnt make it inlike Kotoris famous Shake it now baby now Engrish. Some animeoriginal jokes were hitormiss such as Kotoris 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 shes starting character development but its immediately regressed because it wouldnt 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 its not the first fantasyaction title Id recommend unless a particular character interests you or youre 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 youre someone who gets angry about incomplete adaptations you might want to reconsider watchingbecause your favorite route likely wont be there.