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I have a question about the anime adaptation of Rewrite. The answer to my question might be in the original visual novel, but I'm reluctant to buy it and play it for forty hours just on the off-chance it explains a minor element of an anime that, in all honesty, I didn't enjoy that much. On the other hand, if the VN does have the answer, I fear that people will end up downvoting the question for lack of research - "you'd know this if you played the VN".

If I have a question about an anime adaptation, and the answer happens to be in the source material, can I safely ask the question?

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    Fwiw I did exactly this with anime.stackexchange.com/q/21498/7579; my research indicated the answer was in the VN, but I wasn't about to spend 80 hours reading slowly scrolling text to find out.
    – Torisuda
    Commented Sep 17, 2017 at 15:02
  • Like this you mean? I just finished the Umineko Anime, and I have a question about the ending.
    – BCLC
    Commented Jun 22, 2022 at 13:36
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    Yeah, exactly like that. For the record, I did end up asking the question and, while the answer still boiled down to "Read the VN", it was also explained to me without prejudice, unlike the comments section of that particular Reddit thread.
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Jun 22, 2022 at 14:03
  • @F1Krazy LOL thanks for sharing. I think the Umineko fandom is really insane in that it wants the Higurashi fandom to really read the VNs
    – BCLC
    Commented Jan 20, 2023 at 14:08

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Yes, it would be on topic. I don't see why this would be a worry.

On the other hand, if the VN does have the answer, I fear that people will end up downvoting the question for lack of research - "you'd know this if you played the VN".

you are right that the Visual Novel takes a while to complete and there are multiple routes. VNDB lists its length as

Very long (> 50 hours)

but I don't know if this is for getting all the endings.

There's also no official translation as such the only (and legal) way to get it in English is to buy the original Japanese game and download and install Amaterasu Translations's patch. Otherwise, if you can read Japanese you can skip the patch.

These 2 things can sometimes be a barrier to some fans who will instead stick to the anime, as such no one should be downvoting you for not having played the Visual Novel. This is like downvoting any anime question because you haven't read the manga it was based off from. A lot of the time (like Attack on Titan, One Piece, Naruto etc) it's because the anime is further back and not everyone has access to the manga legally (some people avoid the scanlations holding out for official localization).

Likewise downvoting a Studio Ghibli Film question for not having read the original book the movie is from which isn't a well-known fact, or Kantai Collection questions because you didn't play the browser-based game which accesses originally was based off a lottery.

Just because an anime is an adoption or was based on another media doesn't mean seeing that media is a requirement, so I wouldn't worry too much. Generally, if something would be a lack of research, you'd ideally get a comment explaining how you didn't do enough research and you can find out for sure or not if your question is happy answered or not.

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  • Okay, thanks for the feedback. I'll go ahead and ask the question.
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Sep 17, 2017 at 16:56
  • "There's also no official translation as such the only (and legal) way to get it is to buy the original Japanese game and download and install Amaterasu Translations's patch" is technically false. You can legally purchase the VN and read it in Japanese without translations. That's what I did (long before there was any translation at all).
    – Logan M
    Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 22:07
  • @LoganM you right, though i was implying playing it in english but i'll edit that to make it clear
    – Memor-X
    Commented Sep 20, 2017 at 1:22

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