First, does anyone notice how at the end of episode 12, everyone was in their school uniform (they
did come right from school after all), but when 13 starts, they're still sitting around Rika's house, but suddenly in their casual clothes? :P
In the VN, since like I said, everyone came right from school and never went home the whole time, they obviously didn't have their weapons (except Shion and her ever-ready stun gun), but I liked the anime's change that they left briefly to pick up 'something to fight with' (though Satoshi's bat should have been in the school locker, I won't think too hard on Keiichi getting it quickly, in the middle of the night, when there were probably troops 'readying' the school already :P ). It made things seem a bit more iconic, having Keiichi swinging a bat and Rena with her cleaver, than just teenagers taking out trained professionals with punches and kicks as in the VN. Definitely upped the awesome factor, now if only
Cross-examination were the BGM
Personally I liked the time freeze in the VN...yeah, it was cheesy, but it was the good kind of cheesy, IMO. Without it, you lose a lot of Keiichi's great final words, like 'don't think this means we've lost, Takano', and you're left with the fairly more cliche 'I'm hit, go on without me' scene instead. I even feel like, if they wanted to remove the time freeze, it'd have been better without Keiichi saying a single word - just fall to the ground, dead. It'd be utterly shocking to everyone how easily he was taken out by Takano in cold-blood, and Rena could still be the voice of reason and say 'he would have wanted us to run', because it's been established that she's very good at reading people. No one would doubt that Keiichi would have wanted them to keep running and protect Rika, so if they wanted to go the route without the time stop, I feel like having him die a quick, merciless death would have been more fitting and show the cruelty of Takano (because without the timestop, you also lose her last words to him of, 'are you finally done seeing your life flash before your eyes?'). So yeah, I don't hate the change, but I think they should have either stuck to the VN's version or changed it a bit more.
Now, I really liked the change to Mion, having her stay behind as a sacrifice. Yeah, you can see it like 'Kei-chan is gone, I have no reason to live', but don't forget Mion is the club leader and always looks out for her friends. If she can buy them a little time to protect Rika and go on, I feel like she would. It definitely made her death more respectable than her 'no, please stop' last words in the VN...I really hated that, because everyone else got some memorable last words. I know she's still just a teenager with a gun against her head and those are reasonable things to say, but when you compare it to everyone else, it made Mion seem like the weakest member of the group, and I can't see her that way. In the VN, Takano says she has to die first because she's the leader, but in the anime, it's like Mion
chose to die first for the same reason, and it made her feel more responsible and respectable.
I wish everyone else was killed the same as the VN, though. That is, it's very weird that Takano would only tie up Shion, Satoko and Rika, but put them near the other dead bodies
in the VN they didn't run very far from where Keiichi fell, if I recall, but in the anime they're chased through the woods a bit more and...Takano still moved Mion and Rena's bodies closeby? It's silly. IMO after Mion stays behind they shouldn't have stopped, just keep running until caught and tied up. It would have also made the impact more obvious that both Shion and Rena taunted Takano to draw her attention on purpose - she was going to kill Satoko right after Mion, originally, but as the older kids (and Shion's desire to protect Satoko) they felt like they needed to at least go before the younger kids. Admittedly it's probably
worse that way, making Satoko watch two more of her friends die before her eyes, but
great that Rena's exchange with Takano was pretty much identical in the anime, though, and her VA totally delivered, even if she died in a different place/order.
Removing Shion's question about Satoshi also bugged me a little (her anime death was more similar to Mion's VN death), and keeping Satoko's 'quiz' was pretty awkward since the colorblindness issue never once came up in the anime. They could have still given her a sadistic quiz like that, but I feel like...change the question, at least? Or maybe have slipped the colorblind reference into Yakusamashi-hen earlier? Maybe the word problem Keiichi gives her in Zombie Tag could have been changed or something. I dunno, it just felt really out of place because the anime never once covered the broccoli/cauliflower issue that plagued Satoshi and Satoko both.
I think everything else was handled great, though. The friends uniting after death was pretty much perfect, though I wish Hanyuu mentioned how she doesn't want anyone to think she's a monster (her horns), and the friends saying they'd never not accept her because something like that. Takano's massacre was shortened down a bit (what, no invisible orchestra?) but still played out well considering being strapped for time, and that evil laugh at the end was fantastic - props to Miki Itou for that (though I still think Eva when I hear her voice now). Overall I thought the changes still worked pretty well and the whole arc was pretty solid, even after I read the VN version. If only Tsumihoroboshi-hen could have gotten the Kai-tier treatment Minagoroshi-hen got
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