Ah, screw Sword Art Online. I’m still going to watch and finish it, but there is no point in blogging it anymore. I actually really liked the first half, but the entire set-up of the second half is just wrong. There is no way the creators are going to be able to make up for that. I’d rather focus my limited time on something else. Now, why that something else turned out to be Little Busters of all things probably needs some explanation.
– The best Autumn 2012 show that I’m not currently blogging is pretty much Jormungand. I really support what that series is trying to do and if you got through the first season, I do urge you to check out the second. I just don’t have any inspiration to write a full entry about it. I noticed that when writing about its first season.
– Saint Seiya Omega unfortunately has gotten much worse again with its second half, introducing a sting of no less than TWELVE over the top battles against all odds against golden saints that will probably only get good near the end again. It’s pointless to blog it at this point.
– Sukitte Ii na Yo is also pretty good, but it comes off a tad forced at times. It’s good, but when characters come with their past it feels like the creators are running down a checklist instead of genuinely try to tell a story.
– The best other alternative would be Btooom: short and sweet suspense. In the case of that series though, I think it lacks depth, and probably isn’t going to get much with just 1 cour. Not to mention that an analysis of the fight scenes would just devolve into a string of complaints about the bad physics.
Now, Little Busters has its problems. DEAR GOD, it has problems. However, I do have a few reasons why I want to blog it, which I’ll get to below. To summarize though: its five opening episodes are better than the first five opening episodes of Kanon, and worse for Angel Beats, Air and Clannad. Still, it has something.
This is pretty much my mindset while watching an episode of Little Busters: “HATE HATE HATE HATE hate hate HATE HATE hate… oh this is actually pretty good… this is surprisingly good, whoa”. And this not in the way in which other bad or dull shows have a few redeeming moments: while those moments are enjoyable, they usually don’t succeed in removing my annoyance with the series by being dull or still not doing anything significant. I remember how Guilty Crown had one good episode. Well, whoop-tee-doo, it didn’t make up for the rest of the show. Little Busters actually succeeds in this. I’ve blogged a number of other series that were clearly flawed, but had enough to make up for them (Zetman, Deadman Wonderland), and to be honest, I want to give a more nuanced view over this series. I do feel like it has been getting too much negative reactions because there are enough things to like about it, and I want to highlight this series from a different perspective.
Yeah, so what if Kyoani doesn’t animate this. I actually don’t consider them to be that much better than JC Staff to be honest. Yeah sure, their animation is better, but they also keep making shows I’m not interested in. JC Staff also has these series, but they also make plenty of interesting shows, on top of shows that sound cliched, but are surprisingly well executed (Kimi to Boku, Milky Holmes, Yumekui Merry, Kamisama no Memo-Chou, Otome Youkai Zakuro, Aoi Hana, Nodame Cantabile, etc).
Now, the worst part of Little Busters BY FAR is the voice acting. I managed to get used to all of the characters by now, except for ONE: Komari. Dear god, she is annoying. Every time she opens her mouth something horrible comes out. And it doesn’t help that she’s trying to be incredibly ditzy and klutzy. This girl. Who the heck thought that that voice would fit her well!?
Now, with the key visual novel adaptations, the worst characters also get their arcs in first, and that very much is the case here. Nanami indeed is the worst key character so far, although she still is not without her merits: her story is at least more interesting than Kanon’s Uguu-girl, the previous holder of this title. The people around her: I find them actually very interesting, that missing brother and the grandfather, to the point where they actually make up for her annoyingness.
What also is a huge plus for this series: the chemistry between the characters. That is something of a pet peeves of mine: if the chemistry is good, then I can let a lot of things slide because I’m enjoying myself. And it’s not like this show is particularly funny or anything, but the side-characters all feel genuine. The cast is also quite large and full of interesting characters that aren’t just girls, unlike what you’d expect from other visual novels. The chemistry in this series is not of the kind that is immediately enjoyable, but the kind that makes me go “that was actually pretty fun” afterwards. I like this effect a lot actually, and for that, plus the promise that this series has for its future episodes makes me want to blog it.
But dear lord… I do hope that upcoming Winter will be a small season…
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)
Hi psgels, I just wanted to say I’ve been reading your blog for what like a month now maybe and i really like it. Obviously I disagree with some things but overall our taste is pretty similar. I actually found you on mal the other day which I also just signed upto. I sent you a friend request so I hope you add me. Ok now little busters for me is interesting because the only character I like is the kendo guy with white (I’m quite horrible with names actually) hair and the long black haired girl. The rest are just really annoying. Actually if this show was related to key I would of dropped it by the third episode ( 3 ep test guys ) because it really didn’t improve. Also you may or may not of noticed this but e other key series have this addicting nature about them which is one of the reasons so many people have atleast seen one of them. This one lacks that. I really hope this show starts to get better because I admit I was really excited for this and I do like the character designs. One last thing, they play this track whenever there is ment to be an emotional scene, yeah this will bug me if it continues I every episode.
Honey and clover, Utena and Toradora too. Jc staff makes great series too.
though Toradora is quite nice if I remember correctly psgels hated it bec. of VA of Taiga who is KuguRie XD
I don’t hold it against him. I also hate KugiRie with a passion. Except in her Alphone role and the Girl in Kyousogiga. She was also annoying in Toradora though the series itself was quite nice.
About LB!: I dropped it after 1 Episode because of the horrible Voice Acting. Seriously. That one Girl sounded like she inhaled helium. Absolutely horrendous.
But I’m not that much of a KEY Fan in general. The only series I was able to watch was Angel Beats, and that one also had its problems. Though I admit, the Yui Episode was fantastic.
KEY has these aboslutely horribly annoying characters. Clannad had them, Air had them and Kanon, too. I tried every one of those. And dropped them faster than a hot potato. Gruesome.
In case you missed it, I’ll say it again – I think SAO’s second arc is the worst of the novel series. It may be better to wait until the third arc is animated, if you feel like you’re about to get burnt out on it.
Yay! You picked up Little Busters and dropped SAO! psgels, it’s official; my opinion of you skyrocketed now :)!
I think Tsumikiya Ayu and her “Uguu~” pretty cute, but yes, Komari’s voice causes major seizure. Lol. Let’s hope that her arc finish quickly. She’s just my hitting target in the baseball minigame, anyway.
When you start a series you should finish it, if you want just the good parts and skip the bad parts you’re a coward. You need to accept both the good and the bad. Also you don’t even know how it will end, the good stuff of the 2nd arc is yet to come, everybody is waiting to see Asuna back in action.
I’m really disappointed with you.
Absolute nonsense! What a person chooses to write about on a personal own blog is entirely their business. It is in no way cowardice to realize that you find little of merit in a series & decide to stop wasting your own time ceaselessly complaining about it. The spineless thing to do would be to carry on appeasing those that refuse to accept the show has problems, or to blame the faults on the adaptation, rather than the core material.
Now I profess to not being a fan of either Little Busters or SAO. I dropped the former at episode two, while I see the latter as little more than bad comedy; however, the issue isn’t what the reader wants to see, but rather what the writer feels happy discussing. If Psgels feels there’s more substance to LB, then that’s his choice. I’m sure it’s more preferable to a continuing stream of negative episodic reviews that serve only to exasperate both him & SAO’s fan base.
SAO was given more than enough chances to utilize its setting & characters. Instead it chose deus ex machinas, contrivances & turning every female into a prize to be won by Kirito’s Gary Stu character. If SAO wants to be a straight-up fanservice show then fair enough, but don’t have a go at others for finding little of merit to discuss. If you check out other episodic reviews on other sites, you’ll see that Star Crossed has been fairer & less quick to nit-pick than most bloggers.
Errr… excuse me? Assoona gets into action? No way. Not in this 2nd arc. Not in 3rd arc either. Does she even get into action in 1st arc?
Gary Stu pawned the 1st floor boss by himself. Check.
Gary Stu pawned bapho-tan by himself. Check.
Gary Stu fought Heathcliff with her as a betting item. Check.
She saved his life from Kuradeel, but Gary Stu saved her life from Kuradeel too, sacrificed his hand to protect her. Check.
She became his meatshield from Kayaba’s attack, but then Gary Stu cleared the game by himself using his miracle. Check.
He said he is still going to watch and finish it; he’s just not blogging about it anymore. (You might have been skimming through his post at the time, or maybe only glanced at the beginning and then started ranting.) It’s better that he watch something that he believes will generate more than a “This is really nonsensical and stupid” response from him. If he believes it improved significantly enough to redeem itself, perhaps he’ll make another episode post for it before he gives a review of the entire series.
Maaan, you guys sure hate Kirito a lot. Sounds to me like someone’s jealous. 😉
I’m quite sure we’re jealous to see so little effort in a storyline getting the credit it’s getting (Cough Twilight Cough).
The best part of the original Saint Seiya anime (without counting the Hades OVAs) was the 12 Zodiac Temples arc.
I am not saying the Omega version is going to be good, but this is what a lot of old fans were waiting for.
“Ah, screw Sword Art Online.” Now that´s music to my ears.
As a VN player I can say that Little Busters is indeed interesting and since its getting a second season to deal with refrain its arcs can be dealt with no pacing problems and yes Komari(Kud might be a loli but her engrish is funny and a lot less annoying than komari horrible voice) is not one of the strong points of LB and its good that they are getting this done now because the rest of the arcs are a lot more interesting and less annoying. But I have to admit that komari´s dead eye moment is striking to watch be it in the VN or in the anime .
after komari routh we will back to the slow common routh with show the rest of the characters but the good news about it is we will see mio in episode 10 i think her routh was the best in the game
Komari Komari…. hopefully you will be back to normal.
Actually I think Komari’s voice is more annoying in the VN than in the anime – but then, for those who don’t like it the VN has the option to disable it (though I don’t recommend it). Homewer, I think her arc is the best – simple but well executed. Let’s see how it will play in the anime.
Now, looking to the PV, I do wonder if Kyousuke will get more participation in this arc than he did in the VN. Not that I’m complaining – more Kyousuke is always good! xD
omega is bad? it’s probably the best series from the frachise!
Clannad had Fuuko first didn’t it? At least the Sunohara arc wasn’t first =P
Anyway, I really do love the cast. The other male members and the purple haired girl are awesome. The main character is also likable, but his/her voice acting is grating. Why didn’t they just have a man do his voice?
Komari’s voice is so painful to listen to. It actually killed a lot of the emotional impact for me.
Riki sounds a lot more like a guy here than he did in the VN. Also, his effeminacy is actually a plot point.