Key’s series are… interesting. They always have their flaws, but when they hit, they really make for a home run for me. Their latest title is Little Busters and yeah… let’s not fool ourselves: it is their worst adaptation so far. It’s a show that has so many problems, but still: if you look beyond them you actually can get something quite good out of it.
So yeah… where to start? The format is known at this point: we have the male lead who moves between various female characters and solves their problems one by one, with random stuff inbetween. It’s a simple task, but… yeah. The creators did not spend a lot of thought on polishing this. Some of the voice actresses are actually abysmal at their job (especially girl #1), making their story painful to sit through. Then there is the way at which the show tries to rush through its story way too fast in order to be able to stuff everything in, resulting in a long-string of infodumps that just fail to engage. And then there are some stories that are inherently just completely bad and stupid, where resolutions make no sense, or people overreact for no reasons just to create drama. Whenever this series tries to get dramatic, it falls into this horrible mess of bad execution and only one of the girls really ends up doing well there.
And yet… I managed to finish this series. The reason for that was all the stuff inbetween the big arcs. The slice of life, the random goofing off. For some bizarre reason, this show is actually really good at just fleshing out its cast. Rather than your standard harem, there are actually other male characters who aren’t cliches, and these guys are actually really interesting to watch. Why couldn’t they have had their own arcs? And beyond that it is just a very fun group of friends to watch. Screw the drama! This would have actually made a fine slice of life series there. The cast is varied, and even though there are a bunch of stereotypes, everyone just fills in for each other. The bond between the rather large cast of main characters is quite well done.
Do I recommend this then? Nah. It just takes way too long for these strengths to really show, and there is A LOT of crap you have to go through, just to be able to enjoy the good parts. Little Busters is… misguided. At this point it nearly seems like a build-up just for Refrain, which apparently is supposed to be amazing. But my opinion about those kinds of series is simple: DO NOT make me sit thruogh an entire season of build-up. I’ve got better things to do!
One-Sentence Review: This show is quite good at just goofing off and doing random staff. It’s quite bad when it goes really dramatic.
Suggestions:
– Clannad
– Air
– Ano Hana
“Rather than your standard harem, there are actually other male characters who aren’t cliches, and these guys are actually really interesting to watch. Why couldn’t they have had their own arcs?”
Actually Refrain does that. 90% of the Refrain is actually one big arc for all the male characters.
Anyway, since I’ve played the VN I’ll say that this was actually a very good adaption, although clearly not a very great show. I’d actually give it what you gave it. The only arc I think that really got messed up was Haruka’s due to omitting several things that made the anime version make less sense, but there was a lot of improvement from the VN.
But yeah something tells me you will really love the next season: Refrain. Kurugaya’s arc combines the comedy and drama the best and has the least conventional ending of any arc made by Key except for maybe Air’s last arc, Refrain completely focuses on the guys and Rin is After Story quality material.
Do you need to watch this season of LB to watch Refrain? I’ve seen about 3 episodes, but Refrain seems interesting.
Well you definitely should, but if you want to just watch the important episodes, I suggest you watch Episodes 7-10, 12-15 and 19-26. 15 really isn’t important, but it is hilarious. Basically all those episodes except perhaps episode 9 are really good. Basically you won’t miss anything important if you skip the others.
Okay, psgels. Now that you ended up sitting through the entire build-up series, you’ve got nothing to lose when “Little Busters! Refrain” comes out, right? =P
I agree with the review, but you should watch out for your ellipsis points (…) and your “yeah”s 😉
they omited a lot of many arcs, they omited the epilogue of komari arc, ignored COMPLETLY kurugaya arc, omited DAYS in saigusa arc, and yet there still refrain to come wich actually is the biggest part of the serie also the way in wich they made the serie sort of confused up everything from my perspective
Well they had to cut out komari’s epilogue because there was no romance and jc staff made their own epilogue. The same thing goes for Haruka’s arc and it isn’t important in the Refrain anyway. And they are doing kurugaya next season so don’t jump to conclusions. Jc staff already has done a more complete job with LB then kyo-ani did with clannad.
I have a question psgels. What did you think of the potential mystery in the series that made itself apparent in the last quarter of the show.
Any way, I giving this show a very high 7/10. I actually enjoyed this more than Clannad’s first season though which I gave a low 7/10, although clearly it is below all the others (Toei’s Kanon does not exist).
Anyway, I giving this show a very high 7/10. I actually enjoyed this more than Clannad’s first season though which I gave a low 7/10, although clearly it is below all the others (Toei’s Kanon does not exist).
I thought this was a decent adaptation. Decent, and that’s it.
I’ve only played some common route stuff in the VN, so I don’t know how well the girls’ routes were adapted from the VN, but I thought the common route stuff was adapted very well. I just wish that each route had more episodes to be fleshed out in. I only really liked Mio’s and Haruka’s routes.
I also think that the flow of the show was kind of choppy in terms of easing in and out of the drama and character routes.
I do love the characters though, particularly the guys, Rin, and Komari.
I’m looking forward to Refrain. I’ve watched a play through of it, and it’s amazing.
If at all possible, could you delete one of my above posts. I accidently entered it twice.
Anyway, I really can’t wait to see Kurugaya’s arc. I absolutely love her character. Not only is she just as much one of the guys as she is the girls (Which makes her perfect for Riki as he is just as much one of the girls (He has those Moe points) as he is the guys), but she’s incredibly hot. I think we can all agree on that. Right?
You complete missed the point of an adaptation and key novels in general man. “Screw the drama.” Why on earth are you watching an adaptation then; it’s kinda impossible to change the story dude. None of this is the fault of JC if you hate drama, blame the damn people who wrote the story lol. Also male cast in season 2.
And if girl 1 = rin ? Wha… That’s the same VA for the VN AFAIK.
Girl 1 would be Komari (And her voice IS horrible).
And I don’t think psgels has anything against drama or drama in Key, he just didn’t think it was good in Little Busters. And where did he ever blame JC Staff?
I have to say this. The LB adaptation is horrid, compared to the KyoAni Key adapts IMO. But for what’s given, it is solid, in its own way.
As was said before, Komari’s voice is horrible. It was too shrill and too squeaky at the same time, which wouldn’t be too much of a problem except for one other thing: her direction and skill. Way off base IMO…
Now as far as the trimming of certain arcs; not particularly bad (who can honestly cram over 40+ hrs into a modern anime these days? Or at least successfully), but the direction felt completely rushed, taking away the subtlety of the drama, hence making the resolutions make no sense whatsoever (and anyone who’s looked at the original VN can see why, particularly with Kurugaya and Haruka, who’s arc is more sad than one may think. And what’s up with Kud-chan in this adapt?)