Compared to this, Symphogear’s rise in quality is nothing.
So the first season of Little Busters! was crap. I said as much in my actually quite generous review, and the disappointment I felt at JC Staff handling it actually made one my 12 days posts last year. It was poorly directed, poorly animated, had crap writing and far too absurd premises for its arcs. Everything that I liked about KyoAni’s Key adaptations was not there at all. So picking up Little Busters!: Refrain was not necessarily an easy decision. Why bother watching more of a series when it had already burned you so badly once before?
I guess I picked up Refrain out of what I believe at the time to be a misplaced hope. “The refrain arc is the best in the entire visual novel!” I had been told on more than one occasion. “Jun Maeda describes it as the best thing he’s written!” is something else I had heard. It began to sound like the equivalent of Clannad: After Story, with the exception that Clannad itself was good. So yeah, I gave it a shot. My expectations were low – I was thinking it’d just be a bit better than the first series – but upon watching the first episode, it… turned out to be more of the same. Hmm.
The pacing was far too fast; the drama was forced and piled on without time for build-up; Kuragaya’s characterisation veered wildly; it was all a bit of a mess really. Better than most of the first season (and actually animated in 720p!), but still not great. Still, I was feeling generous and optimistic and so gave Refrain another chance, and was pleasantly surprised at episode 2! It was fun, it was sentimental, it was emotional, and it was just rather lovely. A little bittersweet, but in a gratifying way. It was actually beginning to resemble what I had hoped the series to be from the very start!
And then episode 3 happened…
I had no idea what to say at the time. I still struggle to articulate my feelings. I still don’t know how it happened, but episode 3 was a freaking masterpiece. Everything – everything – I loved about the KyoAni Key adaptations was suddenly here. The magical, dream-like atmosphere, the imaginative and evocative direction, the amazing use of music, and the sheer emotion flowing out of every scene, episode 3 captured all of it masterfully. I had no words! I was left speechless, and in shock! This was still being handled by JC Staff, the director had not changed, so where did this sudden burst of quality come from?!
It shouldn’t have been possible. How could it have been possible? I’ve been questioning it, in a light daze of confusion, ever since then. At the time I was thinking that it had to have been a fluke, that if you throw enough shit at the wall eventually something will stick, but it wasn’t! The episode following it was better still! And the one after that! And the one after that!
Little Busters!: Refrain took a series that had become a joke and turned it into one of the best fucking series that season! It even managed to justify the arcs in the first series, making them valuable and actually more emotional and powerful in retrospect!
With the ending still a couple of episodes away at time of writing, it could still easily fuck itself over, but I’m honestly of the belief that it won’t. What I’ve seen from Little Busters!: Refrain indicates that it can’t. Everything has just been too good for too long for something like that to happen. And even if it does go to shit, it doesn’t change just how wonderfully shocking the third episode was. I have never seen such a huge and sudden leap in quality within a single series, and it’s all the more impressive for happening in a genre which can be exceedingly hard to pull off.
If you watched the first season of Little Busters! and made the understandable decision to not bother with Refrain, you should get on that because you are honestly missing out. At least keep at it until the third episode; I have a feeling you’ll feel the same way I do.
IMO, the Kurugaya route was the strongest of all the Little Busters routes. If you loved the Rin route, the ride doesn’t stop all the way into Episode 11’s Parting of the Boys, and maybe even Episode 12. Episode 3, I agree with you was genius – it’s no coincidence that it’s the most closely intertwined with the Secret of the World. There’s a reason why Anego is so popular.
Although, I am of the opinion that the strongest material in the first season was ironically Kud’s route, not that it was a tall order to clear, the First Season was disappointing to say the least. Part of the inherent problem in the first season was that they had to axe all hints of romance out, and that really made the routes very hard to capture in anime form. I suspect the only reason why they showed one of the few high points of the First Season, the body painting scene in the Kud Route, and adapted it so well compared to the rest of the first season was because JC Staff wanted to do Kud Wafter – otherwise, they would have omitted everything remotely related to romance in that route.
As for Kurugaya, because they kept most of the romance in, it became very strong and well adapted, because it suffered the least amount of “creative” changes (with the exception of Love Love Hunters not being fully adapted).
And Refrain really follows the VN quite closely, although things have been compressed for the sake of time and pacing.
Although you might want to rewatch some of the routes of the first season after the end. It’ll be fun to spot all the foreshadowing (Mio and Kud’s route is heavy with foreshadowing, Kud route makes sense once you know the Secret of the World, and so too does Mio.)
Here’s a scary thought – the First season of LB might have been stronger, had they shown us the Bad Ends, though that would have given away the loop nature of the world. Something very similar happens in Kurugaya’s case – what they showed in the anime is not the “Good End”, because the “good end” is not compatible with Riki and Rin’s relationship.
I think the two major problems I had with Kud’s arc was that a) what she got involved in was just a ridiculous turn for the story to take, and b) she’s basically a child, so the body-painting and romantic subtext therein just creeped me out. But I don’t know if you couldn’t have kept the romantic elements – Clannad and Kanon both generally retained them for all the girls, while still going for the true ending. But then I haven’t played any of the VNs, so I can’t say for sure whether their narrative structure supported that approach to the adaptation.
But yeah, I have to agree that the romantic elements of the Kurugaya arc did work hugely in its favour.
Maybe I’ll rewatch those arcs – even thinking back on them, I can see where the foreshadowing would come in. In retrospect the first season definitely feels more like setup for Refrain than anything, and it’s a shame that it’s so unenjoyable without Refrain’s context.
I don’t about scary, but it’s certainly an interesting thought. Although I can’t imagine that the story would be stronger by revealing the nature of the world early on, though! Even though some MAJOR hints were dropped in the first season (I actually got spoiled for the fact that the world is in a loop (no more than that though), and so saw the hints for what they were super clearly).
Kud is a 16 years old. Trapped in a short, child like body. And that’s unfortunate – interestingly, your reactions from a meta-standpoint reflects how she’s regarded by others in-story too. Again, if I was to axe visual descriptions out, and go by dialogues, beyond the verbal tic of Wafuu, there isn’t a child behind there, but a very insecure adolescent – in terms of maturity, I think she’s further ahead than Haruka or say Komari (and far far from Rin), that’s of course subjective. It starts with her looks – listening carefully reveals that she acknowledges that she appears much younger than she is supposed to be, and that she’s not pleased with that particular state of affairs , since she does not want to be treated like a Child. There’s one angle to view her approach to Riki- by engaging in romantic subtext, she’s trying to make it clear to Riki that she is not the child she looks like, and this is something she cannot get most of the others to acknowledge.
In part, what she got involved in was ridiculous, precisely because she was in the Dream World, and therefore, this was her self-induced nightmare that she imposed on herself out of guilt. It’s not made clear whether things really got that insane in the real-world. Kud Wafter indicates that Kud’s mother is well and alive, and it takes place in an alternate Summer where the Bus Accident that caused the Little Busters story did not happen.
In-fact, it’s an ambiguous question of how much what happened inside the Little Busters world really happened in the Real World.
At least, that’s my take on it. She’s actually the least troubled of any of the girls, at the very least. I would say though, among those who read the VN (or played through it) , Kud’s route is a hit or miss, among the English audience. She’s popular enough to get a Spinoff though – I’ve only read the manga adaptation, but it’s seems better than Tomoya After by miles.
The narrative structures were far better suited for an Omnibus approach, not a linear time-line. Kurugaya was the most blatant reset even in the VN. However, the romances in some of the routes can be quite…hmm, troubling to say the least. Haruka has huge dependency issues, and suicidal tendencies, for one. Mio is a recovering Schizophrenic, and her romance is very much driven on Midori’s end… etc…etc. It’s not surprising that these two are the least popular of the girls.
You are right. The first season tried to set up Refrain, though I think the first route, Komari did a terrible job of it, and happened too early. A terrible voice actor whose voice sounds like Cat nails screeching across chalkboard really did not help matters – which is a shame, because the run up to refrain makes her far more interesting than in her route herself. Mio’s shadow is the first hint at what the nature of the world is. Haruka had not much relevance to Refrain (really, her entire story is a commentary on Child Abuse, and I think it should be judged on that scale – one could say that it’s a commentary of why dating someone who suffered from Child Abuse can be very challenging). Kud’s “I remember everything” and the Deus Ex Machina ending was the most blatant hint of all, before Kurugaya and the time-loops.
In part, I think it’s all to do with time, because when you go into romance, all those issues that the Anime barely scratch the surface of becomes all the more critical, and it can take time to tackle them well. Also, it doesn’t really square well with “Little Busters is all about Friendship” theme that they really tried to push, I imagine.
I would theorize that Kurugaya and Kud’s route were kept the most intact, in part, because their issues, while certainly serious could be more easily captured in the episodes available. Also, it’s because Kurugaya and Kud really starts to hint at what’s going on inside the Little Buster’s world, so it’s natural they left both routes for last.
Now, there’s one way they could have kept the romance, and reveal part of the secret early on without giving everything away. Firstly, they should have extended the Common Route instead of plunging straight into Komari’s route. Secondly, they should have started with Kurugaya’s route instead, to make it clear that the world is looping (and really wowing the audience, since early episodes count so much – I think alot of people dropped Little Busters with Komari’s route, it really was that bad).
With that established, they could capture the rest of the routes as best as the screen time allocated allows them, without having to make huge alterations to write out every hint of romance they could. And the main reason why they axed romance was because romance was not compatible with a linear format. That’s one way LB might have been handled better, without revealing the full Secret of the World.
I recall another critique quite early on in the first season among those who knew the Secret of the World, revolving how Riki’s character development was compromised by the linear format, since it was the mistakes done in the loops that made Riki grow. Had they revealed the loops early on, we could have actually gotten Riki’s breakdown in the Komari route, or for example, Haruka’s suicide bad end, and created a picture of how Riki grew by overcoming each Loop.
Chronologically speaking, Little Busters was written before Maeda’s next work, which was Angel Beats. There alot of clear influences between the two, (and with Clannad, and earlier works). Angel Beats explores what happens if all the participants knew the “Secret of the World”. (The secret being that the world is a shared dream). Ironically, there is indeed a good example for what happens in the scenario where everyone knows the nature of the world – that’s Angel Beats in a nutshell, although the Angel Beats Dream is not between friends, but rather between strangers. And Clannad was the dying dream of Father and Daughter. Little Busters stands in the middle, by being the dying dream of friends.
There’s nothing more I feel I can contribute to this little discussion – your comment both captures some of my underlying sentiments really well, revealed some stuff I didn’t know, presented some arguments that I can’t help but agree with, and is otherwise a pretty fucking excellent, fascinating and insightful read. So thanks a lot for spending the time to leave such a comment! I really appreciate it! You’ve definitely helped give me a far greater appreciation about what Little Busters! is trying to accomplish, and the thought that went into it.
I guess the only thing I have to add is that while your argument re: Kud’s child-like qualities is certainly a convincing one, the cynical side of me is inclined to believe that at least her appearance and some of the more childish mannerisms was basically just to add some level of ‘lolicon appeal’ or however you’d like to phrase it to the mix. While it may work thematically with her character development, it still feels a little sketchy I guess? It’s the whole ‘loli-in-all-but-age’ thing, which I just find a bit offputting.
” It’s the whole ‘loli-in-all-but-age’ thing, which I just find a bit offputting”
And it repeats itself in anime (and light novels, and VNs) again and again. Little Busters does suffer badly from this, and I do agree there’s probably a commercial and pandering aspect to it. It isn’t just limited to Little Buster’s genre, it’s found in quite a few other genres.
Though in the cases I can name off hand (Negima and Monogatari), the gap between appearances and actual age is Centuries not five or six years, and the characters inflicted by it alternate between acting child-like, and acting as if they were old crones. What I find fascinating (in a morbid sort of way) is that it seems to indicate some sort of dissonance in cultural values here. This could easily be a very long topic in itself (=….