Little Busters!: Become stronger

[MangaRocks!]

...I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one wholeheartedly enjoying this here, LOL... :P

Anyway, episode 7:

Well, the fight was pretty silly (...more than usual, I mean ) and not as funny as the previous fights had been, but I did have to LOL at the title Masato was addressed with for the entire episode afterwards.

And I was wondering when Haruka was going to join the group. Turns out she has a pretty fun personality.

[blkmage]

The fights are one of the things I've been interested in seeing how they adapt. So far, they're adapting the necessary fights, so I'm still wondering if they're going to introduce the whole thing and adapt it like they've been doing with baseball.

Haruka's schtick is that she's basically a huge troll. In terms of adaptation, nothing particularly wrong except for the lack of interaction between her and Kurugaya.

It looks like we won't be diving into the next character route yet and will be staying on the common route, since next week will be a Kud episode.

[blkmage]

Best episode so far. I was surprised that they decided to let Rin make it into the classroom successfully; the Rin toss was a minigame. Also had a feeling that they'd make Kanata the roommate; this is one of the parts of the story where the game let you make a choice, although we saw almost all the possible responses. I wouldn't have chosen the roommate search as the place to introduce Mio though. Anyhow, it looks like a winning formula for a good episode is to include more Kud and more anego.

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 8:

LOL, that was both hilarious and cute. :hug: (And aw, so Kanata has a nice side, too. ) Loved it as always!

[blkmage]

An entire episode spent on the cafeteria minigame. At least they replicated the experience properly.

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 9:

Heh, I thought this ep. was pretty cute. (And I'm continuing to love all the little things that SPOILER: Highlight text to read: hint at and connect into the bigger plot, too.) Plus the friendship, of course.

So yep, as always, I enjoyed it!

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 10: As usual, LOL at the beginning.

And ah, so now SPOILER: Highlight text to read: their team is finally complete. I look forward to seeing Mio's backstory in the future.

[blkmage]

A pretty good episode. I was never able to take the mysterious creature down in the game, so the reveal for that was new to me.

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 11: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: LOL, Tweety. <3

And it looks like it's going back to another character route starting next week. Slightly surprised that they're doing Mio's next-- I would've figured that the next one would've been one of the characters that had been introduced earlier than her-- but I'm definitely not complaining.

Looking forward to the next ep., as always!

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I can genuinely say that I was expecting such a terrifying creature to be in a Test of Courage episode. Especially when Kyousuke hugged it -shudder-

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 12: That was hilarious! And nice bit of intrigue in the last few minutes, too.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Didn't particularly like the drama (surprise!) but the comedy this episode was fantastic and had me lol'ing at multiple points, especially Kyousuke's dilemma at the beginning.

[blkmage]

So while we all wait for the next episode of Little Busters, I spent some time reading Rewrite, which is Key's next game after Little Busters if you don't count Kud Wafter. I figured the only people who'd care are anyone who still cares about Little Busters. So!

Rewrite is a significant departure from Key's previous works for a few reasons. The main reason is that Chief Crymaker Maeda Jun stepped down as a scenarist, so he has nothing to do with any of the writing. In his place, Key managed to recruit Tanaka Romeo, who was responsible for several critically acclaimed VNs but you'll all know him best as the author of the light novels Humanity Has Declined, which got its anime last summer.

Tanaka Romeo's stuff is generally not as subtly depressing and amusing as Jintai is. In fact, his stuff sort of follows the same Key formula, where we start off with school life and branch off into deeper things. Except, where Key has generally went with supernatural and interpersonal relationship drama and sadness, Tanaka Romeo likes to play with more psychological ideas and sociological commentary.

To give an idea of what I'm talking about, here are the two opening sequences to Rewrite: Philosophyz and Rewrite

Only the character routes and the common route are translated, but already, I can tell you that each of the character routes in Rewrite are good. If you remember what I've said about character routes in past Key games, you'll know this is huge, because I've never liked them. The main difference is that there's a lot more at stake in each of the Rewrite character routes and that things of consequence actually happen. Each route is fairly substantial and as far as I can tell, it's not just fodder for the "real" story like Clannad's or Little Busters' were. It always seemed to me like Key treated their characters with kids' gloves until it was time for drama, but Tanaka Romeo has no problem absolutely wrecking things. It definitely makes things a lot more exciting.

Of course, this is all tentative since I can't play the final routes yet, but if they're anything like the character routes have been, I won't have any complaints.

[blkmage]

Back to Little Busters chat, pretty good episode this week. While the conflict comes straight out of the Key playbook, it is probably one of the better character routes.

[MangaRocks!]

Yay, the continuing Fall shows are finally starting to get over their breaks!

Episode 13: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah. I know why it's possible, however it should be interesting to see the actual backstory/reasons for the memory-erasure and (seemingly) split bodies (with no shadows) there.

[blkmage]

oh boy this is on crunchyroll now so we're allowed to watch it

[MangaRocks!]

^ LOL. But that's awesome! *goes off to add to the queue*

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 14:

Wow, that was pretty excellent. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: First: Ah, so in real life Mio was delusional, and Midori was an imaginary twin sister she had been forced to forget. But, wow, I seriously got a chill when Mio said the thing about the coffin and it was clear she intended to commit suicide. That whole conversation right on through to the end was pretty emotional ("We're alive!"), and the montage of scenes at the close left me with a smile.

[blkmage]

Episode 14:

Wow, that was pretty excellent. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: First: Ah, so in real life Mio was delusional, and Midori was an imaginary twin sister she had been forced to forget. But, wow, I seriously got a chill when Mio said the thing about the coffin and it was clear she intended to commit suicide. That whole conversation right on through to the end was pretty emotional ("We're alive!"), and the montage of scenes at the close left me with a smile.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: She wasn't going to commit suicide.

She was literally going to switch places with Midori. Remember that Midori is not only a product of Mio's imagination but also her literal shadow. When she switches places, Midori doesn't have a shadow because Mio's the shadow now. What she intended to do was to simply be forgotten, which would've been extremely easy for someone with her personality. That is, she wasn't doing anything actively to disappear, she just was and then she would've been free. And everything would've worked out except that a certain guy didn't forget her.
Anyway, I know a lot of people are waiting for next week.

[MangaRocks!]

^ Hmm... SPOILER: Highlight text to read: well, between 'wanting to disappear' itself (as a depressed Riki also once did, before he was saved by the Little Busters), the mention of the coffin, her basically being symbolically buried in the ocean (with Riki having to go under to reach her), and the "We're alive!" comments afterward, the implications seemed pretty clear. And I do know that they're not exactly in the real world at the moment, so yes, it's not like she could've really killed herself there; but to disappear from the world (and to do so with all the hints and symbolism and emotion surrounding it) felt essentially the same (or at least it did to me ). Either way, though, I'm just glad she was saved.

[blkmage]

There's absolutely an important distinction.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: It's why I said that she doesn't do anything actively, but accepts her fate passively. She wants to disappear, but she doesn't want to do so because she doesn't like the world that she's in or she doesn't like herself. But she's a shadow. Her personality and character is one that fades away. The reason she switches places with Midori is because it's a shame that someone who isn't a shadow by character would have to fade away like that, and it's something which she is perfectly fine doing. There's a certain subtle beauty in that sort of transience, which is related to the Japanese concept of mono no aware, and is something that someone as well-read as Mio would have noticed about her mindset.

[blkmage]

~changes~ to the OP, what could they mean?

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 15:

......What the... what did I just watch? I mean, pretty much every part with the guys was hilarious, but the rest was just... oh dear. Poor Riki.

Looking forward to the next ep., though.

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 16:

Man, that was a nasty thing to do. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...On another note, though, why on earth does crazy-dad look pretty much *exactly* like Kyousuke?

[blkmage]

Haruka's route is the route I like the least, which is saying something.

Bad dad didn't have a sprite in the visual novel so his character design in the anime probably doesn't mean much.

[MangaRocks!]

Bad dad didn't have a sprite in the visual novel so his character design in the anime probably doesn't mean much.

Yeah, I figured it was probably something like that. Seriously, though...

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 17:

Yikes. Talk about a bad home life... Nice little twist at the end there, too; next episode should be interesting.

[MangaRocks!]

Episode 18:

Wow-- I guessed SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Kanata's life was just as hard as her sister's, but seeing those belt marks...

The end was really sweet, though.

[blkmage]

It seemed like they did some heavy cutting in this route. I remember Kanata and the dad being a lot more villainous and uncooperative before the resolution.

[KazeShiki]

It seemed like they did some heavy cutting in this route. I remember Kanata and the dad being a lot more villainous and uncooperative before the resolution.

They cut out a good 50% of the route such as SPOILER: Highlight text to read: The entire section of Haruka trying to find info on her real father, her shaky relationship with her parents which some argue is actually a refrain reference, and a lot of more specific details on what the 3 parents really did. And as you said, Kanata and the father were a lot more uncooperative as well. Actually, Kanata didn't even talk about her real reasoning for being so cruel to Haruka. I was hoping for bad end because it would actually work well in anime form but oh well.

P.S. I couldn't help but notice your avatar which looks as strong as 10 Yoshinos :3