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REVIEW: Little Busters! Episodes 1-6 Streaming


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_Archer_



Joined: 23 Feb 2012
Posts: 110
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 12:20 pm Reply with quote
To be perfectly honest, I didn't really like LB! when I played it, and I agree with most of your complaints in the review and am happy that this anime didn't end up as another Tsukihime at least(though expecting good Visual Novel adaptations is like expecting a good video game based on a movie). Some of your complaints seem to stem from a lack of knowledge of future events in the story, which is of course understandable. What really bugs me about your review are these two lines:

Quote:

Little Busters! is adapted from a visual novel by Key, the group behind triple hanky tragedy-fests like Clannad and Kanon, and the first thing it does right is to play against type.

Eventually Busters moves into more familiar territory for its creators.

Either it has been a long time since you've seen a Key work (going only by anime, the last Key work before this was Angel Beats IIRC) or your knowledge of how Key works is lacking. What Little Busters! does before the start of its "tragedy-fests" aka having light-hearted themes and being fun, absolutely does not go against any "type" or "familiar setting" from Key. In fact, that's perfectly normal of any Key work, and fits in with such tropes just fine. All Key works follow the same exact formula of "Happy fun story for the first part, then slowly moving into depressing territory before becoming flat out depressing, only to then either have a happy ending or a sad one." This formula of story telling is what made Key famous in the first place and why their works were so influential in its genre. LB! isn't doing anything different than normal for Key works, and the story certainly isn't moving from less familiar territory to more familiar territory. It's simply doing what all Key works do.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:13 pm Reply with quote
As a huge fan of the original VN (Its my favorite VN of all time), I gotta agree that the anime itself doesn't live up to expectations at all.. I enjoy it as fanservice to see characters I love and scenes I remember fondly being animated, but thats about it. At least in recent weeks ever since Kuds route started, JC Staff has been pumping more budget into it (which is no surprise, since Kud is the most popular girl) and theres been better direction as well.

The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though. The first part of VN is only a 8/10 or so (and honestly Komari is the worst route)... but its the best story I've ever read in any form of literature/media when it gets to Refrain. It has even more emotional impact than After Story did in my case.
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nhat



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 922
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:34 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
As a huge fan of the original VN (Its my favorite VN of all time), I gotta agree that the anime itself doesn't live up to expectations at all.. I enjoy it as fanservice to see characters I love and scenes I remember fondly being animated, but thats about it. At least in recent weeks ever since Kuds route started, JC Staff has been pumping more budget into it (which is no surprise, since Kud is the most popular girl) and theres been better direction as well.

The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though. The first part of VN is only a 8/10 or so (and honestly Komari is the worst route)... but its the best story I've ever read in any form of literature/media when it gets to Refrain. It has even more emotional impact than After Story did in my case.


I didn't have high expectations for JC staff to do a good adaptation of a VN compare to Kyoani and Whitefox. It's unfortunately really that more studios can't adapt VN well but only a handful.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Is this the show with loli tossing?
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:04 pm Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
Is this the show with loli tossing?


I think I know the .gif you're talking about and yes, it is.
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tangytangerine



Joined: 28 Feb 2010
Posts: 439
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:09 pm Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
Is this the show with loli tossing?


Yep, it is. I think the gif is Kud getting tossed out of the storage room.

RyanSaotome wrote:
The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though.


Is there another season? Just the way it's going, it seems they're going to end on the Kud arc. But it's obvious even from the beginning of the show that Rin's arc needed to be touched on. Since from the beginning, it's shown that she obviously has problems being around people.
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dragonrider_cody



Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 2541
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:32 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
As a huge fan of the original VN (Its my favorite VN of all time), I gotta agree that the anime itself doesn't live up to expectations at all.. I enjoy it as fanservice to see characters I love and scenes I remember fondly being animated, but thats about it. At least in recent weeks ever since Kuds route started, JC Staff has been pumping more budget into it (which is no surprise, since Kud is the most popular girl) and theres been better direction as well.

The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though. The first part of VN is only a 8/10 or so (and honestly Komari is the worst route)... but its the best story I've ever read in any form of literature/media when it gets to Refrain. It has even more emotional impact than After Story did in my case.


JC Staff really isn't responsible for the budgeting. The production committee decides where and how the money gets spent.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:22 pm Reply with quote
dragonrider_cody wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
As a huge fan of the original VN (Its my favorite VN of all time), I gotta agree that the anime itself doesn't live up to expectations at all.. I enjoy it as fanservice to see characters I love and scenes I remember fondly being animated, but thats about it. At least in recent weeks ever since Kuds route started, JC Staff has been pumping more budget into it (which is no surprise, since Kud is the most popular girl) and theres been better direction as well.

The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though. The first part of VN is only a 8/10 or so (and honestly Komari is the worst route)... but its the best story I've ever read in any form of literature/media when it gets to Refrain. It has even more emotional impact than After Story did in my case.


JC Staff really isn't responsible for the budgeting. The production committee decides where and how the money gets spent.

ya and they have been underfunding it like mad. the seires is one of the best selling for the past season (and assuming they don't pull an umineko it is will continue to).
That said I don't know why but little animation is weak there is little else to say. I have heard a lot of people blaming it on the pacing and direction killing the characters (which I believe based on the examples I have heard but can not say for sure about, since I have not read the novel yet.) this anime is no clannad at least in the first 8 episodes, not even close. that said it might have to do with me marathoning clannad for full arcs versus serialized like I did for little busters.
I should also note I dislike the character designs for this series.

This is a pretty spot on review of the first six episodes except for two things.
first "animation that is only good enough to avoid looking cheap"
I am going to have to ask what the review feels looks like cheap animation because the animation in the opening is poor, especially the final segment where it takes 7 SECONDS for everyone to gather together. it looks like someone took the show and reduced it down to 12 frames per second from 24 or 30 frames per second. it looks super cheap, it's in the opening, it has no background art, it looks like trash especially if you are looking at riki or rin.

Second a lot of people have told me they can't figure out what to do with masato (the martial arts guy) and I believe it, he is just as bad as komari only I at least felt sorry for her, and felt she was atleast interestingly written once they moved on from zany fun with her time.
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mistress_kisara



Joined: 15 Sep 2012
Posts: 210
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:05 pm Reply with quote
tangytangerine wrote:
v1cious wrote:
Is this the show with loli tossing?


Yep, it is. I think the gif is Kud getting tossed out of the storage room.

Actually it was Haruka Cool
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:18 pm Reply with quote
tangytangerine wrote:
v1cious wrote:
Is this the show with loli tossing?


Yep, it is. I think the gif is Kud getting tossed out of the storage room.

RyanSaotome wrote:
The adaption comes down to how well Refrain is done next season, though.


Is there another season? Just the way it's going, it seems they're going to end on the Kud arc. But it's obvious even from the beginning of the show that Rin's arc needed to be touched on. Since from the beginning, it's shown that she obviously has problems being around people.


The producer has already pretty much announced a 2nd season.

http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=511559

And the TV listings say that spoiler[It'll end with the common route, so it won't touch onto Rin or Kurugayas's routes in the 1st season].

http://blog-imgs-51.fc2.com/y/a/r/yaraon/fsdf_20130309171456.jpg

At the rate they're going, especially since twitter leaked the Sasami route and Saya was in the original trailer, theres no way they finish it under 48 or so episodes.
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rizuchan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 974
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:25 pm Reply with quote
As with Kanon and Clannad, I think each arc of Little Busters is hit-or-miss. I personally love Komari, so I was quickly drawn in to Little Busters, but I remember sitting painfully through the first arc of Kanon, hating the character it was about. Anyone who thinks Komari is annoying, but likes the other characters, should give LB a chance with the other stories.

Even having played the visual novel, I think the anime has done a perfectly fine job. I do think some of the pacing could be better; it especially shows in some of the more dramatic scenes. But even knowing what happens, its the show of the past two seasons I have consistently looked forward to every week.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I am going to have to ask what the review feels looks like cheap animation because the animation in the opening is poor, especially the final segment where it takes 7 SECONDS for everyone to gather together. it looks like someone took the show and reduced it down to 12 frames per second from 24 or 30 frames per second. it looks super cheap, it's in the opening, it has no background art, it looks like trash especially if you are looking at riki or rin.


Um...nearly ALL animation is done at 12 FPS or 8FPS. Only movies ever even reach 24FPS (no animation goes at 30FPS as far as I know) and even then that's usually for the "big" scenes.
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Melanchthon



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 550
Location: Northwest from Here
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:41 pm Reply with quote
I only watched the first episode back in the fall, and I remember I was distinctly underwhelmed but this attempt. Especially when comparing it to Key's previous production of Angel Beats, which was my #1 show of 2010. From this review (very nicely written by the way. Outstanding job) it appears the flaws that I identified were only magnified with time. And since I found the random-object-battle and bad-social-advice gags to be horribly un-funny, hearing that they are repeated ad nauseum fills me with existential dread. For I do plan to watch the rest of this show someday, but I've been holding off on it due to fears of this show's quality, or lack there of, which this review has confirmed for me.

Interesting to hear about the poor performance of Yanase Natsumi. I've never heard of her before, and a look through her encyclopedia explains why. Of course, it only leads to questions of why an over-40 actress is playing a teen-age moe girl in a major anime production--especially since she's never held a major anime role before! I guess she must have been the original actress for the porno game, but surely they could have got someone better (most likely she was cheap and so far this whole production sounds cheap, as if they knew the otaku would buy it regardless).
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:45 pm Reply with quote
Melanchthon wrote:

I only watched the first episode back in the fall, and I remember I was distinctly underwhelmed but this attempt. Especially when comparing it to Key's previous production of Angel Beats, which was my #1 show of 2010. From this review (very nicely written by the way. Outstanding job) it appears the flaws that I identified were only magnified with time. And since I found the random-object-battle and bad-social-advice gags to be horribly un-funny, hearing that they are repeated ad nauseum fills me with existential dread. For I do plan to watch the rest of this show someday, but I've been holding off on it due to fears of this show's quality, or lack there of, which this review has confirmed for me. .


If you liked Angel Beats a lot, you really owe it to yourself to try the Little Busters VN. Its the same talent behind both (Jun Maeda writing/doing the music and Na-Ga doing the character designs), and it has some similarities to Angel Beats as well.

Melanchthon wrote:
Interesting to hear about the poor performance of Yanase Natsumi. I've never heard of her before, and a look through her encyclopedia explains why. Of course, it only leads to questions of why an over-40 actress is playing a teen-age moe girl in a major anime production--especially since she's never held a major anime role before! I guess she must have been the original actress for the porno game, but surely they could have got someone better (most likely she was cheap and so far this whole production sounds cheap, as if they knew the otaku would buy it regardless)


Eroge VAs often don't do anime. Different talent agencies and such. Look up nearly every other female seiyuu in it and they are the same deal.

And changing the VA for Mio due to a pregnancy got the otaku really riled up as it is, I don't know how they'd react if they changed a voice on purpose. These are the voices the fans are used to.. I know I'd be pissed off if they started changing voices "just because".

At least changing Rikis made sense since he only had a few voiced lines in the VN, so just sharing Rins VA wasn't a big deal then, but having them with the same voice the entire time would get kinda annoying.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:24 pm Reply with quote
As being an anime only viewer (I haven't played the VN yet), I will say that the majority of this series so far is only slightly above mediocre imo. It seems to lean way too much in comedy which I find to be repetitively dull and weak. Otherwise, the "romance" part isn't clicking for the series at all. Based on various boards I've read, there are many things left out from the VN that should of been there.

Oh and some of the animation from the series remains inconsistent as well as the repetitive soundtrack. Pretty well written review though, hit most of the right marks.
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