Little Busters - Episode 6 Discussion / Poll
 

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http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/3...rq4cp1telq.png

Episode 6
Script: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Yoshiki Yamakawa
Episode director: 岡本正弘 (there are no info in ANN)
Animation director: Yuuko Yoshida , Kyoko Kametani , Hiromitsu Hagiwara

Thanks for the info, totoum.

3 AD this week. That's a lot.
Yuuko Yoshida it seems works outdoor from the studio. She worked in a lot of P.A Works proyects, between them CANNAN, Hana Saku Iroha, Another and Tari Tari.
Kyoko Kametani is in-house, one of the main animator directors of Shana final (about six chapters) and she did key animations of Okami-san's opening. (Very good IMO)
Hiromitsu Hagiwara another good in-house animator, he did part of the key animations of Nodame Cantabile Finale's opening.

Some serious staff this week. And by the preview, and the frames up there, looks really good, neatly done.

OMG, that looks awesome. I am ready, take me now.

i watched the episode and they done this pretty well

Having Komari's route done here is just anachronic in my eyes. Really, introducing the LB as a whole was the obvious choice for the adaptation, so I won't question it otherwise it would be a terrible out of character moment for them to not care about Komari.
The problem is how the episode feels "off" with people helping each other despite interactions with each other was limited to the strict minimum, so having Riki saying "we are the little busters" is just wrong imho so heh. That was even moreso with Rin, who was terrible with strangers in a very obvious way, and with only 2-3 interactions with Komari, it turns out she can react so strongly already. Absolutely too early.

In term of direction, the episode had a very bad exposure for Komari's snapped state: having the flashback dump with Komari showing up so little hardly give a good grasp and mood of the distress. I think they should probably have spanned Komari's arc over 3 episodes, having more breather and scenes with Komari in her vegetative state. I might sound a tad too critical here, but frankly, Komari's broken state looked like a very short "bad period" instead of really an overwhelming trauma (few instances like having her aimlessly sitting on her classroom seat, etc would drive the point).

A good episode for me though its kinda short or rushed but well.... I don't know on how long they plan to do this but from what I head they planned to do it 2 cour and a surprised at the ending and they said they will get all routes done. That alone gives me bad feeling on how they will handle each arc. Right now on episode 06 with Komari's arc ended might be good and all (crappy drawing Riki :p) its kinda ...well I at least feel emotion on this episode than the past one but when Rin is asking for help on the others like Haruka and Kud and they also show the dorm manager of the girls dorm. Well they aren't introduce or shown much yet. Heck we don't know yet the connection between Kud and Rin (or did I miss that one already?) it just felt...... well out of place or character if I'm being analytically here but just enjoying the episode itself. I'm fine with it. I watched the episode twice. First just to enjoy it and second to digest it and I'm totally fine on how they do it at first watched but having second thought on the second one. But initial impression. Masato you're really a bro and understand what's happening fast :p Its also nice to see the caring side of the other characters towards Komari (though the baseball was really set aside completely) Its also nice to see Komari smile at the end. She fits better smiling than having hollow eyes.

Naka power squared - deep lessons in life to the max. And I liked it. This show seemingly adds a little more each time.

For me, if you never read VN, this episode is excellent. Maybe some scene I believe it can be better and more emotional even the story didn't go for romance. I give a good thump to this episode how the anime connects Riki's word to Komari that try to related to his past.

After watching Komari's arc, I give overall 7/10 for the adaption. Since this adaption can keep most of thing and adjust something really good in my opinion. But some scene still could be done better, and some scene are still annoying me. Nevertheless, J.C. can pass my expectation on the first heroine arc. I hope they can stick with this in other arcs too.

By the way, next eps Kanata is debut!!

This episode gave me the most unnatural/cheesy/overuse and spam of OST/ drama I have seen yet. As someone already mentioned, the most unnatural (also cliched) way for a group of friends to interact.

Also why the he'll did Masato cry and say "I'm an idiot I don't know what to do?" and in a girly fashion. Jeez That just looks complete retard...The way they are depicting Masato is really pissing me off.

Also it seems like most of the anime only viewers dropped this.

This episode (and anime Komari's route in general) made me want to punch a puppy.

That is all, good day.

The VA killed the Komari route. It turned from watchable to nearly unbearable because of the horrible voice acting.

I will never understand Jun Maeda's brand of drama.. everything feel artificial, dropped.

Jun Maeda did not write Komari's story, Yūto Tonokawa did.

A touching episode, the best one yet : )
I liked how everyone helped Komari, especially Riki and Rin
as an anime-only viewer, I didn't feel that this was rushed or anything, maybe a bit forced ( as all of key's works in my opinion ), but very good and emotional
good job J.C Stuff
anyway, in the end I think I will like Little Busters more than Clannad, I do reeeeally like the friendship theme.

As a VN reader, I uh, have no idea what to think. :uhoh: I'm baffled by this episode, and feeling rather emotionless, when I know I should be feeling a lot more. I don't know whether it's just me or the show, maybe it's me from already being spoiled by the VN I'm thinking... so I tried to imagine myself as an anime only viewer and whether I'd find this episode truly absorbing and emotional or just lame, and I don't know which it is. Ultimately I am a VN reader though and I must say it wasn't as impactful as I had hoped, so I guess I must side with those who are a little disappointed, maybe it's just my mood or what? It just doesn't seem like Riki's frustration and worrying is quite getting across. Komari's plight seems kind of trite? It seems like it should be a big deal, but I'm not feeling it, probably not such a great presentation then. Maybe it's better for anime only viewers, I used to think the climax of every arc in the Kyoani animes were amazing. Once all the episodes are out, I'm going to marathon this, maybe their style and what their trying to do will come across better at that time.

As an anime-only viewer, I thought that was pretty good.

I wasn't moved to tears, but I was moved. Specifically, I was moved by the "ultimate bros" camaraderie of the Little Busters. That was genuinely heartwarming to behold.

So here I have to disagree with Klashikari. I honestly think that having these guys go all-out for somebody who only very recently joined the Little Busters shows what a great bunch of guys (and gals) these people are. It shows how quickly they accept people, and how seriously they take friendship.


That being said, the emotional impact here is a little less than it could have been due to how quickly we moved through Komari's arc. I don't know if 3 episodes (2 and a half, really) was enough to truly capture all of the emotional poignancy of this story.

Nonetheless, it's effective in the grander scheme - It shows how Riki can really rise to the challenge when he needs to, and it reminds us once more of the simple yet profoundly effective inspirational leadership of Kyousuke. Kyousuke/Riki is truly starting to make me think of a more realistic version of Kamina/Simon, and that's awesome.


At an artistic/animation level, I liked how they handled the heavy, heavy rain. Nothing else stood out in particular, though.


On a purely personal note, the beautiful yuri relationship between Komari and Rin continues to please me greatly. :heh: Honestly, I don't think I could write a better blossoming yuri relationship myself, and to think, this is probably unintentional on the anime's part, lol.

Major Plot-related Rain is major plot-related. :O

They should have extended the episode count to 4. That way, there's no rush in her route. It felt undoubtedly rushed, really. Plus, the direction was all over the place. Still though, I felt 0.5x moved as the VN. The VN route made me cry. T.T

Also, Alicemagic Special ED used. Checklist check.

I felt the same way about both versions of the story.......ineffective and artificial, with the writer trying to create melodrama without a good reason. Once again, the anime was a slight improvement for me, simply because it was more compact.

Perhaps the original was more effective for you because of the narrator's introspection, which can be a tool to manipulate the feelings of the reader. Nevertheless, Komari's plight (along with Riki's solution) remains the same. The anime presents it as it always was, albeit with less time to sway the viewer.

I guess anime-only viewer really got advantage here...

for me personally, I love this arc...
it's simple though... only about someone who can't accept death and running away from it (it's about how she can reset her memories by persuading herself that it's only a bad dream)
simple case... but it messed up because of her way to run away from it

Riki's solution makes me laugh a lot! I never expect he will only draw one page for the picture book... one picture and it solved with Nakama power! It's not a very good one because just imagine if one day Little Busters won't be able to be with her... She will revert to her old self again (but I guess it won't matter so much in this anime)

letting her to continue the story is indeed beautiful...

I like how they show how Rin mustered up her courage to talk to a lot of people (Rin and Kud in one episode? okay! I'm satisfied) :heh:
now, let's move to the next arc I guess...

From the perspective of someone with no LN experience, this episode just felt kinda awkward and rushed. I've always had issues with animes which present a character with a lifelong problem, then solve it in the space of a single episode with a pep-talk (Or a single picture of some poultry).

And as for Riki's "solution", it seems to me like all he's doing is making her dependent on their group of friends, and that's gonna set her up for a massive mental breakdown if something happens to them. The Little Busters aren't gonna be together forever, and at this stage, something tells me she won't be able to handle that eventuality.

Also, seriously? It took him all night to do THAT? I haven't even drawn a picture since middle school, and I'm pretty sure drawing some chicks with hair wouldn't even take 30 minutes.

Deep Analysis Mode On.

Actually, Riki's viewpoint was a little bit too small, but the point was to keep on smiling even in sadness, 'cus it exists. Which means, even if they all went away, the memories they will have made will not.

C'mon guys, you know sadness always exist in this world, but why can we still smile? Is it because of self-hypnosis / self-forgetting (like Komari)? Or simply because you can see what's the future ahead, still accepting the past and all of its cruelties... and its happy moments.

Don't get me wrong: I loved Komari's arc. Probably even more so than the other routes that would come (this is an opinion.) It was a route that keeps on hitting me quite close to home. More often than not, I can only smile when I forget the bad things.

I didn't believe I would shed some tears on this episode, especially since I didn't cry when I read Komari's route on the VN.

Good episode, the animation is getting better each day.

I believe though, this route was a little rushed. 4 episodes would have been the ideal.

Little to no emotional impact once again. The drama felt so awkward and artificial. The resolution was hardly believable, it would have been better if Komari had been acquainted with the Little Busters for a longer time. I never got the impression she grew close to them, at least not to the point where they can become her crutches.

Riki should become a shrink, he's managed to solve the major psychological trauma of a person he barely knows in only two days. Good job. Actually, from my point of view, it's not solved at all, but I'm pretty we're meant to assume it is and that she's going to live happily ever after.

I thought he drew a whole book but it was just a single picture :heh:
Can't believe it took him so long to do that. It didn't even look good.

eh, I thought it did a pretty reasonable job of adaptation... I'm not sure why people are so shocked the route isn't that great overall (it really wasn't in the VN). I agree it probably would have been better if it was given another episode, but sometimes thing cannot be. I really do like the change so that it seemed the Little Busters would go out on a limb to help any of their members.

@Lukeman1884 and Kanon

I really think that both of you are being far too critical of Riki and his solution here. I'm going to explain why in this reply.


The reason why Komari's lifelong problem had become a lifelong problem is because her family had decided to allow it to become that rather than taking the hard and painful steps necessary to resolve it. In other words, their kindheartedness, as admirable as it is, caused Komari's family to become enablers of her trauma.

Basically, Komari had to be forced to face the fact that...

1) Yes, she had a brother.

2) Yes, he's dead and he's been dead for awhile now.

Komari's basic issue is that she was refusing to face the sadder elements of her reality, and hence creating comforting delusions for herself.

Kyousuke was right about how Riki was in an unique position to force Komari to face the reality of her brother (this is partly due to how Komari was starting to use Riki as a surrogate brother).

Komari took a big step in this episode - She accepted the existence of death, and how that means that life will include several moments of sad separation from friends and loved ones. She also learned (and this is admittedly somewhat implicit) that the best way to cope with the loss of loved ones is to realize that you have other loved ones still around you.

Now, yes, there's a bit more work to do here - Once she becomes an adult, Komari will likely separate from most/all of the other Little Busters, and she will need to realize the importance of making new friends during each new place in life that she finds herself in. But I would argue that this tends to come intuitively to most people, and hopefully it will come intuitively to Komari as well (if not, perhaps Riki will be there to help Komari cross this bridge when she comes to it).

I completely disagree, for the reasons I alluded to above. I think you're being overly, and needlessly, pessimistic here.


Why? Why was it not believable? Is it that you don't find it believable that the Little Busters could care about Komari this much, this quickly?

Some people make friends very quickly, and remembering my own high school years, this is especially true of teenagers.


She clearly grew pretty close to Riki. I mean, they even went out on a date together. I don't have a problem accepting Komari turning to him for comfort and help.


Balderdash. Like I argued before in this post, Komari took a big step forward in this episode. I think that you and Lukeman1884 are being overly dismissive and pessimistic about that. Getting a person to accept a sad reality that they've been deluding themselves about for years is no small matter.

Komari was pretty sad looking this time.
Her flashback to childhood days with her brother was really nice.
It was more than obvious that she loved her brother very much.
Yes, she totally sees Riki as her substitute brother.
Everyone felt sorry for her which is normal considering the situation.
Looks like she had some sort of a reoccurring breakdown.
Riki really gave it his all to help her feel better.
That picture book was a really sweet thing to do.

That must be one seriously badly run hospital there. No doctors, no staff, no responsible adults whatsoever. They just a leave a little child alone with her dying older brother. Amazing really.

I think for me the drama fails because it's just way too simplistic. Whilst I'm enjoying plenty of other high school anime this season with characters concerned about their future ambitions, their relationships and how it affects their work or their relationships and how it affects their self esteem, right now I have to stomach the drama of a teenage girl that can't accept that sad things can happen. Sure what happened to her was tragic and traumatic and has left her clearly impaired (I honestly have no idea how any reasonable adult could expect her to function properly in an adult life when she grows up), which is why such a deep rooted problem needs much more complicated drama than just the typical "ganbaru".

honestly, I think that if anyone want to watch realistic drama, it's better to watch another show
this story is not meant to be that realistic, it's meant to offer fairy-tale-like stories
so that's why they always leave details that concerns real life, this isn't monster and it not meant to be
think about Kotomi's arc in Clannad for example, they never said anything about how she live alone, and even if she have any money
Key's works are simple, they try to be simple and magical and to deliver their messages in this way, sometimes they succeed, other times not very much. but that's why alot of people like them, people watch something to be entertained and moved, and key's works do achieve that in their own way. so I think that if we want to point out the show's weaknesses, we have to put it's simplistic fantasy-like nature in mind first.

Yeah, some of the criticisms I'm reading on this thread seem odd to me.

Is Komari's arc perfectly realistic? No, of course not. But when has Key ever been perfectly realistic? :heh:

Key has always specialized in very eccentric female characters who either have unique problems, or have basic problems that are developing in highly unusual ways due to how eccentric the female character is (Komari is the latter case). There's the odd Key arc that feels like something one could reasonably expect to run into once or twice in real life, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Most Key arcs are honestly much weirder than what we faced here.

That Komari feels the Little Busters can "replace" her brother is what I do not find believable. Once again, she barely knows them. They are little more than acquaintances at this point, the only exception being Riki. I felt the other members were really shoehorned into this.

As for them caring about Komari... what they did was mostly to support Riki, so I don't really have a problem with that.

Aye, this is a big step, but it's only a first step. Such a major issue can't be resolved so easily, and yet this is exactly what Riki did (I would be pleasantly surprised if this was brought up once again later on, but I know that's not going to happen; this isn't how visual novel storytelling work. Komari's arc is over). That's my main complaint. There is no way anybody can accomplish what Riki did. You can argue it's not meant to be realistic, but making it at least slightly believable wouldn't hurt.

If you were to compare this arc with other series, it is -really not- a matter of how weirdier or not Komari is, compared to the other "problem girls". The problem is how the arc is catapulted so early, with really not as much events and interactions as there should be.
Also, regardless of the "brand" of a given series, you usually have a better scope of the series with the full introduction of all characters before engaging in that kind of plotline. Having a half introduction, half main heroine route is just jarring and make the narrative highly disjointed. Every romcom/high school drama at least give enough room for character intro and interactions before having the serious business, and that's for good reasons.

That's like having Clannad with half the interactions between Tomoya and Nagisa, no intro for Tomoyo and Yukine, and then having Fuuko route kicking right in ep4-5.

Well, there's not much indication that she has friends other than them. In spite of her generally sunshiney public persona, she may have been a somewhat lonely individual before meeting Riki and friends. So I don't really have a problem with her latching on to them so quickly.

Don't get me wrong, this arc probably would have benefited from an extra episode or two, but that's because the emotionality of this feels half-cooked to me. It just wasn't given enough time to properly simmer.


Honestly, I think you might be overestimating how hard an issue like this is to be resolved. Riki gets to the root of the problem, and addresses it forthrightly by forcing Komari to face reality. He uses a symbolic method of doing this which is fitting given the symbolism behind Komari's delusion.

It's a bit rushed, but I've seen major psychological issues solved like this in all sorts of anime shows, even putting aside Key anime shows alone. Heck, Riki's solution is more elaborate than anything I've seen in Kokoro Connect.

I really feel like Little Busters! is being held to an unreasonably high standard here, given what people let slide with most other offerings within the same entertainment medium (i.e. anime).


I thought it was slightly believable. Honestly, I think you're making too much out of Komari's trauma. I really do think that it only became this bad because her family were enablers here.

yup
to do this show it's justice, we also need to point out the positive points, not just the negative, there's people moved to tears by this episode, so there's gotta be a good reason for that, and this is yet the best animated and directed episode of the show, not extraordinary but still good

- the use of music was really good, I liked the instrumental version of song for friends
- the little busters as a team are really good people, they help others in the time of need, and - in my opinion - you don't have to know a person extremely well to help, simply there's people who care for others. all of them helped Riki and Komari and it was really touching
- the ending scene with song was well directed and satisfying in my opinion

it may not be as amazing as Fuko's arc for example, but it's also better than many others of keys routes.

and this is still on'ly the beginning XD

I actually don't remember being this moved while playing the game.:D

Am I the only one who finds Komari's previous outlook on life distressing in retrospect?

I didn't think her problem seemed too serious until she started to think Riki was her brother. That was a red flag, and it made me realize what a mess she was. After that, all I could do was think back to her whole "happiness spiral" philosophy as being kind of creepy. Then there was that weird moment when Riki saw up her skirt, and she declared that if they agreed "it never happened", it would solve the problem. It seemed like a moment of cheap idiot-moe at the time, but in hindsight it comes off really dark.

While Komari's story itself didn't move me, I found myself very touched by Riki's relationship with the Little Busters, and how he compared his own traumas to Komari's. I am totally fine -- impressed even -- by the near-romantic affection he is shown to possess for Kyousuke, though I fully expect it to be made into a joke eventually. Key has never seemed the type to be able to play such affection for anything but laughs.

Eventually for anime only viewers...cause the VN players seem to always gravitate to that whenever romance enters a discussion...seriously, if Kyousuke was the MC Riki would totally be the final girl...

Also if calling Riki her brother raised a red flag...you should see the bad end of that route xD

I've never actually found Komari's story itself all that interesting (VN or here), but I think the anime did a pretty decent job of portraying the tight bond within Little Busters. It's something that I can see happening in real life; close friends get worried when a member is in trouble, they come together to discuss what to do, they try stupid things to cheer someone up, etc. Riki's speech was real smooth, even artificially so, but it was in the end a product of the support from the whole of Little Busters.

That's what I take from this arc, anyway. Friendship is as much an overall theme here as family was for Clannad, and it should pay off sooner or later.

It was pretty good. It didn't feel too forced. Riki's method of helping Komari out was tad quick but was the right method to help someone still in mourning. Leave it to Key Works to make the female characters moe overboard. Also, it was unrealistic from the beginning there are group of youth having fun and voluntarily helping out at the seniors home just purely for altruistic intention and just being so brotherly and generous to each other.

Anyone else here is watching Zetsuen no Tempest? I just stumbled into it and finished watching episode 5. This single episode of Buster essentially had three times the story than the 5 episodes of Zetsuen no Tempest combined. And yet I think Tempest is probably the best paced show of Fall 2012 among all the new shows.

By the end of this episode, all I could think of was, what a waste! This episode pretty much made it clear that the current direction is not up to par at capturing the story of this show.