[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

I don't really remember the VN ever getting that serious outside of the girl's routes save a few scenes from the common route. Examples being like the Kengo school jumping scene. Are you sure this isn't just an inherent problem with the source? Correct me if you can think of too many actually serious scenes in the common route.

There isn't any numerous "severe" seriousness part in the common route, but several stuff are addressed for each girl or even guys at some points. I honestly don't feel like reading everything again to make a list, that wouldn't be the most efficient way to spend my time and yours.
That being said, it is more a matter or how they execute the comedy in very prominent way that makes people think they are watching something primarily comedy or something.

I'll agree that Kengo has been getting the short end of the stick so far in the anime, but assuming that they do loop the story (I have a feeling this second cour will end with Yuiko's route and the world falling apart), then he may get more moments hopefully. Though this also has to due with the source and its "everybody disappears" in other people's routes phenomenon

. The problem right now is that Kengo has little to no involvement with the LB, be it comedy or serious stuff. Really, his screentime is close to 0, with Masato being nearly as present as the girls, which is quite a feat considering his role in there.
At this point, I have no idea if they will introcude Koshiki in there, and I wonder if they will play out "LB mode Kengo" at this rate.

As for Masato I feel like we're watching different shows here since more than one Masato has expressed annoyance towards Haruka when she appears in the classroom. If I have to I'll give you the times in the episodes, but I am fairly certain that this happened. If you feel that maybe they got the tone off, well I can't really say anything there.

It wasn't only with Haruka, but that's definitely the main problem I have with "this" Masato: from the very very beginning in the VN, Masato is frankly not a fan of Haruka and hardly interact with her save very few instances. He never make a "joke" followup to hers, and often makes comments like "...you came again? what are you up to now? -_-".
Even for an open guy like Masato, he often states his displeasure towards her, even before Haruka does anything and that's in a calm and even serious way (aka pissed off). In the anime, it is more like a boke/exaggerated fashion, and undeniably less often.

It was a bit the same than with his fight against Yuiko: he was -really- pissed off to the point she is the only character, save Kengo, that he wanted to use a silly weapon to -directly- hit them. Afterwards, he considers Yuiko as a woman not to triffle with due to her skills and way to handle Rin etc, so half respec, half scared of her.

Now I don't really remember Haruka's route well enough to comment too much here. But assuming that this anime has to cut to the chase a bit more than the VN, I think the approach they took is acceptable. Haruka was already shown in a previous episode to have difficulty dealing with Kanata after the vending machine incident and was emotionally unstable. Here it just came out stronger and I think that's fine.

I don't mind how they cut the chase with her route. The only problem is how they showed Haruka's resentment differently: generally speaking, Haruka doesn't hide her loath for Kanata, even if the latter wasn't after her. However in the anime, Haruka was shown persecuted/victimised, only showing her hatred starting ep 16.
To give a better point in the whole mood, I would have expected a 10 sec short scene much earlier than episode 7. Aside of Kanata issue, Haruka was, as I explained, barely introduced before episode 7, so her antics didn't feel like a "daily troublesome mess".

I think a lot of what you're asking for is unrealistic for the anime's scope. The visual novel had the common route first, then the girl's routes. So we already had a good idea of every character's ticks and got plenty of foreshadowing like you are wishing for, but this only works in the VN. The anime has tried to spread out the common route stuff for the most part between the heroine's arcs, and honestly they haven't done too bad of a job IMO.

Actually, that's the opposite: the way they spread it out just make several interactions awkward at best. Episode 17 is a glaring example of that with Mio, Masato and Kengo "caring" about Haruka despite -they just didn't have any interaction with her-.
It is even worse when baseball practice were skipped altogether (despite being the -main catalyst- of having such group) in favor for more silly antics taking full episodes.

Frankly, I didn't expect the full common route to kick in completely before engaging the girls route. Far from it. However, other adaptations proved that having a full intro and a third of the common route is -doable-.
Clannad had a proper intro for most heroines and even some extra before tackling Fuuko's route. And as much as I think they spent 1 ep too much on Fuuko, they definitely could squeeze many casual events as well as intro, for a cast of the same caliber as LB, even if it means that ep1 was quite fast for clannad.
That's why I kept repeating that the adaptation pace is a mess, as the "general pacing" is iffy slow, but they really jump left and right regarding the girls, leading to a lessened impact in general.

Before Mio's route we had her introduction in episode 10 and her appearing at the end of episode 11 with a common route episode before segwaying into her arc. which spanned episodes 12-14 (Not just 13 and 14 s you said) I thought it worked out nicely.

That's my problem with Mio: exactly because her intro only started at episode 10, and due to that it has to be dragged afterwards. Episode 12 was not part of her route, exactly because the book incident happens -in every route- assuming you stumble on the correct flags.
It is exactly a common route portion since it is a scene you can get regardless of the heroine you are aiming for, and contributes to Mio's characterization (and being a device for her route much later on).

Really my biggest gripe of the adaptation, pacing/content wise was the timing of Mio's intro and Komari's route, because these 2 were completely done upside down.

Komari's arc I don't have much of a comment for because I thought it was clumsily done. Though her route was pretty crap to begin with personally. It did come in after her introduction though so it wasn't too unnatural though. Though I object to the claim that the episode revolving around the retirement home was not part of her route, it was clearly an episode focused solely on her and tied directly into her arc.

The episode served for her arc, what I actually means is that event isn't solely for her, as it also involve the LB and whatever they do on some occasions.
Simply speaking, it is similar to Mio's book scene: it is obviously focused on a specific heroine, but it doesn't go too deeply with them and does involve other characters for various reasons.
And surely Komari's route is one of the reason why I just don't like Tonokawa's writing at all.

ANYWAYS, I do think you have a point (I'm not dismissing what you're saying, but I think you're exaggerating quite a bit), but I think beyond Komari's route we haven't quite seen any other real negative effects in the anime. Personally I thought Mio's route went quite well (And she is is my favorite LB heroine so I don't say that lightly), and I believe Haruka is off to a good start. I think the whole "girl of the week" appearance is just inevitable with any VN adaption that chooses to put all the girl's routes. I felt the same in Clannad, and especially in Kanon2006.

Right now, the adaptation is not exactly the best I could have expected, especially that some characters like Masato and Kengo are just being screwed hard, leading to complications if theykeep going this way.

OTOH, Riki is -way- too strong willed as of now. It just makes you wonder why the loops are necessary consering how reliable he was shown right from the get go (from suggesting a LB activity to other stuff).

So you think Masato has been flanderized by the anime? Yeah, he has been a little bit, I won't deny that. Although I do think the increased silliness of his character comes across this way from the difference in mediums more than anything else. Reading about Masato lifting vigorously all the time with him making sounds and seeing it in motion in animation creates an entirely different effect.

Except that his "muscle muscle yay!" dance only happen when... you actually aim for the muscle sensation ending. To begin with, Masato is more like a boatsing poser like I said. The VN hardly shows any motion, unless real antics are shown. But as far as it goes, I really can't imagine Masato going panzer, and that refrain scene might look quite off as result.

We already have had a couple moments in the anime where Yuiko calmed Kanata down and got her to be a little more easy going and rational (One of them in the sleep over scene, and another in an earlier episode). We also had the moment Kanata helped Kud out by letting her be roomates with her. I think the anime has done some good to show that Kanata is not all bad and gives reason to believe that Kanata has a reason for her actions. Of course somethings are always going to be lost because unlike the visual novel, we don't get all of Riki's internal narration. Obviously this makes reading the visual novel a smoother, more detailed, and wholesome experience. But from an adaption perspective I thought they captured quite well a little of both sides of Kanata so far.

Anyways, again I bring up the point with Haruka's character that we already had an earlier episode where she got harassed by the disciplinary committee, so I don't see a reason why we would need even more.

Actually it is a tad more subtle than that. The anime shows rather how Yuiko can stand against Kanata, to an extent the latter has to circumvent a bit what she does, otherwise it isn't going anywhere. the scene I was talking about actually make Kanata admitting herself she shouldn't go ahead of herself all the time, and let of some "steam" a lil bit.
That being said, I guess I'm way too used with the way how the voice acting was in the VN, because the differences are glaring to me: it isn't about the length of the speech etc, but the actual tones and slightly different words as well.