In most respects, this was an excellent ending.
Pros:
1. The most important thing is how it neatly tied together all the previous story-arcs and demonstrated a real sense of invaluable
collective accomplishment on Riki's part. Riki is accepted as the leader, in spite of his practical weaknesses in this area, because his caring and kindness have earned him the love and support of the other Little Busters. This is one area where I think Little Busters deserves much credit - With other Key anime adaptations, I typically didn't feel that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts (i.e. that all of the various "girls routes" put together made a greater whole than either of them individually). But in Little Busters, I do feel that these "girls routes" really do come together in a way that makes the whole greater than the sum of all the routes.
2. Kyousuke greatly inspires Riki, who then uses that as an inspirational model to reach out to others, but Riki does it
his way. Kyousuke is this cool but raw inspirational figure with a very manly feel to him, and Riki takes that example but refines it a bit so that it can reach an even wider circle of friends. Shades of Kamina/Simon of
Gurren Lagann fame. This is definitely one of the stronger elements of Little Busters.
3. Kengo's character grew by leaps and bounds in this episode and the last. My impression of Kengo is that he's the kind of guy that throws his whole heart and soul into everything that he does. So, as a kendo competitor, he tries to capture the very essence of kendo, and that reflects his strong, stoic, silent personality throughout much of the anime. But as a baseball player, he takes on this
RahRahRah! personality that's very fitting for
that sport. This shows that Kengo is a highly passionate and very adaptable person. His core personality is probably very similar to Kyousuke - A very fun-loving guy, at heart.
4. The heroines never seemed more charming, and fully realized, then they did in this episode. There were many times when most of the heroines of this show seemed really silly to me, even by Key's standards. But this anime has done a great job of making them all grow on me. I think it was a particularly good call to play Haruka, Komari, and Kud as this almost always-enthusiastic trio that were consistently the first heroines to "jump in" to throw total zealous support to the more long-standing Original 5 Little Busters members. While the anime ultimately did a pretty good job drawing distinctions between Haruka, Komari, and Kud, it also recognized their significant personality overlaps, and turned that into a
positive rather than allowing it to be a negative. Meanwhile, Kurugaya and Mio's very distinctive personalities were used well to add balance to the group.
5. The visuals in this episode were really nice. It truly looked gorgeous.
6. The baseball game itself was just loads of fun! Short as it was, it left me cracking up laughing. Silly as it is, I loved how "The Captains' Team" were overwhelmed by the cuteness of their female competitors. That was really funny.
It was also good to see all of these supporting cast heroines (Kanata, Sasami, etc...) show up to cheer on the Little Busters. I was starting to wonder about Kanata, as she seemed to be drifting away from her sister and the Little Busters since the end of the Kud arc, and more into her old role of strict disciplinarian. So it was good to see the "new" Kanata reassert herself here.
Cons:
1. The pro sports fan in me can't help but to be disappointed that we never find out what the batting order was.
I honestly had put some thought into that, lol. Kengo clearly should be clean-up hitter, batting fourth. The guy is going to be doing
nothing but swinging for the fences with his one good arm, so you might as well take full advantage of the fact that "hitting for average" is the last thing on his mind. Masato should probably be batting fifth, since his personality is similarly "swing for the fences". Haruka strikes me as a very good runner, and she definitely has the personality of a base-stealer, so I'd have her batting first as long as she's at least a decent batter. Kurugaya strikes me as very possibly the best all-around batter on the team, so I'd have her third, just before clean-up. I'd probably have Kyousuke second. After the Top 5 it doesn't matter too much, you just then go in order from "best remaining batter" to "worst remaining batter (typically the pitcher)".
2. The metaphysics/supernatural elements of this show are
weird. Even by Key's standards. After a full 26 episodes, I still have only the vaguest of ideas of what's going on. That darker, promotional bit for Refrain just made me even more confused.
With Little Busters, I find myself thinking that the story would work perfectly fine without most of the supernatural elements. Why couldn't it just be a story of Riki helping out a bunch of girls over a few months while you have an overarching narrative of bringing a group of 9 great friends together to play a climatic baseball game? I suspect Refrain will justify the supernatural elements, but going strictly by this 26-episode two-cour original season alone, I really don't see what they add to the story. I can't escape the impression that they're getting half-assed, like the anime can't make up its mind between cutting them out entirely or incorporating them fully. And keep in mind that I'm saying all of this as an anime-only viewer.
On the whole, a very rewarding ending. I rated this episode 10/10, as the two cons I mentioned above weren't enough to significantly detract from how enjoyable, heartwarming, amusing, and
cool I found this ending.