[Klashikari]

Dragging the conversation here as points are getting quite on the different tangent as this rate.

Originally Posted by Reckoner

If you compare the other KEY anime to this, they are no different. It goes happy fun days -> oh shit -> back to happy fun days repeatedly until the end of the story where it's pretty much all serious. Little Busters anime on that front has been little different. We went from fun episodes to Komari's route which got serious to fun episodes to Mio's route which got series and then back to fun and now we are on Haruka's route. This same criticism of unbalanced tone in the show can be applied to every KEY anime, save maybe Air.

There is a drastic difference in term of execution and pacing to me: whereas the formula is the same from its very fundation, LB anime currently has very very little tone shift outside of the girls route. In fact, that relates to the comment I've made regarding the foreshadowing, with the exception with Mio.

Also I have to disagree with the foreshadowing remark. Mio's arc was foreshadowed just fine, and Haruka's route was foreshadowed long before this in the episode she decided to join the Little Busters. We already got the point much earlier that her antics were not looked upon kindly by the school or other students.

Actually, the problem is more than just that for Haruka.
Some terms are just missing that make the treatment from some persons quite differently. For instance, Kengo's behaviour in the anime basically doesn't have any interaction with Haruka one bit (in fact, Kengo got quite the short end of a stick in general), whereas he made clear back in the VN that Haruka is borderline a pest (he got quite pissed off by that bucket prank).

Likewise, Masato reactions were also quite dry, even if we know the guy is not really any close to be someone who can throw mean stuff for nothing.
Whenever Haruka shows up, he either thinks she is useless, or thinks she is yet again going to mess around their classroom, which is quite different in the anime as Masato only react this way in a exaggerated fashion when he is on the receiving end.

But the real problem with Haruka is her own foreshadowing as in her utter lack of reactions when anything close to her twin problem shows up. In fact, the anime makes it like she is in the receiving end and hated Kanata only starting from the latest episode, whereas she has shown some scorn/hatred way before that initially.
At least, they did adress the problem child part by using the vending machine event earlier.

Also I think 3 episodes per route is pretty fair for the girls. This is not a VN where you can spend endless time doing absolute jack sh*t for the story. This is an anime and they have to adjust accordingly.

Actually, the problem is how it was cut dry into 2 episodes each. The "third" episode is more or less events that where blended in the common routes. And frankly, it was the opposite: they dragged the irrelevant parts too much ironically.
Really, was that necessary to drag Yuiko's intro as a full episode? What about the test of courage?

Really, what I meant with my initial rants was how they didn't make a proper pacing with more level headed and balanced common route WITH the damn baseball arc, and then pulling progressively the heroines arc.
They don't have to have all girls arcs done by the first season: they should probably have gone with Komari, Haruka, Mio and Kud, leaving Rin, Yuiko and Refrain for the second season. But as far as it goes, the anime has a very unbalanced way to present events.

It is even more obvious when the episodes are segmented as "heroine of the week" for the casual events, instead of having a natural flow of several events that show characters little everyday.
The prime example of that would be Haruka's pranks multiplying starting in Episode 7. Prior that point, she only appeared 1 or 2 times, leaving little impression that she is doing that all the time, until you finally reach that episode.

We have Haruka, Mio, and Komari. That's 9 episodes. Judging from the OP that we will also be getting Kud. So that's going ot be like 12 episodes. AND MAYBE, we'll get some other girl to conclude the show, but even if we don't that's basically 50% common route material and 50% routes for these 2 cours. I think that's pretty balanced myself.

Actually, only 4 episodes, 2 each for Mio and Komari.
Episode 4 was a common route event involving the LB with Komari's volonteer work, with only 1 single point from her route: her grandpa.
Likewise, Episode 10 was part of Mio's intro and how she joined the LB. So her route only spanned for episode 13 and 14.

So far, the problem is how unfinished the intro for the whole group was, and went scattered across due to having Komari inserted this way, to which Mio's route was far less an issue, save her absurdely belated intro.

But whereas the actual heroine routes aren't that butchered, it is how they were inserted in the ongoing plot, along with little details and usual interactions (a ton of which are from the baseball practice sessions).

I have no idea what you're saying here really. Masato was just as goofy in the VN. Furthermore he has more than once expressed anger towards Haruka in the anime, so this point wasn't lost.

I disagree. Masato often plays the Boke, but did he often go hyper with food and muscles in the VN? (important note: yes, Masato interjecting muscles is a daily occurence. What is different is the way it is played between the VN and anime. In the VN, Masato boasts about muscles as if it is natural and thus with a normal speech, whereas in the anime, he is portrayed as if he was to promote muscles as the best thing at every occasions possible. The biggest example would be his random muscle song during the volonteer work).

Sure it was his motto, but more often than not, Masato was a poser trying to act cool, instead of acting like a retarded. At his core, he is of course a bit dimwit and definitely not what you can refer as intellectual, but whereas in the VN he is saying nonsense, his act goes altogether in the anime. If you prefer, Masato's actions are even "more retarded" to me in the anime, as his speech is accompanied by weird fidgetting and so on.

The cartoonish aspect of Haruka vs the committee is also very similar. Things only ever got really serious when it was Kanata and Haruka in the VN, and it's the same here. In the VN, Kanata even comes off as more of a bitch than in the anime.

I personally didn't have that much "goofy comedy" impression with the way how Riki was describing things from his perspective, especially how things go out of hand/serious (especially that thumbnack part).
I'm not claiming that every parts involving the commitee without Kanata were serious. Far from it. However we are shown only the "fun side" of the pranks without much the afterthought behind them (be it the commitee or the other characters).

As for Kanata, she is actually more sarcastic and less aggressive in the VN, leaving some implication that sparked Riki's attention, to which he could conclude Kanata's true intention at some point. In fact the tone is slightly different, since she lost her taunting edge and went more straightforward with her verbal abuse in the anime.