Well, the main issue I had with LB is that the cast seems excessively immature, though Riki has been somewhat better, and now Mio. I mean it's a bit funny at times like the cell phone screw around scene. I sometimes like to mess with my friends by calling them on the phone when they're right in front of me. There's nothing wrong with some silly fun every now and then, but for the most part Little Busters has been really lacking in balance. Everyone's just constantly fucking around and I'm just like, the cast is one of the most screwball idiot casts I've seen in a while since Hana Saku Iroha, and wonder why Mari Okada's over there.
It doesn't mean I hate them. A lot of Key characters are umm on the "special" side, but I find them endearing because they really mean well deep down. And they really do care for each other, so I actually think the group cohesion for Little Busters is very strong as opposed to Air/Kanon/Clannad where it often feels like characters are parts of quests or something and then you move on. It's also no surprise that Angel Beats most likely took from LB. Though it's sorta funny that Angel Beats, of which I consider the worst of any Key story has the cast as a whole clicks the best.
Mio helps the anime a lot, not just because I like that kind of personality but because her character is more subtle and that is something Little Busters really needs. She's not just a straight deadpan character that's there to show how stupid every one is as shown by her somewhat odd interest in shipping and her rather secretive ways of messing with people. So it seems like she wants to have fun though nobody really understands her and apparently she has given up, because it's "too late". Is she dying from UKD (Unspecified Key Disease)? Many signs point to that, or she could be crazy.
It could also be seen that she doesn't want to be there at all and that not all the books can be read. Ironically, I think it's actually the fact that you can't possibly learn or read about everything that makes life fun, since there's always more. But Mio seems to be stuck in a dead mindset and most likely feels unable to change what is going on. That reminds me of "It's a miracle because it doesn't happen." from an earlier Key work. Ahhh, ignorance is bliss sometimes.
It also helps that Riki is one of the more sensible people in the cast too, so they sorta interact nicely with each other. So overall, I'd say the setup for this plotline seems to have much more meaning though hopefully they won't fuck it up by taking one of two polarized extremes that Key constantly undermines themselves with (aka, DEATH or the problem fixes itself without adding any meaning)
Author
