Little Busters ~Refrain~ - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[Triple_R]

I don't always like characters acting really awkward, but for whatever reason, it came off as quite funny to me in this episode.

Riki/Rin will probably never be some great, lovey-dovey romance. I just don't see them as having the personality mix and chemistry needed to pull it off. But I do find some things amusing about it...

1) Rin being very blunt and practical about the whole thing, at least in the beginning.

2) But that then giving way to extreme awkwardness and shyness for both Riki and Rin the rest of the episode. Again, there was just something about this that tickled my funny bone.


But I think that Riki/Rin, as a romance, probably could have used better foreshadowing back in Season 1. At least they had the sense to drop light hints of it during Kurugaya's arc. Otherwise, it would have come completely out of nowhere.

Anyway, this might be the easiest victory for a childhood friend romance ever.

It was nice of the other girls to be so supportive of Riki/Rin becoming boyfriend/girlfriend since each of the other girls had shown at least an inkling of romantic interest in Riki themselves.

Not sure how I'd feel in Kyousuke's position. I have two younger sisters in real life, and I'd probably find it pretty awkward for one of my best friends to be dating one of my two sisters. But I suppose at a practical level it's relieving to know that your sister is dating someone that you have a lot of trust in. It certainly could be a lot worst.

Lastly, I feel a bit sorry for HanaKana's character. That was indeed a very cute and heartfelt confession. Still, the girl really should have said "I'm very sorry about all the trouble my two friends caused you". Oh well, maybe that's partly why she never expected Riki to accept her confession.

Originally Posted by Randrak42

Oh fuck off JC Staff, if you're going to take out the romance from every other girl route then you should damn well take it out of Rin's route too. If you could make the other routes "work" without romance (I say "work" because I still believe it made the routes much weaker), then you could have done the same with Rin's route.

I like Rin and yes I'm a Kurugaya fanboy (hard to tell I know) but this bullcrap is unfair for all the other girls (and fans of the other girls/shippings).

With the exception of horror/mystery-based VNs, I've never seen a VN adaptation without any clear-cut romance in it. So I don't think there was ever any chance of Little Busters! having no romance at all.

JC Staff did like KyoAni before them and went for unified over omnibus.

Unified is about choosing one girl over the rest. The benefit of unified is that, as the name itself entails, you get a greater and more unified story. The story is much broader and overarching. But the downside is that all but one girl gets no romance with the lead character.

The benefit of omnibus is that every girl gets her romance route fully adapted, so every girl gets a romantic story told for her. But the downside is that this slices and dices the anime narrative into several separate stories. It makes the anime feel like a collection of short stories rather than one big story. So it can make the anime seem "less epic" overall.

So it's a trade-off. Only time will tell if JC Staff made the right call in going with unified (basically, it would require the rest of this season to be very strong, imo). I don't know if LB!'s distinct VN format would have allowed for the best of both worlds, though. I'll leave that for VN players to determine.

[silvercover]

man ive got to say that this ep definitely felt pretty weak.

as the romance expert, this one grated my nerves. while there was the justifications of course due to being childhood friends and how they're often working together, they didnt build this up enough for me to be comfortable with this transition. especially how rin responded to it, she was so casual and had no nervousness but once they talked with everyone she's suddenly very flustered. generally it would apply both, or at least in reverse.

also as mentioned, the transition from friendship to romance with the show felt jarring. I already saw how previous arcs could have been shifted into romantic angles, yet they managed to make it work well for friendship. on the other hand, this episode didnt feel like that. heck id even go to say it felt like this was going to be great as a friend companionship atmosphere but was changed into romance.

on the other hand, if we take it as its own episode its fine. but once we take into account the previous episodes this one just felt like...
oh and of course the girls disappearing I know they have a good reason(probably) which will be explained, but it just feels really unfair. especially to kuruguya.

so this one gets a 6 for me. average as in it was fine for standard romcom.

[ReinhartX]

the only emotional part was when the crew left the clubroom....its like all happy happy ... then BOOM

[Kanon]

Rin x Riki is such an awkward and forced development. Not only because there was nothing building up to that, but because romance with a girl like Rin just doesn't work. She's a kid who never expressed any understanding or interest in love until now. She's no love interest material. They should have just kept her as the very close childhood friend. Having her enter a relationship with Riki seems needless.

[kitten320]

Riki/Rin romance does not work for me at all... it literally came out of nowhere with no real build up. While his romance with Kurogaya also came out of thin air, it still blended in better and their chemistry was more couply like.

Here I see them just as good friends,

Best part of the episode was with girls leaving. Looks like all characters apart from Rin and Riki know the truth of this world. Are the two of them the only living beings here?

[Leo_Otaku]

The romance in the VN was odd/awkward too between them, but Rin's story is the true ending is it not? It only makes sense that they would need to use romance for her route to work properly. She is the main girl after all.

[ThereminVox]

I thought it was pretty fitting, and even a little cute that Rin's "confession" -- if you can even call it that -- was so blunt and awkward. It was really more a "suggestion." I was worried that it wouldn't sink in with her for a while that she had a boyfriend now, but the texting scene was a nice way to show that she's getting the idea, she's just not sure how to handle it.

I actually had nearly forgotten that Rin and Komari had gotten close last season. Of all the girlfriends for Rin to have at her disposal for love advice... Maybe this is unfair to her, but I don't consider Komari to be "first-round draft pick" material for the job

[Deathscyther]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Rin x Riki is such an awkward and forced development. Not only because there was nothing building up to that, but because romance with a girl like Rin just doesn't work. She's a kid who never expressed any understanding or interest in love until now. She's no love interest material. They should have just kept her as the very close childhood friend. Having her enter a relationship with Riki seems needless.

I guess I'm one of the few people who actually likes this kind of start for a relationship. It's like watching two 'children' who want to be together but don't actually understand anything about love yet. Do remember that this is just the start. From now on they can start working on their relationship.

I agree that there was little to no building up to their relationship, but this is to be expected if you look at Riki's and Rin's characters. If you look at their reactions when it comes to love, you can see that they know little to nothing about it, especially Rin.

In my opinion, the only reason why Riki and Rin are together now is Suginami. Rin's confession wouldn't have happened if Suginami hadn't confessed to Riki. Although I like the anime's execution better, I think that the VN gave the reader a bit more insight. The way I see it, Rin's main reason to confess wasn't just because she wanted to enter a romantic relationship with Riki, but mostly because she was scared of losing Riki to some other girl and losing the status quo. Rin has always been together with Riki and the other Little Busters and she doesn't want to lose that place where she is able to be herself. She's scared of people she doesn't know. Remember, at the beginning of the anime she was still hiding behind Riki's back all the time.

That's why I think that this sentence of hers is really important to understand her reason to confess: 'I think everything would work out, then.' If she and Riki were to enter a relationship, all her and Riki's problems would be solved. This way she would be able to stay with the one she likes, while both she and Riki would be able to stay with the other LB's like usual as well. Neither she nor Riki would have to leave the group. Riki also wouldn't have to worry about the confession of Suginami anymore. In her mind, this would solve all their problems. That's probably why her confession was kind of blunt and unemotional. She wasn't confessing with her heart, but with her head. Rin only really realized what she had done after the fact. This is when her feelings came to the surface. Only then did she start becoming nervous when she was with Riki, knowing that they had taken a big step by entering a relationship.

As for Riki, he's focused on the status quo as well. He knows that Kyousuke will graduate soon and wants to make the most of the time he has with the Little Busters. Feelings of love hadn't even crossed his mind before. He only realized that he has feelings for Rin after he was confronted with the subject of love (both here and in Kurugaya's route).

[silvercover]

honestly though, I would have preferred that the core 5 members remained friends while riki went with some other girl

[Ceral]

This episode feels so much like what was wrong in the first season. I can't really put my finger on it, but there was too much cheesy foreshadowing with all that cheesy acting.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by Ceral

This episode feels so much like what was wrong in the first season. I can't really put my finger on it, but there was too much cheesy foreshadowing with all that cheesy acting.

Spoiler:

The scene where Kud, Haruka and Mio disappear (I assume this is the foreshadow part you speak of) had no acting in it at all, (It basically spoke for itself) so I can't really see how you could call something cheesy that doesn't exist.

[Bakaizer]

kurugayas route was so depressing i had to delay watching episode 4

yes kurugaya = best girl

[~Yami~]

I think this is a very good episode!
I always root for Rin... but sometimes a sudden moe-development in her character is little weird... still cute though

Rin's confession is the worst ever
thumbs up for bro-suke that led both of them well so they can have a proper romance

somehow, Komari's tears seems more like broken-hearted person at first (same with Kud's)
but when those flashy blinding light scene happened.... egh! something bad is going to be revealed
must prepare my heart... even bro-suke is crying right there

too bad that Kurugaya mysteriously taken off from the series... so many unexplained things here

[blakstealth]

This is some Inception shiet going on right here!

The sedative Riki took must've been very potent.

[s07195]

Well, this episode was awkward. Don't tell me this is all of Rin's route.

Anyways, a bunch of stuff happened near the end of the episode, didn't it? It seems the whole LB were all acting for Riki and Rin all this time. >.>

[Dark Faith]

Originally Posted by Ceral

This episode feels so much like what was wrong in the first season. I can't really put my finger on it, but there was too much cheesy foreshadowing with all that cheesy acting.

Agreed, which is funny because I had just posted on the Experienced LB'ers thread about how excited I was about the adaptation after episode 3... but then the 4th failed to deliver.

I actually like Riki/Rin's pairing though. Even if they enter the relationship in a pretty awkward fashion, I think it was the only natural step for them, afterall, Rin's been clinging to Riki's back since forever. Does she love him in a romantic way right now? Maaaaaybe, but she's probably much more afraid of losing him to someone else.

Still.. something kept me from enjoying the episode. I've always had an issue with the (excessive) usage of music in the adaptation, but this time around something else felt off, not sure what though.

[Marcus H.]

I might be unable to hold off my tears for Episode 3, so I'll decide to skip my post there for this episode instead.

Anyway, as Kurugaya had stated, Riki had forgotten everything that happened during the June 20 Winter Loop, as if it was an overly vivid dream that never happened. Then suddenly, everyone goes rooting for Rin and Riki. While it is a bit jarring to see them go lovey-dovey over the unlikely pairing, one must notice now Kyousuke has been dropping really ominous ideas during the episode, especially the part with "going away" during the confession scene with Riki and Kyousuke's gesture for Haruka, Kud and Mio to "head off" after seeing Riki follow Rin.

The dark clouds are also a reminder that things aren't gonna be cheerful.

What the heck is up with Kyousuke? (Don't answer me, I'm spoiled enough to know about the answer. )