Little Busters - Anime Pre-Airing News and Anticipation

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

At the moment, nothing else I think... IF there is a Raildex series, the announcement is expected to come only around June like the last time.

Thanks,sorry I missed Westlo's post above

Originally Posted by Westlo

Ano Natsu de Matteru (didn't this look rather good too? I haven't watched it so I can't say)

It did,so did Kamisama no Memo Chou,hell I prefer what JC staff did with Kishida Mel's chara designs over what A-1 did with them in Sora no Woto.

But I think "rather good" isn't going to be enough to match expectations.

[rulfo]

Originally Posted by DemiSoda

I guess I should be honest and say a part of my vindictive side regarding Kyoani is happy that they didn't get the project. I have been skeptical of the studio for quite a while now, and this confirms I can now place Kyoani into the "irrelevant" category when it comes to production studios.

Same can be said with JC Staff.

Heck I was a JC Staff follower back then, really enjoyed their past works. As much as ZnT is a total crap overall, season 1 was very decent and I enjoyed that. Hearing S2 get announced I was actually happy and eager for more. Then they had to go full retard on it with the change of the director. Not to mention they let him handle it twice.... Afterwards I never gave any attention to JC Staff. I was quite dodgy with Index as well but at that time I enjoyed Toradora, so I went and watched it.

Regarding that show it was decent and enjoyable but very poor in pacing. Often times things get dragged on too much to the point that I'm not caring at all. If they do this with LB I won't be surprised. They did this with Shana S2 with that overly prolonged painful love triangle. How many episodes did that span again? It's like waiting for Goku to charge that damn energy ball. At least the latter was more amusing in action.

Rage aside I have come to terms. My anticipation and interest in this has died with this news. This is just gonna be like another show upcoming in the future season.

It's not like I wanted only KyoAni to do it(but I do prefer it to be them), it's just that there are a lot of better studios which have a better chance of doing it right. And now IIRC this is handled by KMB director, which I dropped after 3 episodes for reasons that I found it not entertaining.

So yeah... See you guys when it airs.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by rulfo

Same can be said with JC Staff.

Heck I was a JC Staff follower back then, really enjoyed their past works. As much as ZnT is a total crap overall, season 1 was very decent and I enjoyed that. Hearing S2 get announced I was actually happy and eager for more. Then they had to go full retard on it with the change of the director. Not to mention they let him handle it twice.... Afterwards I never gave any attention to JC Staff. I was quite dodgy with Index as well but at that time I enjoyed Toradora, so I went and watched it.

Regarding that show it was decent and enjoyable but very poor in pacing. Often times things get dragged on too much to the point that I'm not caring at all. If they do this with LB I won't be surprised. They did this with Shana S2 with that overly prolonged painful love triangle. How many episodes did that span again? It's like waiting for Goku to charge that damn energy ball. At least the latter was more amusing in action.

Uh... when I did ever praise JC Staff. The first half of my post I was criticizing JC Staff and mentioned the point that only their old "noitamina" group, Nagai/Kasai as directors and their A-team (and only it terms of production values too) were of any use... It's pretty much common knowledge that JC Staff has a bad rep due to factory produced LN adaptations.

[rulfo]

Originally Posted by DemiSoda

Uh... when I did ever praise JC Staff. The first half of my post I was criticizing JC Staff and mentioned the point that only their old "noitamina" group, Nagai/Kasai as directors and their A-team (and only it terms of production values too) were of any use... It's pretty much common knowledge that JC Staff has a bad rep due to factory produced LN adaptations.

Did I say you said something like that? Or did it seem I was implying you said something like that?

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by rulfo

Did I say you said something like that? Or did it seem I was implying you said something like that?

Nvm. Apologies for misunderstanding lol.

[Reckoner]

JC staff visuals are not bad, especially when they put effort into it. I just do not understand why people are so focused on that. The main worry will be, and always will be the scripting and directing. With a lot of supervision by KEY, that should quell your worries.

And lets be honest here, Little Busters isn't that great of a product to begin with. I find it laughable that so many people think it deserves the royal treatment. It's already getting a pretty good treatment, comparable with something like Steins;Gate. Plenty of people enjoyed that even if the visuals weren't the most awesome thing ever.

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

But, it's an anime. Good visuals ARE the most important thing.

KyoAni is not the end all be all of visuals.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

KyoAni is not the end all be all of visuals.

Which is what I've been trying to say in various studio discussion threads as well. PA Works, ufotable, Production IG and a few others they can all match or even exceed Kyoani's visuals if given a budget. Hanasaku Iroha, Fate Zero, Guilty Crown respectively to give an example for each of those studios.


But really, the main concern for Little Busters is not only is it JC, but it has a production lineup that is practically unknown. If you had Nagai or Kasai as the director and then the production staff who did Toradora, Ano Natsu, Honey and Clover or Nodame Cantabile, there will be a lot less complaints.

[Triple_R]

On the visual side of things... The main thing I'll say here is that Key has always struck me as having a bit of a beauty edge (perhaps for a lack of a better term) over most other VNs that later became anime shows. Of course, this is at least somewhat subjective of me, but it is my honest take on it.

A lot of what made Clannad and Kanon so good, imo, was the great visuals. JC Staff can do above average, but I don't know if they can hit that visual homerun that KyoAni (and P.A. Works and Production I.G. and ufotable) can hit.

Well, I guess Shana III did have a few moments of visual greatness, so I'll remain cautiously hopeful here.

[Ithekro]

Well if JC Staff fails, KEY will need to Rewrite how they handle things.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Well if JC Staff fails, KEY will need to Rewrite how they handle things.

Well played, good sir, well played!

[Leo_Otaku]

.....................................

I just don't know how to feel.....

I was hoping for the obvious choice or at least P.A works.......

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Well if JC Staff fails, KEY will need to Rewrite how they handle things.

You forgot to put your sunglasses on.

[boggart]

Two issues I have with JC Staff, and in particular their animation quality, is their colouring and the fluidity of their animation.

Their colour palettes have always been bland and washed out, no vibrancy whatsoever. I don't think Little Busters! is going to be a good platform to experiment.

The in-betweener art is choppy and results in staggered movement in the animation. They try and hide this in action scenes in anime such as Shana and the Toaru series. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but to me, they underutilise CG rendered sequences.

To see this treatment being applied to such an established high quality product like Little Busters! is a travesty.

[Ceral]

Originally Posted by Tempester

Agreed. Spectacular animation is a plus in my book, but far from an essential. It's outright bad animation (think Pokemon) that really detracts from an anime.

Yep, as long as it's sufficient. I just can't have animation so bad that I'm thinking "Look how ugly that is", the entire series. Animation that bad is pretty rare though, as rare as great animation. And great animation isn't all that it's chalked up to be. I think that after a few episodes most people get used to great animation and lose that sense of "wow" after awhile. Well, aside from a few special scenes where the animation may go the extra mile from their norm.

Originally Posted by boggart

Their colour palettes have always been bland and washed out, no vibrancy whatsoever. I don't think Little Busters! is going to be a good platform to experiment.


The in-betweener art is choppy and results in staggered movement in the animation.

I think we're being too hard on them. Ano Natsu, Milky Holmes, ZnTF, have some more contemporary looking color palettes. More vibrant than what we saw in the PV.

It would suck if they did something terrible to the action scenes to make them seem lame. But I thought the Toaru action scenes were decent, I didn't see anything that screamed awful to me that still lingers in my head right now.


It could be great, let's just wait. This morning I put on the LB OST for the first time in a long while, and phew. J.C. Staff's never had a soundtrack this good to work with! I'm just rambling, but as long as they use the original OST during a lot of the key scenes, and not a remix, or worse, silence, I think they have a great asset in being able to pull off some special scenes. I think it's going to be tough to not be able to make some great scenes when you have these motifs and Key's sentimental tunes to work with. The songs alone that play during character arc climaxes are enough to make you weep!

[bahamut zero]

Well, I'm not really concerned about the animation quality, because J.C.Staffs "bad" is comparable to Deens "good", so I'm more worried about the scriptwriting and pacing

[Reckoner]

I personally like JC's palette and the way they do their visuals. Sometimes the fluidity takes a dive, especially in their more average works, but this isn't really an action show so that shouldn't be THAT high of a concern.

[Bane Rieko]

I'm not displeased with the JC Staff choice personally, especially now that I know Key was turned down by KyoAni and not the other way around. (Even though the one VN adaptation they have done did suck, I have hopes)

Here's how I see it:

Key made the decision to go with JC Staff, so clearly they think they can do a good job at least.

Being not KyoAni does NOT mean it will automatically be horrible. (I felt the need to say this)

The preview animation looks somewhat like KyoAni’s animation for Clannad, so they could do well. So long as they are on par with some of their past shows I think they could do even better. This won't be action heavy so they can focus on making it look good.

JC Staff has made GOOD (well received by fans of the original) adaptations in the past: Bakuman, Toradora!, Toaru Majutsu no Index, Ghost Hunt (a close match to pallet perhaps? ... no?), Shana, Slayers, Azumanga Daioh, even Utena.

They have already gotten the ORIGINAL voice cast from the game to come back, all of them. They have their act together in theory, now we are waiting for practice.

I've seen people saying this isn't JC Staff's kind of show but they've done slice of life stuff with and without romance in the past so they could do very well.

I think the only issue we need to worry about it what was brought up by bahamut zero. HOW are they going to pull off the script and pacing? Which route will they decide on and how will they manage to make it surround that route without the other characters getting a shaft?

We'll have to wait and see I suppose.

[winhlp32]

With Key properly funding and supervising, and if J.C. Staff is at the top of their game, they should be able to get this right. We don't even have to worry about music because those come directly from Key. A good music director should be able to make those tracks really shine in the anime. The director Yoshiki Yamakawa has been working in the industry for quite a while, so I do hold some optimism that he'll make the heavier scenes in Little Busters hit hard. I'd say the potential is there for J.C. Staff to pull this off. The only thing I'd say Kyoani is miles ahead of J.C. Staff (and in my opinion above P.A., Whitefox, I.G., etc) is that their Key Opening animations are unrivaled. Other than that, its all fair game.

[relentlessflame]

Incidentally, there are more tweets from Key tonight that further confirm the leak:

Originally Posted by @vavasyatou on Twitter

アニメ会社さんへの不安と期待はよくわかる。私やスタッフも同じ思いなのだ。だがワーナーさんや、J.C. STAFFさんの、このタイトルへかける意気込み取り組みを拝見したとき、我々は我々の愛する大切な作品を 彼らに託そうと決意した。 (link)

不安と恍惚ともにあり。新しい仕事にはいつもその両方がつきまとう。でも今は信じてお任せするしかない。も ちろん我々も出来る限りのことはする。(link)

ワーナーさんもJ.C.STAFFさんも、立派なお会社だし、みなさんの気持ちはしっかりわかった上でこの 作品に取り組んでいただいてるよ。信じて待とう。 (link)

The essential points are that they are aware of everyone's hopes and fears regarding the anime production companies, and they too share these feelings. But, in light of Warner and J.C. Staff's high enthusiasm for this title, they decided to entrust them with their precious product. They say this mix of emotions is common whenever you take on something new, but at the moment all we can do is trust and wait -- though Key will do whatever they can to assist. They say that Warner and J.C.Staff are good companies and they took on this project even being well-aware of everyone's feelings (i.e. huge expectations), so they again ask fans to, basically, give them a chance.

[Julio C]

Damm, is J.C. Staff actually doing this? Is this officially confirmed? I really don't like their production quality regarding animation. Well this is going to suck then.