Little Busters - Episode 20 Discussion / Poll

[Kanon]

This was more of a Rin episode than Sasami. Pretty enjoyable, but it doesn't really make sense to include this kind of episode in the middle of Kud's arc which will resume next week. It should have been placed before last week's episode.

[Deathscyther]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

To put it bluntly: the way how the baseball match is barely mentioned at all just doesn't give much importance to Kyousuke's suggestion back in Episode 1. Heck, they literally skipped more than half of the baseball practice (which had the most group interaction in the complete story).

I agree. They're not giving enough importance to the baseball match and practice right now. The Raging Meow Ball scene felt really rushed as well. I have a feeling that they'll focus on the baseball match after the routes of the other girls are done.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

That's why I felt this episode absolutely badly timed exactly because it was introduced way too lately and since they have shown Sasami only twice without much rivalry interactions with Rin, you could actually have the raging nyan ball without the actual date thing (even if it is a major development point for Rin due to discussion about love).
Basically speaking, Sasami feels way more of a plot device than an actual character (similarly how Kengo is completely inexistent thus far).

They should have shown more of their 'battles' in order to make it feel like a real rivalry. It would have made the scenes of this episode much better.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

If this episode took Komari's route timing placement, things would have been much smoother, which would actually put emphasis on Rin and Riki commitment towards Lenon 'secret of the world messages', interconnecting as well Riki and Rin efforts to help people around them (be it cafeteria incident or the girls routes). This is also even more weird when this episode was a momentum break to kud's route: I mean you have a kud centric episode, then you have a completely different environment, to then be thrown back at Kud within 1 episode. If they intended to spread event so you don't have a "girls of the week" syndrome, they should simply not clutter each girls in this fashion to begin with.
The order of events are completely upside down for some reason, and frankly, it would have make much more sense to have Riki and Rin dealing with mundane school stuff prior the girls routes.

I think they have changed the order of certain events in order to show Rin's character development throughout the routes of the other girls and for that reason decided to animate Rin's tasks between the routes of the other girls. Because of this we are constantly reminded of these mysterious tasks as well. This way they can't be forgotten, which might be the case if you don't bring them up at all during the routes of the other girls.

While I do agree that this episode should have been placed before last episode, I don't really see it as a problem either. The previous episode was about Kud, but I didn't really see it as the start of her personal arc. The episode did focus on Kud's background and her insecurities, but ended up revolving around the friendship of the Little Busters group (everyone studying and going to the remedial class together).

[Triple_R]

This was actually better than I thought it would be.

Rin's appeal hasn't really gotten through to me throughout Little Busters. I mean, I liked her well-enough, but I wasn't sure why she had the honor of being main heroine. She also struck me as being a bit too much in her brother's shadow.

That changed a bit in this episode. Rin has a certain Shana-esque bluntness and forthrightness to her that's kind of appealing. Like Shana, when Rin sets her mind on something, she just charges full-speed ahead, like a bull in a china shop with an one-track mind. It's kind of impressive in a way, and it certainly lends itself to good comedy.

With this episode, I also see some family resemblance between Kyousuke and Rin. I'm starting to see some personality similarities between the two. Both can become very fiery and passionate individuals. It was cute to see Rin take over her brother's catchphrase of "Mission Start!"


This episode also did a lot to humanize Sasami. She came off as something of a joke antagonist before, but with this episode we see that the girl does have a heart and a decent sense of empathy. She's a ham (like many of the characters in this show), and she likes being "the spoiled rich girl" with the "hohoho!" laugh, but she's also a normal girl in many ways. Her crush on Kengo was cute. Speaking of Kengo, it was good to see him play a significant role in an episode without it also involving Masato.


Do you know what old, classic anime show Little Busters is starting to remind me of?

Ranma ½

Little Busters has a sense of humor very similar to Ranma ½. It also has this chaotic and random feeling, with an incredibly colorful and the over-the-top cast of characters, again like Ranma ½.

Sasami having a crush on Kengo, and all of the explosive highjinks resulting from that, honestly reminded me of this one-shot super-popular cheerleader in Ranma ½ who had a crush on another kendo star by the name of Tatewaki Kuno.

Pretty neat how Little Busters gave me a lot of feelings of nostalgia in this episode, between the Rin/Shana similarities, and reminding me of Ranma ½.

[Master_Yoma]

Wow Rin dosnt have any tacked and wow 135kph fast nayow ball

[RegalStar]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoma

Wow Rin dosnt have any tacked and wow 135kph fast nayow ball

She can go like 150 in the minigames in the VN.

You'll never hit those pitches. Ever.

[monir]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

In the end, this episode served really nothing in the general progression of the plot, especially it was a momentum break,

Sir, I choked up after reading the above. Allow me to explain.... So, I was watching Daily Lives of High School Boys to replenish my comedy fill of the day before watching this episode. After finish watching it, I read your post. My honest reaction to your above comment was something as follows:



Once I've got over the shock of discovering this show indeed might have an underlying plot point, I searched within myself to see if I really do care for one. And it seems....



...that at this point I don't really care how those legs came to rest on Hidenori's shoulder.

I've said it at the beginning of this series that the legitimacy of a Key story will finally be tested due to the subpar production effort where the challenge is to keep the audience by the merit of the story. And I must say that without dressing it up (as accomplished by KyoAni and Toei), the laid-bare story of this show has been average at best. I'm, in fact, skeptical that if it is even possible for any studio to salvage this story into a decent anime. The story has been pretty ridiculous thus far.

That said, I actually enjoyed this episode because it didn't try to reel me in with a plot. It taught me about one more method to concurring the ladies. Case in point:

Originally Posted by Zankoku12

p.s I also hope this director is good at something else to make a living cause he sure sucks at his current job.

[ronelm2000]

Originally Posted by RegalStar

She can go like 150 in the minigames in the VN.

You'll never hit those pitches. Ever.

And I do. Got a problem?

Anyway, nice episode. I understand WHY they'd put a Rin-centric episode now, since it's Ep 20 and the next episodes are centered on Kud, but, heh.

[Zankoku12]

I wonder if they're gonna include all Rin's skill as well

Spoiler for Skill list:

Raging Meow Ball (Fastball)
Changeup
Shoot
Sly-nya (Slider)
Purrve (Curveball)
Nyanker (Sinker)
Nyackle (Knuckle)
True Raging Meow Ball (Super Fastball)
The only reason why I would bother to play mini baseball game every playthrough is to hit Rin's cat.

Not that I like animal cruelty but those cats must be sacrificed for greater good.

[ronelm2000]

Originally Posted by Zankoku12

I wonder if they're gonna include all Rin's skill as well

Spoiler for Skill list:

Raging Meow Ball (Fastball)
Changeup
Shoot
Sly-nya (Slider)
Purrve (Curveball)
Nyanker (Sinker)
Nyackle (Knuckle)
True Raging Meow Ball (Super Fastball)
The only reason why I would bother to play mini baseball game every playthrough is to hit Rin's cat.

Not that I like animal cruelty but those cats must be sacrificed for greater good.

You're gonna get Rin'd in 5...4...

The thing is that I think that Rin's Fastball scene simply coincides with Sasami, which is, i think, the reason they slapped that scene in. >.>

[ThereminVox]

Okay, I didn't get Rin's appeal before, but her hopelessly blunt personality is actually kind of cute, in a sad way. She really isn't good with bipeds, but she has a determined streak in her once she gets into something.

I enjoyed the light ship teasing between Riki and Rin. Even if I hadn't heard early on that she'd probably be the end-game girl, their relationship really strikes me as one that people on the outside look at and think: "Those two don't know it yet, but they're going to grow up and get married some day."

I appreciate how Sasami's sympathy for her hopeless suitor was informed by her own experience with love. And her nearly messing up her own name was a great little bit of "rabbit season, duck season" humor.

[Chiibi]

Sasami's voice really got on my nerves.
Which is odd because I felt sorry for the boy and kinda wanted them together.

I can't wait for next week's episode!!

[Magicflier]

Originally Posted by Zankoku12

I think it marked as one of Rin's grown up progress,she's moving from "making friend" to "ponder about love". They all grow up so fast ! *sniff*

I know, right? I can't wait to witness the progression to go even further.

[Marcus H.]

I think Aikawa gets the prize for the best character in this episode. His rap attempt reminds me of Ayumu, also an Aikawa, from Kore ha Zombie Desu ka?.

[s07195]

Loved it when Kurugaya and Nishizono's delusions were in full force.

[Archon_Wing]

Rin is pretty silly, but I guess I wouldn't be too harsh on her. Sometimes I do that crap too (speaking too fast when excited)

But yea, they actually made good use of Salami. Yea, I know her name's Sasami, but I could have cared less before this, but over all it was a nice side route that gives Rin more stuff to do, and really shows that she's quite the hardheaded person. And the humor didn't suck this episode; you can never go wrong with people trying to rap.

And this love thing. Well as we've noted from this episode, the cast is arguably one of the worst to ask about love. Though it's only the second worse by JC Staff standards (Shana's is #1) Mio and Yuiko are just totally out there. Could that be important? Probably.