Little Busters - Episode 5 Discussion / Poll

[novalysis]

Why do I seem to smell a semi-bad end of sorts, even this early into the adaptation? If indeed, it is the aim of this adaptation to hint that Komari's route has a high potential of ending in a bad end, it's doing it's job we'll. I've not read the original visual novel, but there seems to be a lot of potential threads and timebombs that Riki has to defuse to avert a bad end.

However, given how early we seem to be diving into these routes, I wonder whether there'll be something closer to Amanagi Ss than Clannad with this adaptation....

And if they DO go Amanagi, and their first route ends in a bad end, I applaude the adapters for those guts.

[eplipswich]

Yep, the episodes are certainly getting better, albeit slowly.

I agree that there is lack of emotions felt here (blame the lack of character development, I suppose), but I can certainly understand the situation with Komari here. I would say that Komari's route is so far more interesting than the common route.

And of course, when the thunderstorm came (and with 20% of it happening), I knew something wasn't right.

Let's see how this turns out in the next episode. I expect great things from you, JC Staff.

[Meltyred]

A few people have said there is a lack of emotions in this part, but that's probably because everything felt rushed so it was like watching something fast forwarded....
Then again, it could also be Komari just seeing a dead cat and then breaking down making no sense at all....
Well I guess it's time to play the VN route and endure the voice that gives me seizures.

[Haak]

The first three minutes of this episode pretty much made me want to vomit at the childish retardedness and in all honesty I was really close to dropping the show there and then.

I can't really say I enjoyed the rest of the episode overall but I did find a few "Pro" moments (as opposed to mostly "Con" moments...). All I have to say is that Komari's voice (and general personality for that matter) is like nails of a chalkboard...

[novalysis]

To me , her personality is actually tolerable, but her voice.....

Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Little Buster has the bad luck to air on the same day as Onii Chan Blah Blah Blah, where the voice acting is top notch compared to Little Buster's nasal, unrealistically childish tones. Urgh. Even Rin was intolerably bad. Argh.

Anego is the only one with a listenable voice, the rest sounds like ten year old chibis! Or poor imitations of CHIPMUNKS!

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by AngryDango

The anime is been pretty disappointing to me, it really lacks impact and emotion and can't set the mood. It's even boring at times. My hopes for it getting better are quickly fading.

I couldn't agree more. This episode was flat and lacked any kind of emotional impact. I didn't feel anything, expect boredom and annoyance. I had to struggle to finish the episode. If Key wasn't behind this I would have already dropped this anime without regret by now.

I'm feeling more and more pessimistic as time goes by but I tell myself there's got to be a reason this was hyped to now tomorrow (and I enjoyed Kanon and Clannad a lot, so why not Little Busters?)

Originally Posted by novalysis

To me , her personality is actually tolerable, but her voice.....

Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Little Buster has the bad luck to air on the same day as Onii Chan Blah Blah Blah, where the voice acting is top notch compared to Little Buster's nasal, unrealistically childish tones. Urgh. Even Rin was intolerably bad. Argh.

Anego is the only one with a listenable voice, the rest sounds like ten year old chibis! Or poor imitations of CHIPMUNKS!

I dislike her personality quite a bit as well, but her voice is definitely what makes her completely insufferable for me. Like Haak said, her voice is really like nails on a chalkboard. I tense up every time I hear it and I only have one desire: mute the sound. I wish there was an option like in VNs where you can select the characters you want to mute. That would make this anime so much more enjoyable to watch.

This is the first time bad voice acting is ruining a show for me. Hopefully, Komari's arc will end next episode and we'll be able to put that behind us. Rin is bad too, but nowhere near on Komari's level.

[ookamigirl]

Having some fun playing baseball.
Rin is too shy. Komari is too childish.
Maybe Komari became that way after losing her brother..
She's just so borderline loli character.
Riki seems to hanging out with her a whole lot.
Komari could be seeing him as a replacement brother?

[Kaoru Chujo]

Well, just to break the string, I enjoyed this episode. Finally, some "sad girls in snow." At last we get some of the real Key emotion.

I understand why people hate Komari's voice: I think the voice is quite badly done. I thought Yanase Natsumi did a great job as Chihiro in ef, but here her voice is a problem. I had the sudden thought that voice-acting may actually have gotten better, overall, over the past few years. Or at least that styles may have changed.

But that style of voice -- high-pitched and artificial -- is one Japanese norm, and I find it completely acceptable. The drippy emotion actually works on me. And off-putting as it was at first, it began to work on me here.

The episode started in total boredom. The baseball stuff never works for me; humour-free comedy, as far as I am concerned. I actually stopped the show and left it overnight, preparing to maybe abandon the series. But once we got past the old man in the hospital and to Riki and Komari, things started looking up for me. Or looking down: so far, the show only works for me when it is sad and moe.

And Horie Yui as a male lead is working for me, too.

[Klashikari]

The direction of this episode was really below average: it isn't even an adaptation issue, but really a directing/storyboard one, as the way how they made events leading to Komari's breakdown and the flashbacks is so mundane and bland that it rendered the shock factor basically flat.

Frankly, for that kind of revelation, I would have expected a different approach, as say... Riki noticing something, and as approaching "it", Komari starts to have overlapping flashbacks shorts, literally fizzling the screen, until she finally let loose her cry, before the camera ends with the cat corpse.
Something like that would probably make the scene with a growing tension, instead of having a dragged flashback. The execution looked like a tossed dramatic scene without any momentum or buildup planned whatsoever (nothing really about the foreshadowing whatsoever).

I also find ironic that while they tried to be less "linear" by merging the intro period with the early start of Komari, they go fullforce with her route to the point the rest of the cast felt "pushed out" to the early part of the ep, so they can be done with Komari. In fact, the episode felt way more segmented than ever.

[NoemiChan]

Who is the main heroine of the story again? I fear my bet is losing...

[Rising Dragon]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Who is the main heroine of the story again? I fear my bet is losing...

Riki, obviously! :V

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

Riki, obviously! :V

Thanks...I thought the other girl is winning....

*Mashiro vibes

[bigdeal000]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Who is the main heroine of the story again? I fear my bet is losing...

I'd say Riki too - he has everything he needs to be considered the main heroine. Care to tell us who your bet is?

[NoemiChan]

Riki, obviously! :V

I'd say Riki too - he has everything he needs to be considered the main heroine. Care to tell us who your bet is?

Chotto matte!!!! Rikki is the main heroine??? Hero is for male and heroine (not the drug) is female. You probably mean Rin since Rin is my bet... Twincest woah!!!

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Chotto matte!!!! Rikki is the main heroine??? Hero is for male and heroine (not the drug) is female. You probably mean Rin since Rin is my bet... Twincest woah!!!

xD
They were joking since Rikki is pretty girlish (plus he has one of the biggest crushes ever on Kyousuke).

As for who really is the Main Heroine...I'm not sure for the anime really. I have a feeling that they will play Rin as the heroine but as for in the source material...if anyone has ever played VNs then they know it's not so simple as the assign Main Heroines. There's still multiple theories and various people pushing for their favorite girls.

[Snuffle]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

The direction of this episode was really below average: it isn't even an adaptation issue, but really a directing/storyboard one, as the way how they made events leading to Komari's breakdown and the flashbacks so mundane and bland that rendered the shock factor basically flat.

Frankly, for that kind of revelation, I would have expected a different approach, as say... Riki noticing something, and as approaching "it", Komari starts to have overlapping flashbacks shorts, literally fizzling the screen, until she finally let loose her cry, before the camera ends with the cat corpse.
Something like that would probably make the scene with a growing tension, instead of having a dragged flashback. The execution looked like a tossed dramatic scene without any momentum or buildup planned whatsoever (nothing really about the foreshadowing whatsoever).

You've basically said what I wanted say but in a much better way than I could, but I'd like to expand on that if I may.

This is pretty much gonna be me ranting about the direction... So I'll just tuck it away nicely in a spoiler for people that don't want to bother read it.

Spoiler for about poor direction of Little Busters:

Now I'm wondering, as a Little Busters VN fan, why the heck am I tempted to drop this show!? (Well... aside from waiting for my two favorite character routes). So I took a bit of time to look up some info as to what could be the problem.

This could be old news for some people... sorry about that.

What I did was check the list of what shows J.C Staff were responsible for and compared it to the director and assistant director. What I learned was out of the 60+ shows that J.C Staff has animated, there has only been a handful (no more than five) that has emotionally moved me or felt like the build up was executed properly out of what I've seen (specifically Ai Yori Aoshi and Toradora).

However, the person that was responsible for Ai Yori Aoshi direction is not even involved here, but for Toradora, Sakurai Chikara is involved as the assistant director. As for the director, Yamakawa Yoshiki is the one to point your "I hate your direction sense!" finger to. Yamakawa has no experience with stories that are meant to have emotional impact on the viewer... He has mostly directed kid shows (not including Hatsukoi Limited, which is the only show I've seen on his list), therefore, the problem many people might have is how Yamakawa has decided to tell the story.

I can't blame anyone that has decided to drop the show, it's poorly done. All these emotional and funny scenes are getting cheapened, watered down, and lacks the oomph which has created the strong fan base that the VN has.

Now that this show is confirmed(?) to be more than 24-26 episodes, why the heck is the pacing still so rushed?

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

I can't blame anyone that has decided to drop the show, it's poorly done. All these emotional and funny scenes are getting cheapened, watered down, and lacks the oomph which has created the strong fan base that the VN has.

Now that this show is confirmed(?) to be more than 24-26 episodes, why the heck is the pacing still so rushed?

I share the same feeling... If no romantic twist happens between Rikki and Rin by episode 10.. then its bye bye....

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

Now that this show is confirmed(?) to be more than 24-26 episodes, why the heck is the pacing still so rushed?

I'm guessing it's just 1 extra cour or something to include the EX girls.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

I share the same feeling... If no romantic twist happens between Rikki and Rin by episode 10.. then its bye bye....

I'm not seeing any romantic tension between Riki and Rin at all.

If Rin is the girl that Riki is slated to end up with, then this anime really needs to start hinting at that, and soon. Because so far, all I'm seeing between Riki and Rin is good, unambiguous platonic friendship.

At least "Yui-chan" flirted a bit with Riki, while Komari asked him out on a date (which he agreed to). Komari having her arc first clearly means she's not "the one", though.

Riki/Yui is a bit interesting to me in that it would pair off a somewhat feminine guy with a femme fatale. Not the most conventional of pairings, "east" or "west". Also for that reason, though, I kind of doubt it...

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by triple_r

if rin is the girl that riki is slated to end up with, then this anime really needs to start hinting at that, and soon.

.....mashiro......