[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

There isn't any numerous "severe" seriousness part in the common route, but several stuff are addressed for each girl or even guys at some points. I honestly don't feel like reading everything again to make a list, that wouldn't be the most efficient way to spend my time and yours.
That being said, it is more a matter or how they execute the comedy in very prominent way that makes people think they are watching something primarily comedy or something.

It's interesting you say this because for the most part throughout Little Busters, I always got the impression that it was very light hearted, and comedic. It was only in Refrain and in the individual routes that this changed, but I think most people have noted the otnal differences in the anime as well here. Comedic isn't a bad thing IMO, it's part of what Little Busters such a fun read for me.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

. The problem right now is that Kengo has little to no involvement with the LB, be it comedy or serious stuff. Really, his screentime is close to 0, with Masato being nearly as present as the girls, which is quite a feat considering his role in there.

I certainly hope they resolve this issue with his screen time. The big problem here is his increased screen time isn't truly felt until Kengo goes super little busters mode, which hasn't happened in the anime yet for whatever reason.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

It wasn't only with Haruka, but that's definitely the main problem I have with "this" Masato: from the very very beginning in the VN, Masato is frankly not a fan of Haruka and hardly interact with her save very few instances. He never make a "joke" followup to hers, and often makes comments like "...you came again? what are you up to now? -_-".
Even for an open guy like Masato, he often states his displeasure towards her, even before Haruka does anything and that's in a calm and even serious way (aka pissed off). In the anime, it is more like a boke/exaggerated fashion, and undeniably less often.

It was a bit the same than with his fight against Yuiko: he was -really- pissed off to the point she is the only character, save Kengo, that he wanted to use a silly weapon to -directly- hit them. Afterwards, he considers Yuiko as a woman not to triffle with due to her skills and way to handle Rin etc, so half respec, half scared of her.

Well part of what the anime has done with his character, and others as well, is give them increased interactions. The visual novel often felt like most conversations were directed towards Riki or Rin, but the anime is trying to really make it seem more like a group. I don't think having Masato be as cold to Haruka as he is in the visual novel is a total game changer. I'll say this though, if there is one common route scene that should've been here it should've been the one where Kengo gets his uniform wrecked by Haruka.

Still I don't think the anime missed the point that Masato was genuinely angry at Yuiko and even Haruka (their fight scene), but the playful nature of the story always ensured it was still fairly comedic/light hearted.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I don't mind how they cut the chase with her route. The only problem is how they showed Haruka's resentment differently: generally speaking, Haruka doesn't hide her loath for Kanata, even if the latter wasn't after her. However in the anime, Haruka was shown persecuted/victimised, only showing her hatred starting ep 16.
To give a better point in the whole mood, I would have expected a 10 sec short scene much earlier than episode 7. Aside of Kanata issue, Haruka was, as I explained, barely introduced before episode 7, so her antics didn't feel like a "daily troublesome mess".

Well the one place the anime screwed up was pushing Komari's route in so fast. I think if Haruka was introduced sooner in the story, then this would have been possible. Granted, I think the idea that Haruka was a genuine troublemaker was still easily understood.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Actually, that's the opposite: the way they spread it out just make several interactions awkward at best. Episode 17 is a glaring example of that with Mio, Masato and Kengo "caring" about Haruka despite -they just didn't have any interaction with her-.
It is even worse when baseball practice were skipped altogether (despite being the -main catalyst- of having such group) in favor for more silly antics taking full episodes.

Frankly, I didn't expect the full common route to kick in completely before engaging the girls route. Far from it. However, other adaptations proved that having a full intro and a third of the common route is -doable-.
Clannad had a proper intro for most heroines and even some extra before tackling Fuuko's route. And as much as I think they spent 1 ep too much on Fuuko, they definitely could squeeze many casual events as well as intro, for a cast of the same caliber as LB, even if it means that ep1 was quite fast for clannad.
That's why I kept repeating that the adaptation pace is a mess, as the "general pacing" is iffy slow, but they really jump left and right regarding the girls, leading to a lessened impact in general.

Kengo I can see, but Masato did have interactions with her. There were several group scenes already (tanka poems and sleepover) where the girls and masato often interacted. So I think is greatly exaggerated.

But yes I can agree with the point about the common route, but this really only ended up hurting Komari the most since her route is the one that got pushed eraly first.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

That's my problem with Mio: exactly because her intro only started at episode 10, and due to that it has to be dragged afterwards. Episode 12 was not part of her route, exactly because the book incident happens -in every route- assuming you stumble on the correct flags.
It is exactly a common route portion since it is a scene you can get regardless of the heroine you are aiming for, and contributes to Mio's characterization (and being a device for her route much later on).

Really my biggest gripe of the adaptation, pacing/content wise was the timing of Mio's intro and Komari's route, because these 2 were completely done upside down.

Mio was also a tiny bit late of an introduction in the visual novel too if I recall though. But yeah, she probably should've been introduced before jumping into any of the girl's routes. Still even with her belated introduction, I thought her arc went quite well. They cut down on a lot of redundancy about it. It was short, sweet, and to the point.

A lot of this stuff seems to come down to the placement of Komari's arc, which I have agreed screwed up the pacing of the beginning. But I think since then, the anime has gained enough stability.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

The episode served for her arc, what I actually means is that event isn't solely for her, as it also involve the LB and whatever they do on some occasions.
Simply speaking, it is similar to Mio's book scene: it is obviously focused on a specific heroine, but it doesn't go too deeply with them and does involve other characters for various reasons.
And surely Komari's route is one of the reason why I just don't like Tonokawa's writing at all.

I get what you're saying. But even if it's common route, it's essential pieces of their individual arcs. Yeah it would be nice if we could have like 78 episodes for Little Busters to get all the stuff we wish to see, but they make do with what they can.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Right now, the adaptation is not exactly the best I could have expected, especially that some characters like Masato and Kengo are just being screwed hard, leading to complications if theykeep going this way.

OTOH, Riki is -way- too strong willed as of now. It just makes you wonder why the loops are necessary consering how reliable he was shown right from the get go (from suggesting a LB activity to other stuff).

This does remind me of one scene from Mio's route that I wish they kept, or rather one line. There are a lot of subtleties in Kyousuke's behavior and statements that are being missed in general I feel, but the scene where Riki asks Kyousuke for advice about what to do about Mio and the fact people are forgetting her... He comments that Riki is weak, and it was a particularly striking scene to me. I wish they kept that in since it would have helped send the message.

Anyhow there is one main difference between the anime and the visual novel. Every route was a loop in the visual novel, the anime has had no loops. Presumably Riki's weakness will surface up towards the end of the first loop (probably coinciding with the first season end). At least I would hope so.

Yes the adaption certainly could be better in parts (Particularly how they did Komari's route), but I keep reading comments about how JC staff completely butchered the source and that sort of hyperbole is just not productive. If people want to know what butchering a source is like they should see JC staff's Tsukihime.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Except that his "muscle muscle yay!" dance only happen when... you actually aim for the muscle sensation ending. To begin with, Masato is more like a boatsing poser like I said. The VN hardly shows any motion, unless real antics are shown. But as far as it goes, I really can't imagine Masato going panzer, and that refrain scene might look quite off as result.

*shrug*

The thing with refrain to me was how strikingly different he became (when he went violent mode especially). He really was just fooling around like a bumbling idiot the entire time. So for me, while his silliness is indeed increased a little bit, I don't think the anime's interpretation of his antics are too far off from how I personally imagined it.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Actually it is a tad more subtle than that. The anime shows rather how Yuiko can stand against Kanata, to an extent the latter has to circumvent a bit what she does, otherwise it isn't going anywhere. the scene I was talking about actually make Kanata admitting herself she shouldn't go ahead of herself all the time, and let of some "steam" a lil bit.
That being said, I guess I'm way too used with the way how the voice acting was in the VN, because the differences are glaring to me: it isn't about the length of the speech etc, but the actual tones and slightly different words as well.

I do remember that scene, and it would be nice if it was in the show so you're not wrong, but is this really so detrimental to the anime? I mean I figured the anime did want us to misunderstand Kanata's intentions from episode 16. Episode 17 then goes on to show that her position in this conflict is more complicated than initially expected. We also saw how Haruka is more hateful than we might have imagined as well.

As for the voice acting, I can't say too much.

Originally Posted by Kudryavka

@Reckoner I think Klashikari was saying about Masato, that they didn't transfer over his true loathing of Haruka. Sure in the anime he shows moments of discontempt for her, but then in the latest episode we see him trying to cheer Haruka up and give her some marbles so that she'll feel better. Game Masato would never do that, especially since she pulled a prank that ended up ruining Kengo's kendo uniform and him blaming Masato for it until she confessed.

It becomes clear that these moments of him disliking Haruka are actually true loathing, not just joking, in her route. When Riki invites her into his dorm room to get an alarm clock so she can wake up on time, she snoops around playfully. Masato ends up getting extremely angry at her and yelling, then kicks her out the second she finds some clocks. She was trying to joke, but Masato obviously wouldn't have any of that.

His annoyance towards Haruka is certainly more pronounced in the visual novel, but it never felt to me like he actually hated her.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

6) The most important point: they screwed Kanata's impersonation attempt, as she was trying to make Riki GIVE UP on finding the truth. People will think she was trying to steal Riki, but that's the complete opposite: she wanted to make him stop digging further in the Saigusa/Futaki business because Haruka's current state is not going to cut it: regardless what is the truth, it will damage Haruka even more, explaining why her parents and Shou wanted to statu quo.

Yeah I'm personally a bit confused by their choice here. Unfortunately this route needs a 4th episode to be done well IMO.