[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Dragging the conversation here as points are getting quite on the different tangent as this rate.

There is a drastic difference in term of execution and pacing to me: whereas the formula is the same from its very fundation, LB anime currently has very very little tone shift outside of the girls route. In fact, that relates to the comment I've made regarding the foreshadowing, with the exception with Mio.

I don't really remember the VN ever getting that serious outside of the girl's routes save a few scenes from the common route. Examples being like the Kengo school jumping scene. Are you sure this isn't just an inherent problem with the source? Correct me if you can think of too many actually serious scenes in the common route.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Actually, the problem is more than just that for Haruka.
Some terms are just missing that make the treatment from some persons quite differently. For instance, Kengo's behaviour in the anime basically doesn't have any interaction with Haruka one bit (in fact, Kengo got quite the short end of a stick in general), whereas he made clear back in the VN that Haruka is borderline a pest (he got quite pissed off by that bucket prank).

Likewise, Masato reactions were also quite dry, even if we know the guy is not really any close to be someone who can throw mean stuff for nothing.
Whenever Haruka shows up, he either thinks she is useless, or thinks she is yet again going to mess around their classroom, which is quite different in the anime as Masato only react this way in a exaggerated fashion when he is on the receiving end.

But the real problem with Haruka is her own foreshadowing as in her utter lack of reactions when anything close to her twin problem shows up. In fact, the anime makes it like she is in the receiving end and hated Kanata only starting from the latest episode, whereas she has shown some scorn/hatred way before that initially.
At least, they did adress the problem child part by using the vending machine event earlier.

I'll agree that Kengo has been getting the short end of the stick so far in the anime, but assuming that they do loop the story (I have a feeling this second cour will end with Yuiko's route and the world falling apart), then he may get more moments hopefully. Though this also has to due with the source and its "everybody disappears" in other people's routes phenomenon.

As for Masato I feel like we're watching different shows here since more than one Masato has expressed annoyance towards Haruka when she appears in the classroom. If I have to I'll give you the times in the episodes, but I am fairly certain that this happened. If you feel that maybe they got the tone off, well I can't really say anything there.

Now I don't really remember Haruka's route well enough to comment too much here. But assuming that this anime has to cut to the chase a bit more than the VN, I think the approach they took is acceptable. Haruka was already shown in a previous episode to have difficulty dealing with Kanata after the vending machine incident and was emotionally unstable. Here it just came out stronger and I think that's fine.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Actually, the problem is how it was cut dry into 2 episodes each. The "third" episode is more or less events that where blended in the common routes. And frankly, it was the opposite: they dragged the irrelevant parts too much ironically.
Really, was that necessary to drag Yuiko's intro as a full episode? What about the test of courage?

Really, what I meant with my initial rants was how they didn't make a proper pacing with more level headed and balanced common route WITH the damn baseball arc, and then pulling progressively the heroines arc.
They don't have to have all girls arcs done by the first season: they should probably have gone with Komari, Haruka, Mio and Kud, leaving Rin, Yuiko and Refrain for the second season. But as far as it goes, the anime has a very unbalanced way to present events.

It is even more obvious when the episodes are segmented as "heroine of the week" for the casual events, instead of having a natural flow of several events that show characters little everyday.
The prime example of that would be Haruka's pranks multiplying starting in Episode 7. Prior that point, she only appeared 1 or 2 times, leaving little impression that she is doing that all the time, until you finally reach that episode.
Actually, only 4 episodes, 2 each for Mio and Komari.
Episode 4 was a common route event involving the LB with Komari's volonteer work, with only 1 single point from her route: her grandpa.

Likewise, Episode 10 was part of Mio's intro and how she joined the LB. So her route only spanned for episode 13 and 14.

So far, the problem is how unfinished the intro for the whole group was, and went scattered across due to having Komari inserted this way, to which Mio's route was far less an issue, save her absurdely belated intro.

But whereas the actual heroine routes aren't that butchered, it is how they were inserted in the ongoing plot, along with little details and usual interactions (a ton of which are from the baseball practice sessions).

I don't think they should put Yuiko's route in the second season unless they plan to combine it with Rin 1 route. The second cour should have a natural break off point, and I think Yuiko's route would fit really nicely for this purpose.

I think a lot of what you're asking for is unrealistic for the anime's scope. The visual novel had the common route first, then the girl's routes. So we already had a good idea of every character's ticks and got plenty of foreshadowing like you are wishing for, but this only works in the VN. The anime has tried to spread out the common route stuff for the most part between the heroine's arcs, and honestly they haven't done too bad of a job IMO.

The sleep over episode brought back Kanata into the picture right before Haruka's route started back up and so it felt more natural for her to appear there.

Before Mio's route we had her introduction in episode 10 and her appearing at the end of episode 11 with a common route episode before segwaying into her arc. which spanned episodes 12-14 (Not just 13 and 14 s you said) I thought it worked out nicely.

Komari's arc I don't have much of a comment for because I thought it was clumsily done. Though her route was pretty crap to begin with personally. It did come in after her introduction though so it wasn't too unnatural though. Though I object to the claim that the episode revolving around the retirement home was not part of her route, it was clearly an episode focused solely on her and tied directly into her arc.

ANYWAYS, I do think you have a point (I'm not dismissing what you're saying, but I think you're exaggerating quite a bit), but I think beyond Komari's route we haven't quite seen any other real negative effects in the anime. Personally I thought Mio's route went quite well (And she is is my favorite LB heroine so I don't say that lightly), and I believe Haruka is off to a good start. I think the whole "girl of the week" appearance is just inevitable with any VN adaption that chooses to put all the girl's routes. I felt the same in Clannad, and especially in Kanon2006.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I disagree. Masato often plays the Boke, but did he often go hyper with food and muscles in the VN? (important note: yes, Masato interjecting muscles is a daily occurence. What is different is the way it is played between the VN and anime. In the VN, Masato boasts about muscles as if it is natural and thus with a normal speech, whereas in the anime, he is portrayed as if he was to promote muscles as the best thing at every occasions possible. The biggest example would be his random muscle song during the volonteer work).

So you think Masato has been flanderized by the anime? Yeah, he has been a little bit, I won't deny that. Although I do think the increased silliness of his character comes across this way from the difference in mediums more than anything else. Reading about Masato lifting vigorously all the time with him making sounds and seeing it in motion in animation creates an entirely different effect.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I personally didn't have that much "goofy comedy" impression with the way how Riki was describing things from his perspective, especially how things go out of hand/serious (especially that thumbnack part).
I'm not claiming that every parts involving the commitee without Kanata were serious. Far from it. However we are shown only the "fun side" of the pranks without much the afterthought behind them (be it the commitee or the other characters).

As for Kanata, she is actually more sarcastic and less aggressive in the VN, leaving some implication that sparked Riki's attention, to which he could conclude Kanata's true intention at some point. In fact the tone is slightly different, since she lost her taunting edge and went more straightforward with her verbal abuse in the anime.

We already have had a couple moments in the anime where Yuiko calmed Kanata down and got her to be a little more easy going and rational (One of them in the sleep over scene, and another in an earlier episode). We also had the moment Kanata helped Kud out by letting her be roomates with her. I think the anime has done some good to show that Kanata is not all bad and gives reason to believe that Kanata has a reason for her actions.

Of course somethings are always going to be lost because unlike the visual novel, we don't get all of Riki's internal narration. Obviously this makes reading the visual novel a smoother, more detailed, and wholesome experience. But from an adaption perspective I thought they captured quite well a little of both sides of Kanata so far.

Anyways, again I bring up the point with Haruka's character that we already had an earlier episode where she got harassed by the disciplinary committee, so I don't see a reason why we would need even more.