Little Busters - Weekly Episode-to-Game Comparison Thread [Spoilers Aplenty]

[Free]

Don't we already have a 13 episode show about Saya's route? Except over there she's called Yuri.

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Free

Don't we already have a 13 episode show about Saya's route? Except over there she's called Yuri.

I wanna slap you so hard right now...

[Jasque]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

The problem is that the way how they are doing the battles do not compliment the characters at all: the recent ones arguably ridicule Masato to no end (albeit originally funny, it doesn't make Masato like a utter moron), but they are so badly animated it makes you wonder why they can't do stuff like Index/Railgun.
And so far, we are too few baseball practice, which is much more important than the battles imho.

Really, pulling battles in such fashion is just "meh". If there was actually a bit less of them but more meaningful in term of what is shown, sure. For instance, Yuiko's last for 4-6 minutes, which is basically 1/4 - 1/3 the damn episode.

Heck, I would have been fine if they just make it quick, or use the VN interface. But if they want to show one, at least they should do the work -properly-.

For instance, Kyoani reduced the number of times Sunohara was asskicked, but that was fairly enough to drive the point, and we got to see actual prowess from Tomoyo and Kyou. Here, we get a succession of badly directed, or even "clipshow" ones. (at least, they made it quick with Sasami & goons VS Rin).

I didn't like how they did the first battle. I was expecting for Masato to actually fight using the cat...

I know you can skip the battles in vn, but it was the first scene. If they had made it more interesting, non-vn readers would be more excited about the anime, like "That was fun, I wanna know what this show is about".

If they had accomplished it by the start, it would be a win-win, even wasting some more minutes.

But I liked Anego's battle, it was fun watching Masato fighting with an useless weapon.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Jasque

I didn't like how they did the first battle. I was expecting for Masato to actually fight using the cat...

I know you can skip the battles in vn, but it was the first scene. If they had made it more interesting, non-vn readers would be more excited about the anime, like "That was fun, I wanna know what this show is about".

If they had accomplished it by the start, it would be a win-win, even wasting some more minutes.

But I liked Anego's battle, it was fun watching Masato fighting with an useless weapon.

I never stated they should skip battles altogether. I stated they should animate them correctly in order to have a good grasp of everything.
The major setback by animating the battles is the "meaning" of them in a anime format, which should have been cleared by the ranking system. If they were to animate just a few battles correctly, along with ranking (and for some reasons, they only put 3 titles so far, and 2 of them are not battle related), that could have been better on the long run.

And the problem is that the anime fails extremely hard to have a swift and explosive aspect of the battle at all: they make characters attacking aimlessly (Kengo with his shinai and Yuiko with Murasama) to make the battle longers, which isn't really a good idea, when you have "filler" like stock images all the time.
Heck, due to how dragged the battles are, I'm not surprised that some people are getting bored by these: Yuiko's took like 4-6 min by herself, which takes too much for her own intro episode. Hell, because of that, you couldn't have Kudo and Mio intro in the same ep, and if they wanted to be really "yuiko centred" only, they should have at least make the whole first baseball practice with her in its entirety to drive the point with her and the girls, instead of having her showing up due to cute girls, for the fanservice. I think they made a very basic mistake by skipping/postponing Yuiko's "Yui-chan" scene.

The fights are used to either have a short good laugh and/or have major quirks of the characters being introduced. So if they made Yuiko go "cold murder" mode and trash Masato within 30 seconds like in the VN, that would have been enough.
Likewise, if they want to make a fight to introduce Haruka, Kudo and Mio, they should make it quick: Haruka winning by making her opponent falling due to marbles/fireworks, Kudo insta-KO her opponent with Strelka and Belka, Mio doing nothing at first, then either clumsy do something or insta-ko with a science weapon.

Really, you don't need dragged badly animated scenes for these, it is just making the intro battles a bore, and even lower the possible length of the baseball practice.

[Reckoner]

I am not sure how much I want to attribute the fault here to JC staff, but the voice acting performances of the cast are pretty poor so far. I just don't feel the same energy and excitement from the characters' interactions. It should be more fun than this IMO.

Partly this has to do with the odd flow of the scenes, but I feel that is just the difference between anime and VN pace, whereas you can read as fast as you want.

I'm trying really hard to not be biased here, it's hard to beat one's own imagination when it comes to an adaption, but the direction so far of the story is disconcerting. I'm not sure jumping into Komari's route was a good idea.

I don't suppose they were going to implement any sort of "loop" feature here, but it seems a rather odd way to progress in this story if they're going to merge all the routes (Which is what it seems like so far). Unfortunately this shows the limitation of adapting this VN in the first place, and this is ultimately going to take away impact from the punch scenes in the story.

[Snuffle]

So how are the Anego fans feeling with how they cheapened the Komari vs Anego squabble in episode 5? Anger? Sadness? It was reduced to less than half and also had zero impact.... It fails to show how much Anego dislikes being called "Yui-chan" IMO.

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

So how are the Anego fans feeling with how they cheapened the Komari vs Anego squabble in episode 5? Anger? Sadness? It was reduced to less than half and also had zero impact.... It fails to show how much Anego dislikes being called "Yui-chan" IMO.

I punched my screen...

[bigdeal000]

Originally Posted by Snuffle

So how are the Anego fans feeling with how they cheapened the Komari vs Anego squabble in episode 5? Anger? Sadness? It was reduced to less than half and also had zero impact.... It fails to show how much Anego dislikes being called "Yui-chan" IMO.

And here I was thinking of ways they could make that scene more important. You know, I actually started believing they'll keep that scene for the moment they start Kurugaya's route so that would be a first hint of what's coming (foreshadowing Kurugaya's weak spot) But no, that scene simply sucked. I liked the rest of the episode...

[Randrak42]

That scene got be annoyed as all hell...

But Komari's break-down was poorly done as well. It is true that in the VN you only get one perspective of the scene, Riki's and in the anime you have a spectator's perspective...HOWEVER you get a much better sense of "WTF is going on? What's wrong? What do I do?" you are genuinely worried for Komari and what happened to her, you yourself suspect that it has something to do with her brother but only until after she shuts-down. Plus the fact that Komari held the kitten's dead body and suddenly dropped it when she fell to her knees had a much bigger impact.

In the anime you get bombarded with flashbacks even before the break-down scene...through all episodes of Komari's route you keep getting hit with flashbacks...hell, even if you are an anime only viewer you already have a pretty good idea of what happened to Komari's brother...something you're never real as sure in the VN until a a bit later.

[Klashikari]

Episode 5 is really the worst of the show so far: it was bland from start to finish, with an absolutely silly adaptation for Yuiko and Komari's scenes.

Really, it isn't like "Yuiko" name is anything critical regarding Yuiko's route/personality, but it is another point that defines her a bit. These details together put some sense why Yuiko has difficulty to even define herself, and some points regarding her past.

Meanwhile, Komari doesn't really have much "personality" than what she had: surely, she wasn't exactly bright in the VN either, but there were at least few points that could give the impression, and I admit that while I never liked her voice in the original game, the way how the director lead the voice acting make it even worse.

Finally, Riki hardly needs any build-up or upgrade, considering how staunch he can face Kojiro now.

[Randrak42]

I hope I'm not the only one believing that this CG

combined with

and her cry, had 10 times the impact of the anime version.

[Linkark07]

You aren't the only one.

[Snuffle]

Originally Posted by bigdeal000

And here I was thinking of ways they could make that scene more important. You know, I actually started believing they'll keep that scene for the moment they start Kurugaya's route so that would be a first hint of what's coming (foreshadowing Kurugaya's weak spot) But no, that scene simply sucked.

That's what I was expecting them to do... It would fit in perfectly right before Anego's route, since that scene is more about her than it is about Komari. Just stuffing it in right before they continue Komari's route was just a terrible choice IMO.

[Arturia Polaris]

It could have been handled much better. Instead it got pushed out like they were running out of time.

That OST is still sad as hell... and I love it.

Jun Maeda made me a sadistic bastard.

Arty

[Meltyred]

If I had to make a comparison, her breakdown in VN was something that was very saddening.

But the anime version would feel like Komari just suddenly tripped and cried then suddenly remembered about her brother and stuff and we are left going.... wut, rather then being saddened. (I still don't get why Riki was trying to get the cat out of the gutter and then suddenly stopped)

[matrixhazard]

Episode 5 for me have a good adaption. I think that most important plot already put in this one and anime have a good way to reduce unnecessary event from the game. I have no problem with the Komari's scene when her got mental breakdown. Only the scene that both of them went to shooting star is just somewhat long and makes me annoying.

I almost expect that if they put the kiss scene for Komari at the boat scene would be perfect if it can go for romance. Overall, I can still give 9 out of 10 for this one.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Meltyred

If I had to make a comparison, her breakdown in VN was something that was very saddening.

But the anime version would feel like Komari just suddenly tripped and cried then suddenly remembered about her brother and stuff and we are left going.... wut, rather then being saddened. (I still don't get why Riki was trying to get the cat out of the gutter and then suddenly stopped)

Nah, my first reaction to Komari breakdown was indeed rather "wtf?" rather than saddening. The sad part comes after the reveal of why Komari lost her memories and how she seriously starts making Riki as substitute for her brother (and the irony really sinks in because of that boat scene).

I just watched the ep. Personally, I don't think it's all that bad. Indeed, some things were rushed a bit, but it didn't really bother me all that much. I think the message is adequately conceived, about how this girl who is always sunshine and seems to think positively all the time (almost on the level of self-hypnosis, which were indeed the case) suddenly breaks down just like that.

[Jasque]

Ep was kinda well animated, but...

Spoiler:

No Kengo at the graveyard.
No romance(as expected).
Rin way too... strong?

Ah and Kengo was like his post-incident self...

Looks like those spoilers were true, next ep we'll have Haruka.

[Klashikari]

I simply can't believe they went all their way with Rin in this episode: her reaction towards Komari was so strong it almost reminded me of "that" sequence in Refrain.

Really, this episode shows how bad JC staff choice was to be done with Komari before the LB group is complete: the relationship between Komari and the other members should be barely of acquaintances/"buddies", even if you factor Komari's penchant to befriend anyone within her range.
It just makes the whole point terribly mismatched with the purpose of the loops, and the way how Rin and Riki have to grow up. At this point, both had little troubles to encourage Komari in a way or another.

What shocked me the most was Riki's absolutely cool head nearly all the time in this episode: I would expect Riki to be really in a "WTF" state, and brooding/worrying about Komari for at least half an episode, due to how dreadful Komari's situation was, and how helpless he felt.
Likewise, Rin felt as if Komari was already her definite best friend and went full on supporting Riki without much issue.

I can't find all the words that describe how baffled I'm regarding how the scripters are handling the developments of the characters: nevermind the adaptation and faithfulness issues that people were always worrying about, I'm actually annoyed by the direction of the series right now.
Suffice to say, if they could bring a new aspect of LB, as a very united kick ass group of friends, I wouldn't complain about that, but even that aspect is hardly complimented with so few interactions and "events" that make you FEEL that they have a strong solidarity.

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I simply can't believe they went all their way with Rin in this episode: her reaction towards Komari was so strong it almost reminded me of "that" sequence in Refrain.

Really, this episode shows how bad JC staff choice was to be done with Komari before the LB group is complete: the relationship between Komari and the other members should be barely of acquaintances/"buddies", even if you factor Komari's penchant to befriend anyone within her range.
It just makes the whole point terribly mismatched with the purpose of the loops, and the way how Rin and Riki have to grow up. At this point, both had little troubles to encourage Komari in a way or another.

What shocked me the most was Riki's absolutely cool head nearly all the time in this episode: I would expect Riki to be really in a "WTF" state, and brooding/worrying about Komari for at least half an episode, due to how dreadful Komari's situation was, and how helpless he felt.
Likewise, Rin felt as if Komari was already her definite best friend and went full on supporting Riki without much issue.

I can't find all the words that describe how baffled I'm regarding how the scripters are handling the developments of the characters: nevermind the adaptation and faithfulness issues that people were always worrying about, I'm actually annoyed by the direction of the series right now.
Suffice to say, if they could bring a new aspect of LB, as a very united kick ass group of friends, I wouldn't complain about that, but even that aspect is hardly complimented with so few interactions and "events" that make you FEEL that they have a strong solidarity.

Took the words right out of my mouth...and added a couple more good ones. I fully agree with Klashikari on this one.