Little Busters ~Refrain~ - Episode 7 Discussion / Poll

[novalysis]

Oh, Kengo. You are a lion among man.

[bigdeal000]

Damn, I wanted to see the windows game...oh well, other than skipping that, I really enjoyed the episode.
Riki really is a poor man's Kyosuke right now

[~Yami~]

I was swallowed by deep confusion....

what the heck is happening?!?!?! Why Kyousoke so gloomy, Kengo and Masato trying to be nice but rude for the same time... and Rin.... agggh!!!

If this is parallel world stuff or repeating time stuff, then we could conclude that this is the result for playing baseball
Kyousuke thought that playing baseball will help Rin to be matured... but it seems make it worse
then time repeating and Kyousuke regretting his action. Somehow Masato and Kengo remembered but the rest of girls are missing. Only Rin and Riki are left clueless... it's not because of narcolepsy because Rin didn't have it

agh!!!! give me next episode... I don't know what's happening anymore!! Where's my cheerful Little Busters!

[ThereminVox]

Oh.. ohhh.. Refrain. DURRRR. Like, a repeating phrase of music.

[Triple_R]

I have to admit, to a certain degree I share GDB's sentiments.

I feel like things are getting dragged out a bit. And yeah, at this point, I do miss the other girls. Rin isn't a bad character, but I don't find her as entertaining as I do most of the other major girls.

I wouldn't say I find it downright boring, as I do think that JC Staff is well-executing this part of the narrative. There's still some interesting things happening, and the BGM is rather effective.

But yeah, I have to admit I prefer Little Busters! when it has a fuller cast of characters and much more color and zest to it.

[Crashmaking Zoomatic]

I don't blame a lot of anime viewers for feeling the way they do with this episode. It was a little dull for me, too, and I've played the VN, but then again, I don't really worship Refrain like a lot of other people do. But I suppose this episode was a necessary evil, and with any luck, it'll pick up some down the line.

[Meltyred]

This part of the series is meant to feel lifeless and dull, it makes you realise that something is off, something really bad is going to happen.
And most of the girls disappearing is intentional, their own worries, doubts and problems were resolved thanks to Riki, and now the focus is on the original members of Little busters as Riki notices the problems his childhood friends are facing, and will help them get back their cheerful and playful spirit, to bring them together again.

[Serphirs]

Originally Posted by GDB

That and Riki/Rin spending entire episodes trying to figure something out that we, the viewers, already know.

The question here is: Are you sure?

If it helps you. Personally, it's ironic to hear that, because I felt exactly the same when I read the VN in that segment, so I understand your point of view.
But, finally, I was wrong. Or at least, partially. The execution is the important thing here, not the facts.

[molitar]

I am so sick of Riki still being friends with Kyousuke when he betrayed them like he did! I would of told him friendship is over and I NEVER EVER want to see your UGLY MUG again! Traitor!

Yet he still wants to be friends with him.. ugg... he is pitiful.. he is beyond pitiful. I can not respect him at all.

[DmonHiro]

Originally Posted by molitar

I am so sick of Riki still being friends with Kyousuke when he betrayed them like he did! I would of told him friendship is over and I NEVER EVER want to see your UGLY MUG again! Traitor!

Kind of hard to do, when you've forgotten that he did anything. Riki right now has no idea what shit Kyosuke pulled last time. And here's the kicker: he was RIGHT.
His methods were awful, but he had the right idea. Rin can't function on her own.
So he played the bad guy to force her to change. It bit him in the ass, HARD. Now, he made Rin worse, and he's depressed about it.

[molitar]

Originally Posted by DmonHiro

Kind of hard to do, when you've forgotten that he did anything. Riki right now has no idea what shit Kyosuke pulled last time. And here's the kicker: he was RIGHT.
His methods were awful, but he had the right idea. Rin can't function on her own.
So he played the bad guy to force her to change. It bit him in the ass, HARD. Now, he made Rin worse, and he's depressed about it.

Yes! But even so there emotions remain. Even after being betrayed by his friend he still has the emotions of wanting to be friends. Sure Rin, could not function on her own but she was coming out of her shell and starting to learn.. she even asked Riki out on her own.

But sticking someone just coming out into a school of depressed students I do not see how anyone in there right mind could consider that to be a good idea.. He is a total idiot! You want to recover a school full of depressed students you have to put the most upbeat outgoing person in charge of something like that and not just 1 it's going to take several to be able to draw them out of there own shell. Seeing that stunt Kyousuke is no genius he is just utterly the most stupid idiotic person I ever met and to even cut her off from text messaging Komari who might of helped Rin to keep some of her sanity.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by molitar

Yes! But even so there emotions remain. Even after being betrayed by his friend he still has the emotions of wanting to be friends. Sure Rin, could not function on her own but she was coming out of her shell and starting to learn.. she even asked Riki out on her own.

But sticking someone just coming out into a school of depressed students I do not see how anyone in there right mind could consider that to be a good idea.. He is a total idiot! You want to recover a school full of depressed students you have to put the most upbeat outgoing person in charge of something like that and not just 1 it's going to take several to be able to draw them out of there own shell. Seeing that stunt Kyousuke is no genius he is just utterly the most stupid idiotic person I ever met and to even cut her off from text messaging Komari who might of helped Rin to keep some of her sanity.

I think you are being way too harsh. Kyousuke had the best intentions. He just didn't go about it the right way... He messed up... stuff happens... That's life. And since we don't know the circumstances behind his decisions yet, we can't even make proper judgements.

[DmonHiro]

Originally Posted by molitar

But sticking someone just coming out into a school of depressed students I do not see how anyone in there right mind could consider that to be a good idea.. He is a total idiot! Seeing that stunt Kyousuke is no genius he is just utterly the most stupid idiotic person I ever met and to even cut her off from text messaging Komari who might of helped Rin to keep some of her sanity.

If this story is going where I think it's going, then I can see Kyosuke's though process, and in theory, it was a good plan. Buy Kyosuke blew it. Maybe because he is running out of time, or maybe because he only understood that Rin changed, but not why she changed.

I think that Kyosuke, while observing everything, only gets the event, and not the reason. Since most of the time he spend with Rin was in the group, he noticed the changes in Rin, but wasn't aware she only acted like that around Riki. So he gave her what he thought was the final needed push. But after she moved to that school, and began to be more and more depressed, Kyosuke started doubting himself. You can see it in the scene where he tells Riki he'll bring her back for the weekends. I'm sure he knew that Riki couldn't actually bring Rin back by himself, but he made the concession anyway. I think it was partly because he wasn't sure anymore. Then he drops any doubt and decides to go full villain. It was a risky bet, and it failed.

He's also obviously testing Riki as well, but with him, it worked. Riki is way stronger now then in the beginning. Problem is, Rin's worse.

[Haak]

I'll be honest: I've been on the fence with this season of Little Busters for a while now. Admittedly I can't say I was much of a fan of the first season but I did finish it because I could see and appreciate that certain level of sincerity in its storytelling to some extent. But after what I thought was a really awful Kurugaya arc that was just all over the place, I was wondering if I had a mistake to continue. Then the focus on Rin and Kyousuke came about and whilst I still felt it was plagued by a clumsy and heavy handed narrative as well as a lot of fridge logic, there was something interesting in it all as well. This episode, however, has restored my faith in this series. I'm not expecting this show to be perfect but I never once felt this episode did anything wrong, which for me is a first for this season. If it can just remain inoffensive like that then I'll finally be able to appreciate the good qualities this show actually has. BRING IT!

[Leo_Otaku]

Originally Posted by Haak

I'll be honest: I've been on the fence with this season of Little Busters for a while now. Admittedly I can't say I was much of a fan of the first season but I did finish it because I could see and appreciate that certain level of sincerity in its storytelling to some extent. But after what I thought was a really awful Kurugaya arc that was just all over the place, I was wondering if I had a mistake to continue. Then the focus on Rin and Kyousuke came about and whilst I still felt it was plagued by a clumsy and heavy handed narrative as well as a lot of fridge logic, there was something interesting in it all as well. This episode, however, has restored my faith in this series. I'm not expecting this show to be perfect but I never once felt this episode did anything wrong, which for me is a first for this season. If it can just remain inoffensive like that then I'll finally be able to appreciate the good qualities this show actually has. BRING IT!

Just wanted to mention that many of the VN players felt the same when playing the game. I remember recalling many reactions and that it was Refrain which really made the game come full circle. Though, I'm not sure where you think fridge logic comes into play.

[silvercover]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I have to admit, to a certain degree I share GDB's sentiments.

I feel like things are getting dragged out a bit. And yeah, at this point, I do miss the other girls. Rin isn't a bad character, but I don't find her as entertaining as I do most of the other major girls.

I wouldn't say I find it downright boring, as I do think that JC Staff is well-executing this part of the narrative. There's still some interesting things happening, and the BGM is rather effective.

But yeah, I have to admit I prefer Little Busters! when it has a fuller cast of characters and much more color and zest to it.

pretty much what I was thinking.

on one hand, im really getting psyched up and feeling the tense and dark atmosphere
on the other hand, its also been quite dragged out and im missing all the other girls

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by silvercover

pretty much what I was thinking.

on one hand, im really getting psyched up and feeling the tense and dark atmosphere
on the other hand, its also been quite dragged out and im missing all the other girls

To be fair, this is probably less of an issue in the VN, where you can just keep reading and reading and reading until you're tired of reading, whereas with an anime we have to wait a full week between 20-something minute chunks.

[Reckoner]

Not really going to disregard what you guys are saying, but I do find it funny how a lot of VN readers on other message boards can't stop saying "OMG they going too fast," while you guys think it's bloated .

Anyhow, what I will say is that aside from Kurugaya's arc this season (which IMO was very good), I don't think that any of this could be interpreted as dragging things out this season. Everything we saw in Rin's route is just too critical to the story telling. With this episode we've finally entered the point of everything. Curious how you guys will see a lot of this in 5-6 episodes from now. It will probably give you a very different perspective on everything (Even season 1 material).

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

To be fair, this is probably less of an issue in the VN, where you can just keep reading and reading and reading until you're tired of reading, whereas with an anime we have to wait a full week between 20-something minute chunks.

Agreed. I'm sure this is a lot of the reason.

[Dark Faith]

Finally

Now for the good stuff.