Little Busters - Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[ookamigirl]

Cafeteria fight was awesome!!
Flashback to childhood days was nice too.
It explained some things about their group.
That Kyousuke really is a weird guy with all sorts of ideas.
Recruitment for their newly founded baseball team was another weird one.
Guess Kyousuke wants to do something memorable his final year.

[Vegard Aune]

Something occurred to me while watching the ending again...

...Am I the only one noticing something missing here? Unless she just happens to be holding her umbrella upside down, that is.

[Haak]

This is the kind of vomit inducing lame unfunny hijinks that I was sick of when watching KoiChoco, but at least that anime had at least one element that kept me interested whereas it seems like this story doesn't have anything else to offer.

I'll give it one or two more episodes so I really hope there's more to this show than just this but I'm already certain this show isn't going to be special (Unless it's really bad in which case it'll be the wrong kind of special).

Originally Posted by Kanon

Spoiler for Comparison to Angel Beats and other Key works:

It's not really a Key work but the setting reminded me of Angel Beats the most for some reason.

Spoiler for Comparison to Angel Beats and other Key works:

It reminded me of Angel Beats in the way that both anime lacked a sort of expanse. Everything happens in the school unless it's a retrospective memory or informed, so there's little feeling that they're currently living in a wider world. With Angel Beats that kinda made sense (since they were all dead) but I don't why that should apply here so I do also hope there's more to the setting than just this.

[Marulash]

Well, at least they did the scene with Kyousuke and the quotes. I always found it funny.

[relentlessflame]

I want to remind everyone that you must use spoiler tags when comparing this anime to any other show, including previous Key works. Not everyone has seen these stories and you can't just take for granted that they'll know what they're all about. Please use properly-labelled tags to prevent people from getting inadvertently spoiled.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Haak

^ For the record, that wasn't a spoiler: It's the very premise of the show. Though I probably should've made that clear...

Any comparison to other shows has to be behind spoiler tags, even if it's not a "spoiler". So yes, even the premise. See the Spoiler Policy for more information.

[Leo_Otaku]

Very good adaption from the game in terms of the story element and characters. A sad little voice in the back of my head was unhappy with the lack of animation, many stills and at times odd character scaling. I'll be watching more though

[bhl88]

Mixed reviews of the episode with most of the ratings from 8-10

[leokiko]

Animation was below average(specially on that flashback), but the direction was great, it remained faithful to the VN. BGM was kind of annoying though, specially when Riki was going up the stairs there at the end. Also not happy that they skipped the fight between Rin and Sasami, specially since that would be a good place to show off the animation.

Nevertheless, it was a good episode. I give episode 1 a rating of 7/10.

[Cloudenvy]

Man some frames look... I don't want to say bad, but jebus those fingers bug the crap out of me!
Either way, very faithful to the VN so far which is good. Not much else to say about it, really! Then again, I'm pretty tired right now so maybe I'll have some more to say about it tomorrow.

[Klashikari]

Pacing wise, I agree that the first episode is a tad too slow, with some jokes that could have been dropped (like the silly catchphrases), but it is still fine, albeit I can't say it was really engaging due to the flashbacks.
As far as the adaptation went, it delivered what it had to, save could accelerate few points.

What really bothered me however was the animation and the design, really not consistent, which is not a good sign for a first episode. And no, I'm not going to compare it with another studio, I'm going to point out the fact it looks fairly less smooth and detailed than any other "moderate-big budget" show of the same genre and of the same studio (the genre has NOTHING to do with the way how movements are done left and right).

Budget-friendly moves were surely noticeable, such like how minimalistic was the sequence with Rin in the girl dorm (a shame, as the staff went as far as having the exact same SFX and voice "reactions" from the battle, but you just don't see anything).
While the flashbacks were a terrible offender (nearly looking like a clipshow), the general design is quite whacky, as already stated by others people (arms and hands have the short end of a stick), and the animation felt lazy to be frank, especially few simple detail like eye blink (every characters hardly blink at all), or simply the fights: similar to SAO, you don't see the punch/kick in movement, but rather see it already connecting, and a cheap "impact" background.

As for the new seiyuu, well... really, I don't believe Horie was a good choice at all: it is quite evident that she has trouble to keep her voice low outside of the narration, and she sounds as girly as Tomiyasu, or even more.
I think Kugimiya with her Alphonse voice would have worked wonder, but alas, not going to change.
Meanwhile, I can't say Sasami's voice was... clicking the oujou vibes quite well, but that's just me.
And is it me or Komari's seiyuu sounds a little different than before?

[Nochgo]

The best part about the first episode was that it was really faithful to the VN. Maybe even a bit too much. But as others noted, I wasn't too happy with the animation, especially so considering first episodes are usually the eye-catcher episode. But JCStaff have time to improve, so I wont be too critical.

[Rising Dragon]

JC? I thought Key was working on this, not JC.

[Linkark07]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

JC? I thought Key was working on this, not JC.

Key Visuals just make visual novels, I believe. Clannad, Air, Kanon, Planetarium, Little Busters and Rewrite are the works they have made. Also they are making a VN of Angel Beats.

KyoAni, P.A. Works and J.C. Staff are the ones in charge of making the anime adaptations of Key's Visual Novels. But, I'm sure Key supervises heavily how the anime studios adapt their visual novels.

[Rising Dragon]

Ohhh, okay. This is pretty much the first eroge-turned-anime I've chosen to watch, so I don't know all the details about who does what. I'm used to JC adapting light novels rather than games.

[Marcus H.]

Maybe we should ask GoHands to animate the next twentysomething episodes.

[Linkark07]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

Ohhh, okay. This is pretty much the first eroge-turned-anime I've chosen to watch, so I don't know all the details about who does what. I'm used to JC adapting light novels rather than games.

Me 2. So far I believe the only VNs they have adapted are this and Tsukihime.

[PonSquared]

Originally Posted by Crimson Cloud

I must have been watching the RIGHT shows lately... The shortage of panty shots and boobs flying on my screen was rather... satisfying.

1,000,000% YES!

Originally Posted by bhl88

Mixed reviews of the episode with most of the ratings from 8-10

I gave it a 4. Don't know about anyone else, though..?

[Archon_Wing]

So we open up with a girl beating on a guy. Yep, it's JC staff. Why is Okada writing for their other show? Joking-- the guy deserved it, so maybe not.

One thing that caught my eye was that the girls' skirts for a while were extremely short. Clannad and Kanon were already pretty short already, but here? It's not a bad idea, since it does show off Rin's long legs as she starts using her kicks. Why am I even mentioning this? I think I'm just doomed to go after the fighter girl in Key anime. Though she is a bit silly atm; we'll just have to see. But actually neither character that I showed interest in during the previews has shown up yet...

One thing that sets this one apart is that there seems to be not one not two but three guys that are relevant and not just punching bags. They all seem to be a bit more distinct over the stock detached and sarcastic male archtype. Kyousuke seems to reek of epicness, though epic people named Kyousuke leaves a lot of competition.

Overall, aside from the sketchy animation, this is actually a better opener than the last 4 Key anime I've seen. The humor is quick and if you don't get it, that's fine, move on. There's still a lot of the traditional slapstick, but you're not required to get it nor or is it too shoved in your face.

Spoiler for First episodes of the other Key anime:

LB avoids the excessive moe/melodrama focus that I tend to think of when I come across the Key name. They generally have something that makes you feel this is gonna be some kind of epic and dramatic story. Plus maybe it was Kyoani, but they tended to portray the characers' moe quirks a bit too heavily to open with, which I found to be a turnoff. This is less prevalent in Angel Beats, but given its relation with LB, that might be why.

For comparison, Clannad's 1st episode I found hard to watch. Kanon's was unbearable. Air was the most stylistic and I guess most acceptable relatively speaking. Angel Beats was just "wtf?"

Sure, it doesn't mean I don't like that kind of thing, but this seems different and more accessible while still being able to identify itself as Key, really.



Normally I'd bash an anime for moving slow on the first episode, but I was never exactly bored. We'll just have to see how the pace picks up.

8/10 for episode 1.

[Julio C]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

Ohhh, okay. This is pretty much the first eroge-turned-anime I've chosen to watch, so I don't know all the details about who does what. I'm used to JC adapting light novels rather than games.

The original VN was never an eroge.