Little Busters! TV Anime

[Bob2004]

Woah, woah. First of all, the eroge was released after the all ages version. Plus, if you haven't finished the VN, there is absolutely no way you could judge it because all the epic stuff happens in the last arc, Refrain.

I will judge it, because even if it does have one amazing arc, the fact you can't see it at all until you've played through every single other arc in the game, many of which (ie. the three I finished before giving up) were crap, and which would take tens or even hundreds of hours, means that it is not a good game. I'll take your word for it that refrain's good, but there's no way in hell I'm slogging through all the rest of the game in order to find out.

IMO, Little Busters had two main good points: The batting practice minigame (no idea why, but I really loved it), which obviously can't be in an anime, and Key's usual quirky humour, which I quite like. Sadly, unlike previous Key anime adaptations, this one has done a really bad job of adapting the jokes to an anime, and the humour that JC Staff have added themselves is mostly pretty weak. It feels like very generic stereotypical anime humour, which just isn't funny.

I think people need to grow some patience and not expect everything to be thrown at them in the first 3 episodes. I've read comments by VN players who stated to have played this game for 50+ hours. If each arc starts in pretty much the same way, and a lot of the good stuff doesn't come till way later, why can people sit through that and not get bored, yet can't sit through an anime that condenses all these storylines into one, and is much, much shorter (including any season that may come after it), relatively speaking?

And even those that haven't played the game, and watched stuff like Clannad (which also took a full season to have anything of significance happen, but where each of the girls' stories had some connection to the overall plot), why is anyone surprised that the LB anime takes such a long time to get really serious?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I only got through as many routes as I did because I discovered that if I held down the skip button then clicked out of the VM I was playing it in, it would keep skipping through all the repeated stuff while I went off and did something more interesting instead. I just had to check back every now and then to make choices, until it got to new material.

[Ozzaharwood]

Wut. Dude, there is an option in the menu to skip all previously read stuff so you don't have to do that. Maybe that's why you got bored of it so quickly. Because all of the routes I had played were really good, so I'm not sure what anyone here is talking about. I never got bored in that VN except maybe during the last standard route, but even then I was still pretty excited to see what was going to happen next. The first 5 standard routes in the game and the common route should only take you about 20-30 hours. It's the last 3 routes that are the longest, with about 20-35 hours collectively. If it was such a bad VN as everyone here has said it is, it wouldn't be one of the highest rated VNs of all time.

I honestly don't know how anyone could see the VN as bad. Unless you just played the common route and stopped, or something. If you did do something like that, you are missing out.

[Bob2004]

Oh, only 20-30 hours. That's OK then.

As for why I thought it was bad:

(click to show/hide)

Primarily some (but definitely only some, in fairness - some were great) of the characters were very weak, and totally uninteresting. Kud, as one example. And, more generally (and the biggest factor), the writing was very bad. The stories were uninteresting, relied on clichéd and frankly pathetic narrative techniques (eg. Kuragaya's route, and the whole "it was all just a dream" thing), generally offered no real conclusion or closure (Kurugaya again, also the first Rin route. Everything's going along, telling a story, then suddenly the main character just falls asleep, and that's the end), and were full of plot holes, inconsistencies, and unexplained/unexplored concepts. Haruka's route was the worst for this, out of those I played - there were so many things which just kind of happened, but then were never referred to again, or linked into the main plot thread, and were just forgotten. For example, there were a bunch of scenes where Kud was really depressed. At no point was it explained why, at no point did any character try and do anything about it, and it was never explored any further than that. The player was just left wondering whether or not there was any kind of resolution to her problem, whatever it was. From the context you can guess that her room mate, Futaki, was the root cause, but you never find out what exactly she did, or if there was any resolution.

Basically, just very poor storytelling. I know it's a VN, so you can hardly expect the finest prose (and I tend not to play them for that reason), but this was just atrocious.

Good enough explanation for you?

[Ozzaharwood]

No, because everything you just listed is explained in Refrain. After you finish Refrain, it makes the other routes seem A LOT better. Plus, after you beat the game, Kurugaya's true route becomes unlocked and it opens up an alternative ending. Kurugaya's route is probably also one of the most important routes in the game, and you can start to pick up on what a lot of the secrets mean if you pay attention in her route. Also, Rin's first route is also a fundamental part of the game. I admit, I was a little bit pissed off the first time I played her route, but after playing all the others, hers makes a lot more sense. The most sense, in fact. She also has a second, completely different route later on in the game that is unlocked after finishing all other routes, and is the route that is required to be completed to unlock Refrain. Basically, Rin's second route and Refrain are what make the VN so amazing, and are the routes that explain anything that was left unexplained.

Basically, by not finishing the VN and labeling it as crap before getting to the parts that start to explain what's happening, you screwed yourself out of one of the greatest VNs ever made. Also, the storytelling wasn't poor at all. It was amazing. You can't judge a story's value when you've only know 1/8th of it. I seriously urge you to go back and replay it, but instead turn on the skip all previously read crap, and turn off the minigames. That way it'll take you a lot less time to get through the standard routes.

If you don't believe me when I say it's amazing, check out any LB! VN thread. Like in here: http://vndb.org/v5

Also, notice that more than 90% of the votes for it are in the 8+ /10 range. That has to say something about it.

[Bob2004]

No, because everything you just listed is explained in Refrain. After you finish Refrain, it makes the other routes seem A LOT better. Plus, after you beat the game, Kurugaya's true route becomes unlocked and it opens up an alternative ending. Kurugaya's route is probably also one of the most important routes in the game, and you can start to pick up on what a lot of the secrets mean if you pay attention in her route. Also, Rin's first route is also a fundamental part of the game. I admit, I was a little bit pissed off the first time I played her route, but after playing all the others, hers makes a lot more sense. The most sense, in fact. She also has a second, completely different route later on in the game that is unlocked after finishing all other routes, and is the route that is required to be completed to unlock Refrain. Basically, Rin's second route and Refrain are what make the VN so amazing, and are the routes that explain anything that was left unexplained.

Basically, by not finishing the VN and labeling it as crap before getting to the parts that start to explain what's happening, you screwed yourself out of one of the greatest VNs ever made. Also, the storytelling wasn't poor at all. It was amazing. You can't judge a story's value when you've only know 1/8th of it. I seriously urge you to go back and replay it, but instead turn on the skip all previously read crap, and turn off the minigames. That way it'll take you a lot less time to get through the standard routes.

If you don't believe me when I say it's amazing, check out any LB! VN thread. Like in here: http://vndb.org/v5

Also, notice that more than 90% of the votes for it are in the 8+ /10 range. That has to say something about it.

Thanks for reinforcing my point. If you have to play through 20-30 hours of shit before you can get to anything good, then by most peoples' definition, that's a bad game. It doesn't matter if the last route is amazing and makes the rest seem better once you complete it - if you've had to spend 20-30 hours of boredom in order to get to that point, then it is a bad game.

As to why it's so highly rated on VNDB, and why visual novel fans love it so much? All kinds of reasons. But I'm going to pick the  stereotypical one and say it's because people who play lots of VNs (and therefore frequent VNDB) care more about spending lots of time with unrealistically cute anime girls than about actual gameplay

[newy]

Get out.

[Cypher]

Episode 16.

You know how there are some things you can see coming from miles away? The revelation at the end of the episode was one of them. Still seems to be an arc that will entertain.

[arsa666]

Just finished watching this, just hope Refrain will be better...

[Ganomen]

Just finished watching this, just hope Refrain will be better...

By the looks of the teasser, Refrain will be like the After story of Clannad

[Ozzaharwood]

Tbh, Refrain in the VN was the part of the VN that made it what it is, and why I love it so much. When I read Refrain I got a lot more emotional then when I watched After Story. I'm hoping I feel the same way with the anime.

[QuickSilvyr]

Little Busters - Noumi Kudryavka official promo figure mini


took me a year to find and get it at a reasonable price... but now it's mine 

[Lord of Fire]

Though this show pales in comparison to Clannad, I didn't think it was all that bad, either. However, just like how After Story had the most impact on me, so I assume Refrain will truly move me, as LB! didn't really do me much in terms of tear-jerking.

[Tatsujin]

Complete BDs are out. There are a lot of changes and ... yes, there were censored scenes. Grab them while you can. Hopefully someone can mux and adjust the timings for this.

[megido-rev.M]

About time.

[Tatsujin]

Nevermind, the BDs I downloaded already had subtitles in them. Ah, this is making it so much easier.

[megido-rev.M]

Which group released those you got?

[Tatsujin]

Which group released those you got?

There is only one and it's on nyaa. 11.8GB.

[megido-rev.M]

Which group released those you got?

There is only one and it's on nyaa. 11.8GB.

I see now: the Raw Anime category misled me.

[Tatsujin]

Finished episode 10. Oi, this is really good. The VN is even better. This is an underrated show - is all I can think about.

[megido-rev.M]

I see. If only my speed was a bit better.