Little Busters! Anime Review
A great story about friendship and overcoming hardships.
PRODUCTION INFO
Little Busters! was originally a VN created by the company Key and released in 2007. An adult version titled Little Busters! Ecstasy was released in 2008. A 4-koma manga came out before the visual novel, but it was always planned for the visual novel to be the main project. A more complete manga ran during 2007-2013 after the VN was initially released, and many other manga projects have spawned based on both the original VN as well as Ecstasy, and side stories in general. The anime premièred in fall 2012. It was animated by J.C. Staff and directed by Yoshiki Yamakawa. A second season of anime titled Little Busters! Refrain was released in fall 2013, and an OVA was released in winter 2013.
SUMMARY
The story is played out from Riki Naoe's perspective. He is a narcoleptic high schooler who feels strong attachments to his friends whom have been dubbed Little Busters. Little Busters is the name of their group's baseball team, but the title is used for the friends in general. Now that each member of the Little Busters is in high school, they are each living in school dormitories, and they are also only now discovering dark secrets to each other's pasts and even their current lives. Together, they work to overcome these tragedies and maintain close friendships with one another.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Expect to shed tears, or at least feel watery-eyed at some points in this story. If you played the VN, the anime takes the typical route (pardon the pun) of archiving the characters' stories into arcs. There will be some laughs in the series, but they aren't nearly as powerful as the tragedy aspect.
CHARACTERS
Even though Riki struggles with narcolepsy, it doesn't bother him much. He has complete trust in his friends to take care of him when his narcolepsy hits. He treasures his friendships very much, and not just because of their help during his narcoleptic attacks, but simply because they are his beloved friends. He wishes for nothing more than to always be together with them. Rin is a socially awkward girl who likes to spend her time playing and talking with cats. She can also talk to Riki on a somewhat normal scale, and grows close with the other Little Busters over time. She is very delicate and overly shy, but she participates in and enjoys the Little Busters' baseball games. She is Kyousuke's little sister. Kyousuke is the original founder and oldest member of the Little Busters. He created the team when he was a child as a means to get his younger sister Rin to be more social. He is very defensive of Rin and takes great pride in his duties as an older brother. The Little Busters also consist of Komari, Kengo, Masato, Haruka, and Kud, who all experience their own challenges and hardships which the group takes on together. There are also many more characters who appear from different places, such as the school counsel.
OPINIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Little Busters! is a pretty sad show, but something feels off about it. Key's writing is great as always, and J.C. Staff did a wonderful job of animating it, but something still feels amiss. I think the problem is that the anime moves too fast in comparison to the actual visual novel story. Of course, it'd be bad if the anime dragged out, but it's very difficult to condense so many character arcs into one full season and a half season of anime. Perhaps they should not have tried to squeeze in every character's story, but then fans of the visual novel would be disappointed to not have their favourite character appear in the anime. It seems like a lose-lose situation for the anime, and the only way to fully enjoy this title is to read the VN. I still enjoyed the anime a lot, though. I cried at times, and laughed at others. The characters are relatable, and I personally compared Rin to myself a lot, although some guys may have trouble relating to Riki, what with him being a tad on the girly side. I recommend Anohana as a must-watch for Little Busters! fans, as well as Clannad and Angel Beats!.
RATING
★7/10★
