 |
 |
 |
Time to dust off the spoiler warning again…
To be honest, I’m not sure what I was expecting after last week’s emotional typhoon of an episode. I suppose I wasn’t really thinking that far ahead, because I was so emotionally drained after that ep, especially the last 10 minutes. I know I thought Refrain would never top that episode as an emotional climax – and I certainly don’t think it did here – but about the specifics of what was going to happen afterwards I gave surprisingly little thought. It’s not that I didn’t think it mattered so much as that I wasn’t ready to really think about it.
Well, enter Episode 12 – and on the whole, while I now am thinking a lot about what’s going to happen next I’m not sure what to think about what’s going to happen next. I find myself torn about what I’d like to see happen as well as unsure of what actually is happening. Certainly, I’d like to see a happy ending – certainly happier than what we saw in the first half of this episode. These characters deserve it. But at the same time, that would sort of cheapen the terrible, beautiful sadness we got last week. This is a mood I find myself in often with highly emotional anime as they wrap up, but rarely so much so as with this incredibly emotional one.
In a sense, you could almost say the last two episodes of Refrain are a different series than the first 37 of Little Busters!. Everything we’ve seen up to this point has been illusion, with Kyousuke the one pulling the strings. Now that the curtain has been lifted and the Wizard revealed to be a mortal man, everything changes – what we’re seeing now is the harsh reality that Kyousuke worked so hard to prepare Riki and Rin for. The frozen time has begun to move, and the scales have been lifted from Riki and Rin’s eyes at last.
Except… not really. Or so it seems, anyway, based on Rin’s experiences this week. She certainly seemed to be having very real encounters with the five satellite Buster girls, and she doesn’t seem to have sustained a head injury that could explain delusions. Up that that point everything was shockingly, brutally real – the bus accident was depicted in scarier and more grisly terms than I’d frankly expected. We saw why Kyousuke was on the bus (hiding in the luggage compartment), we saw (sort of) the way Kengo and Masato saved Rin and Riki respectively. And we saw the terrible, heartbreaking aftermath in more detail than in Kyousuke’s half-lucid visions of it last episode.
What we see happen next makes a lot of sense – in fact I sort of saw it coming. Kyousuke tries so hard to make Riki strong, and he succeeds – but then he asks that boy he made strong to walk away from the accident, leaving his friends to die and accepting this new reality. I think this is Kyousuke being too successful for his own good – the old Riki might have done just that, but not this one. And I fully expected Riki to go back to the wreck to try and save whoever he could – though whether that was even possible I have no idea. It’s with Rin that things start to get weird. Komari, at least, implies that she somehow extended her own little slice of the artificial world a little longer because she wanted to see Rin one last time, and tell her the wish she’d promised to make for her all those episodes ago.
There’s no question that the five auxiliary girls have had a lesser role this season, and it was nice to see them get some closure with Rin. Truth be told I found it less emotional than what we saw with the core Busters last week, apart from Kud’s farewell (she’s just so good that it breaks my heart to think of her on that bus). I fully acknowledge the importance of Komari to Rin’s struggle to overcome the traumas of her past – I just don’t feel the character very much. That said, it was nice to see Rin take a more active role in events after her passive performance last episode – but I’m not sure what to make of her “Terminator” moment there at the end. Is she going to bring everyone back to life with sheer Rin power?
VN endings and anime… It’s a checkered past. I’ve really only seen anime adapted from VNs ace the ending twice – Kanon and Mashiroiro Symphony (and they went about it in completely different ways). Most of the time the transition just doesn’t seem to work, but I’ve generally been very impressed with the work JC Staff has done with LitBus so I have a lot of hope. I still feel that in a sense, the series really peaked with the 11th episode – and if so, I’m completely fine that, because I don’t think it could have been any other way. That said I’m highly curious to see where things land, and I feel as if there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to be surprised.
Author’s note: Please “refrain” from posting any VN spoilers (or hints, or confirmations or denials of guesses, or clever spoilers disguised as jokes) into the comments section. Read the comments at your own risk, because I make no promises about catching every spoiler soon after its posted. We’ve made it this far more or less in-tact – let’s keep it going one more week for the benefit of those of us who want to be genuinely surprised.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Ayumu Aikawa
December 22, 2013 at 3:33 pmarrh, after lurking around here since Tsuritama now it's time to show myself up and express my feeling toward this little bus… to be honest during the first half of the 1st season i felt it's just another kind of harem anime. the story had revealed some kind of interesting factors in Mio's side story which made me keep an eye on this anime closely and expected it as a potential anime since that day. as time gone by, little by little, the anime was succeed in planting the connection of each little busters through my heart. now only an episode left i kinda sad to accept i would never see those characters (or should i say 'my closed friends') again forever. little buster may not be the greatest show of this year. however, it's already have a special place in my heart as one of my heart-touching anime of all time. special thanks to Enzo for the review. i also enjoyed read your review as much as i loved this anime. 😉
admin
December 23, 2013 at 12:32 amThanks for de-cloaking!
Tony Ho
December 27, 2013 at 7:22 pmWell said. The original source Little Busters VN is also a very spacial masterpiece. That's why makes the anime so special yet touching as same as other Key anime adaption.
Highway
December 22, 2013 at 3:55 pmPushing for a happier ending might be the only thing that saves this anime in my eyes. The idea that Riki and Rin use the strength that Kyousuke (I still think wrongly) tried to beat into them to change the future that Kyousuke and others thought was certain would satisfy my sense of rightness, a lot more than those two running away and living with the consequences.
Maxulous
December 22, 2013 at 8:30 pmA "ta da!" happy ending would only cheapen the experience just as it did for Clannad and many more adaptations before it. Facing death is what Kyousuke repeatedly made the "world" for, Riki and Rin's new found strength should be in learning to live with it – like all of us. There's an underrated power in a more resonate and responsible closure, to me at least.
So they're proposing to save everyone on that bus, including the driver? Call superman.
Vlad C
December 22, 2013 at 10:10 pmMmm, we've reached a point where the moral value of the story and whether or not the Little Busters should have a happy ending or not is up to JC Staff and Key to choose.
Without spoiling too much, I'll say that in the VN, there are multiple interpretations for the thematic message of Little Busters, and the dream world with Kyousuke's preparation for Riki and Rin.
Unfortunately, the anime won't quite be able to pull off the interpretations. I'm anxious for next episode, to say the least.
I'd say that there's a 99% chance the show reached its emotional peak at episode 11.
That was the peak of the VN for a lot of people as well.
I would say to check out the VN, but people probably don't have time for that. I think people will mention how the VN concluded the story in your episode 13 blog. I think Key's conflictions with how to end a story after taking it this far are problematic for a number of reasons, and I believe we're sort of left with the idea "It's the thought that counts." if we don't get our desired ending.
I mean, face it, the Little Busters will either live or die, and there are audiences that wants one of the other, and an audience that feels conflicted on which ending the story deserves.
I'd be impressed, no, absolutely stupefied if JC Staff's story interpretation manages to appeal to everyone. I think they can provide thematic closure, because Little Busters was actually written in a way where Maeda could seamlessly twist and turn his themes for most audiences, and imply that X ending was what he had intended from the beginning.
Sadly, the thematic closure isn't enough to satisfy everyone, and some people will definitely be disappointed with how it ends.
Balrog
December 23, 2013 at 5:08 amI pretty much agree with you, also mind you i always thought that the farewell at the baseball court is little busters "moment", it's just way too powerful.Well as for the ending i 'll say this, even if we all know that their is a kind of ending that would probably serve better to little busters story and message, would we really like the after taste of that ending. Truth be told i think the message already got across by this point, i believe the ending they are going for is what this story deserves.
Maxulous
December 29, 2013 at 1:52 am..but not the one it needs right now. ;pv