Little Busters! - Kanata Futaki Route & Character Discussion

[Natsume]

Spoilers just in case even though I don’t think it should apply due to the Refrain completion requirement.

It’s made clear that some of the heroines remember and retain their feelings towards Riki after the dream world ends (especially if they had feelings prior). They can’t remember what happened in it anymore since their routes were loops amongst others (and even the boys’ memory is starting to become hazy on that time) so I’m assuming that the “I can’t answer choice” is following the Haruka route to some extent by having Riki solve another of Haruka’s problems and that’s the endangered situation of her sister.

Overall, I actually think this was one of the strongest routes namely because it’s also a very good other aspect to the notion of child abuse. In Haruka’s route, you can see pure and unfiltered hatred and lack of human decency towards Haruka, but in Kanata you can see that child abuse (after she stopped getting repeatedly whipped and beaten) is also in the form of manipulation and making a child think there’s nothing that can be done against the “adults” because they’re “family” and so they have to follow along or risk consequences.

I’ve really enjoyed this route, and personally it was the comedy aspect that felt more jarring to me. We know that Kanata went through as much shit (though a different kind) as Haruka and to me, the addition of casual comedy and shenanigans would’ve been a little inappropriate considering Kanata was never allowed to have fun in her life.

[Ganesh_Swami]

Little busters is so confusing at times but still my favourite VN till this date.
I wonder if Riki had lost all his memories after rescuing kyousuke would he still ended up with Rin?
There are 2 ending with rin in refrain. If you chose ‘yes’ (second refrain playthrough only) then it seems that he and Rin are going out but if you choose ‘no’ (default choice in first playthrough) it seems he hadn’t made up his mind yet. Maybe this is because he is conflicted on his feelings for everyone.

Anyway i agree with you that the shenanigans were unnecessary in kanata’s route. It’s just about different tastes. I still like this route very much but not as much as other ex routes. It’s only because the real interesting part only started after the alcohol lamp incident. Everything before that felt like a filler to me.

[Natsume]

Well, it’s not a memory loss. He’s lost awareness of what happened in the dream world but retains the fact that it happened and it was important, so he knows, understands and remembers the meaning behind everything that happened with or without ending up with Rin. Overall I think the reason why the non-romantic ending was default was to prove Kyousuke wrong in that they didn’t need to be romantically involved with each other to be strong enough to pull each other through the bus accident, but the romantic situation is still there for those who want one for Rin

And let us agree to disagree based on personal preferences for routes, then. I really liked Kanata’s approach personally.

[Sek]

Well I just got around to play the Steam version of LB! and I have to say I’m really confused now, as I never read EX routes before.

Like, Sasami route kind of made sense in context of Refrain and everything that happened in routes. It made it clear that the character do remember more or less what happened in Refrain and some girls still have feelings for Riki, (iirc it was only Kud though) and the timeline made sense.

What really confused me the most (so far, because I still didn’t play Saya route, lol) is Kanata route. I have hard time figuring out where, at the time of her route, are we in timeline, or at which point in the story we are at all. Is it after Refrain? Before Refrain? Is it dream world? Is it real world? Haruka at one point made things a little bit more clear, when she was thinking about having to retain memories she wanted to forget, to enjoy the “repeats” which would imply Kanata route still happens in dream world, but after Refrain? Which then would make a little sense to me. Also what’s with Kyousuke obviously pushing for all this to happen?

I really would like to consider it non canon route and be done with it but man, it does keep bothering me.

[Natsume]

Kanata’s route takes place in two parts as far as the timeline goes because the first part of her route tackles the psychological issues she has as an also abused child, and the second the concrete real-life solution to the source of those issues. The first part occurs within the dream world and the second occurs a while after Refrain (as evidenced by the mention of hospitalisation in the route IIRC) precisely because of that.

Also, not only is Kyousuke continually seeking for Riki to be confronted with more tragedies within the dream world to grow from the experience, but he also continually seeks the well-being of the Little Busters, which is directly impacted by their relations as well. It’s not out of the ordinary to assume that post-Refrain, Kyousuke encouraged the plan because he, too, wanted Haruka and Kanata to be able to enjoy their teenage years together without a situation of abuse anymore even if it meant Riki going away for a while.

[Kanon]

Oh baby that was a good route. So lets start off with my biggest problem with it.

Riki.
Riki come on dude, get out of here, Haruka should have been saying your lines, it’s fine if you be her support or something, but this route reeeeally should have used that fancy viewpoint changing and just put Haruka in charge of the main bulk of the route, at the end of the day it only stuck to Riki because his Diki needed to find it’s way into Kanata’s…heart for the EX release, he just kind of shows up and wins her over with little work, even entering the route is jarring as hell, he does basically no interacting with her until you’re literally on the route. People already mentioned that she had interactions with quite a lot of Little Busters(which is really good, makes Wedding Busters more believable), why couldn’t Riki just be one of those and let Haruka take the main character role, it feels like it’d would be so much more natural that way. Not to say that Haruka doesn’t have a huge role in the route, by all means, I think she steals the show, but it could have been so much more! Haruka should have been the one holding her hand in the infirmary, not Riki!

So lets talk about the flashbacks, probably the worstbest part of the route. As my P A S S I O N A T E post above(post removed because Kazamatsuri is less flexible on rules than Kanata) might have implied, those flashbacks reinvigorated some hateful feelings towards a certain…

the pulsating piles of rotting maggot-food that is the Futaki family

That’ll do.

…pulsating piles of rotting maggot-food that is the Saigusa/Futaki family. As I’ve said in my Haruka post, even if they’re overwhelming negative feelings, it’s something worth applauding to an extend when a piece of media can force such strong emotions from the reader. Aside from my seething hate boner the scenes show more of that FUCKING HOUSE and just make me wanna love and protect Haruka even more.

…there was something else in this route what was it…

OH RIGHT THE OTHER GIRL, Kanata

So I get it, the route is to make you feel for Kanata, make you sympathize with and forgive her for all the shit in Haruka’s route.
So I can sympathize with her now, and I’ve always been able to forgive her because that’s what Haruka wanted at the end of her route.
But she was still a total cunt, 200%, fuck that noise, no amount of this showing her being gentle and caring in common(only for it to vanish completely in the route itself???) is going to make me forget how shite her attitude and actions were in Haruka’s route. I don’t dislike the Kanata from this route, as I said I can sympathize with her, I do enjoy her ultra serious spaghetting, but guuuuurl I’ll always remember that time your minty ass employed some cheap tricks.

Oh and Will and Wish is totally forgettable and doesn’t even play for the bulk of the route.

SO LETS TALK ABOUT WEDDING BUSTERS.

First of all the prospect of seeing

the pulsating piles of rotting maggot-food that is the Futaki family

not getting their way frankly makes my penis fully erect, the only way to make it harder would be to say, burn the Saigusa house to the ground until it is nothing more than a cold pile of ash(just like the hearts of the family!). Wedding Busters is the kind of shit I needed years ago in Haruka’s route, a beautiful comeuppance for the pulsating piles of rotting maggot-food involving all of my beautiful children having fun fighting against evil. It’s fantastic to see such a large scale mission with Riki as the head too, as a great follow up to Refrain. I laugh at how Haruka just casually drops that she’ll report the horrors of the pulsating piles of rotting maggot-food to the police for their sins only AFTER completely embarrassing them during this no doubt expensive event, what an absolute fucking savage, I love her.

The catharsis of seeing all this go down, the joy of seeing my busters having fun on such a scale, I mean look at this, they’re fucking kidnapping someone, this scene is phenomenal.

Overall, real good route, has it’s issues, some ups and downs, but fuck, A-chan-senpai gets a ton of screentime even, I’m very very happy with this route.

[StarfishBender]

Definitely my favourite of the EX routes, continues with a story that we already know but adds still more depth to the sorry tale of Haruka and Kanata and it’s good to see that not everything was magically turned right after the reboot. I liked Haruka more than at any other time in LB, and then we have Bride Heist which felt like it righted the lack of closure from Haruka’s route. And a whole load of A-chan senpai too

Anyway, my brain is a bit frazzled after over 150 hours of analysing so much of LB so I’m struggling to put meaningful thoughts together at this point.

[Ganesh_Swami]

I have a question. On their birthday Kanata received two pairs (meaning 4) marble hair ornaments. She gave a pair to Haruka and kept one herself. Soon after their uncle’s told haruka that kanata threw away her pair. So now in the present haruka ties her ponytails with the two pair of marbles but kanata also has a pair she uses to tie her hair.

Where did this third pair come from?did she buy similar looking ornaments.

[Natsume]

As far as I understand there were four pairs, two for each (therefore 8 ornaments, two per hair-tie) and Kanata could likely only keep one after her family made a show of the second to break Haruka’s trust towards her.

[Tsukishiro]

There were two pairs.

The Saigusa family broke off one of the ornaments on Kanata’s and told Haruka she did it herself. One hair ornament for the #1 child and two ornaments for the inferior #2.

She either fixed the ornament or got a new one. Probably the latter, since the present-day ornaments are larger. At least, I think they are?

[Ganesh_Swami]

Yeah thanks. After re reading the route i confirmed there was four pair of them. The futaki family threw one of kanata’s away to break haruka’s trust and torment her by labelling haruka as having a second place as she would have two hair ties and kanata only had one left now.

And i think the one kanata wears is the one that wasn’t thrown away. Cause riki notices that it has scratches and the colour was dull. A new one wouldn’t be that beaten up and there is no need for kanata to buy a similar one like that cause it would hold any value.

[Natsume]

Well, that’s a little obvious.

It’s not the hair ornaments themselves that matter to Kanata but the symbol of her promise with Haruka that got lost in their relatives’ manipulation. Barring the fact that she would never allow herself to lose said ornament in the first place, she would have no reason to buy another one since the work doesn’t really depict her as being particularly oriented towards hair accessories.

[Ganesh_Swami]

Well i have a question for you guys.

Why do you think the futaki family wanted Kanata to become the best in everything?what was their goal?. Did they plan for her to get good reputation and then secure a powerful position in society (Lawyer, mayor etc.) and then use it for their own gain or they just wanted a pawn that to manipulate ?.

[HeliosAlpha]

It just clicked for me how Kanata literally can’t show her back to anyone. Traditionally, a scar on your back refers to a wound received while retreating making it a symbol of weakness and failure. Well, Kanata doesn’t allow herself to show any weakness in the same way she doesn’t show her physical back.

[EisenKoubu]

Despite having already cleared Refrain for the second time a while ago, I had to wait a while before starting any of the EX routes to make sure all my friends were caught up. Now that I don’t have that obligation anymore, I managed to finish Kanata’s route in about three days. After waiting so long to finally read the mythical EX routes I heard so much about, how does this first one fare?

Kanata herself is an interesting beast, especially after all that’s transpired in Haruka’s route. Following the events of Refrain, I’d grown to assume that the Kanata portrayed in this world isn’t actually the real Kanata. Rather, she’s a bit of a gross exaggeration of the real one, which embodies Haruka’s lingering bitterness towards her in the world where something happened. The reflection of Kanata we saw in Haruka’s route is humorless and merciless, but not completely unreasonable. As we discover in Haruka’s route, the only thing really keeping the two of them apart in that world is their facade of hatred towards one another.

Kanata’s route explores how this facade came to be, and why it was necessary in Kanata’s mind. The Kanata on display in her route is no less obstinate or reasonable than how she is in Haruka’s route; the only major difference here is Haruka’s attitude towards her. This route fully expects the reader to have read Refrain beforehand, and there are many blatant references to the Secret and the gang’s purpose in raising Riki and Rin to be independent individuals. Despite this, it leaves me wondering whether Kanata is really a construct of Haruka’s intelligence or her own individual intelligence that entered the world in the same way everyone else did.

My own personal theory (which obviously cannot compare to any of Magus’ massive conspiracy theories) is that Kanata is likely a representation of a second regret of Haruka’s. Haruka spends a lot of time trying to connect with Kanata despite this Kanata having no recollection of the events of Haruka as far as I can tell. As such, it’s a matter of overcoming an obstacle that was previously only overcome by great adversity on both fronts. However, it’s Kanata that has to yield this time around, as Haruka is already open to repairing their relationship. Supposing Kanata is a mental construct of Haruka’s, however, there’s something within Haruka that’s still rather reluctant to mend ties with Kanata. I got the vibe that Haruka was struggling to overcome a rather traumatic incident in her childhood despite being done with her family in a previous repetition. This is why she still heavily figures in the problem and resolution of the route, and it explains the scene where they speak with each other in that white void…whatever that was.

Anyway, Kanata’s route is also a very personal route because of this, much like Haruka’s route. Kanata as an individual is a hard egg to break because of the abuse she’s faced, the responsibilities she has to keep up in order to preserve her sister’s livelihood. She does not take to Riki all that well, and sometimes it takes a little push from A-chan-senpai (who feels as though she deserves her own route, she’s such a bro ) to help them understand one another. I never thought Kanata herself could be made into a relatable character, but Shirokiri incorporates subtleties into her character that don’t feel unnatural or tacked on. In fact, the way she warms up to Riki just feels so right, it’s inspiring. I was literally cheering at the moment they first kiss, as well as the climactic scene where Riki, Haruka and the other Busters (especially our Lord and Savior Kyousuke) fought to keep Kanata at the school a little longer. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, although I again didn’t find myself crying at places where I was meant to cry. Still got a ways to go on that. ._.

Although I never took any notes reading this route (I did take a lot of pictures though), I’m surprised I am able to say so much about this route. It’s honestly an amazing route, right up there with Haruka as one of the greats. Then again, I thought every route so far was great this reading. I’m really excited for Sasami and Saya now!

[Realta]

So I finished the Kanata route a little while ago and I enjoyed her route as much as I did Haruka’s. It nicely wrapped up the loose ends I was wondering about at the end of Haruka’s route, and the Wedding Busters part was amazing. I actually came to like Kanata’s character a lot, and she ended up being one of my favourites. Maybe a controversial opinion to have, but I can’t help it

So the scene of Kanata and Haruka just before the Wedding Busters part confused me a bit… and I don’t think I’m the only one. But judging from the dialogue I think I can assume Kanata’s route takes place before Refrain, also considering Haruka is not sure whether or not she and Kanata will see eachother again. She mentioned that “when the time comes, it’ll be alright for Riki-kun and Rin-chan to decide.” I think she might be referring to the “it’s not enough” or “it’s enough” choice? There’s also the fact that Haruka is sleeping in a bed when waking up afterwards, with her arms wrapped in bandages which leads me to believe the accident had just happened.

This raises the question of how much Kanata remembers from the dream world afterwards… possibly nothing at all? She is not part of the Little Busters and should not be involved in the accident, so I’m wondering if Riki had to start from scratch again with her (assuming you went with the “because I like you” choice earlier in the route). It’s all a bit hazy and I’m not sure about the sequence of events and how much time there was between the accident and Kanata’s wedding for example. They never show if and to what extent the relationship between Riki and Kanata got reset, and whether or not he has made any new progress since the accident in the real world. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

On another subject, I was actually thinking that Kanata might have been aware of the secret of the world all along. One thing I found interesting was how different her behaviour seems to be when compared to Haruka’s route. Does she retain some memories of it? I don’t think the change is only caused by Haruka’s different attitude towards her for example. There were also some other things she said during her route that made me think this, but I can’t remember them at the moment… One thing I do remember though is my post from Haruka’s route where I mentioned the following:

Little Busters! - Haruka Saigusa Route & Character Discussion

The one bad end where it was implied that Haruka committed suicide ended up confusing me a bit. As Riki’s narcolepsy started to kick in Kanata tells Riki again to stay away from Haruka and to “not ever get close to her again.” But if she actually committed suicide isn’t that pointless to say? Or it might also simply be a thing of her already referring to the next playthrough where you have to make the choice again, though that kinda breaks the fourth wall I guess.

I wrote this before I read Refrain, but afterwards it seems to make a lot more sense… but only if Kanata is actually aware of the secret of the world. Maybe I’m completely off track with my ramblings but it’s something that was curious to me.

Anyway, this route is definitely one of my favourites and I should probably give it another read fairly soon. My emotions mostly have the upper hand when reading and it doesn’t give me much room to think and analyze, so writing coherent posts on routes afterwards is more difficult than it should be

[Leale]

This raises the question of how much Kanata remembers from the dream world afterwards… possibly nothing at all?

If it wasn’t for the conversation between Haruka and Kanata when they are, I assume, leaving the dream world, I would say with 100% certainty: Kanata never was in the dream world, she was created from Haruka’s memories and that’s why she should remember nothing from the dream world.
As it stands there are points that both support and are against that theory though, so I’m as confused as you.
I am however pretty sure that Kanata does know the secret of the world, for the reasons you wrote.

If anyone who has read this route a second time maybe has a better understanding of it, please correct me (why isn’t the kengo emote in the discord server? )

[Realta]

Ah yeah I read the theory that Kanata is simply a construction of Haruka’s memories. I’m not sure what to think of this, doesn’t that basically make her existence one of an NPC in the dream world? Or whatever you want to call it, I can’t think of a better term. Not sure how I feel about the route being mostly about a character who actually isn’t even there, though I suppose in reality it changes very little. But like you mention the one scene that would really go against this theory is the conversation between Kanata and Haruka as they are leaving the dream world.

What kind of existence Kanata really is in the dream world and if it perhaps is related to her seemingly being aware of the secret of the world is a very interesting question though.

[Ganesh_Swami]

Reread the route but forgot to make a post.

Kanata’s route had one insisting problem. ‘consistency’ i know many people here liked the flashback then real time then again flashback and real time but for me it felt like breaking off the mood a bit. Still it wasn’t anything major and i was okay with it but…

What happened in the nurse’s office was i think something way off the timing. Riki holds her hand and then kanata starts talking about how she never had chance to love and her regrets. I doubt love is the something that was on her mind at the time. The only thing she was concerned with was how to make haruka happy and the stress from families and her school responsibilities.

I just dislike how they forced romance here. There was no need, it breaks off the flow of story.

[Rin]

Kanata’s route is another complicated one for me. It did a lot of things right, but also a lot of things wrong. As @Ganesh_Swami stated, the romance did feel a bit forced. Which, for me, is a strange thing to think considering it takes SOOOO long to get started. However, the romance feels really genuine once you get over that initial forced-start feeling.

And I think both of those things can be attributed to the writer, Chika Shirokiri. Chika also wrote the Haruka and Kud routes. And like the Kanata route, they’re both very long and often-times drawn out with exposition or in many cases, just a bit too much fluff. Spending day after day helping Kanata out in the student council room as the plot progresses at a snail’s pace, I felt a lot of it was unnecessary and the route wouldn’t have suffered much, if at all, had some of those scenes been scrapped altogether.

However, just as with Haruka and Kud’s routes, with all that exposition comes plenty of story and plot development. Once you get past the fluff, everything starts to come into place and the pace really begins to pick up. And just like Haruka and Kud, once the romance gets going, it really shines as one of the route’s strongest points.

My favorite point of the route, though, has got to be the timeline part of it. I like that this route takes place in the Dream World, reality, and seemingly the purgatory in between. The ending is also very good, as it features all of the Little Busters, unified to help out one of their friends. And while you always sort of got that feeling from the group of friends, it was awesome seeing it in action.

That about sums it up for me, really. Great plot, but long and drawn out sometimes. Great romance, but forced and awkward at times. Which just about sums up any Chika Shirokiri route, really. Yahaha.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention how the route does a TEN OUTTA TEN JOB of making you really like Kanata. She’s one of my favorite girls now, which is something I never thought I’d say.