Yes that scene! That was some lovely attention to detail by the animators.
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Makes a change.
Sort of missed it, but since I didn’t talk about Kengo when I finished up Little Busters!, I’ll talk about him now as part of his birthday celebration.
Kengo starts out pretty cold and aloof in the beginning, sticking to what he has been taught and never moving from it. His relationship with the other members is rocky, even from the very start of all this. However, things start to take a turn when he saves his fellow classmate/potential love interest Miyuki, breaking his arm in the process. Since he can no longer study kendo, he is quick to jump on the only thing left for him: baseball practice.
After that, his personality becomes more laid-back and fun-loving, and he becomes more friendly with Masato and Riki, but he maintains his negativity towards Kyousuke’s beliefs. He stands for everything that Kyousuke does not, namely that Riki and Rin’s progression must be slow and natural, rather than forced and unforgiving. By the start of Refrain, after everything falls apart, both Kengo and Kyousuke are at an impasse, and Riki is left to his own devices in order to rebuild the team.
I do admire Kengo’s two-faced personality. At one point, he can be cold and harsh, and at another, he can be playful and friendly. Although he’s arguably my least favorite of the three male supporting characters, he still makes a significant impact in all the routes he appears in. His love for those he calls his friends knows no bounds, and it’s rather sad to watch the guy go in the initial ending of Refrain. Fortunately, since everyone made it out of the accident alive thanks to Riki and Rin, Kengo and Masato will live to outclass each other another day.
And that’s the way things should be. Have a happy birthday, Kengo. 
I saw somewhere that Miyuki died in the real world. Is this true? I don’t remember anything about that in the game. There’s a lot of stuff I think LB! could have covered more, this is one of them.
Neither do I. I never found it out until I looked her up on the wiki.
It makes me wonder, though…was her death part of his regret? 
Maybe this is from EX routes or Kudwaf
Maybe the EX routes might touch upon it. I don’t think Kengo is even a character in Kud Wafter.
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In Komari’s route, Riki spots Kengo when he’s at the graveyard visiting Takuya’s(?) grave. There’s not many people I could imagine whose grave he could be visiting. That and it makes Kengo’s overreaction in the cheap tricks scene make more sense.
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Umu. Rather than directly stated, it’s heavily implied that Koshiki died in the real world.
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I still think it would have been better if it was directly stated, but this is just my personal opinion. Key leaves a lot of questions just “implied” in their works with no direct answer and I admire that, but I think there are questions that really deserve a direct answer.
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Why does it deserve an answer, though? It’s not related to the main point of Little Busters, rather, it’s about Kengo’s own story and regrets. Having to directly state it, I feel, would be disrespectful to Kengo.
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Disrespectful? I don’t get what you mean. How can it be disrespectful?
Kengo’s story and regrets are part of Little Busters. I don’t think it’s a necessary thing for Refrain, I just simply think it would add more about Kengo’s character and more in-depth about him. Refrain was really good, but I think it should’ve been longer.
Not only Kengo’s story, but also Komari/Rin relationship could’ve been more explored (but actually, this doesn’t apply to Refrain, but to other parts of the story). Also, we got a lot of each heroine in their routes, but there was little about them in Refrain (I mean, since the routes are in the dream world, we only get something superficial about the reality of the girls).
I am going to repeat: Refrain was perfectly fine without those things, I just think I could’ve been better.
It’s implied that they have left the world (actually shown in the anime).
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Think about it for a minute. If they stated, literally, that “Miyuki is already dead”, then where would they do it? Would Kyousuke state it to Kengo during Refrain? That would be hella disrespectful to Kengo. Would Kengo state it to Riki? That would also be disrespectful, as it forces Kengo to bring up these memories that he should be getting over. Kengo’s story in Refrain was about his alienation from friends as a child, and how the Little Busters became instrumental to his youth. Miyuki was a side-story from this, and, if mentioned, only serves as a way to make Kengo seem like a weaker character, which we didn’t need at the time of Refrain.
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Riki could just have mentioned it in the real world, like without saying, just telling the readers.
It could’ve been added that Kyousuke and the others helped Kengo dealing with her death. I know she would be useless in Refrain since she had nothing to do with this. But who decided that she had nothing to do with it? The writers. The same guys who could’ve made her useful in Refrain.
That would be extremely out-of-place. The events during the real world are supposed to be happy, and adding unnecessary drama (since that topic is already over-and-done with) would harm the overall feel of the epilogue.
[quote=“sillylittlemelody, post:27, topic:286”]
It could’ve been added that Kyousuke and the others helped Kengo dealing with her death.[/quote]
But did they, really? It seemed to me that it was only Kengo’s burden and part of Kengo’s character is that he kept the burden to himself and himself alone. m
But, like I said, I think that having that become a major point in his story would alter Kengo’s personality as a whole. Kengo was very attached to Miyuki, and having her become part of Kengo’s story in Refrain would have caused Kengo to seem like a more dependent person. His story was about how the Little Busters changed his life, and having him introduce his other problems to the Little Busters would make Kengo feel like a different person altogether.
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I agree that it would feel out of place. My mistake. I don’t know how, but the writers are the ones who wrote it, obviously. So, if they had planned to add this information since the beginning it wouldn’t feel out of place.
Nope. They didn’t. But like I said, it could have been different. If it was planned to be different, it would be different. I know this could also change some other stuff, but it all depends on planning.
The Little Busters were Kengo’s friends. If they didn’t help Kengo when he needed, then they couldn’t be called that. And I don’t think he would feel like a more dependent person, depending of the way his friends helped him. If they had helped Kengo through this, they would’ve been making Kengo a stronger person, leading to the person he is when grown up.
What I mean is that Maeda could’ve used more what he created. It is not necessary, and it felt good without it, but if he had established even more links inside the story, it would’ve felt better.
Damn it man Refrain is the story of the Little Busters and their relationship, focusing Kengo’s part on some other girl is would be completely out of left field and un fitting with the route.
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It would. Okay, I can agree. But it COULD HAVE BEEN different if the writers had planned it differently.
See, this is the part where I disagree. I’m trying to say why it wouldn’t have felt better because it would either have been out-of-place or not true to Kengo’s character. Yes, the Little Busters are Kengo’s friends, but Kengo is the kind of person that likes to deal with his problems by himself. It’s that kind of stubbornness that makes Kengo, well, Kengo. As @Kanon said, Refrain is all about the Little Busters, and if they included Kengo’s pain about Miyuki, I don’t think it would have been better.
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