Little Busters! - Refrain Arc Discussion

Key Discussion
#81

Lots of anime viewers thought this.

The problem is how they executed it. They showed a scene of Riki, Rin and Kyousuke escaping from the explosion, but being very very close to it. It’s pretty clear that they died…
and then they didn’t.
I wouldn’t say they tried to make it open ended though. They took the same ending as the VN did.
The scene in the hospital would have just added more confusion to the anime. All they did essentially was cut out an extra choice that was under heavy fire critically.

Even in the VN where the scene makes sense, it still feels like a waste of time… but I try to skip bad ends, so that opinion probably isn’t popular.

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#82

Backreading this (so many posts suddenly) and I think the biggest problem I have with alternate universes where the field trip was peaceful is that a peaceful field trip may not actually have the Little Busters as we had come to know them.

Let’s see what we knew of the rest of the Little Busters before the field trip

  • Mio and Kurugaya would barely talk with the original LB
  • Komari was known by all of them but wasn’t on friendly terms
  • Kud was just seen as the “exotic foreign girl” and would maybe talk with them every now-and-then
  • Haruka would play around with Masato and Riki because she’s cool like that

So if the accident on the bus never happened, why would they suddenly be a friendly group? The only reason they got together was because of the accident. As such, I can’t see how things like 4koma and Kud Wafter even being possible without an accident to have brought them closer in the first place.

Which leads to the question: “Why are they a friendly group even after the accident?” Well I believe that they are self-aware of what exactly happened in the dream world. In Bokura no Asa, Riki does not consider that as simply a dream involving his classmates, and I am sure that the people involved in the incident feel the same way. Even if, for example, they don’t remember the exact details of what happened, the bonding that they shared over multiple repeated months stuck with them after the accident, thus allowing them to become closer to each other after the chaos had subsided from the accident.

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#83

Komari met the group at the start of the year and occasionally talks to them.
Haruka got along with Riki and Masato, spent time doing volunteer work with Komari, and spoke to Kud due to her dogs hunting her every day.
Yuiko goes wherever the cute girls are, and was friends with Haruka.
Kud was bullied for both being a foreigner and being bad at English, but Riki was kind to her, so she talked to him. Strelka got along with Rin’s cats. One day Kyousuke made it a mission to improve Kud’s English.
Mio was shown a quiet place to read by Yuiko, spent time next to the tree where Kud plays with her dogs, and helped Kud with her English.

There’s a few links of the bunch~ All of them were usually in the same classroom too. They might not have been as close, but they all knew each other.

Umm… I don’t see why this is a question. They repeated life over and over with each other, and had their regrets cleared in that group. They probably spent more time as the Little Busters than not.

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#84

Joke about Kyousuke’s VA, who also did the voice for Leon Magnus. The similarity is striking to say the least.

As far as the 4Koma goes, it’s just a comedy strip. It’s set in the fall/winter as Haruka mentions in the early chapters about a prior field trip. Plus, it’s non sequitur and non-canon for the most partalthough Kud Wafter mention a panty thief that only appeared in 4koma, but then again not canon -_-. The manga kind of does a how the group would meet if there was no accident scenario and it does it serendipitously. I try not to think too much about the stories except the 42-43.

Doesn’t Riki forget most of what happens in the repeats during epilogue or did the group remember everything from that time? I don’t remember if they clarified that, I remember when Riki was waking up at school he mentions he couldn’t remember that time or did I misread that part?

#85

Riki and Rin didn’t remember anything except for Refrain, but he did remember subconsciously.
But the others should have remembered everything.

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#86

False. If Riki and Rin don’t remember anything expect Refrain, then all of Rin’s portion of Refrain is senseless. In Refrain Rin remembers all of the friends she has made and the time she spent with them.

Riki remembers playing baseball with everyone, so he definitely remembers the events of the common route. As for the routes, Riki is unaware of Kud’s hometown, and doesn’t remember anything about Yuiko, so we can infer that he doesn’t remember the heroine routes…

All of the heroines react to what happened.

Haruka:

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Mio:

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Kud:

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Yuiko:

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Komari and Rin:

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However, if we go by the time-line of the Yuiko true end, Riki should remember the events of the heroine routes at the start of Fall.

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Little Busters! Spoiler General
Little Busters! - Riki Naoe Character Discussion
#87

I meant the heroine routes. And he knows they played Baseball because he learned about it in Refrain.
Although I think that he remembers everything subconsciously and some of it is surfacing again.

As for Rin… Actually I think she remembers more than Riki. Because she remembers the friendships she made, something which didn’t happen in Refrain because she was at the Kid school. But that may be because Komari restored those memories to her.

I think that eventually everyone will remember everything.
And considering the fact that Riki was in a romantic with practically all the girls, I think it’d lead to awkward situations.

#88

Yeaaaaaaaaaah that does seem like kind of a problem.

I ship Riki x Kurugaya though, so she would have no problem keeping them at bay :wink:

#89

I don’t know maybe she’d invite the other girl for a “enriching” experience ;D
The bigger problem might be the EX routes. How would you explain Kanata, Saya or Sasami to everyone except Kurugaya?

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#90

Aren’t most of the EX routes Post-Refrain?

#91

Kurugaya’s true end is also post refrain. If ship happens it has to be after she confess.

#92

True, but the events leading to it are in the Fake world.

I personally ship Kud and Riki.

#93

This is why you ship Riki x Kyousuke.
How can the girls argue that?

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#94

Hehe, that ship is hinted at so heavily in both the VN and Anime xD

#95

I don’t approve Riki x Rin as well… If Rin is still clinging to her childhood friend, I think she just didn’t progress much then, just like how she was before.
I’m more to Yuiko, but that girl just seems so independent and in comparison Riki is much more a girl than she is, so…

KyouRiki forever.

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#96

The whole point is that Rin isn’t just clinging to anyone at the end, because she has become stronger.
It doesn’t end with Riki saying “I’ll protect you Rin.” and her being weak, it ends with them both being strong and being able to deal with reality supporting eachother.

#97

Ok, maybe I worded that wrong. What I mean is, Rin is just going to end up with the guy who has always been by her side. She has become stronger and she can support her significant other, but her social circle seems to stay the same aside from the girls. If I were Riki, I’d probably think “Maybe she chose me because I’m the only decent guy she knows. But again she doesn’t know any other guys. Maybe if she has more male friends than us, she would choose someone else.” Something like that.

#98

The reason why I don’t think Rin and Riki are a good couple, yet at least, is because Rin still appears to have no idea what it means to be in love or to be in a relationship.

I mean, she could learn in time. But she still seems very inexperienced even compared to Riki. Which makes me think she needs to have more friends and experience life a bit before getting into a relationship.

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#99

Agreed~ This is why the early parts of the Rin route (up until they leave the school) were almost completely lost on me.
The confession scene appeared to come out of nowhere, and it never really progressed beyond that. Even when Rin was separated, she didn’t seek out Riki’s help… He was just the only person left to look to.
It just felt really artificial, even in comparison to all the other relationships in the VN.

If they had more time then I could see it being an option, but with how it was shown in the VN, I can’t say they are good together romantically.

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#100

Rin is still a kid. She doesn’t fully comprehend the concept of (romantic) love, nor is she capable of feeling it (yet).

Cats > Riki.

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