Little Busters! - Riki Naoe Character Discussion

Key Discussion
#34

All of them did. He was the one pushing everything forward in pretty much every route. The heroines did their own things of course, but Riki had to deal with it all too. Every bit of drama was something that both Riki and the character of focus worked through, whether it was Kud’s family situation or Kengo’s opening up.

Someone else’s backstory doesn’t have to effect the main character. The back stories matter little anyway outside of Haruka’s and Komari’s route, and bits of Kud’s route. You put a big emphasis on backstory… but, for example, the backstory in Haruka’s route is like… a blip in the route. It’s like 1/10 of the VN content iirc. Kud’s backstory is a paragraph about her grandparents and a couple sentences about her mom. They are tiny tiny aspects that, although shape a part of what made the heroine, have little affect on the characters in present times.

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#35

I didn’t like the CG’s. Rin’s CG’s looked too thick if you get what I mean, though I did like the CG’s for other characters. Also, I did play it, though since I watched the anime first, I kinda got bored. The visual novel, the first 50 minutes of it were basically the first 5 minutes of the first episode, and I wasn’t to fond of the fight scenes, so I didn’t bother to finish it. And from what I’ve heard, Ecstasy modifies each route with the 3 new routes too, so I’d rather just wait for that.

#36

@Kotarou out of pure curiosity, have you read the rest of the thread from before your post? Because, your opinion will be your opinion, and I respect that; but Riki possibly being my favorite protagonist, I would love to try and change your mind.

First, if you want to actually know what the creators intended with this story and these characters, read the VN. Remember that the anime is an adaptation (and not even a very great one), and by definition, it is impossible for an adaptation to express the exact same things as the source material.

Now, you say Riki is weak. But the fact that you have finished the story still holding that opinion makes me feel like you didnt understand or something.

(Im really proud of that post, so you could probably go read it and understand, but I’ll reiterate anyway.)

Weakness is a very human characteristic. We are all weak. We are all in need of saving in some way, but at the same time we all have the capability to save others.

Riki’s story is repeated so much because it is literally his life. It is his existence. Riki could not have survived on his own. That is the point of the World Where Nothing Happened. It didn’t keep repeating because Riki kept screwing up. It kept repeating until all of the regrets had been fulfilled. As Kyousuke’s regret was that he would be leaving Riki and Rin alone, the world wouldnt stop repeating until Riki and Rin were strong enough to survive on their own. Of course Riki would fail sometimes. Its cliche but true: we all make mistakes.

Its not like he was “cheating” or something because Kyousuke was helping him. It was Kyousuke’s goal in the first place. The “true end” is an embodiment of Riki’s strength, not Kyousuke’s.

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#37

Well now, there’s where you have it very very wrong.

A lot of people here are saying how you should read the Visual Novel, but I think even just watching the anime suffices. Let me bring up two examples off the top of my head:

Komari’s story: In the anime, he also makes a picture book that helps Komari realize the truth of what is happening. He could have just run away from that, or just left Komari as she is (which he actually does in the VN’s bad end), but he doesn’t; and that makes him stronger

Mio’s story: He could have also just left Midori as is. Heck, because of Midori’s taunting, he almost did so. But he became strong enough to fight that and look for the real Mio. This happens even in the anime, I believe

I could make one example for every route but I don’t have much time now, so I do hope I get my point across

#38

Oh yeah ! Mio’s story. Her story didn’t really interest me, even though it was something that we’ve never seen from Key before. But I do remember that. But Komari’s, still, I think it didn’t help much. But Komari as a person did help the plot by far, great.

#39

Wasn’t Kyousuke’s goal also to make him strong enough to surpass him. I mean, I know the anime was probably below average, but what about the refrain parts ? Was that Kyousuke’s plan all along ? For Rin to face the reality of everyone being gone ? Anyways, I do understand that, but the fact that Rin remembered all the LB members and he didn’t remember 1 thing makes me think of him weak, I mean, Rin spent the least of times with them while Riki was the one who actually helped them and asked them to be part of the LB. The fact that he didn’t remember anything about them makes me think he isn’t a good MC.

#40

This word triggers me now.
And Kotarou, please avoid double-posting.

#41

They all remember bits and pieces of what happened by the time Fall/Autumn comes around.

Hey! Maybe we can get Bababababa to lay down the facts!

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#42

I don’t quite remember what happened in the anime, but it is definitely canonical that Riki does remember. It was shown in the Bokura no Asa drama CDs.

Noted, I’ll ask him next time :v
(i probably won’t)

#43

Ok first I want to clarify what you are talking about. I was about to write a whole post about this until I realised that I might thinking of a different scene than you:

Are you talking about in the true end, when they both wake up in the school; or are you talking about The Last Dream, when the first time Rin discovers that all her friends are gone, as if she didnt have any friends in the first place; and then the second time she goes back and remembers each of the girls and how much fun they actually had together?

#44

We don’t need to. It’s in the VN~ How much each character remembers is pointed out.

Anime Yerian, anime. Some of those things didn’t even happen in the anime.

#45

This anime is stupid ;_;

Sorry havent seen it

#46

I forgot most of that stuff even happened until the Skype chat raged about how amazing that giving up choice part of the VN is. I think that stuff was skippable anyway really, unless you are a RikixRin fan.

#47

Ehhh, the last dream is their last attempt to try to make Rin seem relevant again. Even, I’ll admit that.

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#48

What I really remember about this character is Narcolepsy. Well I love to see Riki with Rin.

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#49

I thought Riki means ‘logical tree’ :nonono:

Really though, I’m not sure if I’ve heard of this interpretation of his name before; care to refresh my memory @Ganesh_Swami?

#50

I might be wrong. :sweat_smile:. I just searched up Japanese name meanings and strength popped up. Sorry for the nuisance as it may be a unreliable source.

#51

Hmm interesting :thinking: Upon doing more research, it seems the Kanji 力 can be read as “riki” which actually does mean strength; although it uses a different Kanji from Riki’s actual name, could that have been intended? :maeda:

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#52

Riki having Narcolepsyis the worst thing about Little Busters and constantly gets in the way of the story I feel. Also he is by far the worst key protagonist out of the Key VNs I have read. He just isn’t interesting and the way every bad end, ends with Riki falling asleep for absolutely no reason is just EH? Its like the game is too lazy to actually create a proper bad end and just takes the laziest route possible. Refrain It was’nt even used for anything. Like what is the point of his Narcolepsy even being in the story if it doesn’t even create a single positive to the story?

#53

From what I have understood if Riki falls asleep in every bad end it’s because it’s a way for him to run away from the harsh reality of life. It’s also a way to represent that he is going to forget everything before doing things better in his next attempt of resolving the route, like if he was “disconnected” from a game and had to reset.

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