Little Busters! - Yuiko Kurugaya Route & Character Discussion

Key Discussion
#73

Just watched Kurugaya’s route from the anime again. Her route is too good :slight_smile:

I loved the theme of her route though, the theme of “emotions” that she couldn’t express. Kurugaya is by far, one of the greatest Key characters ever. The things she would do for her friends, and the things she would sacrifice for Riki’s happiness (in the anime) is unbelievably beautiful.

I always loved Kurugaya’s Wisdom/Quotes too. It seems that she understands things more than the LB group.

My all time favorite quote from Kurugaya would have to be during the end of her route when she says

“The fireworks I saw with you will fade away like the snow” ~ Kurugaya Yuiko

It’s beautiful. But it might just be my obsession with poetic quotes.

I also loved her words that she was thinking about when she and Riki were running out of the school.

“I wouldn’t mind taking the fall. But… I’ll gladly accept a friends thoughtfulness” ~ Kurugaya Yuiko

That quote right there is LIFE :raised_hands:

Can’t wait to play her route when the Official English LB VN comes out ! I’ll be spamming this section with her quotes :slight_smile:

Edit - How come every LB girl has a Rate-System except Kurugaya ?

#74

When it comes to her and Riki, Riki was more of a heroine than Yuiko was. Pretty funny how different it was to a standard VN romance.

Oooh, you’ll love it! They are very different experiences.

Looks like whoever added them was very lazy about it. Rin doesn’t have one either. They also messed up all of the links in the General Discussion post, and left a bunch of dead threads around instead of merging everything to the right threads. For shame.

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#75

Ehhhh… I can’t remember who I appointed to the Little Busters topics, but what dead topics are you referring to? I’d like to have this sorted asap. PM me please, @Takafumi

#76

Ah it’s that time of year again where it’s my favorite Little Buster character birthday Yuiko Kurugaya. HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUI CHAN!!!

At first I thought she just might be another “cool” character but after going through her route it made me realize how much I actually really like this character. Whenever I play a VN I like to pick one character after the whole character introduction sequence and see if I will still like this character over all the other character after I’m done reading the VN. I wasn’t expecting Kurugaya route to be so good (maybe it’s also my favorite route because I had really low expectation when I started Kurugaya route). I found this route to be so unique because Kurugaya and Riki had swapped roles with each other where Kurugaya take care of Riki instead of Riki take care of Kurugaya. The ending of the route was so sweet and is my favorite ending in Little Busters!. After reading Refrain, you can finally complete her route because the Refrain huge plot twist is the conflict in the route. This make her route even more special since it might be the only route that cannot be completed without beating Refrain and actually have two endings (not really counting other character route bad ending, but I guess you can consider her original ending to be a bad ending).

Also this song is too good after completing Yui chan route <3

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#77

Well well, it’s time to talk about this route, let’s see. It’s difficult to describe it, since it isn’t your normal or common route in the game, however that doesn’t make it necessarily good.

Starting with a problem with bullying, which has an easy resolution that also left one wondering will something happen to the math’s teacher. Then the operation love love hunters, it was funny; I didn’t see all te pairings but I guess that was not necessary, all the busters helping Riki to get Kurugaya’s attention, Does Rin actually have feelings towards Riki ? She has in Rin2 i guess but here that’s kinda confusing, even in Rin2 or Refrain is still confusing

Riki is rejected then have to decide if he will just stay as her friend or try again. An expected void bad end or the continuation of the route, which lead to the start of their relationship, kind of weird it feels like that just happen or have to happen, ok let’s accept for a moment that this happened. Their relationship starts, but something happens with the world, people are forgetting things with the exception of Riki, who has to solve this all alone. He couldn’t reach Kurugaya and everything in the world dissapear, with the ending of apparently Kurugaya waiting for somebody, this is understandable after refrain, but Is it really worthy ?, I mean it is too short.

This is all I guess, I’m not so sure about this route, it looks like it’s ok, but just that. Kurugaya is the kind of girl that is always teasing, so knowing her real feelings is not that easy, but yeah our main character always get all the girls, I mean the feelings are understandable on Riki’s side but in Kurugaya’s, well.
The route tried to give you some background about Kurugaya, but it wasn’t enough to get to know her, she and her route are mysterious, that’s ok ; but leaving holes or just possibilites is not, people just speculate too much about some points on this route, which doesn’t add value or content.
So going back with Kurugaya’s feelings, Riki and her spend a lot of time together but the relationship doesn’t feel “complete”, you just may be thinking but they will have a good relationship after refrain, yeah that might be, but that is not in the game and since many state that, the main point in the route is their relationship, this doesn’t help that much.

To conclude, this route had potential but that’s it, it was a normal route, there is not an actual problem nor resolution; maybe their relationship or Kurugaya trying to understand her emotions, but there is no way to be sure that those possible problems are solved. Also the route leaves confused anyone who hasn’t play refrain, a shocking factor doesn’t make anything good or perfect, fortunately everything make sense in the end or you have to understand it in your way, since nothing is explained. Kurugaya seems fine on her own, and this experience doesn’t make Riki stronger, so well it looks like there is no point in the route.

Thank you, very much

#78

You bring up a lot of really great points against the route from a narrative perspective in that it makes absolutely no fucking sense :yahaha: But I think where this route shines is more on the emotional aspect of it all. I think that the most valuable part of this route was not trying to build a connection between Riki and Kurugaya, but trying to figure out how Kurugaya, who supposedly had a hard time feeling emotions, was able to gain a sprouting love towards Riki. In addition to that, it gains even more value after Refrain and becoming aware that this whole thing was temporary; that, in hindsight, it makes it all the more painful realizing how much she struggled to make this world repeat just so she didn’t have to give up that fleeting emotion that she sought out so much. This is because she knew exactly that once this world disappeared, so, too, would the emotional connection between her and Riki.

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Little Busters! Spoiler General
#79

Such a unique and interesting route! The role reversal with the protagonist falling and trying to woo the girl is one you see so rarely in VNs and it’s a damn shame! Unlike most of LB’s routes this one has little to do with “fixing the girl’s problems”, or at least doing so comes completely naturally to Riki and Kurugaya in this one. He’s not falling for her to fix her problem of lacking emotional responses to things, it just links up with that as a natural consequence. Which is great! LB could’ve stood to have more of that in the character routes.

Of course it still stands out as the route that goes totally off the rails at some point, but I’m always looking forward to the eventual Song For Friends ending~

This is a route that I only feel more appreciation towards every time I read it. I hope that trend will continue.

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#80

That irked me a bit at first, but then I realized it must be deliberate.

Route seemed a bit ordinary for a long time, though of course with some fun moments, and classic quotable quotes by the truckload. I still hold Kurugaya as my favourite girl for now, which helps. It was interesting as others have said to see the role reversal for our protagonist and the way in which it slowly becomes clear that something is awry.

I’m intrigued now by what will be revealed after Refrain, I think maybe I should judge the route against the others afterwards.

#81

I liked this route. It was weird and out there and I didn’t have all of my questions answered, but unlike some other routes, I found it to be well done and enagaging this time. Much like the laugh thing mentioned above, her unnatural smile seemed to make more sense now.

There were some weird plot holes that I suppose could be explained as ~it was all a dream~ but they just seemed odd. Like the piano wasn’t even plugged in. [A few sentences later] I tried unplugging it (?)

But that’s just a nitpick. Overall I like Kurugaya as a side character more than the main heroine, but I liked getting to see a different side of her and I think she takes care of Riki well. The route was super interesting and has me wondering and thinking about it, which is great.

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#82

Well, plugs don’t only go one way. It could’ve been that Riki tried tearing off all cables relied to the piano.

But yeah, thinking back on Kurugaya’s route, I find myself really appreciating the subtle mindfuck that goes on with the looping. It’s a lot less obvious than the other routes’ gimmick at first but then when it hits you that the bros aren’t just amnesic and that even Kurugaya has to forcibly maintain a notebook (though how does the text within it stays written as days loop is a good question) to remember all you’ve been playing through, it hits pretty hard. Poor Riki.

#83

I was actually replaying parts of Kurugaya’s route the past two days (Mio and Rin’s routes aren’t holding my attention very well) and towards the end of the route when Riki starts realizing it is a dream and tries to stay up until June 21st to force the loop forward, he eats one of two instant noodle packages before falling asleep right after midnight. When he wakes up, the other pack of noodles is still gone, and he states the world is “imperfect.” You also see this when even though it is technically June 20th, what Riki says to Masato, Kyouske, etc. will either give him the “canned” response (if he mentions he’s going to see Kurugaya and they are surprised) or if he tells them to leave him alone, which they do without questioning it. It is a dream world of many constants and slight variations, all centered around what Riki does or doesn’t do or say.

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The reason I went back was because I wasn’t quite clear on when the “loop” begins; Kurugaya/Riki imply it started after Riki realizes he loved her. However, when Riki is sick and she visits him, she pauses when Riki tells her it is partially her fault, and she appears momentarily confused but rolls past it without him noticing, which can possibly mean the loop has already started (and Riki remembers this later after discovering the notebook). It’s important to note that at this point, he only admits that he might like her/thinks she is cool, everyone else says they think he’s fallen for her. So he hasn’t realized his feelings himself, so I think it would be a stretch to say he loves her yet, yet it appears the “loop” (or more specifically the memory loss, and therefore the dream world, but maybe not the time loop) is already in effect. The only thing that contradicts slightly is that she requests that he never goes out in the rain again once they confess to each other. My only guess is that the memory loss at this point is much more subtle, and him mentioning it the first time catches her off guard, triggers her memory, and then she fully forgets at a later date.

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Quick Timeline (feel free to let me know if I got something wrong):

Sunday, June 17th - Riki asks her on a date to the cafe, she suggest they go the next day
Monday, June 18th - They go on the date, run back to school in the rain, Riki gets sick
Tuesday, June 19th - Riki stays in the dorm, visited by Kurugaya during math, she doesn’t (appear) to remember their date

Time Loop officially begins, days are no longer explicitly mentioned as they were before
First June 20th - Riki gives her a gift from one of the three guys
Second June 20th - Fireworks scene. All other Busters still have their memories at this point.
Third June 20th - First confession scene/rejection
Fourth June 20th - Riki persists, asks her for an answer in broadcast room again, she later approaches him by the vending machine/tea table area and agrees to go out
Fifth June 20th and beyond - Everyone else forgets he and Kurugaya are a couple by this point, dream world is fully realized

This would imply neither of them really fall in love until at least the first June 20th, therefore the time part of the loop shouldn’t have started (although it appears memory loss has already happened). I suppose that implies that she did have feelings beforehand, but maybe didn’t notice/think about it until then (believeable in her case), or what I think is more likely, which is that neither of them really understand the “rules” of the dream world. It also hard to tell because the words “like” and “love” are used somewhat interchangeably (don’t know how else to describe it, maybe something lost in translation from Japanese to English).

The bigger mindfuck for me (which I’m sure I’ll mention whenever I get around to making a full post) is that she writes down that she and Riki are going out and believes it every time (despite her reservations/rejection to going out in the first place, her own view of herself as a person/friend/romantic partner, etc.). The fact that her feelings remain constant throughout might be the most interesting bit for me.

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#84

Holy shit this was worse than I remember and I already thought this was one of the worst routes in Key’s entire repertoire.

Kurugaya, Tits or some shit

I hate this character.
People who were there for the Clannad Bookclub can just copy paste my complaints for Tomoyo because a lot of that shit is copy pasted onto Kurugaya, I hate how she acts smug about her ‘perfection’, I hate how the writing forces in your face how amazing she is with every character sucking up to her, they try to say ‘but she doesn’t understand emotion’ as a flaw which is both a dubious claim to begin with and no nearly enough to balance out the rest of this shit.
She is funny with her juvenile humour and that is all I can say in praise. As far as I’m concerned, Kud is a significantly deeper and more enjoyable character to watch, and I JUST got done talking shit about HER in her thread.

So with that out of the way, understanding my mindset for this character is ‘active dislike’, bear with me as I simply cannot stop myself from being less lenient with the route.

So the whole bullying part at the start is, while not bad, infuriating in it’s entirety because not telling her is fucking dumb, I understand it can’t happen if you tell her, but that doesn’t mean I agree with it. And the best part of it all? It’s E N T I R E L Y pointless, none of those girls return in the route, it basically doesn’t even get referenced again, it doesn’t even do much for their budding relationship, it’s padding and garbage that’s primary goal seems to be to make Kurugaya spout the actual worst line in the VN. “Try saying that again in one of the seven languages I speak”, I’m supposed to be amazed by how cool and smart she is when I say that, frankly it sounds like the kind of shit you’d put in a navy seal copypasta meme, it’s idiotic.

But hey, the route has a good middle, it’s the part where Kurugaya is barely involved. Probably not a coincidence(cuz she’s trash and all that), I think this is the route with the most boys screentime, Operation Love Love Hunters, Operation LoliLoli Hunters, Operation Fireworks. All of this is good shit, it’s my boys dicking around and being buddies.

At least after the boys hijack the route, Kurugaya does get some nice scenes, she learns to feel emotions thanks to Riki no Diki and it that would have been a perfectly fine ending.

And then fucking time starts looping.
Honestly I zoned out, I was speedreading, this part, in addition to coming out of nowhere and not making sense, is so boring. I’m sure there is some symbolism or some shit with the time loop but you know what? I don’t care. I don’t care about Kurugaya, I don’t see how this adds to the route, I don’t see what this has to do with Kurugaya, hey look at that, a consistant fucking problem with Kurugaya’s route is that barely any of this shit actually has anything to do with Kurugaya. And that’s really bad, it’s HER ROUTE.

In conclusion, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if I’d find Kud Wafter better than this route, this could not be any further away from my tastes if it tried.

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#85

That is a point in Kurugaya’s character that there’s never really… elaboration on that.

I mean, her wanting to get involved with the Little Busters to find out what fuels their fun lives is an emotion in the first place so the point is very moot, and since a lot of the route is focused on the “present” any potential depth as to what makes her that way is utterly lost. It would’ve been nice to see an actual redemption of that in her post-Refrain ending than what we got.

#86

You guys are taking it pretty literally. She was a smart girl who never got close to anybody. Her “I don’t understand emotion” thing is her way of saying “I’ve never known anyone as a friend” though it is especially relevant as a comment on her tendency of watching the Litbus crew (who are renowned in the school for being loud and random.) She doesn’t get friendship or the Litbus crew, but she wants to.
Naturally this problem is solved once she joins the gang at the start of the story. Yuiko’s problems are not the focus of the route, nor was that the intention. Instead they are framed as a long-gong event. The opening portion of the route is a blatant “she’s got everything now, and she wants to keep it that way.”

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#88

My thoughts. Possible spoilers.

Summary

It seems to me that the reason Kurugaya doesn’t understand emotion is because she’s never felt stimulated by anything. There’s a medical condition called alexithymia that is used to describe people with an inability to express emotion and empathize with others, and Kurugaya possesses many symptoms of it (I recommended reading up on it). Add on her brilliant analytical mind and you have an individual that perfectly acts out her role as a student without being distracted by emotion, but is simultaneously bewildered and made curious of social relations.

Some of the traits of people with alexthymia include excessively logical reasoning, social detachment, lack of drive or investment, the occasional outburst that bewilders even the person, and inability to distinguish between sexual arousal and actual feelings. These fit Kurugaya to a T.

Kurugaya knows how talented she is and doesn’t hesitate to show off, especially to people she looks down on. This can be seen as a form of intimidation, but in all known cases, she wasn’t the one that instigated anything. She just sees herself as solving a problem and preserving her pride as a person through self-defense.

She definitely possesses emotions, she just can’t display them as naturally as others can. She enjoys the antics of the Busters, because they’re a divergence from the mundane life she’s used to; as a result, she starts truly enjoying school life for the first time. And in her route, she’s forced to give up on her emotions by erasing her own memories for the greater good.
If she didn’t, the world wouldn’t have been able to reset itself properly.

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#89

Yeah, the problem is that what would’ve been nice is precisely expanding upon that instead of her route basically saying “she couldn’t feel emotions but Riki’s love changed her” and then leave it at that like the rest of her life didn’t exactly matter before she started dating Riki.

I don’t like stories that have a conclusion solely reliant on a romantic basis because it does hardly anything to benefit the character should you remove the romantic element of it. :yahaha:

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#90

You say that, but then you write a very literal response.

Which is a blatant desire to feel.

I’d say there’s a difference between making friends and having friends. She may have made friends, but she doesn’t appear to have felt friendship (or at least the friendship she desires) pre-busters.

How are those different problems? A lack of understanding comes from lack of exposure. She didn’t understand people because she hadn’t been close to people.

I both question Haruka’s “friendship” and your effective comparison between a group of friends and a singular friend. Haruka herself isn’t known for being sincere or open, and her as a single entity is hardly anything compared to the entire Busters gang and all its excitement.

But it wasn’t the focus of her character. It was her backstory, something that had almost entirely passed. It was only brought up because it was still relevant to her relationship with the busters (why she joined and treasured them) and for her relationship with Riki. It was deemed a requirement by the writers to establish who she is, but it isn’t meant to be anything big or important imo. Heck, the entire gimmick of the route is that Yuiko either solves or deals with her own problems just fine, but struggles when other people are dragged into her messes.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in the route, but it’s certainly an interesting interpretation…

That’s literally how I’d describe Key and VNs as a generic whole. Exactly what I look for in a VN.

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#91

I’m starting to find it more amusing than anything how you seem to have this problem with exactly the characters I relate to the most =P

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#92

Funnily enough I think, out of all the girls, Yuiko is the one I’d call most realistic. Obviously that isn’t an objective truth, and I’m certain there’s plenty of people like the other heroines, but I’ve met a fair few Yuikos in my life.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Tomoyo though. That girl is troped up from here to Rokkenjima.

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#93

Sorry for another ridiculously long post, but I really enjoyed this route, and have been absolutely itching to talk about it. This one should cover basically all the big points I wanted to get into, and (hopefully) I’ll get better at being more concise soon. :yahaha:

Considering she opens the bullying thing with the super arrogant languages comment and calling them a pack of monkeys, I’d say she isn’t exactly helping matters heal easily. I do agree with you partially though, as the whole situation is exactly why she grows from that point on. Similarly, it struck me that she views defending herself as a normal response because she has the ability to do so, but not the interest. I don’t believe she gives a shit at all about her image, she just wants it to stop by any means necessary because she has the power to stop it. She only cares because Riki is involved, and probably feels like she should protect him because he is dealing with it for her and without her. She realizes they both care about each other as people and Boom! Likely the first real connection she has ever had to another person is established.

Bit of an aside, but I did want to dig into her character a bit. Virtually everything she does is based around how she thinks she is supposed to act/what other people might find likable. Her cluelessness isn’t limited just to reading other people, but to reading situations and herself as well. The cafe date is the best example: one minute she wants to jump into puddles solely because it might be fun, and the next she doesn’t even know how she should think when alone with a boy. This is also likely why she acts so flirty around him; she assumes that Riki is interested in her in a sexual way, but not in a personal/platonic way. Even her pervy jokes and pranks with the other Busters are likely done because she probably assumes that kind of teasing would be normal in a group of friends or people you are close with.

I actually thought that scene in Haruka’s route explaining the “Anego” thing perfectly shows why she never has had any “real” friends: she purposefully puts distance between herself and Haruka. The reasoning is very clinical and makes sense is a twisted sort of way, but also very in line with Kurugaya’s character. Throughout the common, the interaction between Kurugaya and Haruka hints at a friendship, but really it isn’t much more than past familiarity. I wouldn’t call them friends at all after seeing Haruka’s route. My own take is very similar to what Takafumi said, there is a difference between being friends and being “friendly” with someone.

I agree that while I initially found the memory-loss/time-loop to be interesting, at the same time it was too poorly defined and vague to be really enjoyable. However, I disagree because the focus is entirely on Kurugaya experiencing true, hard hitting emotions for the first time. From anger over a friend being mistreated, to happiness and love, to crushing sorrow and loss. She says it herself in one of the last scenes: she wishes that she just woke up one day and forgot everything, meaning she wanted the good without realizing the potential consequences. She is in turmoil because she has never had nor lost anything she really cares about, and doesn’t know how to handle it. It’s the only genuine moment in the entire route, and actually left me feeling sad yet quite satisfied. The awesome moments of her playing the Capriccio for the first time and the fireworks scene were just as important as all the others to me, so despite the ending’s weirdness, I still felt a great deal of closure. So far it’s holding as my favorite route of LB! so far, and one of my favorites in any VN I’ve read to date.

Ha, It’s the same with me. I enjoyed reading Kanon’s perspective here and in the Tomoyo thread as well, despite being on the complete opposite side of the fence. There are quite a few similarities between Tomoyo and Kurugaya though. Must be something in the water in Key universes.

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