blog好き

Oct 07 2012

Categories: episodic review
Tagged: little busters

5 Comments »

“Mission failed.”

Watching Little Busters!, it’s pretty much Key in all their Key glory. It’s like watching Clannad in a hazy state… maybe like how Sakamoto(-san!) wakes up on an island in Btooom! or how the princess wakes up on an island in Zetsuen no Tempest (needless to say, there’s a lot of people getting stranded on islands this season… and Let’s Lagoon isn’t even involved). I recognize the behavior patterns… the character designs look familiar… the sound effects are the same… and the themes are similar… yet, it’s not Clannad. And there’s no way Little Busters! can be Clannad. (Must be the DOZO! Have a starfish.)

(“ZOMG! blog好き’s review is just ‘BLAH BLAH KYOTO IS AWESOME BLAH BLAH JC STAFF SUCKS BLAH BLAH'” which is true. But it’s the only way to review this show. It’s like trying to talk about the 2012 NY Jets without mentioning Tebow and Sanchez or the 2012 election without mentioning the economy. Reviewing the most important aspect is a major part of the review, and, at least initially, JC Staff is the most important aspect of the show. And it’ll eventually change: either JC Staff gets better and makes us forget about them or the show becomes horribly unwatchable that we forget about it and focus more on this season’s sleeper hit, BTOOOM!)

The main issue is that the animation production is being handled by JC Staff. At this point, JC Staff is like Michael Vick: had some success in the past, butchered some meat (I’m talking about Zero no Tsukaima, of course), had their flaws exposed (no longer getting prime source material like Toradora and Potemayo, shows like Hiden no Aria… well… sucked badly), and became old and boring. JC Staff is where Gonzo was maybe two or three years before Gonzo folded. In any case, they got tossed Little Busters because Key was too impatient to wait for Kyoto, so they decided to go with a less studio. Hey, that worked for Kanon and Clannad, right? RIGHT?!

(Then again, the conspiracist in me believes that Key is only doing this course of action because they would make more money if Kyoto remakes Little Busters! in 2021. Especially if they do the Ecstasy route.)

For example, in this scene, Riki is on-screen for about 12 seconds, and he doesn’t blink. Not once. The only time he moves at all is when he speaks, and it’s basically just the mouth and lower jaw that moves. Inohara just stands back there as a slightly better drawn quality cabbage. No, he doesn’t blink either. The background looks like something they pulled from a Shana-tan production. In other words, why JC Staff?! If not Kyoto Animation, why not A-1, which would have been killer for this series considering Friendship Anime and Onegai Alien? Or AIC, which has always done above average with harem anime or light novel adaptations? Or Doumo or PA Works? Or, I can’t believe I’m bring this up, Sunrise.

After watching the Little Busters! heroes of justice montage, how could A-1 not make this show? I’m just shaking my head… if I were working at Key and watch Ano Hi, I would have been like, “Get A-1 on the phone with me. We’ll make an anime that will finally dethrone the Kyoto / Shaft / Sunrise triumvirate that dominates blog好き’s Best Of rankings.”

The triple repetition gag… and other classic comedy device that Key uses a lot of. Also highly present in Angel Beats, another Jun Maeda show. Pretty much this series will need to be carried by Jun Maeda’s writing because I don’t see moe or fanservice coming into play. Though I wonder how Little Busters! will be paced… will JC Staff be as patient with Jun’s work and let it breathe? Or will they rush it like how PA Works rushed Angel Beats or how JC Staff rushed Toradora?

In a world where finally most shows use app phones (including one that seemed like they were using Apple maps), Little Busters! is still using flip phones. Oh well, at least that low budget shoujo show Sukitte Ii na yo isn’t the only one featuring flip phones this new season.

My favorite scene of the episode. And there seems to be a lot of cats this season. Or I’m just noticing for the first time how anti-dog anime is… so far this season, we have 2 dead rabbits, 1 dead dog, and a 15,532 homeless cats given warm meals. I do like how Rin gives all her cats weird names… she’s almost as awesome as Okarin at naming things.

The main character, Riki, is a little feminine and a lot invisible. He would do terribly in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures.

Can’t be a Key series without a junk food-addicted heroine. I get the felling she’ll become the team’s starting shortstop.

I am hopeful for more baseball moments. I liked the episode of Clannad After Story where they got together for one final baseball game, but I really liked the episode where Tomoya tried to beat Nagisa’s dad so he could get his permission to propose to her.