Mission Complete, Little Busters! ~Refrain~

I suppose I've watched too many anime adaptations of visual novels made by Key and published by Visual Arts to know that no matter how dramatic and emotionally painful a story gets, there will always be a convenient happy ending to it.

Little Busters! ~Refrain~ is the second season of J.C. Staff's anime adaptation of Little Busters! running for 13 episodes. This season has a darker tone than the first but I can't say that it was any better. I don't suppose I am the only one who thought that the first three episodes were out of place in this season, huh?

While the technical parts of the adaptation - music, design etc. - were a step higher from J.C. Staff's usual style, the movement of the story failed to bring out whatever dramatic and romantic content the original visual novel had.

It was a very quiet adaptation. They were quick to dispose of secondary characters, the Riki that I followed in the first season became rather annoying in this one having a repetitive task episode after episode.
When the secret's finally out, our characters suddenly take a 180 degree turn in personality. The story, then, speeds up telling the tale of our characters in a forced fed fashion.
While I can't deny that the story still has a good time playing with its audiences' emotions, it gets spoiled easily and we get something cheap instead of a heartfelt performance.

Refrain is a painful adaptation in a very sad way. Terrible mixing of emotions, inconsistent story telling and a boring two-man parade is this adaptations main appeal.



To summarize Little Busters in the perspective of Kyousuke: "There was a bus accident so I sent you and Rin to a different world to play baseball and grow up."

That's basically it.
Story: 7/10
Characters: 6/10
Music: 9/10
Art: 8/10