Little Busters!: Refrain Episode 10 Discussion

xMaebaraK1x said:

Of course there is more :D
And just to remind you that LB is released in 2007 which only Higurashi and Clannad which you mentioned is out before LB which I both love and I love LB more than them even I read(higu)/watched(CL) them first :D


Yes, after they have shown Komari's tragic bad end in this episode, how JC combined the story of LB is quite clear now. See below.


Basically, without spoilers of the next episode, what this episode tells you is that Kyousuke, with the strong hope to make Riki and Rin stronger to move on, created the world of the little busters, with the same hope of Kengo, Masato, Komari, Haruka, Yuiko, Kud and Mio.

The previous stories of the girls are from the loops of the world. At first Riki was not strong enough to help the girls because he himself was even weaker than them. But through what Kyousuke and the gang have taught him, Riki became mentally stronger and helped the girls to solve their regrets through many many loops of the world.

Every time when Riki failed to manage the problems of the girls, Kyousuke will start the world over again.

In the VN, Kyousuke also starts the world over again even if you have successfully solved a girl's problem, but in the anime it has shown Riki saving the girls in the same loop, which means, Riki has already experienced countless loops in the Little Buster's world, which lead him to be a stronger person.

He failed when saving one of the girls in one of the loop and was made to start over again, and also have experienced another loop when he failed to save one after saving another.

Easier way to understand:
Loop 1 -> Riki -> failed to save, for example, Komari -> restart
Loop 1+a -> Riki -> saved for example, Komari -> unable to save another girl, for example, Mio -> restart
Loop 1+a+b -> Riki -> saved, say Komari and Mio -> failed to save girls other than them, for e.g. Haruka -> restart
Loop n (loop shown in the anime before Refrain) -> Riki -> saved Komari->Mio->Haruka->Kud->Yuiko->
Loop n+1 -> Rin arc -> Refrain (the loop shown now)
For dummies:
World restarts if Riki fails to help any one of the girls. The loop shown in the anime is the loop which Riki finally succeeds in helping all the girls in one single loop, which eventually leads to the events of Rin's route and Refrain.

Where in the VN (Not really a spoiler, just putting it into a tag since it is unnecessary for the AoVs to know):

So basically, after countless attempts, Riki finally grew strong enough to save all the girls in one single loop (which is the story that was shown in the anime), therefore the girls except Rin and Komari left.In the end of the loop, Rin arc began, which ended when Rin and Riki ran away after all those things shown happened in Ep6. Kyousuke realizing this loop is a failure restarted the world again, and now this loop that is currently showing is the last loop (Refrain arc).

More details will be described in the next episode, about how this whole thing happened, why this world is created and how.

Do you understand now? Get it :D?
-----------------------------

This is the explanation of the events,
if excluding the hinting of the awakening between arcs shown in the anime.

Another reasonable explanation for the anime would be (including the awakenings) (again not a spoiler, but too long to be listed out) :


If you are thinking that the above explanations are too confusing to understand, just interpret it as:
Riki helps the girls and the world repeats to a point of the timeline where the problems have not shown yet, and he helps them again until they all have their regrets solved. Riki then faces Yuiko route and Rin's then finally enters RF where everything is happening from the start of the world, on 13/5.

Vladz0r said:
@Maebara
I swear your loop thing is the exact thing I posted on Mich666's profile yesterday...

http://puu.sh/5Hh6L.png

MasterMeNL said:
Kengo is pretty damn cool character and Kyousouke is sort of a retard by stressing himself out.

Vladz0r said:


I'd be kinda stressed out too if I was injured and trying to prevent a bus's impending explosion, while simultaneously creating and sustaining another world, sending my best friend through dozens of time loops to try to prepare him the worst case scenario.
I must be as retarded as Kyousuke, though.

Vladz0r said:


I'd be kinda stressed out too if I was injured and trying to prevent a bus's impending explosion, while simultaneously creating and sustaining another world, sending my best friend through dozens of time loops to try to prepare him the worst case scenario.
I must be as retarded as Kyousuke, though.

Vladz0r said:
I guess they'll have to actually see the events come together in the next few episodes to get a better opinion.

MCAL said:
I mean really, maybe JC staff did overdo it with the hints, but with the startling amount of AO viewers who still don't seem to get it, I'd shudder to think what would happen if JC kept things to a minimum.

kohalic said:
*offtopic*

Just after finish this episode i feel the urge to search some Kyousuke picture on internet and i found this http://i.imgur.com/6WI4Bj7.jpg
omg he's so fucking hot *fangirlscream* xD

kohalic said:
*offtopic*

Just after finish this episode i feel the urge to search some Kyousuke picture on internet and i found this http://i.imgur.com/6WI4Bj7.jpg
omg he's so fucking hot *fangirlscream* xD

Nemeios said:
They explained everything quite well in my opinion, it really impressed me after some fails they had on first season like this (contradiction to this last episode) (Episode 26 1st season) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLGj9PpGRyk and well... there are of course a lot more, they did first season almost like there aren't any time reset.

anyway JC Staff good job with this episode 5/5 for me... i hope at least they keep doing good job with refrain, because all routes are quite bad in my opinion, specially Rin2.

Prepare all for the next episode, the best episode in the VN at least for me.

Vladz0r said:
As a diehard Kurugaya fan who I was disappointed in the anime arc and her characterization, though it was still much better than most of the episodes where she starred in season 1.

I almost forgot that my favorite girl was a character in the anime back in s1. Komari and Kud were much too prevalent for how little entertaining they were in the anime.

Vladz0r said:
^Which is exactly what Kengo wanted to do, and it makes his character less believable if the people think that the anime is implying that the world was going to inevitably crumble.
Kyousuke mentioned at some point in his arc that the world could've just gone on forever, and they could've spent their time doing nothing but having fun.

Ol-Hybrius said:


Kengo isn't supposed to be aware of Kyousuke's power waning, they didn't speak to each other very much since what happened in the previous loop. Considering that, his character doesn't really take any damage. Most of the anime-only viewer don't give a damn about the characters anyway.

AnimeFan500 said:
About Kyousuke's power

Vladz0r said:
^Which is exactly what Kengo wanted to do, and it makes his character less believable if the people think that the anime is implying that the world was going to inevitably crumble.

Vladz0r said:
Hm, Kengo's dilemma seemed tragic to me because of the position he was always in.

I wrote up a summary of his story in a nutshell on my foreshadowing gallery, but there's a spoiler towards the end that I'll cut out.

Kyousuke's non-interference rule, which is what keeps Masato and Kengo acting normal, essentially pushed Kengo back into his kendo routine, so to not arouse suspicion from Riki. The only way he could join was through a manifestation of one of his regrets: not being able to save Miyuki. While Kyousuke invited him into the Little Busters when he was little, Kengo eventually turned back towards his kendo in the real world, and Kyousuke forcing him to repeat that in the dream world parallels Kengo's father forcing him to do kendo. Kyousuke teased Kengo by agreeing to his chances to stay with Riki forever, but cheated in the baseball game in Rin's route, and helped Riki and Rin become strong enough to overcome Kengo's strength in Refrain. All he even wanted to do was to have fun, but Kengo's father, Kengo's weak attitude, and Kyousuke's rules that forced him into the same situation all kept Kengo away from that.

With or without going by the theory that the dream world could continue indefinitely or not, Kengo's time and efforts were essentially wasted on delaying the inevitable in the course that the story took.

Okiedokie123 said:
This was so deep I don't even know where to begin. I'm glad I read some of the comments here because I was a little confused. I do have some questions though.

1) When the bus crash happened, did the Little Busters pass on happy or with regrets? I'm getting that that the first time it happened, they had regrets so they looped it over until Riki could solve the problems which is what we see in this alternate world.

2) With Kurugaya's arc, Riki probably never remembered what happened with the brewing romance, but did Kurugaya remember it? Can Kyousuke oversee Kurugaya's arc too? I imagine how awkward it might be with the romance.

3) So previously, when Rin and Riki ran away and got busted by the police and caused a world reset, to which we're back to the start of season 1 in Episode 7. Did Rin and Riki have no recall of ever being boyfriend/girlfriend from Ep 7 till now?

I think I have some other questions at the back of my mind, but those are what I have for now. It's such a great mystery, this anime.

Vladz0r said:
Just check out the Crunchyroll comments, lol.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/little-busters/episode-10-645261