Little Busters! Episode 21 Discussion

Seano299 said:
I bet the ending will shock many, MANY people... Like seriously, that's just super sad.

DenjaX said:
The rocket...... exploded..... WTF TASA? Do some launch testing before putting a human inside for god's sake!

Hoshimaru57 said:


Not at all.
As soon as I saw her mom and the rocket...I knew exactly what was going to happen.
An ancient soviet rocket and a sweet little girl's mother. In a KEY anime!
Nothing ever ends well in a Key anime, Murphy's Law just loves to make the poor characters miserable as often as possible.

But the preview?

Hoshimaru57 said:


Not at all.
As soon as I saw her mom and the rocket...I knew exactly what was going to happen.
An ancient soviet rocket and a sweet little girl's mother. In a KEY anime!
Nothing ever ends well in a Key anime, Murphy's Law just loves to make the poor characters miserable as often as possible.

But the preview?

kenshin_sama said:
Also, how in the hell am I the first person to complain about these details? I guess most of you guys weren't kidding when you said you didn't care for Kud's route. Kud's route has an even worse adaption than Haruka's route, but Haruka's arc ended up being the one that had the shitstorm. The LB fanbase on MAL has disappointed me yet again.

Katyush said:
Kud's mother looks like Riki :v

Vladz0r said:


I think he's referring to the ending of Kud's route. If you haven't played that VN, that will be sure to shock you. The launch was extremely predictable, due to the compression of dialogue. They basically had a minute of script discussion how the launch could potentially fail, and mentioned the hazardous effects on the environment, and the launch failed within 5 minutes of that. There several days going by in the VN at this time, and it was a different feel altogether.

Naoki-Saten said:


You complain about nobody complaining? That's weird.
Let's try and have some more faith in humanity, shall we? Maybe it's BECAUSE Haruka arc received such a shitstorm but turned out great in the end that people actually learned from that experience and don't jump to conclusions as fast as they used to do anymore.

The episode kinda lacked feels and impact but maybe they're just trying to make the drama curve a bit more smooth? Maybe they're just holding back a bit in order to release the full drama in the next episode. Remember how people were complaining about the drama in Haruka arc going from 0 to 100 without any warning? What if they're trying to not repeat that mistake?

Funya-Usagi said:
Im not the biggest fan of kuds route but they did what they did with all the other girls. They simply removed the romance. Thats not much to complain about

Naoki-Saten said:
You complain about nobody complaining? That's weird.
Let's try and have some more faith in humanity, shall we? Maybe it's BECAUSE Haruka arc received such a shitstorm but turned out great in the end that people actually learned from that experience and don't jump to conclusions as fast as they used to do anymore.

shcboomer said:
I can say that this was probably the smartest way to adapt Kud's route, slow buildup would have taken too much time, not to mention what is to come is definitely the best part of the route anyways, even without romance I could see the next episode building tension up well for the final episode which in most cases really should be the most epic of all the route ends so far. Not to mention they need to fit in that 'secret of the world' into it as well.

kenshin_sama said:

Of course I'd be offended if no one else acknowledged the butcheries made to my favorite to character route. I mean, really, not a damn was given when they messed up with Komari, Mio was actually fairly decent other than that one mishap in her common route moment, but as soon as something happens to everyone's favorite, Haruka, they start flipping tables (especially Funya-Usagi) because she actually matters. While I will agree that those beginning episodes were enough to even piss me off, someone who isn't a Haruka fan, I don't believe that they were anywhere near as bad as the butcheries made on Kud's arc. And even though they did pull through with a really good ending on Haruka's arc, it still doesn't help the fact that it started off on a bad note and eventually got better. And another thing, the changes that were made to Haruka's arc actually did turn out for the better in end as it provided a better characterization for Kanata, but the mistakes made on Kud's arc will have no such meaning. I still don't see how I will ever be able to forgive them forcing the scenario of Kud's mother dying, they should have kept it to where Kud found it out herself by keeping her focus on the news.

Rin didn't hesitate to tell Kud that her mother died.

dizzyworld2 said:
I have to admit that Haruka's route, alone with Mio's were my favorite routes from the vn. It's almost been a year since I last read Kud's route so some details are a bit fuzzy. Although the bat symbolism/analogy wasn't important at all, I hoped that it would have been added on the studying episode as it enhances and further exemplifies Kud's situtation. And I have to agree with the points.

Haruka's route actually did have several irritating moments.
-Omission of the "call me by my first name" scene. It was extremely awkward having Riki calling Haruka Saigusa after she told the story about how messed up the Saigusas are
-The twin switch. I'm not angry about how short/bad the switch was; I'm rather shocked that Kanata said "Riki... do you like me?" rather than, "We should give up"
-Kanata says that she will leave the Futaki house.
There are a few more but they're not relevant to this post ahahaha//


And Kud's mom... I thought she didn't die as Can someone tell me (Kud route spoilers) Like I said, Kud's route is a bit fuzzy in my head orz//

zeroyuki92 said:
I'm betting 100 bucks that many more people will complain if they decided to remove the painting scene. It's a pretty symbolical event of Little Busters! since it's featured in a lot of promo materials (PV, OP, etc), there's no way it's removed that easily.

zeroyuki92 said:


Rewatch the episode, this point is wrong.

zeroyuki92 said:
So, let's just wait until the end of Kud's route before we gave any judgement, or it will be Haruka's route thread all over again.

dizzyworld2 said:

And Kud's mom... I thought she didn't die as Can someone tell me (Kud route spoilers) Like I said, Kud's route is a bit fuzzy in my head orz//

kenshin_sama said:



My point isn't wrong, it just needs a bit of rephrasing. She did hesitate a little bit, but that still isn't the kind of news that you just suddenly shove on someone. It's something that needs to be delivered with subtlety, and it was not done right at all. There are steps you have to take before telling someone about a death so that it doesn't alarm the victim to such a degree that it would have in this anime.

badgerkins1991 said:

She told Kud to go to cafeteria, not tell her that her mother has just died. Of course, it was easy to figure out that the launch didn't go well when Rin came out panting but this is Rin we're talking about who is a complete n00b at dealing with social situations like that.

kenshin_sama said:
Noticed how I edited my post when I added more quotes? You should probably do the same rather than spamming...


Telling Kud to go to the cafeteria is an indirect way of conveying the message of her mother's demise, it holds the same weight as telling her directly. I am well aware of Rin's social awkwardness, but even she should still know better.

kenshin_sama said:
Let me provide some bullets to summarize the two points I made in the last post.
-Rin didn't hesitate to tell Kud that her mother died.
-The paint scene should have been left out since it happened randomly and lost its main appeal (no seriously, I didn't enjoy that scene just for Kud's half naked body).
-Having Kud talk about the experience with her mother lead to increased predictability of the ending.

dizzyworld2 said:

Can someone tell me (Kud route spoilers)

kenshin_sama said:

If the loss of romance was the only thing that was done wrong with this arc adaption, I wouldn't be complaining as much as I am now.

Let me provide some bullets to summarize the two points I made in the last post.
-Rin didn't hesitate to tell Kud that her mother died.
-The paint scene should have been left out since it happened randomly and lost its main appeal (no seriously, I didn't enjoy that scene just for Kud's half naked body).
-Having Kud talk about the experience with her mother lead to increased predictability of the ending.

And that's just about it. I am not upset at all about the lack of romance, but there were still some issues that could have easily been fixed if there was a little more attention to detail applied to the writing.


Of course I'd be offended if no one else acknowledged the butcheries made to my favorite to character route. I mean, really, not a damn was given when they messed up with Komari, Mio was actually fairly decent other than that one mishap in her common route moment, but as soon as something happens to everyone's favorite, Haruka, they start flipping tables (especially Funya-Usagi) because she actually matters. While I will agree that those beginning episodes were enough to even piss me off, someone who isn't a Haruka fan, I don't believe that they were anywhere near as bad as the butcheries made on Kud's arc. And even though they did pull through with a really good ending on Haruka's arc, it still doesn't help the fact that it started off on a bad note and eventually got better. And another thing, the changes that were made to Haruka's arc actually did turn out for the better in end as it provided a better characterization for Kanata, but the mistakes made on Kud's arc will have no such meaning. I still don't see how I will ever be able to forgive them forcing the scenario of Kud's mother dying, they should have kept it to where Kud found it out herself by keeping her focus on the news.


Without a doubt, I would be more than happy to witness the better part of Kud's route in animation, but, unlike the changes to Haruka's arc, it still won't help me to forgive the mistakes made in this episode. And if they needed a little extra time for a proper build-up, they should have taken the paint scene out.

cxu said:
Uhm, I'm peetty sure no one said her mom actually died in that launch.

shirayuki75 said:

I'm pretty sure she's bitten the dust. People die when they explode. A rocket failure and subsequent deaths happened in America, too, sadly.

I like this episode, even if the ending is predictable. The body painting scene is kind of beautiful in a way, and I sense that Kud likes Riki a little more than just friends. A normal girl would let her best guy friend paint on her back like that. It's a pretty intimate situation.

Her arc must have more to it than her mother's death. I wonder how the teasing/bullying will factor in. The arc's definitely going for three episodes, and I can't wait to see what her scene from the promo video is all about.

There's a weird derp with Kud's eyes when they're in the cafeteria and it bothered me a lot. There are actually a lot of weird frames this episode, and I'm less attentive to the visuals than most.

Naoki-Saten said:


- it's not just a matter of social awkwardness. This is a situation that Rin simply can't handle. Her personality urges her to act but she has no Idea what to do which is why she just blurts it out. Of course it's unsightly, but it empathizes Rin's weaknesses.
Also,


- as already mentioned before, the paint scene has symbolic meaning and it would make many Kud fans rage. Seeing this scene might have made you wish it would never have been made but if you didn't see it, you wouldn't know how badly they would have butchered it. It's an awkward situation where people would complain no matter if you included the scene or not.

- Kud's mother is an important figure in her route. They might have increased the predictability but they also increased the impact of the coming route climax by providing more information on Kud's motivation

kenshin_sama said:

It does line up with her character to do something like this, but at the same time it doesn't make sense for her to come to that kind of decision to carry the action out. To bring badgerkins1991's argument into account, she would have likely only done it if someone gave her the order to do so. But then it'd be even less likely to see anyone, especially Kyousuke, actually tell Rin to do something like that.

I thought I remembered that moment happening differently. How would you be able to survive an explosion? Maybe it's the source material at fault, but my memory of that scene is a little too hazy. If that is indeed how it happens in the VN, though, then I suppose my logic is a little off. However, an event like this can still be considered tragic and shouldn't be taken lightly.

I agree, whether the paint scene was included or not, there would still be a general complaint from the fanbase on how it was handled. But, they can always go with the lesser of two evils which involves removing the scene entirely.

Perhaps I'll have to go back on the predictability aspect of it. The anime does have to make adjustments to the story and they went from

to a flashback scene to make it fit a little more properly. The mother did need that extra emphasis in order for Kud's route to work, and I suppose they could only do so to a lesser extent. You are right about one thing though, Kud's motivation was made a little more clear in the adaption and could possibly lead to a better finish in the next episode. So maybe there is something good that came out of this episode. I'd still prefer a fix on some of the other ways this episode was handled, but this does lighten the load by quite a bit.

Atikal said:
they did a nice job incoprting Kud's painting scene so tha it would be unromantic

spoilers for refrain:

Timmeyy said:
It was alright, although I still think some romance would do this anime good. Its just getting boring for me.

shirayuki75 said:
People die when they explode.