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Now that I watched the last episode, I can finally write a review for this anime, I can go on and on about this and list 675 reasons why you should watch it, but I am just going to keep it simple so that people who aren't sure about it, can at least consider it.

Little Busters!: Refrain is a continuation for the first season, where in that they just focused on introducing the characters best way possible. But Refrain is where things start to get really interesting, the main story will start to unfold, and many plot twists and shocking moments will occur that ... will pull you in.

Story: 10/10
Nothing shocked me as much as when the true story of little busters! started to unfold. The story just hits you on the head without you even knowing, you start noticing things that you didn't notice before because you didn't know what is going on, episode by episode questions start to build up in your mind, and by the final episodes all of them are answered and you just sit there dumbfounded by the awesomeness (while crying of course).

Art: 9/10
Even though I never really had an issue with the first season's art. I will admit that it is more improved here, the characters look better and the animation as well... And that's about it, if you're watching an anime just for the "art style" and going to judge it based on that, then you're watching it for the wrong reasons. (Of course art is an important reason, but it isn't EVERYTHING.)

Sound: 10/10
I don't think I have much to say here, just listening to it's soundtracks, you will know how amazing they are. Every song fits perfectly, and without these strong and emotional soundtracks the scenes wouldn't have left an impact as they did.

Characters 10/10
Little busters!: Refrain offers such strong characters, and all of them are different from the ones you already saw in season one, because in Refrain, they show their true selves and you will be surprised by how different they are. And not to forget the emotions each character shows, it's as if the characters are real.. you can feel the pain they are going through. Your thoughts on the main characters before will surely change for the best.

Overall 10/10
I enjoyed every episode of Little Busters!, I thought it was an amazing anime and I think everyone should at least give it a try, and watch it until the end before judging. People shouldn't compare this to the visual novel, or even other titles. This should be looked at as an individual, and should be judged based on that.

(Please read the Review before saying its not helpful just by the score. because you never know what might happen, you might actually change your mind!! ... which is impossible .. eh at least read the review before bashing) and there might be some minor spoilers. but no biggy :DD

Now that I finished this anime I can finally give it a proper review. Did I love Little Busters? OF COURSE I DID. I always had my doubts that somehow in the end the anime wont satisfy me, because it started slow and I thought that it wouldn't be true the the Original visual novel, and ... me thinking that the whole series will just be finished in 26 episodes wasn't helping at all... But I was wrong because there is a season 2, and that made me really happy.

Now before I start the review lets state some facts. Little Busters! is originally a Visual Novel Developed by Key, The company that makes awesomely amazing series that would probably make the manliest man on earth cry, and I was never disappointing in any of their work . And here I can easily say that Little Busters! is my favorite Key series ( and I played/watched all of Key's Titles!! O.O )

Story:

So the main story revolves around this kid named "Naoe Riki" who is in high school.. enjoying the school life and just hanging with his childhood friends (Rin, Masato and kengo)... you know high school stuff. But all this changes when his friend Kyouske comes back from Tokyo and suddenly decides to create a baseball team by the name of "Little busters!" (weeh shcokerz!). So from there on they give Riki the mission of finding other members to join the team, and that is how our main character meets the other 5 girls, they join the team and they all become this cutey big family. So the story progresses like most Key titles with Riki listening to the other girls problems and help them solve what ever is on their minds, sounds fair enough right? well here is where it gets tricky, aside of all that Riki and Rin keep reviving these mysterious messages stating that there is a secret of the world they live in, and they have to figure out what that secret is, Riki and Rin start receiving different tasks that moves them closer to the answer. Now I don't wanna spoil anything, but I can say that the secret of the world is reaaaaaaally jaw dropping and ... just shocking (in a good way), it changes the whole view of the series.

Ok so was season 1 good and true to the visual novel? for me the answer is yes, because now that I finished season 1 I can tell where the developers were going when they made it. The main point of this season is to show us the characters in the best way possible, to let us explore the world of Little Busters! to let us see the characters such as Riki and Rin develop. They didn't rush the anime, they didn't go into the serious part, and they saved all that for season 2 (Refrain) which is a pretty good move because now we have seen all the characters, we know exactly who they are, we some them develop, now in Refrain we can relate more to them and understand them much better.

Art:

I have to be honest here, as much as I loved the anime .. I have to say that the art wasn't that amazing, It was a bit weird ... I am not sure what exactly was wrong with it, but i didn't like it as much as the Visual Novel's.

Characters:

I think the character design is a major positive point in Little busters! because the characters were just amazing, at first you might see them a bit bland.. and a tad silly, but as you proceed in the series you will discover how awesome they are. Every character is unique and has his/her special design and his/her own awesome personality. All of them are lovable, I myself loved each and every character, and I think they are one of the most unique characters of any series i watched.

Sound:

When has Key ever made bad music. The music is just freaking hawt!! ahm excuse me I just loved the soundtrack... so anyway, you might not notice the background music that much in the anime because its an anime, and you don't really focus on the music in an anime as much as when you are reading a visual novel. But the anime did use the same OST and all of them were used perfectly and they all fit the moment.

The voice acting was good. Great at times and just Ok at other times.


So if I want to compare the anime with the original Visual Novel then I can just say that it was true to it. even though it skipped some small details here and there, but the anime was quite long, 26 episodes I think that's enough to explain the main story of the series and introduce the characters and the comedy was awwwesome :DD. All that aside the anime did have some changes that I quite loved and weren't in the VN. such as showing that some of the characters know what the secret of the world is, which builds up a really strong impact towards them. And I also loved the story Komari wrote about the The boy and girl helping the 8 dwarfs, I thought that was a really nice touch.

So yeah.. All I can say is that I loved Little Busters! even if I didn't read the visual novel I am pretty sure I would have loved it as well. A lot of people are bashing the anime even fans of the visual novel... I think these people should just chill and enjoy the wonderful world of Little Busters! :3

Sword Art Online was one of the most hyped anime that came out in July, everyone was talking about it and you can basically see it anywhere, at first I ignored it and didn't bother trying it because I thought it was one of those bad overly-hyped anime but then I gave it a shot and it surprised me, it actually was a pretty good anime, but as they say "every good thing comes to an end" but in this case it goes way beyond the end.

-Story- The story takes place in the year 2022, the virtual reality MMO game (Sword Art Online) is released, ... not like any other MMO this one uses a device called the Nerve Gear, it allows gamers to experience the game just as if its real life, sounds pretty neat huh? well yeah but not really...

Sword Art Online starts pretty damn good, with a crazy person (Kayaba Akihiko the creator of SAO) that traps the players in the game unable to log out and if they die there they will die in real life, that thought alone made me really excited and encouraged me to watch the anime. Now the only way to leave SAO and log out is to climb the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. And from there the anime starts moving really neatly with some powerful side stories and lovable side characters, some parts that will make you happy and excited and other that will make you cry like a baby, now everything goes well and smooth until episode 15, I don't want to spoil anything but I can say this, the world of SAO is gone and a new world/MMO called Alfheim Online (ALO) comes along, now I myself would have been really happy with this series ending at episode 14 they could have made some changes to the end and it would have been perfect, like a sad ending or an open ending or whatever, but unfortunately the series continues from SAO to ALO and from there everything goes down the hill, too much plot holes and not enough new characters, and if there were new characters they are just plain annoying, they don't even have stories just some random side characters that appear for only 1 episode or 2, now without spoiling stuff about ALO I can just say that things don't go as smooth as in SAO.

-Art- There isn't much to say here, the art of Sword Art Online is ok, its casual not really impressive yet not bad, you can see some really nice places and visuals but not overly good, the animation is ok as well. Now the characters design is normal and not really significant, now what I am saying here is about the (SAO) world, things are kinda different in (ALO), first off the character design is really poor. I don't know if this effected anyone else but me, but I really think that giving the characters wings and long ears ruined a big part of the anime you can't look at the characters seriously, even the main boss looks plain silly with butterfly wings you can't just look at him and take him seriously even at the most critical moments of the anime. Other than that the background and places you see in (ALO) are much less creative and appealing from the ones you have seen in the previous season.

-Sound- Sword Art Online doesn't have the best music soundtrack, but its not bad its ok for an action anime, it kind gives you the MMO/RPG vibe from it so its just good enough and kinda fits. Other than that it has good voice acting and ok sound effects.

-Characters- Like I said before the characters are normal, nothing special about them just like any other plain anime characters.

Now here is where it gets tricky. First we have the main character (Kirigaya Kazuto) or as his game name (Kirito). Now what I really didn't like about this character is that he started strong from the start, so until the end he didn't really improve, actually he didn't improve at all he was the same character from the start, I don't recall seeing him ever level up, and that also goes for the other main Character (Yuuki Asuna) they both start strong somehow we don't know what they did, if they trained, or cheated, they just BAM throw the characters at us like that, which kinda ruins the fun .. so yeah.

Now another point to say here is the major difference between the characters of (SAO) and (ALO) not just the character design and the way they look, but also their behavior and importance. Now in (SAO) you will meet a lot of side characters and weirdly enough you will fall in love with them even though they too are kind of limited, you don't see them a lot just in a couple of episodes but you can't help but like them, and those characters do have some side stories and importance to the main character Kirito. Other than that they look alright, not annoying, and quiet enjoyable. And after (SAO) you will not see those characters again maybe for a minute in episode 25 but that's it, which is really sad because these character were actually good. As for the characters of (ALO) ... Well you don't really see much of them. You have (Kirigaya Suguha) also known as (Lyfa) she is his sister/cousin/doctor.../daughter... I really don't know what to think anymore, anyway jokes aside. Lyfa is the 2nd main character is (ALO) after Kirito. Now as a character she looks alright I guess, even though they threw some fan service with her mmm.. chest, she isn't really the best main character I see her a little bit weak and over dramatic, giving up everything for a guy is a sign of weakness, other than that she is an ok character I suppose, she is good at fighting and not as annoying as the other characters in (ALO). Now there is a character that does come back from (SAO) without spoiling much, in (ALO) this character is turned into a small fairy which is kinda silly if you ask me. And they turn this character from an emotional and lovable one, into a small annoying fairy. Other than those two you don't really see any important side characters, you have the guy with green hair, annoying, you have the chibi cat girl, really annoying, and just a bunch of random and non-important characters.

-Enjoyment- Well I can Honestly say that I really enjoyed watching the anime when it came out, looking forward for each week to see how the story is going to progress, I was so excited about it that I even recommended it to some of my friends to watch it. But then it just lost its spark and i became less interested by each episode. there were some parts where they shift from (ALO) to the real world, and actually I enjoyed the real world parts more than the ones in the game

-Overall- I myself am the kind of person who would watch an anime knowing that it is good, and just give it a 10 or 9 no matter what happens, but I don't know why Sword Art Online was different. The whole enjoyment was lost after season 1 and I was kind of disappointed.

I did compare (SAO) to (ALO) a lot in this review, but for a very good reason. I felt that the makers were just sloppy and wanted to increase their views with the second season, throwing alot of fan service and increasing the violence. It just seemed useless and really ruined the enjoyment for the anime. But you know this is just my opinion and I actually do recommend the anime, if you see that you wont get annoyed by the bad points I said about the anime in this review then you would probably really enjoy it. But as for me I would have hoped this anime ended sooner after the incident of (SAO) it could have ended there, and it would have been one of my favorite anime.