Murasakiiro no Qualia, or Qualia the Purple, is one of some hidden gems which are buried among a ton of manga that people haven't noticed yet. Let's just jump to the main question : "Is this gem valuable or not?"
STORY : 9/10
I would say... Yes. With a lot of confidence. Story is the main force behind the series, and it's a very definition of mixed bag. It sports a pretty interesting initial premise : "Your friend has purple eyes and a bizarre way of looking at the world: she sees all living things as robots". While in the beginning it's a lighthearted (albeit pretty mysterious)
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Mar 18, 2013
Little Busters!
(Anime)
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Recommended Preliminary
(23/26 eps)
You probably have heard a lot of things about Little Busters, ranging from "This is an adaptation from masterpiece VN!", "J.C staff actually did a good job", "It's totally inferior to the VN" to "This is an absolute trash!".
Now, If you're confused about this polar reactions, then I think I should say that... Yes, Little Busters! is a very different anime every time you change your own mindset about it. That's why I think we need a technical review a bit early so you can probably guess the overall quality of Little Busters!, or probably just to see another point of view about it. So, before ... we get to the real question, "Is Little Busters! a good anime?", let me clarify things about my own position : - I have played some routes of Little Busters! VN, but nothing beyond what anime viewers currently watch...except of Rin 1 (Rin's "fake" route), which only told one spoiler material (which is not really hard to be guessed for now anyway) - As a result of that situation, I can only judge Little Busters! from the anime-only viewers view point. However, having seen Rin 1 made me realize something about the future of Little Busters! story: "This sh*t hides a lot of things behind it's carefree atmosphere." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This review is composed by "THE GOOD THINGS" and "THE BAD THINGS" about Little Busters! TV animation. I will try to keep myself objective as an anime viewer only, but with some awareness about the general direction of the future story. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY We could say that Little Busters! is composed by three main components : - Common route materials : Slice of life materials with carefree and silly atmosphere. Serves as introduction and development episodes for the characters. Also, some of them are introduction for "Secret of the world", the main plot behind all of Little Busters! story. And baseball. - Heroine route materials : At the first glance, it's generic KEY melodrama. Most of the story materials are related to each heroine's past, and of course they are going to end with "Everything is fine" happy ending. Right, right? ... - And then that's when Refrain, the main route of Little Busters will hit the fans. It reveals the "Secret of the world" which is always hinted at the entire part of Little Busters. THE GOOD : Refrain is claimed by many as Jun Maeda's peak of career as a writer, and generally it's a consensus that without Refrain, Little Busters! is nothing sort of special. Well, I know. Refrain is not here yet. There's also a possibility that Refrain won't deliver as well as people claim to be, especially since it's under JC Staff's helm now. BUT knowing that there's something huge called Refrain and the so called "Secret of The World" probably could change your view point about the common route and heroine route episodes. It's pretty hard to talk about this without go into details, but one thing for sure "There are a ton of clues that you can find in the series regarding 'Secret of The World'". It also connects a lot of seemingly random materials into one unity. Little Busters! scriptwriter also did a good job at incorporating them into very limited episodes, so kudos for that. Speaking about character arcs, they are actually kinda decent. They are composed by a lot of themes, ranging from a simple symbolical story about memories to a complex story that involving astronauts, rebellion, life-death situation and magic in one package! However, they aren't without their glaring flaws... THE BAD : Individually, Little Busters! current story is pretty weak, mostly caused by amateurish direction and grade EX adaptation difficulty of original material. Little Busters! original material also had an obvious weakness : Although LB is a clever concept, it has a lot of writers which resulting in a lot of quality inconsistency in each of heroine routes. There are other flaws : LB humor generally is very... silly and may turn some people off (although it's pretty funny and lovely if you gave it a chance to grow in you). LB also has a pretty disappointing route as the first route, since it's kinda sacrificed so people can see a sort of drama without waiting for 10++ episodes before some real drama starts. Some people are also complaining about the lack of "feels" in Little Busters!. It's a valid complain, although I have to say that some of them are coming from unrealistic expectation that they will cry at the first arcs of Little Busters. Folks, they were never meant as the primary power of Little Busters!, just like every other KEY works. Also, I have seen plenty of teary confessions from some watchers, so I think it's not anywhere as bad as people suggest. CONCLUSION : 7. Individually it's only decent at best, but it has a lot of potential to be great later. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ART THE BAD : J.C Staff weren't remembered for great art quality, and Little Busters! isn't even a good example of J.C Staff animation works. A lot of "QUALITY" shots, strange usage of effects, strange expressions, etc... Just to name a lot of homework that needs to be improved for the next season. To worsen things, KEY usually was related to Kyoto Animation, which caused a high expectation of KEY works in terms of art quality. THE GOOD : However, they also did a good job at times, especially at some nature shots (although it's nowhere close to KyoAni quality). I think most people also have no problem with the character design, which is kinda similar to Na-Ga design(The man behind Angel Beats and half of Little Busters character design. One thing for sure, it will turn less people off compared to traditional KEY character design. Conclusion : 6. Decent at times, but generally are quite bad. At least it has a pretty good character design. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MUSIC THE GOOD : KEY are widely known as a company that incorporate amazing music to support it's emotional punches, and Little Busters is not an exception to that. Little Busters! opening also known as one of the best KEY vocal OST, and it's remixed (again) for the TV series! Alicemagic, the ED song, is also a great song, probably even better than the pre-remixed version. Generally, they are not only serves as a good song musically, but they also give a lot of hints about the overall story of Little Busters! Voice works are decent. However, they will be tested at Refrain, when they were expected to show a wider scale of emotions. I think we have to wait until then to fully score their performance. THE BAD : The music director simply needs to be fired. Also, some people may be turned off by some character voices (ex : Komari). Conclusion : 7. Good songs, bad direction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARACTER THE GOOD : This is one of the part when Little Busters! shines. Many people claim Little Busters! as a group of "uninteresting and stereotype characters". In contrary to that, I can safely say that it's a premature judgement and they should peek a bit deeper into their characteristics. Little Busters! original cast are unusual, for the starter : 4 boys and one girl, that's something that people expect from some girl-oriented visual novel. At the first glance, they are composed by various roles, including the "leader", "normal person", "the idiot", "the cool boy", and a... "cat obsessed girl?". It doesn't seem special at first, but tell me any work which is composed by similar composition (Especially for a show that dig more into male demography). I know that even finding an example would be hard. At the deeper analysis, it's getting more unique. The main character, Riki, is pretty much an ordinary boy at the first glance, but there's something really unique in his "normal" behaviors. Simply said, he didn't act as a main character of an anime, and I find it's really refreshing. And he even hid a lot of mysteries behind his usual daily life, something which probably he didn't realize for now. The main heroine, Rin, is also an odd example. "Cat loving girl" alone wouldn't be unique, but I find her anti-social behaviors are anything but normal for a main heroine of a romance series (not to add that it's really different from usual anti-social characters, which is usually portrayed as a loner/very silent). But that alone won't make her special. Her subtle, slow but sure developments are what made her a lovable character, since she actually grows rapidly along the story progression, even though she haven't even got her own route yet! We probably haven't learned much about the rest of the boys. Kyousuke for sure is charismatic, but for now we can only tell that he hides a lot of secret behind him. We barely know anything about kengo for now, and Masato is a... lovely muscle idiot. But, don't worry. They will have their own spotlight later, and it's also a grand one. What about the rest of the (girl) casts? They are really varied, and most of them are having good qualities behind their seemingly-generic attitude. Kud, for example, bashed a lot for being a "lovable Wafu~ mascot", but behind that she also hides a lot of characteristics. For example, She's actually really smart. One of her favorite theory is many-world interpretation theory, and she actually can solve some conceptual physic problems on her own. To compensate, she also had a lot of problems on trivial things, and she actually has a severe case of confidence problem. Now, what part of her is generic, again? And all of those qualities aren't even the main power of Little Busters! characters. Their main power are their own chemistry. This is the part when they really shine, when they slowly growing together as a group of a really tight-knotted good friends, and it will only getting better as the series evolving. THE BAD : Too bad, to see their real potential, you have to invest for a lot of episodes before they grown in your heart. You will also have a polar impressions about some of the heroines, although most likely you will like all of the original members of Little Busters!... which is barely even scratched for now. Conclusion : 8. IMHO it's the main power of Little Busters! If you don't like them, probably it's your own loss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENJOYMENT THE GOOD : Now, this is a serious question... "Is watching Little Busters an enjoyable experience"? I personally will answer with "yes". It requires some patience to wait for the group to grow, but most of the time it worth the wait. The best part of the story haven't even come yet for now, but it's already progressing pretty fast since they already thrown a lot of more noticeable clues regarding "the secret of the world". Some of the routes also have potentials to bring plenty of FEEL, although they aren't really exceptional for now. Like what I have said before, the 2/3 early part of Little Busters! are only serving as an introduction for the real story. I don't want to sound like a broken machine, but there are different nature of stories. This is the series where you can't judge the arcs individually. They are meant to be rated as a whole series. It may be not as great as what you expect initially, but one thing for sure : It's a common consensus that Refrain is definitely better than the rest of the routes, since it tying the entire story into one unity of a story called "Little Busters!". THE BAD : It requiring patience from you, so it won't be enjoyable for those who don't even want to wait for that. Of course, there's no guarantee that you WILL enjoy it even if you are following them with patience, so I think you could just drop the series if the first +- 14 episodes aren't fitting to your taste. Conclusion : 7. It most likely will worth the wait, although there's also a good probability that it just doesn't fit to your taste from the very beginning. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL CONCLUSION : 7. J.C staff's adaptation turns out to be better than what everyone expect at the beginning. Sure, many will disagree with me, but there are a lot of people that enjoy Little Busters as it is right now. There is a myth that only blind VN players who are supporting this adaptation right now, but it turns out that many of LB fans are... newcomers. So, the only way to found out about your opinion toward this adaptation is by trying it by yourself. In the end, it's a very hit or miss story. The story as for now probably isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it has a potential to be. Nobody know for sure if the rumored "Refrain" will be a success or not, but in my opinion they have laid a pretty solid stage as the foundation. And if you're still unsure about this, just wait until Season 2 comes out. You won't miss the news if they manage to deliver Refrain brilliantly, and if it's the contrary, you can safely ignore the entire series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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