[VN] Little Busters! Summary and Review

You know at this point that Kud is a cute loli who busts Engrish everywhere and plays with dogs. She's always been in the care of her Japanophile grandfather, traveling the world. Riki's romance with Kud has humble beginnings: a battery of optional diagnostic tests is offered in their high school to help students prepare for the later actual exams. Kud has hilaribad English, and one of the tests is on English so here comes Riki to save the day and school her good. In a happy string of Riki now playing with dogs and Komari now being an English pro (her pronunciation is just as bad imo) the two draw closer and Riki learns more of Kud's past.

Kud's name is Russian, but her home country is actually the former Soviet republic Tebwa, wagering its future on its space program. Kud's mother is a key figure in that space program, and is also the image of perfection that Kud strives for, commanding great knowledge and expertise, including English. Kud herself, however, apparently has a difficult time with the Japanese educational system so she's far from that paragon of academic excellence. She also must contend with the teasing and isolation associated with being a foreigner with Japanese tastes and poor English. Riki, however, stands up for her through all of this. After success on the tests, Riki and Kud consummate their romance with some runic full-body tattoo finger-painting ritual from Tebwa, plus sprinkles of kissing here and there.


Getting ready to go back in time, fight her ancestor, and reveal magic to the world

But as they try to live a happy couple life, news from Tebwa peeks in to haunt them. First TV news announces a planned launch for the space program, followed by suspicions that potential errors may prevent the launch from going well. This proceeds to an actual accident, which somehow manages to spawn a smorgasbord of problems for Kud's home country, including chemical spills, explosions, armed riots, revolution, and the plague (o.0). The public scapegoats the space program, including Kud's mother, for fucking it all up, and Kud is thrown into tumultuous dejection as the news gets worse and worse.

Kud clearly wants to return home to ascertain the safety of the imperiled mother she adores. It's not smart, but Riki finally lets her go with a promise to return. She packs to leave and after a bitter farewell is spirited away by a Tebwa government agent. He tries to keep in touch with the estranged Kud via calls and texts but quickly comes to realize the fail that is a long-distance relationship. After days with no contact and more horrible news such as open revolt and UN Peacekeepers being deployed, the last call from Kud is her thanking Riki and confessing her love... and fear and desire for Riki to come save her as angry rebel soldiers can be heard beating down the door of wherever she's hiding.

Riki is not happy. Helpless, he consults Kyousuke who informs him that Kud left a single box behind, a box that Kud told Riki not to unpack earlier in Common route. It’s filled to the brim with items related to the space program, including dog tags written in Cyrillic and mysterious spacecraft parts. Reminded once more of Kud and her honest dream to become a top cosmonaut like her mother, Riki is awash with love and regret. Then he sees Kud.


Somewhere in the cistern of Brennenburg Castle

She is naked, starving, and her arms are chained to stalactites in an underground tidal basin whose water level is slowly rising. By virtue of their combined love, they somehow form a telepathic link. After a harrowing exchange of feelings, Riki just goes "No. Fuck this." and uses Magic to teleport the dog tags and space parts from Kud's box right into the chains binding her, freeing her from the prison. Plunging into the chilling water, she plods agonizingly out of the cave to see a sweeping fuchsia ocean sunset. Sometime later she returns to Japan by unspecified means, finally reuniting with Riki.

LB's weakest scenario. Some of the core ideas were fine, but the execution and pacing definitely felt off-kilter. For example, more time is spent covering her studying for the exams than everything after her journey to Tebwa. Kud's personal travails aside from her mother and country's situation also seemed petty, despite receiving so much time. So she’s a foreigner with bad English in Japan. Suddenly the teasing turns her into a self-styled "black sheep" loner? Unbelievable. My last encounter with sheep imagery for isolation dealt with actual sociopaths. Finally the rushed pace of the finale made the Magic that rescued Kud seem a bit ridiculous and out-of-nowhere.

But as I said, some of the core ideas were fine. The role model, the stranger in a familiar land, the love versus family and country all had a little something to them. I'm also a sucker for Engrish in Japanese media so Kud's antics often made me smile. Plus Masato can have a fun role in this scenario. Which book do you need, muscles or physics?

Komari is the first girl you see in the intro and the last girl you see when... you’ll see. She’s an ebullient, sweets-loving air head who promotes a Circle of Happiness philosophy: make someone happy and they’ll make you happy. Result: unlimited happy. At the end of Common route, she evinces this belief by holding a pancake party for the Little Busters.

At the beginning of her route Riki finds her in her traditional hideout: the off-limits rooftop. There she’s poring over a picture book, supposedly written by a vaguely remembered brother whose whereabouts are unknown. Riki discusses the odd story with her, as they’ve done before in Common route scenes. A chicken, born from an egg, forgets that it was an egg. The chicken lays an egg that itself forgets it was inside a chicken. Repeat ad nauseam. Leaving this mystery aside, Riki resolves to find Komari’s brother.

The next day Kyousuke proposes that Riki take Komari out to a cafe as thanks for the pancake party. Boom, plus relationship points for treating Komari to a super ultimate sundae that Kyousuke’s hard dishwashing work paid for.


The sundae awakens eyes like Nono's

Later Komari tells Riki about her volunteer work at a local nursing where she keeps old people company. Touched by her kindness, Riki decides to help her out for a day. There he meets an irascible old man named Kojirou, who usually admits no one to see him. They speak of nothing much, but Riki’s curiosity is piqued as he observes that Kojirou, who happens to have the same surname as Komari, takes special care not to meet Komari.

Their next love-love happy scene: Riki and Komari sneak out to the rooftop at night to watch a meteor shower. They bask in the simple beauty and Riki praises Komari for having eyes that can find beautiful things. The next day he finds her napping away the afternoon on the rooftop. After waking, Komari reveals an apparently recurring dream of a bright, wide expanse with fluttering white shapes. Riki does some investigation on the nature of dreams and later concludes that the scene may be a hospital rooftop, perhaps related to Komari’s brother somehow.

He visits Kojirou again. Kojirou reveals that Komari’s brother did in fact stay at that this very nursing home back when it was a hospital. He then leaves Riki with a warning to not get any further involved in Komari’s past. One more outing: Riki and Komari go boating on a lake and have a grand ‘ole time until conversation returns to Komari’s brother. Riki, suspecting he is dead, tells Komari that she can forget about him, and that Riki himself will be her brother from now on. After the date they volunteer at the nursing home again. Riki meets Kojirou there in an uneventful caretaking session where they both consider Komari’s issue tabled.

It is raining on the way back from the nursing home. By the roadside Komari finds a kitten dead. She soon enters an uncontrollable fit of crying followed by an aberrant listlessness as Riki drags her back to the dorms. Komari remains empty eyed and makes no motion to return to the girls’ dorms so Riki takes her to his room and enlists Kurugaya to get Komari dried and changed. He returns to find that Komari’s memories of her brother have returned.

Komari’s brother Takuya had been ill since Komari was a little girl. She often visited him at the hospital, where he would read picture books to her. They also played on the hospital rooftop, among laundry drying in the sun and wind. As his condition deteriorated, he was moved to a larger branch hospital. He needed to sleep most of the time, so Komari's time with him declined as well. Despite his health, he managed to write the picture book that Komari now kept as a treasure. One night they went stargazing on the hospital rooftop. The shooting stars reminded Komari of The Little Match Girl, which Takuya read to her when she was younger. Komari worried that Takuya might one day also become a shooting star, so Takuya told her that if any such hardship occurred, she could treat it as a dream and forget it. Later that night Takuya died in his hospital bed coughing blood and holding a soundly sleeping Komari.



Now that she remembers Takuya, Komari flits between depression and an eerie mock-normalcy, marred by the fact that she now treats Riki as her brother. In her confusion she even brings the picture book Takuya gave her to the rooftop in the rain, drenching it while telling Riki that everything's fine because what she remembered must've been a dream. Riki is shocked and goes to Kojirou for help. Kojirou reveals that he is in fact Komari's grandfather, and that this forgetting and substituting in the face of grief occurred in his generation too. Komari's grandmother used to be in love with Kojirou's brother until that brother died. From then on she forgot all about it and replaced Kojirou's dead brother with Kojirou himself. From time to time she remembered when faced with triggers such as death or blood, but that always lapsed into dream. Kojirou could only indulge in this escapism, and himself used his health as a way to escape dealing with Komari's current problems.

With a clearer picture of Komari's condition, Riki resolves to help her somehow, but he doesn't quite know how. He visits the local graveyard and prays at Takuya's grave, hoping for some inspiration from Komari's dead brother. Incidentally, he sees someone who looks like Kengo while he's there. Riki gains no answers from the grave, but nevertheless sets out on a childlike path. Inspired by Takuya, Riki decides to write a picture book. It turns out technically quite poor, but Riki is undeterred. He confronts Komari on the rooftop, gives her the picture book, and urges her to accept the truth. He refers to Takuya's chicken and egg story and says that the chicken must remember in the end. Komari is still afraid of a world without her brother, but Riki reminds her that he's here, even though Takuya is gone. Riki confesses his love and promises that together they will find beauty and happiness in the world.

Decent. There is one conflict and its resolution is somewhat vague. Komari herself, while endearing on some level, suffers from being so simple as to be uninteresting. Basically simplicity is the main drawback for both the scenario and the heroine, though it could also be a charm point. Still, the pacing and writing were both adequate for the job.

The scenario succeeds in articulating a dark side to Komari's pervasive positivity and explaining her "Let's forget all about this," response to minor problems in Common route. It also fleshes out a shooting star motif that is later bent positive in Refrain. Another expanded motif is the picture book as feelings in relationships with Komari, which again recurs in Refrain and is foreshadowed in Common route's showings of picture books. Basically this route's main strength is its consistency and connectedness with the rest of the story, down to Kengo's appearance at the graveyard, which at first seemed so slight that I forgot all about it till I reread it.

Haruka is the Little Busters' resident talkative troublemaker. She apparently holds no malice, but throughout Common route holds many pranks. As a result she's constantly hounded, sometimes literally, by the Student Council's Disciplinary Committee.

We begin Haruka's route some nondescript events similar to what Haruka goes through in Common route. Haruka argues with prefects over her innocence near some vending machines. Riki defuses the situation. Haruka fixes some short garden fences for the Maintenance Club. Riki helps out. Haruka flees from prefects. Riki gets dragged along. As the two become closer, Haruka invites Riki to her house on a day when her parents aren't home. Turns out they are and Riki ends up having dinner with Haruka and her parents. The conversation is unsettlingly artificial, with Haruka even commenting that her parents were saying exactly what they said last time.

The next day Haruka isn't at class. She was a chronic skipper, so it isn't surprising, but Riki is worried nonetheless and goes to look for her. On the way he is confronted by the head prefect, Futaki Kanata**, who warns him not to get further involved with Haruka (where have we heard this before?). Well Riki is undeterred and late in the afternoon finally finds Haruka in the corner of an empty classroom, listening to music. Haruka seems happy as normal and they listen to music together till evening. Riki continues helping Haruka with her maintenance work, the next project being an old courtyard bench. Right when they finish mending it, Kanata arrives with the rest of the prefects and reminds Haruka that the bench was scheduled for replacement. Haruka tries to argue back but Kanata insults her judgment and calls her stupid, then proceeds to have the bench demolished and taken away.

In the afternoon Riki finds Haruka at the blackboard of an empty classroom with eraser in hand. Haruka laughs behind the guise of preparing to do some blackboard prank. Enter Kanata, who confronts Riki wide-eyed and asks if he saw it. Riki saw nothing, so she lets it go. The next day finds Haruka sitting in on a student council meeting for the ostensible purpose of knowing thine enemy. Riki accompanies her, but Haruka ends up getting provoked by some trash talk by Kanata. She tries to physically attack Kanata, but Riki restrains her which garners him a mob assault by the student council (o.0). Both of them are also given cleaning duty, at the end of which Kanata arrives, talks more trash, and then reveals to Riki that the Maintenance Club Haruka is supposedly under doesn't even exist in school records.

Riki later discovers the blackboard graffiti that Haruka had been trying to hide before. "Murderer" and other accusations smother the blackboards of several classrooms, related to an old newspaper article from years back detailing a Saigusa murder incident. Haruka finally tells Riki what she knows of her family situation.

The Saigusa family had followed an ancient tradition of two husbands marrying one wife. The language here suggested that the young husbands and wives were merely tools to the Saigusas' heartless family planning, perhaps implying some sort of primitive eugenics at work. In any case, Saigusa Shou, a bridegroom under this system, realized the inhumanity of his family's ways and attempted to escape the system, which somehow led to him committing murder. Shou was put in prison, but he left behind a bride who was pregnant with both Shou's and the other bridegroom's seed. The result was a pair of twins, each of half-unknown parentage. Haruka was one of them.

In the aftermath of the murder incident, the Saigusa family's honor was blackened, so it was usurped by the Futaki branch family, who raised the twin daughters. Knowing that one of them was the daughter of a murderer, the Futakis sought to weed out the black seed and make the decent one their heir. Through an upbringing of constant tests, Haruka was marked as inferior and constantly beaten and abused. It was only later that Haruka's biological mother and her remaining husband took her back in.

Haruka tells Riki that in order to reach closure on this past, she needs to find out which man is her father. So together they begin investigating, going everywhere from the library to the shed at Haruka's house to the town records. Everything seems to be going their way. Haruka bakes a delicious chiffon cake which they eat together in the courtyard, though without Riki's preferred marmalade. Kanata doesn't block their quest, though one day Riki sees her arguing unhappily with people in the car that sent her. Riki even spots a man he's convinced must be Shou bumming around the shopping district.

Later at lunch Haruka mentions that due to pressure from the student council, she's been banned from using the cafeteria oven that she used before. Riki has more important matters in mind, and brings her to see Shou. They try to interrogate him but he doesn't even admit that he's Shou. Haruka bitterly drags Riki away, saying that Shou is not the kind of person who would help. The next day she brings over another chiffon cake for lunch in the cafeteria. Riki remarks that it's a bit drier than before. Haruka's a little confused, but replies that she had to relocate to the cooking club's facilities. Then Riki suggests that they ask Kanata about their parentage. Haruka ardently refuses.

Still, they're making little headway on the investigation, so Riki himself goes to speak to Shou again. He reveals nothing, so next time Riki brings Kanata over to ask him. Kanata recognizes him, so he does grant that he's Shou, but not an inch more. The next day Riki and Haruka eat another delicious chiffon cake in the courtyard. There Haruka admits to Riki that maybe it's time to give up. They haven't found anything, and even if they do, all that will do is solidify the dichotomy of one daughter being worthless. If they find that Kanata is Shou's daughter, all Haruka can do is take Kanata's place and foist her former suffering on Kanata. Haruka asks him to give up.

Riki declines. The discrepancies begin coming together for him during this conversation, and he realizes that this is not Haruka. Just as he's realizing this, Haruka arrives on the scene, leading to a chilling confrontation between the two Haruka's. The imposter who baked the delicious chiffon cake flees, and Haruka gives chase. Riki catches up to them to find Haruka facing off against Kanata. Like always Kanata is verbally lashing Haruka, laughing that Haruka was an idiot for trying to cook egg dishes, and that Kanata was never even allergic to them. The distraught Haruka asks why Kanata needs to take everything from her, even Riki, and demands she give it back. Kanata rebuts that she's worthless and doesn't deserve anything anyhow. Haruka shrieks "DIE!" but Riki restrains her from violence.



Haruka is still quite upset, so Riki escorts her back home. There they decide to confront Haruka's parents about her parentage. Haruka asks them over dinner, but all the parents say is that they loved each other, even Shou, so Haruka and Kanata were born out of love, not coercion. This isn't Haruka's immediate concern, though, so the parents leave her with one more clue: if Haruka and Kanata confront Shou together, he will say whatever he knows.

Next afternoon at school Riki tries to persuade Haruka to try it, but Haruka refuses. Instead Riki tries asking her what Kanata meant about faking an egg allergy. Haruka reveals that as kids one of the contests the Futakis forced upon them was to cook an egg dish. During that contest Kanata chose to cook miso soup instead, telling Haruka that she had an egg allergy. Haruka ended up burning her dish, losing by default, and getting beaten anyways. It still inspired her to focus on cooking egg dishes as a path to overcome Kanata, but ultimately that was born from a lie.

After this conversation Haruka asserts a deep-set hatred for Kanata, repeating her belief that Kanata's existence is simply to torment Haruka and plunder everything she values. Riki helps her reframe this belief, analyzing that from the beginning Kanata occupied a place where she was safe and loved, a place that was basic, and a place that Haruka felt was stolen from her. He tells her that she no longer needs to hate, or to steal back the right to be loved. With Riki she already has a place and already is loved. The powers of Riki's love and persuasions help Haruka forgive Kanata. She thus resolves to confront Shou together with Kanata.

Of course Kanata apparently still detests Haruka and parries her entreaties at every turn until finally she demands that Haruka get in dogeza and beg. Haruka does so, and Kanata stands defeated. Her cold facade crumbling, Kanata reveals her own troubled history with the Futakis, who could never discount the possibility that she might still be a murderer's daughter. She was literally whipped into perfection, and coerced to be as far removed from Haruka as possible. The sisters reconcile, and together they confront Shou, who offers to let them have a blood sample. They decline, however, as they've both matured past the point where it's relevant.

A reasonably interesting route. It's overall more lengthy and eventful than the other side heroine routes, though at the same time less otherworldly. The twist of Kanata impersonating Haruka is a nice cherry on top, well set up with the cake, marmalade, and dialogue. Haruka's parents having repeated, script-like dialogue may be a clever allusion to the state of the world, though that might be granting too much. The emotional intensity was also solid, with the sisters' face offs dripping with animosity, especially in their voice acting. Maybe I'm just a sucker for that.

Flaws: we have more pointless events per plot movement in this route than others. Haruka has fixed enough shit, fled from enough prefects, and been accused of enough pranks in Common route that we don't need too many more here. I suppose it helps ease the pacing in from the mostly carefree days of Common route to the serious business of a heroine's route. Finally, the pivotal point of the climax was ridiculously sudden. This is true for other side heroines' routes, but many of them have mystical conflicts and/or mystical resolutions. Here we have Haruka brimming with hatred after a lifetime of abuse, and Riki manages to cure it with an "I love you." Well I guess he's just a goddamn hero.

Mio is the soft-spoken, parasol-toting manager of the Little Busters team. She's a severe bookworm, poet, and apparently follows boys' love fiction. In Common route she spends lunches reading and feeding birds, and sometimes has some handmade food for Riki. She also carries on particular poetry collection book that is old, grizzled, and so full of memories that she says it represents her "self."

Soon after the baseball game, the Little Busters discover that the school is holding a tanka contest. Naturally they decide to participate, with Mio as their flagship. After this plan is born, Riki has lunch with Mio as usual and discusses poetry with her. Riki is no poet, so Mio takes the lead and launches into a quiet ramble on the nature of reality. She says that substantively, there is no present. What we perceive as the present is merely the infinitely repeated experience of creating memories, or creating the past. The present is thus like the horizon, a definite border, but only defined by what it separates.

Well this is all over Riki's head, so next they meet with all the Little Busters and try to figure out a way to write a tanka truly representative of the circle. After rigorous experimentation, the product is this:

絶望の
笑うお前の
ロケット弾
可愛いがしかし
Super Technology
(lit. "In despair, your smiling face's rocket is cute however, super technology.")

I don't even know if this is a tanka or not, and Mio is similarly bemused but reserves some of her comments. Mio decides to write an entry on her own. Leaving her to such devices, Riki goes to the town's shopping district to run some errands and happens to see a girl who looks just like Mio. However, this fleeting vision carries no parasol and wears a bubbly grin uncharacteristic of Mio. Confused, Riki asks Mio, who deflects the inquiry yet slips out language that suggests she knows the girl.

Later they go on a date ending with relaxation on the riverbank in the evening sun. They talk of poetry, and Mio mentions one of her favorites that presents a separating river as a metaphor for romance. The connection is common in poetry, but this particular river is reminiscent of that poem where lovers reunite as branches of the river. Finally she wonders about the fate of a paper airplane, tossed into the vast yet insubstantial border between sea and sky.

At school Riki hears from some of his classmates that they too have seen a carefree, no-parasol girl who looks just like Mio. Not knowing what to make of this, he proceeds as usual, taking Mio to the literary club room to submit her tanka. As thanks, Mio invites him to have tea in her room. After getting buried in a book avalanche, Riki is given Mio's favorite poetry collection, the book she once said represents herself. Riki is honored but also worried about being given such an important item. Putting his worries aside, they go on another date, this time to a bookstore. Riki unwittingly asks for recommendations and sees Mio return with two towering piles of books, reaching over her head. Mio describes all of them, but Riki cops out and chooses the top of a pile.

Coming back from the bookstore, Mio takes him to the beach, which is conveniently romantically deserted. There she thanks him for all the time he spent with her. Riki begins to feel uneasy, and indeed Mio soon reveals that this will be where she says her farewell. Riki tells her not to go, but Mio says it's always been her dream to be that seagull in her favorite poem, forever interred between sea and sky. Suddenly the girl who looks like Mio arrives on the scene. In conversation with Mio she is called Midori. Then Mio's parasol is cast aside by the ocean wind and Riki witnesses the fact that neither girl casts a shadow. Shocked and awed, Riki faints.


Midori: I have the high ground!

When he returns to his daily school life he finds that Midori now occupies Mio's place in the memories of others. Midori is the new Nishizono Mio and Riki is the only one who remembers the true Mio. In this reshaped reality, "Mio" and Riki are a couple, so Riki must confront Midori daily. She's warm and friendly, but at the same time tells Riki it's better for him to forget Mio. Riki will do no such thing, and refuses to acknowledge Midori as anyone other than Midori. He pores over Mio's treasured poetry collection searching for some clue on how to rediscover Mio, but decrypts nothing. As the days pass, Riki's memories of Mio grow less and less solid. When eating lunch with Midori, she mind games him into remembering Mio with glasses (she doesn't wear any), highlighting for him the transience of memory.

His resolve shaken, Riki consults Kyousuke for advice on the situation. The rest of the Little Busters, however, all remember Midori as Mio, and Kyousuke is no exception. The only advice he can give Riki is to not rely on the words of others and just believe in himself. Riki takes that in and continues with his overwritten relationship. One day at lunch Midori almost weasels him into calling her "Mio", so symbolic that it would cause him to forget. He steadfastly calls her Midori, so she sighs and leaves him one clue. Speaking of Mio's favorite poem, depicting a seagull in eternal isolation between sea and sky, Midori wonders where the blue comes from. Water and air are clear, yet become blue as the sea and sky. Riki doesn't take this as an opportunity to lecture on elementary science, and instead rushes to the beach to meet Mio again.

Mio is waiting at the beach, amazed yet sad that Riki remembers her. She explains the situation to let him know why she must go. Mio had always been a bookworm as a child, and loved to imagine and act out the stories she read. Still it was unsatisfying to enjoy these worlds alone, so one day she met Midori in the mirror.



They quickly became best friends, playing and pretending stories together. Mio's parents were concerned, however, since no one but Mio could actually see Midori. They sent Mio to a hospital where stayed for a while, talking to doctors and taking medication until slowly she forgot all about Midori. Recently she reread that old poetry collection, encountered the poem of the lone seagull, and remembered Midori. Mio felt extraordinarily guilty for forgetting Midori (perhaps because that wipes Midori from existence) and so made a wish for Midori to gain the same privileges as an embodied person. So Midori was forged from Mio's shadow, and now will replace Mio in reality. Midori will actualize and Mio will be free.

If Riki insists on remembering Mio, then Midori must once again fade from existence, which Mio will not allow. Riki hesitates for a split second, torn between Mio and her wish, and in that instant she becomes a seagull and flies away onto the horizon. Devastated, he receives a phone call from Midori, encouraging him and telling him not to let it end like this. Midori admits she's a little jealous, but assures Riki that she will live on inside Mio. With this blessing Riki plunges straight into the ocean and swims after Mio. He's far from an ace swimmer, but persists until his body can no longer move. Sinking, enveloped in black, Riki watches as Mio and Midori reconcile. Midori was happy to be real, but tells Mio that there was never anything to feel guilty about to begin with. Magic rescues Riki, and he returns with Mio to the beach where they embrace and live happily ever after.

The strongest of the side heroine routes. The route gently eases the reader into its rather fantastical atmosphere, so that when Mio disappears and later flies away as a seagull, you think, "Well, I had the feeling something like that was going to happen," instead of "Where did that come from?" Poetry as a motif helps establish that presence. Of the three side heroine routes that deal with memory as a central theme (Komari, Mio, and Kurugaya) Mio's route does so in the most dramatic fashion: the tides of a forgetting world versus the lone ship of the lover.

Possible gripes: like the majority of side heroine routes in history, the story is highly limited and personal. Alongside this narrow scope is a mostly imaginary conflict. Both aspects fit Mio's story well, but keep it from imparting the same epic scope and gravity Refrain provides. The tanka contest submissions were also sadly unexplored. Super technology should've been relevant to the story.

Kurugaya is a genius in all departments save human emotions. She's tall, beautiful, reliable, athletic, and fond of good-natured teasing. She also runs the school's rather ad hoc broadcasting operations, using the room as her hideout and playing its piano. In Common route she tutors Riki occasionally and acts as a big sister figure for the Little Busters (as well as being phenomenal in baseball.) Because she has difficulty grasping emotions, she's isolated from her classmates and is subject to pranks and bullying. Such bullying is the route's initial conflict.

Kurugaya is intelligent and merciless, so from the outset she easily pranks her bullies in reprisal. However, in her route, they now start turning to Riki as their next victim. Kurugaya's only friends are the Little Busters, and Riki is the meekest of the men there, so he becomes the natural target. The route begins with him finding a thumb tack in his shoe locker. Kurugaya could easily fix this problem, but Riki decides not to burden her and tackle it on his own. As he investigates the perpetrators and considers how to reconcile with them, he also tries to hide the bullying from Kurugaya. She's too perceptive, however, and easily reasons what's going on.

With Riki not yet making a move, the bullying escalates into filling his shoe locker and desk with sticky trash. Riki finally settles on three suspects and decides to call the shyest one out for a private talk after school. This Suginami suggests the other two coerced her into it. Said other two soon arrive on the scene, taunting both Riki and Suginami while revealing their culpability. In comes Kurugaya with freshly recorded evidence, replaying it to the classroom via the school's broadcast system. She lectures the three bullies, but the two combative ones put on a tough front and threaten more bullying. Kurugaya calls their bluff and threatens immediate violence, kicking a nearby door in two for good measure. The bullies flee, and so do Kurugaya and Riki, leaving a bemused scapegoat Masato in their wake.

On the way back, Riki faints. Luckily Kurugaya takes him to her room, takes care of him, and generally dotes on him until he wakes up. The night, hanging out with the fellas, Riki to Kyousuke, Masato, and Kengo that he has a crush on Kurugaya. They all regard Kurugaya as the most fearsome, both in love and otherwise, so they decide to help Riki out. Thus initiates Operation Love-Love Hunters.

First they conduct training. Rin helps by bringing the other girls in the Little Busters over to practice. Then Kyousuke, Masato, and Kengo take turns wooing them. Despite Kyousuke's elaborate scheme involving an imaginary conspiracy and not so imaginary land mines, all of them strike out. No matter. Riki proceeds directly to asking Kurugaya out on a date and is accepted. One rainy afternoon they go to a tea shop together, sharing a single umbrella. The date proceeds well, but Riki catches a cold from being out in the rain. But the ever reliable Kurugaya comes to his room, takes care of him, and even peels some apples for him.

Operation Love-Love Hunters continues. Next mission: a gift. At Kengo's recommendation, Riki unveils a box of manjuu arranged to spell "love," except that they instead spell "evol" after getting dropped. No problem, time for the trump card. Riki takes Kurugaya to the school hallway at night, where she sees a dazzling display of fireworks prepared by Kyousuke and the Little Busters. With hopefully enough love points built up, Riki visits Kurugaya at her usual haunt, the broadcasting room, and confesses his love.

At first Kurugaya doesn't understand, but when she does her eyes grow overcast and she answers regretfully that she may be incapable of answering such emotions. Riki retreats, dejected, but ultimately decides not to give up. The next day he finds her in school backyard and confesses again. When he elaborates his feelings, Kurugaya finally answers that she probably felt the same sorts of feelings for him. Now an official couple, Kurugaya dotes on Riki even more, baking him cookies and cleaning his ears.



As they grow closer, Kurugaya tells him a little of her past such as how she grew up overseas, called by her original name Elizabeth. Strangely, when he speaks to his friends of the romance, they assume it's friendship. They are confused when he asserts that he's dating Kurugaya. One day in the broadcast room he finds a journal where Kurugaya is apparently keeping records, but they are uncannily simple and obvious: things like "started dating" or "baked cookies for Riki today." Riki tries to believe that it is but an innocent diary, but he can't shake the sense of something gone awry when Kurugaya proposes that they go on a date to the tea shop where they went on their first date. He begins feeling deja vu far too often, and decides to closely watch the date as it passes midnight. He sees the calendar advance, sleeps in comfort, then awakens to find that it has returned to the day before.

Riki asks Kurugaya about this state of affairs, and Kurugaya turns away, facing the window regretfully. She tells him to forget her. She confesses that the twisted looping of the world happened because she wished for their romance to continue forever. So to return this world to its rightful state, they must part here. Riki doesn't understand, so Kurugaya embraces him one last time and tells him a secret: "This a place that can make wishes come true. Yes... it is a place of dreams."

Then Riki's consciousness fades to white.


"I wonder... will he arrive soon?"

Pretty good. The supernatural forgetting was similar to the situation in Mio's route, but felt a bit more poignant here especially since Kurugaya herself began forgetting. The romance also stood out from that of the other side heroines because the story alluded from the outset that it would be unworkable. The Love-Love Hunters antics seem more appropriate for Common route but I won't indict this route for having fun since it was well interspersed with plot movement. Unfortunately the route suffers from a lack of closure, with Kurugaya introducing both her asocial nature and the state of the world as conflicts that are not yet resolved.

I:
LB's main heroine is remarkably shy and awkward, with Masato, Kengo, and Riki being the only friends she's ever made aside from her brother Kyousuke. Rin grows this limited friendship as she befriends the other Little Busters. She has a straightforward honesty bordering on rudeness, which deflects most people. Cats gravitate to her, many of her sprites include cats, and she plays with cats regularly throughout the game. One particular cat, Lennon, is key to the plot. In the beginning of the game, it has a letter on its tail to the effect of "Do these tasks if you want to know the secret of the world." From the subsequent curt requests tied to Lennon's tail, Riki and Rin tackle random problems from running the cafeteria to providing love counseling.

The route begins benignly, with Riki finding a love letter in his shoe locker from one Suginami. Riki has barely even spoken to the girl, so when they meet her turns her down to the tune of "Let's get to know each other better first." He consults his friends for advice, but they tell him to simply do what he feels. Finally Rin makes the monumental suggestion that Riki start dating her. After a short agonizing, it becomes a deal, and they go around telling the rest of the Little Busters. Riki is apprehensive, but they all approve, even Kyousuke.

Afterwards they receive one more letter from Lennon, asking Rin and Riki to volunteer next class. They do, and it turns out that they're now tasked with escorting a couple of Education Department bigwigs through the school. This is a tall order for Rin, who's almost as far removed from polite speech as a mafia member. Thus Kyousuke leads the Little Busters in giving her training and practice, though this mostly results in Rin cat hissing at Kyousuke's buzzer.

The day of the tour arrives, and Rin can't completely dispel her awkward mannerisms. Still, they manage to complete the tour, and a few days later Kyousuke tells Riki that Rin has been nominated for a special school transfer. Apparently a certain school recently faced a tragedy, so its students are all depressed. The administration wants an energetic student like Rin to enroll there and help cheer them up.

Of course Riki will have none of this. He and Rin just started dating, and long distance relationships are shit, so he tells her not to go. She doesn't really want to go either, so she declines the offer. Their time together preserved, Riki and Rin have a happy fun couple time going shopping and playing with cats. Then one day, as Riki leaves the classroom, he simply faints. As he's blacked out, a disembodied voice tells him, "Alright, good job. But aren't you forgetting something?" Uhh... okay. Let's try this again.

II:
During our next playthrough, Rin is markedly less shy and awkward. In previous plays, Riki had to step in and help significantly with Lennon's requests, but now Rin fulfills them through her own efforts. Now when she volunteers to escort the bigwigs with Riki, she takes the effort to practice earnestly and speak properly when escorting them. Again the fated selection to transfer schools arrives.

This time Riki is at a crossroads. He has seen Rin mature and cannot discount Kyousuke's reasoning that this is an opportunity for Rin to develop independence. Finally he decides to persuade Rin to go. He plans to keep in touch with her and see her during the weekends, but it still pains him to push her to this path. After Rin agrees to go, Riki decides to investigate one last suspicion. Riki sees disparate evidence of Kyousuke's hand in the forces that drove Rin to mature and finally reach this point where she will leave the Little Busters. To confirm this, he goes to the school at night to stalk Lennon, the cat who brought so many missions to Rin.

Lennon leads him right to Kyousuke. Riki grills Kyousuke, but Kyousuke replies nonchalantly to the tune of, "What do you think of this, Riki?" Riki offers the above synopsis of helping Rin be independent, but Kyousuke disappointedly replies, "To begin with you misunderstood the question. What I'm wondering if you've discovered is the secret of this world." A night patrolling teacher cuts the unsatisfying meeting short. The next day all the Little Busters gather to see Rin off. Clothed in austere white, Rin is silent through the whole affair despite Kyousuke's efforts to cheer her up. Riki can't say anything.


Reminds me of Ouba Girls' Academy

The transfer is a mistake. Rin has made many new friends since the beginning of the game, but all under the auspices of the Little Busters. The people at the other school are dour and forbidding, and Rin cannot get along with any of them. For some reason, Kyousuke has programmed her phone such that she can't even communicate with any of the Little Busters save Riki. Riki, forcing himself to stand by his resolution, can only reply with "do your best" when she texts him of her difficulties. What hardship she faces exactly is vague, but Riki definitely feels its gravity as he wonders if she'll lose something she can't regain.

Riki watches Rin grow ever more isolated and fearful via texts until one night he reads a text that convinces him that Rin is at that very moment crying. Finding this unacceptable, he comes clean with Rin and tells her he will go to that school and bring her home. He leaves immediately. Kyousuke stops him in the male dorm hallway, but Riki's determination is unperturbed. Riki is left with a warning from Kyousuke, but rushes headlong in trying to find the school. However, no matter who he asks or how he researches, he can't. He can only wait for Rin to come home for her regular weekend.

The Rin that returns home is quiet, meek, and fearful, a far cry from her oblivious, energetic former self. Riki cannot let her go back to that school, so he consults Kengo for advice. Riki admits that he's considering running away with Rin, but Kengo tells him, "All that lies at the end of that path is total darkness." However Kengo knows that Riki and Rin's recent troubles are Kyousuke's work, and so suggests that they defeat Kyousuke and then force him to stop.

Thus the men of the Little Busters meet on the mound under an overcast sky. Kengo and Riki versus Masato and Kyousuke. A homerun contest, first team to 3 homeruns wins. After a practice pitch each, the real game begins. Masato's first swing is a homerun. Then it starts raining. They can't stay long, so the rules are changed from 3 to 1 homerun. Kengo and Riki's turn. After some encouragement from Kengo, Riki launches the perfect pitch. For some reason Kengo's concentration flickers, and in the next moment the ball is locked in the metal fence.

Kengo releases an indignant roar, deeming the game a farce. With Kyousuke's name ripping through his throat, Kengo charges at Kyousuke. Masato barely manages to stop Kengo from tearing into Kyousuke. With Kengo restrained, Kyousuke smirks before the lightning.


"Cold Game."

At this rate Rin will return to the transfer school and likely be permanently traumatized. Riki is left with no choice but to elope with Rin. Unfortunately he's never held a job and his bank accounts are in the custody of his legal guardians. No problem. Riki and Rin sneak out of the campus, withdraw some cash before people find out they've run away, and then take the train to visit Rin's grandpa. The Little Busters once held a summer excursion at said grandpa's place, so Riki hopes he might let them stay for a while. When they arrive at his house, a great, old Japanese style building somewhat removed from the nearby countryside town, they find no grandpa. No problem. Riki buys some food at a convenience store and they decide to stay the night, waiting for grandpa to return.

Although Rin is already feeling more energetic, Riki senses that she's lonely and will be more so when he goes to find work. Thus the next day he decides to catch a stray cat. He returns with somewhat of a fat, ugly cat and finds that Rin has already attracted a much prettier cat of her own. Riki is defeated, but no matter, the day after that he goes out to find work. He manages to help a nearby farmer lady gather some crops. Unfortunately he gets paid in vegetables, but hey that's almost as good as money. However the next time he goes to work he faints in the middle of it. The farmer cares for him, but he realizes that he can't really hold a job with constant fainting spells and slinks away.

Days pass and grandpa doesn't return. Riki learns how to fish and forage for miscellaneous edible plants. With Rin now hosting a full complement of cats, Riki fishes every day to feed the "family." His guardian calls him one day to find where is he, but of course Riki doesn't tell him, though it means his money is now limited only to the cash in his pocket. Then one day on the way back from ruminating while fishing all day, he overhears some conversation in town. Apparently Rin's grandpa's house has been abandoned for a while now. Feeling something sinister, Riki hurries back. He encounters a policeman who makes a few polite inquiries regarding the house that they live in. Riki tries to reveal nothing, but is forced to flee into the undergrowth when the questioning gets hot.

That night the cops shut off the power and break into the house while Riki and Rin are eating dinner. Riki tries to seize Rin and flee, but she doesn't want to leave her cats behind. She bites Riki's hand and runs back into the main room, getting promptly caught by the cops in the process. Riki returns to a school life devoid of Rin and never sees her again. Wait what? That's some goddamn bullshit and you know it. At the end of the game, Riki ends up conversing with a disembodied voice in a backdrop of total black. The voice tells him he can keep running away and he will be safe and comfortable. Riki isn't having any of that. That isn't going to save Rin. In the limbo following failure, Riki makes an oath:

From now on, I'm going to live with strength.

The Rin routes are a prelude to Refrain.

The "New Game" choice on the title screen now becomes "Refrain." Click it and we go to a nightmare that we have seen before fleetingly. Twisted metal, broken trees, torn earth. Corpses, blood, smoke, fire. Riki wakes up to enter what initially appears to be Day 1 of the Common route. Masato enters the room to announce eagerly that finally the time has come. To fight. Here.

Cut to the cafeteria where Masato and Kengo are fighting, hand to shinai, ringed by spectators. Every time in Common route Kyousuke stops them and sets the groundwork for the Battle Rankings minigame. No fun and games here though. Riki goes in to stop them by interposing his body. He tries to establish an uncannily similar set of rules for Masato and Kengo to follow but doesn't have the clout to get their agreement. Ultimately he's pushed aside and forced to look for Kyousuke, who isn't there.

Oh well, can't win them all. Riki proceeds to attend to something he must do. He picks up Rin and sends her to elementary school. For some reason Rin is mentally traumatized and cannot interact with anyone save children and Riki. Even childhood friends like Kengo and Masato scare her. When asked she says something to the effect of big men being scary since they seem liable to seize her. Riki asks if that's happened before. She says no but still can't shake the fear. Still, she regains some kind of childlike innocence when playing with and talking about her friends in elementary school, so Riki hopes it will act as a kind of therapy to help her come back to normal school.


The spork is for therapy too

After sending her to school, he confronts Kyousuke in his classroom in an attempt to find out what exactly caused Rin's trauma. Kyousuke reveals nothing and pretends to be absorbed in manga. The next day at school Riki goes to the cafeteria to find that Kengo has one of his arms in a sling. Apparently he was injured during his bout with Masato (in most Common route plays this happens when Kengo rescues Miyuki Koshiki from her suicide attempt.) Now unable to participate in his Kendo Club activities, particularly an upcoming tournament, Kengo urges that the three of them find something fun to do together. Thus for the next few days the boys goof around doing random shit.

Meanwhile Riki is still taking care of Rin. She used to play with many cats but now the only cat who will follow her is Lennon. One day they find a stray baseball and Rin begins playing fetch with Lennon. Riki notices her having uncharacteristic fun and thus starts playing catch ball with her as well. They have a grand 'ole time and from this small seed of comfort Riki starts bringing Rin back to school. The next day Riki meets Kengo and Masato and proposes that all four of them play catch ball together. Masato agrees, and Kengo skeptically agrees after some persuasion. Rin is still uncomfortable around Masato and Kengo but still happily plays catch ball with everyone that afternoon.

The next day he goes to the former baseball club's equipment room and picks up a bat, considering advancing this catch ball to the next stage: baseball. Kengo finds him there and asks him what he plans to do. Riki blithely speaks of his baseball hopes, and Kengo responds grimly that if that's the case, he's quitting here. Confused, Riki goes to meet Masato and Rin on the grounds after school. He asks Masato about what happened with Kengo. Masato tells Riki that he's come far enough, then quits as well. Riki is left alone with Rin. He asks Rin now if she remembers anything that may be connected to this. She uncertainly remembers something, but tells him it's a secret. Thoroughly deflected, he adjusts his line of questioning to the origins of the Little Busters.

Rin explains that at first it was just her and Kyousuke. Masato was the first one they recruited. He used to be a wild troublemaker who was always in fistfights. Kyousuke somehow defeated him and from there they became friends. Riki doesn't gain much from this but he doesn't give up. That night he asks Masato to help them form the Little Busters again. Still Masato refuses and leaves Riki with an ominous warning: "From now on I will aim to be the strongest. Riki, don't get close unless you want to get hurt."

The next day Riki and Rin find Masato in the classroom with a sickly air: his head cast down and hair shrouding his eyes. Rin tries to touch him to get his attention but Masato slaps away her hand. At the lunchtime cafeteria Riki and Rin find that a random 3rd year boy has been knocked out clean, supposedly by Masato. The incidents pile up throughout the day. They hear that Masato is on a rampage, knocking out other male students all around the school, seemingly at random. Riki resolves to stop him. Rin suggests that they fight Masato, but Riki tries to think of some other way. He tells the teachers that he volunteers to stop Masato, then proceeds to build an elaborate trap in the courtyard. The contraption is disguised as the sort of punching strength machine one might find at an arcade. Riki and Rin wait till evening to confront Masato.

Signs to the effect of "The strongest one must prove themselves here:" lead Masato to the trap. He unleashes a fierce punch only to be deflected backward towards a nearby giant bronze statue, lathered in an absurdly powerful adhesive. His entire right side is stuck. Riki tries to approach him to tell him he's defeated but Masato's left arm is still mobile. Riki backs off and asks Masato what's wrong with him.
Masato answers in a booming howl: "The one that's twisted is THIS WORLD!"

At an impasse, Riki regroups with Rin to think of his next move. He returns to the trap to find that the statue is no longer there, leaving only marks of having been ripped right out of the ground. With his flashlight, Riki finds skid marks where Masato must've been dragging the statue along. He stalks the trail only to be ambushed by a high velocity ball. Riki and Rin flee the barrage then extinguish their lights to prevent being traced. A long game of cat and mouse follows, with Masato sometimes lifting the statue entirely off the ground to move around without leaving a trail. After a number of close encounters Masato grows ever angrier that Riki keeps running. Finally Riki formulates another plan. He sends Rin to the school's second floor hallway with a net, then baits Masato over with promises that he won't run anymore. The net tangles Masato, but in an epic feat of strength he tears himself apart from the statue and rends through the net.

Riki is left with no choice but to lock fists with Masato. Despite his superhuman strength and constitution, Masato is drained from hours of wandering around the courtyard with hundreds of pounds of bronze and stone attached to him. Still, he still has plenty of fight left in him and is close to knocking out Riki a number of times.


Suddenly, Rin

Rin flies down from the second story with a lightning drop Inazuma Kick. Masato, reeling from the blow, takes a flurry of clean hits from Riki. Still he refuses to fall. Even with arms too heavy to swing, Masato stands stalwart like the statue he carried. Riki realizes that Masato is already losing consciousness, but simply won't allow himself to fall.

Inohara Masato:
Masato, Riki's roommate, is the first person Riki meets in any play-through. While played off as muscle obsessed and somewhat of an idiot, Masato is the most reliable and loyal of the Little Busters. He always relishes that first fight with Kengo, is always ready to play with Riki or take over the world with muscle, and relinquishes the room more times than anyone's college roommates combined.

We cut to Masato narrating from the night he refused to reform the Little Busters with Riki. Warning Riki that he'll aim for the top, he leaves the room to find someplace to stay for the night. He settles for a gym storage room, not minding the cold. While falling asleep, Masato recalls his childhood without the Little Busters.

Even when very young, Masato was considered an idiot. He was bullied and abused constantly for this, and though it wasn't any fun at all, he didn't know what to do about it. Until one day he fought some kids for talking shit. That stopped the torment. Impressed with the connection, Masato decided to become stronger until no one would tease him anymore. In a vicious of cycle of training and fighting, eventually Masato forgot why exactly he needed strength. He became stronger to fight, and fought to prove that he was the strongest. He forgot why but knew there was some need for him to be the strongest. Such was Masato's life before the Little Busters.

When Masato leaves the shed the next morning he finds his surroundings populated with students that look exactly like him. He's sure that he's the only true Inohara Masato, so why is it that everyone around wears his face and speaks his voice? Masato tries to bear it but is mentally overwhelmed by the hordes of Masatos he sees when he goes to the cafeteria for breakfast. In order to not see these ridiculous imposters, Masato decides to cast his eyes down and let his hair curtain them. At class someone tries to talk to him, but Masato beholds only another imposter. Slowly doubt grips him. What if he's not the real Masato? Then what the fuck is he? What are these other people? What are people in the first place?

Masato then realizes a simple solution to this quandary, one that always kept him standing through dark times. Masato is the strongest. Therefore anyone weaker than him cannot be Masato. As long as he is the strongest, he is Masato. With this conviction, he begins wandering the school. Confident in his strength, Masato doesn't seek opponents, but imposters keep confronting him. Curiously enough, they're all remarkably weak. Finally a sign beckoning for the strongest leads him to an imposter that manages to adhere half his body to a giant bronze statue. Interesting. The subsequent battle shows the man to be nothing like the straightforward, fist-to-fist Inohara Masato of legend. Still, he is the greatest challenge to Masato's identity so far. And there is something nostalgic about the way he fights. On the verge of defeat, Masato remembers.

The time when Masato's aimless quest for strength gained a purpose. The time when Kyousuke came to defeat him. Young Kyousuke was a scrawny lad, at least in Masato's eyes, so Masato was sure he'd be no challenge. But Kyousuke was always a boss, and gave Masato a fight that put the current one to shame. When Masato tried to maneuver he was peppered by fireworks buried in the ground like land mines. When he tried to track Kyousuke he was befuddled by smoke bombs. When he finally thought he landed a clean hit, he ended up trapping his fist in a great wooden post. Still, Masato wasn't the strongest for nothing, and eventually brought it to a fist fight. Kyousuke's advantage was decisive, though, and eventually Masato couldn't fight any longer. Yet he remained standing. Kyousuke asked his name. Masato gave his; so did Kyousuke.

Then, with a compassion born only from the friendship of fists, Kyousuke told him, "Masato. That was a good fight. From now on, we're friends, okay? So you don't need to fight anymore. You can rest now." Something resonated deep inside Masato. He smiled, then sat down, satisfied.

Now he faces not an imposter, but Naoe Riki and Natsume Rin. The same Riki who Masato watched over for so long now speaks of friendship. Masato smiles. Riki really has come so far. It's ok now. Masato sits down.



Refrain:
We return to Riki's eyes with Masato now a part of the three new Little Busters. Next step: recruit Kengo. Riki asks the two others how they originally recruited Kengo. Apparently Kyousuke, Rin, and Masato challenged Kengo's doujou. Why? Because Kyousuke thought it seemed fun. Well they all got their asses handed to them in kendou, but apparently they eventually defeated the Master of the doujou... 3 on 1. Just like every piece of knowledge Riki gains, this picture is incomplete, so Riki decides to go to the doujou himself to ask some questions.

There he meets Kengo's mother, who reveals that the Master is in fact Kengo's father, who isn't present at the moment. The mother doesn't know anything about the incident, so next they decide to visit Kyousuke. When they reach his room they find out from dorm neighbors that Kyousuke's been living like a hikkikomori. They enter to find a room wreathed in a haunting, black air. Kyousuke is nowhere to be seen, until he announces his presence from seemingly out of nowhere. His voice is weak and his face ghostlike, but he appears sane enough to recognize Riki and Masato. With no leads, the Little Busters are ejected by Kyousuke's pleas to let him rest.

On the way out they run into Kengo in the hallway. Wondering if Kengo is afflicted similarly to how Masato was, the Little Busters surround and examine him searching for anything wrong. All they find is Rin's declaration that, "His face looks pretty idiotic." Kengo, confused and annoyed, releases a fearsome kiai that interrupts their investigations. The encounter reset to an actual conversation, Riki asks Kengo why the first three Little Busters defeated his father. Kengo dodges the question. When Riki persists in trying to learn about that time, Kengo tells him, "Riki. Discard that goal. Don't reach beyond here any further. I won't join you for the sake of that kind of goal."

The Little Busters regroup in Riki's room, where he zones out and wracks his brain trying to figure out what's going on. Rin stirs him from his reverie to remind him that his friends are right here. Riki comes back to his senses and asks Rin and Masato for help. All Masato suggests is to let friendship blossom in the hot passion of fists colliding.

Later that night Riki visits Kyousuke again, alone. Kyousuke materializes out of the darkness, asking, "Is something wrong?"

"Too much," Riki replies. In that moment, Riki is engulfed with a desire to give up, to run to Kyousuke's reliable arms and have him reassure Riki that everything is alright. But Riki knows that there are wrongs in the world, that there is further to go, that he can't stop until everything is right again. Didn't he swear to live stronger? He can't recall when, but his course is set regardless.

"Make sure to eat well." Riki reminds Kyousuke, turning his back.

Before Riki leaves, Kyousuke leaves him one clue: "Kengo is telling one lie."

The next morning at breakfast the Little Busters dissect this advice and brainstorm. Rin is certain that Kengo stole Lennon, no stole all the cats, and is planning to build a cat kingdom with himself as king. With that allegation, they visit Kengo and investigate his room. With no cat kingdom, Kengo appears innocent, and quickly learns from the guileless Rin what Kyousuke told them. Kengo tells them that Kyousuke may instead be fooling them. With still no leads, they go to class, where Riki notices that Kengo appears to have full use of both his arms, though one is still in a sling from the fight with Masato. Thus Riki concocts a preposterous plan to confirm his suspicions. They set it into motion later that day.

As Kengo is making his way down the hallway, he notices Rin scream, "The wall! Lawrence!"

She's pointing to some sort of amorphous bundle on the floor. Nearby what appears to be a wall is slowly closing in on the shape, presumably Lawrence. Kengo dashes in and secures this Lawrence, but the wall rushes forward, forcing him to unleash his other arm to halt it. He hands Lawrence back to Rin, but she replies in calm triumph, "Sorry, but I don't have any kids."

Evidence in hand, Riki reveals himself and asks Kengo why he was pretending to be injured. Kengo finally offers, "If I tell you, will you stop trying to rebuild the Little Busters?"

Riki doesn't understand, so Kengo spells it out for him. "The end you are reaching for... is total darkness."

Still Riki asks what he means. Kengo finally replies, "You don't need to know. What you should know is only how to protect the here and now. The way to do that is to disband the Little Busters. If you do that... I will protect you forever."

Once again fatigue washes over Riki. He wants to give in, to be protected by the reliable, invincible Kengo. He's come far enough now, right? No. Riki refuses. Kengo replies sadly, "Then this is here we part."

With all his cards played, Riki consults Masato and Rin once more. They both feel that all that's left to do is defeat Kengo. In what? Well in baseball of course. Rin reassures him with the cryptic judgment, "You... look like you can bat somehow."

Miyazawa Kengo:
Kengo carries an air of honor and sophistication, complementing the physical prowess he evinces in being (self allegedly) undefeated in 100 matches of kendo. On the other hand he can be quite naive and childish. Just like the others, all he wants is to have fun. Still, he tends to wear a calm, mature facade, acting as a tsukkomi for the most part.

Kengo's session begins in Rin 2: his conversation with Riki the night before their match with Kyousuke. Riki tells him that they're out of time, that Rin will leave tomorrow. Kengo reassures him that they have all the time in the world. Events proceed to the homerun contest in the rain. Kengo encourages Riki, who launches the perfect pitch. Kengo's concentration is peaked, and in his hyper awareness he notices someone out of the corner of his eye: Miyuki Koshiki, her beautiful eye-patched visage and sweeping black hair unmistakable. In that moment the baseball plunges into the fence behind him.

In a thundering outcry, "THIS FARCE! KYOUSUKEEEEEE!"

But he's helpless in the face of Kyousuke's ruthless plan. The events of Rin 2 unfold. We return to the beginning of Refrain. After pretending to be defeated by Masato, Kengo visits Kyousuke, condemning him for his heartless, mistaken ways. In the end he tells Kyousuke, "From now on I'll do what I want. If you promise not to make the same mistake again, let's return to how it once was." Doing what he wants manifests in asking Riki and Masato to come up with something fun to do, producing the first activity: climbing across the school wall via window ledges. The idiotic pursuit results in Masato falling from a ledge, but he's fine. That evening Kengo listens to Riki's thoughts. Riki wants to do something to help the withdrawn Kyousuke and traumatized Rin. He wants to reunite the Little Busters. Kengo just wants to have fun, but can't help seeing the shadow of Kyousuke in Riki.

Later he plays catch ball with Riki, Rin, and Masato. Watching Riki, he knows what this will gravitate towards. He follows Riki to the baseball room, confirms his suspicions, and tells Riki that he's quitting here. Then, fervent for answers, Kengo rushes to Kyousuke's room.

"Kyousuke... what exactly did you start?" Kengo grills him anxiously.

"I didn't start anything." Kyousuke answers. "Anything Riki's started, he's done through his own will."

"Impossible."

"You're free to believe what you will, but he's definitely started reaching for it."

"That can't be... those two will just be dropped into total darkness again."

"Don't be so sure. They've grown significantly."

"People don't change so easily!" Kengo laments desperately. "Especially those two... they're too weak. They're still kids!"

"People don't stay kids forever. They grow."

"Even in this closed world!?" Kengo asks, agitated. "No. That's impossible, Kyousuke. You're wrong."

But Kengo can't deny that Riki is no longer the meek, dependant crybaby he once was. He watches from the school hallway at night as Riki and Rin engage in an epic struggle with Masato, finally defeating him. He deflects their advances, warning them of where they're headed. He's cornered by their silly play and forced to reveal his hand, but he still cannot reveal the truth. Finally Riki challenges him to a one on one duel... in baseball.

Still disturbed by how closely Riki is mimicking Kyousuke, Kengo visits Kyousuke and delivers one last ultimatum: "In that match, you misled me with a forbidden hand. You trampled over the parts of me that cannot be touched. Riki can't do that. He doesn't know anything. Sorry, but I will defeat him. Finally, when I win... you should stop pretending to be sick and come back."

Leaving those words behind, Kengo takes to the diamond. The contest is simple: first to 3 home runs. Masato is catcher. Kengo and Riki will take turns batting and pitching. The day is bright and clear. Kengo easily hits a homerun from Riki's first pitch. Then, to Kengo's surprise, Riki hits his first pitch clean out the park. Soon the match is tied 2 to 2. It's Riki's turn to pitch. Suddenly, Rin announces that it's time to switch pitchers: "Showing up in a pinch, that's the ace." Somehow Rin manages to persuade Riki who manages to persuade Kengo.

With Rin on the mound, Kengo faces a graver challenge at the bat. His next two swings hit foul balls. Agitated by Rin's entrance and her ace pitching, Kengo calls time to reform his thoughts. It comes to no avail though, as Rin's third pitch blazes past him. Strike. Batter out.

Kengo is overwhelmed with memories. Before he joined the Little Busters all he knew was kendou. As the heir to the doujou and a genius to boot, his family demanded that he spend any and all free time with shinai in hand. No matter how skilled he was, such a one dimensional life was all too colorless. Until the Little Busters defeated his father. Afterwards Kyousuke introduced himself and told Kengo: "So we defeated your father. Now there's no one left to stop you. Let's go."



Back in the batter's box, Kengo is kneeling. Tears are trickling from his eyes. Riki asks him if he wants to continue. Kengo nods, "Of course. Just give me a little longer..."

Refrain:
With Rin, Masato, and Kengo by Riki's side, all that's left is to rescue Kyousuke. They head to his room.

Natsume Kyousuke:
Kyousuke, Rin's older brother by a year, is the leader of the Little Busters and the dynamo behind all the fun in the Common route. His exceeding competence in all aspects is complemented by a single-minded, fun-seeking demeanor and a deep-set, perceptive compassion. Ever since joining the Little Busters, Riki has looked up to Kyousuke as a role model. Even in Refrain, Riki's quest to grow stronger follows in Kyousuke's footsteps.

We follow Kyousuke from the beginning of Common route. Kyousuke finds a stray baseball in the outdoor hallway, then proceeds to make a grand speech in the cafeteria connecting self-identity with baseball. In it he laments the normal state of affairs, describing people as merely being tossed by the flow of life, void of self, hollow like dolls.

More scenes from Common route: Masato thinks they need more members so much he says it twice, so Kyousuke deploys Rin on recruitment missions where she invariably ends up fighting Sasasegawa Sasami instead of recruiting. Kyousuke uses Lennon, an extension of himself in this world, to covertly send Rin on missions to encourage her growth. The Little Busters go to the grounds for the first time, where Kyousuke declares Riki and Rin as the team's aces. After the game, Kyousuke answers approvingly when Riki announces that he's started dating Rin. Kyousuke begins his plan to send Rin away. Riki confronts him but is far from the truth. They see Rin off. Kyousuke desperately wants Rin to smile, but she's silent and expressionless. Kyousuke bars Riki's way as he attempts to rescue Rin. Then Kengo and Riki challenge him to a match. In the thunderstorm he shows Kengo a hallucination of Miyuki Koshiki, the girl he failed to save. No matter how artless his methods, Kyousuke thought they would be justified if only Riki and Rin grew in the process.

Now in Refrain he sees the product of his unrefined hand in Rin's trauma and is consumed with regret. Loath to wound her further, he withdraws into his room where he finds a loophole out of this world. Kyousuke slips through the borders and finds total darkness. Shades of trees canopy him, and light has difficulty reaching his eyes. His enfeebled body can only crawl on a ground oozing death. He returns to find Riki with Rin and Masato, seeing if there's anything wrong. Impressed, he nevertheless sends Riki away, knowing the last thing he can do is not in this world but that of darkness. Returning to that world, he continues crawling, searching for the source, the origin of disaster.

Riki visits him alone. He looks visibly distraught, and Kyousuke wants only to comfort him. But Riki is stronger now, and after a moment tells him only to eat well. Kyousuke sees him off with the clue that Kengo is lying. Back in the world of calamity, he begins to doubt that his impotent body can ever reach his goal. Still he presses on, tormenting his body until he finds the origin. Only here can he cast but the slightest light in the dark. Finally Kengo visits, announcing that he will defeat Riki in the coming baseball match. Kyousuke returns to the other world and tries to plug the pipe. With every ounce of strength left, Kyousuke rips off his shirt to stuff into the pipe, but it falls with nothing to secure it against the flow. He desperately searches for something to affix it. Finally Kyousuke, growing weaker, presses his own body into the pipe, damming the flow with his shirt and back.

Back in his dorm, Kyousuke awakens to find Riki there, with Rin, Masato, and Kengo behind him. Riki offers a hand and asks Kyousuke to join them. Kyousuke is overjoyed. Riki really has grown stronger. Kyousuke thinks: "We're doing the right thing, right? Riki... you'll be okay. Even in a world where we're gone." He grabs Riki's hand.



Little Busters:
Kyousuke continues narrating after the original five Little Busters reunite. Ambling happily down the school hallways, for a moment they are at a loss for what to do. The answer readily returns to all of them. Baseball. As they return to the field, Kyousuke reminisces, impressed at the friends with him. He marvels at Kengo's innocence and at Masato's steadfast, lovable idiocy. He beholds the miraculous growth of a Riki who somehow managed to mend the wound in Rin's heart and decides to entrust Rin to him.

The field is a picture of a batting practice: Rin pitching, Riki batting, and the rest of the Little Busters on the field. Catching a dizzying ball, Masato returns to Riki.

"I guess now that I've caught this ball, I have to go." Masato says plainly.

"Eh?"

"This is goodbye, Riki."

"What are you saying Masato?"

"I'm happy... that I got to be your roommate and live with you."

"Wait a minute, Masato. Are you going somewhere?"

"I'm glad that I spent all this time with you. How about you?"

"I feel the same way, of course! It's because Masato was my roommate that I was able to have such a fun dorm life. Such enjoyable days would've been impossible without Masato!"

"I see. How can I say this... I'm really happy."

"Eh? Hey... Masato, you're not going anywhere are you?"

"That you lived with this idiot..."


"Thank you."

Masato vanishes. Riki is thoroughly spooked and anxiously tries to enlist the others to solve this mystery. This time Kyousuke addresses him.

"Riki, what are you so flustered about? The place you reached with your own strength is here. From here on, you are headed towards the world of calamity. That is the real world. This world is a fiction, a world that we built. Listen well. The ones who survive... are you and Rin. Only you two."

Riki is alarmed. He mutters about an incident he saw on the news, where a bus carrying a class on a school trip tumbled down from a cliff.

"No. That happened to us. We couldn't be saved. By the heroics of Masato and Kengo protecting you with their bodies, you two were saved. But even that wasn't enough. You two were too weak, and upon awakening were immediately paralyzed by despair."

"Wait. I don't understand. How... how is this possible?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that somewhere in the void, I cried out. And like a ripple my thoughts bloomed outwards. As if in response, other ripples coursed the nothingness and touched me. Everyone was there with me. I don't know what 'there' is, but it's unmistakable that all our wills were as one there. Hearing nothing, seeing nothing, we were definitely connected by the ripples of our thoughts.

So we decided to create this world for the sake of you two. We resolved to repeat this past semester, from the day we met to the day of the accident, endlessly. From the conflux of these feelings, one majestic ripple swelled. This... is the world created by our feelings. From those feelings a world was built, its phenomena occurred, its people moved. We decided to protect you in such a world until you became stronger. Until you gained the strength to never lose, even when facing the cruel reality.

But I failed. My ways were callous. I inflicted a deep wound in Rin's heart. But Riki, you healed that wound and brought her this far. Riki, you are now more than strong enough. Rin is also much stronger than before. So take Rin and keeping walking forward, past this place. That is the first step. Everything starts from there. The stopped time will move. No matter what reality is before your eyes, live with strength. Okay Riki?

Riki. You swore to live with strength. Even if you don't remember, you swore. The current you may have forgotten, but sometime somewhere you swore to live with strength. And so you've reached this place. Following that oath, you've grown stronger and stronger. That's why you've come here, isn't it? Are you going to stop here? Are you going to play here forever?"

Riki is reeling. He mutters, "Even if you suddenly tell me of such a reality, I..." He grits his teeth. "...must go. I must go, right?"

"Yes. Live with strength. Listen well. Do not cry. From here on out, absolutely do not cry. That sort of weakness is now unforgivable."

Riki nods. He won't cry. That strength is now in his hands. Riki motions for the oblivious Rin to continue the game. She pitches, he hits, Kengo catches the ball. Now it is Kengo's turn to say goodbye.

"From the beginning, I was against this." Kengo says, almost in tears. "Finally we were able to play together once again. That is what I always wanted... to recover the time we lost. I desperately wanted to be with everyone. But now all that must come to an end. No matter how much I trained this arm, in the end I gained nothing. Hey... did I live a happy life?"

"No one knows that." Kyousuke tells him. "Kengo, that is something you must decide for yourself. So what do you feel, Kengo?"

"That it wasn't happy... as if I could say something like that! To be blessed with such great friends, of course I'm happy! So much so that life without all of you would be unimaginable."

Kyousuke approves. Kengo straightens himself out, stops crying, then offers Riki his hand.



"A handshake. The testament of friendship." He says.

Riki takes his hand and shakes it firmly.

"Little Busters is eternal." Kengo proclaims, then disappears.

By now Rin is beginning to wonder where the two idiots went. With Kyousuke's will alone supporting this entire world, it begins shuddering and groaning ominously. Riki urges Rin to continue. She pitches. Riki hits the ball clean out of the park, so far that it can't be traced.

"Damn..." Kyousuke sighs. "Looks like I can't compete anymore. That'll be our parting home run."

"Kyousuke... is there really nothing we can do?"

"Yep. Nothing. This is nobody's fault, so don't blame yourself. You became strong. Everything is well."

He turns his back to Riki.

"Wait! Let's talk! We still have time, right? Speak to me, Kyousuke, tell me more... like of the past... or anything!"

"Riki. From here on, that is your role. If you're like this, what will become of Rin?"

"But... but this is just ridiculous. I've come this far is by chasing you! Kyousuke... please don't go!"

"Jeez you're troublesome. How long are you going to trouble me?"

"Forever. Growing stronger, learning the secret of the world... to hell with all that! I like you Kyousuke! All I want is to stay with you forever!"



"Hey Riki... obviously those feeling torment me even more! Why the hell must I leave everyone behind?! I just want to be with you. All along, all I wanted was to be with you. What is this bullshit?! Goddammit! I always, always wanted to be by your side. I loved all of you, but now... I must leave you behind? That's just unbelievable! Why? I don't understand! Shit..."

"Kyousuke..."

"Go. Go Riki. Together with Rin. You can leave through the main gate."

"The main gate?"

"Yes. Don't look back. Just charge through that gate. There's no time left. Do you want Rin to suffer? Hurry the hell up and get out of here! No more hesitation. JUST GO!"

Riki takes Rin's hand and they sprint through the collapsing world, hurtling through the main gate, plunging through the borders of worlds. They are met with the real world, where their battered bodies lie aching at the bottom of the cliff amid the dead and unconscious. The wrecked bus lies overturned. A burning smell bleeds through the air. Fuel slowly trickles out, washing through the grounds. Riki heaves his body up and leads Rin away from the scene. Minutes later the searing howl of conflagration erupts through the forest. Overwhelmed with the relief of safety and the regret of mourning, Riki succumbs to unconsciousness. Rin cannot rouse him, and is left seeing flashbacks to the world of fantasy.

Memories of all the girls she befriended in the world of fantasy return to her. In the baseball room she reads Komari's half-finished picture book. In the courtyard she reads tanka with Mio. In the classroom Haruka is being noisy. In the broadcast room Kurugaya guides her through an announcement. In the tea room Kud shows her calligraphy. She remembers all of that, but when she revisits these places, none of the girls are there. Rin climbs the stairs towards the rooftop. One time Komari told her there that secrets were part of friendship. Thinking of the many friends she made, Rin reaches the rooftop to see the fandango sky of evening.

Komari is waiting there, smiling. "Well I suppose you know now. Everyone's gone. I should've gone too, but I stayed. Staying here is bad though."

Rin remembers the time when Komari explained the secrets of her star hair bands. Each grants a single wish, and Komari gave Rin one. Rin cries in distress, knowing this is farewell.

"Don't cry Rin. Once, someone taught me to keep smiling till the very end. So I'm smiling now, even though you're crying. I can't go on with you. My story's already over. But I want Rin to be able to smile. Let's part with a smile, okay?"



Komari unravels a star hair band, lifts it in her palm, and makes a wish, "My wish is one: that Rin will be able to smile."

We next see Riki waking up on a hospital bed, bandaged but alive.



Rin is sitting in the corner nearby. She's rambling on about the other Little Busters, about their fate. All Riki can do now is to remind her that he will protect her forever.

The End.

In the void following the credits, a disembodied voice asks: "This is okay, right?"

No. This is not okay. Everyone's dead. The voice, Kyousuke's voice, consoles him. Riki and Rin are strong enough for the real world now. The world of fantasy is no more. Still Riki doesn't give up. Even with that world gone, he and Rin will create a new one. The bells on Rin's hair ring, and like those waves of sound, a ripple of thought resonates through the void.

Rin:
Rin returns to the empty school where she searched for the other girls. She runs through the memories, visits the places, still finds nothing. Again Komari is there on the rooftop. This time Rin takes the hair band Komari promised her and, joining hands with Riki, makes a wish.



Riki:
In a bizarre, mystical episode, Riki's soul joins with some shapeless abstraction of the universe itself. Plunging his raw self into the soup of existence, he almost dissolves into nothingness. Somehow, through sheer force of will, he forges through, harnessing the cosmos to return to the scene of calamity.

He returns to reality waking up amid the bus crash. His heart beats explosively; adrenaline surges through his body. Riki focuses, concentrates, clears his mind. First, he assesses the situation. Only he and Rin are mobile, but some others are definitely still alive. Something is burning. Fuel is seeping onto the scene. At this rate the premises will immolate. He needs to remove everyone from the scene before the real conflagration erupts. He tells Rin to make calls to the authorities. Proper paramedics will be needed to treat people. Then he scans the area for supplies. Taking nearby branches and clothing from himself and the scene, he builds a makeshift stretcher. Steadily Riki and Rin begin the grueling work of carrying survivors to a safe clearing.



Part way through, he finds Kyousuke, unconscious, gravely wounded, and propped up against a pipe that's leaking fuel. Without his body the fuel will gush out undammed and soon ignite. Riki is loath to leave him, but settles for bandaging his bleeding head. He can only return to Kyousuke when every other survivor is safe. Next he has Rin investigate the area for any supplies. Rin finds some first aid materials, so Riki has her begin treating the survivors. Riki returns to the scene and drags out Kengo and Masato without the stretcher.

Finally he returns to Kyousuke. He tries to think of a safe way to remove Kyousuke, but before he can find one, he hears ominous crackling. The stench of smoke intensifies. Propelling his bruised and exhausted body at a feverish pace, Riki picks up Kyousuke and slowly trudges away from the bus. He leaves behind a deadly inferno. His job done and his body succumbing to fatigue, Riki takes a well-earned nap.

In the darkness he hears Kyousuke's voice: "Riki, you're amazing. You worked a miracle. Such a feat is unbelievable, even for me. I'm so proud of you Riki, my eternal friend."

Riki wakes up in a sunny after school classroom. Rin is sitting on his desk happily singing a song about cats. The rest of the girls are all safe and well, though that afternoon they apparently left Riki to his peaceful nap with Rin watching over. The next day finds Riki, Masato, and all the girls joking around and having a fun school life. Their spirits lift even more with news that Kengo has recovered and is ready to come back to school. Though there's still no news of Kyousuke, who suffered the most serious injuries.

Later when Kengo returns, he and Masato face off in the hallway, this time not to fight, but to play baseball. Before the hallway is demolished Riki steps in and convinces them not to baseball. They decide to fight instead. Back in the classroom, Riki talks to the girls about their hospital experiences. Mio enjoyed her time because it was mostly sitting and reading. So did Haruka because it was mostly lazing about. After school in the baseball room Rin shoots Riki a direct question, "So, who do you like after all?"

Riki tries to divert this conversation but Rin steamrolls on, describing the charms of the other girls, though she gets a bit stuck on Haruka. Haruka enters with said girls at that moment, and Rin considers them all, finally approving all of them for Riki. The next day after school Kengo and Masato decide that now is the time to battle. Riki reminds them that one element is missing. So instead everyone tries to come up with something fun to do together, but all they can brainstorm are activities Kyousuke already led in the past: a courage test, kick the can, a puppet show. They are locked in this impasse when Kyousuke climbs in through the second story window.


Actually I'm pretty sure he climbed down from his helicopter

Grinning like a kid, Kyousuke proposes that they go on a real school trip, this time to the beach. Thus all the Little Busters, finally reunited, stuff into the generic white van he rented and drive off to the sea.

The End

So Refrain is actually super fucking good. I'll just go over a few of the things that make it so good.

The set up: Every other play-through/route works to lead into Refrain. The magic of love, the world rewriting its memories, the pervasive theme of wishes as power, Riki and Rin's growth both in events and minigame stats, a look at Kengo's regrets over Koshiki, constant evidence of Masato's reliability, Kyousuke's role as the dynamo turned mysteriously cold and villainous, the flashbacks to reality, Kengo's allusions to darkness, Rin 2's damage to the Natsume siblings... The immaculate set up creates a number of "Oh...shit..." moments such as when you see Koshiki during the game through Kengo's eyes, or when you realize that even in despair Kyousuke spent most of Refrain saving everyone's ass.

Development: Refrain mainly develops the original five Little Busters. Owing to the set up, the full pictures of these characters are surprisingly fitting. When you first meet Kengo, you wouldn't think, well, he has the frail, fun-loving heart of a child. But as events unfold it becomes more apparent, with his strong front masking a desire to protect the precious world of fantasy. Same with Masato. Initial impressions amount to well... he's kind of dumb. But in the background to more interesting events, Masato is always there in every route, playing, encouraging, giving time alone. He doesn't explore his own agenda like Kengo or build machinations like Kyousuke; he's just always there for Riki. And of course Kyousuke is even more heroic than Riki. Seeing his manipulations fail, he tackles the real world instead, never telling anyone. Even during the farewell, he puts on a calm front for as long as possible so that Riki can absorb the situation. We see more heroics with flashbacks to his recruiting of Masato and Kengo. Basically all of them go boss mode in some way or another, even Rin with her decisive kick and pitch.

Writing: first the structure of many parallel stories with many narrators was well-done, naturally offering insight that would be awkward otherwise. This causes us to read a weave of stories rather than one, which is both appropriate to the friendship and to the simple nature of the events. Second, the allusions to truth are perfectly gradual and well placed: the presence and aspects of Rin's trauma, her penchant for catch ball, Kengo's resistance to baseball, his recollections of Rin 2, his mentions of the closed world, Kyousuke's rigors in he world of calamity, and finally his mention of the "world where we're gone." I literally got chills when I read that line.