Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
emberreviews
Little Busters! Refrain paints a huge target on its back by confirming its time loop narrative structure by the end of the first episode, which might seem like leaving far too much room to overcomplicate or derail what is already a fragile story. By the end, it does feel like everything managed to stay on course and the thematic purpose of said time loop proved to be emotionally satisfying, but boy was it a bumpy ride on the way there. Perhaps the biggest sticking point for why it might not have been as smooth as it could have been is that we don’t get to experience most of the “bad ends” that we are told happen during this narrative. We are told that the trial and error of Riki salving everyone’s emotional problems has led to him being a stronger person, but we don’t really see that devel…
Read at the sourceAngeVNs
I like Little Busters. I like its emphasis on friendship, I think the humor is generally funny enough, and I think it balances comedy and dark drama fairly well. You know what I don't like about Little Busters? The fact that it continues the Jun Maeda and KEY trend of having a deus ex machina ending—but also how its supposed friendship theme is kind of a half-lie.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Despite that angry first paragraph, I’d still say I overall like Little Busters: Refrain. The core of the series is still there—a friendship-focused story with some surprisingly dark melodrama at times.
However, gone is basically all the lighthearted slice-of-life comedy from Season 1. This 13-episode season is all about reaching the conclusion and finally revealing the very heavily foreshadowed…
Read at the sourcecringeylazy
This review has very minor spoilers, which I have carefully and somewhat ambiguously worded to spoil the least amount possible. This review is from the perspective of a fan of the visual novel that rewatched the anime a year later.
Positives:
-Kurugaya: Kurugaya's route isn't a very good adaptation, but it makes drastic changes that, in my opinion, improve upon some scenes from the visual novel. While yes, it is missing the great romance and the chemistry between Riki and Kurugaya it makes drastic changes to fit the anime story telling, which in my opinion works better as a whole for the story despite its very fast pacing compared to the VN.
-Beautiful new original opening for this season with an original song.
-Refrains story is all covered and unchanged.
-It uses (mostly) the same sound…
Read at the sourceAikawa_Yuji
This will be the first time I will be writing a review about an anime I had finished watching so I will do my best to deliver my honest thoughts about this story. I've been watching anime for more than 2 years now, I've explored many genres to try and find what kind of anime I will really like and what kind of anime where I can really relate myself into. For such a long time now, there has been no anime which can make me cry so much other than Little Busters! and wished so much that I can also have true friendship which Naoe Riki has. Since I'm an only child, for as long as I know I've always been alone dealing with all my problems in life with only myself not relying to anyone because since my childhood, people I've known had never taken me seriously whenever I tried to open up myself, th…
Read at the sourcecameronrb24
Quick Thoughts:
I strongly dislike the type of storytelling that's reliant on some plot twist or info-dump at the end for the story to make sense, and Little Busters!: Refrain was no exception.
Story:
The pacing was incredibly off this season. The first few episodes were fine; the typical 3 or so episodes were spent developing Kurugaya, which is about the same amount as the other characters. However, the next 3 episodes blaze through what I thought was a pretty important arc, with one notably climatic moment being condensed into just a four minute outro. Then there's the ending, which I felt gave many more questions than answers. It also makes a lot of what happened throughout the series seem pointless and unnecessary. The motives behind the key characters of this season were questionable…
Read at the sourceDante012
Little Busters is one of Jun Maeda's stories, which means it is meant to hit hearts hard.
While it did move me, this anime adaptation is far from perfect.
This review is for both seasons.
STORY
Usual Jun Maeda story, so it is composed of:
- a 1st part focusing on fun,
- a second part developing the characters' tragic backgrounds, - a final "secret" part developing the main story.
I have to say I really love this setting: the first part sets a peaceful mood while preparing the ground for the rest of the story.
Then, the second part hits us hard by being cruel with the characters we grew to like.
Finally, the final part shows its cleverness.
When done properly, this formula is unbeatable!
Aside from that, it's the usual Slice Of Life setting: we follow a club of high-schoolers, this on…
Read at the sourceEmpyreanpain
So you've watched the first season of Little Busters! Did you find the first several episodes to be a little bit tedious to get through? So did I. But I'm so glad I watched it... Because since I finished season 1, I got to experience the masterfully written story of Refrain. Definitely a Masterpiece in my opinion.
Story: The story is direct follow up of season 1, and now all that build up of character development really comes into play and has so much impact. There is so much emotion in season 2.
Art: There wasn't a significant change in art, and that's a good thing because the art is just as good as it was for season 1. Maybe various times you might see some improvements.
Sound: Much like season 1's sound, the sound for season 2 is once again amazing.
Characters: All that character d…
Read at the sourceSenpaiDray
I'm pretty disappointed for the 1st season since the drama is so weak and the plot didn't touch my heart at all. Nevertheless I got a really high expectation for the 2nd season since it got a pretty high score on MAL.
And after I finished this I could say that it's a huge improvement from the 1st season, the plot is really touching and finally it succeed in making me cry. Just watching the 1st episode got me asking is it really the same series since the atmosphere is so different. A little bit downside is that the ending is predictable since the episode before the final kinda make it obvious.
The animation is beautiful while the music is overally good but could be bettter as in some sad scenes the music is too quiet and didn't add enough suspense for the scene.
For me it's still not as…
Read at the sourceMidget_King
When I started watching Little Busters back from the very first episode in the first season, I was not really satisfied with the plot and character development. At first it seems that the whole season was only filler and there is no actual goal for the plot. The first season almost had me dropping the series because it was too cliche and the story is somewhat predictable. Continuing into the next season, things took quite a turn and the plot became something entirely different. It's like I was watching a different anime because of the shift in the story line. Season 2 however explained the whole plot of the series in the end and all questions are answered. The ending is great and the drama did its job. Overall, this anime is worth the time so you should check it out if you're into drama an…
Read at the sourceKaitoRyu
I have never found an anime that has moved me so deeply. I look back and smile while crying. There was always something more in Little Busters that kept me watching, and when I started Refrain, I was on the edge of my seat with a myriad of feelings. The anime left me feeling that I had done something good with the time I spent and lightened my heart. The characters all impacted me deeply, taking me deeper and deeper into the plotline, until Refrain latched on to me and my heart. This anime will leave you with a heart just a little bit brighter and just a little bit stronger. I have seen a lot of anime, but this is by far one of my closely treasured few. This story will live on in my heart.
Read at the sourceSalmo69
*No Refrain spoliers*Now i played the VN and little busters changed the way i lived entirely and has always had a place in my heart and the anime is now exception
Story:10/10 Now unlike in the first season of little busters.Refrain is changed in NO way from the VN the only thing missing are the alternate endings to refrain which if you LOVED little busters and refrain i recommend you pick up the vn on steam (not released as of this time if you are reading this at a later date check)however one thing i noticed is that key might have noticed that refrain in itself was to short to make it into a anime by itself so they included Kurugaya's and Rin's (part 2) Route into refrain to make it long (refrain if it was by itself would only be like 5 episodes of content) and the problem i have with th…
Read at the sourceChartemis
Well this is my first time writing a review so please bare with me...
But I just had to write a review for this marvelous anime series..
I'll separate my rating by MAL scoring system and first up is story
Story: 9/10
The story actually picks up from the first season giving the whole "secret of the world" completing tasks and etc. The story may seem a bit odd like the first season but I assure you that if you keep watching it through... you will be rewarded greatly..
You see things that you sort of expected but in a more flashier way.. sometimes it doesn't happen the way you thought it would.. which kind of sucks haha..
Since it's 13 episodes I believe that the producers found out they don't have time to mess around so they got right on the point and that's what they did.. little buste…
Read at the sourceColdsp33d
Little Busters: Refrain is the second instalment of the Little Busters series, a series based on a visual novel of the same name.
I did have misgivings about LB considering JC Staff was handling it. There are some pros and cons to LB, which I will address throughout the course of this review. I'll try my best to keep my opinion out of this review, and free of spoilers.
Story (8/10):
The main theme of LB was the theme of friendship. However, with LB: Refrain, there is an abrupt shift, with the plot now consisting of romantic and supernatural elements. The story now focuses on Riki and Rin, who must face and overcome the ghosts of their past in order to save their friends and secure a future where they can be together.
The second season starts off well, with the plot getting more convolu…
Read at the source-Remix-
Our past shapes who we are.
Really. It’s that simple. And this is what LB Refrain is all about.
After watching the first season of LB, I was seriously looking forward to the second season of LB. In the first season, you had a series of arcs that centered around nearly all of the LB’s new additions. These arcs – even though they used supernatural/surreal plot elements that were presented in a very Key-/visual-novel typical fashion – did flow surprisingly well as they were all built around the same common themes: friendship and identity. Sure, not too much character development for the original five members of LB (although there was some for the new additions, but definitely not fully flushed out – after their arc was over they didn’t change much anymore), but the plot was definitely soli…
Read at the sourceZachM
"I'd forgotten
That living
Meant losing" -Naoe Riki
Coming of Age is a really tough genre to pull off, especially in recent anime. You have to establish characters, and as the story progresses, force them to endure certain events and cause them to grow up, whether from a child into an adult or grow as a human being. Little Busters pulls off coming of age as good as I've ever seen an anime do it. And it does it while adding such emotional power to the story that only enhances the impact that the story will leave on you. This is thanks in no small part to Key, of whom the original Visual Novel was originally conceived. Key knows how to touch your emotions. And some would say that they've been hit or miss with some of their stuff. But when it comes to Little Busters, which I just finished…
Read at the sourcejc9622
I thought this was going to be "another season, another crappy drama" kind of show but my god was I wrong. This, folks, is an example of a sequel that is a lot better than the original. I'm not a VN reader so I'm reviewing this as an anime-only viewer.
(There will be some SPOILERS in my review)
[Story]: (9/10) (SPOILERS)
The story continues from the season as Rikki now successfully recruited enough members for the Little Busters and won their first game.
Compared to the 1st season's story, the story told in the 2nd season is a lot better. Just by watching the first episodes, you'll think that they haven't learned their mistakes and are doing the same mistake but nope. After the 1st episode ends, the show starts to get serious and you'll know that this isn't going to be the same as the…
Read at the sourcegregdubin
"Wait, let me cry just a little longer."
I don't think any quote from this series can really sum up the emotional energy it carries. Forget the overdrawn melodrama of the first season flicking you on the nose; Little Busters!: Refrain is here to punch you in the face.
Everything about Little Busters! has been revamped and improved for Refrain. The story is tighter, more focused, and more emotional. Since this season is only half as long as the last and only focuses on one main story arc, events move along with a much better rhythm and flow.
The art, while still pretty bland and uninteresting, has been made crisper and clearer, and the animation has been made smoother and more natural. However, there are some moments of great imagery that elevate the show's visuals.
The music is much th…
Read at the sourceMaeSis
Being the second season of Little Busters,I was not expecting the darker themes Refrain would offer.But,nevertheless I consider Refrain to be an improvement from the first season.
Story:9/10
The story is balanced, wherein the routes shown in Refrain,are characters who do not have a route in the previous season.The story may be confusing at times due to plot twists,but all will be explained,as the story progress.I love the complexity of the plot and the depth the story exhibits.
Art and Sound :8/10
I love the improvement of the art.The soundtrack is more melodramatic and less upbeat compared to the soundtrack of the first season.signifying its change in genre. Character:9/10
Kurugaya gets focused on her route,and the original Little Busters get more development and characterization.I l…
Read at the sourceWillthemost
SPOILERS
This anime, right here, is the single biggest improvement from a season one to a season two I've ever seen.
Something I hate in anime is when fans compare an anime to a different anime, just because it was made by the same company. Whenever a new show adapting a key visual novel is announced, everyone just instantly compares it to Clannad and Clannad after story. I think this is unfair, because this show, while having many very similar aspects was its own show and should be taken as such. Anyways, onto the review. Little busters was a nice little high school drama show, but suffered from unoriginality and some of the sad moments felt forced to me. This is all fixed in the second season, where all the buildup done in season one pays off for a very satisfying conclusion.
Story- *M…
Read at the sourcenishfx
Once in a while, I find myself craving for good drama with at least a decent story depth and a somewhat intense atmosphere. Apart from the latter, Little Busters ~Refrain~ was not able to deliver.
There's one thing in particular that is always inherent to KEY anime: borderline drama. In some cases (Clannad, Kanon), this drama plays out well because it feels genuine. In other cases (Angel Beats!, LB ~Refrain~), it is forced upon the viewer with all one's might and consequently feels artificial. While I must admit that Refrain does have its strengths, especially in terms of plot twists and tension, the characters totally fail along the way, which is the primary reason the drama that is being told here sadly mutates into something melodramatic.
When there is one thing about the story that I…
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