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haize78

  • Joined Nov 6, 2014
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Little Busters Refrain is the second season of Little Busters. To be honest, after I finished the first season I wasn't at all enthusiastic about it - you can look up the review if you're interested. But in that review I did add that a good second season might be able to overcome the flaws of the first season. And I'm really happy to say that that is exactly what happened. Little Busters Refrain takes the whole story to a new level, giving meaning, purpose and significance to everything that in the first season seemed ineffectual and senseless.

This second season has a completely different vibe compared to the first: it's much darker. There's this kind of ominous and oppressive atmosphere that throws you off balance coming after a first season that was much more bland and brimming with positive feelings. For most of the series you have no idea what's going on and you can't understand why all of a sudden Kyousuke has become the villain. But at the end there's a really good explanation to everything. So the story is definetely a satisfying one in terms of content, consistency and pacing. It's not very original - I was reminded mainly of Steins Gate, but nonetheless it makes sense and everything fits into place. The ending isn't bad and it's a happy one. I think that if it had ended at episode 11 it would have been much more heart-breaking and maybe I would have given it higher marks: happy endings aren't memorable.

As for the characters, Little Busters Refrain focuses on the main characters that in the first season were neglected: Kyousuke, Masato, Kengo, Rin and Riki. And at the beginning there are also two episodes dedicated to Kurugaya. This time I really cannot complain about the characters, they are presented and developed much better. Personally, I don't really like Riki that much as he strikes me as insubstantial, I think Kyousuke does a much better job of being a leader and is a more interesting character. 

Animation and music are good.

Little Busters is the story of the friendship between a group of 10 high school students. The first season serves mainly as an introduction (a long one, actually, as it counts 26 episodes) where you get to meet the cast and you get a bit of the backstory; it focuses mainly on the individual stories if the girls who join the baseball team after it is founded by its original 5 members. In Little Busters Refrain the girls who dominated the first series are very much in the background and they only show up at the end; in Refrain the spotlight is on the 5 childhood friends and their relationship, how much they care for each other and how far they are willing to go to protect their friends and loved ones. It's emotional and touching. It isn't perfect, but it's a good watch and I do recommend it. 

8/10 story
7/10 animation
7/10 sound
7.5/10 characters
7.5/10 overall

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