Named after the final chapter of the Little Busters! visual novel which is only unlocked once all character routes had been explored, the anime adaptation of “Refrain” seeks to wrap up the final pieces of character development and unveil the “mystery of the world” to Riki and viewers. Split into three arcs which are heavily weighted in favour of the latter two, these thirteen episodes primarily focus on Yuiko Kurugaya, Rin Natsume and finally the Refrain arc which is heavily weighted towards the original members of Little Busters!. Given that all three arcs are easily the most significant in the visual novel and have the biggest potential to spoil what is a fairly surprising and attention-grabbing conclusion, these were the most suited to being placed in their own separate season.
I am particularly fond of Kurugaya’s arc and her character as a whole, with her route being the best written and most memorable one from KEY’s original writings. While this arc had the potential to go for six or seven episodes at the very least when it comes to the anime adaptation, J.C. Staff and the writing team opted to butcher it and ultimately regress its plot into something that fit into a three-episode timeframe. While I don’t necessarily dislike the elements they kept in the anime, it was clear they had to rush through her character development, ultimately leaving her less developed than other members of the Little Busters! cast.
While there isn’t much to be said about the last two arcs without the risk of hinting at something which could be considered a spoiler, I will say that they are much better adaptations of the original source work. Both work to better develop the original members of the Little Busters, providing small insights into their childhood and effectively leading the story to its eventual conclusion. Compared to the rest of the series, this remains slightly more consistent to the source material, with the final episode in particular even surpassing what was originally presented in terms of length and emotion-building. While the conclusion wasn’t as emotional as CLANNAD’s nor was it as intriguing as Kanon’s, it was nevertheless satisfying.
Unfortunately the international anime release of Little Busters! Refrain made by Sentai Filmworks (North America) / Hanabee Entertainment (Australia) does not include the Little Busters! EX episodes or bonus OVA episode “I’ll Protect the Saito of the World!”. It is currently unknown if these will be released at a later date or will simply remain unlocalized by western publishers.
With only a six month gap between the first and second seasons of Little Busters! airing on television in Japan, these has been little change made to the design processes between them. The quality of these Refrain chapters in terms of visual quality are still reasonably good. As with the first season, the music is also a nice mixed bag of original and brand new musical tracks – topped of by the new opening sequence “Boys be Smile” by Suzuyu and a variety of ending sequences. The English dubbing is also consistently strong, with one big surprise being that the writers opted to retain the “Loli-Loli Hunters” scene from the first couple of episodes rather than rewrite it completely. It was one scene I expected them to somehow rewrite and wouldn’t have blamed them for doing so, but sticking with the original lines was an impressive decision.
In terms of on-disc bonus content, there isn’t very much of note. Asides from trailers for ‘Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They’, ‘Humanity Has Declined’ and ‘Red Data Girl’, all that is available across both discs are clean opening and closing animations. Unfortunately, Hanabee Entertainment decided to not throw in any first-print bonuses like they did with the first season.
Little Busters! Refrain is a solid conclusion to what has been a great anime adaptation, and if you have made it this far through the series, then there is very little reason to stop now. That being said, there seemed to be the material present to justify another 26-episode season rather than stopping it at a mere 13-episodes, which would have allowed the extension of Kurugaya’s arc and those of others.
While this anime made for an enjoyable watch, I do wonder how long it will be until the visual novel finally makes its way to the international market. With Sekai Project’s official Kickstarter campaign for CLANNAD drawing in more than half a million dollars from fans, it wouldn’t surprise me if fans of the anime will soon be able able to join their Japanese counterparts in enjoying the material which made people fall in love with Little Busters! in the first place.
Acknowledgements
A DVD copy of Little Busters! Refrain was provided by Australian anime publisher Hanabee Entertainment for the purpose of this review.
