Little Busters! ~Refrain~ Episode 6: After the Escape

CHEAP TRICKS!

Impression

Intense stuff this week. The breakdown of the group has been occurring for a while now, but Rin’s departure really hit it home – all the girls are gone now except Komari, who is always ominously depicted alone on the roof. We never did find out exactly what went on with Rin, but the pained (yet simple) texts she sent back highlighted all her insecurities well enough. While it’s true that Rin’s grown up considerably throughout the series, I doubt she’s the person best suited to help out a bunch of depressed strangers. I definitely understood Riki’s anger after seeing Rin return all broken like that. And much of that anger was directed towards Kyousuke, who seems to have completely embraced his new antagonist role.

I still don’t know how I feel about labelling Kyousuke an antagonist – the show (and Riki himself) seems to be encouraging me to do so. While he might have sent the messages, I don’t think he formed their baseball team for the express purpose of breaking it up. Riki’s anger makes it very understandable that he’s blaming everything on Kyousuke, but it seems like he’s jumping to conclusions over Rin and Komari being unable to reach each other. And while it certainly looks like he has no more use for the girls, we all know they genuinely aren’t around any more, for whatever reason. Kyousuke asking Riki to “endure” and “hold out” almost makes it seem like everything’s a test… but for what purpose? Riki’s certainly found a confidant in Kengo, who’s decided to side with Riki much like how Masato has sided with Kyousuke.

It’s very fitting that Kyousuke’s challenge ended up being baseball in the rain – if Riki wins, Kyousuke will allow Rin to return. I love how Kyousuke somehow has so much power! It’s like Rin’s return is totally dependant on his wishes. Also, it was really reminiscent of that Clannad scene where Tomoya bats against Akio for Nagisa’s hand in marriage. Of course, the main difference is that he succeeds, while Riki doesn’t. But yeah, that match really was intense – you know it’s serious when Masato isn’t smiling any more. Any VN readers willing to enlighten me on the cheap tricks? It seems like an overreaction at first (and I’ve never ever seen Kengo so angry) but is he accusing Kyousuke of conjuring up Miyuki to throw him off balance? I don’t even want to question what Kyousuke’s capable of any more 😀

While it was nice to hear a Lia song, even as a non-VN reader I could tell that J.C. Staff really hit the fast-forward button with Riki and Rin’s decision to escape. Presumably this made up a substantial chunk of Rin’s route that they decided to frantically cram into a couple of minutes, as I ended up pretty confused about the whole thing. It seemed to me like they randomly (?) found a house and decided to live alone, somehow managing to sustain themselves for a period of time until they were busted by the cops. Oh well, I’m guessing it wasn’t overly important if it was glossed over.

If Rin’s route is done, then we have seven episodes left for Refrain – the very crux of the entire show. I’m expecting great things.