Impression
The greatest drawback to these EX episodes is the fact that we’re going to have to wait a month for each new release – although something is always better than nothing, and I’m quite interested in seeing how these three routes develop.
Saya’s a strange girl. Cute, but unpredictable and spontaneous in terms of both her personality and actions – even after seeing her engaging with the executives of darkness during the episode’s exposition, I genuinely didn’t think her threat to kill Riki was real until she pushed him off the roof and started stepping on his fingers. Thank god Masato was there to catch him! I definitely let my guard down there… Saya initially came off as a friendly and approachable girl too! And even after her first failure, you can see she was still pretty damn serious about things with the rope trap she’d set up. That was just as extreme (if not more) as her first attempt, although attempting to pass it off as suicide by hanging sounds rather morbid. Even though Saya acts like a bit of an airhead at times, those traps were intended as a quick, sure-fire way of getting someone killed, which speaks volumes about her agenda and her desire to avoid the darkness executives.
To be honest, Saya’s agenda is fairly ambiguous at the moment, and we know almost nothing other than that she’s a spy from a certain organization who’s looking for a “revolutionary” treasure hidden in the school. I have a feeling her “game start” comment has some significance in the bigger picture – was it related to how the fence just conveniently came loose? At the very least, it made Riki think this was one of Kyousuke’s games and nothing more. I’m also quite enjoying these small tussles with the darkness executives every now and then (TK-010 is evidently Saya). Their identity is just as ambivalent as Saya’s is, and they’re an example of the supernatural elements Little Busters! likes to sport. Even after Saya’s explanation I’m not too clear on what they are, nor how they come to be – how exactly does a student separate their shadow from their body and send it out patrolling? You’d think that as supposed keepers of the peace they’d have appeared before this, too – but instead they seem more shady than anything else. Even Kyousuke’s wary of their existence.
So it looks like Riki’s off on an adventure! I love how Saya persuaded (i.e. coerced) him into joining her. I actually found that tile puzzle really intriguing – so if there’s anything I’m hoping for in future episodes it’ll be more of that sort of thing (solving puzzles and stuff) as unorthodox as it is for this series. They had to clear one to uncover the entrance, so here’s to hoping for more!