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| Reading all these comments about how disappointed people are about this episode (and most episodes) makes me glad I didn't play the game first, because I thought this episode was good but I assume all of you are comparing it to the game and thought the game did it better. |
| You guys are sick. lol Just watched the thing and I was tearing up by the end. As for the ending song, I understand you wanted to hear the track you are familiar with, but... C'mon... The one they used fits just as well. And I just checked the VN version quickly afterwards on Youtube. The delivery is quite different, yes, but I didn't feel like I missed anything on the anime. Oh, and when they switched to Masato's POV, it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Oh crap! So this is what got into him!" Looking back at previous episodes, everything makes total sense to me. If you're disappointed, there's nothing I can do, but try to watch this with a clear and open mind and you'll see it was quite well done. Plus, if you like the VN better, just play it again. That's why it exists in the first place. :P |
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| Damn... The feels especially the moment Song Of Friends played. ;_; I'll be surely get more feels on the next episode(Kengo). Can't wait for next week. |
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Muchan said: Unless some serious stuff happens in the next episodes. I don't see how people would have thought that this would overcome Clannad:AS on MAL. As an anime only viewer it seems a little too random atm? Agreed. I'll most likely drop it because atm I don't really care what sort of explanation it gives. I loved season 1 but this is a mess. |
| Zzzzzz... Meh. |
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| I like that backstory. Also I love Song For Friends. |
| It was a really good episode the last few minutes with Kyousuke and Masato teared me up a bit..and LOL VN readers overreacting sheesh.. |
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MCAL said: greebo said: Muchan said: Unless some serious stuff happens in the next episodes. I don't see how people would have thought that this would overcome Clannad:AS on MAL. As an anime only viewer it seems a little too random atm? Agreed. I'll most likely drop it because atm I don't really care what sort of explanation it gives. I loved season 1 but this is a mess. So even if it is an explanation that perfectly explains everything? BE MORE CONFUSED. FEEL THE CONFUSION. Keep on feeling it. *gets some popcorn* |
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| I give up on trying to make sense of this anime, nothing has been making much sense after episode 3. Even if the remaining episodes somehow become "awesome" as the VN player hype train is making it out to be, I can't imagine myself giving this anime a very high score. And yes, it's getting hella annoying reading about VN players comparing the anime to the VN, and reading about VN people overhyping shit and talking condescendingly towards anime only viewers for not trying to understand things and for dismissing the show as "random moe blob crap." SHUT THE HELL UP AND GO TO THAT VN THREAD OVER THERE, kthxbai. |
| Go ***k yourself. Polite as usual, lightXTC |
| VN players calling this episode bad were just plain and simple *Overreacting* which is fine because they are entitled to their own opinion and they just wanted to be perfect! having that said i'm also one but i really liked this episode i think they did a good job only having 1 episode for Masato music placement was my only major grip(even if the song i wanted got played) but i still manged to get the feels near the end when you just see him resting and smiling c'mon! |
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| I was shocked to see the first page, I enjoyed this episode quite abit. The beginning as most said asn't as good, but the rest of the episode I really enjoyed! |
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| This is the episode where Key manages to give even muscles an awesome story. |
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| It's pretty fucking annoying coming into these topics every week to see the VN readers being mad at everything. I liked the episode. So there. |
Redfoxoffire said: It's pretty fucking annoying coming into these topics every week to see the VN readers being mad at everything. I liked the episode. So there. ^^^ |
| この世界には。。。秘密がある |
Seano299 said: DeathDoUsPart said: Thats JC Staff for you, sigh... now im scared to watch this episode. I'll say now that it's not AS BAD as all these people make it out to be, but it's certainly no where up to snuff with the VN's Episode: Masato. Pretty much this. |
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| Well, I understand the feelings of the VN fandom, but let me tell you guys a thing of speculation. Most of us like Clannad right? I mean, like it to a higher extent compared to other anime. I think people accepted it wholeheartedly before because the vn community is not that big at that time. People are watching the show with a clear mind, not thinking anything about comparison and such. So what im trying to present is... try to forget about the VN while watching this show to appreciate its worth. that's what I did and I almost cried in the end. I only compared the anime vs vn after I watch an episode, but still, I think this episode is on par. Well I don't know... a speculation is a speculation. |
| to everyone saying "VN players need to stop being anal, the episode was good and I liked it". The episode was certainly "good". but mind you that this was probably the second or third best segment of the VN. I've been literally dreaming about this episode for the past couple months and imagining how AMAZING it would be animated. |
| TL & founder of Refrain Subs. Website: Check us out for weekly releases! |
| Many users are only reading the first page of this forum and post their reply immediately.. I was thinking that they might be reading my initial rage back there.. so I guess I'll delete those posts as I take back those words... "Good" episode nonetheless. |
| but to a much lighter tone... Guys, you're creeping the hell out of me. Lots of Masato avatars. I'm going insane seriously. |
MCAL said: greebo said: Muchan said: Unless some serious stuff happens in the next episodes. I don't see how people would have thought that this would overcome Clannad:AS on MAL. As an anime only viewer it seems a little too random atm? Agreed. I'll most likely drop it because atm I don't really care what sort of explanation it gives. I loved season 1 but this is a mess. So even if it is an explanation that perfectly explains everything? Yes. With the overelaborate plot and making every character unlikable... Seriously if this is just one big injoke for those VN readers then it should of come with a warning! Something like Baccano was fantastic when it came to mysterious plots but sadly refrain seems to just plain annoy me. No doubt some smug VN reader will say it's suppose to. |
greebo said: MCAL said: greebo said: Muchan said: Unless some serious stuff happens in the next episodes. I don't see how people would have thought that this would overcome Clannad:AS on MAL. As an anime only viewer it seems a little too random atm? Agreed. I'll most likely drop it because atm I don't really care what sort of explanation it gives. I loved season 1 but this is a mess. So even if it is an explanation that perfectly explains everything? Yes. With the overelaborate plot and making every character unlikable... Seriously if this is just one big injoke for those VN readers then it should of come with a warning! Something like Baccano was fantastic when it came to mysterious plots but sadly refrain seems to just plain annoy me. No doubt some smug VN reader will say it's suppose to. at the current pace and phase of the anime...yeah, no one can blame you for saying these things. I think the Kengo episode would annoy you alot more too. Maybe you're pov might change after the 12th episode. (well if you're willing to continue watching, that is.) |
calmerx said: Even for me it's irritating when they kept dangling the "there is a secret to this world" carrot when it is not going to be revealed so soon. I thought it was good because there are people who actually started speculating towards it given the amount of hints the show drops (a lot more than anime viewers may think though probably only because they can't do as much detail as the VN), but now that so many people are getting confused... I'm not too sure anymore. Definitely focusing on it too much though. The show might be better if people started focusing on what the characters are doing at the moment and forget about the secret of the world for a long while. Except Riki brings it up every episode =_=; |
"Now's the time for you to run towards the day you awaken from this dream." ~Boys be Smile |
| It could be the weekly vs. marathon thing, and people not having watched the series continuously. Perhaps the scores will go up a bit months after the show ends, when people decide to watch Little Busters!: Refrain and Little Busters continuously, since people seem to be frustrated with the weekly "I don't know what's going on" and can't even enjoy the parts of the story at hand that mostly make clear sense, which in this episode included Masato sticking with Riki to the end, after Riki having prove himself to be strong enough to take him down just like Kyousuke, and Masato's flashbacks and everything. And @ the Baccano thing, Baccano isn't nearly as hard to follow as even the VN version of Refrain. I think the 2nd half of the episode was done well, but I REALLY hope they do a lot of blu-ray fixes for this series. Kurugaya literally absorbed all the Little Busters budget into her breasts. There was so much derp QUALITY in the first half, and Riki's character design, the music choices towards the end of the fight made it seem like a joke when it was supposed to be more serious, and an ironic fight between friends while Riki and Masato didn't realize what was going on. So, a lot of stuff was cut out, but overall I think it was the execution in the first half, and the unexpected changes in the 2nd that kinda messed it up. It's still tying the story together fine thematically, though I would've liked to see the parts they skipped, seeing as they were the more emotional parts in the VN. |
Vladz0r said: Kurugaya literally absorbed all the Little Busters budget into her breasts. ^^ I want to make this as my sig XD |
| It wasn't that bad, but I still loved it wholeheartedly I can see why some people see it as all over the place, tbh it's awkward to have that transition from Rin to Masato, but it'll be answered in the end. MASABRO EPISODE |
julyan04 said: Vladz0r said: Kurugaya literally absorbed all the Little Busters budget into her breasts. ^^ I want to make this as my sig XD omg I'm in tears. |
| Sorry for the sarcastic tone of my above post. This show seems to bring the worst out of me! I don't mean to sound like a troll. |
| As an anime viewer I really liked this episode, during the end I almost felt like cry for a moment. Btw, next one is Kengo then Kyosuke? So I bet Riki will try to "fight" Kengo and convince him into joining Little Busters, I don't want to think when it will be Kyousuke's turn .. My feels are not ready. |
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| As a VN player, I must say that considering the fact that they only had 24 minutes, this was well done. I don't care if the other VN players thinks that it sucked, I still believe in JC Staff and that this will be a masterpiece as an anime, as well. |
Tasuku- said: Well, is understable that people think this is random or not make sense atm, one of the major issue is that in the anime we have to wait one entire week for just 24 fucking minutes and that can discourage many people. Not like in the VN when you can read this part of the story in pretty much one day and get all the answers, and IMO that can change the experience A LOT. I guess this is the main problem here. I haven't see anyone who stopped reading Refrain in the middle and continue straight to the end. No time to stop and figuring unexplained things. Anyway, I'm kinda mixed about this. I was expecting some kind of secret of the world explanation presented by Masato this episode, along with some different way of storytelling that I suspect will happen, which turned out to be a wrong guess. It took a much more traditional way instead, and while it's definitely not bad, I was kind of misled by my own expectation. That said, the childhood part was great, albeit probably too short. I'll wait for multiple Masato thing to be answered later. Probably I guess Secret of The World teasing and heavy foreshadowing kinda backfired, huh? I seriously considering to hold Refrain until the end of airing, so I can watch it in one swoop. At this point I prefer to watch everything in one seat rather than constantly guessing how they will present the secret of the world since at this point there's almost nothing left to be guessed anymore (kinda figured most of things, only waiting for details and presentation). I think I'll recommend that too every other non-VN watchers, too. |
| So I just did a marathon of the first eight episodes of this series, and one thing I gotta say is that this is a MASSIVE improvement over the first season. Like, a colossal improvement, I actually LIKE this season. I think they dropped the ball at the end of Rin's arc though, since they summarized the last 2~ hours of her route into 2 minutes, which I thought was kind of dumb. I also felt like they rushed Yuiko's route a bit, but other than that, I'm loving it so far. Episode 8 I thought was fantastic, and it was very faithful to the VN, and given how little time they had (22~ minutes), they did a great job in showing off all of the important bits of Masato's past and character up to this point. The season as a whole has been excellent so far, and I'm actually looking forward to the next episode, something which NEVER happened in the first season. I also like the improved art and animations, since it really makes it look that much better. |
| That was disappointing. I lost my hope... |
| I didn't see a problem with this episode, I really thought it was well done though this coming from someone who hasn't read the VN and most likely never will. (though I may in the distant future) It didn't really feel rushed to me at all to me. I can't say I felt much for them though I really didn't expect to he was just getting his best friend back. When the preview of the next episode came on and them words were spoken I got chills down my spine xD |
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| The execution wasn't bad. Most of the disappointment came from the soundtrack they used and the animation quality. I noticed there's like a different animation styling almost every new route |
RavenWish said: So when is this anime going to get good? Whenever you apply your limited attention span to the show.? It seems like the more complicated of a show you watch, the lower you rate it, unless the show explicitly explains what's going on. Luckily, Little Busters will do that for you in episode 11, so I'd advise you to stick around. Maybe you'll find that your time wasn't really wasted with the show. |
Vladz0rNov 23, 2013 10:03 PM
| Mixed feelings again... Like some others here, I felt it rushed. But yeah, it´s complicated to summarize it in only 24 minutes... The placement of the OST was one thing I disliked. Damn, I know how much I love Song For Friends, but personally It didn´t fit to me for the final scene. Should´ve kept Little Melody, because that one made the atmosphere in the VN. Animation wasn´t as bad as some people say. On the other hand, I´ve nothing to say about the battle: outstanding. And the final scene was ok. Still have hope for the next 5 chapters. |
 This is how it all begins.  My RYM|My Last.Fm|My Steam |
| im an anime only viewer (i did read some of the VN but never got around to getting this far) and i can say that was a pretty decent episode. The animation was great, but hey that's just like, my opinion man. |
| I'm really conflicted. On one hand they only had twenty four minutes, on the other hand they have never done a good job on the first place. For an adaption this was done quite well, especially the Episode: Masato segment. I liked that a lot. I didn't even mind Clear Weather After the Rain playing once Riki said "Masato, you're my best friend." For some reason hearing the voice over of Riki saying that with the music just went REALLY well together. I loved it. Up until then I thought it was a bit out of place and could've had "Heroic Battle" playing before that when Kyousuke fought Masato. As the voice actors said of season one in an interview after it ended, the visual novel was more emotional and that applies here as well. Most of it in this episode is due to the time limit they had to show what they needed to rather than the fact that JC Staff just sucks (finally it's not their incompetence that hurt the show). But I really liked the second half of this episode. So for me I still can't tell whether they will make or break Refrain once the really sad parts come in. My guess is that they will be sad and some people may cry, but it will never reach the level that Kyoto Animation could pull off or the level of sadness that is in the VN. As good as some parts of this series have been, nothing has actually been equal to the VN. I think that in the end this will be a series that isn't as good as the VN, whereas Clannad was on par with it. Sure it wasn't as long (things always get cut out), but at least it honored[/i/ the VN whereas I don't think Little Busters! will quite reach that. Nonetheless, it should be interesting for the remaining episodes. Except for the next one, I never liked Episode: Kengo that much. But after that it will pile on and fast. I thought it was really funny how Masato looked like a zombie when he first lifted up the statue, and I liked the music playing before the intermission card part. They had some good music too. I really wish they had played "Little Melody" though, but it's not a big deal. Props to the CGs too, at least the two with Masato sitting down after the fight. Since I've waited for this episode since the adaption first started (favorite part of the whole VN), I'll say that I'm just about satisfied. I got closer to crying from the VN though, whereas here I'm like, "Oh, how sad," then didn't have much of a care for it. So yeah, this is less emotional. Episode: 4/5 (I rated it 5/5 for the poll) |
Malus92Nov 23, 2013 11:32 PM
| I dunno. I wonder if people are expecting After Story episode 18 tears every episode. I only found 3 moments in Clannad that were even worth tearing up for, And in the end, all the LB routes have an in-story explanation for happening, along with insight on all the other events that happened. Still, I don't know if it'll carry it, and this show probably requires a lot of thinking, but people haven't gotten to like the characters involved. Mod Edit: spoiler put into spoiler tag. |
ThangLongNov 27, 2013 8:53 AM
| I suppose I was too optimistic to expect some of the other VN players to not complain about every little detail of the episode. And again with the J.C. hate? I guess people are still butthurt about Key not waiting for KyoAni to finish their production queue, as if that would change so much about this already perfectly fine adaptation. Figures. Anyhow, I wish this would have been longer than a single episode, but I guess that's what happens when you're only given the budget for a 1 cour show. I'm still liking how this is turning out. I'm really looking forward to when they reveal the secret of the world. More than anything, I'm looking forward to how the anime-only watchers will react to it. |
AndyRayyNov 30, 2013 7:40 AM
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| @AndyRavy That VN comparison issue was bound to happen for this episode, and will definitely happen for the next episode. Episodes 10-13 are where the pacing will more closer to the VN, due to the nature of how much content they'll be adapting per episode, and I think the complaining (myself included) will cease a bit. Episodes 11-12 will most likely be a near 1:1 adaptation with added screenplay. Episode 9 has the added benefit of not really need the same levels of screenplay in order to tell its story, and I personally think it COULD turn out better, but the amount of content it has to cover is also more. I hope they'll continue to be creative, as the revelations are coming soon. Mm, I always wonder why 95% of the Crunchyroll and Reddit comments on the show seem to be positive, but MAL is super critical. It's funny that Little Busters!: Refrain, which started out as a romcom moe harem, attracted such an extremely critical audience. I personally think that this was the hardest episode to pull off, and people wanted it to be more sad/dramatic than it was, but I think they developed the backstory nicely, and the ending was still nice despite the changes. We didn't get enough time for the fighting and Masato's perspective with all the delusions, so there wasn't quite the amount of tension, music timing was a bit weird because of how the scenes were, and I think a lot people couldn't quite take the fighting and Masato rampaging seriously(myself included), but the second half was pretty good. for what it did. I mean, I wanted some tears like a lot of other people, but they won't hold back later on. Some anime-only people and VN readers even still cried, anyway. This episode won't be one to top the VN, but I think for episodes 9,11-13, there is a lot of room for improvement in the anime, considering the lack of CGs, sprites, animation in the VN for those parts. I'll try to be a bit more optimistic, though I still have a lot of complaints and would kill for a remake. |
Vladz0rNov 24, 2013 12:18 AM
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