Little Busters! EX

Already seen the two season of Little Busters!. This is also my first review for a series (OVA).

Story: At the moment only Saya's route has been shown but seem she was missing something from her childhood that was ripped from her. But overall the story based off a visual novel was very well played by J.C.Staff and Visual Art's Key brand. Score: 10/10

Sound: The music of this season is little meh but as usual Rita sings the opening theme. Saya's song has a strong emotional feeling toward who is listening but that my opinion since everyone has different taste in music for animination. Score: ... 10/10

Characters: Only Saya Tokido's route was in the first four episode. She is very cute and attractive with her hair tied in two pigtails. Even the head of Key brand mention that Saya was his favorite character of the Little Busters! series. She vaguely remind me of other two pigtails from Key's other visual novel and a very popular Vocaloid. Score:10/10

Enjoyment: The OVA is only halfway and is only ending the Saya Tokido's arc but the OVA seem very enjoyable since it started with a new character that was only in Little Busters! Ecstasy then two of the supporting characters from the anime. Now waiting for Sasasami and Kanata's arc of Little Busters! EX. Score: 10/10

Overall: J.C.Staff and Key has out done themselves for releasing a very nice OVA plus increasing the heroines of Little Busters from six to nine. My only concerned is after 4 episode i only seen one naked scene and alot of bloody scenes of Saya being killed (T T). She is too pretty to die so many times but she must move forward. I love this series but it took me like 2 years to have a interest in it but now this my favorite series. Score: 10/10

~Spoiler Free~

An anime adaptation of the new route additions in key's visual novel - Little Busters!: Ecstasy, Little Busters!: EX is a good summary of the arcs in the visual novel, however it cannot be compared to the masterpiece of which the VN is. That being said, covering three entire arcs over only 8 episodes of such an amazing visual novel cannot realistically be of the same standard as the visual novel. However, the eight episodes are indeed still of very high quality.

The expectations I had for this anime, were naturally very high given that I had just watched Little Busters!: Refrain, now one ... of my favourite animes that I have watched so far. However, I was not disappointed, and was instead met with an anime definitely worth the wait of one month per episode for. Little busters EX, although not nearly as sad as Refrain; still builds onto the series wonderfully and does it justice.

The characters in this anime are in a word, incredible. Keeping in line with the original series, each and every character has a tragic background that is completely contrary to the facade they portray in public at first. However as the main character (Riki) progresses, their facade is removed and their past is revealed. Choice of music in Little busters EX, like the original, is amazing, and Jun Maeda should be commended for this. If you liked air, angel beats or clannad, it is likely that you will enjoy little busters EX too. The art style is the same across the series, and is quite good.

The only con of this anime, would be that the second and third arcs could be a bit longer, as two episodes each can not adequately cover their stories in as much detail as I would like. That being said, they are still made very well. Saya's story however, is told across the first four episodes. This is probably because she is entirely new to the series, while the other two main heroines of little busters EX appeared in the original series, though only briefly.

If you have not yet seen this brilliant anime, then you should really stop reading this review and go watch it. However, if you haven't already, watch the original series first (Little busters and Refrain). Also, if you have the time, definitely give the visual novel a try as it explores all the characters in greater detail than the animes. However, currently Little Busters Ecstasy has not been fully translated yet.

Ecstasy is an 8-episode sequel/expansion to Little Busters, taking place before, during and after the events of the original story. For various plot-related reasons however, you should not watch this before you've finished the first series as well as its second season Little Busters Refrain, as Ecstasy's plot goes under the assumption that the viewer is fully aware of the events taking place during Refrain. If you watch them in any other order you will end up getting spoiled.

Ecstasy adds three new arcs to the Little Busters story, two of which are focused on the already well familiar Sasasegawa Sasami and Futaki Kanata respectively, but ... one revolves around an entirely new character named Tokido Saya. Therefore you can easily split up the series into three separate parts and talk briefly about them independently which is what I'm going to do here.


Saya's route: eps 1-4

Half of the anime consists of Saya's route which is the first one off the bat. Saya is a very energetic and self-torturing mayadere character, which is an extraordinarily rare trope to ever stumble upon, but she's extremely entertaining and funny to see in action. The first thing you'll notice about this arc is how vastly different it is compared to all the other arcs of Little Busters. In fact it's much more similar to Angel Beats by having cute girls, guns and action. The story is about a giant underground labyrinth located beneath the school where mysterious shadows lurk, and a rumored treasure supposedly existing somewhere inside it which Riki and Saya together are trying to find. The only problem with this is that in the original visual novel, Saya's route is actually a dungeon crawling RPG containing a map system, traps, puzzles, shooting games and more, and none of this really translates into an anime format very well which makes the atmosphere feel a bit awkward at times.

Overall this route is still very enjoyable and a breath of fresh air compared to what the main series has to offer, but it suffers a bit from adaptation issues and some slight rushing. That being said it's still a very good arc.

Final score: 8/10


Sasami's route: eps 5-6

The ever so loveable Sasami finally gets her own arc here, but sadly it ends up being extremely disappointing for the simple reason that the adaptation is rushed beyond belief. Her route revolves around her being transformed into a cat for some unknown supernatural reason which she and Riki has to figure out and deal with together. This is actually a very emotional story in the visual novel, but here it sadly misses its mark completely because there is no time for the viewer to get emotionally attached to Sasami as a character or the story itself because the arc is already over after a mere two episodes. So unfortunately this arc is kind of butchered.

Final score: 6/10


Kanata's route: eps 7-8

Last but not least we have Kanata's arc... actually that's wrong, this is definitely the "least" of the three stories as it's actually incredibly bland and boring. Again this is only two episodes long, but in this case that is not the issue; rather her arc is really bad in the visual novel as well. It's basically just a rehash of Haruka's route but from her sister's perspective instead, as Kanata's route is also revolving around her family problems. The problem here however is that there's almost nothing happening in this story from start to finish, and it just feels like the whole thing was slapped on there because they could, not because they wanted to.

Final score: 4/10


Overall, if you liked the original Little Busters as well as its second season Little Busters Refrain, then I still encourage you to pick this up. It's only 8 episodes long after all, it's not like it can hurt very much. Just don't put your expectations on it too high, consider this more as a bonus than anything else.

Better still of course would just be to play the visual novel as it is a lot better in the end, but at the time of writing this Ecstasy hasn't been fully translated quite yet so you'll have to wait a while longer for that, if you can't read Japanese that is.

After seeing all the 8 episodes, I'm just going to assume that these 3 routes are non-canon. I tried to put this routes in the chronological order along with the first season of LB and Refrain and it's completely impossible.


[Story]: (6/10)
Little Busters: EX is an anime adaptation of a visual novel called "Little Busters: Ecstasy". Were they on Ecstasy when they made the VN? What's with the name? Anyways, it added 3 "new" heroines. Notice the quotation marks? Yea, 2 of the 3 heroines are not even new. 1 new character that was added is Saya (we'll get more into her in the ... characters category) and the 2 "new" characters are Sasami and Kanata which we have already seen in the first season of LB.
There are 3 new heroines, meaning that the show has 3 arcs.

The 1st arc which is Saya's arc, lasted for about 4 episodes. No surprise, Riki comes in and helps Saya get the treasure inside the underground labyrinth. There are more things that happened between Rikki and Saya but I don't want to spoil the scenes. The ending of the arc.....well......all I want to say is they tried to make everything dramatic but failed to do so.

The 2nd arc which is Sasame's arc, lasted for about 2 episodes. Sasame asks Rikki for help after she finds out that she has been turning into a cat for unknown reasons. Again, I don't want to spoil this arc. The ending of this arc ended on a happy note, reuniting Sasame and her cat.

The 3rd arc which is Kanate's arc, lasted for about 2 episodes. If you saw her past in LB then you shouldn't be surprised that this arc will again focus on her past and her family. I mean, it's all the same but the EX goes more in-depth, showing that she has been on her sister's side all this time. The ending of this arc, again, ended on a happy note. Instead of Rikki helping Kanata alone, the whole Little Busters crew helped her.

Now my thoughts on the arcs. The only arc that I liked is Saya's arc because of Saya, the romance, and the bad-ass gun action scenes. I didn't really like the remaining 2 arcs that much because of how boring it is. Hell, I find Sasame's arc ridiculous. You'll find out if you see the ending of Sasame's arc. Kanate's arc was so poorly thought out. It's like they run out of ideas or something. Kanate's arc is mostly the same as Haruka's arc except it just goes more in-depth and tried to be more dramatic.
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[Art/Animation]: (9/10)
The Animation is exactly the same as Refrain's animation so I'm not going to write my opinions on the animation again. It's on my Refrain review.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
The background themes are mostly the same but there are new ones, used for the action scenes in Saya's arc. The OP theme song used in EX is exactly the same as LB's OP but there's a slight difference. The OP in EX is more of a rock version. I personally love the OP here than the OP in LB because of those electric guitar in the background. There are 4 ED's used in this show but I only liked the first one. I didn't really like the remaining 3 ED's.
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[Characters]: (8/10)
The show only focuses on 3 characters but Saya got a lot more development and a more screentime. Saya is an attractive and a popular girl in school due to her attractive face and her figure. . However, at night, she can be found at the school, wandering around in order to obtain a "treasure" from those she calls the "Darkness Executives", and even has to fight them for it. Just like LB, something tragic happened in her past and I don't want to spoil it. It's kind of dramatic but not that sad, in my opinion. Sasame which we know in LB as a cat-hater is really not a cat-hater. She had his reasons. Kanata is the chairman of the public morals committee and head of the girls' dormitory but you should already know that. The show just goes more in-depth with her character, her past and explains why she "that" personality.
Out of the 3 heroines, I personally liked Saya more because she's more of a bad-ass compared to Sasame and Kanata
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[Enjoyment]: (8/10)
I personally enjoyed EX for the first 4 episodes because of Saya's arc but it just got boring during Sasame's arc and Kanata's arc. I did enjoy the ending of EX. We get to see the Little Busters crew work together to help Kanata.
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[OVERALL]: (8/10)
If you watched Little Busters and Little Busters: Refrain then you might want to check this out. It's not as dramatic or tear-jerking as Refrain but it's still quite an enjoyable side-story anime.


Pros:
+Great Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+Saya's arc is well done
+Enjoyable action scenes

Cons:
-The last 2 arcs are mediocre
-Forced Dramatic moments
-Character arcs are rushed
-Mediocre ending

Right off the bat, similarly to refrain i would immediately recommend this to those who have watched the original series - as you'll be enthralled by this additional show consisting of yet again, well thought out, powerful and untold stories: of 3 supporting characters.

EX has a good blend of a spectrum of genres, from the start you'll be hit with a very cinematic, action packed main plot, and as you observe these other characters too, their untold relevance is seamlessly revealed.
Fans of LB will be pleased to hear that yes, all of the base components well reflect that signature narration - a powerful hybrid between ... emotion, twists and dark sides.

As a special, you've probably already realized that this installment doesn't go on for too long, and so when the creators opened a building-full of great possibilities, they had to shut at least a few windows to fit everything in. The first told story line was definitely comprehensive, yet i can't help but feel that the remaining two were a tad rushed.

It is still a win for the viewers though, a special series that will further enrich your knowledge on that faithful group of childhood friends. As i expected it was an enjoyable watch :)

Not really much else to say.
So See You ^^

Do you want to know the secret to this world?

Honestly, these OVAs are awesome. I watched and enjoyed both seasons of Little Busters so I decided to watch these. Great decision.

The story routes are great. Saya's route with all of the shadows and action scenes really reminded me of Angel Beats, one of my favorite anime. Saya's route was very profound, while making me laugh at the same time. Sasami's route has proved to be pretty entertaining from what we've seen, as it is full of comedy and transformation hijinks.

The only worry that I have is that Saya's route took up four episodes. That's exactly ... half of the eight episodes that were created for this. I know that since Kanata's backstory was mostly revealed in the first season, I seriously worry that the pacing of Sasami's and Kanata's routes will be rushed because of this.

The animation is done by J.C. Staff, the same people who animated the other Little Busters seasons. The art was just as good as it was before, which is nice considering that I enjoyed the character designs and overall look of the anime.

Honestly, I really liked that they incorporated the music box song from the menu in the arcs. They played the song Rita sang for the first season as the opening again, which I really thought was awesome since it was my favorite opening from the series.

These characters are great, easily one of the best parts of this anime. I was a little worried that the additional Little Busters members such as Komari, Mio, and Haruka were going to end up being pushed out of the matter to pave way for the new heroines. The characters are as fun as they were before, which is a definite plus.

One character that I could definitely identify with was Tokido Saya, the first heroine. Even though I'm not a gun-slinging badass, she is shown to be a airhead at times and often acts like a tsundere, which is something that I tend to think that I am. I got super attached to her and bawled so much at the ending of her route. She honestly reminded me a lot of myself, which is a great thing since it shows that the creators worked hard at making characters relatable.

Honestly, I am enjoying every minute of these OVAs. I would definitely recommend these to anyone, but would advise for you to watch the first two seasons to become acquainted with the characters.

Little Busters EX ( Ecstasy ) are comprised of extra ovas routes on some secondary characters and a new character they are:

Riki Naoe ( main character )

Futaki Kanata ( Main character of the 3rd story )

Sasami Sasasegawa ( Main character of the 2nd story )

Tokido Saya ( 1st main character of the story and new character )

... All the stories take place at different times the 1st story takes place after Little Busters Refrain , The 2nd Story is Before Little Busters Refrain and The 3rd passes while Little Busters Refrain .

My favorite route is the 3rd in history

The punctuation that I give is 9.5

Well It is good, but bit confusing though in Saya's route

Well In the series,we cannot say whether it is prequel or sequel , In short it is mixed up.

Well Little busters is one of my favorite series, Honestly I doesn't give that much momentum , that the refrain and orginal gives me. Another fact is that, I believe Rin as rikki's supremecy, but saya comes from nowhere and takes the place.Are you kidding me, They give this much key point to rin and rikki relationship , and give another lovey dubby rote to rikki.

The best thing I liked is Kanata's route , which is ... coming from First half of her story is before Refrain and second half is after Refrain. I just love the love the way they help kanata from the forced wedding, and the ending scene, Is just too perfect.

Bonding is what Little busters Means!