(There will be some SPOILERS in my review)
[Story]: (5/10) (SPOILERS)
The story is not that interesting or even mind-blowing. The show focuses on Rikki as he tries to recruit more people for the "Little Busters" which is the name of their group and their recently created baseball team. I won't go with his past life, flashbacks, or his conditions. The show focuses on 2 main things. The 1st is him recruiting more people for the "Little Busters" and the 2nd one is Rikki and Rin trying to solve the mysterious letters that they have been getting from a cat named "Leon".
Let's focus on the first one. Yes, Rikki successfully recruits more people which is mostly girls because their boy-to-girl ratio was 4 to 1. What happens after he successfully recruits a girl? What you get is 4 character arcs with forced dramatic moments and melodramatic moments. I mean, the character arcs did make me cry...a little bit... but one of them is just plain horrible and what's worse is all the character arcs are rushed. The arcs lasted for only 3-4 episodes. One of the arcs had some laughable ending that didn't really make sense. For example, Mio's arc had some potential but they messed it up with some imaginary bullcrap and ending that just doesn't make sense.
At least, the 3 remaining character arcs are good and it gave me a few emotional tears. The remaining character arcs that I loved are Komari's arc, Haruka's arc, and Kud's arc. I won't go in-depth with these arcs but all I will say is they're great to watch and will make you cry. Even if you're a man. Probably.
Let's focus on the 2nd one which is the "mysterious letter". I honestly don't know what the hell this is. Is this a filler or something? I just hoped that they solve the mystery letter and find out who has been writing that letter in the 2nd season. The mysterious letter is not the only episodes that happens in-between the character's arc. There are also some "breather" episodes that are just for the laugh and giggles. The jokes are repeated but they're still somehow funny.
I'm not even going to mention the ending. It's terrible. Did the creators run out of ideas or something that they couldn't come up with a decent ending. The post-credit scene did peek my interest and I'll be watching the second season just to check it out.
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[Art/Animation]: (7/10)
If you have seen Angel Beats before then you'd notice that the animation is very similar. The animation for AB is obviously better and I am not being biased here. Yes, I watched the 1080p version for both shows but let's not get on that. The show's animation suffered from lack of details to crappy character motion, etc. It's not a bad animation but it's not great either.
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[Sound]: (6/10)
I can't believe they used the same opening for 25 episodes straight. This is one of the few animes where I was hoping that they change the OP as soon as possible but sadly, that didn't happen. I just skipped the OP after episode 8. The ED theme song is also horrible and I only listened to it for 1 episode only. The background themes are decent.
I watched the show in English Dub so I'll be reviewing the English voice acting. All of them did a terrific job and I loved most of the VA's except for one voice actor. The English VA of Rikki annoyed the living hell out of me. He sounded like an annoying teenager who hasn't dropped his balls yet for whatever reason. I know, he was voiced by a girl, that's why he sounds like that.
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[Characters]: (8/10)
I loved every single character in the show except for one. That's the main protagonist. Riki just isn't that interesting of a guy. He's just a nice main protagonist guy that I somehow don't like. Does he have redeeming qualities? Hell no. He just goes around, helping and fixing the girls' problem before they are recruited. Yes, every girl has a problem and Rikki "fixed" all of them. This is an example of a forced dramatic moments. Every single girl has a ridiculous past-tragedy and they must overcome it. With Rikki's help, of course. How the hell did they all end up in this school anyways.
These dramatic moments are forced as hell but that doesn't mean I hated them. After seeing Komari's arc, Haruka's arc, and Kud's arc. The show successfully made me love these characters. Except Mio's arc. That arc was just terrible.
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[Enjoyment]: (8/10)
Most slice of life today has a crappy story but I don't really care for the story. My enjoyment rating is 8 because the jokes are hilarious and the forced dramatic moments somehow worked.
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[OVERALL]: (6.8/10) --- Rounding it to -- (7/10)
All in all, this is a good anime series to watch. The show has a lot of flaws but the show also has a lot of good moments like the dramatic and emotional moments and the comedy episodes in-between. If you're looking for a drama series then you might want to check this out. If you're looking for romance as the tag suggests then don't watch this show. The show has no romance and that tag was just misleading.
Pros:
+Good Animation
+Great Characters
+Funny moments
+Dramatic moments successfully executed
Cons:
-Mediocre Story
-Mediocre Soundtrack
-Unlikable Main Protagonist
-All female characters had a past tragedy
-Character's arc were rushed
-Terrible ending
