The Story isn't that Complex, it's a friendship themed, slice-of-life story. Or at least that what it is on the surface. Along the anime you'll get to know more about each character while uncovering the mystery of the world that was hinted by a mysterious person.
Common Route is clearly the best part of the Anime. The dynamic and relationship of each characters are really good. They remove, add, and combine some stuff from the Visual Novel, but overall it's really good and make you care with each of the characters.
About the production value I think it's quite good. It's definitely better than Clannad, and I like the art style much more. The song and ost are all really good (since they're straight from the VN) but they kinda recycle some OSTs a lot (For sample, Haruka theme song always play when she's on screen which can get tiring).
Normally Character is only one aspect that can be remedied by another but like any other Key project, Little Buster live and die heavily depends on it's characters, so let's see them and their routes one by one from what works to what doesn't
First is Rin. Contrary to what my profile picture & favorite may suggest, I love Rin as a heroine. I think she's the best Key "main girl" and they did a great job with her. Her route isn't adapted here, but she's an important character kinda like the second protagonist. Rin is much more fleshed out character In the anime. Her romance with Riki doesn't feel forced (which I always feel in the VN). But most importantly, I liked how they emphasize the importance of her relationship with Komari (which isn't that apparent in the VN until the very end). We can clearly see how she grows from an extremely shy girl, to someone that able to stand by herself and how Komari plays a crucial role in that.
Next is Kud. For some reason, the anime decides that Kud need a lot of screen time and gave her route 4 episodes (the other only get 3), while also adding some other scenes of her route to the common route part of the anime. And well, it works. Kud in this anime is better than in the VN. Her route is probably the strongest, unlike her VN counterpart which arguably is one of the weakest.
Kyousuke, Masato, and Kurugaya are all perfect replication of their VN counterpart. They gave Kyousuke a bit more depth but it mostly didn't do much since her VN character are already really good. Here, Kurugaya is more on the supporting role since her route is adapted on Refrain. They're still all amazing character
For Kengo, while he mostly a good adaptation. They did take away one part of his personality. In the VN, he's kinda a superhero kind of character, a man who hold the title of "100 Battles - No Defeat". They tone this down a bit by having him struggle in the baseball scene. It kinda lessen the impact of her best scene in Refrain. Aside from that though, he's the same old Kengo.
Nishizono is a curious case. Her route never really stands out in the VN and can be confusing to some people. But it's even more apparent in the anime. It's somewhat rushed, with a lot of mystery that isn't explained. Her Tanka plays an important part on the VN but here, it's only seen as a passing reference that didn't really explain everything. By removing the romance aspect it also kinda worsen the route since there's no explanation why Riki is the only person that remember her.
Komari route is extremely rushed. She only get 2.5 Episodes for her route, which while still include the important parts is a bit off-putting. Aside from that Komari herself also feel much more airheady than her VN counterpart. She, however, did get more important part in other routes (mostly to show Rin growth).
Haruka character in common route is a gem, but her route is a different story entirely.... Her route in the VN includes several of the best and most emotional moments from Key but in this anime, it's pretty bad.
It pains me to say this, but Haruka route (not Haruka herself) is one of the worst part of the anime. It's extremely toned down, rushed, most of her scene are completely removed (the adaptation start by the bench scene which already halfway through her route) and the action of the characters in that route make little sense. Most of this is due to the effect of removing the romance aspect (since in her route romance is a crucial part) and not replacing it with something believable. How the problems resolved in her route is really bad, totally removing her agency as a character by her being told what to think instead of discovering it by herself (which how it got resolved in the VN, dunno why they change it), which bring me to my next point.
Riki. I mean, even in the VN Riki has never been a strong protagonist like Tomoya (Clannad) or Kotarou (Rewrite) but he does have his quirks. In this anime, Riki is just a one-tone character like any other generic protagonist. What I hate however is how the anime always use a flashback scene of him being saved by Kyousuke and Little Busters. Once or twice is fine, but he repeat this in EVERY SINGLE HEROINE ROUTE to solve their problem, and what worse, it always works.
I'm not kidding, they repeat it for Komari, Nishizono, Haruka and Kud, sometimes multiple times. Even though their problem have literally nothing to do with how the Little Buster save Riki. Haruka won't stop cursing herself just because of that little pep-talk. Komari won't stop her delusion because of that. And I don't even know what it have to do with Nishizono problem. Yeah, it's power of friendship BS...
I think they added this because they need to replace the romance part from each route, but come on, you could do better than that (which to be fair they kinda did in Kurugaya route in Refrain).
That being said, Little Buster is still worth watching it's a good show and a decent adaptation, but if you want the full experience you should play the Visual Novel, the character and story are much better.
