Riki and the Little Busters: Out to vanquish evil and save the day! Their latest mission: playing baseball?

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I don’t know how I lasted this long without knowing who Jun Maeda and Key are. But I don’t know if knowing them now makes me happy. If you don’t know about the studio, Key is a visual novel software company responsible for some of the “must-see” dramas in anime in recent years. They’re the guys behind the VNs-turned-anime Kanon, Air, Clannad, and now Little Busters! Jun Maeda is a co-founder of Key and has had a pretty big hand in writing these novels as well as independently writing Angel Beats!

This is a pretty impressive resume and a fairly strong track record which would explain the pretty high expectations for this show. I’m not going to say that it’s unwarranted after seeing only the first episode, but I can’t say I’m buying into it. A lot of visual novels start slow and only start picking up the pace in the later half of the story. J.C. Staff is sticking to this dramatic structure, so don’t expect things to get interesting just yet. I say, give it until maybe episode four or five. I don’t know the story, so I can’t say for sure, but that sounds pretty reasonable to me. Production-wise, there is nothing special about this one. Art, animation, music, sound—all of them left me going “meh”. Honestly, it looks a little outdated but nothing that can’t be overlooked.

I’m a little hesitant to seriously invest myself in this show. Visual Novels are a little too overwrought with melodrama for me to take seriously. I recently watched Angel Beats! and while it was interesting, I probably won’t go back and watch the OVAs or anything. But that’s only in the second half of it. The first part is almost always comedic or light-hearted shenanigans. That’s how they get you: they make you laugh to make you care, to make you cry. And Little Busters! is following that honored tradition. This first episode was like three parts gag comedy, one part situational humor, and a pinch of introduction. We don’t really know anything about Riki except that he’s an orphan. And Rin, Kyousuke, Masato and Kengo are kinda just there at this point. Unless you’re a fan of the VN, I feel like the general consensus was take it or leave it. But it IS a Key story so it’s worth hanging around to watch. I guess.

I’m expecting this show to contend as a heavy hitter this season, if not be the favorite. It doesn’t look like anything special now, but it’ll get you when you least expect it. Ya’know, if you like that sort of thing.

GO Rating: 2.5/5

Continue To Watch? - Yes.
Continue To Review? - Yes.