Little Busters!: Refrain Episode 3 - The Dream World

Hello fellow Little Busters, Tadashi here and today I'll be talking about the 3rd episode of Little Busters!: Refrain which delivers the conclusion of Kurugaya's arc filled with dem feels while also slowly revealing the Secret of the World.

Riki awakens and June 20th is repeating itself.Confused, Riki makes his way to see Kurugaya in the broadcast room. Riki begins to tell her that he's been here before and that they've had this conversation many times already. Kurugaya admits that she does remember the night of the fireworks and she does remember the events of that day although the way she says it is as if it was a nothing but a distant memory.

Riki mentions that he wants to continue having these fun times forever and hearing this, Kurugaya dropped her cup of coffee and the cup shattered on the floor. As he went to go pick it up, Kurugaya embraced him asking to let her be like this for awhile. She says she doesn't want to forget the night of the fireworks.

Awe Kurugayaaaaa

Next we see Kyousuke, who obviously plays a large role in this, sitting outside in the rain looking up at the windows. Soaked, he gives off this look that makes you think he knows what's happening and is pained even if just a little bit because of these events. Just what role does he play?

That look though..

Back to Riki, it looks like he tried to stay up until midnight in order to see if the date changes but he ends up falling asleep. It is again the 20th of June when he is woken up by Masato. Kengo and Rin are soon to arrive as they get ready to go to classes. Riki brings up the fireworks that they had seen but no one remembers them at all. Masato does say that there were fireworks about a month and a half ago...does this mean it's been that long since? Or is he trying to just get Riki to give up on getting them to remember the fireworks?

Y'know, it's just that the day is repeating and no one notices nbd :)

June 20th happens again but this time, it's snowing instead of raining. Again, confused, he tries to get a response from Masato and Kengo but they say that snow in June is normal.

D:

Okay something's up...

Riki then tries to look for Kyousuke since he always seems to know about everything. When he asks Masato or Kengo, they stopped replying to him.

This is true.

As he's searching for Kyousuke, he ends up in the broadcast room with Kurugaya. Kurugaya tells him to forget everything, and more importantly, forget everything about her. This whole world, and the reason why it's repeating is all because of a wish that she had made. It was a very powerful wish and no one seemed to know about it.

What D:

Stop Kurugaya :(

So you caused the day to repeat

Her past was revealed to us showing that she was someone who excelled in everything both academics and athletics. She was like a robot, or a monster according to some kids. She never smiled or showed expressions no matter what feats she accomplished. She came to the school because it had dorms where she thought she could get away from everything. Then, one day she met Riki, and then everyone else. Here she learned of these emotions and discovered many firsts. She had finally found a place where she belonged.

Chibi Kurugaya

Nooo </3

She tells Riki that she has to go and that she can't fight fate. She makes Riki promise to protect Rin but why? This dream was her last wish and the next time he awakes, June 20th will have passed and he will forget about everything that happened between them. She doesn't want to forget the fireworks, or the times between them. More importantly, she wanted to experience what it was like to love.

Nooo don't go!

Why T_T

BUT WE WON'T FORGET

Fated time?!

WHY

I don't like this either T_T

NO DON'T CRY T_T

YOU COULD HAVE LOVED HER RIKI!

Riki awoke the next day and it was June 21st. He seemed happy as ever and had completely forgotten the previous events.

PV

Review

Wow. What can I say. THE FEELSSSSSSS. Kurugaya is one of my favorite characters and with this, her arc has concluded. Seeing her cry, and talk about how she doesn't want to forget what happened and then her saying she wants to experience love really hit me hard.

The Secret of the World is slowly being revealed to us. The fact that Kurugaya can make a wish that affects everyone in the world is a pretty big hint. She was able to cause the days to repeat. It really makes you think, "What is this world?"

Kyousuke is shown by himself yet again. He really is the other "outcast" of the group. He's the guy who always seems like he's the one pulling the strings but is never really fully into things. He most likely knows more about this world than anybody else. Just who is he?

I truly wished that Kurugaya and Riki had something but in the end, the true heroine is Rin. Every moment between Riki and Kurugaya was a heartfelt moment where I was caught smiling and saying to myself "Aweee so cute".

Can you really blame Kurugaya for making a wish like this? Her whole childhood she had no emotions and acted much like a robot. She had no friends and was always alone but then after meeting the Little Busters, her life changed. She experienced the emotions that every child should have and began to have fun with life. Why wouldn't she want these days to last forever? It can only mean that what's going to happen next will be big.

The next episode is titled Riki and Rin and it's obvious that it's going to start with their relationship and the problems that are to come. Rin had always been there, but the focus was never on her. Now we'll see just how important she is to the story and let me tell you guys, there is tons of doroma incoming.

So far, J.C. has executed Refrain amazingly. I don't have complaints, and it's definitely a step up from the first season (much like Clannad After Story was to Clannad). If they can continue this, and adapt Jun Maeda's masterpiece into one of their own, this will be one of my all time favorites.

Until next episode,

-Tadashi