Little Busters!: Refrain Episode 6 - Cheap Tricks

Kyousuke, just what are you thinking? You know it's bad when Kengo gets angry.

Little Busters!: Refrain Episode 6

Riki is still upset over everything that Kyousuke had done. Everything they did, to him, was a giant scheme in order to force Rin into becoming more grown up.

HOW DO YOU FEEL

The next day, Rin finally departs to the other school. Riki still isn't happy, and Kyousuke is there trying to get Rin to "chin up" as she leaves. Once she leaves, Riki notices Kyousuke's back as he walks away. To him it looks so distant compared to before.

While eating in the cafeteria, Riki decides to talk to Kengo about the situation. Riki came to the conclusion that Masato already knew about Kyousuke's plan, so Kengo was the only one left whom he could talk to.

...

In the clubroom, he tells Kengo everything, while also venting his frustration. He's mad that Kyousuke only formed the Little Busters in order for them to break up, but Kengo states that it isn't such a simple team. Even if everyone else left, Kengo said he would still carry it on as he feels the Little Busters is proof of their friendship.

Over the next couple days, Riki received lots of texts from Rin. All he could say to he was "Do you best" but as each text arrived, they became more and more sad. Rin was having trouble fitting in - no one was talking to her and she was always alone. Even texts to Komari were being rejected.

(OoO)

Riki talks to Komari about it but it looks like her texts are being rejected as well. He comes to the conclusion that Kyousuke messed with Rin's phone so that this would happen.

As he's in his room raging about all of Kyousuke's actions, he gets one more text from Rin which causes Riki to take action. Rin has broken down, sending Riki "T_T" indicating that she was crying. He runs out of his room but as soon as he opened the door, Kyousuke is out there waiting for him. He prevents him from going to take Rin back, but Riki convinced him to take some kind of action. He had it so that Rin would be able to come home on the weekends.

Apparently...

(T T)

*facepalm*

Woah

To save your sister bakaaaaaa

Riki desperately wishing Kyousuke would go to her aid

Clearly he's feeling something...

Trembling.

Kyousuke can do anything

Some kind of trial?

When the weekend arrives, so does Rin but she looks drained and a wreck. She passes out almost immediately so Riki takes her to his room. He sees just how broken Rin is, and decides that enough is enough. He talks to Kengo asking him what he should do. Kengo tells him to fight Kyousuke, and that he isn't alone. Kengo is (thankfully) on his side.

Totally drained

Fist fight?!

You're sure to win, right? Right...?

During this, Komari is seen praying on top of the roof again with a gloomy sky in the background.

Foreshadowing

What are you praying for? :/

They confront Kyousuke, challenging him to a baseball match. If Riki and Kengo win, Rin stays. If they lose, Rin is sent back out.

Kyousuke's partner is Masato, while Riki and Kengo are each other's respectively. As the match begins, so does a storm. The rain comes in heavy as they have their match.

Didn't see that one coming...

Captain Obvious

Masato scores a point by hitting the ball out of the park which leaves Riki and Kengo no choice but to hit one too or else they lose. As Riki threw a perfect pitch, right before Kengo was about to make contact with the ball, the girl whom he saved in the first season, Miyuki, flashes by in the background causing him to get distracted and miss. She then disappeares without a trace.

BAM

Ghost?!

At an utter loss

This angers Kengo as he yells at Kyousuke, running at him and punching him in the face. Masato and Riki stop him from doing any more harm. Kyousuke gets up with his shirt ripped, and calls the game and walks away. Masato is next to leave, leaving Riki and Kengo on the field in the rain.

SCARY

Kengo is scary when he's mad...

CHEAP TRICKS

Even Masato is having trouble

KYOUSUKEEEEEEEEEE

Falcon....PUNCH

Your arm seems to be fine, Kengo. Strong enough to rip his shirt

You can actually feel his scream

D:

Done. GG

Alone

WHY KOMARI :(:(:(

Riki came to one conclusion, and that was to take Rin and run away. As they escaped, they made their way to the country side to a house where they all used to play. Rin and Riki learned to live there, preparing food, washing laundry, and bathing. Riki realized that he was too weak to protect Rin.

He has a flashback of their past playing there, and after the flashback, the police came. As Riki tried to protect Rin, his narcolepsy kicked in and he passed out.

He actually said it

HE ACTUALLY DID IT

HE'S DOING IT

Ohohoho didn't notice

Not the same...

POPO

Ouch

Protect Rin!

.

PV

Review

And there you have it folks - Kyousuke's cheap trick. Everything played out like it should. All the drama, the emotions, the perfect soundtrack and scenery - amazing! Maybe because it was animated, but it felt perfect! Especially Kengo's screaming.

I'm sure most of you have realized this, but J.C. Staff's animation for Little Busters hasn't been amazing. It's been okay, enough to get by while still delivering some sort of impact, but if their animation for this was truly top notch, then I believe this episode would have been much stronger. But this is just a complaint from a visual novel reader.

What I really love about the characters, is the fact that there is Kengo and Masato, both who probably know the secret of the world, and the reasons Kyousuke is doing what he's doing, yet one chooses to stay neutral while the other sides with the 'opposition' aka Riki. 

Kyousuke himself makes you want to believe that he is doing this for the greater good (because of his personality) which is why he's pushing this situation so far but everything he's doing makes you want to go against him. Even he himself is clearly not too happy with this. 


Seeing Kengo get mad...you don't see that often. He punched Kyousuke straight in the face and if it wasn't for Masato and Riki stopping him, he surely would have kept going.

Note how that girl flashed by during the match. Kengo claims it was a "cheap trick" by Kyousuke. If he's able to do this, what does that mean? He can control these events? Is he some kind of god?

A lot of stuff was cut out of the visual novel but it's pretty understandable since this is only going to be a 12 episode show. For example, Riki got a job from that old lady he walked by, they learned about money struggles and whatnot living like that, and things just all around got really bad for Riki and Rin.

Anyways, May 13th is the title of the next episode - be prepared guys!

-Tadashi