Little Busters! - Baka To Baka To Bakakanjyu

Introduction: I'm playing through this visual novel at the moment (non-h version because that's the one that has an english patch, so I don't have to go look up every single kanji.) Almost every character in this VN is an idiot, minus the main character. Someone suggested that I play more VN's/eroge. I told him that I couldn't read Japanese that well, which is why I don't really bother playing them. The same day, someone showed me a little busters remix video on youtube, then told me that someone was also telling her that she play the game. I was curious because I didn't know she could read Japanese, and looked up if there was an english translation online. I found out that there was. I knew that I was watching Angel Beats! this season, and that I enjoyed Key's anime versions of Kanon, Air, and Clannad. I also played through the English translation of Planetarian, and I've , for some reason, been playing a lot of Eternal Fighter Zero lately. Little Busters is the game that I really haven't paid attention to, because I never really had access to it. The only thing I knew about the game was that my Guild in the mmo Mabinogi was named Ritobasu, which I actually found out not too long ago was named after Little Busters, even though I'd been in that guild for a really long time. The tagline for joining the guild was 'We are a baseball team," which I thought was some weird quirky thing that our guild leader made up. Well, since there's a (partial) english translation for it and I have a lot of free time, I decided I'll give it a go.

Title Screen

Long Summary:

The story starts off his in with our main character, Riki, in the dorm room during the evening. He gets awoken by Masato, his large muscled bandana wearing roomate, who's heading out to the cafeteria. Masato headed over there to fight the Japanese-Gi-wearing Kengo. The fight between the two commences and a crowd of students gathers around. Riki wants someone to stop the fight because they might end up hurting each other. But the reason why they were fighting in the first place was because it was announced that Kyousuke had returned. The reason was that real fights were prohibited when Kyousuke wasn't around, because he wouldn't be able to mediate them. Kyousuke determines that Masato would be too strong if he used his bare-hands and that Kengo would likewise be too strong if he used his shinai, so he commands the crowd of onlookers to throw any type of weapon into the ring to lessen the danger, even useless ones. Masato and Kengo pick out their weapons from the pile thrown in. Kengo picks out a pellet gun, and Masato picks out a... cat.

These two are always fighting each other

During the fight, a girl yells out. Everyone recognizes the voice instantly, it's Natsume Rin, Kyousuke's younger sister. She tells the two to stop bullying the cat and using it as a weapon, and then kicks Masato in the head for it. She asks what the reason for the fight is. Masato explains that it's all because Kengo give Masato the wrong translation for a proverb and thinks that Kengo was messing with him. Masato tells Rin to give him back the cat so he can continue to attack Kengo, but of course Rin refuses and retaliates that people who toy around with cats must be punished. Masato and Rin confront each other, and Masato tells the crowd to throw them a new weapons for his fight with Rin. Rin ends up picking out a three-sectioned staff, and Masato picks out an... eel pie snack bar. Masato tells Rin that he doesn't have a real weapon, but Rin attacks him immediately. Masato tries to retaliate with the eel pie, but it breaks mid-battle. Rin takes advantage of this and finishes him off decisively. Everyone was dumbfounded at the spectacle that had just occurred.

No idea how you can use a cat like a weapon

Rin shows no mercy

After the battle, our main character, Riki, reminisces that every day was like this after he had met them. After his parents died, he was alone and depressed. However, one day four boys appeared. One of the boys came up to him and held out his hand, saying that they needed his help fighting a formidable enemy. The boy grabbed Riki's hand and starts running. Riki asks who they are, and the boy grins and responds, "We're the group who punishes evil and preserves justice, the Little Busters!" Riki recalls that the formidable enemy was a beehive and that their only weapons were a bamboo pole and insecticide. The group of bees knew the boys' intentions and attacked them. About to be defeated, Masato removes his jacket and poursed honey all over his body. Countless bees swarmed onto Masato. Kyousuke yells out, "Masato, we won't forget your sacrifice," and sprays the insecticide right at Masato with Kengo holding a lighter right below. Needless to say, Masato became a pillar of flames. Rin stepped in and kicks Masato and he fell unconsciously to the ground. She continuously kicked him to keep him rolling on the ground to extinguish the flames. That was the first time Riki had met them, and recalled that was the beginning of his new life. Because of them, he had so much fun and forgot about the pain he had before. He wished that this could last forever.

Lighting friends on fire will get on you in the newspaper

The next day, the whole group gets together to eat breakfast like nothing had happened the night before. When Kyousuke comes in to sit down Masato asks him where he's been before he came back the night before, Kyousuke explains that he was in Tokyo looking for a job. Rin comes in with a bunch of cats following her. The only way she could get them from following her was to hiss at them. She says that she found a new member and holds up a white cat. They end up giving it the name Lennon and start trying to feed it strange thing. Rin doesn't care what's being fed to it as long as it looks cute eating it.

Rin always has a cat with her

While they head off to school, Masato tells Kyousuke that once he gets a job, he'll have a lot of free time. Kyousuke says that it won't be that easy, because he has to think about the things he can do now. Riki says that everyone else will be busy with college exams and job hunting next year like Kyousuke. Masato says that one day they all might have to seperate. Everyone starts feeling down. Kyousuke lets out that he wishes for these days to last forever. Hearing Kyousuke's words, Riki suggests to everyone that they should all do something just like in the old days. Everyone, curious by what Riki said, asks what he wants to do. Kyousuke turns he back toward the group, and then bends down to pick something up off the ground. He turns back to the group and shows them what it is. He then suggests, "Let's play baseball." Everyone stands there dumbfounded by his words, "Baseball," he exclaims once again, "We're forming a baseball team. The team name will be... Little Busters!"

Oh hey, that's name of the title!

So that's how the story of Little Busters! begins. This post actually took a while, so I'll do a character introduction of all the girls separately.