Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 9, 2017

Little Busters differs, at least somewhat, from many Anime in that it's not an original property or based on a source Manga. Instead, the Little Busters! franchise comes from developer Key’s visual novel-style video game of the same name (that said, since its inception, 14 magna novels based on the game have been released). And much has happened along the way from game to show to manga to Little Busters EX. In the original show and game, Riki Naoe and his childhood friends, Kyousuke, Masato, Kengo and Rin (a.k.a. "The Little Busters"), are high school students living on campus at their school. Their dream is to play baseball, but they don’t have enough players to fill out the diamond and roster. Riki and Rin set out to find some additional players, girls, in fact, so that Rin, the only female player, might have some company. The first game and show chronicle the events that follow as Riki and Rin meet five new female characters and try to convince them to join in their baseball adventures. The game is heavy on the romance, and Riki's heart often flutters in the presence of the many females around which he finds himself. Little Busters! EX! advances the universe in much the same way that Little Busters! Ecstasy built upon the original game by folding in three additional female characters and focusing a few episodes on each of their relationships with Riki. There is one important difference: the Anime is far less risqué than the game and doesn’t flesh out the romantic relationships as graphically as its interactive counterpart. There's also one important caveat: don't watch EX without having a firm grasp of the characters and the world they inhabit. It's going to lose most any newcomer, and quickly. Imagine, for instance, trying to start the Saved by the Bell franchise with "The College Years." Refer to the releases below for more, and be sure to check them out first:

• Little Busters! Collection 1
• Little Busters! Collection 2
• Little Busters! Refrain Season 2

Official synopsis: Does the new girl in Riki Naoe's life need his help, or is she actually trying to kill him? After a chance encounter on a rooftop brings the enigmatic Saya Tokido into the Little Busters’ world, the only thing that’s certain is that trouble is sure to follow. As if saving the lives of his teammates wasn’t enough of a task to handle, now Riki must also untangle a web of new mysteries that seem to be rooted in his own personal past! Who are the Dark Executives, why do they want to keep Saya and Riki apart, and what is the nature of the secret treasure that Saya seeks? Sometimes, answers lead to even more questions as Riki and the Little Busters discover that they weren’t the only people drawn into Kyousuke’s artificial world in Little Busters! EX!'

The series' eight episodes focus on three characters. The first four, and the best, are dedicated to Saya Tokido’s story. Riki meets Saya and lives through a series of adventures with her while trying to figure out why he seems to already knows her. Saya’s episodes have a distinct franchise video game-inspired feel to them, pushing the romantic angle the hardest of the set. Episodes five and six are dedicated to Sasami Sasasegawa’s story in which Riki tries to help his very touchy fellow protagonist solve a troubling issue involving a cat. Sasmi’s episodes tug at the heartstrings and offer a moving perspective on loss. The final two episodes tell Kanata Futaki’s story as Riki learns more about her past and tries to help her save both her sister and herself. These episodes have a more serious feel and tackle various social issues along the way.

At its most fundamental and superficial level, Little Busters!, and its EX entry, is a show about teenagers in school, and it focuses on all of the frivolity and drama that's commonplace at that age and in that environment: failed flirtations, obsession with muscles, and rule breakers and rule followers conflicting with one another. Still, some characters appear younger and more immature than others, including protagonist Riki who, if judging on appearance alone, seems to be a few years behind the other boys in terms of development, even though only Kyousuke is supposed to be older than he. Since the show is set at a boarding school, many of the episodes include scenes in both the girl's and boy's dormitories, the common area cafeteria, and the classrooms, allowing for some interesting dynamics when girls end up in the boys dorm and vice versa.

Little Busters! EX plays out like a TV version of a "choose your own adventure" novel, except, of course, that the audience has no control over what comes next, at least just watching EX straight through and particularly without the background knowledge from the rest of the franchise. It's scattered throughout the Busters timeline. What essentially happens is that the stories are told in, basically, dream sequences in which Riki has an adventure with a particular character, wakes up, and experiences another. He and the audiences are privy to a number of different outcomes and endings through each sequence. It's not particularly easy to to follow, at first, and again it will likely confuse any audiences unfamiliar with the characters, the original game's format, or the series-at-large. But as the show develops, its greater story takes shape, its characters find firmer definition, the entertainment value rises, and it settles into an enjoyable groove of adventure, alternate realities, and storytelling diversity around a central core. It's a unique experience to say the least, and quite satisfying once it starts to make sense.

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection offers another quality 1080p image from Sentai. The show is abundantly colorful, blending pleasing, mildly diffuse pastels with richer and bolder primaries. Blues skies are the unequivocal color highlight; the blue leaps off the screen at every opportunity. Detailing is fine. Lines are clean with no serious jagged edges, and the 1080p resolution appears to bring out all of the finer-point character, environmental, and object detailing the source has to offer. Mild banding and even milder macroblocking are evident, but the former is the only one of the two that presents any degradation to any scene in which it appears. Overall, this is a very pleasing Anime image from Sentai.

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection features a pair of DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtracks, in both the original Japanese and the dubbed English. There appears to be little difference between the tracks. Universally, music is well spaced, enjoying quality width along the front and not just spacing and separation but distinction of elements between each speaker. The tracks do a great job of pushing material into the stage and flooding it as best it can with only two channels at its disposal. Clarity is excellent as well; instrumentals are clear, as are lyrics, which enjoy a seamless imaging in the front-center. Support atmospherics around the school are of course limited in delivery method, never able to truly immerse the listener in the show's school environments, but basic elements are presented with rich, natural details that at least set the stage as well as can be expected of a two-channel track. Several more intensive effects enjoy excellent clarity and stage penetration. Episode seven features two of them, a piercing whistle and a blaring fire alarm. Dialogue enjoys fine prioritization, front-center positioning, and excellent clarity.

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection contains no supplements that offer any insight into the show.

• Clean Opening Animations (1080p, 5:45): The opening sequences without text.
• Clean Closing Animations (1080p, 14:20): The closing sequences without text.
• Also Available from Sentai Filmworks (1080p): Previews for Gatchman Crowds insight, Aoharu X Machinegun, Wish Upon the Pleiades, and RIN-NE.

Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's interesting to note that the original Little Busters was heavy on baseball. Not so much here. It's hardly referenced, let alone seen, and most of the appearances come in the opening and closing sequences. But as its own side entry into the universe, EX is a fun little collection of, essentially, short stories, one of which fills half the runtime while the others are divided into what's left of the second half. It's going to confound anyone not deeply familiar with the franchise in some form or fashion, but once all that is sorted out it proves to be a nifty little series. Little Busters! EX: Complete Collection's Blu-ray release yields enjoyable picture quality and fine two-channel lossless sound. Unfortunately, extras are practically nonexistent. Recommended on the caveat that the audiences become familiar with the the rest of the Little Busters universe first.