Little Busters!

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Little Busters!
Little Busters! original visual novel cover.
リトルバスターズ! (Ritoru Basutāzu!)
Genre	Drama, Fantasy, Harem, Romance
Manga: Little Busters! The 4-koma
Author	Key
Illustrator	Yūya Sasagiri
Publisher	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki G's Magazine
Original run	January 30, 2006 – ongoing
Volumes	1
Light novel: Official Episode Collection
Author	Jun Maeda, Yūto Tonokawa, Leo Kashida, and Chika Shirokiri
Illustrator	Itaru Hinoue and Na-Ga
Publisher	ASCII Media Works
Magazine	Dengeki G's Magazine
Published	January 30, 2006 – January 30, 2007
Volumes	12 chapters
Game
Developer	Key
Publisher	Visual Art's
Genre	Eroge, Visual novel
Rating	Everyone (Original) 18+ (Ecstasy)
Platform	PC
Released	July 27, 2007 (limited ed.)
Other releases: September 28, 2007 (regular ed.) July 25, 2008 (Ecstasy)
Manga
Author	Key
Illustrator	Nobuyuki Takagi
Publisher	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Dengeki G's Festival! Comic
Original run	November 26, 2007
Volumes	1 chapter
Manga
Author	Key
Illustrator	Mogura Anagura
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Comp Ace
Original run	March 26, 2008 – ongoing

Little Busters! (リトルバスターズ!, Ritoru Basutāzu!^?) is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key which was originally released rated for everyone as a limited edition version on July 27, 2007 playable on the PC as a DVD; a regular edition, also rated for everyone, followed on September 28, 2007. Little Busters! is Key's sixth game, along with other titles such as Kanon, Air, and Clannad. Despite the first two releases of Little Busters! having a rating for everyone, there were still some suggestive computer graphics that provided fan service shots. An adult version of the game entitled Little Busters! Ecstasy will be released on July 25, 2008, unlike Kanon and Air, which were first released with adult content and then had later versions with such content removed. The title Little Busters! comes from a group of friends in the story named the Little Busters which the main protagonist, Riki Naoe, has been a member of since childhood.

The gameplay in Little Busters! follows a plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the six female main characters. There are additional minigames added into the gameplay, such as sequences that resemble fighting games, or baseball games, which serve to give the characters experience, obtain accessories to use during battle, and improve their statistics. The game had an extended developmental staff which incorporated new members to the roles of art director, scenario writer, and to work on the game's soundtrack.

Before the game's release, a four-panel comic strip manga inspired from the story, drawn by Japanese artist Yūya Sasagiri, started serialization in the bishōjo magazine Dengeki G's Magazine on January 30, 2006, published by ASCII Media Works. In the same issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, a series of illustrated short stories began serialization and concluded on January 30, 2007 with twelve chapters. A second one-shot manga was serialized in ASCII Media Works' other magazine Dengeki G's Festival! Comic in November 2007, and a third manga began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Comp Ace in March 2008. An Internet radio show began in June 2008 hosted by the voice actors of Rin and Kyousuke Natsume from the visual novel.

[edit] Gameplay

Little Busters!' gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent on simply reading the text that appears on the game screen which represents either dialogue between the various characters, or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Every so often, the player will come to a "decision point" where he or she is given the chance to choose from options that are displayed on the screen, typically two to three at a time. The time between these decision points is variable and can occur anywhere from a minute to much longer. During these times, gameplay pauses until a choice is made that furthers the plot in a specific direction, depending on which choice the player makes.

In the original release, there are six main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story.^[1] This is expanded to nine plot lines in Little Busters! Ecstasy due to two of the supporting cast being promoted to heroine status, plus the addition of a brand new character. In order to view all plot lines to their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices during the decision points in order to further the plot in an alternate direction. Once a scenario for any heroine is completed, that scenario will be unavailable in the next play through because the last choice that will ultimately lead to that heroine's scenario becomes unavailable for players to choose.^[1] After the scenarios for the heroines have been completed, a final scenario called Refrain is made available which serves to bring everything to a definite conclusion and answers questions brought up throughout the normal gameplay.^[1] Completing the final scenario also makes available all the heroine's scenarios that were previously made inaccessible during gameplay so the player can go through the scenarios again if he or she wishes, along with some extra decision points that were unavailable previously.^[1]

An average example of the fighting mode in Little Busters! featuring Rin fighting Masato.

Members of the Little Busters group will often get in physical fights with either each other or with others. These sequences are shown to resemble a fighting game, but no interaction from the player is required to fight.^[1] Each member of the fight has a set of statistics attributed to them (which includes strength, stamina, agility, reflex, concentration, judgment, and luck) along with a life bar to keep track of how many hit points a fighter has left.^[1] The maximum number of hit points is determined by the given fighter's stamina rating. Weapons may be used along with any accessories the fighter has in their possession.^[1] There are additional "missions" that the members of the Little Busters do to accomplish some goal which depends on the choices of the player whether the mission will be completed or failed. These missions are connected with the fighting game sequences and batting practice in that they serve to give the characters experience, obtain accessories to use during battle, and improve their statistics.^[1] However, these missions do not affect the main plot in any way — the player even has the choice to turn off some of the events, such as fighting games or batting practice, so the player can focus on the main plot.^[1]

One such mission in the earlier portion of the game involves a fight between Rin and three softball club girls; if Rin wins, Rin will face Sasami as her next opponent. The first time the game is played, Rin's statistics are too weak, so it is nearly impossible to win against Sasami; she will even often succumb to the softball club girls. However, when the player completes several heroine's routes, Rin and Riki's statistics will start out higher than before when the player starts a new game, allowing Rin and Riki to stand a better chance against opponents with higher stats. Another early mission requires a test of the player's reaction time.

Throughout the game, the player needs to direct Riki by choosing appropriate choices at decision points in order to solve the problem each girls are facing, excluding only Rin. Once this is done, and the player gets a "good ending" on that particular girl, the player starts a new game again and will find out that Riki and Rin's statistics start out higher than the previous playthrough, implying somehow that the two are getting stronger. This allows the player to breeze through the battle ranking games or battles with Sasami much easier. In addition, the two start to show a stronger and more open personality than they were before at some points. One such instance is at the beginning of the game, where Riki finds himself witnessing the fight between Masato and Kengo. At first, he cowers off and attempts to find Kyousuke to settle the fight, but after several playthroughs, it is seen that Riki attempts to stop the fight by himself before asking Kyousuke for help. As for Rin, the player must go through Rin's story once to witness any change in her anti-social personality. Rin is first seen as being very shy and unable to communicate well with other people except her brother, Masato, Kengo, and Riki. One such instance is when she could not talk properly with Komari when she first met her and hides behind Riki, even going so far as calling her "Komada". However, after going through Rin's story the first time, it is seen that she is now able to accept Komari more as a friend and is even able to go to the bath together at one point.

Despite the original release of Little Busters! having a rating for everyone, there is an ample amount of computer graphics featuring the female characters in risqué situations, though never to the point to be considered sexual in nature.^[2] This is in stark contrast to Key's previous titles Clannad and Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume that also have ratings for everyone, but those titles contain no such risqué situations or even any fan service.^[3][4] Adult elements to the game will be added to the third release of the game, Little Busters! Ecstasy, along with additional story for the established scenarios and new scenarios for Haruka Futaki and Sasami Sasasegawa — two supporting characters from the original release. Also, a new heroine named Saya Tokido will only be featured in Ecstasy. In an interview of Jun Maeda and Yūto Tonokawa in the August 2007 issue of Push!!, it was reported that the story in the original release of Little Busters! is twice as long as Air's, but only half as long as Clannad's. However, this does not take into account the minigames in Little Busters! which serve to lengthen the game.^[5]

[edit] Plot

The baseball field as seen in Little Busters!. The gym is visible to the right, and the main school building is to the left.

[edit] Setting and themes

The main part of the story takes place at a high school in Japan. There is a "secret of this world" that Kyousuke speaks of; Kengo and Masato are also aware of this.^[6] The characters live in either the male or female dormitories on the school grounds which are right next to each other. Facing the dorms is the main school building where classes take place which also houses the cafeteria on the ground floor. The school is four floors tall and offers a roof anyone can go up to if they wish. Beyond the main school building is the large schoolyard, with the pool area adjacent to the yard. On the other side of the field, is the baseball field, with the gymnasium and tennis count beyond that which are closer to the main school building.

Childhood and adolescence are two important themes in Little Busters!.^[7][8] The opening video of the visual novel starts with two lines written in English: "What 'Adolescence' do you have?" and "Do you remember 'Childhood'?". Riki Naoe, the male protagonist, has four childhood friends that he grew up together with through adolescence and still hangs out with when the story begins. Thus, friendship^[7][8] is another theme presented in the form of Riki's relationships with his friends in high school, and is thought to be irreplaceable. The opening video of the visual novel contains a third line written in English: "The irreplaceable one existed there."

[edit] Principal characters

Main article: List of Little Busters! characters

The main cast of Little Busters!
(from left to right):
Top row: Masato, Kyousuke, Kengo;
Middle row: Mio, Yuiko, Rin, Haruka;
Bottom row: Kudryavka, Riki, Komari.

The player assumes the role of Riki Naoe, the protagonist of Little Busters!. He is seen as weak due to his girlish appearance and physical build but is very straightforward and has more common sense than most of his friends. He is a member of a group of friends called the Little Busters, which originally consisted of four members, but expanded to five with Riki during his childhood, and later to ten over the course of the story which includes the game's six heroines. The leader of the Little Busters is Kyousuke Natsume, who is the eldest member. He often comes up with absurd ideas, but almost always follows up with a reasonable explanation along with it. He suffers from a lolita complex, though he denies it. Kyousuke's younger sister is Rin Natsume, the main heroine of Little Busters!, and is initially the only female member of the Little Busters. She does not communicate well with others due to poor social skills and can be seen as inarticulate. Due to this, she is anti-social, and is usually seen alone. Rin loves cats and at school takes care of several strays; it is not uncommon for several cats to crawl onto her. Riki's roommate and fellow member of the Little Busters is Masato Inohara who loves to work out and improve his muscle mass. He has a particular fondness for Riki, which he is more than willing to express out aloud. Masato's rival and fellow member of the Little Busters is Kengo Miyazawa who is skilled in the art of kendo and seemingly has a cynical personality, but his passion for the Little Busters is unmatched by any of the other members.

Riki meets five other girls attending his high school who later become members of the Little Busters; they are also all heroines in the game. The first is Komari Kamikita, a very childish girl who takes great interest in fairy-tales, picture books, candy, and clothing with many layers of frills. She is very clumsy, and will often not think before she acts. She does well in her studies and is also surprisingly athletic, though this is somewhat hampered by the fact that she is quite weak and has never done any sport properly before. Haruka Saigusa is a schoolmate of Riki's from a different class, but despite this, always seems to find time to hang around in Riki's classroom. She is a problem child and will start an uproar for her own personal enjoyment, which causes her twin sister, the public morals chairman Kanata Futaki, to often chase after her. Kudryavka Noumi, also known as "Kud" (クド, Kudo^?) for short, is a girl who is a quarter Japanese, and three-quarters Russian. Her grandfather was Japanese, and per his influence on her, she came to know much about the Japanese culture, including the language. Despite having a poor handle on the English language, she was able to skip a year in school due to credits obtained through studying abroad, making her the youngest member of the Little Busters. Yuiko Kurugaya is Riki's classmate who has a self-sufficient personality, and is sometimes seen carrying a replica of a katana called Muramasa. She is seen as an older sister to everyone despite being the same age of almost the entire cast, and is referred to as Anego (姉御, Anego^? "elder sister") by Haruka. She is fond of things or people she considers to be cute, such as several of the female cast of characters.^[9] Mio Nishizono is a calm girl who is very diligent. Due to having weak health, she is always seen with a parasol when outside. She enjoys reading, especially when the story contains boys love elements, and her room is filled with books. She carries around a book of poems by Bokusui Wakayama.

[edit] Story

Little Busters!' story revolves around the main protagonist Riki Naoe, a young male high school student. When Riki was a child, his parents died, leaving him hopeless and depressed. What saved him was a group of three young boys and one girl his age who referred to themselves as the Little Busters — a group dedicated to fighting evil and preserving justice.^[10] The leader of the Little Busters was Kyousuke Natsume who had a younger sister named Rin. The other two members of the Little Busters were Masato Inohara and Kengo Miyazawa, who are rivals despite being friends. They took Riki out and played together with him during his time of need, effectively making him the fifth member of the Little Busters. In time, Riki really enjoyed playing with them, and his grief over his parents gradually faded away.^[10] When the story begins, Riki and his friends are seemingly in their second year of the high school they attend, except for Kyousuke who is in his third year. They still hang out together, and enjoy their school life.

An average conversation in Little Busters! featuring Riki talking to Komari.

The story opens on Sunday May 13, 2007, and the next day at school, Kyousuke decides that the Little Busters are going to play a baseball game, except there is only one problem: they do not have enough members to have a complete baseball team. Thus, Kyousuke gives Riki and Rin the task of going around school to try to find more members to join the team, preferably girls so as not to leave Rin alone as the only girl on the team. In this time, Riki finds five girls his age willing to help him out. They are: Komari Kamikita, a childish girl who is very clumsy; Haruka Saigusa, a problem child who likes to start uproars for her own enjoyment; Kudryavka Noumi, a one-quarter Japanese girl in the home economics club who is very bad in English; Yuiko Kurugaya, a girl who is given respect from her peers, and has a self-sufficient personality; and Mio Nishizono, a calm girl with a weak body who is always seen holding a parasol when outside. Through the game, Riki is able to hang out with these girls and learn more about them.

The main part of the story takes place in what seems to be a normal high school school, but this in fact all took place in the school term previous to Little Busters!, and Riki and Rin are reliving it in an artificial world created by Kyousuke. They, and the other main characters, were involved in a bus accident during a school excursion, and only the two of them will survive. Kyousuke created the artificial world to make them strong enough to be able to deal with what will happen when they awaken in the real world. The world loops, but though they forget what happens, Riki and Rin do grow stronger (this is also reflected by their statistic boosts and change in their personality when the player starts a new game after each heroine's ending), and Kyousuke hopes that they will eventually be strong enough to leave the world and live strongly. They do manage to survive and get away from the crash site before Riki collapses due to his narcoleptic condition. Then the player is confronted with a choice on whether they are satisfied with the result or not. If chosen to be not, both Riki and Rin will decide to go further. Riki vows to fight against his narcoleptic condition, which was the reason why he was only able to save Rin and merely get away from the explosion before collapsing.

Rin travels back into the artificial world again (which is created by Riki and Rin) where she meets Komari. Rin remembers that Komari has given her the star-shaped hair band; the star is actually a symbol for granting a wish. Using the star, Riki and Rin together travel back in time to the crash site again. It is then revealed that Kyousuke, who sneaked onto the bus to go to the school excursion with everyone else since he is a third year and technically not allowed to go, managed to block the leak hole on the gas tank to prevent the explosion, despite his injuries being far greater than anyone else. Due to this, Riki and Rin are able to work together to save everyone, and lastly Kyousuke, at the scene of the crash; it is up to player, however, who must choose appropriate choices or the player will receive a bad ending. Everyone in the bus recovers from their injuries, although Kyousuke's recovery takes longer due to extensive injuries. Right after Kyousuke returns, which takes even longer than usual since he was trying to earn a driver's license, the members of the Little Busters set out for another trip.

[edit] Development

For the first time in Key's history, two artists were given the position of art director for the visual novel: Itaru Hinoue and Na-Ga.^[11] Hinoue has been Key's signature art director since Key's first game Kanon, and Na-Ga has been with Key since the production of Air working as one of the computer graphics artists to render background art used in Key's games. Due to having two art directors, character design was split between the two, though Na-Ga is responsible for the character design of the majority of the cast. Of the six heroines in the story, three were designed by each artist; Komari, Haruka, and Yuiko were designed by Hinoue while Rin, Kudryavka, and Mio were done by Na-Ga. For work on the scenario, Jun Maeda contributed along with helping with composing some of the game's music.^[11] Little Busters! is to be the last game Maeda will contribute to through work on the scenario.^[12] Further writers include Leo Kashida who had worked on Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, and two new scenario writers to Key—Yūto Tonokawa, and Chika Shirokiri. Maeda wrote the scenarios for Rin and the entire male cast; Kashida wrote the scenario for Mio; Tonokawa wrote the scenarios for Komari and Yuiko; finally, Shirokiri wrote the scenarios for Haruka and Kudryavka.^[13] The music in the game, not counting Maeda, was composed by four additional people including Key's signature composers Shinji Orito and Magome Togoshi, and two new composers—Manack and PMMK.^[11] Togoshi left Key in October 2006 before the visual novel went on sale.^[14]

[edit] Release history

On June 1, 2007, a free game demo of Little Busters! became available for download at Key's official website. In the demo, the player was introduced to the characters of the Little Busters group in the game through a short sequence that is typical of the gameplay found in a visual novel. The demo did not give the player the chance to interact with the scene presented, making the demo a short kinetic novel. The full game was first introduced to the public in Japan as a limited edition version on July 27, 2007 as a DVD playable only on a Microsoft Windows PC. The regular edition was released on September 28, 2007.^[11] The limited edition contained an arrange album of some of the music featured in the game, and a 128-page visual guide book entitled Natsume Kyousuke Fūrai Ki (棗恭介風来記, Natsume Kyousuke Fūrai Ki^?).^[11] The book contained information and images on characters, background CG, the art exhibition, images of the heroines published in various Japanese anime and gaming magazines, a question and answer section, information on the creators of the game, and lyrics of a couple of songs featured in the game. An adult version of the game under the title Little Busters! Ecstasy (リトルバスターズ！エクスタシー, Ritoru Basutāzu Ekusutashī^?), or Little Busters-EX for short, will be released on July 25, 2008.^[15] This version will contain new scenarios and new CGs, which includes two of the supporting female characters—Kanata Futaki and Sasami Sasasegawa—being promoted to heroines of the game, in much the same fashion as the existing female lead characters,^[16] along with the introduction of an entirely new heroine named Saya Tokido designed by Na-Ga and whose story is written by Jun Maeda. Lines from the original game are being rewritten as well for Ecstasy.^[17]

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Books and publications

A series of twelve short stories were serialized in the Japanese bishōjo magazine Dengeki G's Magazine, published by ASCII Media Works. The stories, under the collective title Official Episode Collection, were published in two batches: the first six stories were published between January 30, 2006 and June 30, 2006, while the second batch of six were serialized between August 30, 2006 and January 30, 2007. In each of the two batches, one of the six stories centered on one of the six heroines, and were accompanied by a large image of the given heroine which took up most of the space for the first page in each story. This configuration left a small block of text on the first page, followed by usually a full page of text, with the given heroine's image used as a backdrop. Komari, Haruka, and Yuiko were drawn by Itaru Hinoue, and Rin, Kudryavka, and Mio were drawn by Na-Ga. The stories were written by the respective scenario writer for each girl: Jun Maeda wrote Rin's, Leo Kashida wrote Mio's, Yūto Tonokawa wrote Komari's and Yuiko's, and Chika Shirokiri wrote Haruka's and Kudryavka's stories. In addition, a single-volume light novel anthology was released by Ichijinsha on January 25, 2008 under their DMC Novel label entitled Little Busters! Novel Anthology. The anthology was written by six authors, and illustrated by six artists.^[18] The first volume of a short story compilation series entitled Little Busters! SSS was published by Harvest in March 2008; the second volume followed in May 2008.

An art book entitled Little Busters! Perfect Visual Book (リトルバスターズ！ パーフェクトビジュアルブック, Ritoru Basutāzu! Pāfekkto Bijuaru Bukku^?) was released on December 20, 2007.^[19] Published by ASCII Media Works, the 206-page, hard-cover bound book contains a compilation of the published and promotional art from the visual novel, detailed character profiles and memo sections, and an overview of the visual novel's plot.^[1] Also included are all the CG cut scenes from the game, concept illustrations, staff interviews, as well as a short story "My Morning" (「僕ら」の朝, Bokura no Asa^?) written by Yūto Tonokawa. A short section at the end of the book finally concludes the compilation with the melodic sheet music and lyrics of the vocal songs featured in the game.^[1] Included with the actual book were two pencil boards. The statistics of the battle equipment used in the mini-games were listed on one of the boards.^[1]

[edit] Manga

The cover of the first volume of the Little Busters! The 4-koma manga.

A four-panel comic strip manga entitled Little Busters! The 4-koma began serialization in the Japanese bishōjo magazine Dengeki G's Magazine on January 30, 2006, and is published by ASCII Media Works. Despite the manga being released before the visual novel, the story is inspired from the game and is illustrated by Japanese artist Yūya Sasagiri. As of May 30, 2008, twenty-nine chapters have been published, with each chapter containing eight pages, and fifteen separate comic strips, excluding chapter seventeen which had a different orientation. Chapter seventeen began as a normal manga layout for eight pages, with the following eight pages containing sixteen comic strips. An additional chapter entitled the "Business trip edition" (出張版, Shutchōban^?), published in the ninth volume of Dengeki G's Festival on June 30, 2007, contained ten pages, and nineteen full-color comic strips. Special chapters of the manga have been published in the Japanese manga magazine Dengeki G's Festival! Comic which is also published by ASCII Media Works. The first bound volume containing the first seventeen chapters was released on August 27, 2007, and was published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Comics EX label. The end of the first volume also contained an omake comic that is four pages long and in a normal manga layout as well as two pages of comments by four Key staff members: Itaru Hinoue, Jun Maeda, Na-Ga, and Yūto Tonokawa.

A second one-shot manga was serialized in Dengeki G's Festival! Comic on November 26, 2007.^[20] The second manga is illustrated by Nobuyuki Takagi, also known for authoring the Kokoro Library manga series, and centers around Komari worrying about getting fat due initially to a comment from Rin. A third manga, referred to as the "official Little Busters! comic",^[21] began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Comp Ace on March 26, 2008 and is illustrated by Mogura Anagura.^[21] Unlike the first manga which was merely inspired from the Little Busters! visual novel and did not go into the main storyline, the story for the second and third manga adaptations are based on the original game, and contain attributes of the main storyline.

There have also been four sets of manga anthologies produced by different companies and drawn by a multitude of different artists. The first volume of the earliest anthology series, a collection of four-panel comic strips released by Enterbrain under the title Magi-Cu 4-koma Little Busters!, was released on September 25, 2007 under their MC Comics label; the fifth volume in the series was released on May 26, 2008. The second anthology series, released by Ichijinsha under the title Little Busters! Comic Anthology, was released between October 25, 2008 and November 24, 2008 in two volumes under their DNA Media Comics label. The first volume of the third anthology series, released by Ohzora under the title Little Busters, was released on November 24, 2007 under their Twin Heart Comics label; the third volume in the series was released on January 24, 2008. The last manga anthology was released in a single volume by Harvest on December 20, 2007 entitled Go! Go! Our Little Busters! (いけ！いけ！僕らのリトルバスターズ！, Ike! Ike! Bokura no Ritoru Basutāzu!^?) and was credited as being officially recognized as an anthology by Key.^[22] Each of the anthology series are written and drawn by an average of twenty people per volume.^[23][24][25]

[edit] Internet radio show

An Internet radio show to promote Little Busters! called Radio Little Busters! Natsume Brothers! (ラジオ　リトルバスターズ！ナツメブラザーズ！, Rajio Ritoru Basutāzu! Natsume Burazāzu!^?) had a pre-broadcast on June 9, 2008, and will start regular broadcasting on June 23, 2008.^[26] The show will be streamed online every Monday, and is produced by the Japanese Internet radio station Onsen. The show is hosted by Tomoe Tamiyasu and Hikaru Midorikawa who voice Rin and Kyousuke Natsume from the Little Busters! visual novel.^[27]

[edit] Music

Main article: List of Little Busters! soundtracks

The visual novel has six main theme songs, starting with the opening theme "Little Busters!", sung by Rita. There are four different ending themes; three depend on what heroine's story is completed, and the last is the game's final ending theme. The normal end ending theme for Rin and Yuiko's stories is "Song for friends"; the true end ending theme for Komari, Haruka, and Yuiko is "Alicemagic"; the ending theme for Kudryavka, and Mio is "Clear Weather After the Rain" (雨のち晴れ, Amenochi Hare^?); lastly, the final ending theme is "'Little Busters!' -Little Jumper Ver.-". One last theme song is an insert song played near the end of the game's story called "Faraway" (遥か彼方, Haruka Kanata^?). The insert song and each of the ending themes are also sung by Rita. Little Busters! Ecstasy features a remixed version of "Little Busters!" as the game's opening theme, instead using the version that was included in the album Rockstar Busters!, making slight alterations and renaming it to "Little Busters!' -ecstasy ver.-". When the visual novel is completed at least once, a set of forty-five music tracks are available to play on the menu screen. Seven of the main characters have background music theme songs—the original six heroines, and Kyousuke Natsume. Rin's theme is "Ring Ring Ring!"; Komari's theme is "Magic Ensemble" (魔法のアンサンブル, Mahō no Ansanburu^?); Haruka's theme is "Grief of a Troubled Girl" (騒がし乙女の憂愁, Sawagashi Otome no Yūshū^?); Kudryavka's theme is "Exotic Toybox" (えきぞちっく・といぼっくす, Ekizochikku Toibokkusu^?); Yuiko's theme is "Heart-colored Capriccio" (心色綺想曲, Kokoroiro Kisōkyoku^?); Mio's theme is "Approaching Light" (光に寄せて, Hikari ni Yosete^?); lastly, Kyousuke's theme is "Boys Don't Cry".

The first music album released was a maxi single entitled Little Busters! released on May 25, 2007.^[28] This first album contained "Little Busters!", "Faraway", and "Alicemagic" in original and instrumental versions. As with Key's previous works (excluding Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume), a music album came bundled with the limited edition release of the game; the album, released on July 27, 2007, was called Semicrystalline. and contained arranged versions of ten tracks of the game's music.^[29] Eight of the tracks were background music while the last two were remix versions of "Little Busters!" and "Faraway". The game's original soundtrack was first released on August 17, 2007 at Comiket 72 containing three discs with forty-three different tracks along with a piano version of one of the background music tracks, a short version of another BGM track, plus short and instrumental versions of the theme songs. Of the fifty-three total tracks, three were left out of the visual novel. The original soundtrack was re-released in Japanese stores on September 28, 2007.^[28] Two more albums were released at Comiket 73 on December 28, 2007: another arrange album entitled Rockstar Busters! and an image song single called "Rin no Hisokana Koi no Uta / Mission:Love sniper" sung by Tomoe Tamiya, the voice actress who voiced Rin in the game. On February 29, 2008, a trance remix album of Little Busters! themes entitled OTSU Club Music Compilation Vol.2 was released by OTSU — a disc jockey unit comprised of a number of different remix artists. An LP album will be released on May 4, 2008 containing original and remix versions of "Little Busters!", "Faraway", and "Alicemagic";^[30] the remix versions are from the second OTSU Club Music Compilation album. Each of the albums released were on Key's record label Key Sounds Label.

[edit] Reception and media coverage

According to public sales information published at Gamasutra, taken from the Japanese Amazon website, Little Busters! was the number one top seller between July 26, 2007 and August 17, 2007 for Japanese PC game sales.^[31][32][33] The game dropped to third highest the following week taken from August 24, 2007, which was also the game's last appearance in the ranking.^[34][35] Little Busters! was the highest selling game for the month of July 2007 on Getchu.com, and dropped to twelfth in the ranking the following month. ^[36][37] Regardless of the drop in ratings earlier in the year, Little Busters! ended up as the most widely sold game of 2007 on Getchu.com.^[38]

Getchu.com hosts a yearly voting poll called the "Getchu.com Bishōjo Game Ranking" where game users vote online for the best games of the previous year in seven different categories: overall, scenario, theme songs, background music, visuals, gameplay system, and heroines. In February 2008, users casted votes for more than 470 different titles released in 2007, and among the rankings, Little Busters! ranked first in all categories aside from visuals (placing third), and gameplay system (placing second).^{[12][39][40][41][42][43][44]} Rin ranked as the number one most popular heroine, while Kudryavka ranked fourth, and Komari ranked thirteenth.^[44]

Little Busters! was the only Key title to receive coverage in an entire issue of Dengeki G's Festival!, a special edition version of Dengeki G's Magazine which is published in irregular intervals each year by ASCII Media Works; the issue in question was the ninth, published on June 30, 2007. Along with a full eighty pages of information on Little Busters!, the magazine came bundled with a double-sided hug pillowcase, a small cell phone cleaner which could also attach to a cell phone, and a B5 size jigsaw puzzle.^[13] ASCII Media Works will publish the third volume of another special edition version of Dengeki G's Magazine named Dengeki G's Festival! Deluxe on June 30, 2008 which will have a focus on Little Busters! Ecstasy. Along with again containing about eighty pages of information pertaining to the visual novel, the magazine will also come bundled with an ergonomic mousepad, a jigsaw puzzle, and a deck of playing cards.^[45]

An art exhibition of Little Busters! was held in Osaka, Japan between May 3 and May 4, 2007,^[46] and in Tokyo, Japan between May 24 and May 25, 2007.^[47] A large amount of the character and background art featured in the game was showcased, along with original art used to promote the character artwork, and other production sketches drawn when the game was still in development. Flowcharts outlining the story for the game were on display, along with the flowcharts for Clannad.^[48] Also at the exhibition was a life-size mannequin of Rin Natsume with a baseball glove in one hand, though instead of a baseball, a cat was in the glove.^[47] This mannequin was later put onto the Japanese Yahoo! Auction website in late September 2007 and sold for 764,000 yen (about US$6,500),^[49] a far cry from the original wish of selling the figure for 5,000,000 yen (about US$42,600).^[49]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Little Busters!

• Little Busters! official website (Japanese)
• Little Busters! Ecstasy official website (Japanese)