Little Busters Refrain episode 5

A second with no customers? Perish the thought. PERISH IT!! We must be busy 24/7. Well me anyway. My co-worker doesn't like it when I leave work for her. Clearly she wants to work 4.5 hours with nothing to do and I need to do all the stuff like ringing customers up and processing clothes. No no she is here to man the store in case a rude customer comes in when she is there and I am not. (Note this was started....Thursday. Woe is my life).

So much romance with these two....

As I wrote that 2 more people came in. So lovely. But money funds the Disney trips, Duffy Bear, and future Japan trip. So work I must. What poor little post has been waiting all this time to get done? Little Busters Refrain episode 5. Finally right? Spoilers for...well a lot of crazy.

What a scandalous school!

Episode Summary: While Riki is doing his homework Rin asks what couples do? And should they be doing them? Riki starts to list a few things but Rin is like boring and falls asleep. He smiles nicely at her but thinks back to the note and task, will they really be told the secret to this world? The next day at school Rin was talking with Komari but when Riki walks in she points out that most of their friends are absent. Before Riki can get upset their homeroom teacher instructs everyone to sit. Some important men are coming to the campus and he wants volunteers to take them around the school. Rin barely raises her hand without passing out and Riki waits until the last minute to volunteer. But they do, fulfilling the prophecy on the note. They tell the remaining Little Busters later which is unnecessary except for Kyousuke. Then everyone is like...Rin can't talk around strangers how is this going to work? She tries smiling on command and that turns out awful. So Riki decides he will do most of the talking and Rin will just stand there. This plan seems to work well until they get to the dorm rooms. Rin tries opening her mouth and keeps saying she lives with Riki. Besides that the tour goes...well as well as a boring school tour can go. The men thank Riki and asks Rin why she looks so happy despite obviously being shy. Well because of her friends of course. Later the Little Busters go to practice their baseball despite most of the team not being there, not even Rin. Rin does eventually show up, having been talked to by some teachers. As she and the newly arrived Kyousuke explain she has been asked to take part in a student exchange program. Surely all the Little Busters have heard about how a nearby school lost a lot of students while on a school trip. Their bus crashed and only two survived. To mend the hearts of those left behind the adults want to bring in some other students for a little while and apparently Rin impressed the head hanchos that were there the other day. They want her to leave for a semester. Riki starts accusing Kyousuke of knowing everything and wanting Rin to go. Riki tells Rin to say no since she is so shy and she said she will think about it. Riki grows angry at Kyousuke and he goes off to think. Rin finds Riki later and he starts listing all the reasons why she shouldn't go, mainly because they are a couple. She agrees she will not go.

Rin is even more confused than Riki.

Riki is happy he got his way but questions his influence over Rin. He asks Masato if he agrees. Masato said he decided a long time ago not to get involved with this issue. Riki gets confused over that choice of words but thinks everything over. He concludes that he really does love Rin but she probably doesn't understand love enough to realize how she feels about him. That Rin needs to go and experience new things and he shouldn't hold her back. That maybe she will learn to love him one day but if she finds someone else at this school he will be happy for her. That this past month has really changed Rin for the better. So he calls Rin out the next morning and tells her he thinks she should go. She gets really upset, questioning if Riki really is her boyfriend. She does accept this transfer offer thingy and she will leave the next day. Riki sorta starts acting woe is me, I did the right thing when he thinks HOW Rin changed over the past month. It was the tasks given to them by the magical cat, the ones saying they know the secret of the true meaning of this world. That each task changed Rin and made her less shy, gave her more friends. Riki finally realizes who is sending the notes and goes to confront Kyousuke how he knew all of that would happen. Riki concludes that Kyousuke wanted Rin to mature so when this volunteering thing came up she would be less shy and could handle it. All was thanks to Kyousuke and his ability to make reality warp to his words. Kyousuke says reality doesn't work that way and Riki hasn't figured out the actual secret to this world. Riki said that was never really the point, just to lure Rin into doing the task. Kyousuke laughs the crazy kind of laugh when someone goes insane. A security guard appears (first adult in forever besides homeroom teacher) and Kyousuke pulls Riki away to safety. But while they are running Kyousuke and Riki get separated and Kyousuke does not go back for Riki which breaks his little heart.

Not quite what my face looks like...

…..What the hell? What the hell indeed? Just when I have accepted this anime is crazy and makes no sense....it makes no sense in a totally different way. I mean..it is crazy and I still don't know how this is happening but I think I know what IS happening.

Lies you were in it!

This is merely a theory. And it won't explain how this can be happening. But given other shows similar to it that (Clannad, Kanon) might not matter. But here it is.....EVERYONE but Rin and Riki are dead. Super dead. This entire school is full of dead kids. Now I don't know if they all died together or at different times. I think the people that “disappeared” died before meeting Riki. Or at a different time. By reasons I have already mentioned. Abuse, suicide, ect. But now I think all the Little Busters are dead. How did they die? THE FIELD TRIP! This thing keeps getting mentioned by almost everyone but the main characters. Shouldn't they be excited? Like woohoo field trip? But they aren't. Because they all know the truth. Then there was Kyousuke's story. A school lost a bunch of kids on THEIR TRIP?! And the solution to the sadness is to bus kids in for a little while? Um why? How does that even make sense? How would it heal a school bringing in new students for a little while? Make the ones left behind feel better? I mean...maybe if they stayed for good but not just a little bit. It doesn't make sense. And if it doesn't make sense something is up. Why wouldn't this be the talk of the school? Big news right? Add in the fact that Kyousuke is like take care of my sister NOW and everyone is in on the lie....yeah they are all probably all dead.

So will all these kids disappear soon?

How is this all possible thought? I mean....is this a dream? Kyousuke seems to be in charge of this world. Like okay this isn't ending well so let me restart this...thisness. But how can Kyousuke be in charge? Well....maybe everyone but him is dead? Because all the other kids are in the same year at school. Kyousuke is a year higher. As we were told millions of times. So why would Kyousuke be on the bust with them? But Kyousuke has to be dead. He has to be the deadest of them all. He keeps going on and on about how Riki has to take care of Rin. When Riki points out Kyousuke is just graduation high school, not leaving forever there is a sad face from Kyousuke each time. Like actually I am leaving forever. The long forever. So Kyousuke is dead too. Don't know how unless the senior bus crashed into the 2nd year bus....

The face of nearly putting it all together.

So why isn't Riki dead? Well he must have had a narcolepsy attack. Like in real life he probably gets them like a normal person, not when his mind is overwhelmed with the truth. But why isn't Rin dead? Because she is getting transferred to another school for a reason that doesn't make any sense? So in real life Rin did not attend the trip. Could it be possible that she and Riki were dating already and she didn't want to leave his side? I find that unlikely as when Riki has attacks now he is left alone. Plus everyone was all boohooing that Riki and Rin were finally together. Me thinks the world has repeated itself many times and this is the first time they have dated. But I guess they could have been dating in real life. Maybe Rin was sick that day? Crash crash went the bus.

It's almost like he is almost there...almost.

Even though I am getting ahead of myself.....Riki figured out what was going on. That all of this wasn't making any sense. Only Riki figured out 10 percent of the puzzle. To be fair Riki did figure out this wasn't about him. It was about Rin. I didn't think that. It seems Kyousuke has always been on Team Riki. He and Rin aren't super close siblings. At least that is how it appears to me. Even though she has tagged along her whole life. So I thought these notes were for Riki. Or at least Riki and Rin so they could grow closer. I never would have guessed Kyousuke was doing all of this to make Rin grow as a person. But since Riki is so close to Kyousuke he was able to figure out the real angle behind this. And really maybe I should have too. He has been running around helping the other girls but not really Rin. Which was a sign. Riki could have been helping Rin but these tasks really were where she was shining and Riki was just there. Just there because after this bus crash all Rin will have is Riki so he is getting them together now.

AKA all of your friends.

Riki doesn't know that though. He has a lot of the pieces to the puzzle but the truth is either too crazy for him to understand or he can't accept it. So Kyousuke is laughing like a crazy person. Like I have done this repeating timeline how many times and you still can't get it? But Kyousuke really must care for them both to keep on doing this. Riki was so close, so close I can see why Kyousuke would start laughing like that. Riki said that reality is bending to Kyousuke's will. YES! Go with that train of thought. But then Riki thinks this mystery of the world thing was just a lie to make Rin grow up. Off the train indeed.

Please don't leave me behind!

The end of the episode was sad too. Riki feels very betrayed that Kyousuke would send his girlfriend away. Put Rin in a situation that he thinks she is not ready to handle. Of course Kyousuke is Rin's brother and Riki should think to himself there has to be a reason behind this as Kyousuke would suffer too. But Riki doesn't understand all that is going on. Neither do I but I am not trapped in this crazy world. But Riki can still count on Kyousuke to get him out of hard situations. Or can he? The last scene is Riki falling down after he trips and gets left behind. Is that just a dramatic way to end the episode or will Kyousuke really leave Riki behind? Like okay now you got to grow up too. Such sadness!

Is the forgetting going to happen soon?

I really went all over the place with this post. That tends to happen when it takes me forever to blog something. But there are so many things that are off in this episode. Like....the disappeared girls are still being talked about. Rin is the one who mentioned it but then again she didn't bring them up later when discussing the going away to school thing. Like wouldn't they be a big part of her decision? Without them she still has a lot of friends but it would make more sense that she and Riki have forgotten about them and that is why they aren't seeking them out or considering them when it comes to making decisions. Just super odd.

No matter how many times we have to relive these times I will be there for you Riki.

Then there was Masato's very....cryptic message. Usually you can count on him for a few laughs and muscle moves, not much else. But....he has always been around. Maybe more than Kyousuke and way more than Kengo. His inability to give Riki an answer means something to me. Like you know..I have watched this play out so many times I am not going to sway you one way or another. I am dead no matter what and you need to do what makes you happy. I am here for you no matter what.

Until YOU made her...slightly less shy!

I still think the transfer student thing is odd but even odder that Rin was chosen. I mean...Kyousuke was hoping that would happen but I don't think Rin did that great. She was awkward and I don't even know why the man asked her why she seems so happy. She just seemed quiet to me. Oh and the fact that they are even bringing kids over from other schools. Why not ask for BOTH Riki and Rin since a lot of students die. But since this really isn't happening I guess it doesn't matter.

Plus you still get shy about your friends now. How will you be ALL ALONE! This is all valid to me folks.

Oh and before I forget and leave this post as is....I don't think Riki was out of line with telling Rin not to go. Obviously boyfriends should be supportive and allow their girlfriends to make their own decisions. Smile even when it sucks. However when I am about to make a bad decision I would like some input in from my husband and friends. Especially when the situation appears to be super dodgy. I mean...if I have gone all my life saying I hate roller coasters, I won't ride roller coasters, get me away from roller coasters, and suddenly someone says HEY you need to ride this new roller coaster I would HOPE my husband would be like um no she is not riding thanks anyway. Speak for me when it seems I have lost my mind and can't speak for myself. Sorta the same thing yes? I don't want men (or anyone) to be bossy over anyone else but in certain situations the person involved can't see what is best for them? You know? Situational. Not bossy all the time but maybe help a person? Rin still has shy problems around her friends. I can see them trying to be protective. In a normal world. Not this crazy world Kyousuke has created and everyone wants Rin to go away to protect her from doom. SO MUCH CONFUSION!!! X___X I guess I will need to watch and see how the dynamics change since everyone wanted Rin gone and Riki didn't. Oh and the other girls are still...gone you know.