Little Busters! episode 19

Holding a book far from your face makes reading easier duh!

Three anime posts? Go me. Go me and put aside the fact that I didn't have an anime post for 4 days. XD Sh sh don't bring that up. It says Anime, Manga, Life anyway. Welcome to my life. Which apparently includes new neighbors but I guess I can talk about that later. For now it is Little Busters! episode 19 time. Spoilers for Noumi getting some attention weee!

Kyousuke is great at turning anything into a positive!

Episode Summary: Riki has a dream about being alive and what not. He wakes up to see Masato and is all smiles. They go outside to practice their baseballness. Kyousuke has decided instead of letting them all do whatever they actually should practice...as a team. There is some talk about how they are all one and arguing over eggs and egg toppings. Kyousuke pretends this was his plan all along and practice actually goes well. Now that the Haruka crisis is behind us time to move on to a new victim. Noumi is up next with her inability to speak English during class. She is saved by the bell but Mio walking in with some sort of standardized (optional?) test which will cover many subjects. Kengo bows out of this testing while all the other girls say yes in their various special ways. Noumi wants to take the test too and everyone agrees to help Noumi out by teaching her their strong subjects. Komari is the first to start off but she brings way too many treats and basically forgets why she is there. After Riki gets them back on track it is clear Noumi is beyond learning English from a nonEnglish speaker. Mio is up next but Haruka comes out of nowhere to explain her test taking process of guessing. When no one cares Mio explains her secret of......listening in class and studying. How lovely is that. But Noumi is still happy that everyone is trying to help her.

Studying is hard, time for a break!

They talk over dinner about how Noumi is great at making Japanese foods despite not growing up in Japan. Some girls come up and start talking about how Noumi is a cute little foreigner who is adorable and dumb and can use chopsticks. Noumi leaves to get soy sauce because she is embarrassed. Still she hears the girls talk to Riki and company about how they hope she fails the standardized test. More Little Busters show up and glare the girls away. Noumi has heard everything but confesses she was only a little upset. Since she has such great friends everything will be okay. Studying goes on and makes its way into the library. As they study geography Noumi points to all the places that she used to live. Her parents were too busy to raise her so they left Noumi with her grandfather who had a super busy job. They traveled everyone and Noumi has duel citizenship at some unknown place and everyone is impressed. Kanata walks up with a super hard book that she borrowed from Noumi. It turns out that Noumi's greatest joy in life is learning new things. Riki starts to understand that Noumi is super smart but has never been to school before. Thus she gets nervous about time limits on tests and what not. So as the studying goes on the gang tries to help Noumi in the best ways possible. Test day arrives and Noumi is hard at work. Only to her horror she skipped a row of answers thus all the answers are wrong. Everyone but Masato claims to have passed the test before grading their own papers. Koumi goes off sadly to the remedial class as she failed. Haruka then claims she failed as well and hops off. It is revealed that she got a really high school of 85 thanks to her sister helping. All the Little Busters are touched and go the remedial classes as well. Koumi smiles away her tears as she sees her friends. THE END!

But...it's cute? And you like cute things!

Woohoo!!!!!! An episode that wasn't about Kanata and Haruka. Well Haruka was still there but now that her arc is over it won't be all about her. Clearly her problems of a really messed up family have been solved with hugs and sorries wee!!!

This can't be all your drama. Maybe you have fake legs or your parents are really dead and you are lying about that to protect yourself.

That being said I thought we were going to get more of Noumi today. Well her arc anyway. Maybe this was a set up episode. A taste of Noumi pain to come. Maybe something will happen with her family and there will be more drama. But for now Noumi had an issue and while it might not be totally resolved Noumi feels better about the situation.

They are all weirdos. Weirdos! XD

The fact that Kyousuke has waited this long to train everyone as a team is funny. Of course I am not sure about the time frame of this show. Maybe it hasn't been that long. XD But yeah even Masato thought it was odd that they were practicing together. Hello I want to run around the bases all day, what do you mean this is a team sport? Um we don't have time to practice because we have to talk about how we are all different and not on board for egg toppings. In case anyone wants to know I like syrup on mine.

Don't take the test. End of episode, time to go home.

I think I am slightly confused about this test. It sounds like it wasn't mandatory. Kengo didn't want to do it. We have standardized test here in the United States but for the most part you have to do them, besides SATs and ACTs. Of course there might be more now since I am old and have been out of high school for a million years. But the point is we had to take them and they were given the chance to opt out. Maybe I don't understand the test and it was better if you did take it but point is that Noumi didn't have to take the test. And if she was having such a hard time adjusting to school maybe she should have opted out. But that would mean less drama right?

Best studying ever!!

Despite the fact that Komari's voice makes me want to stab pens in my ears because I'm a nun I like her style of studying. Bring the snacks and good friends and BAM the parents are there to pick up their kids and we haven't picked up a book. Because studying is what you do before you go to bed, alone and cramming. When you are with your friends it is time for laughing and fun. And yes most of us passed high school with pretty decent grades. XD Okay maybe that really didn't help Noumi but I love treats and now I am hungry. Sue me.

Begone foul beast!!!!

Haruka was annoying. So glad her arc is over. If that is her way of studying so be it but keep it to yourself. Haruka is probably naturally smart and just doesn't apply yourself. Noumi and her special self was trying to learn English from a Japanese native. She needs all the help she can get and your distracting self is not needed.

Just begone!

I thought the scene with the girls picking on Noumi was so forced. It would have been better if the past episodes focused on that. A snide look or pointing here and there. Instead it comes out of nowhere and the audience is like really? Really?! I mean...there were a few people who seemed to cheer the husband on when he used chopsticks like a pro and smile at me like I was a special 5 year old when I asked for a spoon but the degree of which these girls were hateful was over the top. Fail the test because it would be so cute herp derp.

I love the little bat! XO Oh yeah poor girl.

While I am not really understanding why Noumi was raised by her busy grandfather instead of her busy parents...it is what it is. I think it sounds cool that Noumi has experienced so much in her young life. Like so many cool places you have lived and you are so cultured. But having a sense of home is important too. Noumi doesn't seem to have that. She is like Haruka with the not understanding friends and school thing but 99 percent less annoying.

What reading? Learning? Fun? MUSCLES!!!!

When Kanata showed up all the pieces of the puzzle added up. Noumi hasn't been in a school system so of course she has no idea how to time manage things. Being home schooled I think you can really go at your own pace. That if you messed up on one problem your mom/teacher would see what and give you credit for the other answers. Being a younger classmate is awkward in Japan due to social standards. That Noumi loves learning and taking tests but is so sad she is not getting things here. And in Japan foreigner is synonymous with English so for Noumi she is surrounded by suck and sadness.

Take a deep breath. Be calm. Be calm.

While I understand that Riki and the others aren't teachers they probably should have changed their tactics when it came to helping Noumi. Well except for English. Sometimes people can't just grasp certain things. But if Noumi is nervous about tests she needs help with being calm, not math problems. But things have to be dramatic. So cue Noumi still being nervous and missing a test row. I have done that before and realized at the end of the test my mistake. Thank goodness I had enough time to correct my mistake. I can feel Noumi's pain though.

Who are they kidding, they got this teamwork thing down pat.

I think...that if Haruka was the only one to go with Noumi it would have been better for Noumi. Sometimes you don't need to be with a big group of people to feel better. Having one person by your side can mean a lot. When you are with a lot of people things might be lost in the shuffle and feel forced. So as much as everyone being with Noumi looked supportive it might have been overkill.

All my friends care about me awwwww!

I guess it just matters to Noumi and she was happy that they were all there. I don't think this is the end of her problem's but for now things are fine. Yay for tests I guess?