Review of Little Busters! EX
After seeing all the 8 episodes, I'm just going to assume that these 3 routes are non-canon. I tried to put this routes in the chronological order along with the first season of LB and Refrain and it's completely impossible. [Story]: (6/10) Little Busters: EX is an anime adaptation of a visual novel called "Little Busters: Ecstasy". Were they on Ecstasy when they made the VN? What's with the name? Anyways, it added 3 "new" heroines. Notice the quotation marks? Yea, 2 of the 3 heroines are not even new. 1 new character that was added is Saya (we'll get more into her in thecharacters category) and the 2 "new" characters are Sasami and Kanata which we have already seen in the first season of LB.
There are 3 new heroines, meaning that the show has 3 arcs.
The 1st arc which is Saya's arc, lasted for about 4 episodes. No surprise, Riki comes in and helps Saya get the treasure inside the underground labyrinth. There are more things that happened between Rikki and Saya but I don't want to spoil the scenes. The ending of the arc.....well......all I want to say is they tried to make everything dramatic but failed to do so.
The 2nd arc which is Sasame's arc, lasted for about 2 episodes. Sasame asks Rikki for help after she finds out that she has been turning into a cat for unknown reasons. Again, I don't want to spoil this arc. The ending of this arc ended on a happy note, reuniting Sasame and her cat.
The 3rd arc which is Kanate's arc, lasted for about 2 episodes. If you saw her past in LB then you shouldn't be surprised that this arc will again focus on her past and her family. I mean, it's all the same but the EX goes more in-depth, showing that she has been on her sister's side all this time. The ending of this arc, again, ended on a happy note. Instead of Rikki helping Kanata alone, the whole Little Busters crew helped her.
Now my thoughts on the arcs. The only arc that I liked is Saya's arc because of Saya, the romance, and the bad-ass gun action scenes. I didn't really like the remaining 2 arcs that much because of how boring it is. Hell, I find Sasame's arc ridiculous. You'll find out if you see the ending of Sasame's arc. Kanate's arc was so poorly thought out. It's like they run out of ideas or something. Kanate's arc is mostly the same as Haruka's arc except it just goes more in-depth and tried to be more dramatic.
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[Art/Animation]: (9/10)
The Animation is exactly the same as Refrain's animation so I'm not going to write my opinions on the animation again. It's on my Refrain review.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
The background themes are mostly the same but there are new ones, used for the action scenes in Saya's arc. The OP theme song used in EX is exactly the same as LB's OP but there's a slight difference. The OP in EX is more of a rock version. I personally love the OP here than the OP in LB because of those electric guitar in the background. There are 4 ED's used in this show but I only liked the first one. I didn't really like the remaining 3 ED's.
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[Characters]: (8/10)
The show only focuses on 3 characters but Saya got a lot more development and a more screentime. Saya is an attractive and a popular girl in school due to her attractive face and her figure. . However, at night, she can be found at the school, wandering around in order to obtain a "treasure" from those she calls the "Darkness Executives", and even has to fight them for it. Just like LB, something tragic happened in her past and I don't want to spoil it. It's kind of dramatic but not that sad, in my opinion. Sasame which we know in LB as a cat-hater is really not a cat-hater. She had his reasons. Kanata is the chairman of the public morals committee and head of the girls' dormitory but you should already know that. The show just goes more in-depth with her character, her past and explains why she "that" personality.
Out of the 3 heroines, I personally liked Saya more because she's more of a bad-ass compared to Sasame and Kanata
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[Enjoyment]: (8/10)
I personally enjoyed EX for the first 4 episodes because of Saya's arc but it just got boring during Sasame's arc and Kanata's arc. I did enjoy the ending of EX. We get to see the Little Busters crew work together to help Kanata.
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[OVERALL]: (8/10)
If you watched Little Busters and Little Busters: Refrain then you might want to check this out. It's not as dramatic or tear-jerking as Refrain but it's still quite an enjoyable side-story anime.
Pros:
+Great Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+Saya's arc is well done
+Enjoyable action scenes
Cons:
-The last 2 arcs are mediocre
-Forced Dramatic moments
-Character arcs are rushed
-Mediocre ending