Little Busters! - 19

"Keep Working Hard"

Little Busters! may have dramatized things a little bit, but I have always believed that test-taking is a whole separate skill from actually knowing the answers.

I realize that this is no place to launch an attack against the modern education system, but it is very much a problem that you have to develop test-taking skills separately from accumulating knowledge. Even more unfortunately, the system itself rarely acknowledges that these are two separate processes and doesn't normally take steps to teach people how to take tests. It's an assumed myth that as long as you know the answers, you'll do fine on a written exam, and for some people that just isn't the case. Nervousness is one problem, as it is in Kud's case, but there are plenty of others. Learning to time oneself, "reading the question" for the thought processes behind the person who wrote it, making sure to stay organized, not making tactical mistakes like marking the wrong bubbles, even learning how to guess efficiently; these are all things you have to learn how to do if you want to perform well on exams, and you'd be hard-pressed to find help from the system itself. In other words, when it comes to developing test-taking skills, you're on your own.

While Kud does need to review some subjects (including that fairly bad Ingrish that everyone seems to kind of suck at), she's not a stupid girl. Her problem is that she's unfamiliar with the test-taking experience and that she panics when she makes mistakes. There's also the fact that she's incredibly good at retaining worldly knowledge but not so great at retaining academic knowledge. Some people just don't learn when a subject is forced on them and Kud seems to be one of those people. Unfortunately for her, however, that's just something you have to suck up and work hard at.

In any case, while we haven't moved onto Kud's arc proper, we did get a small introduction to her particular case of loneliness. Kudryavka Noumi (Naomi Wakabayashi), as the moe quarter transfer student, is a little odd and clumsy, and she attracts the attention of bullies who find it amusing to laugh at her strangeness. This is that pesky "the nail that sticks up must be hammered down" ideology at work again, and it causes little Kud to feel even more out of place than she already does. I'm normally not a fan of moe and clumsy characters like this, and I certainly don't like Kamikita very much for the same reasons, but for some bizarre selective reasoning, I actually find Kud to be fairly adorable and sad. I think this might be because I personally identify with her loneliness; while I may not have been around the world, I do understand what it's like to never quite fit in because of multiple cultural identities. Kud was born in Tebua (an island which sunk some time ago in the real world, weirdly enough), of Japanese and Russian ancestry and then lived most of her life moving from country to country. She developed a fascination with Japan because of her grandfather's interest in the country, so like most of us gaikokujin, she's under the sway of several cultural stereotypes that make her a curiosity and the laughingstock of the school. Of course, it's never nice to be wrong about something you believed was correct but it's downright painful to be laughed at for it, and Kud certainly doesn't appreciate being humiliated. Luckily for her, the Little Busters are, as always, an inclusive group of lonely people, and they're a loyal bunch dedicated to sticking up for one another.

In a way, this episode was more about the Little Busters than it really was about Kudrayvka, though it did set up for her upcoming arc just fine. From Kyousuke, the always enthusiastic big-brother figure, to Haruka and her decision to lie about her grades to keep Kud company during remedial lessons, everyone in the team really cares about each other in ways that anime doesn't always depict all too clearly. There's more to friendship than just hanging out and being there to support others in a crisis; like love, friendships require all sorts of investment and sacrifices to keep the relationship healthy and it's not enough to simply get enjoyment out of being friends. It's a tricky thing to do, and an even trickier thing to portray, but I think that this series does a fairly good job at showing it. In a sense, the Little Busters are a group brought together by emotional scarring and they're all involved in the process of healing those wounds communally. Rin's curious portrayal as a cat does more than just describe her individual personality; all the members of the team are metaphorical cats, loners hardened by the world, who finally found a place to belong amongst others like themselves.