Little Busters! - 23

"For Those You Love"

What the heck was all that about, I wonder?

Before I get to what happened this episode, I'd like to ask anyone who's familiar with the VN to avoid spoilers in the comments. I don't mind discussion, but it really lessens the impact when someone tells you what's going to happen, and unfortunately that was the case last week. If you must drop hints, please do so in a way that doesn't outright reveal anything to those of us who are new to the material, I'd really appreciate it.

As I found out last episode, I wasn't expecting Kudryavka's arc to go where it did, though I'm by no means disappointed. I'm more convinced than ever that Kud is a special character, and more than just because she's adorable and fascinating. Clearly her arc is the gateway to the much larger mystery of Little Busters!, as she's one of the last pre-Rin heroines (only Kurugaya is left) and seems to know much more than we were told this time around.

Unlike most of the heroine arcs, Kudryavka faces her trials alone, sent home to Tebua where a civil war has broken out in the wake of the rocket's explosion. Her aversion to meeting her mother and facing the disappointment in herself leads her to be imprisoned, half naked, by rebels, where she faces her own insecurities and guilt in complete isolation. Whereas every other heroine has had Riki directly at her side, Kud makes do with her own self-consciousness and will-power, at least until the Key magic kicks in. It truly is dues-ex-machina of a huge degree to have Kudryavka magically receive her mother's gear through Riki, but oddly enough it doesn't feel as forced or false as it should. Perhaps that's because Key is good at what it does, and what it does is make impossible things happen in otherwise normal worlds.

In fact, this is really the episode where fantasy and reality blur lines, not least by the way in which Kud is saved from her imprisonment. It's interesting to note that this time it's Kudrayvka herself who has the trippy illusion, and that it prompts her to escape not just because she's gained confidence in herself, but because she "must help Riki and Rin." Indeed, upon close inspection, nearly all of the scenes in the illusion have to do with Riki, Rin, or both, and Kud remembers the conversation with Kyousuke right before that happens. There's a lot of implications that something isn't right with the world, or at least, something strange is afoot, and Kyousuke and Kudrayvka at least seem to know what that is, though Riki and Rin are likely at the center of it all. We won't really know until the next cour, however, whenever that happens to be.