Little Busters! - 24

"If Rin-chan is Happy, I'm Happy, Too"

Sinister picture book is sinister.

I feel like a conspiracy theorist watching this series after Kud's arc; everything feels rife with potential to be a clue to the "secret of the world" and suddenly no one except Riki and Rin seems innocent. Even Komari, with her baby voice and sickly sweet stories, is starting to feel like she has an agenda beneath all the moe laughter. Just who knows what's going on, and why is it happening in the first place? The more I watch, the more I feel like Riki and Rin are lab rats, experimental test subjects in a box, with the rest of the world looking in to check on their progress. In fact, a thought occurred to me for the first time this episode, that the Little Busters themselves may be the mastermind behind the letters Rin's been receiving tied to cat tails; if someone (or everyone) is privy to future information like Kud and Kyousuke seem to be, then perhaps they're the ones responsible for getting Riki and Rin to clear these odd little missions in the first place.

However, nothing feels more ominous than that picture book Komari drew (not the Pengi one, which is adorably oversweet like Komari herself) about a girl and a boy helping eight disappearing dwarves. This is the third or so time this book has been featured in the last few episodes, and the story is uncharacteristically sad for someone as cheerful as Kamikita to have written it herself. The fact that the protagonists look strikingly similar to our main couple is certainly a flag, but then there's also the fact that there are ten Little Busters, including Rin and Riki. Does everyone start disappearing if the experimental subjects help them out? Is this why Mio and Haruka were notably absent during Kud's arc? Just how much of this world is a lie, and how did all of this come about? Since these are rhetorical questions, I don't expect answers, but it's rather frustrating that we'll have to wait at least one whole season before we start addressing the real meat of this mystery.

On the surface, however, this isn't that dense of an episode. Another letter finds its way to Rin, but this time she has Komari to rely on rather than just Riki. It's been a rather interesting process watching Rin come out of her shell, considering just how introverted she started out. Little by little she's become friendlier and less awkward, to the point where Kamikita probably qualifies as her best friend, though whether Komari sees it that way is another story. There really does seem to be more than meets the eye here, and Komari offering Rin her second wish seems more important in retrospect than it probably did when Rin accepted it. However, that's pushed aside next week as we return to the baseball aspect to close up the first season of the series; to be honest I'd almost forgotten this bit, especially the part where there's a ninth member still missing. I can't help but wonder if Kengo, who's been mysteriously kept on the sidelines until now, won't finally be persuaded to join and complete the new Little Busters as a true team.