Kud Wafter ova out in blu-ray:

This is a pleasant surprise.  I thought for sure this would come out late in 2021, but we got it almost as soon as Japan did.  The combination of the nostalgic character designs, voice actors and all powerful music quickly brought me to tears -- and then it was all over again, a short 46 minute trip down memory lane.

This can only be considered an advertisement for the actual visual novel -- everything of importance is skipped over or zoomed through.  From what I can piece together from the hasty animation, Kudryavka after the bus accident rescue is still unconscious while everyone else has already recovered.  In her coma-like state, she keeps dreaming of happy days with Riki.  But with Riki and the others encouraging her comatose body in the real world and the phantoms in her dreams reflecting that encouragement, she finally musters the courage and strength to wake up and live in the real world again.  This doesn't match the ending of Little Busters!, where I'm pretty sure Kud recovered from the bus accident quickly and without issue.  But I guess a little artistic license can be taken in order to give Kud more of the spotlight than before.

The problem is when you skip over people's everyday circumstances and focus only on life and death dramatic turning points, since you don't know what that 'life' entails, the difference between life and death is miniscule.  After all, even when Kud is alive and awake everything is skipped through anyway.  You might get to see a few still frames of people setting off fireworks or jogging but that's about it.  A story must firmly describe a person's happy everyday existence before it's sad to lose it.  Losing nothing at all isn't a tragedy, and if you describe nothing then nothing is all that's left.

Kamisama ni Natta Hi did a great job describing Hina and Yota's everyday life together -- doing silly things like filming movies or renovating restaurants.  This is what you can do with a 12 episode season.  Kud Wafter should have been a 12 episode season too.  If it had been I can't imagine how epic it would have been.  As it is the ova was still tearjerking.

But oh well.  Alka Translations says they're mostly through with the Kud Wafter visual novel translation.  In 2021 we'll get to see the real story, and then we won't need abridged ova's anymore.  All those plot points will hit a hundred times as hard when taken in their proper context and given a chance for full immersion into the 'realness' of Kud's world.

Kudryavka already staked her claim as one of my '100 Waifus' before this ova, before the visual novel, due to Little Busters! alone.  This ova only reinforces the correctness of that decision, but the visual novel will blow it away.  There we'll get to see Kud's true charm once and for all.

P.S.:  I added 'Adagio for Summer Wind' to my music hall of fame.  I downloaded the entire Kud Wafter soundtrack and ultimately chose only this song to make the cut.  But it was still worth it for this song.