melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 10

So dark the con of Haruhi.

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I had a haruhigasm over the dialogue in this episode, like Kyon’s and Haruhi’s discussion on how Haruhi should look for a man:

Haruhi: “Men are potatoes. Love is just a temporary lapse in judgement like a kind of mental illness. Even I get in the mood for that crap every now and then. I am a healthy young girl, deshou deshou. My body has its urges. But you know, I’m not dumb enough to let a moment’s slip-up leave me with a huge burden.”

Translating it: “Men are potatoes.” Self-explainatory. “Even I get in the mood for that crap every now and then.” First off, I like her infection on “I” which made it seem like she is on a tier higher than everyone else. Her megalomanic tsundereness knows no bounds. Second, that line makes it sound like she can be playful at time or it sounds like Kyon had his chance and fucked it up. Like how he ended up going on day-toes with Mikuru and Yuki instead of Haruhi in the previous episode of this arc. “I am a healthy young girl, deshou deshou.” I was smiling. Tamaki-nee would be smiling as well. Healthy girls 4tw. “My body has its urges.” Like killing Mikuru? Like instigating a threesome with Mikuru and Kyon? Limitless possibilities. “I’m not dumb enough to let a moment’s slip-up leave me with a huge burden.” In other words, she would have drafted Reggie Bush over Mario Williams. Anyway, I’m going to remember this line and use it on my future daughters when they ask why they have a 7:30PM curfew.

Kyon: “It’s the first time I’ve seen Defeated Haruhi, but Defeated Haruhi sure is surprisingly cute.”

Ryoko: “Perhaps Haruhi is feeling lovesick?”

Kyon: “SORE WA NAI! Suzumiya isn’t going to suddenly fall in love, there’s not going to be any trouble, at least not now in this world.”

Translation: He is going to need to speed up his relationship with Haruhi ASAP in order to save the world. And I don’t think Akira is going to bungee down from the ceiling a la Mission Impossible and bail him out.

Wait, Ryoko? I’ve been wondering about her since they had her in the first two episodes and then poof. Since the same thing happened to LOL FANG-TAN, I figured she was still lurking around. Well, one irony is that Haruhi completely ignores Ryoko. File that away. Episode 10… 4… whatever… I have no clue anymore… starts with Kyon finding a note telling him to meet someone in his classroom after school. The normal things go through Kyon’s mind… “Who wrote it?” “Is it a love letter?” “Are they involved in the War for the Holy Grail?”

He runs through the usual suspects, rules out Yuki, sadly rules out Mikuru-run, sad/relieved it isn’t Haruhi, and definitely relieved it wasn’t Itsuki. Who can it be? Haruhi later crashes into the SOS Brigade’s room, and she starts browsing their webpage… only the webpage is nothing but fanservice shots of Mikuru-run (no logo yet). Kyon gets rid of the images, and Haruhi tosses a tantrum as he does so. “This will bring in a lot of e-mails about mysterious! And the counter will jump to five digits in a flash! I wonder if the counter can support that many digits.” (The only e-mails the SOS Brigade is going to get with that homepage is, “Um, can I get the e-mail address of the chick with the rack?” *Debates turning AoMM into a softcore Mikuru-run shrine.*)

Because of this incident, Haruhi, already in a bad mood, storms off. Mikuru shows up and plays some board game with Kyon (any club that features playing board games with Meido Mikuru is made of win and gold. A traditional male would be crazy not to join it), and Itsuki pops by for his only line of this episode. Apparently, he has a part time job helping Mion at the toy store. So with the club not doing much, Kyon heads for his rendevous where he discovers Ryoko. With an atmosphere ripped out of Kanon, Ryoko starts talking gibberish (never a good sign for poor Kyon) and casually drops a “I’ll kill you and see how Haruhi Suzumiya responds” like a genuine killer loli. I can’t wait for Makoto to try this out on Yuuichi. She is tired of just collecting data on Haruhi and believes that the best way to attain more data (“datagasm”) is to kill Kyon.

She dashes at Kyon with a knife and chases him around like Rider hunting Emiya. Eventually, Kyon is cornered and trapped in the room. “Why? Naze?” Kyon begs. “You think this is a joke?” Ryoko retorts as she plays with the knife. I’m giddy. But too bad, due to episode skippage, I know Kyon’s going to survive so the tension is kinda sapped. But I’m still giddy. Always giddy over killer lolis, especially killer loli who seem to enjoy and smile while they do their work.

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Yuki eventually busts though the barriers that Ryoko has put up and reveals that Ryoko is her data collection backup. (Does this mean Mikuru and Itsuki have backups as well?) Also, Ryoko is in violation of their orders, so Yuki is going to stop her by severing her data interface to this world. The two enter a very trance-like, high-energy battle. Basically, the exact opposite of a typical Fate/Stay Night fight sequence that doesn’t involve Archer. Yuki gets bloodied pretty badly (like Asuka at the end of EoE), yet, she secures victory and defeats Ryoko. Yuki’s shining moment. Before Ryoko dematerializes a la Erstin, she toss out some doubt for Kyon in that the Integration Thought Entity may come after him again to speed up Haruhi’s data collection, or worse, Yuki may do it.

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Afterwards, Yuki repairs herself, and Yuki and Kyon are caught in a compromising situation by one of his friends. Uh oh. If Oharuhi-sama finds out, Yuki is going to be sitting in an underground cave very soon. Yuki manages to distort the world to think that Ryoko transferred, only this somehow re-energized Haruhi like how hawt megami-on-megami action is re-engerizing my interest in それぞれの翼. Haruhi suddenly thinks that the transer is a mystery. It is… and… again… you missed it. It’s like watching Charlie Brown trying to kick a football that Lucy is holding. So close… always so close… yet always so clueless.

Kyon gets another letter in his shoebox, only this time it’s from Mikuru! So, of course, he has some pep in his step until lunch, when he’s supposed to meet her for a nooner in the clubroom. He finds instead someone who looks like Mikuru’s older and better endowed sister, who turns out to be a Mikuru further into the future. I’m… I’m… at a complete loss of words to describe All-Woman Mikuru. It makes possible the idea of the first ever anime selfcest, and I can’t be giddier. It’s like if younger Mikuru were 1990 “Vision of Love” Mariah Carey and All-Woman Mikuru is more like the 1996 “One Sweet Day” Mariah. Any pubescent male growing up during that period should be nodding right now. All-Woman Mikuru is pure haruhigasm.

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Anyway, All-Woman Mikuru shows up off her high-grade, premium, lucious, ripe melonpan with her mole as proof, and she teases Kyon with a few tidbits about the future and offers him a tip, “Shiiro Yuki” (Snow White). I could barely concentrate on what she were thinking, how could Kyon resist that? I mean… wow… All-Woman Mikuru is challenging Yuki’s battle as this episode’s shining moment. All-Woman Mikuru also mentions that she manages to get back in time by pulling a few strings… uh… what kind of strings and are special edition BluRay or HD-DVDs involved? (Though shouldn’t younger Mikuru know? If she knows the future, then she should know about any and all upcoming incidents concerning Haruhi and Kyon. I do hope we get to see All-Woman Mikuru again raising my fantasy level now to a threesome involving Haruhi, Mikuru, and All-Woman Mikuru. Kyon doesn’t need to be involved anymore.)

Not to be outdone, after lunch, Haruhi is still going on about the suspiciousness of Ryoko’s transfer, and she rags on Canada in one fine rant: “And guess where to? Canada yo! Canada! Seems fishy!” (This isn’t the first time Haruhi rags on Canada either… I’m going to die if Haruhi tosses out a “Hoser, ay?” or if she shows up with a Tim Horton’s cup. All the non-Canadian readers probably have their Kyon “WTF is Haruhi talking about” face going on right now.) Haruhi then drags Kyon in classic cavewoman fashion. Not as great as All-Woman Mikuru, but definitely a Haruhi shining moment.

(And the next episode preview… I give up. They completely wore me out with the episode skippage, I’m as broken as Mikuru. Objection!)

The SOS Brigade Awesomeness Index

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UP All-Woman Mikuru… W-O-W. Hawtness, plain and simple. No traditional male can resist that… W-O-W. Knockout. W-O-W. Sexpot. Gotta love how she has a bit more confidence in herself and is significantly more assertive than younger Mikuru, quite possibly be because of Haruhi’s training. Tight, form-fitting shirt? CHECK! Short, form-fitting skirt? DOUBLE CHECK! Showing off her high-grade, premium, lucious, ripe melonpan? TRIPLE CHECK!

She even gives us four plot hints… the first is that she screwed up the mole. At the beginning of the episode, I noticed the shot of Mikuru’s cleavage without the mole and thought it was a production mistake. No, I checked my extensive 117 gig Mikuru-run image collection and, yep, she didn’t have it back in the early episodes. Vinland and I even pondered if it were a production mistake back then. Needless to say, something happens with Mikuru’s breasts, and there’s no possible metric to indicate how I am so looking forward to this chain of events. (The odds that this mole and Kyon’s are related are now off the books at Vegas.) The second is that she greets Kyon with a “Osashi buri” which indicates that she hasn’t seen Kyon in a while. Um, does that mean Kyon and Haruhi don’t exist in her future… ? The third is that she tells Kyon don’t fall in love with her. She told this to Kyon before during their day-toe, but I’m intrigued. She sounds like Mango from the old Saturday Night Live skits. Lastly, she tells Kyon, “Snow White,” which I’m taking to mean that the world will be threatened soon, Haruhi (as usually) will be clueless about it, and the only way to save the world is if Kyon kisses Haruhi and literally wake her up.

(I would have prefered if Mikuru told Kyon, “Forget Haruhi. Go have fun with my younger self… you don’t want the world to end and still be a virgin, do you?”)

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UP The Yuki Defense… Yuki has kicked the most ass out of all the characters. She is a battle machine. And, yes, it finally took me this episode to notice, but Yuki had her glasses the earlier episodes, yet when they did their episode skippage, the glasses were gone later on. Now we know why. Lasik. Her battle with Ryoko. (Actually, now that I think of it, their battle resembles more of a Shana-type battle, only it’s a lot faster, slicker, and animated by people snacking on pot brownies at the time. And the rebuilding afterwards reminds me of how Shana uses power of existance to repair damage.) I wonder if she’s protecting Kyon because of her duty, her feelings, a combination of the two, or some other reason. She’s like Rei in personality, but whereas Ayanami was very singular in dimension, Yuki has something up her sleeves that she doesn’t easily volunteer.

UP Kyon… beyond his A+ conversation with Haruhi to jump start this episode, I loved his banter with All-Woman Mikuru. He asks her “What other costumes did Haruhi costume rape you with?” instead of, oh, more pressing matters like the immiment destruction of the world. And he tosses out the “How old are you?” and recreates the scene from episode 5… 3… whatever. When Kyon gets his game on, the series really shines.

(Plus, he proves that he’s a traditional male by saving those Mikuru pics. Whew. Oh, well, at least Itsuki will always have Keiichi Morisato.)

UP Haruhi… her two big rants bookended the episode nicely. I just love it when Haruhi goes off into her own world, oblivious to everything and everyone around her. I love it even more when she is in her genki mode, though while Melancholy Haruhi has her charms, she’s nowhere as cute as non-Melancholy Haruhi.

DOWN Itsuki… one line… at least he’s in the credits.

DOWN LOL FANG-TAN… even Kyon’s friend gets a line. What happened to LOL FANG-TAN?!? I want more LOL FANG-TAN! Can you imagine if she walked into Yuki and Kyon’s scene instead? Imagine the fangy laughter. Hehe… lol… lollerskates!

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UP Ryoko… I approve of crazed, killer lolis who cut up their victims with a smile. I know want to see her in a deathmatch with Rena and Oyashiro-sama. She gets bonus parts of knifing like Sagara… Kyoto Animation sure knows how to use their skills. (Hoping for Bonta-kun outfit for Mikuru now.) Ryoko gave a solid A performance, and I was sad to see her go.

(My advice? Instead of killing Kyon, flirt with him. That’ll get Haruhi riled up as well. Though choosing between Flirty Ryoko and Killer Lolli Ryoko, I must go with killer loli. Mikuru has the moe market in an OPEC-like stranglehold. Haruhi, of course, would be Siberia, and Yuki would be Canada’s tar sand.)

DOWN Time travel… I think time travel is the weakest portion of any sci-fi world just because it’s too hard to jump around the paradoxes. For example, if Kyon can save the world without Mikuru’s tip, why did Mikuru come back? If he can’t save the world without the tip, wouldn’t it mean that Mikuru’s timeline should have ended already thus precluding her from coming back? This is only a minor one… watch Stargate Atlantis or Enterprise if you want to see ginormous plot holes resulting from time travel.

UP Kyoto Animation symbolism… I have no idea what it means, but throughout the episode, they show that couple in the green gym clothes outside the window. First, they are friendly and a bit flirty, and, by the end, she kicks his ass.

UP “Ruined for marriage”… All-Woman Mikuru lacks a ring.

UP “So dark the con of Haruhi”… one of the most entertaining subplots is how all these weird people and events revolve around kami-sama Haruhi, yet she doesn’t know. Just like Sophie.

UP HDTV… so moe the melonpan of Mikuru.

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52 Responses to “melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 10”

  1. Haruhigasm? I beg to differ…maybe.

    I still think it’s an honest to goodness positive about the series, and I like it thus far, don’t get me wrong.

    However, the series has shown to be incomplete in explanations thus far. I understand there are holes in the plotline, but I want to know how some things aren’t there…

    Like a certain person’s preferred hand. That changed.

  2. I’m beginning to feel that Yuki is the most complex of all the characters.

    On the surface, she’s hard-cold and acting as a passive observer.

    On the other hand, she shows boredom, as commented by Kyon in the computer geek incident.

    Also, she shows some sense of humor by not opening the door for Haruhi at the mansion.

    Then she shows girly interests toward Kyon, as she puts her cardigan on him and how she did away her glasses upon Kyon’s “you’re definitely prettier without glasses” comment. (It’s not like she can’t rematerialize another pair.)

    And now possibly, although she saves him this time around (for possibly more reason than just preserving the stability of Haruhi), she could become his executioner in the future if “her master changes his mind.”

    Not the prettiest nor cutest girls in the show, but definitely the deepest.

  3. “Where did you go? I waited to eat because I thought you would be back!”

    “Could you say that again, except like a childhood friend pretending to be angry to hide her embarrassment?”

    Damn, Kyon’s sarcasm really hits the money this episode.

  4. This episode made me understand why a lot of the novel readers have Yuki as their favorite character.

    Go Yuki go go go!!

  5. Upon the third veiwing I came to a horrifying discovery, all woman Mikuru lost a lot more than I thought after apsotlehood with Haruhi-sama. Though I fear to say it and can’t purge it from memory.

    I can help but feel sorry for all woman Mikuru, it obvious that she won’t get over Kyon for a number of years. Seeing her look back on the the old days as a happy time must mean that when she returns her life might not be so up beat.

    Her going back was most likely for personal reasons but if time travel works the way she said it did back during the dayto the pain will remain. Still knowing what Mikuru will look like down the road. She is more confident and assertive both of which make her more beautiful and in the end tragic. Though I’ll bet that there are many who would take her even if she was ruined for marriage.

    I wonder if Haruhi was all teary eyed when she stormed off after Kyon crushed the website. Yuki is better than Rei she don’t need no robot she kicks butt in seifku alone, besides there is no nasty Shinji to muck things up or Anno…err Gendo scoring ridiculous amounts of…affection. Go Yuki redefine the whole impassive waif schtick!

    I dearly hope KyoAni is planning to bring us alot more, more ass kicking Yuki-chan, murderous Ryoko-san, loveable Tsuruya-san, both versions of Mikuru, and last but most certainly not least the many moods of our lady Haruhi-sama. Besides the Marines haven’t left Okinawa, and the squids are still at Yokohama, the zoomies still have Yokota, and the squids still have Yokosuka.

    If Haruhi-sama is Snow White and Kyon is the reluctant prince then:

    Dopey = Itsuki
    Grumpy = Taniguchi
    Doc = Yuki
    Happy = Tsuruya
    Sneezy = Kunikida
    Sleepy = Imotou-san
    Bashful = Mikuru

  6. fang-tan doesn’t show up until the baseball episode, so I guess it’s safe to say she won’t be in the melancholy part..big down if she’s not in the next episode though.

    if the time travel can cause the past to change leading to different scenarios each time adult mikuru travels back, making all the episode skippage with future episodes not actually happening, and thus causing a parallell world higurashi type storytelling, with a different storyline each time until the one storyline occusers that won’t need mikuru travelling back anymore, leading to 15498 episodes as noted on the website…that has to be it, that has to be it..nvm

    about the mole not being there..
    mikuru no bouken did have mole, given.
    ep3, seemed to see a tiny dot showing up at one time, don’t have HD version to double check. on screenie you gave, either production mistake or hidden due to breasts jiggling a lot.

    ep5 meido DID have mole. look at 5th pic kyon took with closeup (you showed 3rd). it’s there. pic you mentioned not having mole is more of a combination of lower res and the paper/sheat pattern covering up the mole.

    ^UP Taniguchi freeze, fixing tie and running away crying. A certain someone obviously has Yuki in his AA+ list.

  7. The mole has been there from the beginning. In the very first view of Mikuru in episode 00, during the opening credits, it’s in plain sight. Go and watch it.

  8. you forgot to mention that full-woman mikuru goes bra-less

  9. >>I checked my extensive 117 gig Mikuru-run image collection and, yep, she didn’t have it back in the early episodes. Vinland and I even pondered if it were a production mistake back then.

    Sorry I don’t have the resources to throw up screencaps, but if you check the HD versions of episodes 5 and 10, you can see the mole pretty easily.

    My question is where it went in the scene from episode 3 that you linked.

    There’s no question that time travel is confusing (after seven volumes, could I get a flow chart? Please?) and the author apparently loves to borrow actual concepts without entirely understanding them (we are in for a doozy of an interpretation of the Anthropic Principle in part V) but he seems to be relying on a few basic theories.

    1) Hawking’s chronology protection conjecture. The laws of physics prevent the occurance of closed timelike curves. Any kind of interference from a time traveller that would seemingly cause a closed timelike curve is, in fact, part of the only extant timeline of ‘the past’ and does not change ‘the future’ in any way. Similar to the many worlds hypothesis, but different in that time travel that doesn’t create a closed timelike curve is possible within the same timeline.

    2) As I see it, Haruhi’s timequake might be intended as a solution to the theory that time travel is impossible because if it were possible, there would be time tourists everywhere. If the laws of physics are altered to permit time travel at a certain point in time, they cannot travel to before that point, because before that point time travel is physically impossible. Thus avoiding paradox.

    I’m pretty sure a few events can only be plausibly explained by the Novikov principle as commonly applied to pop fiction: paradoxes are made impossible by the guaranteed occurances of insanely improbable (yet physically possible) events that prevent the paradox.

    Gosh. That certainly went on for a while. I guess it goes to prove your original point: time travel sci-fi is more trouble than it’s worth.

  10. Thanks to the way that time travel works in this show, Time Paradoxes don’t happen.

    >>”Between one time frame and another there exists so-called temporal fault lines. Even though the frequency of the fault lines are near zero they do exist; so, there is no continuity between different time frames. Time traveling is the attempt to make a three-dimensional movement between the two-dimensional temporal planes. For me who has arrived from the future to this temporal plane it is like adding an extra object being drawn onto the still image. Because there is no continuity between time frames even if I attempted to change history in this age it would not affect the future. Everything would end in this temporal plane. It’s like trying to add a few words on a still image from hundreds of still images, but the overall story would not be affected, right?”

    From the Novel. So basically, changing the past does not change the “future” for someone who has come back in time. Mikuru’s time will be unaffected by any changes that happen in the present. Mikuru isn’t in the present to change and preserve the timeline, she’s more there to observe and find out why they can’t go back earlier than then. So All-Woman Mikuru coming back in time to warn Kyon is really more of a personal favor because she doesn’t want him to get hurt, rather than trying to change anything that might actually affect her or her time.

  11. Thus the reason why I tend to downgrade a scifi as soon as a time traveler appears.

  12. the idea of the first ever anime selfcest

    Mikuru having sex with herself… would that still be defined as masturbation? (;^_^)

  13. Who do you prefer, the All-woman Mikuru or the young-girl Mikuru?

  14. >>the idea of the first ever anime selfcest

    Wot, Shirou X Archer ain’t good enough for ya? That’s the first ever mention of selfcest right over there.

    Haruhi: “Men are potatoes. Love is just a temporary lapse in judgement like a kind of mental illness. Even I get in the mood for that crap every now and then. I am a healthy young girl, deshou deshou. My body has its urges. But you know, I’m not dumb enough to let a moment’s slip-up leave me with a huge burden.”

    That just means she wanna touch herself at night. Or get r000’d. And it’s inflection, not infection.

    I KNEW RYOKO WAS TOO NICE. SHE JUST WANTED KYON’S CAWK. Waiwai Yuki-chan Waiwai~

  15. I knew the killer loli brigade was going to love this episode.

    Well, I had some idea of what was coming because I read the translation, and that spoiled the fun, I think. The charm of the show has always been three things: Haruhi’s egocentricism, Kyon’s sarcasm, and the utter mind bend of What Happens Next. (Charm as opposed to attraction, which is Mikuru, Mikuru, and more Mikuru; adult Mikuru FTW!!!!) Knowing what was coming definately spoiled that feel. Next week, I’ll know for sure, since I haven’t read that part.

    We’re obviously aiming for the end of vol.1 as the last episode in the series, what with the references to “a world-cramping incident” and Itsuki’s reference during the baseball game to Kyon saving the world by repeating “how you and Haruhi got back from that alternate world.”

    Kyon: “Definately not!”

    #2: good point… I was trying to figure out why she didn’t just program a new set after she discovered her error. I tend to take Yuki at face value–big mistake.
    #3: Best line of the show!

  16. Someone knows what is written in yellow on 23:38? Is seems to be the date of the last episode to me (10/30) and so we would have 27 or 26 episodes! (because 10/30 would be a monday, the day Haruhi is shown in japan >_>)

    Besides, where did you guys take that 14 episode thing? Considering Episode One was “Episode 00” (such as an interlude) and episode 14 (9) was already shown, doesn’t this mean that there are AT LEAST 15 episodes? õ.o

  17. The Medocricity of Haruhi indeed, a couple of arguably weaker episodes and people were starting to give up on this series….

  18. It’s not that the series suddenly became “bad”. It’s just that it set such an incredibly high bar for itself with the first three–five episodes, it was near impossible to live up to it.

    Poor Kyon, to lust after such a hot babe, and yet they have to stay away from each other or maybe risk time paradoxes. Not to mention destruction of the world by a jealous goddess!

  19. >>UP “So dark the con of Haruhi”… one of the most entertaining subplots is how all these weird people and events revolve around kami-sama Haruhi, yet she doesn’t know. Just like Sophie.

    Is that the Sophie I’m thinking about, I wonder.

    I just know that I now love Yuki. But Tsuruya is my favorite. How strange, I always seem to have a thing for liking the green-haired-females. Ah, and Asakura gets lots of love in this episode too. Maybe the aliens have something to do with Oyashiro-sama?

  20. Ah, but _do_ they really revolve around Haruhi? Or is the ultimate joke that they actually revolve around Kyon? I’ve had some odd thoughts about the whole idea of the series, even after reading the translations thus far.

    Firstly, remember that Kyon wanted the same kind of things that Haruhi did, but he convinced himself that they didn’t exist and so he “grew up”. Now he’s forced to face that all the fantasies he put aside were real after all. And he gets to experience the fullness of it all, thanks to Haruhi.

    Secondly, as the supposed “peon” of the group he gets to be Haruhi’s real sidekick. Itsuki is just a yes man, reinforcing the direction she’s already going. But you notice Haruhi never opens up to Itsuki with things like “Even I get those urges.” Kyon is special to Haruhi, and he comes to recognize and respond to it.

    Thirdly, I don’t think they brought it out in the anime, but in the novel he specifically states he decided he didn’t want to be the hero, but instead the sidekick — the one who gets to hang out with the heroes and go on the adventure, then make the key observation at the end.

    Well, look who it is that’s getting exactly what they want: not Haruhi, the ‘goddess’ but Kyon, the supposed sidekick. So here’s the meta-question: who is really the one unconciously controlling reality? Is it Haruhi, or the guy surrounded by all the hot alien/time-traveler/psyhic (and -o) chicks?

    Who maneuvered Haruhi into collecting all those people, anyway?

    Hmmmmmmmmm.

  21. o man, i can’t believe we had all woman mikuru in the OP theme the entire time, and no one ever noticed that it was her. >_>With an atmosphere ripped out of Kanon, Ryoko starts talking gibberish (never a good sign for poor Kyon)

    hmm…I’m trying to figure out how this was similar to Kanon, and all I can think of is that there was that supernatural romantic feeling, which isn’t unique to Kanon. was there something else?

  22. ubu, let me throw a question at you.
    If Kyon wasn’t getting what he wanted, would he have stayed around SOS-dan?

  23. Exactly my point. But is it actually _him_ who created this situation in the first place? Oh, I know there’s no evidence for it in the novels (as far as I know, anyway), but it’s a funny thought.

  24. The CASO fansub this week mixes Yuki vs Ryoko with Fate/Stay Night – genius! :D

  25. Here is a tricky question for everyone: who’s more emotionally mature ? Asakura or Nagato ?

    I always thought it would be Asakura since she *could* properly communicate with human beings, however Nagato acts more like a silent adult(lamb), obeying entities’ instructions(whilst not confronting kyon).

    Further more, if Asakura is just a backup of Nagato, then why would she have a more advanced *interface* (communication-wise)?

    I own speculation is even the entities can’t manipulate emotions(as they couldn’t win over haruhi), so “to have a complex interface” is itself a dangerous concept(bugs in both of them).

    Anyway, at least one question is answered: who’s more physically mature…

  26. Also, (* minor spoiler *) the star-shaped birthmark discovery is a time paradox, because later in the novel kyon told Asahina she got a birthmark on her breast, but she never knew that until then; on the other hand, kyon was shown the birthmark that he never noticed before.

    So who told who first ? chicken or egg ?

  27. Scientifically, egg came first, for first real chicken DNA would have been in the egg, and it would have been different from its parents.

  28. >>> I’m beginning to feel that Yuki is the most complex of all the characters.

    Psh. The whole fight scene just screamed “Ayanami!”

  29. There’s a lot of goodness in this episode, but bra-less Mikuru simply wins. I’m guessing that from all the hints that they’re dropping that one of the keys to getting out of the first “closed space” incident that is alluded to in the series, where Kyon and Haruhi are trapped together, I believe (which they also haven’t shown yet, and from how things are going, I’m guessing that it’ll be the last episode shown), will be Kyon taking Haruhi’s “firsto kisu”. I’d certainly pay to see that.

    It’s too bad that there wasn’t any graphing in this review, since I liked how it worked with the previous aa-Megamisama, but to be fair there was a heck of a lot to get to in this episode. I’m hoping that the Killer-Loli-Squad-Death-O-Meter will make a show for the next Higurashi ep, though.

    Also, I think that a.f.k. is going for some sort of award for amusing subbing decisions when they translated Kyon’s exclamation when bra-less Mikuru flashed him (“tokibori”, I think it was?) as “Super-size me!” I don’t know if that’s accurate or not, but I’d inspect her Happy Meals any day.

  30. It’s interesting to see how Kyon almost has as much influence with everyone as Haruhi does… even if he can’t rewrite reality with a thought, the way she can – at least, when it comes to the female characters. Ryouko sees him as important enough to kill; Yuki listens to him on several occasions when he puts in ‘orders’ (the ‘I won’t open the door’ thing on the Island, and then ‘You look better without glasses’ thing here), Mikuru’s usually attending to him more thans he does anyone else…. and even Itsuki’s willing to talk about things he won’t talk to the others about.

    Mind you, the older Mikuru’s a win for me, no matter what she shows up in. :D That confidence and assertiveness she’s got makes her dead-sexy in a way that younger Mikuru can only dream of; it’s not just the figure, after all.

  31. Psh. The whole fight scene just screamed “Ayanami!”

    What?

  32. A couple odd things pop into mind when watching The Adventures of Mikuru-run :

    1) is it a coincidence that Haruhi, the script writer, assign all the characters with their “real” identity??

    Mikuru is a fighting waitress from the future
    Yuki is an evil alien
    Itsuki is an esper that possess a hidden power

    (or am I’m digging too deep in this anime as I’m slowly becoming an otaku ?)

    2) what’s with the talking cat “Shamsen” at the last fighting scene? It’s funny how Yuki tries to cover it up by jokingly saying that was ventriloquism :)

    We don’t see this cat anywhere in the anime thus far – possibly a future character? The voice actor for Shamsen (Kenchi Ogata) is even mentioned in the ending credit ( Oh shit, I’m really becoming an otaku)

  33. to Takahashi:

    all of your questions are answered in volume 2 of the novel (which is the entire making of The Adventures of Mikuru-run ), but the anime is planning to skip the 2nd volume completely, so better hope they make a sequel lol.

  34. Teki:
    >>It’s too bad that there wasn’t any graphing in this review, since I liked how it worked with the previous aa-Megamisama, but to be fair there was a heck of a lot to get to in this episode. I’m hoping that the Killer-Loli-Squad-Death-O-Meter will make a show for the next Higurashi ep, though.

    Even better would be something like the Doomsday Clock where you see our hero’s expected lifespan shrink as we learn more about his predicament.

  35. “Before Ryoko dematerializes a la Erstin”

  36. > Psh. The whole fight scene just screamed “Ayanami!”

    Yuki is more interesting and complex than Rei. It’s been a long time ago, but I don’t remember Rei showing any emotion or desire or even an individuality.

    Actually, when Yuki was impaled, she kind of reminded me of Chise with her crystalized wings.

  37. > It’s been a long time ago, but I don’t remember Rei showing any emotion or desire or even an individuality.

    Actually, Rei developped some feelings for Shinji. She only realized it too late before she blew her Eva up. Then her clone replaced her, so we can say that this kind of development got to the trash bin =P

    I personally find Yuki way more likeable than Rei or any stoic, nearly emotionless and introverted girl I’ve seen so far in an anime.
    And God knows I am not the biggest fan of this stereotype, being more attracted by the Sakaki-like.

    I mean, bookworm alien with sci-fi geekness who can hack the Matrix (well her ‘magic’ look like it works that way hahah) then she is later responsible of something big in the novel that deserve to be shown in a second season (should KyonAni ever do that). What to not like about her?

    And unlike Rei, her design doesn’t strike me as a fantasized barbie doll.

  38. I was wondering does anyone else think haruhi saw kyon put the pictures in the folder as mikuru asked if something happened, in the fansub, when haruhi left. and ubu i agree with the kyon is the center theory

  39. Hahahaha! The Church of Kyon will rule!

    (Although, truth be known, I’d rather worship Adult Asahina.)

  40. Oh, I forgot to bring this up earlier.

    Haruhi read Kyon’s thoughts again.

  41. Assuming that the hold trinity of church of Haruhi is Haruhi, Kyon, and the SOS-dan, we have a Filioque problem.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filioque

    Specifically, Did SOS-dan proceeds from Haruhi, or Haruhi and the Kyon?

  42. >>> Even better would be something like the Doomsday Clock where you see our hero’s expected lifespan shrink as we learn more about his predicament.

    I’d love to see that up on the screen during an episode. For example, Keiichi says something nice about Shion where Mion can hear it, and we see 2 hours drop off his “Estimated Time of Death”. Or in that case, maybe a graphic of him digging his own grave would be better.

    >>> Hahahaha! The Church of Kyon will rule!

    ubu makes a lot of good points. While I’m personally agnostic so far as to who is more powerful (Kyon or Haruhi), I really do wonder what Kyon’s special power is. As long as we don’t get into any sort of Crusades, it should be fun. (If there was a war, Kyon would instantly lose, since Haruhi would just dress Mikuru up like an extra from Gladiator, causing instant blood loss to Kyon.)

  43. I’m pondering the episode numbering. Each episode has the number that Kyon gives it (the order in which it’s shown to us) and the number that Haruhi gives it (the chronological story order). We don’t know the Haruhi-number of episode 1, but we’re running out of places it can be. It must come before Someday In The Rain (K9/H14) and it seems like it comes after Remote Island Syndrome Part 2 (K8/H10). We know from the preview that the next episode is The Day of Sagittarius (K11/H13) so either the movie episode is H11 or H12, or the movie episode is not part of the sequence at all and we’ll end up missing an episode. If the next episode clearly precedes the movie episode, we’ll know there’s a gap coming.

  44. One of the odd things about the series is I can never tell for sure when Kyon is talking to himself, or talking aloud, while the camera shows something else. Many times, Haruhi responds as if he was talking to her. I noticed the novel does that a lot too, but that could just be the translation.

  45. >>> I’m pondering the episode numbering. Each episode has the number that Kyon gives it (the order in which it’s shown to us) and the number that Haruhi gives it (the chronological story order). We don’t know the Haruhi-number of episode 1, but we’re running out of places it can be. It must come before Someday In The Rain (K9/H14) and it seems like it comes after Remote Island Syndrome Part 2 (K8/H10). We know from the preview that the next episode is The Day of Sagittarius (K11/H13) so either the movie episode is H11 or H12, or the movie episode is not part of the sequence at all and we’ll end up missing an episode. If the next episode clearly precedes the movie episode, we’ll know there’s a gap coming.

    I don’t know why I’m the only one who’s saying this.. People keep trying to place The Adventures of Mikuru-Run at the end of the anime, but the first episode was all of Volume 2 in the novel condensed into one episode. So it’d be the number after the one that was after this last one. Meaning it’s not a very late number. Before the Remote Island Syndrome, and before Day of Sagittarius, and after every Melancholy episode.

  46. Really, argon? That would make it H5 or H6 by my chart, but Fang-tan appears in it and she’s introduced in the baseball episode (K4/H7).

  47. >>One of the odd things about the series is I can never tell for sure when Kyon is talking to himself, or talking aloud, while the camera shows something else. Many times, Haruhi responds as if he was talking to her. I noticed the novel does that a lot too, but that could just be the translation.

    I noticed that as well, but I’m beginning to think this is intentional. consider this from episode 7, Misterique Sign.

    Kyon: Emblem? Looks like grumbling, drunken tapeworm to me.

    Haruhi: Look closer! See, it says SOS Brigade in the center, right?

    Kyon (now could this be thought or is he actually saying it? the content seems like thoughts, and the subs are even italicized to show stream of thought!): When you put it that way, I can’t say I don’t get the feeling it doesn’t or does it. But you can’t say it wouldn’t be difficult to assert that claim. Well then, how many negatives did I just string together? If someone’s free, tally it up for me.

    Haruhi: You’re the one with the most free time!

    See that! A direct response! could he have been thinking out loud?! who knows, cuz we can’t see his mouth!

  48. edit!

    I noticed that as well, but I’m beginning to think this is intentional. consider this from episode 7, Misterique Sign.

    to

    I noticed that as well, but I’m beginning to think this is intentional, in order to show perhaps that Haruhi can read minds or something like that. or maybe a special mind link between her and Kyon, which is what makes Kyon “special”?consider this from episode 7, Misterique Sign.

  49. image

    This just made me think of you. *looks around*

  50. …well, maybe Haruhi can read Kyon’s mind and Kyon doesn’t realize he wasn’t talking.

  51. but the first episode was all of Volume 2 in the novel condensed into one episode. So it’d be the number after the one that was after this last one. Meaning it’s not a very late number. Before the Remote Island Syndrome, and before Day of Sagittarius, and after every Melancholy episode.

    But chronologically (which is how Haruhi’s numbering works) volume 2 takes place AFTER volume 3.

  52. [quote]

    I noticed that as well, but I’m beginning to think this is intentional. consider this from episode 7, Misterique Sign.

    Kyon: Emblem? Looks like grumbling, drunken tapeworm to me.

    Haruhi: Look closer! See, it says SOS Brigade in the center, right?

    Kyon (now could this be thought or is he actually saying it? the content seems like thoughts, and the subs are even italicized to show stream of thought!): When you put it that way, I can’t say I don’t get the feeling it doesn’t or does it. But you can’t say it wouldn’t be difficult to assert that claim. Well then, how many negatives did I just string together? If someone’s free, tally it up for me.

    Haruhi: You’re the one with the most free time!

    See that! A direct response! could he have been thinking out loud?! who knows, cuz we can’t see his mouth!

    [/quote]

    If there was another person listening, they could have heard it like this.

    Kyon: Emblem? Looks like grumbling, drunken tapeworm to me.

    Haruhi: Look closer! See, it says SOS Brigade in the center, right?

    Kyon: (silence)

    Haruhi: You’re the one with the most free time! ( after which she gives Kyon the command to put the sing up on the website )

    Many times, the dialog makes sense even if you delete Kyon’s statement, for Haruhi rarely listens nor cares about what Kyon says, except when Kyon persist in his saying, or she is already in a good mood. He practically had to give a long lecture in order to prevent Haruhi from trying to put Mikuru’s picture on the website again. I believe the reason why the book doesn’t clarify whether something was spoken or not, is probably to emphasize that what Kyon thinks or say rarely seem to matter to Haruhi. It could also be due to just laziness, not bothering to put the “” marks in all the right places.

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