snow mountain syndrome

Fittingly, with the storms ravaging parts of the US, I thought it would be a good time to finish up reading the Snow Mountain Syndrome stories for Haruhi Suzumiya.

Since there are future plot points and spoilers for people to be had for people who aren’t reading the novels, I’ll just try to be shifty and general with my comments:

The night visitors? Besides their intended purpose of being a clue, they just so happen to represent the deepest desires of every SOS Brigade member. For Haruhi, it was Kyon; for Mikuru, it was Haruhi (!); for Yuki, it was Kyon; for Kyon, it was Mikuru; and, for Itsuki, it was Kyon (no surprise here).

I’d rather watch Mikuru purring in a white men’s dress shirt than more “Dozo! Have a starfish!” I hate you Kyoto Animation.

I’d much rather watch Mikuru awakened by a purring Haruhi than more “Dozo! Have a starfish!” I hate you Kyoto Animation.

I can understand Ryoko lunging at someone with a knife. I don’t understand this type of warfare presented as well… it feels too much like those episodes of Star Trek Voyager where there’s a war in the Q Continuum, and they fight as Civil War soldiers. Probably never a good thing if I’m comparing something to Star Trek Voyager.

Seeing Euler’s formula in this chapter… it makes me nostalgic for the SATs. No, seriously, it did. I think I’ll go do a practice test now and see how much I have regressed… or would that be too depressing?

I want to build a snowman with LOL FANG-TAN too!

I enjoyed Kyon’s fawning over LOL FANG-TAN, which isn’t something we got too much of in the anime. The more I read the novels, the more I get that the really, really hates Haruhi and considers pretty much every other female a huge upgrade. I mean, since the books are written in the first person in Kyon’s perspective, we do get a pretty good sense of how much he wants Kyoto to stop working on Key visual novels… oh wait, that’s just me. Kyon just wants some H or H-like substance with Mikuru.

The “epilogue” with the murder mystery was fairly lame, since Itsuki was doing a great Soviet Russia impression in imposing so many rules. Also, Kyon wondered why Itsuki only plays board games and not video games, and I’m beginning to wonder too. Though I think Animal Crossing + Mikuru = cute overload. (I do want to see Haruhi in her own World of Warcraft commercial, much like the Mr. T one, only Haruhi is a Tsundere Blood Elf with a Mikuru mount.)

So now they’ve been to a deserted tropical island as well as the LOL FANG-TAN ski resort. I’m wondering what vacation spot Haruhi will take the SOS Brigade. I’m hoping for Paris or Hinamizawa or a screen door factory in Delaware.

19 Responses to “snow mountain syndrome”

  1. Haruhi isn’t a Tsundere Blood Elf – she’s a Blood Elf Hunter with a Mikuru-pet. ;)

  2. “(I do want to see Haruhi in her own World of Warcraft commercial, much like the Mr. T one, only Haruhi is a Tsundere Blood Elf with a Mikuru mount.)”

    Start churning up the YouTube machine, people… If they can make a Haruhi SZS OP, they can make a Haruhi WoW commercial. BTW, I think Shatner’s WoW commercial would have been even better than T’s if they’d worked in a “KHAAAANN!!”

  3. Where do you read the novels? Off the internet, or do you buy them and actually know enough Japanese to read them?

  4. Nobuharu: For the English-speaking followers of Haruhism, there’s the novel translation project at Baka-Tsuki (http://www.baka-tsuki.net/proj.....iya_Haruhi).

    They have up to the latest novel’s translation up so far, but a fair warning, it’s a little confusing on the first pass.

  5. Patience, young padawan. There are those of us who would much rather watch Tessa fanservice than more “Normal humans don’t interest me at all!” I hate you Kyoto Animation.

  6. I just want ten more minutes on the best way to eat a chocolate coronet.

    No, really.

    Not.

    I hate you Kyoto Animation.

  7. I found the WoW commercials rather lame, it’s not like Warcraft universe sucked me in like Dune universe did :/

  8. Mounting Mikuru…….what were we talking about again?

  9. “Patience, young padawan. There are those of us who would much rather watch Tessa fanservice than more “Normal humans don’t interest me at all!” I hate you Kyoto Animation.”

    Nnnnngggghhh… Dont..know…whether..to..agree…or…flame…

    Man, I wish KyoAni was big enough to do two projects at once without a drop in quality…

  10. I actually would like ot know where a higher-rez of that illustration at the top might be actually. I’m a big fan of the Noizi Itoh stuff personally.

    And stuff.

  11. Yeah, I want it too … More Noizi Itoh art, more /hr/, more !!!

    Oh shit, I can’t read your post, NO SPOILERS !!!

  12. The Disappearance arc should compensate for Snowmountain.
    It’s an okay story but it just didn’t feel right even with the naked antics.

  13. Your “I hate Kyoto Animation” comments make me laugh.

    Mostly because I agree with them.

    And with non-HD Clannad’s delay, it looks like we might not get Haruhi 2 until July or something…

    Gaaahh….

  14. Hm, reading this really made me wish it was animated and in watchable form.

  15. http://www.haruhi.tv/
    http://www.haruhi.tv/bungei.html
    http://www.haruhi.tv/xterm.html
    http://www.haruhi.tv/images/071218.jpg

    Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will be done by Shaft instead of Kyoto Animation.

  16. >>Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will be done by Shaft instead of Kyoto Animation.

    Lucky?

  17. “for Mikuru, it was Haruhi (!)”

    When I read that it explained a lot of Mikuru’s behaviour. Why does she put up with Haruhi’s treatment of her? Because she likes it! Mikuru’s hoping for some BDSM-style H-material with Haruhi.

    And Kyon has no chance with her at all.

  18. Wow, you guys really like to fold your own ecchi into the Haruhi stories, don’t you?

    I have my suspicions about why Kyon’s harem is the way it is, but two possibilities seem likely: Either the Kyonists are right or there’s some shared DNA going on that makes Kyon less interesting as a dating prospect than he otherwise might be…or there’s option C, which involves Kyon’s only recorded date.

    If we accept what is written at face value, Haruhi’s arc over the run of the stories is about Haruhi having to decide to like ‘normal life’ so that she’ll quit messing with reality to make it suit her better. Kyon’s a key part of it. At the same time, Kyon made it clear (in vol 4) that he doesn’t hate Haruhi near as much as he lets on. Simply put, he had the option in front of him practically on a silver plate of a vastly nicer world that he turned down specifically because Haruhi wasn’t a driving force in it.

    Would I prefer Haruhi season 2 over Clannad? Youbetcher. Would I want any other studio to attempt adapting the cerebral, talky, complex books into anime? Not on your life. Face it: if they can make ‘please accept this starfish’ into something even marginally watcheable, they’re anime geniuses. I suspect the major reason that it hasn’t happened faster is because they don’t want to run out of books – Tanigawa-sensei only writes one or two a year in this series, and the first 13 episode anime used up almost all of the first three volumes.

  19. Stand by….Haruhi incoming!

    (Newtype/AnimeSuki reports suggest release date of April 2009)

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