melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 2009 4, endless eight
Categories: episodic review, melancholy of haruhi suzumiya
Tagged: haruhi suzumiya
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15,499.
I have never, ever gotten bored during an episode of Haruhi Suzumiya. Until today. Ugh. While 3 was somewhat different than 2, 4 is pretty much 3 with less revealing outfits. I wouldn’t mind if they repeated things but was somewhat different… but I honestly started praying for something– ANYTHING– different by the 16 minute mark. Kyon and Itsuki finally kiss? Sure, why not? Mikuru starts pole dancing again? Sure, why not? Haruhi stars in a Toyota Prius ad? Sure, why not? Yuki gets addicted to H-games? Sure, why not?
Surely, if Kyoto ran 13 episodes of Endless Eight… it would be the ballsiest move in anime production history. They would just get a ton of flak from the fans, but there would also be the car flag waving irrational fans that would try to justify it somehow. I’m rooting for 13 episodes of Endless Eight now; it’ll be like rooting for the Detroit Lions to go 0-16. Just a completely magical experience… only the exact opposite.
I guess the biggest problem I had with this episode was… what the fuck am I going to blog about? It’s 90% the same as the previous one, which was 80% the same as the one prior to that… and… well… I’m out of material. So… uh… read any good books lately?
(This has to be one of the lamest NBA off-seasons ever. The draft was horrible, and free agency has been so totally crippled by the class of 2010 that almost no one opted out of their contracts. I just hope the summer anime season isn’t that bad.)
(And I learned that Steve Francis is the 22nd best paid American athlete today. This is like saying that Regios is the 22nd best anime ever.)
(I spent the last two days playing BlazBlue. It’s fantastic. It’s the best Arc System Works game since Guilty Gear X2… though aside from the doctor who attacks with a stripper pole, the characters are kinda bland. Then again, it’s hard topping I-No, Faust, and Bridget. Especially Bridget.)
sos brigade awesomeness index
Raw quality… can we please get a half-decent raw or fansub? I think I rather have a clean 4:3 feed than a horrible, horrible 16:9 one. Though I’m not sure what’s causing my eyes to bleed more: the poor image quality or all the Kyon x Itsuki scenes. And I’m secretly terrified that better raws would cause my eyes to bleed even more due to better animated Kyon x Itsuki scenes.
(Have some sleeping Mikuru with sleeping Haruhi. I think out of 15,499 reboots, there has to be at least 1,000 reboots where Haruhi has, uh, slept over Mikuru’s place.)
Haruhi’s solid color dresses… red, white, and teal! I liked them. Simple, flattering, and something different from the previous episode. Though I debated for a few moments whether or not this is a clue and whether or not Haruhi ever changes her hair ribbons now. Gosh, Endless Eight is making K-On! seem like Blade Runner.
Murse… is Kyon wearing a murse? *facepalm* Also, I see Haruhi has many purses as well… you know I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for material if Kyon’s murse is hitting in the two hole.
You’re gonna get buried… needs more barnacles. Question: for the 15,499 reboots, how many different outfits have they worn? I want to know all possible permutations with all Thrilling Mikuru Permutations starred, underlined, and in boldface type.
“I get the feeling that I wrote this post before”… I also noticed that Kyon and Itsuki’s swimwear changed from the long surfer-type style to a normal conventional above knee cut and now back to a lower cut. Out of 15,499 times, would you take the over or under on 10,000 times that Speedos happened? I’d take the under, but I’d think about it first.
Kyon… why is Imouto so much smarter than Kyon? It’s not quite Ui/Yui, but at least Yakumo/Tenma.
Murderous rage… seeing Mikuru riding behind Itsuki always sends me into a murderous rage. I just wonder if it’s stronger or weaker of a rage than all the anime fanboys who are raging at Kyoto for repeating Endless Eight endlessly.
15,499… for people who are in high school now, what the fuck are you doing? Stop reading this blog, form your SOS Brigade, and get bullied around by a solid-color dress-wearing tsundere, get served tea by a meek goddess in a frog outfit, and have time-warping conversations with the most flaming guy in school while wearing Speedos at the public pool. And repeat 3 times. With the 3rd time making sure there’s an online forum or two filed with people who have nothing better to do with their time than to write vitriolic posts about your club.
(15,499… also the number of tears Mikuru has shed over the previous 18 episodes, also the number of sexual partners for Wilt Chamberlain, also the number of cold showers needed to recover from realizing that Bridget, indeed, has a Johnny, also the number of interpretations that the previous item could have, also the average number of empty seats at a Memphis Grizzles home game, also the number of licks it takes to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop, and also the number of fantasies Hosaka generates on a daily basis.)
Raki Suta… how did Haruhi go from Haruhi-class in the original season to Mikuru-class in Raki Suta to Yui-class in this season. Can we get charts of her ever-changing bust size? And who would have thought that they would be at their size apex in Raki Suta?
Red bikini… I like red. You like red too? We should so totally hang out.
“Excellent!”… so disappointed Mikuru didn’t provide commentary about how her yukata fit her this time around. Good to see Kyoto is actually redubbing at least 5% of the lines. Though I’m almost convinced now that Endless Eight has been stretched thinner than Meg Ryan’s face because Aya Hirano is too busy with Queen’s Blade (which is getting a sequel) to record more lines for Haruhi Suzumiya.
(Is it a good sign that Queen’s Blade and Natsu no Arashi are getting sequels? Isn’t this the anime equivalent of Marcin Gortat getting a full mid-level exemption? At least I can kinda understand Asura Cryin’… that’s more like Trevor Ariza.)
(I’ll be amazed if three years from now, when we’re finally moving on from Endless Eight Haruhi-wise, if I’ll remember who Marcin Gortat is. This is just how low on material I’m at.)
“She magnifies unimportant things to magnificent scales.” Is Kyon talking about Haruhi? Or bloggers? Or people who comment on said blogs? Or all three?
Noblesse oblige… please continue being a repetitive messiah.
Imagination… that’s the same face Mikuru had when Haruhi pushed her down on her bed. And as Mikuru lay stunned and surrounded by her stuffed animals, Haruhi whispered, “Don’t worry Mikuru-chan, I’m very skilled in this.”
Imagination (continued)… that’s the same face Mikuru had when Haruhi’s cold fingers danced on Mikuru’s warm thighs. Mikuru has been forced to wear outfits against her will, but this is the first time, Mikuru thought, that her body warmness was being slowly caressed out of her by another person.
(No, nothing to do with K-On! 13.)
Hat… needed to be smaller and taller. That’s all I can say. You’d think out of 15,499 reboots, she wore a hat a third of the time. At least once she could have worn a mini-top hat.
48 Responses to “melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 2009 4, endless eight”
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I blame the direction. It was bland all the way through.
I think Andy Kaufman is directing from the grave. I also think they should delay airing of the next episode to replay the first iteration.
I want Kyon to fall in despair, snap, grab Shamisen, steal a car and drive off a cliff with the cat looking freaked out behind the wheel. Then he go back to square one of the loop.
Or just have him doing his confession to Itsuki in front of Haruhi, and see what happen.
Bold move by KyoAni. It’s either them try to show us …. just …. how …. boring …. repeating …. the …. same …. thing …. can …. really …. get ….
OR
“so you’ve read the novels and think you know what to expect”. Surprise!
watching more of endless 8’s would be like watching artest and kobe together in lakers, no more trash talking and in-your-facing. watching more of endless 8’s would be like shaq getting a championship with lebron after getting three with kobe and one with wade. watching more of endless 8’s would be like watching yao playing with his injurt and down goes rockets. watching more of en…..
Now you know how Yuki feels. See, this is what happens when guys don’t have balls. Aliens spend hundreds of years swimming, and buying masks. Noel and Rachel are obviously rock. The Wheel of Fate is Turrrrrrninggg – except in the Haruhiverse, where it seems to be jammed.
>> Now you know how Yuki feels. See, this is what happens when guys don’t have balls. Aliens spend hundreds of years swimming, and buying masks. Noel and Rachel are obviously rock. The Wheel of Fate is Turrrrrrninggg – except in the Haruhiverse, where it seems to be jammed.
I loled at BlazBlue refs. Especially when one knows about what’s going on in the game.
Putting commentary on the endless arc aside, I do envy KyoAni. The internet is humming with furious complaints, but does KyoAni care? No. KyoAni does not care. KyoAni knows that the internet is its loli tsundere bitch. Every fan who defenestrated their laptop and torched their Mikuru bedspread this week will be back the next, just as they will two weeks from now if Endless Eight deigns not conclude by then.
KyoAni realizes how powerful it is. It trolled us for eighteen months about new episodes, going as far as to hype up a “big announcment” then proudly schedule reruns. People are still watching. They invested fortunes in glitzing up mediocre series like Lucky☆Star and K-On! while people groaned caressing their blue balls for more Mikuru. People are still watching. These new episodes could be an elaborate teaser for the real next season, running all the way to August 30 without a dash of new content. People would still be watching.
Admit it. You are the loli tsundere bitch. KyoAni is the penis. Though you sulk and shout and insist there’s no way you’re interested, everyone knows you want that penis inside you. You can’t keep your eyes of it. KyoAni will put in when it’s good and ready. And you’re going to like it.
Keep shining, KyoAni.
Hey Sheba, is BlazBlue worth getting? Am saving up money for KOF XII but I also wanna buy BlazBlue. Do you own the PS3 version?
Incidentally Chihara Minori is coming down to Malaysia next week. Will probably ask her a question on Endless Eight, and what she felt about this arc.
After watching the end of this episode I feel a bit like Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes. They really did it.
I can’t help but feel this is all one elaborate sociological experiment, to see whether or not new episodes are even necessary for us to watch Haruhi, or that KyoAni wagered a drunken bet with Sunrise claiming they could run the same episode for the rest of the season and still make a better show.
Finally, someone who’s blogged this so I can vent my frustration about this episode!
Finally, a person who’s weblogged about this so I can vent my axieties about this!
Finally, someone who has blogged this episode so I can vent my frustrations about it!
(reminding anyone of a particular 3 episodes? :P)
This episode was the blandest haruhi episode I think I’ve seen, although the winter one from the first season comes fairly close – at least here we have the tension coz of constant deja vu sensations. But I was pissed. Why didn’t they ask Nagato how many times they’d realised the truth like in the book? Or why can’t Kyon man up and do something drastic like go “I LOVE YOU HARUHI!” just as she is about to walk out of the café at the end? ARGH!
But, on the upside, there is a great chance the next episode will be made of pure epicness. If not… well hearing about riots in Japan on the friday late night news wouldn’t surprise me :)
Awesome blog though!
I haven’t gone back to look (yet), but did Haruhi give Kyon those little “come and get me!” eyes in that last scene for all episodes? And I agree, I felt the directing was weak after last episode, but maybe the next will bump it up again. Also missed Haruhi offering food to Kyon. Also enjoyed more Haruhi in red. She rocks the red.
If I didn’t know otherwise, I might have thought this is KyoAni’s grilling commentary on the otaku subculture and how it just consumes literally the same stories, character quirks, and moe tricks recycled over and over again. Of course, they’re not a studio concerned with such high-minded moral education, but rather more concerned with exploiting this behavior to the logical extreme.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times…?
Maybe endless eight will continue for another four episodes? I mean it’s called endless EIGHT so maybe eight episodes? Just a hypothesis.
Or, its just an elaborate troll by KyoAni. <- More likely
This episode could mark for future anime historians where KyoAni stuffed the Haruhi franchise into a telephone pole while driving UIIE. (Under the Influence of Inflated Ego).
I don’t see how they are going to able to give the _Disappearance_ arc the episodes it deserves, with the way things are going..
WHAT DO WE WANT? MORE ALTERNATE YUKIS! WHEN DO WE WANT THEM? NOW!!
The second time round? That was good. The third? Far too many. And they didn’t resolve it in the worst possible way, without bringing anything more to the table.
There was virtually no extra content like there was from the first iteration to the second, no extra discussions about breaking the loop. There were enough extra snarky comments in the novel that some could have been used in the place of re-re-run dialogue. If KyoAni wanted to show us an extra iteration, it should have been done in rapid snapshot style at the start of the episode. You’re not short of source material, enough with filler.
*facepalms*
KyoAni actually managed to beat Hideaki Anno at his own game.
I was looking forward to this arc, since I have a friend who collects time loop episodes of tv shows. I think I’ll tell her to just skip this one. Hopefully the big 15500 will be the magic number.
This doesn’t bode well. After so long I wasn’t even looking forward to the new season, but when it did come it looked good, but this? If they wanted to convey the feeling of “endlessness”, they’ve failed. This is boring, boring, boring, boring (one boring for each episode). In the novels in fact this doesn’t even happen. Geez… If this story is gonna take at least 4 (perhaps 5?) episodes, I don’t know what we’re in for for the rest of the season, but it doesn’t look well.
In fact it’s not even like they’re reusing, from what I’ve seen, scenes from past episodes. They’re even adding newly animated scenes but the story is completely stagnated without a reason. This sucks, it would still suck, but if they were just recycling scenes at least it would be understandable. Crappy, but understandable, but this?
Hey, don’t diss Natsu no Arashi. Unlike certain other shows with time travellers and other extraordinary people, Natsu no Arashi provide A) new animation *every* episode, B) cross dressers.
Haruhi is lagging behind unless she start dressing up Kyon as Kyonko. Hey, maybe that’s what’s missing of her summer holidays…
That’s how kyoani trolls you, you think it’s gonna wrap up at 15,500, but it’ll probably go one more, just to get your blood boiling.
Leave to Jason to write a 1000+ blog post about an episode that essentially just repeated itself.
Just reading your blog is more interesting the watching the endless eight episodes. Hey Jason, have ever think of writing a fan fiction story between Mikuru and Haruhi? Not that I don’t mind but I am really bored right now and that the greatest show I watch few years ago was reduced to this. :(
The endless eight story arc wouldn’t be so bad if they ran the episodes out of order like the first season.
Yeah it’s boring, but I think that was kind of the point of the endless eight novel. I don’t like it either but I think the comments are blowing it our of proportion a bit. I liked some of the stylistic differences and yes this is probably going an episode to long but it will probably conclude next episode. They probably just wanted to show Kyon fail at finding an answer twice to drive home when he does. Just kidding the rest of the Haruhi Light Novel series is just Endless Eight. Yuki learns to crime fight and takes her adoring fan Mikuru as a lover using her immense popularity. She wears an alien mask.
http://www.sos-dan.com/img/src/1171334658189.jpg
Bike on, Koizumi, bike on.
I don’t know, I like Endless Eight. Its better than Groundhogs Day.
Then again Groundhogs day is to movies what Michael Jordan is to baseball.
I don’t know, I like Endless Eight. Its better than Groundhogs Day.
Then again Groundhogs day is to movies what Michael Jordan is to baseball.
I don’t know, I like Endless Eight. Its better than Groundhogs Day.
Then again Groundhogs day is to movies what Michael Jordan is to baseball.
I don’t know, I like Endless Eight. Its better than Groundhogs Day.
Then again Groundhogs day is to movies what Michael Jordan is to baseball.
Every instance where time repeats Yuki buys a new mask at the festival. Does her money reset also, is she eventually going to be poor? Or does this mean she’s filthy rich like Nagi and just needs her own Hayate-class butler?
I’m really just disappointed that I showed this ep to a friend who wanted to start watching the series again, the good thing that came out of it is that he doesn’t need to see the previous 2 eps now in order to catch up.
Oh well back to Blazblue, if anyone wants to play on PSN my name is the same as this.
>>Haruhi’s solid color dresses… red, white, and teal! I liked them. Simple, flattering, and something different from the previous episode. Though I debated for a few moments whether or not this is a clue and whether or not Haruhi ever changes her hair ribbons now.
I got the feeling that Haruhi was giving off a more feminine-sexy aura than in the previous cycles. Nothing overt from any specific scene, just a vague overall impression. It’s like the subconscious effect of the kiss from Melancholy VI followed by six hundred years of Kyon not taking the next step is making her a bit desperate for Kyon to see her as a member of the opposite sex. Which would make sense as a clue if Kyon jumping Haruhi’s bones is what will break the cycle. But a vague impression is a piss poor clue to base an entire episode around when it would work just as well in the arc’s final episode (or the second if the last one requires major deviations from the beginning of the two weeks).
>>http://blogsuki.com/images/haruhi/18/006.jpg
Mikuru appears in a swimsuit and a ponytail this episode. And Kyon says nothing. NOTHING. What happened to “ponytails turn me on”? Which got me thinking: if ponytails turn Kyon on, do they turn Kyon-ko on as well? How about her own ponytail? Does it cause her to walk around in a constant state of arousal? These questions need answers. For science.
That pic gives off a definite vibe of Higurashi right after K1 loses a batsu game.
1) I like that imagination. If it turns out that Endless Eight has a fourth run, you should write a fanfic that uses that great/terrible imagination to pump out what every fan wishes existed with screenshots.
—-
15498) I like that imagination. If it turns out that Endless Eight has a fourth run, you should write a fanfic that uses that great/terrible imagination to pump out what every fan wishes existed with screenshots. Wait, this sounds familiar…
15499)I like that imagination. If it turns out that Endless Eight has a fourth run, you should write a fanfic that uses that great/terrible imagination to pump out what every fan wishes existed with screenshots. Wait, this sounds familiar…
Argh! My faith in KyoAni is diminishing. We already know they are in a loop. Is it too much to ask to do some quick still shots with different clothes/situations? And just animate Haruhi’s first phone call, the swimming pool/festival deja vu’s, Yuki saying the current iteration and Kyon trying to figure what to do?
All I hope is that all the money they saved from not paying Aya Hirano from 3 episodes to be spent in more future episodes with incredible animation that can surpass Eden of the East’s.
OH! Who am I kidding, This is KyoAni, bloody evil bastards that troll Haruhi fans and cash out moeblob fanboys with moe anime, while at the same time denying them their fanservice.
“This is KyoAni, bloody evil bastards that troll Haruhi fans and cash out moeblob fanboys with moe anime, while at the same time denying them their fanservice.”
Wait, when did KyoAni become the animation studio equivalent to Bungie (Halo)?
>> Wait, when did KyoAni become the animation studio equivalent to Bungie (Halo)?
Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get that Master Chief fanservice soon…
I’m pretty sure that they’re trying to make the viewers feel the ZETSUBOU felt by Nagato, at least to some extent. Assuming you hadn’t read the novels (which I have, but this is an extrapolation), The first week, you were happliy given fanservice and went on your merry way. The second week, you saw the intrigue, and felt sorry for Nagato. The third week, you really empathize with Nagato, as KyoAni really emphasizes Nagato’s loneliness scenes, and you know what it’s like to repeat the same thing over and over, praying to whatever deity works at KyoAni that the story resolves itself next episode.
>>Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get that Master Chief fanservice soon…
Eh? http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hal.....305228.php
You all have been warned by KyoAni ever since K-ON! start…
“Don’t say lazy, they are just crazy.”
I’ll See your master cheif and raise you the best/worse/strangest otaku anime ending in what may be the history of the world. The Anime is NEEDLESS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?f.....FlMoo4vFx8
Yeah ugh. I don’t know how much more of this I can watch. What exactly are they trying to do here? I think I’ll just wait until it all gets subbed until I watch the rest of the series.
Wow. I was all excited today, downloading the latest episode in the background at work, and staying back extra late to watch it. They had the “everything is normal” episode. They had the “everything is (not) normal” episode. So this week it was going to be the triumpant resolution to the repedative storyline.
.
Or not. Ctrl + C. Ctrl + V. Congrats, you have episode 4….
.
Seriously, Kyoto. What are you doing to me??? To Everyone??? It would have been epic. One episode showing off the normal, one showing the problem, and one showing Mikuru’s assets… I mean, the solution. But, you give us the problem again.
.
Seriously, they need to resolve this next episode. Im almost willing to call episodes 3 and 4 the equivlant to the epic 60 second freeze frame from the end of eva….. You took it twice as long as it needed to. You cant take it 3 times as long. That would be wrong. Not Broken-Wrong. Just Wrong-Wrong.
.
Im also disapointed because none of the lines I can (slightly) remember appearing in the book translations are appearing. Nothing about Yuki seeming to weigh nothing on the back of the bike, nothing about how many times they have discovered the looping. Just Itsuki X Kyon…..
.
.
.
I would also like to comment that it is 7:30pm on the 6th of July (7th) here in Australia as I post this comment. Which means in about 11 hours im going to be waking back up to Tanabata…..
.
[b]Happy (soon to be) Tanabata everyone![/b]
Hope you have your wishes for the future ready….
(im putting “I hope Endless Eight ends” and “I REALLY hope Endless Eight ends” on mine, most likely…)
If Kyoani is really gonna troll us with endless eight for a few more eps, at least make an ep where Kyonko is sitting in front of the TV with a feeling of deja-vu and think “something is wrong, a little sexy, but wrong, that’s what my gut is telling me” while watching a losing baseball team she’s unrelated to, but still feels like cheering for. Next we’ll see Otouto giving her a “Why is she lounging around the house instead of dating one of those three cool onii-sans?†look.
Or at least have Yuki go insane at the pool, and decide, “You know what? Screw it, I’m skinny dipping”, and where after we later learn that on the 7,501th occurrence there was another incidence of public obscenity as well.
*crosses fingers…real hard*
Ah, the epic “let us pray for a canon Kyonko” episode.
Some of us would pay them for that.
>>>I’m rooting for 13 episodes of Endless Eight now
If Kyoto did this, they would be God Level Trolls. They would be the Anonymous of Anime Studios.
To the breast size.. In episode 3 they were deliciously big, however.
I don’t know how to break it to you, but there are at least 2 more, possibly 3 episodes of this. 15 screened today (the 6th new episode), and… it’s still in the loop, and hasn’t finished… #15501, with #15502 coming up.
The rumour on 2ch goes that 17 (#15503) will be the last Endless Eight. Unfortunately, this means they’re skipping Disappearance entirely.
I have to concur. There’s trolling, and there’s taking the goose that laid the golden egg and turning it into foie gras, and they’re now doing the latter.
I would, however, forgive them if we get a Kyonko cycle.
Hmm…my response to this episode is complicated.
I do think that the repetition is pretty boring, but as I rewatched the episodes, I realized that actually the show is buidling up some really good, but subtle tension. The increasing listlessness of Nagato, the disturbance of Itsuki, and the growing realization of Kyon I think are all integral to the development of this series in later episodes. If anyone has ever read the light novels, you might have an idea what I’m talking about.
I decided to set my prejudices aside and think about this analytically. Making an episode of Haruhi isn’t easy or cheap and obviously it would not be profitable in the long run for KyoAni to discourage or anger viewers with repetition. Therefore, the repetition must be purposeful and, in their opinion, necessary. But the thing is, as with much of the Haruhi series, the major consequences of Endless Eight will have their greatest weight later on. That’s as much I’m counting on.
in