melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 2009 7, endless eight
Categories: episodic review, melancholy of haruhi suzumiya
Tagged: haruhi suzumiya
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15,524.
Our long national nightmare is over. No, I’m not talking about the conclusion of Endless Eight… I’m talking about
7 is the new 6 that replaces the previous 5 that was the kinda old 4 which was the old 3 and wasn’t that different from the stale 2. I wouldn’t mind if they repeated things but was somewhat different… but I honestly started praying for something–- ANYTHING-– different by the 16th frame. Yuki throws a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays? Sure, why not? Itsuki signs Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to long-term contracts? Sure, why not? Mikuru comes out of retirement to QB for the Vikings? Sure, why not? Haruhi fails to make the cut at the British Open? Sure, why not? Kyon defeats Brock Lesnar at UFC 101? 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 (still) 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? I already used up my “I’m rooting for 13 episodes in a row” angle last episode… and if you think I’m running on empty, fuck yeah!
sos brigade awesomeness index
What am I going to write about… I honestly don’t know. Help! I feel like George W. Bush staring at an important piece of legislation, not understanding what it is, and asking Dick Cheney to “describe it in 100 words or less, using the presidential sock puppets.”
Best of 2000s… the decade is almost over (!!!), and I was thinking about the best anime of the decade. It has to be Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2006, right? In terms of cultural relevance, sheer fanboyism, and enjoyability, it a strong contender. Gurren Lagann doesn’t have the same cultural relevance (especially compared to the Hare Hare Yukai firestorm), Clannad hasn’t sucked in casual fans as well as Haruhi does. Mai Otome is tops in many categories as well, but how those categories translates to best of 2000s… well… you got me. Kamichu, Elfen Lied… they’re more like the 2006 Miami Heat than the 1996 Chicago Bulls.
(That just makes Endless Eight more depressing, I suppose. Funny thing is that once Haruhi goes back to being a normal anime, people will treat Endless Eight like how people treat Kenshin post-Kyoto arc… i.e… Kenshin was over after he returned from Kyoto. Comprende?)
(Also, I don’t buy the Kadokawa wants to milk this franchise by using so many episodes of Endless Eight theories… one, it’s never good business to piss off your fans, especially in the entertainment industry. Second, it’s not like Kyoto is re-using animation… it’s costing them cold, hard cash in a bad economy to animate the same things over and over. Kadokawa can make a lot more money animating new material, keeping fans happy, and selling tons of DVDs. I’m sure Kyoto would be making a ton more money if they spent the animation budget on K-On! Encore, especially considering how well the K-On! music CDs are selling than re-animating Endless Eight endlessly. I’m beginning to think maybe someone at Kyoto or Kadokawa got cursed like the girl in Drag Me To Hell, and the only way to remove it is to make eight episodes of of Endless Eight.)
Mikuru’s pink blouse… I liked this pink blouse. Though I felt that the waterworks weren’t up to the standards of the prior vintages.
Diving… (sadly) my favorite part of this episode was Haruhi (wearing a bikini that would look a lot better on Mio) dragging Mikuru (who is finally wearing a two piece) into the pool.
(The heart-print bikini only gets better if you picture Mio doing “moe~ moe~ kyun!” in it. Then, to take it to another level, picture a stapler-print bikini with Hitagi doing the same thing.)
Haruhi’s blue tank top… approved. When I saw the list of studios making Animatrix-type shorts for Halo (an idea that I can only describe as, “it didn’t work for Animatrix”), I was wondering why Microsoft picked studios like Production IG, Bones, and 4C? That’s just so predictable. I would have gone a different way and had contacted Kyoto, JC Staff, Shaft, and Studio Deen. We’ve all seen Master Chief as some elite warrior… anyone can do that. But have we seen Master Chief as a moe blob? Now that takes skill.
Albert Pujols… Mikuru Asahina is no Albert Pujols. But Albert Pujols is no Mikuru Asahina. But it would be funny if Mikuru were cranking 400 feet home runs with her swing.
Drag Me To Hell… if Sam Raimi makes a sequel, I hope it’s about five teenagers trapped in an endless loop enjoying summer while one million voyeurs are forced to watch the most boring parts of it (i.e. no shower scenes and definitely a lack of wet T-shirts).
Sundae… most depressing scene ever. It felt like Everyone is bowing their heads in shame… and they should!
(I liked how Haruhi doesn’t even finish her sundae / milkshake / whatever.)
Itsuki’s outfit… honestly, if that sweater were pink… it might have been the highlight of this episode. That’s how far Endless Eight has fallen.
Probability… out of 15,524 attempts, how many times do you think Haruhi hit Mikuru in the face with the beach ball? How many times did you think she missed? How many times do you think she knocked Mikuru’s top off? (Yes, I had a week to think about what to write… and…. sadly, I couldn’t come up with anything better. I’m going to watch some Needless.)
48 Responses to “melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 2009 7, endless eight”
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Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
What’s sad (or funny, depending on how you look at it) is that there have been so many shows/anime before this that have handled the “time loop” better.
Higurashi for the fact that every time we had a reset, events unfolded differently. If we had 8 episodes of a DIFFERENT set of summer activities or events, it would be much more entertaining instead of getting the same old with a different wardrobe each time. This is just bad storytelling and I can’t even see a remotely artistic way for them to justify it.
Even an episode of the old but amusing Card Captor Sakura was able to handle the dilemma of time loop syndrome, and they managed to present the problem and the solution to it in only ONE episode.
You know things are going downhill when Itsuki is this under-dressed.
SOS SOS We’re losing flamboyancy!
@Okami
But… wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of KyoAni’s Endless Eight? Like, sure, there have been plenty of anime/books/movies that handled the idea of a “time loop” (Groundhog Day, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, etc etc), but I can’t think of a single one where you, the reader/viewer, is subjected to the time loop just like the characters (or in this case, just one character, Yuki) are. I think we’re all frustrated by the Endless Eight repetitions, but I feel like it’s denying the whole goddamn point to say that “Well, it’d be more entertaining if they wrapped it up in only one episode/ did different versions.” Of course it would be more entertaining! Of course they could have wrapped it up in one episode! It’s not like there’s anything actually keeping a story like Endless Eight from going that route. But that’s like saying to a harem lead, “Well, you’re going to pick one of the girls anyway, so just pick one and get it over with,” or telling a shounen lead’s rival, “Well, you’re going to lose anyway, so might as well give up”.
Blah blah blah it’s not the destination blah blah blah blah it’s the journey blah blah blah KyoAni apologist blah blah blah.
I’m sad we didn’t get to see Mikuru in a wet t-shirt this time. (a straight girl’s honest opinion)
Welll the up side for KyoAni is that more people are talking about Haruhi right now, than they would if they were actually airing new shows. Maybe they believe that their is no such thing as bad publicity.
That batting cage doesn’t accommodate left-handed batters.
A curse! That’s the only remaining possibility, and where there’s a curse, there’s a witch. You know the drill: gouge the fans and kill!
That would yield an IronMan-tan and a Wolverine with emo facial distortions. And you left a critical studio off that list: Sunrise! Anyway, Microsoft embodies middle-of-the-road predictable. The retail stores are the latest example of that.
As for Endless Eight itself, some fanboys will rationalize anything, but I don’t see the point in wasting time on justifications and tortured logic. It was premeditated, that’s all I need to know.
Its good to know that the 30 page short story has more episodes than the WHOLE FIRST DAMN BOOK.
If I could take Hitagi up on her offer of one wish I wish for endless eight to be over.
Jason: How many times do you think she knocked Mikuru’s top off? (Yes, I had a week to think about what to write… and…. sadly, I couldn’t come up with anything better. I’m going to watch some Needless.)
Yep, thats our Jason
As far as best series of the 2000s, it’s almost necessary to split the decade into two halves. Haruhi 2006 clearly is the most iconic series in the otaku subculture, and overshadows everything in the latter half of the decade, but I think the first half of the ’00s was so packed with excellent, amazing titles, that they were doing each other a disservice because no single show could stand out among them.
Kino’s Journey
Monster
Banner of the Stars
Azumanga Daioh
Spirited Away
FLCL
Beck
Haibane Renmei
Princess Tutu
Gankutsuou
Mushishi
Honey and Clover
Fullmetal Alchemist
In terms of pure storytelling quality, can anyone go down this list and say Haruhi 2006 is better than each and every one of them? Cultural impact is really an unfair measure because that’s a product of the times, fans. and comparable works as much as the magnitude of the work itself.
Uuuugh~
I’m going to crack next week and watch the last 2 minutes first, then when Haruhi walks out of the cafe I’ll flick back over it and see what the SOS dan are all wearing. After season 1 I really don’t want to do this, but they’re taking the piss now.
On a less depressing note Keima has been coming out with some top notch stuff recently. I loved his sempai material, and now we’ve got a Honda acronym to add to BMW.
Crap, Toyota, not Honda!
That last screenshot…..The forgot Mikuru’s mole! -_-
I just realized, in the movie scene Mikaru is afraid and wants Kyon to comfort her but he doesn’t even care that she’s grabbing all over him.
But that means…
GAY IS CONTAGIOUS!
Apparently, it only takes 15,524 long poolside conversations with Itsuki to make a healthy teenage boy lose all interest in the opposite gender.
Personally, I think this is somemhair=brained scam to up Yuki’s woobieness factor in preparation for Disappearance, since they have completely forsaken Mikuru as their moe symbol. Heck, Yuki is more iconic of the series then the very titular character herself! They better compensate for this transgression by packing the DVDs with nothing but LOLfang-tan and Genderbent shorts. And no, not Churuya, just Tsuruya, being her genki self. And Kyon/Kyonko self-cest. This is a very bad year in the world of anime… hope it gets better. At least we got Hitagi, Zetsubou-sensei and Horo~n.
Hey, this is just as repetitive as playing a v-13/Tager match!!
You could be watching bakemonogatari 4 right now
Halo + moe = Shiny Green Nu-13
The most amusing thing about this is going through AnimeSuki’s forum’s, just to see people trying to defend how this is still a perfect episode. My idea is that Kyoto want’s a bigger Fangasm than what 2006 gave them, so they are giving us crap episodes to make Disappearance look better.
Well take comfort that the animation crew for Haruhi is actually really pissed off they have to make the same episode over and over, so I’m guessing someone higher higher up in the chain of command is doing this. They must be dragged out and tortured for 5 mins by each fan that they tortured.
@boo
I’m more concerned about the fact that a shark bit her neck and her head is hanging by a thread.
New theory.
In the new opening animation there is some sort of strange dance where each character shrugs their shoulders (as if to say “What the Hell”) and then shakes there head in disapproval.
This is repeated by 9 different people, therefore 9 episodes of endless eight.
So what will Kyon say to keep Haruhi from walking out the door?
My MOST wanted: “Haruhi! When you reset everything, I want to wake up a girl. You can call me Kyonko. Then we’ll ALL be girls!â€
My MOST wanted ALTERNATIVE: “Haruhi, I want you to come over to my place tonight and play with my stapler.â€
My MOST wanted, BONUS EDITION: “Haruhi! (Initiates the Geass) You’ll go to my place, do my homework, then sleep with me and tomorrow, we’ll move on to a better story arc.â€
My MOST REASONABLY wanted: “Haruhi! I challenge you to an AS battle! The loser has to run around the base nekkid.â€
Hmmm . . . what’s this strange feeling . . . like I’ve done this before . . .
Haruhi best show of the decade? Hard to say personally as I’m still playing catchup for most of the first half – I was in an anime fugue state where nothing really grabbed my attention. Haruhi definitely reinvigorated my interest in the medium.
However I can stay its my #1 biggest let down in a series between seasons. Not even what Asread did to Minami-ke can compare.
but I can’t think of a single one where you, the reader/viewer, is subjected to the time loop just like the characters (or in this case, just one character, Yuki) are. I think we’re all frustrated by the Endless Eight repetitions, but I feel like it’s denying the whole goddamn point to say that “Well, it’d be more entertaining if they wrapped it up in only one episode/ did different versions.â€
I have no idea how tags work here, so I’ll try this. If it comes out wrong, then sue me.
Anyway; this is the worst defence for this I’ve heard. Kadokawa’s conspiracy theory works better in my opinion, because the director’s JOB DESCRIPTION is to make us feel like whoever the writers want us to feel WITHOUT putting the viewers through the same shit as the person going through it. Imagine, if every single director did this and hired someone to stand outside your door and kill someone you loved for the sake of you feeling anger and resentment towards the villain – an exaggeration, and maybe an unfair one, but hey, SEVEN TIMES.
I hope that it ends next week, so that it’ll leave 3 for Disappearance and 2 for Sighs (maybe 1 for Sigh and 2 for Disappearance) but…
I’m just going to ignore the part about what you said about Haruhi 2006 and remember what you said back in the last Clannad post:
“I think, ten years from now, Clannad and not Haruhi will be remembered as Kyoto’s defining work much like how even though Sailor Moon is more popular, Utena is considered Kunihiko Ikuhara’s defining work.”
http://blogsuki.com/archives/2009/07/04/3019/
“Haruhi? What’s that?”
I don’t even watch anymore – I just come to this blog to see what the new outfits are for the week.
Bro, honestly speaking here…You CANNOT IN ANY WAY THINK Haruhi is the best anime of the first 10 years of this millennium because Haruhi 2009 is a continuation of Haruhi 2006, not a sequal, not an OVA, not something that ‘just has the same characters and settings but is completely different,’ it’s a continuation. So this HAS to be counted into the whole.
Don’t get me wrong, i loved Haruhi 2006, except for the whole dance craze (we all have to face it, the dance looked stupid…come on it’s one thing having anime characters and PAID PROFESSIONAL DANCERS dressed as said anime characters dance it at a AnimeCon, it’s another thing to have possibly fat, sweaty fan boys dance it).
I’m not saying Haruhi 2006 wasn’t one of the best animes of the millennium, I’m saying its kinda like Derek Anderson with the Browns, he had a great ’07 season but crashed and burned in ’08…
Necross: Do you mean the diary on the website? That sure didn’t sound like a bunch of pissed off animators to me.
bl: Why do you even assume sighs and/or disappearance is going to be animated? Because of that fake list of episodes someone made up? Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t get Disappearance, if only that it would make a good time to change the name of the show.
Also, suggesting a conspiracy is more likely than any other explanation to me is silly. There’s no real reason why they want to intentionally annoy the fans. Admittedly, I’m waiting until the end to see if I agree with what they are doing.
My real issue with this arc is it has essentially 0 replayability, which I’d imagine will hurt non-super fanboy sales tremendously.
I don’t watch a lot of anime. My aunt was into the convention scene back in the late eighties/early nineties, so back then we had tapes of the Dirty Pair without subs or an english dub floating around. I was introduced to Cowboy Bebop around ’98/’99 or thereabouts. Watched Samurai Champloo out of loyalty to Shinichirô Watanabe. And then I heard some buzz about Haruhi back in 2006 and started watching it. While I haven’t seen a lot of the series and anime tropes that they’re lampooning with Haruhi, the sarcasm is still palpable. Even though I’m not intimately familiar with the targets of the joke, I’ve always felt that the tongue-in-cheek nature of the show was still accessible to me. So, knowing how popular the series was (and suspecting the inevitable follow-up), I’ve kept an eye open for new Haruhi episodes since watching the original series. As of tonight, with the seventh repeat of Endless Eight, I’m not going to bother wasting the bandwidth to download this episode. I may not even download the rest of the series.
Congratulations, KyoAni, you’ve driven someone on the fringes of anime culture running and screaming from the room. Here’s a hint: you’re supposed to _build_ your audience with accessible material like this, not drive it away.
In the time it takes to watch just one episode of Endless Eight, you could watch the Needless ED at 1.46 fps. Just something to think about.
It’s not directly related but with each iteration of Eight I’m reminded of that one Star Trek: Voyager episode in season 2 where the one Q (hereafter named ‘Quinn’) was wanted to commit suicide to end the tedium of immortality. The Q Continuum was against it because it would be the first time it would face an unknown in essentially forever. The ‘Original’, Jon D’Lancie Q shows up to apprehend Quinn the Voyager is thrown around the Universe in a hide-and-seek that spanned from the Big Bang to hiding in a Christmas Ornament at microscopic size. Eventually they are caught and a courtroom style trial is held by the crew of the Voyager to determine whether or not the renegade Quinn could have his way.
In the trial, as evidence, the Janeway, Tuvok, and the Qs whisked to a metaphysical representation of the Q Continuum where it is essentially just a lonely desert road next to a small ranch representing the possible bleakness of eternal life. The road would went to the rest of the Universe but would inevitably lead back to the Continuum. Some items in the ranch were an old pinball machine, a rocking chair, a book labeled ‘The Old’ and a magazine called ‘The New’ and a scarecrow. They essentially had the time and boredom to do it all. To whit:
Quinn: I was even the scarecrow for a while.
Janeway: Why?
Quinn: Because I’d never done it before.
Q: (scoffing) Oh, we’ve all done the scarecrow. Big deal.
Cutting things short I was just wondering how many more iterations of Endless Eight iit would take for Yuki to try her hand at being the hair on Kyon’s neck-mole for a day.
You know, for all the whining you’ve done about what you’re going to talk about for the last few weeks, you could have done a thin slicing of the season instead.
Just saying.
Well…we have well draw, though repeatitve Haruhi, and then we have emo facial destortions set to maximum on Umineko….Hmmmmm.
.
Kihihihihiihi
For those who haven’t seen it yet, this is a good comparison of the first 5 iterations:
http://www.gametrailers.com/us.....x-5/324900
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6usDFpuuZNY
More fun with video. Super Driver music video.
@Shuichi : I haven’t seen the list, but I’ll be hopeful for a somewhat worthwhile ending, until at least they pass the Endless Eighth.
My take.
Taki spent some hundred-million yen to extend out Endless Eight to enrage die hard fans of the show, which would then cause these fans to riot outside of KyoAni. At this time they are capture for a later purpose and trained in confinement…
to perform the next-hit-Haruhi-dance craze in great numbers as people watch on. …Hopefully without a Johnny-fest at hand.
How will this save Japan? God knows.
May you continue to be a blogging messiah.
Admit it Jason, you’re enjoying blogging Endless Eight. It isn’t as fun as blogging about Staplers, but you’re still enjoying it. That said, when this is all over, I expect someone to put every iteration together into one giant side-by-side video and pick out all the differences.
@ 0kami
About Higurashi, a first time viewer is NOT supposed to know that it was a Groundhog Day all along. That’s a part of the mystery behind the tragedy. It’s way later, in the latter part of S1 that the viewer should ask himself, what goes wrong, why and how. Until you know it is a time loop, it is just Itchy and Scratchy with more lolis and facial distortions.
Now, I don’t fucking know who the hell thought that it was a good idea to make over 6 episodes off Endless Eight. Because for a casual fan of the series, it is not.
This should end soon. It still feels like we’re at the start of groundhog day and Bill Murray hasn’t gone bonkers and kidnapped the groundhog to drive off a cliff. Mmm… maybe Kyon should do the same, get drunk, kidnap Mikuru and do some (other) driving…
Once Kyon finds out about the time loop he should just abuse it and start making out with Mikuru or something. After all, everything will reset in a few days…
Of course, Itsuki could do the same with Kyon…
On the bright side, I think this was Haruhi’s best swimsuit yet!
Me and my friend came up with an idea today.
We were wondering why Kyoto would do this,
since I can’t see anyone buying this on DVD.
Unless they put all of the endless eight eps on one dvd set
(practically unheard of in Japan)
I can’t see anyone buying any of the DVDs.
If, however, they never aired the end of endless eight,
and made it a DVD exclusive,
they might sell some of the DVDs.
Just my thoughts.
@bl:
….okay, so using your logic, directors should not try to make us see anything from anybody’s point of view, because the director’s job is to let you experience it without making you go through it. So no first person POVs– everything should be filmed like a surveillance camera. No scary movie scenes where the ghost or monster or whatever suddenly jumps at the audience– those scenes should be filmed with actors and the monster in the same frame, so you aren’t surprised just like the character is surprised at whatever boogie man shows up unexpectedly. Oh, and 3D movies are the ultimate cheat.
I’m not saying that what KyoAni is doing is defensible. I’m simply saying that it’s one thing to criticize their approach (repeating the episodes) and another to completely misconstrue the point (Endless Eight should have different variations of the same day to be entertaining). They’re not /trying/ to be entertaining– they’re trying to be frustrating and repetitive and headache-inducingly annoying. That might not be to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t equal “you’re doing it wrong”– just YMMV.
I am banking on 8 episodes of Endless Eight. EIGHT episodes of ENDLESS EIGHT. GET IT!? GET IT!? HAW HAW HAW… =\
At this point Mikuru is used to taking balls to the face
I’m starting to think this is punishment for trying to sacrifice the village chief’s daughter to a demon king.
But also, if they could do 13 episodes of Endless Eight, could it be possible to air one episode 24 times and keep the same amount of viewers watching and die-hard fans defending it
Endless Eight is to the Haruhi series what this past year was to Brett Favre’s legacy. The guy had people calling him the best ever after his first retirement; now he’s almost universally hated. I seriously watched the first couple episodes thinking “what’s everyone complaining about?” Now I know.
slow