The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 12
Sigh, it’s just not the same when Omni hasn’t already blogged an episode. Best wishes on a speedy recovery, 達人! (In the meantime, for screencap galore, see moyism and Garten’s review.)
This episode’s highlights included the meido cafe, Haruhi’s pensiveness at the end and the concert that rocked my world. On that last point, I thought KyoAni cued me very well and my reactions followed that of the school audience very closely. At first, when Haruhi and Yuki entered the stage with their bunny girl and fortune teller outfits respectively, it was a multitude of “What is that?” from Kyon and other audience murmurs while I thought: “How did she hijack this band?” After the scene transition, it was the murmurs of “Who are these people? I don’t know them.” In my case: “I didn’t know Haruhi would sing an insert. It’s not going to be the OP or ED, is it?” Once the drums started up, you knew that it was going to be fast. Very promising but could Haruhi carry it off?
Yuki certainly covered the electric lead guitar well.
I love the sound of electric guitars.
And girls with dextrous hands. LOL
I was pretty amazed, even though I knew what Yuki is capable of.
Then Haruhi’s voice drops in register after the first line. This is going to be good…
Great detail. Haruhi constantly gives sideways glances to check on Yuki her sheet music [thanks, jaalin!]. You also notice that the sound of the bass notes are perfectly timed with Mai’s movements.
The audience starts to go from “WTF?” to “This is good.” and “Let’s enjoy this.”
Kero-chan check on Mizuki – the choker is a very cute touch.
Lots of POV changes, much like a rock concert MV.
Number of key frames in this concert scene?
Yuki is Slash (in terms of big hat)! LOL
And is the guy on the right in this screenie supposed to be an Ozzy Osbourne reference?
Audience has really gotten into it. I was tapping my foot.
Audience view.
Moshpit view. Animation-wise, a bit of a money saver though.
I really liked this close-up of her face from the side and the effect of the stage lighting. Really showed how Haruhi was really concentrating on her singing.
Cue the Higurashi jokes. But I thought this was wonderful given the context of the song. Rock songs need passion and they need big personalities to carry the songs and the band. Haruhi’s personality, love her or hate her, is huge.
The perspiration was another great touch. It’s boiling under stage lights and again it emphasizes the physicality of the experience.
Drummer view. This was also the scene where you see Haruhi and Mizuki (the drummer) bopping their heads in time. And then I realized I was doing the same. Another nice touch is the background buzz of the audience’s cheering and clapping.
Backstage view.
The perspiration again. That’s a proper concert yo.
Another check right.
What a great concert. I’ve been replaying this for hours. There are times when there are recordings of live events that capture a performer “on fire” (e.g. Depeche Mode at Pasadena (1989), Luna Sea at Hong Kong (1999), the Swing Girls (2004) or dare I say Jacqueline Du Pré’s performance of the cello concerto in E minor conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, year?) and this episode successfully made me feel that Haruhi had given her all for this performance. I haven’t seen many anime episodes that feature concerts but this episode made the recent Ichijou concert in School Rumble, the finale concert in Black Heaven and others seem positively static and staid.
When it was revealed that Haruhi was helping the band, I realized that I had maligned her at the start when I simply assumed that she had forced her way in as yet another vainglorious publicity stunt for the SOS-Dan. *looks guiltily at toes*
Shingo has called Mai (the bass player) cute and I think it’s the arching of her back (compare the screencap from the start -top- to the later one) that enhances her boyish good looks (cue Kurumi Momose: “Boku :D~~~” )
If you compare Yuki with Haruhi and Mikuru, the latter pair seem more sexy as the former has her waist covered by her cardigan. IMHO it’s these little variations that make for great poses.
First song of the concert, “God knows…” and the second “Lost my music” – can’t wait for the OST.
Tsuruya looking and sounding great blah blah.
Kero-chan check! The meido uniform designs are enhanced by two variations to standard designs. Firstly the sleeves are a pure white without interruption which increases focus on the red ribbon around the next and the blue area above the breasts. From the side profile, there are little studs or buttons that add texture and points of interest.
Lookin’ good whether confident (arms akimbo) or showing deference (bow, arms kept close to and covering front of body)
Mai and Mizuki running past the yakisoba queue.
Gotta love the KyoAni attention to detail.
Plenty of this kind of thing to pick up when rewatching.
Haruhi and Yuki passing behind Kyon with their instruments.
Enomoto (or Nakaishi?) needing to be restrained by the Student Council. Haruhi to the rescue.
This scene helped me to confirm that I much prefer genki Haruhi than melancholy Haruhi. Though it’s like wine. You need to drink the real crap stuff once and a while so that you can go back and really appreciate the good stuff. I think this episode has helped to add nuance to her character and ameliorate her aggression, brattiness and arrogance. Taken together, I still find her a hugely likeable character who can carry the show as she interacts with the rest of her well-casted companions.
Now that we’re reaching the end, I’m starting to have an inkling about the rationale behind some of the episode shuffling as next week will be probably see (spoiler) ▼ Show
Related posts:
- The Boredom of Nagato Yuki Those of
- Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody Good thi
- Endless Eight Somehow
Gd pt, Shiroi Hane. My guess is that Yuki was cheating e.g. like the way she implemented “homing mode” on the bat in the baseball competition, she could have applied “Jimi Hendrix” mode to the electric guitar she was using. But for the Day of Sagitarius she was bound by Kyon’s instruction not to use any techniques that did not belong to the Earth’s level of technological development.
But Kyon only instructed her not to cheat on the fifth day.
Argh. You’re right, Skane. [squirm] Maybe it’s that it’s easier to manipulate the guitar without Haruhi knowing than the computers in the club room? [/squirm] :P
For my fellow Yuki-fans, I share with you something I read on AnimeSuki,
Moe-Kami
For those who need the translation, click here.
~~~~ ~~~~
Also, courtesy of Kinny Riddle
“For Yuki’s hidden commentary of each episode (she’s credited for writing the brief summary of the episodes), the one for “Someday in the Rain” reads “Change has begun……” I’ll leave you to guess what Yuki means.”
The summaries he is referring to are the episode summaries on the official website. Yuki’s summaries are hidden against the background, so you will need to highlight them to read them.
Cheers.
On your note about Haruhi glancing sideways to check on Yuki – I interpreted the glance as her checking the lyrics / music, which she set up to her right. Makes more sense, considering she only got the music an hour ago, and she only checks it between lines.
Yes, jaalin, that makes much more sense. Thanks.
zyl :
thanks for the pic of yuki. woohoo :) i enjoyed this episode tremendously too. like you mentioned, there aren’t many concerts in anime, and this is a really really good one. i’ll be putting it on repeat too!
crimson :
do you happen to be from sg? the mudding spoof you did reminded me so much of heros of the lance iii :) *happy memories*. btw i think the men in in masks and tights are prob spoofs of japanese wrestlers. they tend to wear really loud costumes.