hontou ni sou omou?

The Rewatching of Haruhi Suzumiya. Had originally intended to do just one post on my reflections but the number of screencaps and observations for just the first episode have been rather more than I expected.

Meta notes. Currently rewatching in the “Haruhi” order as announced in the previews, also known as chronological order or the probable DVD release order, and am using Garten’s timeline. Screencaps are taken for the purposes of (1) the moé glory of Yuki Nagato and (2) to illustrate various observations about plot development upon rewatching as well as reflections about episode shuffling. It’ll also give me an excuse to post Yuki fanart I’ve been leeching off danbooru. Mweheheh.

Kyon’s opening soliloquy reminded me that although Haruhi is the focus of the plot, Kyon’s position as narrator means that the entire series is told from his point of view. It seems that me that initially he triggers the Haruhi Tsunami and is carried along by her acts but gradually gains agency i.e. the power to affect Haruhi’s behaviour and thus the course of events. In addition, the contents of the soliloquy sets him up as an inverted Haruhi. As explained by Itsuki in Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya V, Haruhi openly wishes to meet aliens, time travellers and ESPers but, deep down, her “common sense” tells her that such things are impossible which is why they happen under her nose without her realizing it. In Kyon’s case, he openly dismisses his old desire to see aliens et al as childish fantasies but continues to cherish and nurse those hidden hopes somewhere deep in his heart. As such, Haruhi and Kyon interact with each other in a way for both of them to reconcile their external/internal contradictions.

In the light of Kyon’s “Ponytails turn me on” declaration in MoSH VI, I found this episode to confirm that - the first eccentricity Kyon’s observed relates to her hairstyle, his initial conversation with her was also about that topic and he is visibly dismayed by how she cut her hair the next day. (My initial attraction to Haruhi was largely based on her tsundere hairtoss.)

Kyon himself says that the initial trigger event was how he suddenly spoke to Haruhi about her hairstyle changes. This established the initial rapport which allowed him to, inadvertedly, influence Haruhi to set up the SOS Dan.

While general discussion has centred on Haruhi’s attraction to Kyon, rewatching this episode also highlighted Kyon’s attraction to Haruhi (which also comes out fairly strongly in the first chapter of the first book). His first impression of her is a “striking beauty” and Kunikida tells us that Kyon has a history of liking weird girls. He is possibly unaware or in denial about his budding attraction to Haruhi, mirrored by Haruhi’s attitude to him. He considered her too weird and she considered him too ordinary but they come to understand each other better, establish a working rapport and a very comfortable and more-or-less-equal as well as just-slightly-more-than-friends relationship by Someday in the Rain.

I remember how this conversation triggered an instant dislike and suspicion of Ryoko Asakura on my part. MoHS IV then showed me that my suspicion did not go far enough. Somehow it just irks me greatly when girls use their looks or cuteness to get what they want from hapless guys. Mostly because it’s so damn effective - I understand perfectly what’s going on but I still can’t stop myself from being manipulated. abq said it best with the penultimate line of this post.

My initial reaction to Kyon’s “This is a coincidence, right?” was Yuuko’s line: “There is no such thing as coincidence, there is only hitsuzen!” Of course, I now realize that this is an early manifestation of Haruhi’s power to steer chance according to her desire like the way she did in the Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (baseball episode) and her two failures to do so in MoHS III.

RAWR RAWR YUKI LOVE!

Tsundere hand flick 4tw.

When I was first watched this in the broadcast order, the “secret” identities of Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki had yet to be revealed (though their roles in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina were a very close fit). As such, I simply took Mikuru’s acquiscience to be (1) her being a doormat and (2) her thinking that joining the Literary Club wouldn’t be such a bad thing. With hindsight, it looks like she recognized Yuki to be the Galatic Integrated Thought Entity Human Interface responsible for watching Haruhi and realized that her being gangpressed into Haruhi’s club was part of History and The Plan of the Ultra Director.

On Kyon vs Haruhi order of broadcast, I found that the former seems rather more Haruhi-centric while the latter is more balanced with Kyon’s view feeling more prominent. And besides being a good hook and gimmick, having Episode 00 first also gave a certain air of inevitability to Haruhi’s forming the SOS Dan and making all its members dance to her tune.