hontou ni sou omou?

In my previous post on this episode (in the Kyon order), I devoted half the post to the joys of seeing Mikuru being bullied by Haruhi. This second post (in Haruhi order) celebrates the blessings of Yukiism, the sheer win that is St Nagato-chi, She Who Operates Behind the Scenes. I was pleasantly surprised to have chosen almost 90 screencaps for this post.

The composition of the scenes prior to Kimidori’s arrival at the SOS Dan clubroom were brilliant. Upon rewatching, it now seems clear to me how each of them were big visual hints about how Yuki may look and behave like she’s part of the clubroom’s furniture but is in fact the mastermind behind what happens in this episode and in other cases where success means no one else knew anything about it.

For example, it becomes clear with hindsight why this particular scene gradually zoomed on Yuki as Haruhi and Kyon discussed the mystery of the corruption of the SOS Dan’s website files.

Aside: The bamboo plant with coloured tags in the background is also a visual note to the Tanabata incident (the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody chapter of Vol.3 in the novel) - it explains two things mentioned in MoHS I and I am hoping that it will be animated eventually. *Please remember to use the spoiler tags if you are going to discuss novel spoilers in the comments.*

Tanabata fanart 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

I had initially put Kimidori’s flat and robotic manner down to her distress at her boyfriend’s disappearance and also consternation at the strange bunch that is the SOS Dan but rewatching and having read the novel, it’s pretty clear now that Yuki was remote controlling her. The first sign was how our little goddess looked up at Kimidori when she entered (she normally wouldn’t care and would just continue reading) and then later how she continued to stare at the back of Kimidori’s head as she spoke to Haruhi.

Pretty amazing how selective Haruhi’s memory is and how she immediately manages to rationalize something - the door was clearly locked when she last tried it and there was an all too audible click just before Yuki opened it.

Utterly lovely how surprised Kyon was.

Also loved how Yuki responded to Itsuki at the barest minimum possible. Great comparison to the amount of consideration that she shows to Kyon later…

…like so…

(and fabulously funny line from Kyon and so accurate in describing Mikuru)

…and like so. Given how literally she took his instruction, her not-opening-the-door to Haruhi in Lone Island now seems like less of an intentional joke on her part (but how vexed she makes Haruhi is still hilarous).

Victorious once again!

Oh sooo moé!
*Much jealousy*

And that’s a wrap. In another Tanabata reference, the room Kyon is referring to isn’t the clubroom. The novel also features illustrations about the wind blowing Yuki’s hair about which forms a perfect ending to this episode of the anime.

With respect to episode shuffling, I think it was just a convenient standalone episode that could be used to break up the two episodes of the Lone Island arc. Other than that, it offered another hint of the extent of Yuki’s powers (fully revealed only in MoHS V or Ep 13 in the Kyon order) as well as giving a foretaste of the Closed Space (whereas now it is merely a 10% shadow of it).