Endless Eight
Somehow when I post about something really late, I usually feel somewhat obliged to do the lit review - an abhorrence of repetition? Which we have yet to see wrt the Endless part of this episode as noted by Metanorn, toonleap and Onibaku while Omni regrets spoiling himself.
It's hard to enjoy a show if one positively detests the lead chara(s). In this respect I fall firmly in the camp that excuses Haruhi's behaviour on the grounds of teenage exuberance. Or as Ascaloth muses:
Is it because it’s precisely because of her proactive attitude towards life? Are we all Kyons who secretly wish for a Haruhi to drag us out of our comfort zone to really live life?
And where others see obnoxiousness, Michael sees joie de vivre:
You see, I just think it would be a blast to hang out with Haruhi herself. Constantly keeping you on your toes, even the most mundane of situations would have an added edge to them.
The chara dynamics between Haruhi and Kyon also goes a long way towards increasing my enjoyment too. Orion could have also mentioned the delicious element of dramatic irony that permeates the relationship but otherwise I agree that:
Haruhi is at its best when the story revolves around Haruhi instigating ridiculous and hilarious activities with Kyon providing sarcastic narration.
RP asks:
If Haruhi Suzumiya were just a regular ole’ slice of life, would you watch it?
Drafting James to answer on my behalf, it's not unlikely that a common response would be to find this chapter of the light novels 'mediocre' but still declared this episode to be 'entertaining' - sometimes I think that the Haruhi franchise is a bit like those Carlsberg ads: We don't do X (e.g. space battles, rock concerts, murder mysteries etc.) but if we did, they would be the best X in the world...
Calawain bemoans how this was the only segment where Yuki had lines. But I suppose she needs to defend her position as the silent chara every so often. And if voice actresses are indeed paid per epiosode instead of per line, I wouldn't feel too bad for Chihara Minori either - playing a chara that provides ok pay but, more importantly, career enhancement through Yuki's popularity.
And, like Xebek, I thoroughly enjoyed Yuki buying the Ultraman mask. It's a little peek into her desires, the emotions and wants underneath that placid surface and an affirmation of a humanity that we can identify with: I am not a doll.
Oh, and if one willfully misinterprets perspective and sees Haruhi's hand on the back of Yuki's head, the yuri goggles might indeed be turned up >9000 times as to what else Haruhi wants to do. LOL
Related posts:
Recent Comments
- Sora no woto 10 (2)
- Sora no woto 9 (3)
- Zyl: @ Kherubim re:...
- Sora no woto 8 (6)
Series & Themes
Maki Maki Blogroll
- incredible nothing!
- mono no aware
- lolitron
- moe moe rabu
- tenka seiha
- rabbit poets
- drastic my anime blog
- minaide hitorigoto
- THAT
- blue fox alley
June 25th, 2009 - 17:05
At the very least Haruhi-sama’s eccentricities generally aren’t of a lethal sort, besides at least she is being honest with herself and playing by her own rules instead of someone else’s while bitching and moaning about it. Normality is overrated. Why should one care what other people do unless it directly affects you? To be sure perhaps being on the receiving end of Haruhi-sama’s attentions isn’t a pleasant experience, then again if one has worked a day in his/her life then one has inevitably met that one intolerable supervisor and hopefully learned to cope.
In all honesty her antics are merely annoying and I highly approve of her forcibly socializing her Brigade. If it were not for Haruhi-sama Kyon would be lazing about all day and spending time with Taniguchi and Kunikida, in that respect fun times with Haruhi and the rest of the gang seems preferable. I guess going outside is becoming an alien concept these days…
Still for me some of the SHnY magic was still there, just the religious fanaticism has mellowed out a bit, at least until the Second Crusade.
June 25th, 2009 - 18:24
“Are we all Kyons who secretly wish for a Haruhi to drag us out of our comfort zone to really live life?”
Oh, I don’t know – I’ve spent years spinning my cocoon and I rather like curling up inside it.
But at the risk of coming across as taking a simply-fun series way too seriously by highlighting personal parallels with the characters therein, then yes, I wouldn’t mind having a brash outsider go on wild flights of fancy and dragging me along for the ride. I tend to sail through life more as a spectator than as a player, I lack initiative and quickly brush aside impulsive thoughts; it’d take nothing short of a Haruhi to make me “live!!!” (in the usual sense of the word, and with all three exclamation points).
All right, enough psychoanalysing. Let us all bask in the glory of our dearly beloved Nagato – that alone should suffice.
(Incidentally, Nagato’s little slip-ups with the gun, the net, and the bowling ball strike me as being just a touch OOC – like that adorable incident with the mouse in “Day of Sagittarius”. I’d have thought her supercomputer brain would have netted her perfect points all around. Chalking it up to alien unfamiliarity with the ways of the brutish Earthlings doesn’t look like it’ll hold water. It’s been a while since I read the original light novels, though, so I can’t recall if these incidents are canonical; I’m fairly certain it was different for “Day of Sagittarius”.)
June 25th, 2009 - 18:26
You sure did your research well
) I can’t imagine going through an anime antenna and reading random people’s anime blogs one by one XD
June 25th, 2009 - 21:32
June 26th, 2009 - 02:03
Yuki bowling numbers 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 ???
and i thought Haruhi is waving her hand like good bye
June 26th, 2009 - 08:05
Almost Zyl, almost…but Yuki is too far away *whines*.
Oh but we are getting there. Slowly but surely.
This episode shows a little change in the chemistry(No, not that kind, no matter how much I wish it was) btn the two compared to the first season.
This is a good sign.
Haruhi is trying harder to include Yuki into the mix while Yuki, though still needs some work, is showing a little more interest in the activities the group gets into.
I am saying all this from just reading this post though. Haven’t started watching the new Haruhi yet.
As to the first point, I wasn’t into Haruhi to be honest when it first hit the screens. I think it took me a year after it aired to learn that it was actually …/Sci-Fi/Fantasy…to watch it.
And it was all Nagato Yuki’s doing.
I had first thought it as a typical romance. I wonder why now though, no romance should be as popular as it was/is. But Tsubasa Chronicles was almost as popular, Oh wait…!
But then when I got into into, I fell for Haruhi’s character/personality right away. I mean, the world is still there and so are really bored people(Kyon) so she can’t be that bad, right?
And if I were to say I like(find a main guy character tolerable) Kyon would be included in those for his great jokes(…that I don’t get 70% of the time unless I google’em) But Koizumi would definitely be on it!
June 26th, 2009 - 17:27
Thanks for the Yukiage!
Back on topic. I still do not like Haruhi. I don’t like her pushy, arrogant self-centered behavior. She reminds me of a moefied, chaos neutral version of that Anthony Freemont kid from an old Twilight Zone episode.
However, if we did not have that pushy, arrogant, self-centered little girl there would be no story. There would also be no one for the characters or the story to revolve around.
I tried not to spoil myself but started reading the first part of the Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi. The first chapter really hit home in regards to a world without Haruhi and how mundane it would be.
June 26th, 2009 - 20:09
Yuki had four words to say in this episode. (I specifically looked out for it.) “Kore” and “katta” regarding the mask, “sou” when Kyon told her it wasn’t a cicada, and “hai” when giving out balloons.
But if voice actors are paid by episode rather than line, please spare a thought for Sayaka Aoki (aka Imouto), with a total of three sounds this episode: “hm?” twice at the beginning, and “ahaha~” at the end. (She’s only credited as Imouto, so I assume neither of the two pool kids are her.)
June 25th, 2009 - 18:54
June 26th, 2009 - 02:19
Actually, it’s quite in-character. Nagato has been shown to be fallible, as in the mouse incident and the glasses incident. Tanigawa Nagaru (author of Suzumiya Haruhi series) has constantly put stress on Nagato’s tendency to fail, as you will see if you continue watching onto Disappearance.
June 26th, 2009 - 02:20
It does directly affect them, i.e. Melancholy 6, Endless Eight II, the potential for Lone Island Syndrome II, the Sighs incident, etc.
June 26th, 2009 - 14:02
By ‘directly affects’, I suppose what Crusader really meant was ‘harmed by’ – aside from her lack of malicious intent towards her own brigade members, no one really suffers from any last physical or emotional damage.
June 26th, 2009 - 14:04
One of my profs say that over-citation is a symptom of Grad Student Disease. orz
June 27th, 2009 - 07:05
Thanks for tracking Yuki speak.
While Sayaka Aoki probably rocks the worlds for the likes of Stripey, her role as Kyon’s Imouto probably isn’t as lucrative (number of episodes played) or as career enhancing. Her chara’s antics did add ‘loli in a bag’ to the lexicon though LOL.