Haruhi (2009) 08: I’m not going to put a witty title here to attract viewers, so have this shit instead, and don’t blame me for obviously intentional hypocrisy.
Posted: May 22, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 9 Comments »
"HOLY SHIT, WELCOME BACK!"
Instead of my usual episodic style (either the based-around-a-very-useless-matter post or the pictures-with-semi-witty-captions post), I’ve decided to continue the excruciatingly long and tedious post style that has plagued my previous two Haruhi (2009) posts (or rather, posts with kind of intelligent analysis).
That means that this post will be boring and/or interesting, depending on the style of blogging that you like. If you think about it, the previous sentence has no real meaning.
First off, I can’t help but comment on the subs (which I usually don’t do unless it’s AoShen). I tried out Mazui, CoalGG, and DB/L-E, and none of them were really that good:
- Mazui had some weird language.
- DB did not even to bother differentiating between Kyon’s thoughts and what he says out loud.
- CoalGG had shitty grammar.
I don’t even know if the CoalGG release was legit (so many typos – not really what you’d expect). In any case, good subs = where?! [I ended up watching DB’s subs – its font is the best]
Also, good video quality = where!?!
The 720p releases must have spoiled me, because watching this made me ashamed. Haruhi S2 shouldn’t be watched in such a low quality! (Though since I’ve waited a few years, you could say that I could wait a bit longer for a chance of better quality raws…)
Anyway, off to the episode analysis!
I'd say something witty about the next season here, but let's just leave it.
I have one single point to make in the next portion of the post:
This episode was very, very different from season one (arguably worse).
Support via (this seems a lot like my “Importance of Kyon” post, huh?):
- The K-ON! Infestation
- The Unimportance of Kyon
- Music, or lack thereof
The first thing I noticed was the artistic change in Haruhi’s eyes and mouth. Can someone say K-ON!esque?
After watching episodes 1 – 7 in the past few days, I’ve grown accustomed to Haruhi, Kyon, etc. as they appeared in S1. The slightest change in art is quite drastic to me, but I found the characters to remain quite artistically appealing.
The new look of Haruhi is clearly aimed at being more “moe.” Haruhi has a rounder mouth, her eyes are closer together, and her hair is slightly bigger. Looking more and more like Yui every second, are we? Though this clearly contrasts with Haruhi’s extremely eccentric nature, it’s not technically bad. Haruhi certainly is cuter, but it’s a bit of a shock to see her like this.
Kyon. My favorite male anime character by far… He had such an incredibly sarcastic narration, and almost never laughed or made any facial expressions.
To see him reduced to such a state that this episode presents… *sigh*
Kyon was famous for his sarcasm, the cynic in his head that contrasted so sharply with his usually unemotional exterior. This episode portrayed him as nothing of the sort. The Kyon I thought I knew has been destroyed.
In episode 4, Kyon received a letter from Mikuru. He mocked it. He called shoebox letters “a fad or something.”
In this episode, Kyon receives a note from Mikuru. He shows emotion. He closes his eyes, blushes, presents a horribly un-Kyon-like smile, and says “I’ll be there with bells on!” Whatever happened to the sarcasm? The emotionless straight face that made Kyon Kyon? The HUMOR?
Granted, there are certain spots where the old Kyon shines through (brilliantly, I might add) – the scene with Haruloli, for example.
But then again, there’s a scene where Kyon voices his sarcasm out loud.
Out. Loud.
What the hell.
This ain’t how it’s supposed to go! Kyon’s exterior and interior were separated cleanly in season one. Here, it’s much more muddled. You could argue that it’s the influence of Haruhi’s eccentricity (that Kyon is growing to like weird things, aka nonreality)… but events like Episode 00 (arguably the pinnacle of Kyon’s sarcasm) happen after this episode, so using logical reasoning isn’t possible.
Direct appeal to the not-wanting-srs-analysis masses, I'd say.
Also, there is an extreme amount of [classical] music in this episode.
Season one (or at least the Melancholy and Boredom arcs – episodes 01 to 07) had barely any music. If there was music, it was quirky background music reminiscent of a circus. It was soft and never overpowering. The only (and I seriously mean that) time that the music stood out was when the Celestials appeared in the final episode, with the music building up to Kyon’s famous line “Ponytails turn me on” and the subsequent Kyon-Haruhi kiss.
This episode utilized the degree of music found in season one’s biggest climax… for an ordinary day. At least three different background songs played before Kyon went back in time, and all three of them were very, very overpowering. I actually noticed them, which is quite rare unless I’m actually trying to hear the BGM (almost never).
I’m not sure why this is the case, but it sure is pretty annoying.
I, for one, thought Kyon x Koizumi.
Random criticism on this episode that doesn’t fit into the three categories:
- Koizumi opens his eyes too much.
- Kyon loses a bit of hair in some scenes.
- The animation seems to be a tad worse in quality, though it could just be the low quality video.
- A bit of the plot was forced – Mikuru (old) coming in was kind of pushing it [this is more directed toward the light novel/original story concept, not specifically the anime].
</criticism>
As for good things about this episode…
Haruhi
She was insane in this episode. Unlike Kyon, Haruhi doesn’t change her personality in this episode, and her loli form only serves to reinforce her incredible character that has gained such enormous fame.
The Plot
Haruhi isn’t an anime known for an insane plot – season one was driven by the characters, not the plot. It ain’t no Code Geass.
Yet this episode seems to suggest otherwise. Dividing by zero over nine thousand times and holy shit, it feels good awesome man. I loved the story in this episode. It explained many things, and brought up twice as many questions as it answered. I found myself thoroughly entranced in Kyon’s possibly impossible participation in the past and Mikuru’s even more possibly impossible role in the past, present, and future.
The suggestion that Kyon and Mikuru were only a room away while Kyon met Yuki for the “first time” while she had met the future him three years before calls for an extreme brain asplosion. Bricks were shat, and the three little pigs too.
Kyon’s reading material
I’m not sure what that is, but it looks like a English textbook/workbook (or guide) to me. Interestingly, the seven words on the page are…
- Mislead
- Distort
- Abuse
- Irritate
- Frustrate
- Invade
- Violate
Sounds like Kyon’s got some secret fetish going on.
There’s more to life than just maids, bunny girls, and ponytails, eh?
I bet Koizumi knows about it… from experience.
As a final note: the ED was nowhere near “Bouken Desho Desho?” and “Hare Hare Yukai.” Huge risk of seizure, too…
P.S.: Again, sorry if my ideas came out muddled. Muddled ideas fit muddled subs fit shitty raw anyway.
I absolutely loved this episode. Kyon seemed a little different, but nothing out of the usual.
The Kyon in this episode reminded me of Minoru from Lucky Star
“Haruhi isn’t an anime known for an insane plot”.
Actually, I think it is, at least if you followed its broadcast order (which worked very well to spice up what otherwise would have been a fairly mundane plot, and had anime forums buzzing for those fourteen weeks the series was being aired).
The plot in this episode was just the sort of thing I expect from this series, anyway: an amusing tangle of science-fiction-colored threads.
Now that you point it out, their style does seem to have evolved over the years.
tl;dr.
I love the new haruhi, i like the more “comedic-esque” route that they have taken with her. personally i thought the haruhi-chan shorts were better than the first season and after watching this episode i’m nothing but pleased. after K-ON! ends >.< i will have this to sustain my anime hunger and i cannot have been more pleased with haruhi. I love mikuru, yuki is as bland as ever and haruhi really really feels like haruhi now. its great. definitely worth the wait.
I watched Coal guys subs. They like to do things for flair and lulz though. Purposeful mistranslations, giving characters less then exemplary grammar, etc. I picked out a few but can’t tell you now what they were since I watched it at 4:40am this morning…
I don’t think I heard a single zenzen out of Haruhi this whole episode though. Maybe it was just cause she was depressed.
@phoenix: Eh, maybe it’s because I’ve watched episodes 1 – 7 recently.
@simplybill: Hey, that’s a pretty interesting connection! I could see how you’d get that impression.
@dm00: Well, blow me down. I must have missed out on some great epicness in never having watched it in nonlinear. Still, this episode is an insane plot in and of itself, rather than season one’s collectively insane plot spanning 14 episodes.
@jersey: Eh. I’ve heard many people hail Haruhi-chan as better than Haruhi S1, but I think that’s mostly due to a 3-year deprivation of Haruhi (or you just like Haruhi-chan’s kind of humor, I guess…). Rewatching episodes 1 – 7 made me appreciate Haruhi S1 so much!
Also, Yuki is bland? She’s awesome!
@taka: Eh. CoalGuys’s subs had some odd font that made my eyes hurt. I noticed some bad grammar mistakes, but even if they were done on purpose, I still probably wouldn’t’ve watched it because of the font. D:
Haruhi without zenzen is like Shana without urusai. Though Haruloli was a step up.
lololololololol
I reject your reality and replace it with my own, i wish I was haruhi.
Anyways Disagree with mostly anything written there, whining about little details, but hey, it’s a review. The “downsides” didn’t bother me too much this ep.
Though what bothered me; Animation… The animation… went dramatically down or something, because that wasn’t haruhi.
And voice acting, it went down too, fuck I think I even heard some voiced before the mouths began moving or something. Anyways overall; Quality went down, story will be nommable.
Such negativity…
For me, the new ep reminded me of everything I ever loved about the series. I found no faults with the animation, art style or how the characters were protrayed vs. the first season, at least no faults that actually required such level of criticism. As for the ED, I will say that it is highly unoriginal for a series that is known for its eccentricities.
@bob: Eh. The animation/art was certainly different, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it way below “Haruhi-level” (which isn’t really that good). The voice acting… I couldn’t tell. My computer sucks major banana and 720p sometimes screws up (though it’s light-years better than LQ/420p even so), so I can’t tell if it’s my computer or the video itself.
@sunshine: Well, you must be sunshine-san for a reason! D:
I didn’t really criticize the art/animation – I just called it different. I’m afraid I can’t say the same about the characters, however. To me, Kyon was a whole different Kyon here. Must be a result of some weird time travel.
As for the ED, I think that KyoAni tried to be original, but failed badly. Hare Hare Yukai is a LOT to live up to, and a seizure-inducing ED ain’t going to cut it. I wouldn’t call it highly unoriginal – just a lot worse than what I expected (stick this next to the average ED and it’s a bit better).