Posts in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Category

The episode numbers match for once, how about that? Anyways, a few days late, but a bit about this week's Haruhi ;)

Not this again ;) Quite an audience there for the screening of Asahina Mikuru no Bouken at the school's festival... lots of Mikuru-chan fans, I suppose, all looking very much like stereotypical otaku ;) Yuki's doing fortune-telling... well, more like telling the future exactly as it happens (^^;;) And Itsuki is on stage, rather popular with the ladies, it would seem.

HG... no thank you... Kyon eventually meets up with Kunigida and Taniguchi (were you paying attention to what was going on in the background there?) to go to a cafe (selling only yakisoba and water) that Tsuruya-san and Mikuru-chan are working at. Tsuruya-san megassa kawaii nyoro!.. I have no idea what megassa and nyoro are supposed to mean. Anyways, Tsuruya-san is quite genki as usual :)

 
ｷﾀ━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━ ！！！

What you've all been waiting for, Mikuru-chan in her usual maid outfit ;) After finishing there, Kyon and Kunigida leave Taniguchi to try and pick up some girls by himself. Kyon wonders around the festival, looking for something to do. Some funny signs posted around -- "Will you throw your life or throw a ring?" and such. Nekoman seems to be the mascot character, too.

Kyon eventually goes to relax a bit and listen to some music. The music the band's playing here sounds almost like something I'd compose ;) btw, the conductor is conducting beats correctly (in 4/4) in the long shot, but in the close up here he's one beat ahead. Oh no, KyoAni made a mistake ;)

DMC? (Warning: Rather foul language and other things ahead there.. first volume of the manga sold out rather quickly. Not my kinda thing, though... some of the bloggers have picked up the bad language in it (^^;;)

 
Same reaction as Kyon here when Haruhi walked on stage in a bunny suit. Those that have watched know what's coming next...

 
Just when you thought you'd seen it all, KyoAni does it again. 21 people on genga this time. They don't know when to quit, really ;) And Aya Hirano can sing pretty darn well, can't she? ;) See hontou ni sou omou for a more detailed breakdown of this scene.

Anyways, Yuki is too cool on guitar -- the mage outfit works really well with it ;) Turns out that Haruhi and Yuki are taking the places of a couple of the band members of ENOZ there. Haruhi learned the music in one hour. She is the choukantoku, after all ;) Through this scene Haruhi isn't quite the usual Haruhi, seeming rather nervous and unsure of herself, but as she sings and hears the audience reaction she loosens up, looking like she's having a lot of fun on the second song.

And catching up (again) with this week's Haruhi. I've read through Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu now so I can comment a bit on how things go in the novel... and now I know how it ends ;)

 
The choukantoku isn't in such a great mood today since nothing all that interesting is going on. Definitely Yuuutsu (melancholy).

 
Haruhi's set up a special Mikuru photo gallery on the "SOS DAN Web Site" -- look here ;) That'll get you more hits for sure. Kyon doesn't approve and gives Haruhi quite a talking to. Haruhi's rather pissed so she leaves.. and afterwards Kyon drags the Mikuru pictures out of the trash and moves them to a "mikuru" folder. He is a Mikuru fan ;) But, actually, there's something else on his mind... he received a letter that morning asking him to come to the classroom after school, but he doesn't know who it's from.

It's Asakura-san.. quite a surprise. She goes on about humans always saying "It's better to go ahead and do something and regret rather than regret not doing it". After that, things start to not make much sense.. she's apparently tired of things not changing as well, and..

Once again, catching up here with last week's Haruhi. I finished reading the corresponding chapter in Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu, the third volume of the novels, so I'll cover some of what changed from the novel to the anime, which is quite a bit.

 
So, continuing from the first part, Haruhi and the rest found the dead body of Keiichi, the owner of the mansion they're staying at. Mikuru-chan is out cold. No change from the novels there ;)

 
Haruhi and Kyon go outside to see if there's a boat at the dock -- they think Keiichi's son is the culprit and somehow got away. In the novel they go and check and come back, but in the anime they end up slipping and falling then taking shelter in a cave where Haruhi reasons through her solution to the case (after some Haruhi service). Haruhi's got it almost right, but after Kyon corrects her she realizes what actually happened -- then stops.

 

Of course, the biggest change of all from the novel to the anime is the addition of Kyon imouto. In the novel she overhears Kyon talking about the trip and has a fit about it -- takes Kyon two hours to calm her down. She ends up sneaking into his bag, and after Kyon finds her that's it for her in the chapter in the novel. That part didn't have nearly as much impact reading as seeing it did ;) Anyways, getting back to this episode, Kyon imouto tries to grab something to eat before dinner starts. Kyon, really, be a bit nicer to your sister. You shouldn't be picking her up like that ;)

Yuki won't let anybody in the room since that's what Haruhi told her. That means nobody, not even Haruhi. After Kyon "overwrites" Haruhi's order she finally does open up the door. Kyon thinks it might be her trying to do a joke or something. Funny either way :)

 
And now Itsuki tells Kyon what actually happened -- they themselves are the culprits... if Kyon gets rid of Itsuki then nobody'll know... this Higurashi or something? ;)

なるほど
naruhodo ("I see")

And the little play put on by Kikan (the organization Itsuki is a part of) is over with now with nobody really dead or anything, and detective Haruhi presents her case, Gyakuten Saiban style -- that'd be Phoenix Wright over here. btw, in the Japanese version his name is Ryuuichi Naruhodou (see above pun) ;) Lolitron has comparison shots with the game. Anyways, this is another change -- in the novel Kyon has dialogue like this when he's talking to Itsuki. And after that, the game's up, the end. Haruhi's not really all that involved. She does make a request afterwards that Itsuki do a better job next time they take a trip to a mountain and get snowed in. Really, I agree ;)

As we saw by Haruhi's actions, this whole incident wasn't something brought on by her wishing for murders to happen so she could play detective. She isn't a person like that -- that's what Kyon believes, and that's pretty much the big point we're supposed to take away from this episode. Anyways, nice job by KyoAni making it actually more interesting than the original chapter in the novel. Adding in some more Haruhi service and Kyon imouto cuteness certainly didn't hurt things one bit ;) Next time, episode 14 -- yup, the last episode. It's an anime original with the script done by the author of the novels, Nagaru Tanigawa.

Haruhi and the SOS Squad head to a solitary island where an acquaintance of Itsuki owns a rather big house this time. Itsuki, now promoted to vice president of the SOS Squad, and Kyon talk over why Haruhi's interested in going. She's apparently interested in playing detective, and what better place for an incident to happen than an an island out in the middle of nowhere. With Haruhi's power to make things happen as she wants, they could very well end up stuck there in a "Closed Circle"...

Kyon's little sister is also along for the trip. Kyon didn't want to bring her along, but she really wanted to go with him, so...

 
か、かわいい～
ka, kawaii~

Well, well, look what we have here. Much, much, much, much, much (repeat that about 20 more times) too cute. 萌え死んだ would be an appropriate expression to use in this case ;)

Anyways, after another boat ride (and after Haruhi questions the butler and maid of the house about any strange occurances on the island) the gang arrives. Unfortunately for Haruhi, there's not really anything all that odd about the island at all... but Haruhi knows who the culprit is! It's the owner of the house, Keiichi, and he's going after Mikuru first! Don't scare Mikuru-chan like that, Haruhi ;) So putting aside the detective work for now, it's time for the beach!

Lots of explanation this time about how the world Haruhi and the rest live in works. We begin where we left off last time -- which was the week before last week -- with Yuki going in detail about herself and about Haruhi as well. Garten over at Memento has already got the details so I won't repeat it here. A few key ideas ran through Kyon's conversations with Yuki (alien), Mikuru (girl from the future), and Itsuki (mysterious transfer student with superhuman powers). Stripey already read ahead so he knows all of this, but I'll run it down for the rest of y'all ;)

1. Something happened three years ago concering Haruhi -- a data explosion according to Yuki, a time flux according to Mikuru, so on. Mikuru's group of time travelers couldn't go back past three years ago, and Itsuki seems to think that the world basically began three years ago.
2. Haruhi has the power to change the world as she wishes. Anything she wants to happen, happens. She's basically god as Itsuki says, perhaps even creating this world. The thing is that she doesn't realize it herself, and if she finds that out something dangerous could happen.
3. Kyon holds the key to everything. He was chosen by Haruhi for a reason. And he's the only normal person in the group.

So this world is basically of Haruhi's making, going as she sees fit. Except when it doesn't -- this time she was definitely peeved that she wasn't paired up with Kyon. Why did it not go as she wanted? Questions and more questions... though it was mostly explanation this time it was still pretty fun to watch. The usual teasing of Mikuru by Haruhi was there (poor Mikuru-chan...), and Haruhi's jealousy was on full display. Love that face Haruhi made when she didn't get to be with Kyon the second time :)

From the ED this time. I assume we're supposed to take this as a sign of super director Haruhi's jealousy ;)

Next time, we skip ahead to episode 9! Kyon and the gang take a trip to an island... swimsuit episode? If so, I doubt the usual rule regarding swimsuit episodes will hold (i.e., animation for swimsuit episodes is always bad) since we're dealing with Kyoto Animation here ;) In the comments, DAIJIN-san says that the next episode is about some serial murders that took place on that island. Not a moe swimsuit episode, unfortunately ;)

btw, the group that's out to move the Haruhi ED to the top of the Oricon charts was out the other day promoting their cause. Akiba blog has details and pictures. Ain't going to happen, but it's still amusing ;)

Okay, forget what happened at the end of last time for now as we jump ahead to what seems to actually be episode 7 as Haruhi said in the next episode preview last time. It's now June, and apparently Itsuki has joined the SOS Squad.. and Kyon was involved in some incident with Haruhi where the world almost ended or something, but putting that aside for now. Haruhi comes in with a flyer for a baseball tournament -- yup, she wants to... actually has already entered the SOS Squad in it. If they win they can get that much more exposure... and did I mention that it's tomorrow? (^^;;) Haruhi does the usual, using Mikuru (poor Mikuru-chan...) to get the baseball team to let them practice a bit. Mikuru's scared of the ball and Yuki won't move an inch. Not looking good... after practice Kyon asks Yuki if she could make it rain or something so the tournament will be canceled. Yeah, but there'll be some effects on the local environment -- in a few hundred to ten thousand years or so. Okay, forget about that...

  
  
Opening: "Bouken deshodesho?" by Aya Hirano - The usual Kyoto Animation quality and a nice song, don't need to say much else ;) Haruhi's credited as choukantoku ("super director"). And what's a "Haruhi-ism"?

  
  
Ending: "harehare yukai" by Haruhi, Yuki, and Mikuru - A full-frame version of that ridiculously detailed dance as everybody wanted. Kyoto Animation quality, again.

Our narrator, Kyon@Tomokazu Sugita (Rin@SHUFFLE!), never believed in Santa or aliens or anything silly like that, and once he had graduated middle school he was fully used to the ordinary boring normal world. Well, it was all well and normal until his first year of high school when he met her. Haruhi Suzumiya@Aya Hirano isn't quite your usual girl -- she introduces herself to the class by saying that she has absolutely no interest in boring humans, and asks any aliens or people with superhuman powers to come to her. Seems she's got quite a rep for being rather odd. She never stays in one club, she's dumped every guy that's asked her out after one week, she changes her hairstyle every day, so on. Kyon somehow starts talking to her about things, and soon enough it becomes usual for him to talk to her before class. Seems that nobody else has gotten her to talk like that according to Kyoko@Natsuko Kuwatani. Kyoko asks Kyon to pass on what she has to say to Haruhi whenever she needs him to. Kyon'd rather not deal with it, but even when the time comes to change seats he ends up sitting in front of Haruhi.

One day, during class Kyon and Haruhi are talking about club activities. Haruhi's not interested in any of them... Kyon tells her just to get used to it. Those that couldn't, went out on their own and discovered new things... Seems Kyon gave her an idea -- if there's no club that she likes then she'll make one of her own. She (forcefully) enlists Kyon to help out while she finds a room. The room she finds is shared by the literary club, of which there's only one member, Yuki Nagato@Minori Chihara, a rather quiet.. make that extremely quiet girl that enjoys reading. Haruhi brings in another girl that seems to be rather scared and introduces her as Mikuru Asahina@Yuuko Gotou, a 2nd year student. So why'd she drag her in? Well, she's cute.

So, this bunny waitress girl from the future comes to earth to protect this guy that has some kind of powers that some other girl from outer space wants to use or something.... something like that... yeah, pretty easy to figure out that "Asahina Mikuru no Bouken" is a movie within a movie, a production by this SOS Club that Haruhi is apparently the leader of. She's proud of her work (her armband says "choukantoku", "super director"), but...

（ ゜д゜）ポカーン
...I'm with Kyon and Mikuru on this one (^^;;)

Well, if that wasn't the best job of recreating an amateur movie in a show there is. Bad camera work, bad acting, bad singing, these odd parts that are supposed to commercials or something, bad story, cheap special effects, MIDI-sounding music, everything sucks so much I was laughing a good bit of the way through though I had no idea what the heck was going on. Mikuru was too funny. GJ, Yuuko Gotou! (though I can't help but hear her as Rein...) Kyon's running commentary on the movie as it was running was pretty hilarious as well.

Quite a different way to do a first episode, ain't it? (^^;;) But if this is an indication of how things will be from now on then I think I'll like it. Some crazy stuff like this is good, though it probably confused the heck out of people (like me) who haven't read the novels. Kyoto Animation quality was on display as expected. That dance in the ending is something else. I'll leave my comments on the ED and the OP for next week as the show actually starts with episode 1... 2 ;)

...Haruhi's even in the ED credits as choukantoku (^^;;)