Part two of a two-part, season recap of posts. Today, I have special guest, economic expert Lawrence Craft with me. He’ll be reviewing the second season of Haruhi, purely on a technical basis.

So thanks for joining us Mr. Craft.

It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Before we begin. I have to be honest. I don’t really consider you to be an economic expert. In fact, I have trouble understanding all the terrible decisions you make and all the unnecessary risks you take. How many times would you have been left destitute and sold into slavery if it wasn’t for Horo? I can count at least two. Why do I even have you here?

Err… Because Sage Horo Wolf chose me?

Touché. So anyway, give us your opinion on this second season of Haruhi. What did you think?

It’s a fascinating question. Because we’re in fascinating times. Actually, I think the graph below will explain a lot.

As you can see, the rise and fall, and maybe even the final salvation of Haruhi Suzumiya actually mirrors the rise and fall of the Dow Jones over the past year and a half. It’s downright uncanny. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody obviously starts the season on an incredible wave. The market had never been higher. But with all the KyoAni and Kadokawa antics in the past, there was hesitation to dive in, as you can see by the pull back over the four weeks of reruns. But confirmation of the second season is achieved by the first Endless Eight episode, which resulted in a slight peak. Now the fans gave KyoAni a pass for the first two episodes of Endless Eight. This was a clear case where a 3-part arc made sense. Plus, seeing Haruhi, Yuki and Nagato in new swimsuits each week, along with the fun, slice of life theme made it enjoyable. It wasn’t as good as Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, but it wasn’t bad.

But then, you can see there’s a rapid descent – what we’d call a collapse – when we learned that the third episode was not the end of E8. Now the question was when would this end. The failure of the 4th episode to end it was just as tragic. That slight peak, that glimmer of hope you see in the chart, refers to the moment where you thought you’d broken the cycle, RP.

Ah, but I hadn’t.

Tragically, no. As we continue across the chart, you see that the E8 arc continues the rapid decline of the second season of Haruhi, until by episode 8, when it ended, all hope for the season was lost. Market activity was actually quite low that day. I would guess that very few people actually watched the first 18 minutes of that last episode.

But thank goodness for The Sigh of, right? I see a little rebound.

Indeed, there is a little rebound. There’s a slight pullback in the fourth episode, where the tide turned against Haruhi, but the Shamisen episode did provide for a nice little spike at the end. Still, if you look at it in totality, The Sigh of, may have provided about a 50% bounce from the lows of E8. However, from the high point of the season, Shamisen Speaks, is still a good 50% down from its original peak. I haven’t seen a market crash like this since me and Horo blew Amati’s mind by pulling the rug out of the pyrite market.

Hmm, so we know the show took a major hit this year. What about the characters? I loved them all in season 1, what’s your opinion on them.

That’s a great question. As the show took a hit, the collateral damage was felt by all. It wasn’t just KyoAni and Kadokawa who were losing DVD sales. But the 401k’s and investments of regular Joe Schmoes like Kyon suffered as well. Here’s my take.

Haruhi: Hold. My opinion of Haruhi hasn’t changed much over the season. She is what she always was. Headstrong, brash, rude and always entertaining. You can credit her for her consistency. While she may not have made many new fans this season, I think her performance in such a downer market is admirable.

Kyon: Sell. Kyon may have took the biggest hit of all this season, only because I think his stock was almost as high-flying as Haruhi’s after season 1. He was the regular guy that everyone seemed to love. But then he made some terrible decisions, or non-decisions, along the way. 15,000+ instances of not doing anything is a complete failure. If that didn’t kill him, his inexplicably violent behavior against Haruhi in the Sigh of did. Luckily for Kyon, who was headed down the paths of non-entities like Lehman Brothers or GM, Haruhi extended a SOS-dan bailout and offered him a rope (or ponytail) for him to hang on in the final episodes.

Mikuru: Strong Sell. My opinion of Mikuru was fairly neutral before this season. However, the complete absence of any productivity throughout this season resulted in a complete devastation of her stock. Let’s take a look. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was the highlight of her season, only because of her future self. But, unfortunately for the rest of us, we’re stuck with present day Mikuru, who did things such as: get hit in the face by a beach ball 15,000+ times, never catch a gold fish, cry with Koizumi 15,000+ times, get abused by Haruhi, get drunk of miniscule amounts of alcohol, do a terrible job acting. There’s not one positive thing she did, post-Bamboo Leaf. She’s become what you’d call a deadweight in the Haruhi portfolio. If it was up to me, I would suggest letting her go.

Nagato: Market underperform. Ultimately, we may be able to say the E8 scandal was Nagato’s doing. While it was Kyon who needed to act, Nagato surely could’ve provided some assistance, or at least direction. For someone who claims to be an "observer", she sure does many non-observer things, like house alternate-versions of Kyon and Mikuru for three years, break through time and space to save Kyon’s life, break open an entrance to a gated pond, so Mikuru could shoot laser beams from her eyes. Her vanilla personality makes her more resistant to wild market swings, but this season was not a good run for Nagato’s stock.

Koizumi: Buy. Without Koizumi it’s likely Kyon would’ve never found out that E8 was even happening, simply because Mikuru would’ve cried herself to death eventually. Thankfully, the always fabulous Koizumi was always there to explain the situation and try to figure out what was happening. Are his motives true and pure? That’s questionable, but at the least, he is as trustworthy as Mikuru and Nagato. Moreso, because he’s one of the rare ones who can string together a full sentence.

Tsuruya: Hold. It’s hard to say anything about Tsuruya, because she did so little. However, the moments where she was on-screen were considerably brightened, so I feel strong about her performance in the future.

Kyon’s sister: Strong Buy. It’s remarkable that a character who only had two lines all season long could conceivably have rising prospects, but when one of those lines is the immortal "Kyon-kun denwa," sometimes you realize that’s it’s the little things that can create big returns.

Taniguchi and KunikawaL Hold. Kunikawa doesn’t offer much to the show. I barely understand why he exists. Taniguchi, however did have some good insights along the way. Even if they were inadvertent. Without his negativity, Kyon may never have been able to look himself in the mirror.

Thank you very much for this. I hope that the readers out there will take your advice and insights into account if they decide to invest in the Haruhi index. What are your thoughts on a possible third season?

Well, it can’t possibly be worse than the second season. But if it doesn’t happen in the next 18 months, I think that it’s unlikely to ever happen. It’s clear that KyoAni and Kadokawa treat Haruhi as more of a novelty than a franchise-building property like Gundam or Macross. I think the appetite for Haruhi is greatly decreased after the recent tumultuous events. Eventually, those investors are going to grow up, find new indexes to invest in, and never come back. The ball is undoubtedly in KyoAni and Kadokawa’s court right now.

I must say, I was skeptical about your expertise first, but you do seem to know your stuff. It’s like that time you figured out Fruhl’s evil plans.

That’s because I am actually Zero. Die!

Noooo!!!

I guess it’s safe to say that there’s not going to be any more new episodes of Haruhi this year. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that the second season of Haruhi Suzumiya was full of epic moments – in both good and bad ways. As part of a two part wrap-up series of posts, I figured I’d focus the first part on grading the epicness and the goodness/evilness of each of the major events so far this year.

Epicness is graded from not epic to EPIC! Good/evil is graded from Endless Eight Evil to Great!

1. Kadokawa promises Haruhi-chan premiere, instead we get Nice Boat.
Epic score: Pretty epic. Good/evil score: Very evil.
The boat wasn’t as epic as say, Kadokawa’s balls for pulling such a stunt. And the fan reaction to it. And this was for a shitty webcast. What if they had done this for the real Haruhi? Oh wait.

2. Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san premiere.
Epic score: Not epic. Good/evil score: Neutral. 
Underwhelming is I think what you could say about the premiere. In fact the Haruhi-chan premiere was nonsensical to the point of unwatchability. The rest of the "season" turned out a little better. And ACHAKURA and Kimidori were my personal faves, but the webcast was nothing really memorable. Same goes for Churuya-san, except Churuya-san was a 4 panel gag that went on about 12 "episodes" too long. Let’s not waste any more words on Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san.

3. KyoAni hints at a second season of Haruhi by releasing a 28 episode airing schedule.
Epic score: Not epic. Good/evil score: Slightly evil.
Not really epic, because by this point, everyone had started gotten tired of KyoAni’s games and stopped biting on all the rumors. I gave it a slightly evil score, simply because the airing schedule is a concrete piece of evidence. It would raise the hopes of even the most jaded.

4. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody Airs!
Epic score: EPIC! Good/evil score: Great!
I considered the official confirmation of a 2nd season of Haruhi to be anime’s version of the shot heard ’round the world. I still remember the day. I first saw the news on Random Curiosity. Yeah, I panicked. Twitter was abuzz. MAL was aflame. Forum trolls stopped trolling to serenade each other with catcalls of Hare Hare Yukai. My God, the goddess returns! It also helped that the episode was really good too.

5. Couple weeks of reruns after Bamboo Leaf.
Epic score: Not epic. Good/evil score: Slightly evil.
If KyoAni and Kadokawa were people, they’d be the type of people who’d show up to a party, and just when people are starting to have some fun, they’d go kick your dog, spike the punchbowl with cat urine, and then loudly complain how their antipsychotic medicine isn’t doing anything for the voices in their heads. No fun. Total buzzkills I’m telling you.

6. Endless Eight, Part 1 airs.
Epic score: Somewhat epic. Good/evil score: Neutral.
Haruhi as a slice of life. Well, that’s sort of fun. Yeah, we figured they’d stretch this one out for a few episodes…

7. Endless Eight, Part 2.
Epic score: Not epic. Good/evil score: Slightly evil.
lololololol. Good ole’ quirky KyoAni’s having their fun. La la la.

8. Endless Eight, Part 3.
Epic score: Slightly epic. Good/evil score: Moderately evil.
Ohhhh kayyyy. I personally thought this would’ve been a good time to end it. But what do I know, I’m not KyoAni. They’ll definitely end it next episode for sure.

9. Endless Eight, Part 4.
Epic score: Slightly epic. Good/evil score: Evil.
Bizarre music. Airplanes. Imagery. No resolution. The fans are getting restless. "Next arc PLEASE!" I said.

10. Endless Eight, Part 5.
Epic score: Somewhat epic. Good/evil score: Very evil.
This was the episode that I accidentally downloaded part 4 again, and watched for 8 minutes before I realized I was watching the same fucking episode I watched last week. It took me eight minutes to figure that one out! Eight minutes!

11. Endless Eight, Part 6.
Epic score: Somewhat epic. Good/evil score: Extremely evil.
Sort of a ho-hum episode. It’s like KyoAni mailed this one in. How could I say that about this episode, and not about the other seven? Because I can. However, this was the episode that pushed Hiter off the edge.

12. Endless Eight Finally Gets to Hitler.
Epic score: EPIC! Good/evil score: Great!
I just watched it again, this still cracks me up. I love the Kyon version too. The "Except you Koizumi. Fuck you." line was brilliant. This is the best damn thing that came out of the E8 arc. I want to see a version where Hitler learns that KyoAni wasn’t going to animate Disappearance, just because of E8.

13. Endless Eight, Part 7.
Epic score: Pretty epic. Good/evil score: The ire of Hitler evil.
At this point it was a battle of wills. Was KyoAni going to wuss out and stop this at episode 8. Or would they go on forever?

14. The Kyon-Kun Denwa trend.
Epic score: EPIC! Good/evil score: Great!
It started its own twitter hashtag trend (#kyonkundenwa), it’s own ringtone, it’s own neverending video and domain name, it’s own song, and it’s own behind the music feature. Ahhh, it was the gift that kept on giving.

15. Endless Eight, Part 8 – Fin.
Epic score: Pretty epic. Good/evil score: Endlessly Eight evil.
Yep, KyoAni wussed out quicker than Kyon starring in a random harem anime. Anyway, I was pretty pissed at this point, as was pretty much everyone else. The season was ruined.

16. Uproar about K-ON-ified Haruhi art style
Epic score: Slightly epic. Good/evil score: Neutral.
While there was some backlash about Haruhi’s new, increasingly K-ON-ified art style, the fan uproar didn’t catch on too hot. Perhaps everyone was just petered out after Endless Eight. I do prefer the first season animation style, as it was more detailed and felt more sophisticated. But I actually like the new art style. I was never a fan of bug-eyed Air/Kanon/Clannad look. If they mixed in the details and environments from season 1 with the character designs from season 2, I think that’d be perfect.

17. The Sigh of, Part 1.
Epic score: Somewhat epic. Good/evil score: Slightly good.
It was sort of surreal, watching Haruhi and not seeing the familiar faces and scenes of Endless Eight. I would compare it to a crack addict going cold turkey. I was not ready for this. Even if there was still a whiff of deja vu, since we’ve all seen The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina.

18. The Sight of, Part 2.
Epic score: Not epic. Good/evil score: Neutral.
Meh. No crazy weird events. It’s just Haruhi and friends shooting a movie. It’s like a slice of life. Sort of like Endless Eight. CRAP!

19. The Sigh of, Part 3.
Epic score: Slightly epic. Good/evil score: Slightly good.
M-m-mikuru beamu! A Nagato bite scene. This is a little better.

20. The Sigh of, Part 4.
Epic score: EPIC! Good/evil score: Evil.
Otherwise known as the episode where Kyon got sand stuck in his vagina. The epic score isn’t so much for the episode as it is for the fan reaction to the episode. Everyone wanted to kill cute, helpless Haruhi. Meanwhile, I wanted to still kill Kyon for putting us through that Endless Eight pile of crap. Kyon, I haven’t forgot. I still hate you. You damn bitch.
On the plus side, we had plenty of good reactions from the otaku community: Calawain realizes the brilliance of Tsurua’s plan, animekritik compares Kyon to satan, sort of, Assessing the Anime had a particularly eloquent perspective, zilch goes off on KyoAni (multiple times actually), ascaloth notices Mikuru’s not so lush abilities, while Janette was torn between two devils, and so on and so on. Based on the reactions alone, you could definitely say this was a compelling episode. But not exactly the kind that’s going to make anyone’s top favorites list anytime soon.

21. The Sigh of, Part 5.
Epic score: Pretty epic. Good/evil score: Very good.
The long-awaited Shamisen episode! And probably the second best episode of the season behind Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. Although that’s like saying you won second place in a two man race. We also got Kyon’s sister saying, "neko, neko, neko." She had two lines all season long, and they were brilliant. I love Sayaka Aoki’s voice. I want Miria Harvent back. She deserves her own show.

So in the end, we got 4 EPIC! moments, 3 pretty epic moments, 3 Great! moments, and 11 varying shades of evil moments. Four epic moments may not seem like a lot, but when you consider most anime seasons would garner zero, it’s actually quite impressive. The evil to good moment ratio is much less promising. And 2 of the 3 Great! moments even came from parodies to help the fanbase deal with all the evil that had been inflicted on them. That’s the type of ratio that’ll give you indigestion.

Season two was definitely a memorable season, but for all the wrong reasons. I think when people think back, the first thing they’ll remember is Endless Eight – and how much that sucked. The Sigh of, I think will fade from memory. And the euphoric moments from Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody already seemed to have fade away. That’s not a good thought.

Well, that’s as far as the chronological moments from the season go. In the next part of this season recap, I’ll have economic expert, Lawrence Craft, provide his thoughts on the roller coaster stock market ride that was Haruhi Suzumiya.

I’ve been waiting for talking Shamisen ever since I knew The Sigh of… was being animated. And the long-awaited return of talking Shamisen was only the beginning of what may be my favorite episode of the season.

The scene in which Shamisen is talking to Kyon while simultaneously trying to hang onto Nagato’s shoulders was the best scene of the season – equally cute, funny, weird and endearing – which is the Haruhi style I enjoy. Only Haruhi would create not only a talking cat, but a talking cat with an interest in philosophy and perhaps anarchic intents to destroy the very foundations of human speech. It’s a shame Haruhi misses all the good stuff.

The other major development in this episode, was the different viewpoints the Koizumi, Mikuru and Nagato factions seem to have.

Koizumi believes Haruhi created the world and has the ability to change the way the world works. If she wants all pigeons to be white, she can make it so. If she wants all cats to talk, she can make it so.

Mikuru believes that while Haruhi has the ability to change the present, all the anomalies existed before Haruhi, and that she can’t change the way the whole world works. So making Shamisen talk, doesn’t necessarily mean all cats will start talking.

Nagato meanwhile says there’s no guarantees that anything Koizumi or Asahina say is actually true, and that Kyon can’t prove either of them or even Nagato true, because Nagato herself may not be telling the truth… Gee, way to obfuscate the picture Nagato.

I, personally, am in the Koizumi camp. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of incentive for Koizumi to lie about becoming an esper three years ago. If that wasn’t the case, it’d be just as easy for him to adopt Mikuru’s way of thinking. Also, since Mikuru has no way of explaining what happened three years earlier due to the time earthquake, I’m less inclined to believe her until she has a reasonable explanation for the strange rift or gap in time. Not to mention, until I see any evidence of competence from Mikuru, I wouldn’t trust a word out of her moe blob mouth.

Either way, these were interesting scenes, but I don’t recall the difference in factions playing a major part in the subsequent stories.

Other than that, we see additional Nagato biting scenes, more Haruhi bopping (sans the Kyon melodrama) and the finale to the movie. Kyon’s method of reverting the world back to normal? Well, if you saw the Adventures of Asahina Mikuru, you’d probably recall the disclaimer that Kyon forces Haruhi to say at the end of the movie. Yup, there’s nothing like a little legalese to knock you out of your fantasy world and back into reality.

And the episode ends with a potential date!? Well… not quite. But the Kyon x Haruhi shippers do get tossed a bone. I think they’d be an interesting couple, but it’s clear the level-headed and grounded Haruhi would have difficulty dealing with Kyon’s flighty fantasies of their friends being espers, aliens and time travelers. HA! If it were only that easy… I do wish we got to see more Kyon and Haruhi scenes. You rarely see just the two of them actually talking to each other or doing things together. Usually, it’s just Kyon talking to himself, or reacting to Haruhi doing things to other people.

Anyway, this is it for an otherwise lackluster second season of Haruhi. I’m convinced that I might’ve thought this season to be typical Haruhi brilliant if they’d replaced Endless Eight with an arc that fans actually cared about (whether or not it was Disappearance, there’s plenty of other arcs I would’ve liked to see animated), but E8 changed everything. Either way, I’ll hold my thoughts on the season for my recap post, which’ll come once I see that the next episode is indeed a rerun.

What’s the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child?" The equivalent saying here would be "It takes a SOS brigade to keep Haruhi’s head on straight," or more aptly, "It takes one jealous Kyon to nearly end the whole world." Haruhi’s one of those people if you give an inch, she’ll take a mile. So it should be no surprise for any of the SOS-brigade members (or us, the viewers), if Haruhi takes her eccentricity and megalomaniacal behavior to the limits if no one bothers to stop her, much less empower her. I’ve noticed a lot of anger towards Haruhi on blog posts, on forums, but I think a lot of that anger’s misplaced. I’m not going to deny that this episode featured Haruhi at her petulant worst, but it also featured Kyon and the SOS brigade (sans Koizumi who shines) at their worst as well… since E8 at least.

Is Haruhi crazy for wanting to scale the fence to get into a pond that’s been cordoned off to get film a scene for her movie? Nah. Kyon needs to stop throwing a mental fit over every little thing. A trespassing sign or a fence has never been much of a deterrent for curious people. My question is what is Nagato doing opening the fence for everyone to get through? Haruhi’s shown time and time again when the group is adamant one way or the other, she’ll be flexible and listen to them. Maybe not willingly or happily, but eventually she’ll acquiesce. So why is it that Nagato is merely an observer for over 15,000 iterations of Endless Eight, where she doesn’t bother saying a fricking word, but here she actually goes out of her way to enable Haruhi’s eccentricity? Did she want to get that hot biting scene in?

In this scene, Kyon throws a mental barb at Haruhi for giving Mikuru another contact, but did it occur to any of SOS brigade members to tell Haruhi to not go with contacts in the future? I mean, a simple explanation could’ve sufficed. As Nagato’s impromptu wrestling routine shows, Haruhi’s willing to change directions if the SOS brigade members are fervent about it.

Similarly, there seems to be a lot of anger at Haruhi for throwing Mikuru into the pond. But here again, Mikuru willingly accepts it. There was a prime opportunity to object, but she doesn’t. If she’s willing to do it, and nobody’s going to make a huge fuss about it, why not? I’ve lived near a pond, and I’ve helped toss some friends in, and we weren’t even filming a movie. What’s a little mayhem amongst friends? I think this scene seems worse than it actually is, because Mikuru’s hiding behind Kyon, shivering like a retarded puppy, while Kyon stands there with an angry look on his face. Haruhi suggested it, but in her eyes, this makes perfect sense because it’s part of the movie. The SOS brigade allows this to happen, meanwhile Kyon gets angry at Haruhi for suggesting the idea. Where’s the anger at himself and the rest of SOS brigade for not saying anything? This reticence is especially prominent to me after the failures in E8. Where should the anger be directed? Does all the anger deserve to be directed at Haruhi for being Haruhi, or should some be reserved for Kyon & co., for letting her be Haruhi? A more equitable split seems warranted.

We now go to the next scene, where a sauced up Mikuru and Koizumi are about to engage in a kiss until Kyon stops them in a jealous rage. Ok, let’s step back here. Now, personally, I don’t think spiking a friend’s drink with a little bit of alcohol is much worse than say, spiking a friend’s drink with a bottle of laxatives. But disregard that for a second and let’s think about what happened here.

Haruhi suggests to Tsuruya to add a little alcohol to Mikuru’s drink to loosen her up for the big romance scene. An outrageous ask? Perhaps. But it’s in line with Haruhi’s character, and based on Mikuru’s inability to blurt out a sentence without stuttering, a pretty logical suggestion.

But what happens next? Tsuru-chan’s the one who actually adds the alcohol in Mikuru’s drink. Kyon’s furious at Haruhi. The audience is furious at Haruhi. But why does Tsuru-chan skate by? Where’s her common sense?

Haruhi meanwhile tries to encourage Mikuru by bopping her on the head. Again here, I think KyoAni does a good job of manipulating the audience, with the BGM, scene direction, Kyon’s angry face and Mikuru’s patheticness. Because Haruhi isn’t hitting Mikuru maliciously. She’s not beating the crap out of her. She’s bopping her lightly, and the tone of her voice is more encouraging than angry or forceful. However, Kyon snaps at this and actually raises a fist at Haruhi. Seriously? Kyon spends 10,000 years being a spineless coward, unable to say the right words or mount even the most basic of counterarguments, and he goes from internal monologue angry to slap city? That’s how psycho killers start. Thank goodness for Koizumi, who’s awesome level continues to rise and rise. I need to see serious Koizumi more often.

Haruhi then in a fit of anger and shock says some things that I think everyone can agree is pretty obnoxious. And whether or not that’s really what she believes, I’d take Haruhi’s words with a grain of salt. People say things they don’t necessarily mean in the heat of the moment. If the worst thing I’d ever said during an argument was, "NO INSUBORDINATION" or "MIKURU IS MY TOY," I’d consider myself a saint.

I’m not absolving Haruhi of all wrong, although I know it sounds that way. I’m just trying to present an alternative perspective. Think about it as Haruhi:

• You want to film a movie. Everyone’s cool with it. Kyon bitches about how the movie doesn’t make sense, but he bitches about everything, and isn’t offering any good suggestions of his own. Besides, everyone else seems to be fine with it.
• You want Mikuru to be the star wearing skimpy clothes. Everyone except Mikuru’s cool with it, but Mikuru’s a wet blanket and the butt of all jokes, besides she agrees anyway.
• You want Mikuru to wear contact lenses. Everyone’s cool with it. You have no idea that she can suddenly shoot laser beams out of her eyes. Kyon’s giving you a dirty look, why?
• You want to film a scene at a gated-off area and you want everyone to climb the fence. Instead Nagato opens the fence for you. Hurray!
• You want to throw Mikuru into the lake. Taniguchi says something, but he’s a clown and not even Kyon listens to him, so why would you? Mikuru agrees. No one objects. She gets thrown in.
• You want to sauce up Mikuru, because you know she’s too stiff to pull off the romance scene. You suggest it to Tsuru-chan. She wholeheartedly agrees and goes and does it.
• You want Koizumi and Mikuru to do the kiss scene, because it is the big romantic moment. Nobody objects. Until the last moment when Kyon does and then Koizumi concurs. So you relent and lose the scene.
• You head over to Mikuru, because you can’t believe how drunk she got off so little alcohol. You lightly bop her on the head three times.
• Your pal Kyon then flips out and raises his fist to hit you. WTF?

Maybe it’s just me (and Haruhi), but I think I’d be shocked and offended by Kyon’s random temper tantrum and threat of violence. It amuses me there’s so much hatred directed at Haruhi over her “abuse’ of Mikuru. To be honest, I think the faux-raep scene with the computer society in season 1 was much more heinous, and I don’t recall ever seeing an uproar about that.

I really liked the subsequent scenes between Kyon and Koizumi and Kyon and Taniguchi. With Koizumi, because the talk about how Haruhi thought she could always count on Kyon’s support no matter what, peels away at Haruhi’s character. Behind her always confident facade is someone who needs the comfort of a safety net backing her up. It’s telling how the next day Haruhi is depressed, not angry.

I liked the scene with with Taniguchi, because Kyon finally realizes he’d just become a useless naysayer. At least Haruhi was trying to do something productive, something she believed in. I also really liked how Tomokazu enunciated his "kusos" as he walked to see Haruhi. Great stuff.

And of course, I loved the ponytail scene because a.) it’s a rare sighting of her deredere side (I think back to how she wore a ponytail to school the day after the kiss, and how she decided not to give Mikuru a ponytail in The Boredom of…) and b.) it shows she cares and isn’t completely off in a world of her own.

The last scene was just pretty funny. This is the power of a happy Haruhi. She can make cherry blossoms bloom and turn fall to spring. I laughed out loud at the "perfectly timed irregular climate change." Koizumi’s reaction was priceless as well. I imagine if closed-space had been created, the monsters would’ve been dancing and pooping unicorns.

All in all, even though I think a lot of the hate and anger towards Haruhi is misplaced, this was one of the stronger episodes of the season (hard to rank them with 8 of the episodes being throwaways). I’m looking forward to the Shamisen episode, which hopefully will provide some good laughs as the probable final new episode of the season.

Sometimes I wonder why Haruhi chose the people she chose as her "friends." As far as her directorial debut goes, I have some empathy for her. Her lead actress can barely get dressed on her own, her main villain is about as emotive as a coffee table, her do-everything camera man is a grumpy naysayer and Koizumi is well… Koizumi.

Haruhi wielding two guns is pretty damn hot. The pigeon scene and the subsequent escape scene had a slapstick style to it that TMOHS hasn’t had too much of. I actually got a good laugh out of it. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why Haruhi didn’t go down the director/actor route. Her and Koizumi are the only ones I’d trust have any acting skills.

To be honest, the Kyon stock exchanged has really collapsed since the first season, and he’s been pissing me off during this arc (not to mention his complete FAIL during E8). So maybe Haruhi putting Mikuru in a headlock and bopping her on the head was wrong, but I really didn’t like Kyon manhandling Haruhi to get her off of Mikuru. That’s not all though. It seems like Kyon’s been a lot more negative and aggressive against Haruhi than I remember from the first season. I also feel like Tomokazu Sugita’s performance has had a bit of a harder edge too. Maybe my memory of the first season is a bit hazy, but I just don’t remember Kyon being so overwhelmingly anti-Haruhi. It really makes you wonder why Kyon continues to follow Haruhi’s bidding… Which is admittedly a real nice dovetail into the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – an arc I hope gets animated sometime in the very near future with minimal trolling.

Finally, we get to the weird stuff when Mikuru actually shoots a photon beam from her eye. The highlight of this episode was Nagato tackling Mikuru, and I loved hearing what I’m going to call Nagato’s theme song when she, Koizumi and Kyon are talking about what happened. Hearing that song brought back some good memories. Again, thank goodness for Koizumi. Between Kyon’s blockheadedness, and Nagato’s one word answers, I wonder how any of them would communicate any of the strange Haruhi-related activities without Koizumi-kun. Season 2 – Kyon stock way down, Koizumi stock way up.

It’s a shame they didn’t animate the Nagato x Mikuru bite scene, but I suppose megas-Tsuruya-san glomping Mikuru in all her fang-tan glory is an adequate replacement scene. If I remember correctly, I’m looking forward to seeing Shamisen get in on the Mikuru Beam action next week.

Is it "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" or "The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya"? Sort of a silly question, but little nitpicky things like this tend to bug me. I’m going to go with "The Sigh…" since that was the original novel title.

Now that things are getting back to normal, I can start watching Haruhi again like I watch any other show. This is a good thing. Taniguchi returns from the dead to deliver a couple great lines in this episode. I like Taniguchi, because he represents the "normal" faction of the show – how the rest of the world responds to Haruhi and her weird troupe. Haruhi’s in her own world. Nagato doesn’t speak. Asahina is a bijin out of reach for normal guys. And Koizumi is creepy (he’s not creepy, just fabulous!). Meanwhile, Kyon is the normal guy marching along with the rest of the band to the edge of the cliff, as Tanguchi sagely points out. He even attributes Kyon’s embracing of Nagato as one of Haruhi’s schemes – the unsaid point being Kyon’s too normal and Nagato’s too weird for the two to have come together in any other way. Taniguchi may be a lazy good-for-nothing, but he’s no idiot.

Meanwhile, location scouting, and filming of the commercials and the movie has begun. Haruhi graces us with a cadre of smiles, laughs and even song to reflect her good mood. However, Haruhi’s directing and production skills are more Senor Spielbergo than Steven Spielberg. The commercials make no sense. The story and script are in Haruhi’s head, and apparently there’s no dialogue in the movie either (although we knew all that). #1 in the culture festival and that Golden Globe seem unlikely.

But if the movie is so terrible, why doesn’t somebody tell Haruhi so? Ok, forget the fact that this is the same group that took over 15,000 tries before someone could think of something to say to Haruhi to end the summer. But Haruhi’s just so damn enthusiastic about her film that even if she wasn’t leader of the SOS Brigade (and possibly God of the world), it’d be hard for anyone to say "Haruhi, your movie sucks. You have no skill." That would just crush her and break her tsundere heart. I mean, when she tells you she’s afraid of the script leaking out, how do you respond? Just nod your head and smile.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. In life (and in anime), the most enthusiastic + confident ones almost always win or lead the way. Whether it’s Haruhi, Mii-chan, Kamina or any other gung-ho character, enthusiasm > indifference. It doesn’t even matter if you have skill, if you have the enthusiasm + confidence, people will follow, because they’ll just assume you have the skill. If you suck, they might not follow you again, but you can hoodwink them at least once. And this is why we follow Haruhi, because she’s damn sure she’s right, and even if she’s not, she’s going to make it entertaining along the way.

I think Haruhi’s best when it mixes in the supernatural elements, so I’m looking forward to next week’s episode when weird things should start occurring, but this episode was pretty good. Nothing great. And not vintage Haruhi, but as Haruhi says, it was entertaining.

There was a time where I wanted to put some special effort into my Haruhi posts – I thought that highly of the show – then Endless Eight hit, and now I have no clue what I’m doing.

For better or for worse, the Haruhi watching experience has never been normal. From the initial Adventures of Mikuru Asahina episode, to the strange ordering of episodes to the three years of Kadokawa/KyoAni trolling to the most recent Endless Eight troll, watching Haruhi has always been a strange experience. And maybe it’s been that off-kilterness that’s raised our expectations for this show. But Kadokawa and KyoAni’s previously endearing quirkiness had become a full fledged calamity by the time E8 ended. There’s a fine line between eccentric and repulsive, and K&K crossed that line with their years of false starts. And like a drug addict who’s lost control, they continue to keep getting further and further off-course. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya wasn’t a huge hit just because its episodes were broadcasted in a weird manner. It was a huge hit, because it has a cast of interesting characters with great chemistry, great designs and animation, and an interesting story that effortlessly weaved in the mundane with the profound, supernatural and remarkable. This is why I enjoyed the show, and this is why I’ve enjoyed every one of Nagaru Tanigawa’s novels.

So now we’re back with the Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya. A somewhat ironic choice, since unlike E8, we know exactly how the Sigh turns out in advance. And admittedly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was glad to hear the familiar background music, and to see the tit-for-tat back and forth between Kyon and Haruhi again. Similar to E8, we see how Haruhi can turn a rather ordinary event (although based on everything I’ve seen in anime, cultural fairs sure seem like a lot of fun!) into something totally outrageous.

The episode had a similar Haruhi feel, and there were some great moments as well (Haruhi pretending to be a clumsy maid, Kyon being assigned to be Haruhi’s assistant), but something felt off. And I don’t want to make this another post about E8, but it’s hard to watch the rest of this season without associating it with E8. And the worst thing that E8 did was it broke the "magic" that Haruhi carried. Before, the first thing I did when I came home was watch Haruhi. New Haruhi was "Haruhi!" An event! But E8 got me into the routine of expecting the expected. And then I did the unthinkable – started skipping huge chunks of episodes. And the magic began unraveling. Suddenly new Haruhi episodes were just "Haruhi" not "Haruhi!" It was no longer the first thing I watched when I came home (in fact I watched the latest episodes of Spice and Wolf, Sora no Manimani and Umineko before getting to Haruhi).

You could argue that Haruhi is still Haruhi, and you’d be right. The first episode of "The Sigh of…" was pretty good. But I’d argue what made Haruhi really Haruhi was the "magic." It’s what separates a very good show from a cultural phenomenon. Can Haruhi recapture that magic? I think so – although I don’t think "The Sigh of…" is the right arc to do that – but it starts with KyoAni and Kadokawa getting back to focusing on what makes Haruhi special – the story and characters – and not gimmicky shenanigans.

Anyway, now that I got all of the above out of my system, I promise to talk more about the actual episode in future write-ups. I’m still trying to figure out my way in this post E8 blogpocalypse.

Once it got past a certain point, I never wanted it to end. I don’t know why. Maybe I realized it was beyond the point of no return. Maybe I was a sadist. But it’s over. And to be honest, I feel a little sad. And a little mad. Life will be back to normal and we’ll be back to not raging about Haruhi. I will say, this was the worst fucking arc of anything I’ve ever seen. You can give credit to KyoAni/Kadokawa for their "boldness," but "boldness" doesn’t mean jack in real life. They could’ve drawn Haruhi, literally, taking a crap on each episode of Endless Eight and it would’ve drawn the same response (actually, probably a response even more hysterical). That is true "boldness." But that’s basically what E8 was: a desperate call for attention by a studio that was apparently out of ideas. As someone who works in marketing, it always bothers me when I hear people say "any publicity is good publicity." The honest truth is: THAT IS A LIE. It’s a lie usually perpetrated by those that are trying to keep their jobs after fucking something up, after some "ingenious" (read: retarded) idea backfires.

Anyway, yeah, Endless Eight is over. And so is any semblance of a positive Haruhi 2 season. I am not going to give KyoAni any credit for "boldness" or "uniqueness", because both of those qualities are easy to achieve. "Quality", however, is not.

…Is what I’d be saying if it actually was over. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. For a second, I thought I was KyoAni. Please don’t hate me. Their subliminal troll attacks were too much for me to bear.

There are a couple things I’d like to see from this Endless Eight arc, now that we’ve come this far:

• First, ending it on the Eighth is much too predictable. KyoAni’s taken the unconventional route and they’ve gone this far. They might as well end the season with Endless Eight episodes. Endless Eight has somehow become my security blanket. Just knowing that nothing new will happen has become a comforting proposition. If Endless Eight has taught me anything, it’s that change is bad. Change is scary. Why risk change, when you can be comforted by what you know?
• Second, if they ever do decide to end this arc, I want them to just completely f*** the show up. I want to hear Kyon’s sister saying “Kyon-kun dewa” on infinite loop (I may just make it my cell phone ring). I want to see Kyon refuse to ride his bicycle and flippantly tell Haruhi to ride him instead. I want to see Kyon toss some lolis around at the swimming pool. I want him to woo yukata Mikuru right in front of Haruhi. I want to see some Nagato, ACHAKURA and Kimidori antics. I want Koizumi to win the cicada catching contest, become SOS-dan president for a day and then declare his desire to conquer Haruhi… in bed. And so forth. Why not?

Anyway, since I trolled you, I will also direct you to a gift as well. A hilarious and all-too-true video put together by CCY. "Fantastic, I can’t wait for this Endless Eight thing to finally end." ~OHOHOHOH!~

The good part (or bad, depending on how you look at it) about these episodes is this style of posting is so easy, it doesn’t take any thought at all.

I wonder how people will respond when this arc eventually ends? Will there be jubilation? Relief? Unbridled anger? In related news, Sankaku reported that “The Disappearance of…” arc will no longer be happening, so something tells me we won’t get the same jubilant response when Haruhi first returned from the dead. If this season ends with the resolution of Endless Eight, will fans still clamor for Haruhi? Or has KyoAni killed their cash cow?

In other news, I just bought the Aria first season DVD set and was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a guide to Neo-Venezia. Unfortunately, it’s not in color, but otherwise, it’s great. While Haruhi was doing its thing again, I learned a few new things about the magical world of Aria… according to the guide, Endless Eight does not exist in the utopia that is Neo-Venezia.