The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009) Episode 2! Talk about SUMMER!!!!!
Yes. Fireworks for a new Haruhi Episode!
Garrick: Alright! I’m here ON TIME, with the second new episode of the ever-hyped SHnY… Second season, no less! I’m totally ready to review this episode! And of course, with my ever robust knowledge of the series outside of the anime itself, say… the novel, and other things…
Oh wait. This wasn’t based on the novel? If it was, please tell me which chapter this was… because I can’t for the life of me, remember a part of the novels that involved what you’re about to see in my post.
Garrick: Of course, like any other episode, this is mainly about Haruhi pushing Kyon around and making him do whatever she wants. Not that they’d (and I, for that matter) would have it any other way. And Kyon’s even given up in trying to talk sense into Haruhi. Defeatism? I think so. We still get plenty of his trademark sarcastic remarks that without would leave SHnY unfulfilled…
There we have it. Vintage Kyon.
Garrick: And we start with a day, nearing the end of the yearly summer vacation… With a call to Kyon out of the blue from… who else but our beloved Brigade Leader, Suzumiya Haruhi. For what? We’re going to go swimming!
Ah, yes. Swimming pools. Summer. Girls. Yay.
Garrick: Yes, it’s fanservice, yes, it’s kinda annoying… but it’s Haruhi. Every anime’s gotta have it, a swimsuit scene, and, we get ours today. Yes, we’re all swimming at the public swimming pool, and of course, Kyon’s (and, well, Itsuki, but, whatever) responsible for transportation… by bike. Keep on trucking (biking), Kyon, just keep going.
Garrick: As it turns out Haruhi’s got a whole list of trademark Japanese summer events to go to, including cicada capturing (and releasing), goldfish grabbing, fireworks firing… All that good stuff that I want to do some day.
Garrick: And, as you can guess, we have our menial-task worker, Kyon who is responsible for the funding for all these club events. I feel sorry for him. Where does he get these deep pockets? Able to pay for the SOS Brigade through all these days? Whatever he had is all gone now, I bet. Or, at least the rest of the events…
Garrick: Okay.
I’ll be honest now. I am ROYALLY pissed at myself right now. I was unnerved by the fact that I didn’t know which chapter this came from. I read over the chapter that this episode was named after… Endless Eight, and when I read it… it all made sense.
I remember it all, and I am sorry for that failure of an opening paragraph. Yell at me all you want… I am losing my hope as a Haruhi fan… Not remembering this… I’m going to leave that opening paragraph there, just as a testament to how 3 years can dull a Harutard’s memory.
Garrick: Which makes me totally anticipate the next episode a lot…
Garrick: But I can say nothing about that. So… yeah.
Garrick’s Rating for Episode Two: 9/10
Garrick’s Anticipation Scale: 11/10
Garrick’s Random Input: New OP!
Allright, I was saying how they would end up showing us their new OP a week later? Here it is. Yeah.
It’s not as good as Bouken Bouken Desho. Or Hare Hare Yukai. Or Tomare! for that matter. Super Driver… just isn’t that good of a song. Some of the melodic strings in the song are really… well… they sound quite bad, and, while, like always, Hirano-sama’s voice is awesome, it seems… almost… overpowering… almost unfitting to the song.
But that has nothing to do with the visuals. Me and Minnie were talking a while back about the animation sequences for this season’s OP’s… she said that Eden of the East was one of the best, and I agreed with her.
Except, this, in my own opinion, of course, is better. How about a picture?
Yep. Picture.
Tags: Haruhi Suzumiya, Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu Season 2, Itsuki Koizumi, Kyon, Mikuru Asahina, NEW HARUHI!, Yuki Nagato
June 20th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Garrick, I’m a little worried that your Anticipation Scale rating is at 11/10. I’m not sure my blood pressure will stand that. /breathing deeply/
I guess, as a pilgrim to the Shrine of Haruhi, all I can do at this point is ring the bell, clap, and bow — hoping to exorcise this anticipatory excess in a moment of stillness.
And speaking of stillness, it’s as though the entire momentum from episode one has come to complete and imperturbable stasis. Nice, in a way, as that gets across the feeling of Summer. And right, we get to do the Bon Odori, fireworks, swimming, and… bug catching? This cicada harassment is a new one on me.
Kyon had some mini-monologues; always welcome. A brief moe moment or two for Asahina. Our resident alien data entity chooses a very green alien mask. A nice evening looking for UFOs. Itsuki, always happy that the world is not in immediate peril and probably not upset that Kyon is paying for everything. ^.^
Anyway it feels like we’ve come to a complete stop. It’s the calm before the typhoon.
June 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Okay. That took a few readthroughs.
But, I think I understand, and, yes. It’s these sort of still times that would cause a reaction out of Haruhi. Still and fulfilling, I guess.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:54 am
I like that everyone is so thoroughly in character. Haruhi is bossy. Kyon is mostly holding back behind his sarcastic observations. Yuki says what… maybe 3 words. Itsuki and Mikuru are mostly just trying to go along with whatever Haruhi suggests. They are really in their primary roles.
However there are these moments of self-expression. Haruhi is not railing against the fact that she’s saddled with mere humans (ironically)and wishing for time travellers, aliens, and espers. She’s just wanting to do ordinary human things. Yuki seems to have, perhaps, some moments of spontaneous fun in the pool. There’s also the bit with the mask at the festival. Mikuru volunteers the idea of goldfish catching. Even Kyon has that moment shooting off fireworks on his bicycle where he simply seems to be letting himself go and having fun. Isuki, brings his telscope, something he liked as a kid.
Nice.
June 21st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Everything just, I guess, in a word, is so fulfilling. Which is why… well, hopefully, if the anime follows the novel, the next episode will be very, very good.
Because, I’ve seen complaints that this episode was just not entirely “Haruhi”, you know, with all the aliens and time travelers and espers and stuff. If that’s the case, if the anime does indeed follow the novel, then next episode, we shall have our “Haruhi”.
June 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I agree, the episode was just, wonderfully, fulfilling. It’s like an episode from an alternate dimension version of “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi”. That would be a series in which there were no weird Haruhi Goddess, but the franchise is just a slice of life HS anime series.
Anyway the calm ordinariness of this episode did throw me off, I admit. With Haruhi’s clear moodiness at the end of episode one, I was expecting dark zones, martian invasions, an impending solar nova, or at least an outbreak of zombies. I mean, she was really down, right?
But I’m happy to accept, just like a Mahler symphony, there are slow movements and fast movements. In that context there can be a 10 minute section of purely interior, contemplative tonal color. And then, BOOM!
But, really, I’m not claiming that Haruhi is like Mahler.