Back in 2006 a weird little series came out called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
that was based on a number of light novels by the same name. The
series became a huge success in otaku circles, spawning a plethora of
YouTube related antics and plenty of cosplay. In 2007 the people
responsible for the series began hinting and outright referencing a
second season of the series. It wasn’t until this spring (2008), as
they began to replay the original series that new episodes were
released, playing in between original episodes.
Here is a little bit of background on the series before I get into the second season..
Haruhi Suzumiya is a bored first year high school student. She is
bored because normal things in life do not interest her. The thing she
strives for, that drives her forward is to meet aliens, people from the
future and ESPers. Unwittingly a clueless classmate, Kyon, gets dragged
into her schemes as she chooses him to be a member of her soon to be
created after school club...the SOS Brigade, whose sole purpose is to
find aliens, time travelers and ESPers. With no compulsion to truly
resist, Kyon is dragged into her world head first. Soon enough three
more members are recruited to the club, Yuki Nagato (the last remaining
member of the literature club whose room Haruhi overtakes), Mikuru
Asahina (shy, soft-spoken and voluptuous target of Haruhi’s cosplay
fantasies) and Itsuki Koizumi (carefree, always amused, mildly gay
transfer student). As the troop has to endure Haruhi’s oddball and
sometimes spontaneous antics Kyon is approached individually by the
other Brigade members who confess to him in secrecy that they are each a
representative of the three supernatural types Haruhi quests for. They
all inform him that they were sent to observe Haruhi and to keep their
true identities secret. Haruhi, for unknown reasons, has the
unconscious ability to control reality. They urge Kyon, who is the only
normal member of the group, to do whatever is necessary to maintain
Haruhi’s interest and relative good nature…they don’t want her getting
bored or pissed off for fear she might recreate everything to better
suit her needs. In other words, Haruhi Suzumiya is god and Kyon is
being used by three super natural powers to keep her in check.
Season two starts off after the real end of the original season, the
summer of their first year of high school. The SOS Brigade is content
with following their fearless chiefs orders, with the concern of Haruhi
becoming bored and throwing a cosmic tantrum at stake.
Haruhi is one of the more original anime to be released in a long time.
It basks in its eccentricity and antics. The first season was aired
out of sequential order with the first episode being the SOS Brigade
viewing a video they made for the cultural festival. Yet with season 2
they have outdone themselves in eccentricity and sheer drive to break
not only convention but the viewers. I understand the ideals behind
their tactic (soon to be explained) and believe that it is also done as a
test to the legion of fans that have sprung up around the franchise. I
also have respect for the way they were testing the
network/producers/advertisers, etc.
The first episode was a nice intro back into the oddity of the series.
It deals with Asahina having to take Kyon 3 years in the past for an
important event. They get stuck in time and end up calling on Nagato to
get them back to the present. The second episode was more fan service
fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit
with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long
wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical
Japanese student summer vacation event list. They go to a Bon festival
where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They
get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch
bugs; they go through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the
two weeks they have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade
members delight and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one
responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells
them to be at the club room on the first day of school.
The third episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of
expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that
later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before
school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event
list. They go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki
and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at
the public pool, they catch bugs; they go through a test of courage,
etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they have the entire list checked
off, much to the Brigade members delight and when Haruhi asks if there
is anything else no one responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the
last day off and tells them to be at the club room on the first day of
school. At some point…in either episode 3 or 4 (it all started to blur
together) Kyon and the others realize that something is wrong and they
are stuck in a time loop involving the last two weeks of summer
vacation. They talk with Nagato and find out they have repeated the loop
15,498 times. Nagato, being what she is, has experienced and
remembered every single loop, while the rest of the Brigade has had
their memories reset. Each time has slight differences but the basic
things keep repeating.
The fourth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of
expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that
later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before
school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event
list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch
goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time
jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, thye catch bugs; they go
through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they
have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight
and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She
wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the
club room on the first day of school. At some point…Kyon and the
others realize that something is wrong and they are stuck in a time loop
involving the last two weeks of summer vacation. When they talk with
Nagato they find out they have repeated the loop 15,499 times. Nagato,
being what she is, has experienced and remembered every single loop,
while the rest of the Brigade has had their memories reset. Each time
has slight differences but the basic things keep repeating.
The fifth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of
expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that
later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before
school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event
list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch
goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time
jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs in order to
see who would win the right to be Brigade chief for the day; they go
through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they
have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight
and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She
wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the
club room on the first day of school. At some point…Kyon and the
others realize that something is wrong and they are stuck in a time loop
involving the last two weeks of summer vacation. When they talk with
Nagato and find out they have repeated the loop 15,528 (or so) times.
Nagato, being what she is, has experienced and remembered every single
loop, while the rest of the Brigade has had their memories reset. Each
time has slight differences but the basic things keep repeating. They
realize that there is something that Suzumiya is not content about with
the two weeks of summer excitement, but are unable to figure it out.
The sixth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of
expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that
later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before
school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event
list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch
goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time
jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs in order to
see who would win the right to be Brigade chief for the day, they go
through a test of courage, etc, etc…
As you can see, if this were any other series they would probably not
be able to get away with this. The episodes are different too, while
the events and the dialogue are the same, the clothing and scenes are
different. It’s like a weird otaku costume fetish fantasy…lets see how
many times we can reenact Haruhi and the other girls in different
bikini’s and yukata. Yet at the same time it also goes to solidify the
series uniqueness, while trying…eventually they break through the loop. I fear what the sequence of events for this loop was like in the light novels.
The final story arc deals with the process the Brigade went through in order to create the movie for the cultural festival, which was the first aired episode in the first series. In this arc we get to see some pretty explicit yet subtle ways that Haruhi changes reality and the lengths that everyone else goes to in order to cover these abnormalities up.
Now the thing that has somewhat confounded me is the fact that this series is such a huge hit with the Akitaku…even though it doesn’t really pander to them and their likes. In ways it does, but the intent behind those devices is unknown to me and probably intentional for some ulterior reason…perhaps to help boost the shows popularity. I do know the light novels were pretty popular before the anime was created, but that is more then likely due to the inventiveness of the story. While the series is not overtly otaku fodder, it has defiantly cashed in on the fan base, licensing the prerequisite merchandise and spinoffs that are common in the traditional Akitaku series. There are a plethora of figures, CD’s, video games, radio dramas and plenty of limited edition buys to scoop up that hard earned dork money. So while the series cashes in on the sheep, I’m going to sit back and enjoy its intelligence. One of these days, now that they are being released in America, I’ll check out the light novels and who knows…maybe pick up a Haruhi figurine.
The final story arc deals with the process the Brigade went through in order to create the movie for the cultural festival, which was the first aired episode in the first series. In this arc we get to see some pretty explicit yet subtle ways that Haruhi changes reality and the lengths that everyone else goes to in order to cover these abnormalities up.
Now the thing that has somewhat confounded me is the fact that this series is such a huge hit with the Akitaku…even though it doesn’t really pander to them and their likes. In ways it does, but the intent behind those devices is unknown to me and probably intentional for some ulterior reason…perhaps to help boost the shows popularity. I do know the light novels were pretty popular before the anime was created, but that is more then likely due to the inventiveness of the story. While the series is not overtly otaku fodder, it has defiantly cashed in on the fan base, licensing the prerequisite merchandise and spinoffs that are common in the traditional Akitaku series. There are a plethora of figures, CD’s, video games, radio dramas and plenty of limited edition buys to scoop up that hard earned dork money. So while the series cashes in on the sheep, I’m going to sit back and enjoy its intelligence. One of these days, now that they are being released in America, I’ll check out the light novels and who knows…maybe pick up a Haruhi figurine.
If you liked the original series, you will like the new one. Don’t
watch this one without seeing the first stuff…you won’t be able to make
it through episode 4 at most. Too bad it was only 14 episodes. There is
a full length movie though...so this may actually put closure on the
series as well as some ONA and bonus episode material I need to view to see if any answers are taken care of and/or to just enjoy this insanity some more.
As
with the original series this second season was licensed in North
America and is available on DVD/Blu-ray and streaming via Crunchroll.
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