In spite of being very entertained by the Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu comic web shorts, if anything my fondness for Haruhi has diminished since the first season. The hype got tedious, and season two has if anything made me less inclined to praise the series overall, not to mention less keen to see the movie. I call it season two, but ultimately, that’s not how this was released. Someone made the unwise decision in Japan of re-airing the entire first season, removing the quirky episode order to make it more conventional (the alternate order being something I actually liked about the original) and then adding on another 14 episodes.
These new episodes have markedly less impressive art and animation, but that could be forgiven - if not for how bad the stories are. There are three parts to this season – an introductory episode centring on time travel, which was dull and cliché, the Endless Eight debacle, in which the same episode is played eight times with tiny variations, each time more uninteresting (although each time animated and acted afresh), and then finally there is another arc, which follows the making of the Adventures of Asahina Mikuru film that introduced me to Haruhi .
I was actually more annoyed by the latter part than by Endless Eight. I loved that first episode, found its pastiche of student filmmaking utter brilliance and hoped to see a funny comedy about an inept film club, beautifully realised by Kyoto Animation. Sadly I got the nonsense about time travellers and aliens that followed, with only one more truly enjoyable episode. So yes, I was really quite annoyed when the animators took their one really good joke and proceeded to explain it for the length of a feature film. As anyone knows, a joke is less funny when explained, and though I finally did get my answer about the talking cat, that wasn’t worth endless attempts at giving service to fans of characters only to build up to the punchline – a scene we saw in episode 00 of series one. Add in the key concept of Haruhi’s world-changing powers and it all becomes a turgid mess.
I know that the arc was based on a novel, and that a few things in the student film just don’t make sense without explanations here, but that doesn’t make it worth dragging out and spoiling what was after all a stroke of brilliance.
And I still find it astonishing that anyone, let alone hundreds of rabid fanboys, likes Haruhi. This is a terrible, terrible person, who is shown to be selfish, abusive, egotistical, cruel and childish. I was quiet astonished when I thought that this would finally be brought to the fore, with Kyon so angry he wanted to smack her in the face, but then his rage was magically curtailed, the danger of her latent powers meant he was forced to make up with her, and her behaviour to some extent excused by hints that actually Mikuru is just being manipulative so it’s really not so bad for her to be treated as she is (although that’s really part of a larger set-up to get Mikuru and Itsuki into antagonistic tension).
Her fans seem to think of her as adorably childlike, doing what she likes, mostly in a rather inept way, while being a ‘tsundere’ who acts aloof but shows her vulnerable side (which she does), but for me that doesn’t redeem the fact that she’s a mean-spirited, irredeemably nasty and manipulative brat. I just can’t stand her.
And that rather spoils things for me. I still feel sad about what I hoped Haruhi would be and what it finally was.
(originally written 4.7.06)
As you may have seen on my blog, Haruhi is my #1 favorite series, but despite my bias, I can understand the gripes people have with the "second season." For Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, it's a matter of understanding its importance in Disappearance, and finding time travel fun of course. And for Endless Eight, it's a matter of understanding exactly why KyoAni/Kadokawa had to make it that way (I actually wrote a post all about it if you're ever interested...and it's not just a troll like most people think).
ReplyDeleteFor the longer story, Sigh, however, even I'll admit that Haruhi is at her worst in that one. I still don't think Haruhi ever means to be mean; she's just genuinely delusional about her command over everyone (despite her good grades, I'm kind of with Kyon about that fact that perhaps Haruhi has some kind of mental disorder). Even when she's hitting Mikuru with the megaphone, the expression on her face looks like she just can't understand why Mikuru won't give it her all in terms of acting for the movie, rather than trying to be mean to her. But once Kyon almost hits her, she realizes how her actions almost made her lose the trust of the one she cares about most. And, having read all the light novels, I can say that since that incident she never does anything nearly as tyrannical again. In fact, I think the Santa outfit in Disappearance is the last time she's ever forced Mikuru into an embarrassing outfit. Like Koizumi suggested, Haruhi really starts to become more like a normal girl and enjoy normal activities from that point on in the series. So Sigh and Disappearance are big turning points in terms of character development for Haruhi, Yuki, and Kyon, and unfortunately the rest of the light novels haven't been animated yet. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that Haruhi even shows sincere concern for Yuki when bad things happen to her in later stories. I do hope we get a season 3 soon!
Do you mean the episodes of Endless 8 had to be made that way to reflect the way the books were? Because really those things can be adapted - or the book just ignored. I'm sure the series would've retained a lot more of its fanbase that way.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Haruhi doesn't think she's cruel and selfish at all. But that's part of why I don't like her. She can't even see herself. And if it took her until Disappearance to even start noticing...well, that's kinda too late in my books.
I did enjoy Disappearance quite a bit - but I can't help but think that's because she's not in it very much. I don't think her getting to the bare minimum of humanity is gonna make me rethink, so it's gonna take a whole lot more until I find her likeable!
Here's a link to the post I had mentioned: http://animeyume.com/blog/2010/02/12/the-end-of-the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya/
ReplyDeleteEven knowing this, a lot of fans still don't like how Endless Eight was handled, which is totally understandable. I just happen to be one of the hopeless fans who actually like it and have watched all the episodes of Endless Eight at least three times each as of now.
The 28 episodes of the anime plus the movie have covered a little less than half of the material in the now 11 volumes of the light novels. I've been impatiently waiting for a season 3 for some time, now a bit more so to see if it could change your opinion about Haruhi, however slightly ;)
It's certainly possible. I was impressed by Disappearance and I'd certainly watch more, though possibly not as soon as it came out!
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