Nagato Yuki-chan No Shoushitsu

Uhm… Is Haruhiism still popular these days? I’m not too sure about it since I wasn’t really that much of a big fan of that series. Also, I thought ever since that scandal that hit a certain singer-cum-voice actress also brought the series deeper into the wilderness. Not to mention that second season that had a handful of repetitiously repetitive episode that earned the wrath and scorn of all viewers and fans alike. So… Is Haruhiism still around? Maybe not as popular as before but I believe it isn’t all that dead yet. Good news or bad, that is why we’re not getting another season of Haruhi here. Therefore no Haruhiism revival. At least, not directly. Instead, we have an adaptation spin-off of one of the characters in the series. As the title says, Nagato Yuki-chan No Shoushitsu (The Disappearance Of Nagato Yuki) is focused on that quiet alien girl but we’re not going to see an origin series here. This is an alternate universe setting where by Nagato is a shy girl who has a crush on Kyon. Say what?

Episode 1
Kyon joins Nagato in her Literature Club. She is grateful for his membership otherwise the club would cease to exist. He also walks her home and she states her intention of wanting to hold a Christmas party. Ryouko had to interrupt their little romcom to teach Nagato how it’s done to hold Kyon’s hand. First she lets Kyon carry her bags and then warms her cold hands on his cheeks. He can’t drop the bags because they’ve got eggs in them. And that girl, is how you be aggressive with him. While having dinner in Nagato’s home, they forgot Kyon is here as Ryouko helps change Nagato right in front of his eyes. So Kyon is forced to cheer her up. Luckily she believes him that he didn’t see anything. But now she’s asking about her stomach! Kyon knows this route too well. Either answer will land him in hot soup. He says he doesn’t have a belly fetish but Nagato doesn’t know what that means. Better not open another can of worms. Because Nagato wants turkey for the Christmas party, they go shop around for one. Ryouko, I don’t think chicken wings with great discount are going to be turkey substitute. ‘Trouble’ begins when Tsuruya and Asahina are also there. Before they know it, they are in a competition. Tsuruya is willing to give them a turkey but Nagato must compete with Asahina for it. Each time Nagato and Asahina face off each other with whatever weird competition, Ryouko and Tsuruya would interject and show them how it is supposed to be done. Before you know it, the girls start competing among themselves. Better do it yourselves, huh? So it’s a draw? In the clubroom, Nagato tries to visualize what kind of Christmas cake she wants. Multi-tier, huh? Kyon wants to take a look at the cake she drew in the notebook but she is too embarrassed to show it. When she is ready to show him, he notices the multi-tier cake looks like a wedding cake… Ryouko returns with permission to use the clubroom for their party. They thought they made a pun when Nagato also wanted snow in the classroom. You know… Yuki… Get it? Of course this party means something more for Nagato. She wants to use this to convey her feelings to Kyon.

Episode 2
Nagato is so excited about tomorrow’s party that she couldn’t sleep and stayed up late at night playing games. Imagine Ryouko’s wrath the next morning… Scolded like a child. In the clubroom as they test out the artificial snow, Kyon and Nagato start throwing it around and it hit right in Ryouko’s face. Time to get mad again? After all the preparations are done (Tsuruya and Asahina also chipped in), the girls wear their Santa outfit. Nagato somewhat felt relief that she isn’t being compared to Asahina. Flashback recalls Nagato had very low self confidence. Even lower when she received a notice her club will be disbanded if she doesn’t get any new members. Nagato would have accepted that fate if not for Ryouko telling her off that if she needs help, don’t stay quiet and come ask her. She’ll do what she can. The question now is if Nagato is interested to save the Literature Club or not. They can’t get things done unless she makes up her mind. The Christmas party goes well. Lots of fun. Lots of teasing Kyon. Nagato is glad the club didn’t get shut down. That night when she can’t sleep, she takes a stroll only to be raked in by this weirdo, Haruhi to write some alien sign in the snow because she wants to summon Santa! As she didn’t wear her glasses she couldn’t really tell. Nagato wonders why she is doing this so Haruhi says that she is very adamant to prove Santa’s existence. So much so she even brought in a random stranger to help her! Once it’s done, she tells Nagato to come here on Christmas if she has the time. Flashback shows Nagato taking action to distribute flyers for people who joined her club. One of them was Kyon. Then during the party when Nagato and Kyon are along outside and it started to snow. Perfect ambience for you-know-what. Just when Nagato is getting into the groove to confess her feelings, Ryouko had to ruin it when she accidentally opens the window to admire the snow loudly. Bummer. Nagato and Kyon both sit close together in the snow. Weird. But warm. The next day as the duo walk to school, suddenly Haruhi pops out and collapses before them.

Episode 3
Haruhi becomes rough in forcing Kyon to take her to a warm place. Looks like she’s alright. Haruhi thought they were a couple so embarrassed Nagato dismisses it and that they’re club members and total strangers. Could she at least have said they’re just friends? Bummer. Haruhi reveals she is interested in aliens rather than ordinary people when she remembers she left her bag and stuffs at the park. Thank goodness it is all still there. Yeah… Everything! The equipment and the likes. That is when the girls realize and remember each other of that alien sign writing last night. Yeah, too dark to see faces. Worse, Haruhi thought Nagato was a boy then. Haruhi goes on ranting about her desire to find aliens, time travellers and espers and play with them. And she’s saying it with confidence. Amazing person, isn’t she? Or just a big lunatic? Nagato and Kyon realize they’re late for their club. Because Ryouko will blow her top if they don’t start cleaning as promised. Next day, Kyon and Nagato get a shock when Haruhi finds out where their club is and barges in like she owns the place. In order to stem suspicion, she has them borrow their gym clothes so it would look like she is a student here doing some activity. But why borrow Kyon’s gym clothes too? Well, looks like she is going to give it to Koizumi who is her fellow classmate so that he can join them in this club. Kyon suggests Haruhi ties her hair up ponytail style. Really? Sure he has no fetish about this? Too bad Nagato. Your hair is too short… Maybe try growing it out? Sure, but remember to tie it ponytail. I’m pretty sure he has a fetish for this hairstyle… Haruhi introduces Koizumi to the rest. Koizumi talks to Kyon that he is interested in Haruhi. That weirdo? Because of his strange timing when he transferred to school, other students shunned him but Haruhi who thought he might be something special is the only one who talked to him. To her he is just a transfer student. Since he is losing that appeal, he is worried about that. Haruhi makes herself the executive president of the Literature Club and this club’s mystery section. Wait. What? Ryouko also befriends them thinking that they are model students, they wouldn’t do anything bad. Oh really? Haruhi and Koizumi start bringing weird things to the club. One that includes Asahina! Kidnapping! Seems she ‘sacrificed’ the guys to Tsuruya before the teacher reprimanded her for being disgraceful and that allowed Haruhi to snatch her away. With Haruhi in the gang, the Literature Club turns into a noisy club when it used to be such a quiet place. Haruhi versus Tsuruya, Asahina screaming after Kyon saw her panties… Ah, those quiet days…

Episode 4
For some reason, there is another useless competition between Ryouko and Tsuruya each trying to outdo the other by telling embarrassing stories of Nagato and Asahina respectively. They sure know a lot than the person themselves. Later while Ryouko helps Nagato make Valentine chocolates (it got off to a clumsy start but it ended well), Haruhi ‘hijacks’ Kyon and forces him to hang out with her for the entire day. And there’s that seemingly ‘romantic’ scene of them at the river when he catches her hand before she trips and falls into the water. Nagato is so excited about tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day that she stayed up late and played video games. So it is no wonder that Ryouko gives that usual scolding the next morning. In the clubroom, Nagato and Asahina talk about giving guys their chocolate. Hypothetically if Nagato was a guy and she gave her chocolates, Asahina would feel very happy. They are embarrassed when Ryouko and Tsuruya eavesdropped on their ‘confession’! Hate to break this to you, Asahina. But Nagato’s heart belongs to Kyon. So the girls come up with a strategy to let Nagato give her chocolates to Kyon. After school, Ryouko will give Kyon the key to unlock the clubroom and wait inside before Nagato comes in to give her chocolates. They’ll be alone and it will be perfect. Now Nagato needs to mentally prepare herself for this. She better do it after putting her heart and soul making those chocolates. When the time comes, Nagato is outside the door and taking a deep breath. As she opens, she cannot be more shock to see this heartbreaking scene. Kyon receiving chocolates from Haruhi. God, no…

Episode 5
Ryouko can tell something is wrong when Nagato runs out. Then she sees the scene. She really wants to yell to Haruhi but the latter tells her she might be misunderstanding something. With Koizumi coming into the scene, Haruhi passes the same obligation chocolates to him like she did to Kyon. Ryouko and Haruhi try to find Nagato but to no avail. Ryouko chews out at Haruhi but the latter won’t apologize for what she did. But after being angry with herself and crying out a little, it’s back to finding Nagato. They find her sitting on the stairs. Time for Ryouko to lecture her about losing courage. So what is she doing at a place like this? Well? Why did she run away then? She thought it would be courtesy for people to be alone when they give chocolates. Why did she toss away hers? Actually she accidentally dropped it without knowing. Don’t worry, Nagato hasn’t given up on it yet. She asks Haruhi if she likes Kyon. That middle ground answer: “I don’t hate him”. But that doesn’t matter because Nagato notes it’s her turn to give her chocolates. Oh, good timing because Kyon is here. Time to set things right. After summing up her courage, she gives it to him. He wants to eat them now and this puts Nagato in a dilemma if he should. Eventually he does and when a girl puts her heart and soul into making them, there is no way they’re going to taste bad. Ryouko and Haruhi are watching from afar and the former still blames her for that incident because Kyon might also think Nagato’s chocolates are obligation. But Nagato’s mission isn’t over yet. There is one final thing left to do: Confession. Nagato already summing up heaps of courage is about to say those words when suddenly Tsuruya pops up to play a pushing prank on her. She loses her balance but as Kyon tries to grab her, he also loses his footing. His face ends up on her chest. No matter how flat it is, they’re still boobs. Well, you can guess what happens next. And Kyon gets blamed… On White Day, Kyon returns the favour by giving all the girls chocolates. They’re all the same… But Nagato is happy to receive something from him.

Episode 6
The gang are surprised that Haruhi has got a special permission from the teachers to come in as she likes to this school. Well, with permission or not, she’ll still come. She did tell Nagato about it. How come Nagato doesn’t remember? Oh wait… Haruhi entered the clubroom to ask her to sign some documents but since she was busy playing her game she just signed it. Oh, Nagato. Now you give more ammo for Ryouko to fire back. Tsuruya makes her grand entrance by throwing Asahina into Kyon’s face. Faceboobs? Nagato tries to separate them but accidentally snaps Kyon’s neck! Don’t worry. He’s still alive. And then there is some cooked up story about Kyon being a beast on Asahina when he accidentally bumped into her and when he tried to pick up her stuffs, their hands touched. And Nagato believes it… Kyon wants Ryouko to help tutor him but after all that teasing, Kyon thought of asking Nagato but Ryouko didn’t want that to happen and will personally tutor him. It is that or she’ll break your fingers! This scene looked like something romantic in Nagato’s eyes… Ryouko is dressed the part to teach Kyon but with Haruhi coming in and interrupting the lessons, especially talking about the last year’s syllabus he is reviewing, Kyon manages to convince Ryouko to take on the challenge to solve the maths questions by saying that she is some sort of legend and the prestige of this school rests on her shoulders. Unfortunately she can’t even start and pushes the problem to Nagato! Without doing any written calculations, Nagato arrives at the right answer! Care to explain? Uhm… Maybe it’s because we’re so stupid we couldn’t catch all the words as they sound blurted out. Ryouko’s theory: She is terrible in explaining that she sounds like an alien! Maybe this explains it… In another time, Kyon teases Nagato by taking away her game when she is so engrossed in it and not noticing him. She tries to take it back but she lands on him. Better get off before Ryouko sees this ambiguous hugging scene. Oops. Too late. Later, Kyon feeds Nagato (to deepen their friendship thingy) and Ryouko once more comes in thinking that the duo aren’t that bold enough to flirt and sees this. Somebody’s got a lot of explaining and convincing to do. Our executive president barges in to announce a training camp for everyone. Why hasn’t Nagato heard of it? Oh wait… Oh…

Episode 7
Haruhi has got a very detailed itinerary of the trip. But wait. How come there are also reports of the trip too? After convincing the teachers for this trip, this is the report that they will submit. I mean, you don’t want to ruin the fun of your trip by not doing your homework first, right? So what better way than to do it first! And she had done it all for them! Of course, Ryouko thinks this is a good opportunity to get those lovebirds closer. With Kyon arriving late on that day, he is forced to treat them with coffee. Haruhi gets the idea for everyone to draw lots to determine their train seats. Big chance for Nagato? Well, she sat next to Ryouko while Kyon got Asahina. Yeah Nagato, deny it all you want that you were trying too hard. But it doesn’t feel like they’re separated. Despite the narrow walkway between their seats, you can consider them still seated beside each other. So we see the gang doing lots of sightseeing and eating local foods. Then the power spot that Haruhi has been bugging to go turns out to be some temple that gives off smoke believed to increase your power. Well, I thought it was believed to just heal you. Haruhi is trying to hog it all with Koizumi supporting her all the way and Tsuruya wants in so Ryouko has a tough time reining them in. The rest just pretend not to know them and do some normal praying. Want to guess what Nagato wishes for? Nagato buys a charm and puts it on the wish board. She hopes she can continue to remain good friends with everybody. Well, maybe asking for love was too much for her still. Haruhi is now stinking with smoke and she’s bugging to go to the bath now. You get what you deserve.

Episode 8
The gang checks into a hotspring inn. This means a considerable amount of screen time dedicated to the girls in the bath although the fanservice here is more to be a disappointment and teasing more than anything else. Till Asahina drops in but that of course is at the end of it all. Sorry guys, they don’t get the same decent amount of fanservice screen time. Then they play ping pong in which the loser will buy them all milk. Somehow Haruhi has already fixed the game for Kyon to lose. Then it’s karaoke time. Don’t ask why it’s held in the toilet. Asahina sings first and she is definitely not cut out to be idol stuff. Next is Kyon but since he is so passionate going about it, the rest just leave him (Haruhi claims he is boring). Yeah, so into his singing (which isn’t that good either) that he didn’t realize everyone has left the room. Next, dinner time. They get to taste some exquisite beef but it’s not that appetising for me (because I’m freaking bored watching this episode!). You thought it could have end with everyone retiring for a quiet night. Till Haruhi suggests exploring around the inn. Of course Kyon declines so he goes to soak in the hotspring again. Nagato has the same idea. Their lovely private time is ruined when the rest soon joins in to get their money’s worth. And as usual, the girls are being noisy over Asahina’s boobs and Kyon tries to prevent any gay time with Koizumi.

Episode 9
The night is still young. So Haruhi thinks. Yeah. Time to play cards. They play old maid and Nagato loses so she has to go buy snacks. Kyon will accompany her since it is dangerous for a girl to be alone at night and he can help carry the stuffs. Of course, this means a reason for the rest to tail and spy. Suddenly it gets steamy when the lovebirds get close to each other for a kiss. Ryouko freaks out and it seems all this was just her delusion! They’re still in the old maid game. Ryouko loses. By the time Tsuruya and Asahina are ready to join them, Ryouko and Haruhi are already asleep. Tsuruya suggests to Nagato and Kyon that there is an observatory at the hilltop. So along the way the duo go, some romantic moments but nothing too deep. They stumble upon a dinosaur playground first. I guess Ryouko and Haruhi could get up in time to tail them. Not a dream this time. Ryouko feels pretty much worried. On one hand she is happy Nagato is getting close to Kyon but on the other hand feels that her relationship with her has drifted. She realizes she is jealous. But Haruhi laughs at it all. Since Ryouko’s butt is stuck in the slide, Haruhi has to help get her out. The commotion attracted Kyon and Nagato. Busted. With Tsuruya and Asahina finally catching up, they continue their way up and watch the beautiful starry sky. It is perfect when Koizumi brings some snacks (how much does this guy loves soaking in the hotspring?). And of course, some romantic moments between Nagato and Kyon. Holding hands. But that’s about it. With the training camp over and back to school, Ryouko gives Nagato some encouragement and ideas so she has a reason to go see Kyon. I don’t know what is weighing on Nagato’s mind because she didn’t pay attention while crossing the road. As expected… Here comes the car… No wonder the raining setting…

Episode 10
Luckily the car missed. Nagato gets away with a few scratches. But something is amiss… She lacks all the flustering emotions that we know of her. It’s like she’s gone back to the original Nagato we know! The emotionless Nagato! Ryouko is worried when she learns about the near accident. Nagato remains indifferent that it was nothing. Thanks for your concern. Even Kyon is shocked to hear about it but is relieved that she is okay. But Ryouko is still not happy. Nagato has looked depressed since and it didn’t help when Ryouko also scolded her and might have aggravated the situation. Ryouko has Kyon look after Nagato after school since she has some work. But in the clubroom, they’re both reading their own books (Nagato reading French titles?). Their conversation is so minimal that I don’t know what they’re talking about. That or it’s like Kyon is talking to himself. So boring. So gloomy. Like how I noticed this entire episode the rain never stopped. Even when he shows concern, she remains indifferent. No reaction. Thanks for your concern. That’s all. Kyon accompanying her after school feels like he’s accompanying a ghost or zombie. Ryouko cooks for Nagato back home. She tries to start a conversation but the same boring vegetable state of mind. Indifferent. Thanks for your concern. Then Ryouko finally points out one last thing. Who the heck are you? Yeah, that was what I was wondering from the start.

Episode 11
Nagato narrates after the near accident. It’s not that she lost her memories but she couldn’t tell who she was. When she’s acting like that boring emotionless girl, she’s observing Ryouko and Kyon and notices how much they really care about her. So when Ryouko asks who she is, Nagato couldn’t explain because she isn’t sure either. It’s an odd case for her. It’s like she has memories of this girl but felt they weren’t of her own experience. She never said it for fear being alone. Ryouko suggests going to the hospital for a check-up and the doctor didn’t find any abnormalities. She is diagnosed of having some sort of shock from the fall and experiencing amnesia and jumbled up memories. It’s not life threatening by the way. So Nagato tries to continue her daily life like the other Nagato. Only without all that emotions. Though she admits she is not that Nagato, she is also Nagato and wants things to stay as it is. Confused? Ryouko and Kyon are worried for her and decide to keep an eye on her in hopes the old Nagato will return. The duo have more reason to be worried when Nagato aces in a maths problem in class and does pretty decent during PE. The original Nagato never manage an ounce of that. That’s good, right? Eventually since nobody else notices the difference, they think they’re just over thinking it. Nagato even helps tutor Kyon. Since the exam season is near, club activities are suspended so Nagato and Kyon can’t use the clubroom. They head to the library instead.

Episode 12
Here they are at the library and for the first time since, Nagato is putting up some slight emotions. That happy to read? She could have taken forever and Kyon had to remind her that it is closing time. Yeah, why not borrow it since she has a library card? Nagato then starts to remember memories from her other self. Like the library is the place where she first met Kyon. Over the next few scenes, we see her narrating about this dream of her other self that she is having a lot lately. She thinks the other personality is trying to wake up and worries what will happen to herself if that happens. Probably that is the reason why she wears a different set of glasses. Another trip to the library. Yet another dream. She starts thinking about how her heart beats fast when she is with Kyon and the nervousness she feels when around him. Those dreams must have been slowly triggering the awakening. But with this strange feeling, could it be that their consciousness is being confused and coexisting at the same time? When Kyon helps her to get a book she cannot reach, she thanks him with a sweet smile. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that kind of face. More dreams about the time she spent with Kyon. Then she realizes if her other self comes back, would this mean she will disappear? WHAT A FREAKING BORING EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Episode 13
The boringness continues… More of those memories. Or dreams. Whatever. Summer time. Nagato hangs out with Kyon and Ryouko. I don’t know if their conversation was important or not because seriously, I wasn’t paying attention. By the time I realized it was going into one ear and out the other, I’ve already at the scene where by Ryouko mentions about the other Nagato who likes Kyon and if this Nagato understands her feelings, could it mean she also likes him? This makes Nagato’s face goes red. Next morning, Nagato wakes up and knows that this will be the last time her consciousness will be around and the next time the original one will return. So she is in a dilemma to tell Ryouko or not since the original Nagato is probably what she wanted although she didn’t treat either Nagato differently. That night, Nagato calls Kyon thinking that she would be left with regrets if she did not tell him her feelings. So after trolling about the library book she borrowed, that is when she says she loves him. As the original Nagato will return and will be confused, she wants him to be there for her and take her home. Then she loses consciousness. Instantly Kyon rides his bicycle to the library to find Nagato. He is not amused that she is saying things like they’ll never see each other again. He realizes he has been a jerk for taking her granted and not realizing it. When he finds her, he wants her to stop this bad joke but it seems she is sleeping with a calm smile on her face. He says his goodbye and waits till Nagato wakes up. Now this is the flustering Nagato we all know. As expected she is confused and muddled about her current situation. He welcomes her back.

Episode 14
The 2 Nagatos met in the dream. Emotionless one tells the original one it’s time to wake up. She also tells her what happened and the confession she did to Kyon. Ryouko is happy to see her original Nagato back. Nagato wonders why she looked happy yet sad and her reply is that both Nagatos are equally precious to her. Kyon is now acting awkward each time Nagato is around him. Then Haruhi is back after a little hiatus and she already has an activity for the club: Tanabata. She is sure she contacted Nagato about this. Oh, so she forgot again? Looks like the old Nagato is back for real. Haruhi then has the guys for some muscle work by cutting down bamboo trees. Isn’t this illegal cutting it from public property? I don’t know how but she has it all sorted out. While cutting, the guys have to battle mosquitoes! No wonder she has been giving orders from afar… After setting up the bamboo plant in the clubroom, they hang up their wishes. Ryouko and Koizumi are sensible but Haruhi and Kyon just plain weird. Another awkward moment for Kyon and Nagato when he tries to help hang her wishes. Later, Haruhi talks to Kyon and knows something happened between him and Nagato. She lucky guesses the other Nagato has confessed but Kyon puts it as both Nagatos are different people although he feels odd that he feels nervous but she doesn’t remember a thing. Some flashback when Haruhi and Kyon were young. He helped her write a message to aliens at some field. And some other talk that I couldn’t really care about. In the end, Haruhi notes that it was all thanks to Kyon’s help for saving her from despair.

Episode 15
Summer time. This means beach episode. Therefore another excuse for all our main casts to head to the sandy beach of Tsuruya’s summer villa. I guess Kyon’s sister wanted to go so much that she snuck inside his bag. She must be very light… Because Nagato is occupied playing her handheld, Ryouko forces her to go pick up the beach ball she threw to the far edge. Then she makes Kyon go play with her. Both start to feel awkward although they’re trying their best to act normal. Then Kyon’s sister joins in the fun by kicking his brother on his back, making him fall on top of Nagato. Romantic scene ruined when little sister watches and wonders if they’re going to kiss. Your guess is as good as mine. Next, the gang head to the mountains because Haruhi wants to discover strange aliens or creatures under the guise of kimodameshi. Asahina is pretty against it because of the traps Tsuruya set up last year. Scary enough to make her pass out. Though, Tsuruya claims she didn’t do anything. With such contrasting statements, you wonder who to believe. But they pass the day via bug catching. Nagato catches a golden rhinoceros beetle but since that doesn’t count in this cicada game, Haruhi wins and as expected, Kyon is the overall loser. Night falls, Kyon’s sister falls asleep so Ryouko takes this chance to avoid participation by accompanying her. As expected, Kyon and Nagato are paired up and head in last. Don’t get your hopes up about anything romantic because despite Nagato might sound so, it is from her game perspective. Then they hear Asahina’s scream. When they reach her, she has passed out. They realize they are in the middle of a firefly field. So this is the scary thing? Well, she thought they were spirits or something. Tsuruya never told her because it seemed funny and hoped she would realize it on her own. Looks like this year failed too. Although Haruhi is disappointed not to find any rare creatures, at least they get to enjoy this beautiful sight. Kyon and Nagato do so while holding hands.

Episode 16
More of Kyon’s thoughts on his confusion on both Nagatos. That is why he has been awkward with her. That is why when they were holding hands and realized so, he quickly pulled back. Her reaction, he thought it made her feel bad. The next scene… I thought it brings reminiscence of the horrifying Endless Eight arc… Because while Kyon is watching baseball with his sister, he gets a call from Haruhi to meet up at the café to chart all the activities they need to do before summer ends. Kyon thinks of using this chance to clear it with Nagato. Maybe things aren’t getting off to a great start. It started raining and so he thought he could share his umbrella. Then the rain stopped shortly. Nothing more to be said. The gang continue to do all the planned summer activities from baseball to bowling till the final festival fireworks night. Last chance saloon. Still feeling indecisive? Time for a little push from Ryouko. Then it’s time to tell her what he couldn’t then. Kyon takes Nagato away from the crowd as he talks why he never told his feelings because he never thought to be liked by her this way. Of course Nagato couldn’t hear because the fireworks are in session. Then he finally confesses. He believes he would have come to be in love with her. Unfortunately Nagato didn’t hear that too. Fireworks. Want to time your confession better next time? Oh, there is no next time. So he is happy about that? Just saying it and not reaching her? The only words that reach her are those he assures he will go back to being normal around her. Oh sure. Everybody is so fine by that. They return to the rest and Haruhi (who has obviously won her shooting game against Ryouko) wants Kyon to take responsibility by treating everybody for ditching them and going off somewhere himself. Back to school. Everything returns to normal. Back to status quo. The epilogue is also a faint reminder of the Endless Eight arc. Kyon watching TV when he gets another call from Haruhi to meet up at the café. Ryouko wonders if Kyon has finished his homework. That “Oh, f*ck!” look on his face…

OVA
Taking place exactly after the end of the TV series whereby Kyon is being called by Haruhi and the rest to meet up at the cafe to do all the fun summer stuffs. First up on the list is the swimming pool. There is this ridiculous race Haruhi organizes in which the winner will get lots of quality melons. I’m sure Kyon is more motivated by Asahina’s ‘melons’. So motivated that he even abandons his sister and Nagato in his quest but also loses. In the end, everybody just shares it. The more Haruhi does all the summer stuffs, the more Kyon feels the need to remind her about the unfinished homework but it seems he won’t get a chance because Haruhi never gave him one. Time is running out fast… Yeah, from festivals to part time jobs to stargazing, looks like Kyon’s homework is far from ever going to get started… Then when the list is completed, Haruhi feels that since no more is to be done, the final day of summer tomorrow will be everyone’s own free time. Even more depressing is how Ryouko brings up this homework thingy and it seems everyone has already done them! Oh Kyon. You’re the only one left out… Kyon then finally sums up his courage to yell about his unfinished homework. They think he is joking but he gets desperate to copy their homework. This will not do for Ryouko so she agrees to help with the tutoring. Haruhi doesn’t want to be left out so she wants to come to his place for tutoring too.

Turns out that Koizumi and Nagato too didn’t do their homework. Yeah, they just kept silent… Of course when you have the bunch here, it is going to be hard for Kyon to concentrate, right? Especially when Haruhi is looking around, poking her nose in dangerous places. Is under the bed where he hides his porn? Well, luckily she found a video game console and has Kyon hook it up for her to play. Kyon is distracted by it of course but strict teacher Ryouko reminds him of what needs to be done. But what about Nagato? She looks interested too, right? Ryouko explains about Nagato’s ability to get things done in a night when it matters. So she’ll be alright. Nagato thought she is an expert in Virtua Fighter but always loses to Haruhi. One more time? Time for break, I guess. Kyon’s sister brings in some snacks. Koizumi then suggests playing cards. History seems to repeat itself because Ryouko sucks big time at it. Another one more time? Yeah, almost the entire day is gone and the gang schemes to let her win or else this endless game will never end! Eventually Kyon wins and is definitely not appreciated! Morning comes, Kyon realizes he has not made progress in his homework! Panic time. He calls Nagato who has just completed her homework. He wants to come over now and begs to copy her homework. She agrees and will happily wait for him.

The Very Unfortunate Boringness Of Nagato Yuki
As it says. This spin-off is a big letdown thanks to the big boringness and draggy parts. Maybe I am not a diehard Haruhi fan or anywhere close being into Haruhiism so I do not really see what the charm this series has to offer. Maybe there was none in the first place. Just a big rip-off to milk money from what was once a popular and beloved franchise. If I could sum up the synopsis of this entire series in a sentence, it would be about a shy girl who secretly likes her fellow club member but a little accident accidentally caused her split personality to come out and did the confession first before things revert back to normal. Pretty boring, right? And that is pretty much what the entire show is all about. So what if her other split personality comes out? They just toned down the comedic parts from the clumsy Nagato and tone up the seriousness of the drama, that’s all. And thank goodness they just dragged it out into 3 episodes and not that freaking 8 episodes. Thank God…

I don’t know and I don’t think I really bother to find out if this series has caused a great disservice to the Haruhi franchise because personally I think that this atrocity would just bring down the Haruhiism and made it worse. I think more worshippers are going to leave this religion forever. However this isn’t about Haruhi so in a way it would not affect Haruhiism. But since this is related to her, it might. Hence I think that is why all these years there was never anything big on Nagatoism (there is also Mikuruism for your information). Sure, there is that term but I don’t think it would be as big as Haruhiism. And if I am wrong about how small Nagatoism is, then maybe this series was the killer that just killed it. Either way, this series has just gotten from bad to worse in my books. I’ll be sceptical if they come up with another season of Haruhi, Nagato or any other spin-offs for other characters.

Another reason is that perhaps I did not watch that spin-off movie, Suzumiya Haruhi No Shoushitsu (The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi) since I read that both are somewhat related. But still, this anime series itself is already too mediocre for me to think otherwise. With a big majority of the episodes feel like fillers and standalones, mostly about Nagato trying to sort out her feelings about Kyon until that inevitable ‘accident’ happened. So I suppose those ‘real’ episodes are when the silent Nagato version pops up to temporarily take over. Even that as opposed to the original’s Nagato’s persona, I am not sure what it is supposed to achieve other than Nagato telling Kyon about her feelings, something the other one couldn’t do. Once that is over, it is back to those familiar fillers again but this time Kyon the one who is sorting out his feelings since Nagato doesn’t remember much about the confession.

The romance felt like a big miss. I am not sure if I am to be disappointed or just feel nothing about it. Sure, Kyon may have managed to tell Nagato his feelings but since she wasn’t hearing, what is the point? It is as good as confessing to a picture of her. Get what I am saying? Sure, it is good to let us viewers know once and for all whether he has feelings for her and it certainly does. But the point is, why tell us? Tell her! Tell Nagato directly and clearly in her face, damn it! But this romance thingy that we’ve been anticipating since the start of the series did take a little twist. Because it starts off with Nagato who is the one having a big crush on him as we see from her point of view. Then ironically it is her other self that confessed and this sends alarm bells for Kyon and in the end, he is the one who said those ‘magical words’. Albeit it didn’t reach her heart. Heck, it didn’t even reach her ears. So many seemingly romantic moments and chances and in the end it just felt wasted.

Apart from the Nagato x Kyon romance, I somewhat noticed that there are very few scenes that hinted Haruhi likes Kyon and vice versa. That ponytail hairstyle thingy and that flashback. Vague hints of something or is it just to troll us? Or has it something to do and connected with that spin-off movie? Speaking of that Endless Eight reminiscence, that little cameo was enough to evoke those memories and perhaps this is the most ‘shocking’ feeling that ‘woke me up from my near slumber’. I thought they were going to troll us with something about that arc and repeat more boring episodes! Phew. Nothing of that sort happened. Maybe they just wanted to make us think too much. Because we know how many thousand times they went through the loop, right? Could it be that this is one of the versions of the loop? I know that there are disparities if you try to put it together but with this thought you can’t help think about it. Because it ends with Kyon trying to rush doing his homework last minute… *Shivers*. Even with the OVA, he still has not finished it in the end!

Not even the comedic bits in every episode (except for the ‘real’ episodes) could not help save this anime. Sometimes I feel that they are forced and maybe in a way you are forced to eke out a grin. Whether it is the intense competition between Haruhi, Tsuruya or Ryouko, the harassment or violation over Asahina, Nagato’s clumsiness or Haruhi’s antics. Sure, they may be funny in its own way but the melancholy of the series will drag you back into the boringness. And then it repeats all over again. Is it this series’ style and version of Endless Eight? Then those ‘real’ episodes were just too depressing and dragged out. I feel it could have been condensed into an episode but I suppose that will take out all the drama and whatever emotions the producers want us to feel as we ‘discover’ the other Nagato. The other ‘endless’ thing is Ryouko’s sucking big time, losing at any card game. Note to everyone: Never ever play cards with her!

The characters, most of them remain similar to how we knew them in the Haruhi series. Like Asahina the flustering and clumsy girl who is always easy picking for Tsuruya as always, Haruhi eccentric and hyper active girl and Koizumi gladly to always be her yes-man (will he ever get her unrequited love?). Of course there are some differences especially in regards to our titular character Nagato whom is portrayed in a character that is so oppositely different than her silent taciturn type. It was a surprise and ‘refreshing’ to see a different light of her but that is just so much about it because with the way the direction of the series is going and whatever plot it had in mind, it just didn’t matter. Even if Nagato is kinda cute when she blushes. Really. It’s not anywhere you get to see this side, you know. Whatever happened to her other side we will never know. Don’t care. Maybe she was the catalyst to bring Kyon and Nagato closer but taking a look at how it ended, it was more like back to square one. So with or without the other Nagato, things continue to remain the same. Another different in character is Ryouko who was first introduced as a killer in the first Haruhi season but now a close friend to Nagato (ironically, Nagato was the one who killed her then). Kyon feels like he is less sarcastic and having lesser roles to rebuke since it isn’t Haruhi whom he has to rebuke like before but mainly Ryouko, Tsuruya and sometimes Nagato’s goofiness.

Although the art and drawing mainly remains the same, but I noticed there is a slight difference. How should I put it? Do the characters look a little simpler than before? Are the colour hues lighter than before? Not too sure but the studio that produced this series is Satelight (AKB0048, Log Horizon, Fairy Tail, Aquarion series, Shugo Chara and Macross series) compared to Kyoto Animation who did the Haruhi series. Nothing much different that deviates from the original. But maybe just one thing… I think I prefer Haruhi having long hair instead of the short hair that we are familiar with. Yes. I think she looks prettier with long hair!!! Fact!

All the seiyuus have retained their roles for this spin-off. So there is no shock of a change in any voice acting role whatsoever. Just that with Nagato’s shy girl personality, Minori Chihara now has to voice Nagato as the bashful and flustering high school girl in addition to that monotonous and emotionless one who is only reduced as cameo. The opening theme is Fure Fure Mirai by Kitakou Bengei-bu Joshikai (basically made out of the main quintet girls). Your typical lively hyped up anime style song that might make you get up and dance. But sorry, no dance whatsoever like Hare Hare Yukai. No dance at all. Minori Chihara does a solo with Arigatou Daisuki as the ending theme. A slow lovely ballad that perhaps reflects her character’s heart.

Unfortunately you have to be a diehard fan of the series if you want to watch this series. Otherwise, you’ll be just as hell confused as you are bored. I wanted to call this show The Melancholy Of Nagato Yuki but the sad part was I wasn’t really depressed but rather bored. Nagato fans can kill me if they want to. That will put me out of my misery of this series. And I do hope they don’t have to make another season or spin-off again or else I am ‘forced’ to watch it! There! I gave this series a little hope that I might (a very big emphasis on might) want to watch it. If not, I’d be happy for this series to just disappear into the deep and dark corners of my mind, never resurfacing ever again.

Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu Season 2

I remember vaguely after watching the first season that I wasn’t going to watch the sequel if there were to be one. I guess you can call me a hypocrite because I felt that there is some compelling force which made me have the need and urge to watch Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu Season 2. Yeah, the long awaited and much anticipated second season has come and gone just like that. While I’m still thinking how the first season was how so great that it turned into a cult series, gave birth to a new ‘religion’ called Haruhism and launched the then rookie Aya Hirano to stardom. But what the heck, God works in mysterious ways.

 

With much said, there is of course good news and bad news in my humble opinion. The good news: The episodes are aired in chronological order! Yahoo! That means viewers like me do not need to scratch their head over the mixed up, jump-here-jump-there episodes. It’s a smooth ride in terms of trying to follow the flow of the storyline. Now the bad news: Because of being aired in chronological order, they are also showing episodes from the previous season! What the?! That means, in addition to 14 new episodes, viewers will also have to watch reruns (if you ever intended to. I didn’t) of its previous 14 episodes. That’s 28 episodes in total and it’s not like they show the previous season first then the second or vice versa but in-between since it is well, in chronological order. But heck, it beats otherwise. Because of that, there is no next episode preview so I guess it makes viewers guessing if the next episode is a new or a repeat.

 

So what are the new and exciting ‘adventures’ that will await our quirky boring-normal-human-hating-but-alien-time-traveller-esper-loving gal Haruhi? Well, that’s the interesting part of the series. You can’t help love her one-kind thinking to make full use of fun with her SOS Brigade members, no matter how illogical they sound. And there’s Kyon’s sarcastic punch lines too. They have to keep her preoccupied to her whims and fancies and not make it boring or else it would be like in the previous season whereby the world nearly ended. In order not to confuse myself, I will only blog the new episodes and name them accordingly as per the new season and not accumulative with the previous season.

 

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody

Episode 1 begins with Kyon and the other SOS Brigade members gathering in their club room (which by the way was ‘stolen’ from the computer club). Of course Haruhi brings in a little bamboo tree so that they could write their wishes for the Tanabata festival. With 1 condition. Oh dear. Now this is what I understand from all those mumbo jumbo explanations. Theoretically if you follow the story, those who believe should well know that the wishes are granted by a pair of stars that represent Orihime and Hikoboshi, Vega and Altair. Theoretically those stars are many light years away so if you make a wish and wait for it to come true, you’ll have to wait twice that long. Who lives forever except God, right? I don’t know how but Haruhi says it’ll take 25 years because it’ll work out somehow. So she wants her members to write down their wishes for each star that will be granted in that period of time. I don’t want to list down what they wrote. And this is a race to see whose wish will come true first? Like who’ll remember. But soon after that, Haruhi has that depressing and gloomy look.

 

Kyon gets a message from Asahina to wait in the club room after everyone leaves. We know that guy loves that klutzy time traveller so he’s willing to do so. It seems Asahina wants him to go back 3 years in time with her. Why? Classified information. Ah, those trademark lines. Kyon is sedated and when he opened his eyes, they’re on a park bench 3 years ago. Asahina then falls asleep. That’s when the grown up Asahina appears. It would be bad if they’d both see each other. She tells Kyon to head south till a school and assist the person at the entrance. Before grown Asahina leaves, she wishes for Kyon to keep this a secret from her youthful self. As Kyon carries sleeping Asahina and reaching upon the school gates, he spots young Haruhi trying to get in! Yeah, she still has that attitude back then. Before Kyon knows it, he had become her accomplice in getting her inside school. Trespassing, aren’t we? Thankfully, the place is dark so Haruhi can’t see their faces clearly. Haruhi makes full use of Kyon by ordering him to draw some alien symbol on the school field. Yeah, I remember something vaguely like that. So that was his doing?! Haha! Once done, she asks him if he believed in aliens, time travellers and espers. So I guess the way he nonchalantly answered them meant yes. Kyon guesses correctly that the alien message is for Orihime and Hikoboshi because he of a certain someone (Haruhi lah). So surprised Haruhi wonders if there is such a person at his school and would like to meet her. The conversation ends with Haruhi leaving.

 

When Asahina wakes up, she panics because some device of hers is gone. Is that bad? Very. Why? Without it, they can’t get back to normal time. Uh oh. Thinking there might be a way, Kyon takes out the Tanabata note which Nagato gave him earlier on as they proceed to her place. They meet and due to some technical jargon which I don’t understand, the future and past Nagato are one so she recognizes them. Nagato is going to help solve their predicament and leads them to a room and prepares a pair of futon for them and tells them to sleep. She’s not thinking of anything undesirable, is she? As they tug in and Nagato shuts the door, before Kyon think further, Nagato reopens the door and they’re back 3 years in the future. How did that happen? Nagato froze time and space in that particular room so yeah, 3 years went by in just an instant. Yeah, just like that. Later Kyon and Asahina had a chat as she apologizes for the way time travellers work for they follow their superior’s orders without question. So back in school, Kyon realizes that he may be the one responsible for giving Haruhi all these unnecessary ideas. So that’s why she is so quirky. Whose fault, eh?

 

Endless Eight

The hot summer vacation has just begun in episode 2. Kyon is watching TV with his sister when he gets a call from Haruhi, ordering to meet and bring lots of cash. He always pays, literally. Haruhi decides to go to the swimming pool and the usual fun. Later at the cafe, Haruhi lists down all the stuff that they’re supposed to accomplish during their short summer break. Next day, Haruhi decides to go to the festival so she has the gang out shopping for yukatas. That night at the Bon Odori festival, Haruhi and Asahina play goldfish scooping while Nagato buys a mask (Ultraman? Must be an alien thingy). Then they play fireworks so Kyon wonders if Haruhi has completed her homework. She chides him that it should only take 3 days and has already done it before the vacation. Yeah, even Kyon is surprised why does a person like her have brains. Then it is decided tomorrow will be cicada catching hunt and the one who catches the most gets to be the brigade chief for a day. Seriously, do you want that position? As expected Haruhi catches the most and retains her position and releases all the cicadas at the end. The next day, everyone is unexpectedly called by Haruhi to dress up in large frog mascots doing odd part time jobs by handing out balloons. It’s bloody hot in there. Once it’s over and Kyon expecting their cash payment is instead being told that their ‘payment’ is in the form of those frog costumes. Uh huh. Haruhi really wanted them badly. Sweating their asses off for it? Gotta be kidding. That night they went stargazing at Koizumi’s place. They continue their great run of activities like baseball batting, movie marathon, karaoke, bowling, test of courage and goby fishing contest among others. They’re really on the move. On the second last day of summer vacation, they’ve completed their list so Haruhi asks if they want to do anything more. Well, they’ve done a lot already. What more does she want? Because nobody answered, she has them to rest on the final day before school reopens. So the final day sees Kyon trying to finish his homework. Impossible. So I guess he goes to bed and sees what comes tomorrow.

 

Don’t be startled if you’re watching the wrong episode because episode 3 somehow feels the same as its previous. Just a little change in dialogue, screen angle and maybe their clothes. But it’s pretty much the same. Haruhi calls Kyon, meet at swimming pool, doing a list of summer activities, Bon Odori festival visit, catching cicadas and part time job. Hmm… Is there something wrong? You bet. That night Kyon is awakened from his slumber from a ghost-like crying from Asahina. Kyon goes to meet Asahina, Koizumi and Nagato and learns that she can’t return to the future. In short, they are in some infinite time loop in which the point of September onwards has disappeared (naturally Asahina can’t return to a future which is non-existent). Meaning, they’re repeating 2 weeks of summer over and over again. Asahina tries to explain but her classified information in every sentence makes it like a censor. Koizumi thinks Haruhi must be the cause and feels deep in her heart she doesn’t want summer to end so at the stroke of midnight on 31st August, time is reset, though she herself is unaware. Only those close to her like the SOS Brigade felt this ‘memory remnants’ and the answer to their deja vu feelings all the while. However only 1 person did not have her memories reset: Nagato. She remembers everything. How loops have they been through? 15,498. SAY WHAT?! She even gives exact statistical figures of variations. Oh the data overload! Sometimes I feel she’s more of a robot than an alien. Next night during stargazing, Koizumi teasingly suggests Kyon to whisper "I love you" into Haruhi’s ear. During baseball batting, Kyon asks Nagato why didn’t she brought this matter up and her reply is that her job is just to observe. Isn’t she bored? Soon summer comes to an end and Haruhi asking if they want to do anything more. With no reply, she leaves but Kyon feels that strong deja vu feeling. He feels she isn’t possible satisfied and needs to stop her or else they’ll have to repeat their summer again. However he can’t so she left. So the final day, Kyon’s homework is untouched because what’s the point if time is going to be reset again, right? Yeah.

 

Uh huh. The same thing in episode 4. Really a deja vu arc. Different angle positions, slightly different dialogue and probably a change in clothes. The same activities and the distressing cry from Asahina. Yeah, repeat the same explanation again, will ‘ya. So how many loops has it been already? 15,499. How old are you if you are to repeat 2 weeks for over 10,000 times? Around 594 years! Then same activities after that and another shot for Kyon to stop Haruhi from leaving with a stronger deja vu feeling. Nope. Failed. Haruhi leaves. Homework? Good thing he didn’t finish it in the previous episode, eh? Okay, okay. I understand if you’re starting to get pissed in episode 5. More of the same thing. If not, the entire same thing. So the only thing which interests me at this point is how many loops they’ve gone through already. 15,513! Oh yeah. That number gap in between shows Kyon failed to stop Haruhi. And again he contributed to that statistic after another futile attempt to stop Haruhi from leaving. Don’t even think of touching your homework, buddy. I don’t blame you if you’re starting to think the producers are ripping us viewers off and taking us for a ride. Hahaha! I must be going nuts already because episode 6 is in fact another repeat. And you thought watching reruns on TV is bad. So this is the number what time? 15,521. Hey Kyon, can you do it this time? Come on, come on! Dang. He flopped. Looks like it’s another 2 weeks of… ARGH!!! Control and suppress those hate and disgusted feelings. Yup, you guessed it. Another identical recurrence in episode 7. If you were to watch a new interesting advertisement, you’d be fascinated. How about watching that same ad for the umpteenth time? I know, you’d change the channel and curse the broadcasting crew. Feel like pulling out your hair? Oh by the way, it’s the 15,524th time they have been looping.

 

By now, I should be able to remember and rehearse some of the same lines that the characters spew in episode 8. But I didn’t because I didn’t feel like it. The damn repetition continues and it’s amazing that a certain production company office isn’t burned down yet. I was really hoping the looping would’ve breached 16,000 at this point but it is only at 15,527. Hey, why move the figures so slowly? Make a big jump already, will ‘ya! Episode 9 is supposed to be the episode with much expectation because this replicating arc is supposed to end. Waiting with baited breath as when the ‘change’ will take place. And no, it doesn’t breach the 16,000 loop. It’s at 15,532. After 4/5 of more or less the same thing, Kyon finally gets the willpower to say that his list isn’t finished yet, prompting Haruhi to stop leaving. He gets Koizumi, Asahina and Nagato to come over to his house tomorrow morning to help finish his homework. Because of his over-the-top dramatic orders, Haruhi isn’t pleased and tells him off that he’s supposed to get her opinion as the brigade chief first. And as punishment for his violation, she is going to come along too. So the final day sees the entire gang converging at Kyon’s home helping him finish his summer homework and having fun too. In the end, the infinite time loop is broken and the flow of time resumes back to normal. Wow. Just like that? So the reason as Koizumi suggests, Haruhi who is academically and athletically good, never considered their homework to be a burden so she never had the joy of experiencing sharing the workload among her friends. Kyon notices for once Nagato is absent from her usual spot in the club room. Must be damn tired, eh? Hey, she’s an alien, not a robot. So I guess 15,332 times is too much even for an advanced creature like her. He also feels that the strong deja vu feelings were gifts left by their predecessors. He is here because of them that underwent those excruciating repeats and he has to look it that way or else their summer would’ve been for nothing.

 

The Sigh Of Haruhi Suzumiya

Thank God that arc is finally over. Now if you remember that horrible F-grade amateur movie Haruhi did back in the first season, these are the events which led right up to it. In episode 10, SOS Brigade once again emerges victorious in the sports festival, denting the pride of many sports club. The cultural festival is coming up next so after seeing the boring ideas that her class is going to do, Haruhi is determined to do something much more interesting for the festival. That means something dangerous, right? Yeah, I can hardly wait. In the club room while waiting for Koizumi to come, Haruhi suggests Asahina be a clumsy maid and spill tea over Kyon’s head. She even wanted to demonstrate it herself. No way! After Koizumi comes in and hearing what their classes will be doing for the festival, Haruhi says that their club will be screening a movie for the said event. How the heck did she get that idea? She saw a weird and horrible movie last night and got this idea that she could make a better movie than that. Just like that? Nobody really knows what’s going on in her head. And you can’t go against her because she’s the director. Oh boy. Well, I guess it’s better than capturing a UFO and putting it up as freak show display. Next day, Haruhi has got the roles worked out. With her the director, Asahina, Koizumi and Nagato will be the actors and every other menial task is to be handed to Kyon. Oh, that’s so typical. So how are they going to get the props? Don’t worry. Haruhi takes Kyon and Asahina after school to various shops. After some shady discussion with the shop owners, they gladly gave Haruhi the goods! Wow! I hope she’s not selling Asahina’s body as payment. And Kyon, he’s got a feeling he’s got to clean up all the mess when it all ends.

 

In episode 11, Kyon and Koizumi enter the club room to see Haruhi has forcefully put on a sexy waitress outfit on Asahina for the filming, much to the latter’s embarrassment. Nagato comes in in her witch gig so Haruhi gets excited to cast her as the evil alien in her movie with Asahina the time travelling combat waitress and Koizumi the boy esper saviour. Very close to their real life personalities. Kyon and Koizumi are left to make preparations for tomorrow’s filming and Kyon needs to learn how to use a camera by then. Koizumi mentions how he prefers the current situation to remain unchanged and doesn’t want to world to turn into a huge mess again. After school, Haruhi and the gang visit the shop owners for them. It seems that the deal was for Asahina to do a sponsor take on their shops as part of their in-movie commercial. How embarrassing, considering all the passers-by watching. Did I mention Asahina is in a sexy Playboy bunny outfit? Asahina is so moe when she’s klutzy. The next day, filming begins at some park fountain and as director Haruhi flexes her authority around, it’s really funny, if not sympathetic to see feeble Asahina trying to act out her embarrassing role. Nagato is just standing there like a rock. Where’s the impact? How can they win the coveted international award Haruhi has been aiming for? Well, she can. At least to her.

 

The lame acting continues in episode 12 so I guess any part which isn’t good will be left to you-know-who to be edited for CG effects. Yeah, his job scope has been increased. They also illegal tried to shoot at the shrine but got chased away by the priest. Then back at the park, Haruhi continues to ‘bully’ Asahina as she wants her to shoot laser beam with her contact lens eye. Kyon is upset that his beloved Asahina is being harassed so he tries to stop Haruhi. After that is settled, filming continues (note the families behind watching their embarrassing take). It would’ve been another boring outing when suddenly Kyon’s camera blacks out. Nagato’s hand is in front of his face. Holy sh*t! Asahina unknowingly can shoot beams from her eyes?! It even cut Koizumi’s reflector board! Nagato quickly jumps onto Asahina and takes off her contacts, giving an excuse it is lost. Haruhi then changes part of her story and takes Asahina away to change her into a ‘normal’ outfit. That Playboy suit. Yeah, probably that is what she thought of normal for a time travelling combat waitress. When they’re gone, the trio discuss what has happened and thanks to Nagato’s badly wounded palm, it could’ve been Kyon’s face that could’ve been burnt! She initiates a healing process. It seems Asahina does not possess any eye beam abilities nor is that contact lens having such a feature at all. So how? They conclude that it must be Haruhi’s unsuspected doing that she really wanted Asahina to shoot a laser beam out from her eye. When Haruhi and Asahina comes back, the filming continues with Asahina just standing around in various places of the city. She calls that her normal life in the movie? The next day, Tsuruya, Taniguchi and Kunikida has been called to help out with the filming but Asahina feigns some illness that she can’t come. After all that embarrassment, I’d understand. So pissed Haruhi goes all the way to get her herself! Eventually they got back as Asahina tells Kyon how she’s been injected with some nanomachines so that laser beam incident won’t happen again. Of course the other guys are drooling after seeing how sexy and cute Asahina is in that waitress outfit.

 

Filming now takes place at a lake in episode 13. Another eye beam order from Haruhi which has Nagato once again quickly jumping on Asahina to subdue her. During the struggle, they notice part of the iron bars got sliced off. Though the rest thinks it’s metal fatigue, the rest thinks it’s some invisible wires this time from her contact lens. As part of Haruhi’s inconsistent storyline, she wants Asahina to be thrown into the dirty lake! Kyon isn’t amused by Haruhi’s realism reasoning but Koizumi stops him. Asahina sums up her courage and agrees to do it. After doing so, they head to Tsuruya’s home to film a scene whereby esper boy saves her. Haruhi whispers to Tsuruya and soon the latter bring out drinks for everyone. The shooting starts with Koizumi putting Asahina down in bed and then Haruhi tells them to kiss! Kyon stops them and suspects that Asahina’s drink has been spiked. Tsuruya apologizes though she seems like having fun. Haruhi continues to persecute Asahina even in her drowsy state so Kyon can’t take it anymore. He blows his top as they both get into an argument. Kyon is so mad that he raises his fist and is going to hit her, only to be stop by Koizumi. Haruhi still insists that they should do as they’re told because she’s the director while Kyon still insists of slapping some sense into her. Seeing how wretched Asahina pleads them not to fight, they give up. As they leave, Koizumi has a chat with Kyon about Haruhi a normal human being granted divine powers and perhaps her existence is part of a mission to correct this failed world. Next day in school, Haruhi becomes cold and depressed so after Kyon hears how Taniguchi is criticising Haruhi’s efforts, it made him realized something he didn’t want to (perhaps Haruhi is better than Taniguchi because she tried to do something rather than sitting around complaining). Kyon goes to see Haruhi at the club room (ignoring him at first) and says they’re going to make the movie a success. That’s when she’s back to her normal self. The next day, the SOS Brigade continues filming at the park blooming with sakura leaves as Haruhi thinks of finding a stray black cat for Nagato’s role as a witch. Hey, I thought she was an evil alien?

 

The gang head to Nagato’s backyard in episode 14 to find a cat for their movie role. Haruhi is so into her directing that she names the cat Shamisen and wants it to start talking. Yeah, Kyon has been given a new task of taking care of Shamisen. After filming and Haruhi left, the cat indeed starts talking! The quartet discuss things at the cafe as Koizumi says how fiction is becoming a reality via Haruhi’s movie. He feels that fiction and reality cannot mix and needs to guide her in restoring this movie into a rational affair. That means, to tell Haruhi that all this is just a dream. But would she buy it? Like that would happen. Who’d go up against Almighty and tell Him that? At school, Asahina personally sees Kyon and though she has no intention of badmouthing Koizumi, she tells him that he mustn’t trust the esper because she rejects Koizumi’s view and feels that the world was like that to begin with. She is also sure that Nagato has her own viewpoint, in which Kyon goes to seek. Sure, she also explains her point and that their factions could never agree with each other and that there is no guarantee in what they say are true since there is no solid proof. At least that is what Nagato thinks for Kyon’s case. Next day as filming continues, even stranger things began to happen. Asahina’s model guns are firing high pressure water bullets, her eye beam would shoot different dangerous projectile depending on the contact lens’ colour and the colour of the pigeons changed.

 

That night, Koizumi pays Kyon a visit and gives his side of the story. He hints that there may be more factions out there with theories surrounding Haruhi. Behind the scenes, there are lots of backstabbing and betrayal. Yeah, I don’t want to hear the details. He also tells Kyon that Asahina’s role of a helpless little girl is to attract Kyon’s attention and get a hold of him since Haruhi listens to him in a way. Of course isn’t amused with that bad joke so Koizumi wishes for him to help stop the abnormal phenomena by telling Haruhi that her entire movie is made up before the filming ends. Like shifting the responsibility to him, is he? The next day, Kyon manages to convince Haruhi about something before they make the final shoot. This leaves Kyon to do all the special effects. And the festival is tomorrow, you know? Can he finish it? Well, Haruhi says he must and burn the midnight oil. Unfortunately, both of them fell asleep. Morning comes and to Kyon’s surprise, the effects have been added. Who dunnit? That’s a mystery they’ll keep us guessing. During the festival as the movie is played, it seems the thing that Kyon convinced Haruhi was to add a narration at the end of the movie that everything is fiction or a coincidence and that it bears no resemblance to any real life events whatsoever. Yeah, that disclaimer you see in every movie. Thus in a way, those words cancelled out all the abnormal happenings that had happened. Lastly as Kyon chats with Haruhi at the cafe, he tells her the real identities of Nagato, Asahina and Koizumi. However Haruhi becomes upset like that would happen and leaves in a huff. It would’ve been easier if she’d believed him but what kind of world would it become if she became aware of that? Not something Kyon and the rest would take a chance on.

 

The Yawn For Haruhi Suzumiya

Seriously, this series has come and go for me just like that. I wouldn’t say that I regret watching the series which I am neither a fan of or have become one, but at least it satisfied my curiosity so that when people ask me about it, I could really say that there is nothing much to it. The biggest turn off for many viewers was definitely the Endless Eight arc. They don’t name it that for nothing. I know the arc deals with deja vu but showing the same thing with just slightly a little change in dialogue, screen angles and maybe their clothes is too much for normal viewers to handle. Hey, have I said that line before. Yeah, it’s that deja vu feeling. See, watching 8 episodes was enough to cause a little disgruntled and unhappiness what more about those people who have to repeat the same thing over and over again for 15,532 times! Man, that has got to be a real pain. It’s like watching the same thing with just slightly different dialogue lines, screen angles and maybe their clothes… Oh wait, I think I’ve said that before.

 

As for the final arc, Haruhi nearly turned into a hate figure (at least for me) because of the way she ‘abused’ Asahina. I know being a director includes flexing one’s authority but I can’t believe that she is that dense not to see Asahina in embarrassment or difficulty. I know she likes to tease and force Asahina to put on costumes at times but she has gone overboard with that one. I don’t blame Kyon if he felt like hitting her for good. If she wanted her acting to turn out so good in the first place, why didn’t her wish to make paranormal activities turn Asahina into an Oscar material? Maybe it is only for abnormal stuffs, eh? She can say goodbye of winning an Oscar. Maybe she’ll get Razzies instead. Or worse. Nothing at all. Nobody will know of her work, ever. Haha. Interestingly in the last episode whereby the explanations between the different factions and their theories surrounding Haruhi could have been expanded perhaps if they make future a sequel for this series. The trio working together though with their different philosophies of their own organization just to safeguard their beliefs surrounding Haruhi. Yeah, sure she did demonstrate some God-like powers but is she that powerful? Who knows? It’s better for her to remain the ‘blur’ fun loving assertive leap-first-look-later girl. Everyone knows her better that way. Don’t want your world to collapse, would you?

 

Basically since this season is chronologically in-between the previous season, obviously the main characters are still identifiable with for fans who have watched the predecessor. No further introduction for Haruhi needed. Kyon is still the sarcastic with his ‘analytical’ thinking of the situation he is in and the one who ‘keeps Haruhi happy’. Hey, she does pass on duties, penalizes him, depends on him, etc, right? But ironically, if she’s the one who showed no interest in normal humans and declared aliens, time travellers and espers to join her, why didn’t she believe Kyon when he was telling the truth? The point is, she is considering them as normal humans, right? Haruhi may be quirky but she’s not dumb. Nagato still does not talk much unless when necessary so I guess she is one of the few main characters who have relatively few lines in a series. I really feel she is suited to be a robot than an alien due to her monotonous and expressionless character portrayal. Asahina is still exuding moe over her klutz. Especially that ghostly cry during the Endless Eight arc. That was sure both scary and funny. Who knows what Koizumi is really thinking behind that eternal smiling face of his. I feel in contrast to Nagato, Koizumi ‘talks a lot’ because of his explanations and theories of the things that has happened. Of course Ryouko did not make her appearance her since she was erased by Nagato in the first season after attempting to kill Kyon. I thought at least she would make a comeback. Not. Same case for the computer club members. Hey, they’re minor unimportant characters (just like how Haruhi would like to think them as). At least they make a little cameo in the opening credits.

 

If you were expecting the infectious dance Hare Hare Yukai, you’d be disappointed that there isn’t any dance moves for fans to copy and make it a worldwide fever. Well, just that short little feet tapping moment at the start of the opening credits animation, nothing much. Other than that, the opening and ending credits include seeing the SOS Brigade members ‘on the move’. Also, the opening credits is filled with those formula and hypothesis just like in the first season. For the record, this season’s opening theme by Aya Hirano is Super Drive and sounds like a lively rock-pop song while the ending by the trio of Aya Hirano, Yuko Goto and Minori Chihara is Tomare, which is another lively pop piece. There is a movie for this series released in early 2010 called Suzumiya Haruhi No Shoushitsu (The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya). I read the synopsis that it takes place about a month after the festival and Kyon is the only one who remembers that everything has changed. Haruhi is missing, Asahina doesn’t recognize him, Nagato is a normal human student and Ryouko to be existing as a normal student. So is he in a different time line or another world? That’s what Kyon has to do to solve the mystery and get back to where he once belong.

 

So all this time paradox and deja vu matters are still complex and complicated to me. I’d probably be worse off than Kyon if I were in his shoes. If you ask me would I want to rewatch this series again, I would definitely say "NOOOOOOO!!!". Why should I sit through and waste half an hour watching the same things over and over again when I can be watching other animes? Who knows, maybe I am repeating this lifetime of mine several ten thousand times over again. I do get deja vu feelings too. Just a little change in dialogue, angle scenes and some clothing. Hey, I have a feeling I have said that before. Feeling upset that I am repeating in my blog? Heck, it’s better than repeating it 15,532 times!

 

Suzumiya Haruhi-chan No Yuutsu

I thought that this was a hoax after all those several false alarms and delays. Even if it did come true, I too initially thought Suzumiya Haruhi-chan No Yuutsu was the much anticipated second season. Well not really. You see, this 25 episode series is considered as an ONA (original net animation) as it is released via the Internet. I’m sure with the popularity of its predecessor, this one should be a hit with hardcore fans of the series and other anime goers who aren’t into all that Haruhism thingy (like yours truly).

 

Unlike its first season, the ONA is very light-hearted and the main focus here is comedy. That’s right. Laugh out loud for all you want. It is a random comical parody of the series using the series’ characters. All in chibi mode. So cute! Kawaii desu!!! Furthermore, each of the episodes only lasts between 3-5 minutes the most except for the final episode which lasts a little longer. Eight minutes. Oh yeah. Very long indeed. If you think Kyon’s sarcasm and jabbing in the other series was funny enough, wait till you watch this one. He’s more cynical than ever since the quirkiness of Haruhi and her SOS Brigade members has been upped. You can tell when Haruhi zooms in quickly and bumps her head into the screen and collapsing from its effects. Yeah, and no relation to the TV series storyline or whatsoever either. So you don’t have to worry if they screw up the chronological events or such.

 

Like in episode 1 whereby Kyon comes home tired and starts having a weird dream. Okay, he is counting sheep in the form of Asahina. Haruhi is the cruel ringmaster forcing the poor sheep to jump through a ring of fire. To complicate things further, Kyon encounters Koizumi, Tsuruya and Nagato as Mt Fuji, a hawk and a tiny eggplant respectively. It’s understandable he wants to get out of this dream so Nagato suggests sleeping. Well, if you enter this dream world by sleeping, then obviously to get out you have to sleep, right? Well it isn’t working till Haruhi and Asahina tries to help him count sheep with that cruel jumping act again. Obviously this shocks Kyon because he doesn’t want Asahina to be hurt. The next thing he knows, he is up. What a way to start the New Year.

 

In episode 2, Haruhi throws a tantrum for being bored so much so a potential member joining the SOS Brigade decides to not do so when she sees Haruhi in some weird position. Yeah, what a turn off. Also, Kyon is shocked to find Nagato playing eroge. Hey, even aliens find some of our weird culture amusing. He gives her a pair of rabbit earphones so that those ambiguous eroge sounds won’t be obviously heard. If you remember that Ryouko girl was trying to kill Kyon back in the series, she has returned to do so but flops when Nagato intercepts. Before she ‘dies’, she says of other powerful members in her group who would kill him and I’m not sure what Kyon meant that Yasu is the culprit. Who is that guy anyway?

 

In episode 3, Asahina turns on the TV to find a quiz show hosted by Haruhi. The contestants are Kyon and Nagato while Koizumi takes on the cameraman role. Haruhi is asking non-local out-of-this-world questions which pisses off Kyon so she tries to look for one and ends up asking a random one. What is that dog’s name? Urm… Anyway since they were given ample time to answer, by that time, the lady and her dog are gone. Then in episode 4, Asahina now notices Nagato playing eroge but is too shy to say it. As the week passes, Kyon notices how the bookshelf is gradually being replaced by video games while Haruhi notices that Nagato is into cosplaying too. Later, Ryouko revives but it seems she is smaller than her usual self. A miniature? Because of that, she isn’t that threatening anymore. And after Nagato saves her from a cat, she allows Ryouko to live together in her apartment. Viewers will notice how Ryouko becomes Nagato’s ‘maid’ and is always at her mercy due to her miniature size. Now she’s more funny and cute rather than dangerous.

 

Those computer club member losers challenge the SOS Brigade via a computer dodgeball game in episode 5 to retrieve their ‘stolen’ computers. Initially Haruhi refuses and even commented how their lives aren’t worth betting on (super insult!) so they eventually bet on some weird looking handmade kappa model made out of several animal bones. I guess that was interesting enough to make Haruhi in. So she destroys their dodgeball CD and says playing the real dodgeball game would be better. Oh oh. Now they’re in big trouble. Somehow, Haruhi altered some data which allows everyone to power up 100%. Which means, making totally exaggerated power moves. Haruhi is getting excited at every moment (no dirty thoughts here, mind you) and in the end as expected, Haruhi wins. Since the model is too ugly, Asahina refused to accept it and it is being returned to the computer club. Bummer.

 

In episode 6, Asahina notices a closet full of cosplay outfits and when she finds out that Nagato is wearing them too, a little cosplay war erupts between them but Nagato always wins. Also, Kyon borrows an entire anime series that Nagato has finished reading. This prompts Asahina to misinterpret that he has maid fetish after seeing the lead character dons such outfit. Back at Nagato’s apartment, Ryouko is upset that she is being treated like a baby. For instance, she is so small that Nagato puts her in a baby pouch and such. But in the end, Ryouko can’t help joining in the fun of it all. Yeah, Nagato starts singing and shaking… Too fun to resist. Belt it out on a duet, baby! Haruhi organizes a sport contest in episode 7. First up is a borrowing race and Kyon borrowed Koizumi after his note says "Barrier to love". Yaoi thingy? OMG! Kyon says "I love you" to Koizumi! Yeah, Haruhi faint at that thought. Meanwhile Taniguchi has to go borrow a kappa. Good luck finding one. Next event is the tug of war. Since they have no rope, they use Kyon as replacement. Here comes the pain. Or strain, rather. Taniguchi manages to find a kappa. Where? He stole the computer club’s model, of course. But by the time he returns, everyone has left and the game over.

 

In episode 8, Haruhi organizes a Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Spring Festival and has the guys draw lots to see who gets to be the demon. Taniguchi got the honours. To add salt to injury, he is being isolated while the rest parties in another room. Uh huh. Some sushi eating contest between Kyon and Nagato. Later as Ryouko tries to trap Nagato using an age old tactic, she gets trapped by Nagato instead. As a result of her ‘capture’, Nagato dresses her up as a Hina doll but the dress is too heavy for little Ryouko. Her torment continues when Nagato unwraps her obi (a traditional kind of belt) and sends her spinning. Oh what the heck, they’re both enjoying it. In episode 9, Haruhi has her SOS Brigade give ideas for screenplay scenarios and since they are all so good, she vomits blood as her reaction. Huh? In the end, it is some otaku maid script whereby they all have 1 month to live and have to fight each other. Don’t ask me anymore. Even poor Asahina got so confused that she just stopped thinking. So when they are filming the first scene which involves a fight between Kyon and Nagato, the latter wins and as a result, Kyon ends up exploding again. Yeah, you should stop thinking and trying to make sense.

 

Ryouko thinks of letting Nagato sleep in on Sunday morning in episode 10 but when she finds her staying up late playing eroge, she whacks her to sleep. When Nagato leaves the apartment, Ryouko tries to get up to the sink but ends up banging heads with Nagato. After Nagato leaves, Ryouko does household chores and once she’s done, she realizes what she is doing and plans to escape. After opening the door with an umbrella and making her way down the elevator, she is confident of her freedom and resumption of her mission to kill Kyon until she spots a cat and changes her mind. Yup, going back to the sanctuary of Nagato’s apartment. In episode 11, Nagato puts Ryouko in a box before Haruhi, Asahina and Tsuruya drop by to make Valentine chocolates. Haruhi and Tsuruya plan to make a life size chocolate of Asahina but abandoned the idea when Nagato says how it is impossible to preserve such a life size chocolate. So they make their own chocolate designs and began packing them into boxes, only for Nagato to finish eating them all. After the girls leave, Nagato lets Ryouko out of the box and she is pissed for being treated as a kid. Nagato offers her a piece of chocolate and though reluctant initially, she accepts and you can say their relationship is mended.

 

The girls of SOS Brigade decide to give Kyon and Koizumi their Valentine chocolates in episode 12 but they have to earn it. Kyon and Koizumi are discussing about it when a limo pulls up outside the school and a maid alights the vehicle (actually it’s Mori), jumps and breaks through the glass via trampoline in a dramatic style to pass Koizumi a package. It seems it is a bunch of clothes and Koizumi’s idea is that they dress up as male hosts. The duo dress up and barge in with their charming charisma only to make Asahina cry. Haruhi reprimands them. Meanwhile Tsuruya is walking by when Mori passes her. Tsuruya notices her strong presence and wonders who she is. In episode 13, Haruhi decides to celebrate Halloween but know nuts about it. Based on a single picture from the internet, she grasps her own version of Halloween. A guy in cloak with bats and a pumpkin on his head. Need I say more? Haruhi has Nagato and Asahina carve the pumpkin head and because of Nagato’s precision of which hole is too big or crooked, Asahina ends up almost carving the entire pumpkin. Tsuruya brought some bats near her house and with a couple of candles, they put the pumpkin on the biology model. Looks likes some evil God if you ask me. They left this model thingy at the computer club and go party at Tsuruya’s place. Later, Nagato takes Ryouko out to shop for dinner. That night as they are to turn in for bed, Ryouko is shocked to see Nagato playing eroge and destroys her computer and orders her to sleep. Sometimes being small can be scary too.

 

Haruhi plays a nasty prank on Kyon in episode 14 by asking him to catch a balloon. Before he is able to do so, she shoots a dart and bursts it scarring him. Kyon retaliates and shoots the dart directly at Haruhi. Now you have upset God! Haruhi also retaliates but Kyon dodges and this hits Asahina. The duo felt guilty and promise never to use such items again. But in order not for the balloons and darts to be wasted, they decide to have an art competition with it. I don’t know why Asahina is being tied up like a crucifix. With Koizumi as the judge, they make weird unrecognizable designs (at least to me) and hang it on Asahina. They got bored and this broke the heart of Koizumi and Asahina. As they are cleaning up, Haruhi finds it hard to remove the balloons and decides to use the darts… Didn’t she promise? Ah well… Ouch! In episode 15, Nagato makes a dog from the balloons Kyon gave her previously and uses her ability to make it move. While Ryouko is engrossed playing with the doggie, she gets into another of Nagato’s trap. The doggie comforts her (yeah, now it’s talking) and says to call him Kimidori, after the colour of its body. Nagato uses Ryouko as another experiment as she ties her to a several balloons and sends her floating. What did she use in those balloons? Hydrogen. Err… Don’t they burn easily? Yup. They do. Hey, they’re touching the light bulb. Oops, too late. BOOM!!! There goes the whole apartment.

 

Another host show from Haruhi in episode 16. This time a cooking show and you don’t want to know what kind of food she cooks even though she says her theme is simple and healthy. As in most cooking shows, to save time, the food is usually pre-cooked. Haruhi has Asahina bring them in but sadly she trips and spills the entire pot. All those 50 hours… During the break, Kyon tries to learn using the katana from Nagato but is too much for him to handle. Finally with the soup being boiled for 5 days, Asahina is taking all the precautionary steps to avoid another slip up. Unfortunately, she trips on the earlier pot left lying on the floor. Hey, if a soup is being boiled for 5 days, shouldn’t it be evaporated already? Haruhi thinks of doing a hanami (flower viewing) in episode 17 and you’d be surprise as Kyon of how she connects cherry blossoms with blood splattering and digging a hole. As expected, Haruhi MAKES Kyon do the digging for the hanami spot and even has Koizumi side with her. All they need now is a private place. Tsuruya suggests her authorized-only-people area at Tsuruya Nature Park, in which there is a hidden story where they may actually find something there. Uh oh. Not good. At least to Kyon.

 

Haruhi picks a random spot for hanami in episode 18 and has Kyon start digging. She assures him that she will send some assistance. However his assistance in the form of Nagato, Asahina and Tsuruya are more interested in playing in the sands. Asahina then finds a red jewel. Nagato thinks it’s some intelligent life form among other incomprehensible ramblings. Of course Kyon wouldn’t think that is possible so Nagato throws the jewel and breaks it. Some spirit is released and everyone forgets what they are doing here. The girls go back to Haruhi and Koizumi becomes Kyon’s relief. Koizumi has a plan as he calls Arakawa who comes by fast in his limo. Then another dramatic skydiving from Mori as she crashes down to the ground. It’s amazing she can survive without a parachute! But because of the impact, the hole is dug. Arakawa and Mori soon leave. Haruhi comes by and congratulates Kyon on his good work. Since Mori’s drop was unspeakable, Kyon decides to take the credit. But the end scene left me a little baffled because Kyon notices Tsuruya making a threatening call about some breach in security. Yeah, he wisely chooses to ignore it.

 

In episode 19, Haruhi wants to have a Christmas party but is suspicious about Santa’s motives. Thinking that they’re sort of agents and are out to target the SOS Brigade, Haruhi decides to come up with a strategy to counter Santa and his agents. I don’t know the plan sound one-sided because it involves Kyon hiding alone in the computer club room being labelled as the fake room for SOS Brigade while the rest parties on in another room. And Kyon cannot object to it! Haruhi also ropes in Tsuruya to help combat Santa due to her martial art skills and has Kyon putting on that horrible pumpkin headgear. Can’t stop laughing, can’t she? Meanwhile Taniguchi dressed in a Santa outfit is trying to get rid of the kappa model (he’s still having it?!) as he enters the computer club room only to see Kyon in that pumpkin suit. Haruhi then comes in and is amazed to see Santa. Then for unknown reasons, Taniguchi starts growing into a behemoth self and starts running away. Kyon notes this is how Haruhi would like to see Santa as. Haruhi and Kyon are chasing him as Tsuruya uses her rope skills to capture him. However Taniguchi slips out from his Santa clothes and escapes. Haruhi feels distraught and calls for Santa to come back. Later Taniguchi is out in the cold naked and wondering what has just happened. Better not to know, buddy.

 

Ryouko and Kimidori try to pull a prank on Nagato in episode 20 but Nagato is like ignoring them and foiling their attempts. Finally a prank which has Kimidori stuck under the fridge, Nagato roughly pulls it out only to burst. Ryouko is devastated and feels guilty and spills everything in tears. Then she finds out that it is all part of Nagato and Kimidori’s ploy to play a trick on her. Pissed! Ryouko is so cute when she is angry! Haruhi along with Asahina, Nagato and Tsuruya go watch a live Power Ranger-like live action play for kids at a mall in episode 21. They’re so into it. Yeah, Arakawa is the so called hero while Mori is dressed in some monster outfit. Kyon and Koizumi bide their time by putting together a jigsaw puzzle with 100,000 pieces. Extreme. After the show, the girls try to go get autographs. Tsuruya takes her leave and confronts Mori and requests a duel. They trade punches and the intensity of their match affected Kyon and Koizumi. How? Kyon is going to put the last piece of the puzzle and rejoice all their painstaking labour when Mori is sent blasting their way. All their efforts down the drain… Though Tsuruya eventually lost to Mori, Haruhi and the rest come back and are puzzled why the guys are in state of shock. No words could describe…

 

Ryouko reprimands Nagato and Kimidori for being carefree in episode 22 and gets them to help her out with the cleaning chores. After that is done, Ryouko wonders why Kimidori is in a kite so Nagato puts her in one too. Yeah, join in the fun first. Ask questions later. In episode 23, another talk show hosted by Haruhi with Kyon as her guest. She starts putting the blame on him and eventually wants him to come up with a topic to talk. She even brings in Nagato but each time they try to think of something to talk, they get distracted by Asahina playing outside. In the end, nothing worthwhile to talk about. Haruhi uses her trump card in the form of Koizumi who has pulled some strings and drafted several scenarios. All Kyon has to do is pick one. A scenario on Nagato’s gourmet report? That’s not even related to Kyon. In episode 24, Ryouko and Kimidori are bored after finishing their chores. Kimidori remembers a box from Nagato, in which she tells them to open if they ever feel bored. Looks like it is some bomb device and it is stuck to Kimidori. Then a scissors comes out and Ryouko has to choose which of the 2 wires she has to cut. Time is running out and Kimidori doesn’t want to involve Ryouko anymore and flies out to the open sky to detonate. Ryouko is devastated and memories of their time spent together raced through her mind. The bomb explodes. When Nagato comes back, she finds Ryouko and Kimidori alright, though the latter is a little charred. So they were just putting up a dramatic act. That bored, eh?

 

Episode 25 starts off with a PC dating simulation-like scenario. You know, the visuals, onscreen narrations and poses of all the girls in the series and that lively background music to complement it all. And that typical bitter sweet love story with a total of 10 heroines. Yeah, even Kyon and Koizumi are wondering what the heck was all that. Back to the randomness, since it’s raining, Haruhi gets another quirky idea to change the wardrobe of Asahina. She captures and ties her up before proceeding to draw and design on a whiteboard. One word sums her drawing up. Lame. I don’t know how the designing become some sort of monster fighting scenario. Tsuruya comes in and decides to help out. After all that hyped-up claims and confidence, it turned out just as lame. Nothing much changed. Nagato explains that this room is under the influence of Haruhi’s powers. So perhaps Tsuruya doesn’t suck in reality, eh? Since the drawing didn’t work out, Haruhi and Tsuruya directly change Asahina’s clothes. A swimsuit with butterfly wings? Also, since they’re going to make a film, Haruhi wonders who will play the monster and Nagato agrees. As expected, the result can be summed up in 1 word. Yeah, lame. If you want it in 3 words: "What the heck?!". Kyon notices Koizumi not in his usual antics and finds out he is worried that since there are 10 heroines and 2 unassigned, he wonders if he is targeted. He thinks the other heroine is Arakawa but Kyon couldn’t care less. Finally Nagato lets Kyon try out her dating simulation game which has Ryouko a yandere path, Arakawa some accidental meeting path (more like accident) and Mori a maid and happy ending if he beats her in the end. So what is the genre of this game exactly, Kyon asked? Love story, says Nagato? Yeah, there is blood in every part…

 

Surely with the randomness of the series, I don’t really expect it to have a proper ending. Though the episodes here can serve as a standalone and do not depend on each other, sometimes I can’t help feel that there are certain episodes which ended in a way which makes me raise a question or two. Like the one whereby after Mori parachutes down to create a big crater and save Kyon from lots of digging work, I wonder what that call Tsuruya made was about. Suspicious indeed and I thought that would be something more to it in the later episodes. Maybe it was just a build-up to the fight between her and Mori? Or what about the time Ryouko said that some evil organisation was out to get Kyon but that didn’t materialized anyhow.

 

I’m sure that even if this series is supposed to be serious or funny, Kyon’s life is definitely in for more peculiar nature of Haruhi and the SOS Brigade. It’s amazing those other members could put up with Haruhi but I guess it’s better than keeping her bored. You know the world will end if she isn’t. Hmm… I just realized that this series lacks the much needed presence of Kyon’s little sister. After the first episode, I don’t remember her being featured prominently since as far as I am concerned, she is also quite a popular character with Haruhi fans. As for Ryouko, it is amusing and funny to see her in such a chibi size. Methinks it is better for her to stay that way and be Nagato’s ‘pet’ rather than trying to kill Kyon. I’m sure she has learnt to love seeing that she gets along well with Kimidori. On another note, the short rock and roll instrumental ending theme surely fits the bill very well. Sometimes it makes me want to get up and do a little shuffling with my feet.

 

Well there is nothing else and much I can say for this series. I had my fair share of laughs and I wished that the producers could make more of this short and random comedy. It’s like having a bite size and a little doze of laughter rather than sitting down for a full 24 minutes laughing all the way. But I feel that this ONA serves as a ‘warm-up’ to the much anticipated second season which has already been running right after the ONA ended. Now that this series has whet my appetite, I’m ready to go watch the second season. Watch out, Haruhi. Here I come!

 

Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu

I can’t seem to understand a lot of things during and even after I’ve finished watching Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu. Yeah, it’s pretty confusing. The main reason why I decided to watch this series it’s because I read somewhere that this show was a runaway hit in Japan just after 2 weeks being aired. You could say that I was a little tempted and curious, therefore there was a need to find out what it’s all about and without any hesitation, jumped on the bandwagon.

 

Before I proceed any further, I’d like to mention one unique thing about this series. That is, the chronological order of the show is mixed up. Yup, meaning that episode 1 isn’t actually episode 1 but some later episode. So there’s gonna be a lot of back and forths between the episode orders to keep viewers confused. Just like me. So each time the episodes start I would be going like ‘Umm… How did this happened?’ or ‘Er… what happened for it to become like that?’. I’d be scratching my head and thinking so hard (I don’t even think that hard during exams). So for easy reference, below is how the episode is shown:

 

Episode No.     Actual Chronological Order

        01                      11                          

  02                      01                     

       03                      02                          

   04                      07                      

       05                      03                          

  06                      09                     

       07                      08                          

   08                      10                      

       09                      14                          

  10                      04                     

       11                      13                          

   12                      12                      

       13                      11                          

   14                      05                      

 15                      06                     

 

Phew… Luckily there’s only 14 episodes. So it’s not that confusing but it was enough to mess it up and screw my brain for me. So for the rest of this blog, I’ll refer to the episodes as they are shown and NOT as in actual chronological order, unless mentioned, so as to avoid any personal confusion. Plus, at the end of every episode during the preview of the next, we see how Suzumiya announces the next episode number only to be rebutted by Kyon telling the actual episode number. It’s funny to hear this part especially only episode 12 is when the shown episode is the same as the chronological one. And that part we hear Suzumiya saying the next episode is episode 12, and the usual from Kyon, "wrong it is not episode 12 but it’s episode 12, oh wait, that’s correct". Hahaha.

 

Okay, the first episode isn’t anything much except that it is a really badly made amateur video from the SOS Brigade. It may seem a little rush trying to get to know the characters and who’s who. But if you set aside that and whatever confusion (the one I had was, what in the world is this all about. Huh?), it’s quite fun to see their poorly made acting, blunders and slip-ups. Uh-huh, that Suzumiya girl as the film’s director trying to get things right as you can see her from the edge of the camera trying to tell the cast to do this, or even adjust certain things.

 

Basically, the film, sarcastically narrated by Kyon, is about some bunny suit space combat waitress, played by Asahina, who is fighting some battle against an evil wizard, played by Nagato. Yeah, there’re several attempts and scenes before good triumphed over evil. Uh-huh, due to some circumstances, their battle is always postponed. And in the film’s end, the waitress finally lived happily ever after with her boyfriend, played by Koizumi.

 

The closing of the 1st episode sees how Suzumiya is happy with how the ‘superb’ film turned out and is going to show it proudly to the public during the school cultural festival, much to a shocked and unimpressed Kyon. If you look at it, it’s filled with flaws, comical errors and poor quality. No wonder Kyon isn’t too happy about it. And Suzumiya bragging, well, I guess that really crosses the line. But since she’s the boss, there’s nothing Kyon can do about it either.

 

Episode 2 is the real thing. Meaning this is where the series starts off. The episode, in fact the rest of the series, is narrated sarcastically and cynically by Kyon from his point of view. And actually that’s not his real name either. It’s what others tend to call him. So his real name is somewhat of a mystery.

 

The first day of high school sees a new transfer student in Kyon’s class, the pretty but strange Haruhi Suzumiya. During her introduction, she told the class that she has no interest in normal people but instead asked for aliens, time travellers, and espers to join her. Of course the class would be a little surprised to hear such strange statement. Well, they say curiosity kills the cat. I guess that’s what will happen to Kyon soon. Throughout the month, Kyon observes her abnormal behaviour and spots many strange characteristics such as changing different hairstyle on different days (to counter alien attacks…!?) and changing her clothes right in class and right in front of the boys. Yeah, she sees them as low life and doesn’t care about them and ignores them, that’s why she doesn’t feel any shame doing so. However, she’s quite atheletic and has good grades as well. Is this normal too or abnormal?

 

As Kyon approaches Suzumiya to strike a conversation with her, their conversation usually don’t last and Suzumiya doesn’t seem interested and is quite moody. Albeit, through time it does get longer and so much so his classmates thought that they’re both going out. Fat chance. Another peculiar thing Kyon noticed about Suzumiya is that after she joins a club she quits them faster than you can say hallelujah. Talk about club hopping. Yeah, she said that those clubs were boring and uninteresting. It is only when a conversation with Kyon regarding this, that Suzumiya came out with a ‘brilliant’ idea to form a club of her own. And this is the beginning of hell for Kyon as he is reluctantly dragged into it. Too late to turn back now.

 

Yeah, Suzumiya in a way ‘forces’ Kyon to join her club and to go look for a room for their club. And eventhough Kyon tried his best to decline, it seems that Suzumiya isn’t listening. Just like Kyon mentioned, she only says and listens to what she only wants to. You could say she’s a selfish person. No choice though. Finally, Suzumiya decided to use a seemingly deserted room, the literary club’s room and claim it as her own’s. Wow. This girl can be a successful conqueror if she’d lived 500 years ago.

 

But there’s somebody in the literary club’s room. A quiet and mysterious bookworm named Yuki Nagato, who sits there all day long doing nothing but reading at a corner. At this rate she can become part of the furniture. Haha. Just kidding. And well, her presence or rather her interest of them using the room is ignored, but she doesn’t mind it as long she can read. She isn’t an official member of Suzumiya’s club, but at times she’s dragged along into their activities and the thing is Suzumiya didn’t even forced her nor did Nagato said she wanted to join in. Hmmm… So it’s like this throughout the show. She’s part of the club but actually isn’t but she is.

 

Later on, as Kyon waited at the room for the club’s first meeting (by force, of course), Suzumiya recruited another member for her club (also by force if you look it that way). She is Mikuru Asahina, a naive, shaky, soft-spoken, scared-of-many-things squeaky girl. The reason for her recruitment… her cuteness and big breasts to attract new club members. *Smack*. Oh well, what do you expect from a weird person. Suzumiya even go round squeezing Asahina’s breasts to compare how much bigger hers is compared to her own and even asked Kyon if he wants a go at it. Of course, he passed.

 

By the way, in the series, there’ll be lots and tons of trivias for viewers to spot. However, I manage to spot a meagre 2 only. The first one being the part where Suzumiya is ranting about Asahina’s recruitment while holding up 2 magazines with the Shuffle anime on its cover. The thing is, the voice actors for Kyon and Asahina are the same ones for Rin and Kaede respectively.

 

Also, that most of Kyon’s sarcasm is actually upon what Suzumiya says and does. For example the time when Suzumiya chided Kyon not to knock on the clubroom’s door because it’ll be misintepreted and perceived as a customer visiting them. But when other club members do it, she doesn’t say a thing and let it pass. And in Kyon’s mind you’ll hear that he’ll point out such contradicting and the obvious in his head. Yeah, like stabbing her behind her back. Oh well, I guess that’s the most he could do considering the circumstances he’s in. But he’s right in a way. He’s quite observant too in a way, isn’t he? But that’s because he’s being picked on. No choice too, though.

 

Before this episode ends, Suzumiya finally names her club, the SOS Brigade. What does it stand for? It stands for Save The World By Overloading It With Fun Suzumiya Haruhi Brigade. Er… Well, I suppose that will do. It’s better than STWBOIWFSHB. There’s a Japanese version for the SOS acronym too but I can’t remember what it was. And the main purpose of the club is to hunt and investigate abnormal and mysterious things. I suppose too that’s a start.

 

Suzumiya quickly recruits another club member in episode 3. This time the enigmatic and ever-smiling Itsuki Koizumi, who’s also a new transfer student. Well he seems casual and joins the club without any fuss. So this episode basically is how Suzumiya wants to create a webpage for her club. So she barges into the computer club and demanded the computer club’s president to hand over a computer to her. Of course, any sane person would refuse to do so, moreover without any valid reasons.

 

Then this is the hilarious and sadistic part. Suzumiya takes the hands of the computer club’s president, puts it on Asahina’s breasts, and took several pictures of it while a shocked Asahina screams. The purpose? She’s planning to use it as a blackmail. Wah… she can be a school bully and future gangster too. Not only that, she shoves him above Asahina and make it looked like as though they’re in a compromising situation and took more snapshots of it. In the end, the computer club’s president had to give in. And the way Suzumiya said things, nobody’s gonna believe him either. No choice. This girl is scary.

 

Once the computer is set up, Suzumiya as usual forces Kyon to create the SOS Brigade’s website. What to do? If the boss say like this then like this lah. Later on, Suzumiya barges in and reveals 2 bunny suits. She and Asahina are going to distribute flyers about the club. So she forced a very reluctant Asahina to put on the bunny suit. Note that, everytime Suzumiya wants to try an outfit on Asahina, the latter will refuse and she’ll struggle not to get it on but with Suzumiya’s ‘overwhelming powers’ she’ll eventually get it on, much to Asahina’s embarrassment. It’s like that all the time throughout the series. You’ll notice too that in a way, Suzumiya likes to pick on Asahina. Maybe it’s because of her character. Then we also find out that Kyon actually likes Asahina and especially in her funny outfits. Yeah, he even secretly keeps a whole bunch of photos of her in some directory in the computer. Naughty naughty.

 

Anyway, their plan to distribute flyers in bunny suit is cut short when the teachers stopped them. As the day near its end, Nagato reminds Kyon to read the book that she suggested earlier on. At night when Kyon’s doing so, he finds a note telling him to meet him somewhere. As Kyon followed it, he saw Nagato at that spot which then she led him back to her apartment to explain something. To cut short, Nagato explains to Kyon that she is an alien. A WHAT!?

 

Okay, you won’t get that continuation from the end of the previous episode because episode 4 is about the SOS Brigade and a bunch of Kyon’s classmates and even his little sister, playing baseball with a skilled college baseball team. Yeah, they initailly practiced with their own school’s baseball team but surprisingly the latter weren’t very good. So it is here too that I didn’t understand certain things. That’s because there’re some later episodes not shown yet which led to certain events which happened in this episode. Are you confused? I know I am.

 

But it was something during the conversation between Kyon and Koizumi about some closed space. And we see some weird flashbacks (probably of the previous but yet to be shown episode). As Suzumiya is getting moody, that said dangerous closed space will unleash some sort of disaster on the world. So the baseball match has become something like save-the-world-battle thingy. Luckily with Nagato’s alien power, Suzumiya’s team won. And Koizumi said something like they need to keep Suzumiya happy and not bore her if they’re to avoid such things from happening. The next day, a hyped Suzumiya barges into the clubroom and asked if they wanted to participate in some rugby or football match. Oh well, here we go again.

 

Episode 5 resumes where the series left off with Nagato telling Kyon that she’s an alien. For most of this episode, I didn’t understand what Nagato was trying to explain. I’m just like Kyon, don’t understand what’s going on. Huh? What? Er? Umm? So it wasn’t the case of ‘I don’t understand what I’ve just heard’ (my Japanese vocab still isn’t there yet), it’s also ‘I don’t understand what I’ve just read’ (the subtitles too seemed to be using high standard scientific English). All I know is that with Suzumiya’s mysterious appearance 3 years ago, the aliens believed that she’s capable for the alien’s auto-evolution (whatever that is) and Nagato is created to observe Suzumiya and obtain data for that purpose. Anymore than that I’m in a lost. So for me let’s just leave it that way. Kyon thinks she’s crazy and doesn’t believe her.

 

Then there’s something that Nagato mentioned about Kyon being ‘chosen’ by Suzumiya. For what? I dunno. Then she also said that Suzumiya isn’t just an ordinary human. Like duh, her forceful and selfish behaviour isn’t what any ordinary humans would do. But what Nagato meant was, she has some sort of powers to wish for what she wants to come true, although Suzumiya doesn’t realize this herself. I’m really getting a headache.

 

The next day, as the SOS Brigade converges to look for any mysterious happenings, the group splits into 2, with Kyon and Asahina being paired up and the rest with Suzumiya. Ah, must be Heaven for Kyon. I think Suzumiya’s jealous with the outcome. Yeah, she constantly reminds that they’re on a job and not a date. Too bad Suzumiya. She must be jealous.

 

During the search, Asahina decides to inform Kyon about something. Nope, it isn’t a confession as Kyon was hoping for. The thing she wanted to inform Kyon is that she’s actually a time traveller. Oh my goodness! Another weird one. Ah well, at least Kyon had to stick around and listen to her explanation because she’s cute… at least. Also, I didn’t understand a word Asahina said. To sum it up, something like in the future, she and her colleagues found a time rip 3 years ago from present time. Yup, it has something to do with Suzumiya again. So Asahina is sent back to observe Suzumiya and to prevent anything like that from happening. She also said that Suzumiya had ‘chosen’ Kyon for reasons unknown. After hearing 2 such cases, would Kyon believe it all? Maybe he should seek a third opinion.

 

Well, the whole investigation thing didn’t yield any results by the end of the day, as the club members disbanded and went home. The next day, Kyon approaches Koizumi to discuss things and expects him to be like the other 2 as well. Yup, he’s an esper. I didn’t understand too the blabbing. But what I know is that Koizumi and his colleagues, who’re created 3 years ago, thinks Suzumiya is God. That’s because they belive she can manipulate dreams just like the world that they’re currently living in, which is actually Suzumiya’s dream (reminds you of The Matrix, doesn’t it).

 

Now let me see. It seems that whenever I (and even Kyon) want more information about this ‘weirdness’, we’ll never get the answers. Why? That’s because, the alien will say "there’s no words in human vocabulary to describe it", the time traveller would say "it’s classified information", and the esper will say "we just know it’s like that". *Double Smack*. Such convenient answers, don’t you think? Besides, I figured that if the producers do come up with some explanation, I’d have a hard time understanding it too. So again, perhaps it’s better to leave it as it is.

 

However episode 6 takes another break from all that. Or does it? Actually the SOS Brigade takes a trip to one of Kyon’s relatives remote island for some summer vacation. And because of what Koizumi has done for this trip, Suzumiya promotes Koizumi to be the club’s vice president. No comment. Hey, Kyon’s little sister also tagged along. This episode reminds you of one of those whodunnit sleuths kinda episode. The gang arrives at the mansion, greeted by the butler and maid, Arakawa and Mori Sunou respectively, then there’s lots of build up to the tension, suspense and mystery just like in those typical detective shows. Other casts (or suspects) include the mansion’s master, Keiichi Tamura (Don’t remember how he’s related to Koizumi) and Yutaka (I think he’s Keiichi’s nephew or something like that). Anyway, the episode ends with Keiichi being found dead in his room with a knife stabbed through his chest. And Yutaka isn’t anywhere to be found. Oh the horror!

 

So will the killer be found? Well, not just yet. Episode 7 is the episode with events happening before the previous one. Get what I mean? Though not connected, it starts off with Suzumiya being unhappy about Kyon being unable to recognize the SOS Brigade logo on their website. Of course, who wouldn’t. It’s so badly designed. Later, Suzumiya noticed that their website and logo has been completely screwed up. Hackers? Kyon tries to fix it but to no avail.

 

Just then, a girl by the name of Emiri Kimidori came into the clubroom. Hah. Suzumiya must be thinking they’ve got their first customer after all those efforts. Well, in a way she’s right. Emiri came to the SOS Brigade as she wanted them to help her locate her lost boyfriend. Who’s her boyfriend? It’s that computer club president. Kyon must be thinking after that incident, most probably he ran away due to that embarrassement.

 

Soon the SOS Brigade made a trip to the computer club president’s apartment to investigate. However, nobody’s home. While Suzumiya is being deliriously jumping around. Koizumi and Nagato sensed something amiss about the room. Yeah, something about that closed space thingy. The gang departs with Suzumiya losing interest when there’s nothing unusual to be found. But the others regrouped again at the room after Suzumiya went home.

 

This is another part where I didn’t understand. It’s all Greek to me. Bla bla bla. And suddenly the room changes into a vast desert. Then some closed space overlapping with outside space remark by Nagato. Huh? I didn’t get it, as much as Kyon. Then the appearance of a hostile giant cave cricket gets ready to attack them. There’re 3 funny parts here, all from Kyon’s remarks. The first one is when the desert appeared. Asahina became scared and started to cling on to Kyon’s arm with Kyon saying "I had no time to enjoy the sensation against my arm. I was desparately trying to verify the location I’m in". He must be enjoying it in a way, huh? The second one he said something like "Are you aware of an insect known as a cave cricket? If not, I’d like to show you what I’m seeing right at this moment". Hehehe. No, I’ve never seen a cave cricket before and thank you for showing it to me. The third one is when Asahina, who is now very scared so much so she couldn’t move and was clinging on to Kyon very tightly. And then Kyon said something like "Due to Asahina engaging me in lower body excersices, she’s taken my ability to move so I can’t escape". I guess in a way he really kinda enjoys it.

 

While Kyon and Asahina were helpless, at least Nagato and Koizumi used their special powers to stop the cave cricket. Nagato’s powers were murmuring some inaudible words, which sounded like those over unclear wave frequencies. While Koizumi unleashes… fireballs? But Koizumi claims due to the closed space his powers are not at optimum. Then this is the second trivia which I spot. During Koizumi’s fireball attack, he mentioned the words ‘Fumoffu’ and ‘The Second Raid’. If you know Full Metal Panic, then you’d know that those are the titles of its sequels. Uh-huh, the company which made this series also made Full Metal Panic. So no copyright infringement here.

 

Eventually, they manage to defeat the bug as it disintegrates, revealing the computer club president. Looks like he’s till alive. And before you know it, the whole scene switches back to his cramped apartment. Now the explanation part. Yup, you’ve guessed it. I don’t have a clue what they’re trying to explain. All I know is that million of years ago some alien lifeform landed on Earth and hibernated. When computers were invented they became semi-awakened. Another one of those alien’s auto-evolution thing like Nagato but she claimed they strayed, taking a different path. So how did the computer club president get infected? Something like people who saw that weird logo became infected. But don’t worry, those who saw the logo are all probably students in their school. I think that’s what they said. Since there’re only 8 who’re infected (though their access counter hit is 30,000 hits. Makes you wonder why would the same idiot access their site over and over again, like that computer club president). And Suzumiya thinks it’s a lover’s quarrel. But wait, the computer club president at the end said he didn’t have a girlfriend. Amnesia? And what happened to Emiri? Hmm… Something’s strange is going on. In order not to have any internal brain concussions, I’ll accept and leave it as it is.

 

Episode 8 is back to that whodunnit thing back in episode 6. To summarize, there’s a lot of theories on how Keiichi have been killed. Yeah, the way and position he fell, how and in which direction and force the knife was stabbed into his chest. So the gang suspects Yutaka, since they heard him quarelling with Keiichi the day before and he’s nowhere to be seen during breakfast when the murder occured.

 

Hey, there’s a scene where Kyon and Suzumiya are together. If you look at it in a way, don’t you think it’s ‘romantic’ and there’s a little chemistry brewing? Both of them holding hands outside during the storm. That close ‘intimate’ moment in the cave. Maybe not. Anyway, to save time, Kyon ‘killed’ Koizumi as the latter deducted that the one who really killed Keiichi was the one who broke the door down, which is Kyon or Arakawa. Oh no! Kyon the killer?! Just then Kyon’s sister spots Koizumi’s lifeless body and alerts Arakawa. Then Kyon and Suzumiya entered the room where Keiichi’s body is still lying there and said that they’d want to stab it to make sure he’s really dead. And soon, Keiichi gets up. What the?!

 

Well, actually this whole thing is just a setup. Yeah, this whole mystery-cum-murder thing is just an act, all properly planned by Keiichi, Yutaka, Arakawa, Mori and Koizumi himself. We now see how Suzumiya brags about her murder deduction. She looked so scared that time. How ironic. And that part where Kyon ‘killed’ Koizumi is just all pretending and to ‘get back’ at them. In the end, Kyon found out that Koizumi planned this so that Suzumiya won’t feel bored, thus avoiding that closed space thingy. After all the explanations, the gang finally head home. And what’s with the last scene where Koizumi looking at Kyon’s mole, as it zooms closer. Disgusting. Nothing maybe. Perhaps just a distraction.

 

Episode 9 is the most boring episode. Because it was chronologically the last episode, I was enthusiastically anticipating something interesting. Well, nothing was. Basically, Suzumiya managed to get a free heating system for the clubroom from that guy who sponsored their badly made film (you could see him in episode 1). So she asked Kyon to go get it. Of course he’s reluctant. But who’s gonna do it if not him and it’s better that way since it won’t get the other club members involve with her schemes.

 

Then there’s this one long stretch of boringness, lasting several minutes. We see Nagato reading in the corner and in the background some softly played random tv sounds. I thought that some surprise was going to happen and was on my toes if anything springs into action. Maybe a loud explosive sound or some alien busting into the scene. So I waited and waited and waited. NOTHING HAPPENED!!! I don’t get what this part is for except to fill in the remaining time of this pointless episode. AND I WAS SO READY FOR NOTHING!!! Well, maybe that’s the surprise, nothing. Expect the unexpected.

 

In the meantime, Suzumiya forcefully tries more weird outfits on Asahina as the latter tries to run away but being caught up everytime. After Kyon returns and fixed the heater, he took a nap as he was tired. Who wouldn’t? Carrying such a heavy thing all the way back to school. But Suzumiya woke him up just when school hours is over and told him it’s time to go home. Since it’s raining, they shared an umbrella. Er… are they both ‘romantically linked’? Suzumiya even playfully ran ahead of Kyon in the rain, beckons him, as he then ‘pursued’ her in the last scene. Could it be that what I’m thinking could be? I shouldn’t jump to conclusions yet. Maybe that’s just another teaser to mess with my mind.

 

Kyon discovers a note in his shoebox in episode 10. A love letter? Nope, just a note asking him to meet in some classroom at some time after school hours. So Kyon decides to do so. That person turned out to be Ryouko Asakura, one of Kyon’s classmates. So a lot of talk between them and something about Kyon and Suzumiya’s relation. Okay, to save time, Ryouko wants to kill Kyon. WHAT?! Yeah, she said that she wants to know what Suzumiya would do if Kyon is killed. So as Ryouko attacks Kyon, he tries to flee but he can’t seem to escape as she has freezed his body. Before she could kill him, Nagato manage to arrive in the nick of time and intercept her.

 

We find out that Ryouko is also an alien just like Nagato. But I don’t remember why she acted like that. I thought she’s suppose to be Nagato’s helper or backup or something like that. But I guess she want astray. So fight fight fight. There’s even a scene which reminded me of Terminator. Yeah, that liquid mecury reassembling itself. Anyway, Nagato manage to defeat Ryouko and restore the space around her. Kyon must be very relieved.

 

The next day, Kyon discovers another letter in his shoe box, but it’s from Asahina. Could it be a confession for real this time? Nope. Just another meeting. But this time, this Asahina looks like the grown up version of the current one. Actually she’s the current Asahina’s future version. She came back to this time just to tell Kyon something about Snow White and remembering it in times of need. Huh? Must be for some later episodes. And soon off the future Asahina goes, not before Kyon asked her age. Of course, that’s classified information, she quipped.

 

In episode 11, the computer club challenges the SOS Brigade to a 5 on 5 computer game duel. Yeah, it like some massive real time strategy starfleet intergalactic battleship thing, dubbed ‘The Day Of Saggitarius III’, designed by the computer club themselves. The deal? If the computer club wins, they’ll get back their pc ‘stolen’ by Suzumiya. If the SOS Brigade will get a few laptops from them. So it’s on!

 

But before the real thing starts, the SOS Brigade played a few practice rounds to familiarize themselves with the game. Oh well, all of them sucked. Big time! Looks like no hope. And during the real match day, at first the SOS Brigade seems to be losing. Eventually it’s found out that the computer club used some cheat code to ensure the SOS Brigade’s loss. Then the tides are turn when Nagato used her super fast and super computer knowledge to rewrite and reprogramme certain areas during the game! And in the end, the SOS Brigade won. That Suzumiya claimed that she did all the hard work (yeah, right).

 

With the computer club admitting defeat, they realized that Nagato had some amazing computer skills and asked that if she would like to join their club. Of course Suzumiya protests as she thinks that Nagato is part of the SOS Brigade (unofficially, though. Don’t remember she asked her to join). But Kyon said that Nagato probably enjoyed the game and it wouldn’t hurt if she visit the club once in a while. Well, Nagato agreed and would do so once in a while. At this point, I think Nagato listens to Kyon more rather than Suzumiya. After this and the past several events whereby it’s Kyon’s words which made Nagato get up and do things (as Nagato blindly follows or totally ignores Suzumiya’s).

 

It’s the school cultural festival in episode 12 with the SOS Brigade members doing their respective roles. Like Asahina as a waitress for her cafe, Koizumi in some play acting, and Nagato into fortune telling. I guess Nagato’s way of fortune telling is really scaring away the customers. What about Kyon? Well, he isn’t doing anything in particular, just wandering around till he reached some performance hall. A lot of bands playing there.

 

That is, until Suzumiya and Nagato came up stage along with another 3 female members to perform. What a shock it was for Kyon. So was I. I didn’t think that Suzumiya had any singing talent nor could she play a guitar, but she was quite good and with Nagato on electric guitar, it’s even better. And after the performance, she was quite happy. This is so different than the Haruhi Suzumiya that I know. Is it really her? Yes it is.

 

The next day Suzumiya even explained to Kyon how she ended up doing such a gig. The band’s lead singer and guitarist had an accident. At the same time, Suzumiya heard about it and offered to help them along with Nagato. Hey! Has Suzumiya changed and become a much nicer person? And her explanations doesn’t sound like she was bragging or filled with that hype-ness. She’s so different. I couldn’t believe it. I guess even Kyon felt this way at first. Well anyway, the band members expressed their gratitude by inviting them to their next performance.

 

The next day, Kyon spots Suzumiya lying on the grass in the school compound as she’s still thinking about her performance. Looks like she’s not used to being appreciated by other people. All of a sudden, she asked Kyon if he plays any instruments. And decides to form a band of her own for next year’s school cultural festival. Oh well, she’s back to her old self again, not listening to any of Kyon’s words. Perhaps it’s better that way. Too good to be true, huh?

 

In episode 13, continues where Kyon was saved by Nagato from Ryouko’s attempt to kill him. Suzumiya tags along a reluctant Kyon to find out the disappearance of Ryouko. But was told by the apartment manager that she had moved out suddenly. But we all know what happened to her, right? Plus, the manager said something about Ryouko moving in 3 years ago too. Does that number ring a bell? Anyway, after losing interest, they both just head back.

 

Here we also see Suzumiya’s flashback. Yeah, somewhere at the railway crossing Suzumiya asked about if Kyon realized how insignificant he is. Like she’s soooo ‘big’ like that. Her flashback was something to with a baseball stadium. Sea of people, like ants, like a drop in the ocean, so the same, so insignificant. That kinda thing. In the end, nothing interesting happened fo her.

 

Soon after that whatever metaphor explanation, they both parted ways. But Kyon is going to listen to more of those when he spots Koizumi waiting for him. After the latter hails a taxi, Koizumi explains more confusing stuffs. Though I don’t know where their destination is, but I guess he wanted a private moment to talk things out with Kyon. You’ve guessed it. A lot of ‘Err…’, ‘Umm…’ and ‘Huh?’ from me. Why can’t they explain it in lay man terms?

 

What I know (I think) from Koizumi’s explanation is that, since Suzumiya is God and since she has the ability to create worlds, she can also destroy it. And then her power to wish what she wants for unknowingly like how the whole jin-jang gang, Nagato, Asahina and Koizumi were ‘brought together’. Once they’ve arrived at wherever that destination is, Koizumi proceeds to show Kyon what a closed space is. Looks like a mundane, grey, world with nobody around. He further explains that it occurs in concurrence with Suzumiya’s mood. Kyon and his colleagues can detect and enter it. Then there’s this large poltergeist kinda beast who’s wrecking havoc in the city in the closed space. And to destroy the closed space, that beast must be destroyed. Once it’s done, the close spaced disappears and the normal world would reappear back. And so Koizumi gave a little demonstration to Kyon for all that. After all that, they head back. I guess that’s enough for 1 day, huh.

 

So the last episode is the turning point of the series. If you look at it,  it’s in the middle of the 14 epsiode series. This episode starts with Kyon trying to figure things out like why he was dragged into this mess and the other 3 self proclaimed ‘extraordinary beings’ of the SOS Brigade. And then at school, nothing unusual, just that some interaction here and there with the SOS Brigade members, that usual chiding from Suzumiya, secretly look at some photos of Asahina stored in the pc (I’m thinking he may be turning into a pervert, the silent kind).

 

Later at night when he’s sleeping he has some weird dream. Soon he heard Suzumiya’s voice calling him to wake up. It seems that they’re both in their school uniform and at school all alone. Kyon recognize this as a closed space due to his earlier experience with Koizumi. What’s happening? Where’s everybody else? Suzumiya seems to be afraid. As Kyon suggest that they escape from the school area, an invisible barrier prevents them from doing so. Therefore, they decided to head back to their clubroom.

 

Then Koizumi, in a form of a little light orb, manage to find Kyon and explain to him that the worse might have actually begun. Meaning that Suzumiya has already given up on the current world and is in the midst of destroying it to create a new one, unknowingly of course. Some more bla bla blas which I can’t make out. Then Koizumi told him that what he meant when he said Suzumiya had ‘chosen’ Kyon was most probably that Suzumiya had fallen for him! What?! This is so ironic. She doesn’t even show it! Perhaps chiding him is her way of showing her affections to Kyon. Really weird girl.

 

Since Koizumi can only stay for a short while, before he disappears he asked Kyon to switch on the computer. Doing so, he finds a message from Nagato. Though they’re not completely cut-off yet from the current world, soon they’ll be. Yeah, more bla bla blas from Nagato too, something like how he wished Kyon would return to the current world along with Suzumiya so that the aliens could continue observing her. Before everything goes blank, a text ‘Sleeping Beauty’ appeared as Nagato’s last message.

 

Oh no! There’re several beasts wrecking havoc now. Kyon takes Suzumiya hands and tries to make a run for it. Suzumiya is feeling estatic about it. At the same time, we see Kyon trying to persuade Suzumiya to return to the old world. But she kept saying how this world is much more exciting. Then when Kyon said how much he wants to see his old pals in the old world again, a confused Suzumiya then dejectedly said that she thought Kyon was bored of the old world all this time. Huh? Does he look like it? Maybe tired from her rantings and scolding lah.

 

Then some right words from Kyon and he suddenly thought of the connection between Snow White and Sleeping Beauty fairytales. Oh my! That transfixed position. Am I thinking what they’re gonna do is true? Before that Kyon says this, "Ponytails turn me on". *Explosion*. That’s the quote of the series. Finally, he leans and kissed her!!! I was caught off guard on this. Is that what the fairytales and this had in common? The prince kisses the sleeping princess to wake her up in the end? Probably. Soon a great flash of light as the closed space and the beasts dissintegrates. And Kyon woke up and finds himself back at home in his pajamas. Actually he had fallen out of his bed. Was it a dream? Hope that he doesn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

 

The next day in school, Kyon tries to figure out if last night’s ‘adventure’ was real or not. He spots Suzumiya with her new hairstyle. Yeah, she has ponytails. She said something like how she had a horrible nightmare last night and couldn’t sleep well. Looks like she still doesn’t realize it. Later, Kyon is greeted and gladly welcome backed by the other SOS Brigade members. What a relief it must have been for them.

 

A few days later, Kyon and Suzumiya together goes out for their 2nd investigation of the neighbourhood for anything unusual, as the rest couldn’t make it. As Kyon narrates his last few lines, one of them being how he would like to tell Suzumiya those many things, but first would like to talk about aliens, time travellers and espers… So is this the start of a romantically beautiful relationship? Don’t think so. But you saw hints of it, right?

 

WARGH!!! And so it finally ends, this seemingly confusing series. Overall, if I look at it generally, it’s quite okay. I just didn’t like the long winded scientific theories and explanations. I’ve never had migrane this bad before. Basically, I can separate the series into 2 parts. The first half being the introduction of Suzumiya’s problems and how the gang overcomes it. The second half was merely them trying to keep Suzumiya from being bored with those side adventures, which I felt wasn’t that significant as compared to the perplexing first half.

 

If you think about it in your head by rearranging and put the whole series in chronological order, it does make sense after all. But because of this fact too, many complained about how the character developments were screwed up. I know, it’s pretty confusing if it’s not in sequential order.

 

One thing I like most is the ending theme. Well not so much the song, but the cute little jiggle and dance by the SOS Brigade. I tried to imitate it. Unfortunately I suck big time. Nevertheless, I still find the ending credits to be quite amusing and worthwhile to watch. Moreover, the song seems to fit it quite well. As for the opening credits, though I didn’t quite enjoy it, but it’s filled with lots of those scientific equations and stuffs if you look carefully. Signs of what the show is about? It’s complexity and extra-terrestial things, perhaps.

 

And I thought that this was supposed to be a funny show (as I read somewhere)! Maybe the word funny here meant weird. Yup, a weird show with weird characters. Maybe that’s why it’s so popular. Maybe there’re lots of weird people in Japan. Just kidding. Since I’ve watched it, am I considered weird too? Weirdly confused. Hehehe.

 

It’s a good thing that the producers have decided to scrap and stop producing further episodes or make a second season out of this series. There’s a very high probability that I won’t watch it. That’s because I don’t want to be confused all over again. I know, many fans of the series weren’t too happy about it. However there’re many more weird (some may call it interestingly unique or creative) animes out there. Some more prominent, some just waiting to be found, and some forever hidden beneath that heap of pile of B-grade or ‘garbage’ section. That depends on your perception too.

 

One final word though, if you believe in aliens, time travellers and espers, then you should also believe in Haruhi Suzumiya. That’s because both are abnormal and are beyond normal human’s comprehension. Hahaha. Sighs… If not for her one kind character she may have been quite a pretty person. Yeah, like a rose with a million thorns. That ‘coldness’ of her erased it all. Uh-huh, so you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.