Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 14

<- The last episode of a season is always a great time to introduce a talking cat

<-Previous Episode

Well, we end this season of Haruhi by having the characters discuss philosophy and the finishing touches on that movie plot that’s been going for the last few episodes.

This episode starts with Haruhi picking up a cat to be Yuki’s familiar in the movie project the SOS brigade is working on. Unfortunately, Haruhi’s powers cause the cat to talk, leading the cat to engage in conversations about philosophy, kind of like Brian from Family Guy. It’s rather interesting as we attempt to see Kyon try to convince the cat that it’s special that he can talk, and that he isn’t just creating an illusion of language.

Like a lot of philosophical lectures, neither side is really convinced, so they just wander off and buy cat food. Kyon explains to the cat that cats say “meow” and wonders home. We then learn that Mikuru’s and Nagato’s factions both hold theories that oppose Itsuki’s, creating a aura of tension among the SOS brigade members. Furthermore, Itsuki explains that the movie is creating issues with the space time continuum, causing reality and fiction to meld. This leads to Itsuki suggesting that they do something to ensure that Haruhi KNOWS that this is a movie, and prevent her from subconsciously causing the movie’s reality to meld with the real world.

Then there’s a montage of the character’s finishing off the movie, which is the least exiting part of the episode. The interesting part about this ep. is that if you pay attention to Kyon’s mannerisms you’ll notice he doesn’t really seem to care about the reality warping as much as everybody else. While everybody else is panicking, he seems to just take everything as it happens, not seeming to care, as long as Haruhi lays off of Mikuru. This is really interesting, as the mindset is what leads into the movie’s plot, where we see some actual growth in Kyon’s character.

Although a good episode, this is a very weak climax to a weak season. If more episodes are produced, I certainly hope their better than this seasons. If I hear anything about it, I’ll report it here as soon as possible.

Although this is the end of the show as of now, there's still The movie

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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 13

 <- This picture isn't NEARLY as exiting in context

<-Previous Episode

Hey, this episode managed to recapture a bit of the former season’s glory! If only I didn’t have to drudge through about 10 of the series worst episodes to get to it, I might have had a bit more faith in the series at this point.

This episode continues the arc about making the movie from the first episode of the first season, but rather than focus on the actual filming, (which is kinda boring, like episodes 10 and 11) it instead focuses on the behind the scenes drama, developing the cast a bit.

In this episode, we start by seeing the filming of the scene where Yuki sends a bunch of side characters to attack Mikuru. This is going well until Mikuru starts shooting lasers out of her eyes again, and we get a lovely image of Yuki taking measures to stop it. See above picture for details…. You done? Got that as ingrained in your memory as I do? Ahh yeah. ANYWAY, things get a bit awkward as Haruhi demands that the evil zombie whatever henchmen need to throw Mikuru in the lake. This looks fine on film, but the cast then realizes that this lake is probably polluted as hell. Nobody seems to mention the damage it could do to the battle waitress outfit, but nobody seems to care about that sort of thing.

The second part of the episode takes place at Tsuruya’s house, where they finish filming for the day. This is the part where Koizumi’s character takes Mikuru’s character to his house for some reason. While they are at the house, Haruhi has Tsuruya lace Mikuru’s drink with liquor, in order to enhance Mikuru’s acting skills. Unfortunately, Mikuru can’t hold her alcohol very good at all, which leads to her almost passing out. Haruhi gets pissed about this, and starts yelling at Mikuru.

Then finally, we see the moment I’ve been waiting for since about 3 episodes into the first season. Kyon gets fed up with Haruhi treating Mikuru like her plaything, gets his fist ready, tells Haruhi she’s an annoying jerk, and gets ready to whack her… But then Koizumi intervenes, and stops Kyon from smacking Haruhi. If this was back in my days of Kyon x Mikuru shipping, I’d be so exited about this. However, the movie converted me to Kyon x Yuki. Still, I was quite exited to see Kyon finally stick up for Mikuru.

Oh yeah, for the rest of the episode, things are a bit awkward between the brigade members, for obvious reasons. Koizumi gives out a speech about the nature of the universe to Kyon, and discusses his opinions on opposing Haruhi with Kyon, and we get a bit on the plot.

Episode manages to be very solid. I wish more of the second season was like this. While I thought the music felt a bit off in some scenes (Do they only have one dramatic track?) for in some parts, the music didn’t seem to suit the gravity of the situation, particularly in a segment at the lake. Thankfully, the fleshing out of the characters made up for this flaw. Believe it or not, I’m actually EXITED about the next episode, which hasn’t happened since the first episode of this season.

Coming soon! Episode 14

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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 on AMAZON (reserve now!)

Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 Episode 12

 <-In this episode, we get a behind the scenes look at the making of the Mikuru beam. Also, a mind boggling look at the type of contact lenses Anime characters wear

 <-Previous episode

Well, after a bit of a hiatus on this series, I’ve decided to come back and finish what I’ve started. This leads us to episode 12 of the second season, which continues right where the previous episode left us. While I do enjoy nice structured series with a clear start and end point, I did not get into Haruhi because of it. Instead, I got into it because of the chaotic pacing. However, this episode manages to be much better than the previous two, revealing more about the universe the characters live in, and the very weak principals that hold reality together.

This episode contains several highlights, such as the part where Kyon almost falcon punches Haruhi, just like we’ve always wanted to see him do. This was brought up because Haruhi was pushing Mikuru a bit too hard, with her expecting her to shoot laser beams out of her eyes and all. Unfortunately, due to Haruhi’s control over the nature of reality, Mikuru does start firing laser beams out of her eyes, nearly killing everybody.

This leads to a scene where Yuki winds up tackling Mikuru and stealing her contact lens, which Haruhi believed was giving her the power to shoot lazers. This didn’t seem eventful, until they actually SHOWED the contact lens, (see right) and anybody could tell you that thing would NOT fit in Mikuru’s eye. (see above for comparison of Mikuru’s finger to Mikuru’s eye? Now then, if this lens is smaller than Yuki’s finger, there’s no way that would work) Anyway, the rest of the episode is spent explaining that fiasco, leading Itsuki to comment on Yuki being much less social than all of the other units like her. Unfortunately, he doesn’t elaborate on these other units, or what his organization believes they do.

Overall, this episode manages to be pretty good, especially since stuff happens, unlike a lot of the other episodes in this season. It should be noted that there are a lot of scenes where Mikuru looks absolutely adorable, and deliciously moe packed. It makes me a little bit more exited about watching the rest of this season.

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NEXT EPISODE->

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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 11

Previous Episode

Well, here we are on episode 3 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2. What?

THERE WAS NO ENDLESS 8 I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!

LALALA I’M NOT LISTENING!

Anyway, this episode continues the plot arc from the previous episode. I remember that one time in the first season where they showed the first part of a two parter, an unrelated episode, then the second part to the two-parter. That was funny. Alas, this episode is more on the making of the movie in episode 0. Here we see the casting choices, where Haruhi ironically casts everybody as… themselves. Of course, nobody wants to tell Haruhi that they really ARE a hidden Esper, a time traveler, and a magical alien. So they all pretend to be high school students pretending to be part of a science fiction show. Then they start filming, which involves Mikuru acting like an idiot, and Haruhi proving herself to be a horrible director. Kyon complains a lot. Small scene of Kyon x Mikuru, but Haruhi gets in the way. We need MOAR Kyon x Mikuru

And they REALLY need to get new material. I mean, this show hasn’t been covering new ground since the first episode of the second season, and has just been riding on the coattails of previous successes. Man, I’m not really sure what to think, the first season was great and all but… eh.

Coming soon:

Episode 3

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya (manga) volume 1

Contrary to popular belief, I do NOT worship every item the Haruhi has touched, thankyouverymuch

Well, I actually did NOT hit gold while scouring my local library for comic books and manga to review. As the college priest of the Eastern Orthodox church of Haruhi Suzimiya, I was utterly compelled to pick this up. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met.

Sadly, this wasn’t nearly interesting as the anime version of this series. Haruhi just isn’t nearly as interesting panel by panel. I dunno, it just lacks… energy. It doesn’t help that the anime uses a lot of bright colors, which doesn’t translate will into black and white. So, this is Haruhi with much less vibrance. Also, the characters are drawn a bit differently, while not always a problem, they actually look a bit bland. Haruhi’s enthusiasm isn’t something that translates well onto paper, so she just comes off as a sociopath. Ya know, Haruhi could very well be an antagonist if the franchise took a different direction…

Anyway, the plot… It’s kind of a jumbled mess, if you don’t know what’s going on from the anime. Kyon is a high schooler who has resigned himself to a boring life until he meets Haruhi, a wacko who wants to turn this boring ass school into something more interesting, with Aliens, time travelers and espers. Haruhi decides that Kyon gets to be her bitch and makes him do all her dirty work. They then conquer the literature club and assimilate its only member into a society known as… the SOS brigade.

Same plot as the anime, except that fiasco with Ryoko~chan happens before Mikuru joins the Brigade. I highly recommend you watch the anime instead, since the three dimensional medium allows the characters to be fleshed out more. You know, I’ve been a bit disappointed with this franchise lately. Maybe I should check out the novelizations, I heard those are pretty good.

Oh yeah, don’t buy this on Amazon, I heard there was a screw up and this got confused with the light novel. Customers were happier with the product they got though, so I guess they win?


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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzmiya Season 2 episode 10

Previous episode

Well, I’m going to go over the second episode of the second season of the melancholy of haruhi Suzimiya…. What do you mean 10^th?

There was just that bamboo leaf rhapsody episode, than this one, right?

Endless 8?

I have no clue what you’re talking about!

Anyway, The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part I

This episode is about the SOS brigade preparing for the cultural festival that takes place in episode 12 in the first season (You know, the one with Haruhi in the bunny girl outfit singing “God Knows” *drools*) and revolves around preparing to film the movie shown in episode 0. You know, the one with the battle waitress from the future. Anyhoo, the first part of the episode is about Haruhi dictating what everybody else in the club does for the movie. The second part is about Kyon, Mikuru and Haruhi buying stuff for the movie. Not a very interesting episode actually. Mikuru didn’t do much moe stuff, Kyon was a bit funny, but he started coming off as more whiny than usual. Hopefully some interesting stuff starts happening, like in the first ep of the second season. And we need moar Kyon x Mikuru!

Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya Season 2 Episode 1

And thus, the second coming of Haruhi came, and all was good

Ah, the world’s fastest growing religion is back in full force. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the Church of Haruhi Suzimiya. Yes, this church has been gaining support in many corners of the internet from casual anime fans, to the hardcore people who will traumatize you life. As a high priest of this religion, it is absolutely mandatory that I view the first episode of the second season and report how it’s looking.

Fear not, for this season does not appear to be suffering decay from the first season. Kyon is still his old sarcastic self, Haruhi is still the worlds leading rebel, and Mikuru excudes so much moe that youre head will explode. Alas, we have seen little of Ikutski or Yuki, so a report on their status is unavailable for now. However, KyonxMikuru shippers will be pleased to know that this season starts with a healthy dose of the favorite couple. HaruhixKyon shippers get a little too, but as always, it is not as pronounced. It matters not, however, because Kyon is cuter with Mikuru anyway.

This season starts with a time travel episode, that shows a bit of Haruhi at a younger age, and Kyon causing confusing time paradoxes. Alas, if one wanted coherence, they should go watch another show. For, as all who have seen the first season of this show will realize, this show is nothing, if coherent.

Should you watch this show? Yeah, right now (link) It’s realatively new, so nobody should get into trouble, as it hasn’t even been officially translated yet. But really, enough of my opinion, go watch it before they take it off Youtube. Do I like it? Look at my avatar!

Next Episode-> 

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