The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: The Endless Eight Conclusion

Yes, yes, yeeeeeess.

Thank the heavens that whole time-looping, insanely (and unnecessarily) long arc of this anime is over. It's over, people! (Okay, so this episode was released weeks ago so my announcement may not be timely and all, but whatever.) Please excuse me as I bounce around my room in celebration of this epic, mind-blowing development.

Finally, this frustrating, drawn-out arc which offered no story development in the last six episodes finally comes to a close. I'm not going to say "It's about time, too!" because quite frankly, the anime studio should have wrapped up this crazy arc four episodes ago. In short, this whole arc was a waste of allotted episodes for the second season and went on way longer than it should have. I wondered how the voice actors coped with reading the same script over and over again (it must be boring as heck).Whoever said "Patience is a virtue" should really try sitting through this entire arc. I bet they'll have a mental breakdown by episode six or seven. It just goes on and on and on...

So on to episode nine, the finale of this "Endless Eight" arc. Knowing this was episode that concludes this excruciating arc, I tried to enjoy (for the last time, thank goodness), the summer fun the SOS Brigade went through. Try as I might, after watching it all those times before, it's really hard to enjoy it now. All I wanted to know was how the time-loop actually got broken and it took a lot of willpower not to fast forward the episode. I was even hoping that since this was the last episode of the arc, the anime team would have incorporated something new, like a deviation in their conversations or activities, but alas, I was a fool to even hope for that. I guess that was asking too much from an anime team that hardly changed anything in the past seven episodes. On a more positive note, Asahina was still cute when she narrated how she couldn't get back, and it was still funny how she would insert "classified information" on stuff that were supposed to be censored, top-secret, future-related stuff. But other than that, you can skip the entire episode and just head on over to the last five minutes. I guarantee you won't miss anything.

Kyon just managed to stop Haruhi from exiting the restaurant in the nick of time by declaring that the brigade come together to finish their summer homework at his place. When I found out that this was the anticlimactic solution, the only coherent thing that popped into my mind was, "That's it? That's IT???!"

Seriously, the anime left the audience waiting for like seven episodes to reveal such a simple resolution? I could only roll my eyes. And what's even more disappointing, the episode didn't even give an appreciable airtime on how the brigade spent their last day of summer doing homework, only a brief passing courtesy of Kyon's flashback(when they spent the seven earlier episodes earnestly going through all the other summer activities the rest of the viewers would rather not see ever again).

But then again, I liked the ending with Kyon and Koizumi alone at the clubhouse, musing at the remarkable amount of repetitions they went through and Kyon realizing that the deja vus were hints from himself in the past loops that offered the solution on how to break the neverending cycle. The two boys play poker with Kyon unexpectedly winning in the end. He tells himself that if this day were to ever repeart, he hopes that he would place a bet next time (since Koizumi always wins.)

I would have appreciated this ending more had it been not for the excessively unneccessary episodes. But what's important is that this arc has ended, and that's enough for me to breath a sigh of relief.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: The Endless Eight Arc

I know, I know.

The Endless Eight Arc from the above mentioned anime series ended during mid-July, if I'm not mistaken. But since this is the first time that I have finished the truly agonizing eight episodes of this anime's second season, allow me to rant (for my sanity's sake).

I've read that the ninth episode contains the actual ending of this seemingly neverending arc, but I could not resist anymore. It was either swallowing glass shards or resorting to updating my neglected blog. Of course, this was the less violent and far less painful catharsis.

Firstly, I'm a fan of the Haruhi Suzumiya first season. Sure, Haruhi could be bossy, annoying and unreasonable in her demands on some occasions (okay, most of time). But still, the twists, turns, humor and wit of the series drew me in, like legions of other anime viewers. It wasn't your average anime. Come on, time-travelers, ESP-ers and UFOs against the backdrop of an average Japanese high school make for a great story, especially when you throw in a girl who could unknowingly bend reality any which way she chooses. And then there's Kyon, poor, ordinary, bored Kyon who gets sucked up into Haruhi's weird schemes. Cue in time travel, UFO technology, time paradoxes and complications of reality bending and you've got one kick ass show. The first season was a blast and I was disappointed back then when I thought this was the only time the light novels were going to get animated (I've read some, but not all...I've got a short attention span as you may have already noticed).

So then on to season two. Weee. However, my glee was short lived.

Okay, season two started okay. The Tanabata episode was funny and it got me excited. Surely, with such a great first season, the second season would no less outdo its predecessor. How wrong I was.

Episode two introduced us to the adventures and activities of the SOS Brigade during their summer break. It was fun to watch them goof about. They went to the pool, picked out kimonos for the summer festival, attended the O-bon festival where Yuki got herself a mask and Haruhi and Asahina got themselves goldfishes, played with fireworks, caught and released cicadas, distributed balloons in frog costumes, went stargazing...okay, you get the picture. But seriously, the eight "Endless" episodes were enough to burn all of the SOS' summer activities into my memory. I'm afraid I shall probably remember with vivid clarity even their dialogues for the rest of my life (shudder).

Then episode three came, which was basically a rehash of episode two, but with the gang wearing different attires. So then we realize they are stuck in an endless summer thanks to Haruhi's powers. I was amazed at how many thousands of times they repeated practically everything. I was even sympathetic at Yuki for being the only one to consciously experience the summer loop. Man, I could only imagine how she felt. But this was only the second episode of the Endless Eight Arc. Little did I know I would actually be in Yuki's shoes with how the anime studio churned out the succeeding episodes.

Then episode four rolled about. Same old, same old with minor deviations in dialogue. Okay, I could handle that. It was part of the plot, I told myself. It was merely an emphasis that the summer could truly be endless, or a way to make the audience see Yuki's point of view of the never ending repetition of events. But I couldn't help being bored...and a little frustrated...and a little incredulous that the anime practically repeated the same episode...but I was still patient.

When episode five came about and no resolution was achieved at the end...AGAIN, I was getting more frustrated. I mean, this was watching basically the same episode (with very minor changes in costumes and dialogue) four freaking times already. I wanted to hit Kyon in the head for not doing anything or at least throw the PC off an extremely sharp cliff. Because of this, I laid off the Haruhi Suzumiya anime for a few weeks.

And now, out of boredom, I decided to watch the second season again with the hope that perhaps episode six would bring me the resolution I was waiting for. But unfortunately, the anime team wanted churned out the same episode. I wanted to hit my head against a brick wall. This was all too frustrating. I am certain the second season could be a terrific means of torturing anyone with all the unnecessary repetition episodes.

So by episode seven, I had already anticipated that it would be another rehash of the same old, same old so I took to reading a random manga online and let the anime streaming play in the background, kind of like background noise. I would glance at it every five minutes or so for any new developments, find none, and resume reading, waiting patiently for the ending credits to roll. Seriously, the anime team must be running out of ideas if they are willing to replay an identical episode every week. Their writers may have gone on strike or got abducted by time travelers, aliens, or ESP-ers, take your pick. Whoever thought that repeating practically the same episode every week for almost two months should be buried alive or be given an acid bath...or be forced to see these mind-numbing episodes 15,000+ times or until their neurons turn to goop, whichever comes first.

And then we have episode eight. I was crossing my fingers. Come on, no decent anime studio would do another repeat, right? That was a rhetorical question. After six episodes of the same content, were you expecting something else? Duh.

Tomorrow, I'll probably be watching episode nine. It's the resolution episode, I've read. However, given the sheer frustration and chore of going through the seven previous episodes, I'm not the least bit excited of seeing it. The initial itch of seeing the resolution vanished a looong time ago, along with constant Kyon's disinterest of actually putting his foot down and actually doing something to end the freaking Haruhi-induced timeloop.

The momentum that the anime studio planned on building is gone. Okay, episode two introduced the new arc, so no problem with that episode. One or two repeats would have sufficed, to be honest. It is stupid to leave the audience hanging for an insanely long period of time, especially when the succeeding repeats hardly offered something new. Maybe if they performed some of the other deviations Yuki mentioned, omitted some activities or did a new summer job stint, then the other repeat episodes would have come out bearable. But no. If that is some sort of artistic license or some new, refreshing way of telling a story, it certainly is not working for me.

For those who have yet to see the second season of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, these are the only things I can say: if you can stomach watching the same thing over and over again, be my guest. But really, the first season is way, way, way better and you should not bother with the second one unless you are bored and you want to induce coma on yourself. However, if you are really adamant on seeing it, skip episodes three, four, five, six, seven, eight and spare yourself the agony, frustration and the urge to get a ticket to Japan to personally murder every last one of the anime staff for ruining a completely great series.