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Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Final Impressions – Grade: F (5.93/10)

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Once upon a time in May, we were excited that Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was going to be aired after we waited a whole 3 years for a second season. The first new episode was well received. When June came around, Endless Eight aired and we thought that episode was the only one… We were mistaken by despair as Endless Eight repeated for most of the summer, which made fans go on a frenzy outrage by raging at Kyoto Animation, Kadokawa or even both. Some fans go so far and smash Haruhi figures and rip apart the light novels. We have thought that the series have finally jumped the shark and the whole series was ruined forever, but fortunately, Kadokawa wasn’t insane enough to do that, so it ended in the 8th episode and the week after that Sighs aired, which is apparently the lowest part of the light novel series because primarily, Haruhi becomes the biggest b$%#& in the whole world that everyone wants to have and/or avoid, until Kyon straightens her up and finally conclude the recording of the film, which was miraculously edited. After the airing of the last part of Sighs, it seems that most fans are in despair since Disapparence have disappeared (no pun attended).

In the review, I will be reviewing some positives, but mostly negatives because Kadokawa could have done better in managing this so that it won’t become a complete disaster like it is. Some Haruhiists may disagree, but this is my take… it’s F%$%ing horrible!

Content

This is the weakest point in the whole season, honestly… mainly because of Endless Eight. Rhapsody and Sighs (although good, but not very good) was the only arcs that did fine in this season. The rest is a disaster, because Endless Eight repeated more than 8 times which is completely unnecessary. I would rather watch K-ON! than watch this piece of s$%^ Endless Eight and that is my feeling on Endless Eight. Endless Eight in my opinion is a middle finger from Kadokawa saying, “HA! Do you want Disappearance, but you aren’t getting it!” Every time Endless Eight repeated, It makes my blood boil and want me to rage about Kadokawa again.

I found that the repeating of Endless Eight 8 times was completely unnecessary, it should have been at most 3 episodes and one loop. The light novel does not repeat it more than 3 times, so why should it repeat 8 times in the Anime. Thats because, Kadokawa is the biggest trolls on the planet.

Sighs was okay, but it’s nothing that hits home because some of the content was already presented in “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, Episode 00” in the first season. Sighs is just behind the scenes making of the movie, which some people may not find that interesting until towards the end of Sighs when Kyon finally blows up at Haruhi for smacking Mikuru around. Otherwise, Sighs is good and faithful to the original (hopefully) and also the same case with Rhapsody.

Characters

Theres not much to say, but the Sighs arc made me hate Haruhi forever… because she is a absolute b%$#& and why would anyone be around her if she is going to act that way… but she atleast shaped up…

The scene where Kyon flips out is probably a reason to admire the other character for taking Haruhi as being a jerk. Also, love the talking cat, which only talked briefly.

Animation

The animation was a disappointment just like Endless Eight. The animation and art style in Suzumiya Haruhi 2009 was mediocre/below average, mainly because, someone in Kadokawa decided… Hey, why not make it look like K-ON! The K-ON! art style works only with K-ON!, put it anywhere else and it surely won’t be well received… it would just be like using Lucky Star art style in something like Kanon… You sure get the fans raging…

The K-ONification of Haruhi was pretty much another debate that was happening throughout the whole season… Some may notice that the first episode had this treatment as well… If they going to use that art style, they should just rename the show, Haruhi-ON! and have the SOS-brigade eat cake and crumpets all day long and do moe stuff and of course, play music… oh wait… Thankfully it improved towards the end of the season, although there were faint elements from K-ON!

Music

The music was not great… Tomare was okay, but Super Driver is the WORST OP I ever heard (Yes, this tells you why it’s not good) and made my ears bleed. Personally, I’m not to fond with Hirano Aya’s singing, except the first season songs since most of her songs aren’t that great and she isn’t a great singer compared to other J-Pop artists.

Conclusion

Although Sighs and Rhapsody was good, Endless Eight, poor sounding OP, average to not good art style and the trolling of Kadokawa is what made the season downfall like a hubristic hero. Kadokawa’s arrogance with the amount of trolling they have done to the fans (for example, Second Season announcement in Newtype and showing the Nice Boat parody video) and hubris with the handling of the Haruhi Franchise after it became highly successful caused the franchise’s downfall as a whole with Endless Eight and Haruhi Franchise as a whole will never be at the height as it was three years ago ever again. It’s such a shame, really since I expected this season to be great, but it ended up to be a total disaster after Endless Eight repeated 8 times and I felt it was a waste of time repeating and reanimating Endless Eight because the resources can be used on adapting other interesting arcs, but Kadokawa had to blew it and give Kyoto Animation a bad rep because of it. If there is ever a third season, I will still watch it, but I won’t be expecting much after this disaster of a season.

This is why Haruhi 2009 got a big F, merely because it’s a big disappointment. If Endless Eight haven’t repeated so much and the art style was a bit better than what they shown, I would have give it a better or at-least a passing grade.

Overall Rating

5.93/10, F 

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Episode 14 – Sighs IV (END)

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OMG! Talking cat!
OMG! Talking cat!

Finally, a episode where Haruhi doesn’t act like a complete jerk. The conclusion of Sighs is pretty good, but still there was a few things that bothered me about it.

As the SOS-Brigade wants to complete the movie, something happened the night while Kyon falls asleep while editing.
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Editorial: Haruhi and Moral Issues, Does Haruhi deserves to be punched?

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It's serious business that we need Meganekko Tomoyo.
It's so serious that we need Meganekko Tomoyo.

Haruhi and her rather egoistic and her cruel personality have resonated through out the first episode of Sighs to the recently aired episode when Kyon finally flips out at Haruhi. The problem is that lead up with some people ending up hating Haruhi since she have become a complete b**ch. This was also the case with the light novel which actually showed more of her being a complete b**ch. If Haruhi acted like that in real life, most people would just ignore her as a complete ***hole.

The Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi finally shows Haruhi’s true colors that she has no morals nor values her friendship. Maybe because she is a goddess, but in real life, if you were to act like a complete jerk to your friends most of the time, you would probably lose most of your friends. The reason Haruhi is not my favorite character although she is funny sometimes is that she always take advantage of her friends (especially Mikuru the most, although sometimes funny) and also doing despicable acts that in real life would have big moral issues (like throwing a person into a pond, forcing someone to change into a different clothing against his/her desire, spiking Mikuru’s drink with tequila and also Haruhi smacking Mikuru which is a big no-no because “contact lens is supposed to fly out when your head gets smacked which is stupid… If this was real life and Haruhi indeed did this, there would have been moral consequences that would involve with it (such as assault, slipping alcohol in someone’s drink, potential loss of friendship, injury, etc.). Although Haruhi thinks that Mikuru is a toy, there are also moral issues by using a human being as a toy because seriously, humans aren’t meant to be used as a toy you can fool around with since they have feelings, which apparently, Haruhi completely disregards which makes Kyon angry. Haruhi have no right to treat Mikuru as a toy and smack her around as much she wants because you know, hitting a innocent girl is a wrong thing to do.

Should Haruhi deserved to be punched for being an immoral, cruel ***hole by Kyon, even if hitting girls is wrong? I believe so because even if it causes dire consequences such as the world ending, it would have teach her a important lesson, threat others as you would threat you and also stop acting like a complete jerk and respect her friends. If Kyon just let Haruhi continuing being a jerk, she would eventually stay a complete ***hole as Kyon says it and eventually everyone would ultimately avoid her. Too bad Itsuki stopped him before Kyon was able to punch Haruhi in the face.

After watching the forth episode of Sighs, it made me appreciate Kyon and the other members of the SOS Brigade. Believe me, it took a lot of courage for Kyon to ultimately flip out since he knew the consequences of the world ending if he successfully hits Haruhi in the face. The Sighs arc, despite Haruhi having a energetic, non-***hole side of her personality made me hate her as a character completely because she have a lot of flaws of being a immoral, cruel, cold ***hole as presented in the actions she did in the forth episode of Sighs. While some people may disagree with me, Haruhi is a flawed character, although she is a unique one because of her mostly dominant cruel side of her that turns me off completely… Despite that, she is a enjoyable character when she is not acting as a complete ***hole that everyone wants to avoid and hate as demonstrated in Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi, but I still have stronger preferences for other characters though.

Hopefully, Haruhi finally gets out of being a complete jerk when she finally recorded the whole movie… or maybe not… 

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Episode 13 – Sighs Part IV

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Suzumiya Haruhi 2009 - 23 - Large 23
This episode pretty much made me hate Haruhi so much because of her despicable and outrageous actions, I should of rename this arc: “Everyone hates Suzumiya Haruhi” because she is being the biggest b-word in the world… but that would offend some fans…

During the filming of the film, Kyon starts to get annoyed and eventually flips out at Haruhi for mistreating Mikuru.
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Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season – Episode 10 – Sighs Part I

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Just as Akiba says it, It's a Sony!
Just as Akiba says it, It's a Sony!

The airing of the first part of Sighs was a breath of relief since Endless Eight finally ended and a new story arc is now starting… this time, Sighs pretty much covers how the SOS-dan makes the amateur movie, “The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru.” This first episode was alright, but there are several things that bothered me about it. More after the jump.
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Endless Eight is no longer Endless – Final Thoughts

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See Attributions at the end of the post for Artist infomation

Endless Eight with the airing of the ninth episode shown the ending when Kyon finally decides to have the group finish his homework at the cafe scene towards the end finally breaks the endless loop. Endless Eight is probably the worst, not because of the animation, but because of the repetition. This caused a mass outrage of Haruhi fans and also cause the rating of the show to nosedive to 7.28 just within a few weeks… but now that is over.
Endless Eight, because of the r repetition and how Kadokawa done it in the anime was horribly done. Although Kyoto Animation got the animation right towards the end, the lack of new content caused the arc to become very unwatchable and irritating. I would have done a 30-page long chapter with 2 episodes, 3-4 at the most, but they gone and decide to do 8 which is WAY TO MUCH and meanwhile irritating the whole fandom and causing some of them to give up on Haruhi all together. If they have done it within 2-3 episodes, the arc itself would not be as bad as it would.

Within the last 5 Episodes, the members at AnimeSuki have negatively voted majority of Endless Eight Episodes. Also, back where the episodes were aired, the reaction to the repetition of Endless Eight started to become negative. Atleast Kadokawa and Kyoto Animation have the sanity not to keep going on with the Endless Eight madness past Episode 9.

This is the rating breakdown on Haruhi S2 with the data gathered from the polls.
This is the rating breakdown on Haruhi S2 with the data gathered from the polls.

This doesn’t mean Kadokawa is off the hook, since I’m still angry about what they did with Endless Eight and remember the trolls they done with the first Episode of Haruhi-chan and Second Season being canceled. Although Endless Eight reduced my expectations drastically, I don’t except the rating of Haruhi S2 for what I see so far be any higher than a 7. Endless Eight… Worst… Anime… Arc… Adaptation… Ever… Just read the light novel for this one.

Hopefully when they Air Sighs in the next few episodes, hopefully it won’t turn out bad as the Endless Eight Fiasco.

Verdict

Endless Eight Arc: 4.275/10 (Average of all the ratings of the Episodes in the Endless Eight arc including Episode 9. Don’t complain about this score)
Episode 9: 7/10

Attribution Infomation

Fanart used in this post is made by chocolat. 

Endless Eight in a Nutshell

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While people are frustrating over watching 6 episodes of Endless Eight, I will just sum up Endless Eight as it would happen in the light novel. (Warning, contains solution spoilers)

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The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi: Who to blame?

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If you do survive 6 episodes of Endless Eight... Great! You will earn a big achievement for going through the endless, repetitive loop.
If you do survive 6 episodes of Endless Eight... Great! You will earn a big achievement for going through the endless, repetitive loop.

As we watched the first episode of Haruhi S2, Bamboo Rapsody… many would thought that Haruhi Second Season will turn out great… However, after the end episode aired, Endless Eight Part 1, many thought that it was the end, but that wasn’t the case and Endless Eight after Part 2 was in a repeating loop which many people started to go bananas and accusing Kyoto Animation and Kadokawa and causing Haruhi Season 2’s rating drop from the mid 8’s close to a high 7’s on MyAnimeList and people dropping or putting Haruhi on hold indefinately…. but the question is… Who should we really blame?

The problem is, Kyoto Animation is in the crossfire of all this madness which isn’t really their fault… It’s pretty much Kadokawa than Kyoto Animation because Kadokawa Shoten controls the license to Haruhi, which they ultimately have a say on how many episodes should be produced for Haruhi and the making and marketing of Haruhi merchandise.

In a recent post, this statement is regarded as a rumor, but looks perfectly legit on the situation. (Source: NotCliche)

Umm… I guess it’s okay now?
Endless Eight was organized and produced as 6 episodes.
Kadokawa’s back sponsor got furious and after it was too late (production had finished), the producer was fired.
There was a ton of confusion over whether they were going to skip the produced 4th and 5th episodes and air the 6th.

By the way, the 6 ep organization was Kadokawa’s instructions.
The fired producer was a scape goat to appease the angry back sponsors.
Kadokawa’s ultimate goal was to blow smoke over the fans by having 12 episodes that would consist of E8, Sigh, and a new/re-organized Mikuru’s adventure.
And the Disappearance source material they had pulled from remains exactly that: source material.
Currently Kadokawa does not feel like animating Disappearance [yet/still]

This gives the feeling that the purpose of this new production is simply to pull money from the fans as they move the series from DVD to BD.

If this is true, Kadokawa is ultimately to blame for this fiasco since Kadokawa is just looping Endless Eight so it will sell more DVDs… But then again, we know in the past that noone should trust Kadokawa… Do you remember the “Nice Boat” incident with Haruhi-chan? Do you still remember the statement of Haruhi being “canceled” by Kadokawa? I think it’s time to make Kadokawa responsible for the mess they cause and don’t buy any merchandise relating to Haruhi S2. This is the main reason I given up on Haruhi S2 in whole.

For Kyoto Animation… I really hope they redeem themselves after this mess and atleast adapt something that might become a masterpiece… or something great… Little Busters or FMP anyone? 

With low expectations with Endless Eight, What would you rather do instead?

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Can Akiko's Jam be any worse than watching all six episodes of Endless Eight? Maybe not...
Can Akiko’s Jam be any worse than watching all six episodes of Endless Eight? Maybe not…

Ever since Endless Eight aired several weeks ago, people started to lose faith in the second season of Haruhi…. and Endless Eight is becoming the most notorious anime arc that have been adapted in anime history… but how does it compare to Akiko’s Jam from Kanon? Would you rather eat toast with Akiko’s Jam instead of torturing yourself by watching all 6-8 episodes of Endless Eight… I would…. even if the jam tastes bad.

The question this week is, what would you rather do if you have a choice…. would you watch all 6 episodes of Endless Eight in a marathon or eat one toast with Akiko’s jamu on it?[poll=8]