Endless Eight

So in the Haruhi novels, there's period right before the new semester starts where Haruhi and co. are caught in an endless time loop of her own doing.
Basically she feels unfulfilled and keeps repeating the same day, I forget the final tally but it's something like 15,498 times.
This period of the novels is called Endless Eight (the eight being a sideways infinity sign.)
Kyoto Animation got the bright bright idea to animate this episode separately.
Eight fucking times.
Yes, eight episodes with the same plot, but completely redrawn over and over with different clothes, different timings, some different words.
In the end they can not figure out what is leaving Haruhi unfulfilled and the loop starts over.
Seven times.

Fans rebelled.
There are massive swirling rumors that the former director of Haruhi for S1, who left Kyoto Animation and made his own studio and worked on Kannagi, was let go because he refused to animate Endless Eight.
Everyone is livid.
A fan-made film from the USA that shows Kyon punching out Haruhi at the end of the episode and the earth exploding has caught on like wildfire on both sides of the Pacific.
People are wondering how the hell they expect to sell DVDs of basically 8 of the same episode.

Anyway, I didn't watch a single episode of Endless Eight until now, because I had read the novels and when I heard from friends that the episode had repeated once, I had a terrible terrible premonition of what Kyoto Animation would do.
I mean they had spent how many years jerking our chains around for season two, what would stop them from carrying out their trolls till the end?
Finally the eight episode aired, so I felt it was time to resume the show.
The thing is, I watched all eight episodes at once.
Someone on Niconico went to the trouble of tiling all eight episodes in a nice square and then starting them all simultaneously.
Turns out my friends weren't joking, they really did re-animate every single episode, there's not even a single reused frame of animation I bet.
The only things that synced timing wise between all the episodes was the ending theme.
Hell on episode five they wrapped up the episode early, then showed Kyon's ticking clock for thirty seconds just to trick people.
Only in the eighth, and last episode, did they dispense with the ending entirely and show the beginning of the next day.

So yeah, I feel caught up at least.

Haruhi Season 2

It's been what, three years?

All the little touches are still there, like when past Nagato synchronizes with her present self and removes her glasses as a result.

Season 2 Haruhi a huge troll?

J-cast news reports that they have contacted Kadokawa for comment regarding the revelation that Haruhi TV series is starting in April, and Kadokawa says “Oh it’s a repeat telecast of the first season”.

So yeah, I was going to post on the announcement that Season 2 would start in April.
Now it seems like I was correct to wait on this!
But man, that's just too mean Kyoto Animation.
Too mean.

Haruhi Season T...Churuya-san anime announced

nyoro~n

Nyoro~n

A little background.
Some doujin artist in Japan made a little series of comics with Tsuruya from Haruhi, except they messed up her name on purpose as "Churuya," and had her doing all these stupid things (related to smoked cheese?) that ended with the line "Nyoro~n."
Tsuruya NEVER says "Nyoro~n" in Haruhi.
Anyway, it became a stupidly huge internet meme, both in Japan and the USA (parodies are everywhere, melonbook's new mascot says "Mero~n")



This kid killed himself and wanted Churuya at his funeral it seems.
WTF.

She's Just Oblivious

Pretty good Haruhi AMV =O
Quick, before the Copyright Infringement whores strike!
Seriously not even pokemon parodies are safe these days...

God Knows played by a fox.

Main site here.
It's about time someone did this for the Haruhi songs.

Haruhi 14 ZA WARUDO! (END) (OSHI PUN FACTOR)

See one of the things about Haruhi is I honestly like her the least out of the rest of the female characters.
This includes Kyon's sister and Tsuruya.
That's not to say I hate her, or even dislike her.
It's just that I like her the least.

I have had problems with the tsundere character type, it can be done well, and it can be done horribly.
Horribly would be Love Hina, which has a fucking psycho bitch as the main girl, or her counterpart in Negima (Which I admittedly tolerated for a lot longer than I should have), or Ranma 1/2.
Well would be...Rin/Saber from FSN, Suiseiseki from Rozen Maiden, or admittedly Shana from Shakugan no Shana.
Most tsundere characters are also rather lacking in intelligence.

Haruhi is...well she'd rate decently if NOT FOR THE UTTER SUPERIORITY of the portrayal of the other two character types around her.
The types being "Silent-girl" and "Childhood friend/devoted/sister."

Nagato Yuki is a "silent-girl" type, one could argue a Rei (Evangelion) clone.
Except Yuki is honestly flat out more awesome in every way.
No crazy tragic past of cloning and no giant robot to pilot, but there is something amazingly appealing about Yuki that makes her my favorite character in the entire story.
Perhaps it's her fight against Asakura.
Perhaps it's her completely destroying the computer club single-handedly at real time strategy battleship.
Perhaps it's her completely deadpanning guitar riffs in a witch outfit in the awesomest bit of animation evar.
Perhaps it's all of that combined with her changing personality from non-human to a really sweet girl.

Asahina Mikuru is the "childhood friend/devoted/sister" type.
If you notice her voice actor, she's basically played the same role a whole shitload of times (Kaede in Shuffle, with a twist =D, or Cierra from Riviera, or Hiyori from Mizuiro)
Mikuru is like...fanservice personified; we know it, it's listed episode two (Volume one) on the dotted line.
Is this bad?
She does it in such a way that she's utterly adorable everytime I see her, and somehow doesn't get old.
And you're talking to someone who has seen a lot of crappy fanservice (Hi Love Hina/Tenchi Muyo/Anything by the guy who did I's/Divergence Eve/Green Green/Da Crapo/etc)
Plus her chemistry with Kyon (To a lesser extent Haruhi) is absolutely a joy to watch.
While Nagato is my favorite character, Mikuru x Kyon is probably my favorite pairing.

Which brings us to the final point...
I know the pairing listed above probably won't happen, but it's almost infuriating to think of the REASON it won't happen, namely, HARUHI WILL COMPLETELY DESTROY THE WORLD if it does.
It happens in episode 14 when she flirts with him and it happens when they play baseball.
It just strikes me as sort of unfair.

Anyway, the episode flat out ruled, even being a Haruhi episode.
Wraps up season one nicely.
Also, you can assume that Haruhi completely did not believe what Kyon said at the end of episode 14, as she's still completely oblivious.
I'm sort of curious how season 2 will pan out, seeing as they've nailed all the short stories and basically only have long arcs left.
Hopefully they'll be done well. (3 years ago arc, world w/o Haruhi arc, summer arc.)

All caught up

Well, I am officially caught up with all my anime.
Except one Ouran episode.
It came out while I was watching the others.
SUE ME!

Anyway:
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi 13/14
It's funny how many people say Koizumi is HAADO GEI for Kyon-kun.
Anyway, next on Haruhi, the end of the world!

Utawareru Mono 11/26
Changes from the game, mainly time rearrangements and movement of events.
"Karura has joined the party!"
Seeing Karura animated is lot more <3 than reading about it.
The "Touka has joined the party!" message still has not appeared, even in episode 13's raws.
They better not delay it (What I mean by story changes), I want my Touka.
Plus, the start of Hakuoro trying to stay sane.

Ouran High School Host Club 11/26
"Reverse harem!"
Bwahahahaha, Nekozawa's little sister is too good.
Cute and hilarious.
I seriously thought Renge would be a one time joke but if this episode says anything it's that Renge rocks.
Yes I haven't seen 12, yes I know it's about evil Honey-san or something.
Stop nagging me :V

Higurashi will get its own post because of the length of the analysis.

The Undeniable Awesomeness of Nagato Yuki

KyoAni's insistence on going out of order as some sort of joke at the fan's expense really doesn't make me angry anymore, as they've conveniently (coincidence I think not) saved all the ridiculously over-budget episodes for the season end to go out with a bang.
And what a bang it will be.
I know what episode 13-14 are about, no spoilers, but let's just say plot wise it's pretty huge.
But enough of KyoAni jerking us around, let's get to what this post is REALLY about.

Yuki.
Nagato.
3 year old space alien, android, glasses girl, no glasses girl, witch, hikkimori, gamer, guitarist, goddess.
Yuki is amazing, as she starts out literally as a super robot and just becomes more awesome.
She changes the most over the course of the novels, and there are some really nice moments (alternate universe Yuki in novel 4, even if it IS an alternate universe Yuki, is still Yuki) as she "evolves."

So...all Yuki screencaps!

BIG FUCKING ANIME POST

Well, it's time to fake being an anime blog and list what I'm watching with bazillions of screencaps, harharhar.

SERIOUS ANIME #1
First off, we have Fate Stay Night.
Series I've been sounding off for a while.
Best selling Japanese game of 2004, blah blah blah.
Starts off slow, but is now starting to move at a brisk pace.
I like the story, even if some crazy PHD computer science shotacon fangirls don't.
Curious as to how the series will pan out in the long run.
Saber, Rin, Rider, Ilya, I pretty much like every female but Sakura. And Caster.
Archer is awesome, Shirou less so, but still good enough, sort of meh towards the other males.





STUPID ANIME #1
Pani Poni Dash
Fucking crackfest.
Not like Excel, more like, it's hard to describe.
About an 11 year old genius teacher (half jp half american righttt) from MIT and her class of weirdos.
Ok scratch that, the entire frikkin SCHOOL is filled with weirdos.
Every class, not just hers, are just weirdos upon more weirdos.
The amount of references is staggering, yes this is the anime with the Chuck Norris Reference.
The last episode I watched had a school bus driving through Mario, Space Invaders, Xevious, Galaga, Parodius, and finally Gradius before being blasted by Kamineko lasers onto a ledge, where they remained for pretty much the entire episode precariously perched.
Yeah, if you didn't understand that last sentence you won't understand this anime.







STUPID ANIME #2
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.
So I was digging around for Itou Noizi art(The Shana artist, boy did that series end ever so meh) the other day, and I found out that she (SHE??) is a pretty big illustrator for a game (HGAME??) company.
Yeah, so I had triggers on Winny downloading anything with her name on it, and this manga called Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuu Utsu (aka The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) showed up.
It was definitely weird, but funny, and I liked the art (Itou Noizi! Come on!)
Anyway, I mentioned this in #Shrinemaiden and turns out there's an anime being made.

This anime takes two episodes to get into, unless you're like me and stupid shit amuses you easily.
Then it will take only one episode.

Episode 1:
Yeah so there's this bunny waitress from the future who travels back in time for some guy who has magic powers that some witch from the future also wants and ok erm whatever.
Episode one is a complete joke, as it is a movie within a movie, and obviously an amateur one at that.
No detail is left unnoticed, from the crappy lighting angles, to the characters all looking like they are reading cue cards, to the crappy special effects, to the ridiculous midi music, to the uncomfortable pauses that are supposed to commercials, to people showing up in scenes when they are not supposed to, to actors completely unable to say their lines with a straight face, and well yeah, the final effect is a "so bad it's good thing."








Episode 2:
The series starts proper.
Honestly, this is a slice of life show of how a boy and his encounter with a bunch of random lunatics alters his life outlook.
The secret factor here is the narrator.
His commentary and dry wit are really top notch, and I think are what carry the show from decent to really good.







Oh right, opening song has nothing on the ending.
Then again that ending is best silly fun ending I've seen in a while.
ENDING NONSENSE