Haruhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ~ Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
Posted by 0rion on May 24th, 2009 - 3:40 am
Oh. My. God.
What have you been doing all this time KyoAni? It’s taken 3 years and over 100 episodes of not The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to finally get back on track with the greatest anime of all time. Or rather, I guess this would be The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya technically.
Either way, Haruhi fans can now rejoice, for the promised day is upon us! Our unwavering patience and diligent prayers have been answered by Haruhi-sama at long last! Ok ok…
/fanboy hat off
Give me a break already, it’s been a long frickin’ wait! I’m allowed to celebrate a little bit.:P
Things I was glad to see:
• Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody!
What better way to get back into the swing of things than with one of the best chapters from the novels. I always liked this particular story arc, and volume 3 in general, so it’s exciting to see that KyoAni is picking up roughly where they left off. Of course they still aren’t following the exact chapter order, but given how well it worked out last time I have no problem giving them the benefit of the doubt here.
• Random Kyon sarcasm.
Kyon is definitely my favorite character in this story, mainly because he gets all the best snarky lines and over-the-top narration. In a sense, I’ve always felt that Kyon isn’t even really truly part of the story – he kind of breaks the 4th wall with his narration and outside observations.
That’s one of the brilliant story devices that makes this series fun, though, as he serves as the link that echoes the reader’s own thoughts and questions while doing so with a nice dry sarcastic wit. As soon as Kyon started up his traditional opening narration and classroom conversational sparring with Haruhi, I was instantly back into Haruhi mode.
• Meido modo Mikuru!
It just wouldn’t have been a proper re-introduction to the series without a cute Mikuru dressed up and serving tea.
Also otona-modo (adult) Mikuru was a welcome addition, no question. If Kyon had a problem with taking her up on her “reward” offer and kissing the sleeping young Mikuru, he should’ve just gone after the grown-up one, imo. :razz:
• Kinsoku jikou desu!
Wouldn’t have been right without hearing this at least once.
• Loli Haruhi
Yes, she’s just as cantankerous as her older counterpart, if not more so. Fortunately their back and forth verbal sparring is still as entertaining as ever. You know, for some reason Haruhi’s character never really bothered me the way she seems to get under some people’s skin. I always figured it’s because they’re haunted by bad memories of some similarly bossy and obnoxious girl they knew back in junior high, but come to think of it I knew plenty of those as well.
Ultimately I think it’s because I view Haruhi as more a force of nature than anything. She’s the whimsical, capricious deity that holds the story together. She’s the catalyst that makes interesting things happen, and without her there wouldn’t be any story. Well, I mean we could always just go with The Cuteness of Asahina Mikuru instead. Yeah. That would work too.
…or maybe I’m just attracted to weirdos; that could be it.
• Natago Yuki + Creative cinematography
Kyoto Animation did such a great job of animating the first season; they always find creative ways to set the right tone and convey the mood of the story. The original scene in which Yuki gives Kyon her big expositional monologue was one of the most memorable for its funky, detached camera angles that gave an unsettling sense of otherworldliness.
It was nice to see that KyoAni picked up right where they left off in terms of cinematography. This shot of Yuki reflected in the lenses of her own glasses was a brilliant touch. This one, on the other hand, was just freaky.
Things I was disappointed were missing:
• No new OP. No dancing.
Unless you count the team running from the ED. And I was kind of underwhelmed by the new ED as well. It was nice to be sure, but largely forgettable. It certainly didn’t have the dramatic impact that Hare Hare Yukai had for the original season. It was also moderately seizure inducing. >_<
Oh well, one can always hope that we’ll see something rockin’ when the new OP does make its big debut!
• No costume rape.
Self explanatory.
Always necessary.
• No “your face is too close”.
There was even a good opening and he didn’t say it! Come on Kyon, man, you’re slacking!
Speaking of missing good one-liners… I wish they would’ve kept Kyon’s line from the novel that “The SOS-dan without Mikuru is as pointless as curry rice with no curry sauce.” That was always one of my favorite Kyon-isms from Volume 3. 
I feel for ya, Kyon; I really do.
‘t was a nice episode. Anyway, I just love the voice actor of Kyon. Gintama for example would collapse without his voice…he’s just perfect for roles like these.
And I actually like the bossy females. irl I certainly wouldn’t be able to stand someone like Mikuru lol.
Ah well, now we play the waiting game…again.
That’s because Tomokazu Sugita is the Chuck Norris of voice acting.
Or maybe I should say Chuck Norris is the Tomokazu Sugita of martial arts.
And as for Gintama – you’re completely correct when you say it would collapse without his voice. That’s because he’s the only thing left holding that series together. Don’t even get me started on that show. Seriously.
http://www.epicwin.org/img/haruhi/2_01/10.jpg
It’s the same shot as the one you have above. Anyway I know I’ve seen this done in other shows many times before so I don’t think it’s that stunning an example of cinematography. Now if we saw someone coming up behind her as reflected on the lense ala Goldfinger then that would be some kind of cinematography.
Anyway, I noticed that there was a lack of attention to detail in some scenes like the chess match where the pieces actually switch colour so that Kyon was playing with a white rook, but when the scenes zooms out he’s playing black. Weird. I’m guessing that’ll be fixed on DVD.
I was also kind of disappointed the actual lack of inner voice Kyon as compared to the novel version where we got to hear more about what he thought of younger Haruhi and the like. As a result of this and other things I’m still not quite back into it yet.
@ Kaioshin Sama
Whoops…I fixed the link! They both should be the right one now.
Also I do agree definitely that there was something of a lack of Kyon narration in this episode. I mean, there was enough to keep me happy certainly, but you just can never have too much, you know?
Despite the lacking of Hare Hare Yukai awesomeness and dated animation quality (I figured its because they wanted to keep the episodes looking somewhat consistent) it’s still Haruhi and full of win.
I still can’t get over the fact that Haruhi is actually back with new episodes! *screams in ecstasy*
I thought the part where Kyon realized he was sleeping right next door when he first found out about Yuki being an alien was kinda creepy when I imagined myself in his position…
I’m glad that they kept the animation consistent, but I, like everybody else, wasn’t particularly impressed by the ED.
Truthfully I can understand the lack of Kyon narration as they were already going full boar through the entire story. They cut out the op just so they could fit the entire chapter in. It must be really hard to condense that much story into less than thirty minutes and for sticking as close to the story as they did I thought it was stellar.
Everyone is happy to have more Haruhi whether they’re still mad at Kyoto or not. This season is going to be different than the first season though, it’s not going to be the same high school comedy as they concentrate more on the sci fi and brain melters. I still think it will be good though and will continue watching.
PUT DAT BACK ON!!! WE GON’ PARTY TONIGHT!!! *puts on fanboy hat*
Its good to see you back (I just found out…), and I was about to make a comment about you and Haruhi returning at the same time… but thats not really true =(
Anyways, I was also disappointed by the new ED, but you have to consider the new viewers watching for the first time (if there are any…). errr, scratch that, what I meant to say was, its hard to top that ED, and if they tried, they’d probably fail at doing so. So the best move would be to make an ED that is good enough for the viewers. Who knows, there may be a new OP instead =3