One thing I’ve always liked about KyoAni is that they never skimp when it comes to outfits. In fact, this episode alone has Haruhi & crew sporting a total of 12 different outfits, which is more clothing variation than you get over the course of some entire series. Except for Yuki, that is, who wears her normal school uniform in every single scene except the Obon festival.

And of course, every single one of Itsuki’s outfits is either completely flaming or totally preppy. Yes sir, par for the course with this show.

Speaking of which, it really seemed like Itsuki stepped up his game in this episode. Whatever that “game” might be. I’m trying not to think about it too hard.

I believe the “game” in question is officially referred to as “extreme feminizing”, in which the practitioner in question makes unnecessarily girly hand gestures in everyday speech while moving uncomfortably close to other males. Points are awarded for awkwardness, style, and flamboyant dancing.

/facepalm

“Your face is too close!”

Fortunately, one beneficial side effect of Itsuki being Itsuki is that we get to see Kyon go into freak out mode. We even finally got to hear his signature line “Your face is too close!” Come to think of it, we’ve had to wait 3 whole episodes to hear him use that one. Come on, KyoAni, quit slackin’.

“This pink bow is just so me!”

Never not flaming.

Just…holy Moses. There are exactly ZERO situations, narrative or otherwise, which would warrant a full half-turn “jazz hand” extension.  Goddamn you, Itsuki.

Gotta love Kyon’s shirt with nothing but a giant up arrow.

It seems like this week’s episode has really stepped the animation quality just across the board, which makes sense considering that K-On has ended and undoubtedly some of staff from that project have been shifted back to working on Haruhi. Now if only there was a better source of RAWs. u_u;

Have to agree with you on the animation; it appears as though Kyo-Ani is back to form. Why this was ever marginalized in favor for K-On is beyond me but as I’ve yet to complete the series I’ll reserve any formal judgments and just content myself with needless grumbling.

A bit of random Mikuru fanservice is always welcome, especially considering that this week has been an all Itsuki special otherwise.

Not sure if want.

I love Kyon’s reaction when Haruhi gives Mikuru permission to wear the frog suit “whenever she wants”. He goes through this whole range of conflicted facial expressions that says he’s trying to decide whether this is, in fact, a good thing or not.

I’m going to have to say that I prefer meido-fuku to the Frog-suit but hey, to each his own.

One of the more subtle effects that I really liked in this episode was the way the color palette slowly drained away as the episode progressed. While the episode started with very vibrant colors, it becomes more and more muted throughout the episode.

Towards the end a nice sepia filter gives the “end of the summer” meeting a hazy, somewhat surreal quality that helps reflect the feeling of deja vu and helplessness of the cast as they consider how to break out of the cycle.

By the time we reach the final scene at the close of the two week period, the scene is almost completely monochrome.

There’s also heavy use of vignettes and an increasingly narrow depth of field as the episode moves towards its conclusion that gives a very ethereal, and progressively dreamlike character to the visuals as Kyon gets closer to REM status. Very cool. As expected of KyoAni.

A timid Mikuru is fine too. Wait… that’s all the time.

Definitely have to agree with Kurogane that one of the funniest moments was Mikuru’s worried monologue:

“Also, Mikuru going “Uuu… Lemme think… I have continued to use classified information to contact the future or to do classified information… Urr. I only feel something is wrong when I have had no contact from classified information for a week. And then classified information… Makes me very worried, so I tried to use classified information and the answer was classified information… Uuu… Waa! Whatever should I do…” was hilarious. And jealous Kyon too.”

I’m pretty sure this week might have set a new record for most uses of the phrase “kinsoku jikou” (classified information) ever in a single episode.

So ronery?

I really loved this shot of Yuki as she sat poolside; it had a really interesting cinematographic effect. Yuki usually looks so listless and emotionless most of the time so the task of making such a stoic figure appear bored, rather them contemplative, would be quite challenging.

An excellent quality of KyoAni’s character design is the eye detail, and with just the subtle color change of Yuki’s eyes we see the reflection of the starkly blue pool water. The intriguing thing is, Yuki’s soft lavender eyes have such a sharp contrast to the azure blue of the water that it produces an effect similar to a rack-focus and draws your attention away from her face and into the reflection.

So, in a strange way the vibrant color reflecting in Yuki’s eyes has the opposite effect of a standard focus-pull. It diverts your attention away from the scene and makes her appear even more detached than usual. All right, sorry about that, “worthless art-graduate student” hat is coming off.

At any rate, Haruhi is back on track and KyoAni’s chops are thoroughly robust. About freakin’ time guys…sheesh.

Also, it would be remiss of me to not point out Calawain’s astute observation as a fellow Groundhog Day fan:

“That’s a hell of a Groundhog Day. Or for those younger readers who watch more anime then older American movies, where are you K1?! On second thought, you people should all go watch the movie Groundhog Day if you haven’t. It’s classic cinema dammit. Damn kids these days.”

I’m glad I’m not the only one to come out yelling at all those damn kids that won’t get off my e-lawn. No appreciation for classic film these days. Sheesh. =P

But seriously, surely KyoAni sees the potential for a Groundhog Day style re-imagining of the Endless Eight story arc? How epic would it be if Kyon just started pulling more and more ridiculous stunts with each successive reset?

“Hey Kyon, hurry up we’re going to the pool!”

“Listen bitch, I’m tired of your meddling. How you ’bout you get Itsuki to drive you to the pool whilst I kidnap Yuki and Mikuru for some classified information and classified information. If we’re feeling really adventurous, we might even try classified information. What do you have to say to that Miss Suzumiya? Where is your god now, huh? Oh wait…”

Ah well, we can dream can’t we?

Also, I have to say I was a little bit surprised that KyoAni decided to drag this chapter out into a third episode. There’s not really much material left in the “Endless Eight” chapter, so I wonder if they’re just going to really take their time with it, or if they plan to transition from the end of this chapter into another chapterin the same episode

Guess we’ll have to wait a few more days to find out.^_^