The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Kairin]

This thread is to discuss the 2009 re-launch of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, both the 14 new "2009" episodes, and the complete 28-episode series as it aired on Japanese TV (including the 2006 episodes).

A few subjects you might want to consider:
General impression of the series.
Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
Thoughts about the animation quality.
Characters/Character Design
Voice Acting
What the show meant to you.
What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

In addition, you may want to consider:
The impact of the 2009 episodes on their own
The contribution of the 2009 episodes to the overall Melancholy storyline
The directorial decisions in regards to the 2009 episodes, and their impact on you as a viewer
Your revised impression of the series on the whole in considering the newly-added content

*** Please remember that direct comparisons to the novels are allowed, but spoilers for future novel content (anything not already animated) are not permitted even behind spoiler tags. ***


The poll represents your total series rating for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or you may apply whatever rating system you see fit.

In your review, you may choose to provide an overall rating for the 2009 episodes on their own, but in consideration for the way the show was actually aired on TV, the poll is designed to reflect the series on a whole with the new episodes added in.

Enjoy!

[CrowKenobi]

I gave it a 9...

Three year wait, chain yanking and Endless Eight brought it down a notch. :D

EDIT: Even with the name change my stance stays the same! :p

EDIT the 2nd: nvm, name got changed back! :)

[Kaioshin Sama]

Boom! Four! For reasons already stated and obvious. Just an incredibly lacklustre and weak "renewal" or whatever they want to call it now. The one virtue I can point to is that it makes me appreciate the first season and it's narrative a whole lot more by comparison. How selfless of it. Okay well there was Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and the final episode which curiously enough came right at the beginning and the end with all the mediocrity sandwiched in the middle. Not terribly surprising, but not exactly a welcome notion either. It seems like they were trying to influence feelings going in and going out, but unfortunately I can't rate the entire series just based off of those two episodes I actually happened to enjoy while the other 12 left me with nothing. However if this were to be a total evaluation based off of the entire 28 episodes thus far it averages out to about a 5.5 instead.

[Triple_R]

Wait a second... is this for just the new 2009 (why is that in quotation marks? They are the 2009 episodes!) episodes, or for every Haruhi episode up to this point?

Because... that makes a significant difference.

Since the 2006 episodes were rated 3 years ago, shouldn't the focus be on the new 2009 episodes now?

[monir]

Right you are! Added "2009" in the episode title.

[Solachinx]

Ah, another show of mine comes to an end. So, let us review!

Animation Qulity: As with any KyoAni series, the series looks amazing. Granted, there are some spots where the art slips up or downgrades in quality, but that ca possibly be attributed to the Disappearance movie. I also loved the different types of Deja Vu in the various E8s, and I loved the overall dark tone of the later parts of Sigh. Another plus is what looks like a tiny Kyon in the distance in one part of BLR and a couple of girls on black uniforms: novel readers will get what I'm saying- it's nice that some company still knows how to pull foeshadowing off correctly. Overall, I give animation a 9.

Voice Actors: Now, I can't say much about this part because, as a person who doesn't usually watch subs, I usually don't pay attention to what people sund like. But, I have to say, it takes serious balls to record an episode not once- but eight times! One gets the feeling that when Kyon and Haruhi are yelling at each other in the final E8 they really mean it. I give it an 8 for symbolism and because they sound decent.

Script: This being KyoAni, the script is pretty much a copypaste of the novels- except for one part. The Sports Day part of Sigh I was written by Tanigawa for this episode, and it was kickass! I love the track scene, especially when Yuki runs like a Jackrabbit and Haruhi doesn't even question it. Oh, and I guess the inclusion of the Sigh prologue at the end iis kind of ironic, but most normal watchers will think that that's how it happened chronologically- which may cause some problems. Overall, a 9.

Soundtrack: Someone on this site once said: "Haruhi Suzumiya: mundane solutions for big problems." Well, the soundtrack is what turns 'mundane' into 'insane.' For example, the end of E8: the solution to end the endless recursion of time is to complete Kyon's homework. Boring, right? Well, how about instead of talking normally we have people screaming to the top of their lungs- and how about instead of boring pop music we strike up an orcheastral fanfare following the piano solo; top it off with an Disney Acid Sequence, and we've got a deal! Overall, a 10.

Editing: Er... it made sense; 10; NEXT!

Emotional Involvement: I admit I was originally a h8ter- but after it's all said and done, I realised I felt how Yuki had felt through the whole ordeal: angry, frustrated, and melancholic. But, we went through only eight adaptions; imagine what it would be like if we went through ~15,000 E8s. Now THAT is patience. And, at the end of each episode, we would hope that Kyon would be able to reach out to Haruhi along with him, and we would cry in anguish when he wasn't able to. THAT is art. Also, during Sigh, I started to feel a little dispair during the last few episodes: all I can say is that Mikuru has some nerve to put up with Haruhi's petulance- and this is coming from a guy who doesn't really like Mikuru. Overall, 8.

Enjoyment: Despite what the butthurts say about E8, I loved all of Season R: it was funny, epic, well-adapted, and very artistic. If SR were a sandwich, it'd be nice foot-long sub: it has the meat (content/story), the cheese (visuals to compliment the story), the lettace (creator's input), the tomatoes (quality voice-work), the condememnts (visual effects and soundtrack; stuff the atributes to the tone), and the bread to hold it all together (staff workers). And, this sandwich is good. Overall, 10.

Overall Overall: This was a good setup for the Disappearance movie: it had charm, artistic vision, good music and overall good directing. It mAde me rerealise why I love the Haruhi series so: becuase of it's constant attempts, and acclomplishments, to be the best series and the most unique series. Overall, I give it a 9.88888888242010.

Now, what's Season 2 going to be called?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Emotional Involvement: I admit I was originally a h8ter- but after it's all said and done, I realised I felt how Yuki had felt through the whole ordeal: angry, frustrated, and melancholic. But, we went through only eight adaptions; imagine what it would be like if we went through ~15,000 E8s. Now THAT is patience. And, at the end of each episode, we would hope that Kyon would be able to reach out to Haruhi along with him, and we would cry in anguish when he wasn't able to. THAT is art. Also, during Sigh, I started to feel a little dispair during the last few episodes: all I can say is that Mikuru has some nerve to put up with Haruhi's petulance- and this is coming from a guy who doesn't really like Mikuru. Overall, 8.

That's kind of a wide range of emotions to feel all at once, especially for a character who's prime derogative is "observe and report". I don't think patience comes into the equation for a character who is built not to experience time in a linear fashion by her very nature. Also I don't think it's nerve that Mikuru has so much as a willingness to total complacency, which was why she was chosen in the first place. The best subordinate is one who will never stand up for herself or question orders and directives. Doesn't really strike me as art at all really, just stock characterization put to work in gimmickery. Then again I never once felt the desire to cry in anguish so much as I did to hit fast forward and say "yeah never mind this".

I also couldn't be bother to care for a character who was too stupid and lazy to even think of moving to solve his and everybody elses situation 15,000+ times in a row until just by chance the number of the episode we were watching managed to hit 8 resolving the gimmick and allowing him to magically do something even though nothing in the actual story had changed as far as their situation. Not exactly an inspiring lead character or method of storytelling, but rather an example of pure laziness.

In that sense you could call this a total failure on the emotional front as far as I'm concerned. I don't feel sorry for a cast of characters that does nothing at all to help themselves. Mikuru is too much of a crybaby, Itsuki won't move cause he's afraid to upset Haruhi, Yuki won't move because it's not her job, Haruhi won't move cause she is oblivious, leaving Kyon is the sole independent factor who totally drops the ball anyway by not even trying. It doesn't qualify as tragedy and barely qualifies as pathos even though I've used the label to describe what they did there a couple of times. Ugh....

I love the Haruhi series so: becuase of it's constant attempts, and acclomplishments, to be the best series and the most unique series.

Attempts at what? Honestly I didn't see this series attempt much of anything to stand out other than the incredibly gimmicky Endless Eight arc. If that's being the best and being unique then I'm not convinced in the slightest since I see nothing to do with actual quality in it. To me it's no different then all of those shonen series that add terminology, attack, and power up gimmicks into the story to milk more interest out of something that is really just a familiar formula. Likewise Endless Eight has nothing to do with making the story better so much as it does with making it gimmicky and drawing attention to it in the most roundabout and production side manner possible. My biggest problem with this season was the sheer lack of effort put into it on the storytelling, thematic and character and plot progression front compared to first season. Hopefully we won't see such slopiness in the movie and it can actually succeed on the quality front instead of just having the label of success attached to it because it's Haruhi.

[Stardust Romance]

Man, I was really torn between a 5 or a 6 but I'm going to be nice and give it a 6 (2009-episode wise)
As a whole, an 8.

Animation Quality: 8; Despite the never ending arguments whether KyoAni's quality went down or that they just catered more to K-ON's style, I never thought it was terrible at all. I think too many people blew it all out of proportion to be honest. It was like every person pointed out every simple mistake in the damn show. I shamelessly liked the K-ON style mixed with Haruhi style a bit more than 2006's. It looked great on all the characters...except for Haruhi.

I was seeing Yui most of the time and that ain't good.

Voice Actors: 10. They don't disappoint :)

Script: 9. Though E8 was using the shortcuts, heh.

Soundtrack: 10. Good use of nostalgia when I heard the oh familiar BG music. Plus there's some new tunes I simply adored, like from Kyon's epic homework speech, the stargazing scene & that creepy music-box tune that played on Yuki's part in some scenes from E8. Plus I loved the OP....not so much of the ED though.

Editing: Should've cut down E8 into 4 episodes KyoAni :(
I still stand by that.

Enjoyment: 6. Hated E8, but fairly enjoyed Sighs. Yeah yeah, I can move on but that doesn't erase the fact that E8 will always be there and all the horrible arguments it spat out against its fandom. It torn some people apart but I didn't give up and I'm glad I continued watching. That and I had a boring ass summer with nothing else to do but kill time.

Emotional Involvement: 7. E8 made quite the stir but I honestly didn't care to RAAAGE at it like some fans did. Being angry wasn't going to change anything so I sucked it up & watched. Sighs made me feel more attached to the SOS brigade and into understanding the characters more, good & bad, especially Haruhi. She was one hell of a bitch but she's learning to change bit by bit. I still don't like Mikuru though. That'll never change for sure, heh.

Anywayz, can't wait for Disappearance ;)

[Khu]

It was lots of fucking fun.

Kept me entertained, and laughed at how many E8 episodes there were until I realised THERE WERE THAT MANY.

Visuals were clean.

As such, Haruhi gets a 10. It was entertaining, and judging from the people that had seen it before me, I got what I expected: retarded, yet hilarious fun.

Don't really bother with the script thingy kind of thing, but ITSUMO NO FUUKEI IS THE MOST AWESOME TRACK IN THE SOUNDTRACK. I LOVE THAT SONG. IT'S SO HILARIOUS. I DUNNO WHY.

[relentlessflame]

Wait a second... is this for just the new 2009 (why is that in quotation marks? They are the 2009 episodes!) episodes, or for every Haruhi episode up to this point?

Because... that makes a significant difference.

Since the 2006 episodes were rated 3 years ago, shouldn't the focus be on the new 2009 episodes now?Right you are! Added "2009" in the episode title.Actually, sorry to contradict you, monir... but we already had this conversation in the Request for New Threads thread a while ago. The opening post of the thread already explained this point in detail. This is a thread for both the new episodes and the new episodes in the context of the show on the whole. The poll is intended to be for the entire show the way it aired on TV in 2009, which includes both new and re-airing episodes. This is also why the episode discussion threads were renamed to be consistent with the 2009 airing. Of course if people choose to not follow that and do it a different way, that's up to them, but the way it was worded was by design.

[chikorita157]

I did a review, but here is my thoughts about the second season... It's horrible.... Most would thought that sequel would be better than the first season, but we are terribly wrong.

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 Score - Second Season
5/10

[Kaioshin Sama]

Actually, sorry to contradict you, monir... but we already had this conversation in the Request for New Threads thread a while ago. The opening post of the thread already explained this point in detail. This is a thread for both the new episodes and the new episodes in the context of the show on the whole. The poll is intended to be for the entire show the way it aired on TV in 2009, which includes both new and re-airing episodes. Of course if people choose to not follow that and do it a different way, that's up to them, but the way it was worded was by design.

Considering the way it was written encourages people to do either both or just the new ones I don't think it should end up being a problem. Though I wouldn't be too surprised if people who were around for 2006 just want to talk about the new episodes.

[Solachinx]

That's kind of a wide range of emotions to feel all at once, especially for a character who's prime derogative is "observe and report". I don't think patience comes into the equation for a character who is built not to experience time in a linear fashion by her very nature.

Do you read the novels? *not an attack, just an honest to god question* Because if you don't, you'll see why all of this hullabaloo matters (both this and Saggitarius) after the movie is shown. Not saying more for fear of moderation.

Also I don't think it's nerve that Mikuru has so much as a willingness to total complacency, which was why she was chosen in the first place. The best subordinate is one who will never stand up for herself or question orders and directives.

You have a point there, and that part was bugging me in the back of my mind after typing it. I meant to type "Or, she's your average Moe Moe Girl. Whichever comes first." after that part, but I forgot it. Oops ^^;

Doesn't really strike me as art at all really, just stock characterization put to work in gimmickery. Then again I never once felt the desire to cry in anguish so much as I did to hit fast forward and say "yeah never mind this".

Not you, specifically, but there were plenty of people here who might as well have been crying by the time E84 rolled around.

I also couldn't be bother to care for a character who was too stupid and lazy to even think of moving to solve his and everybody elses situation 15,000+ times in a row until just by chance the number of the episode we were watching managed to hit 8 resolving the gimmick and allowing him to magically do something even though nothing in the actual story had changed as far as their situation. Not exactly an inspiring lead character or method of storytelling, but rather an example of pure laziness.

Well, if you were in that situation, what would you do? Would you shout 'I RAV YOU!,' or would you ask her to go to the beach? Would you think about pleasing Haruhi figuratively or literally? Would you do X or Y? There are over half a million things she could've wanted; Kyon was thinking for anything and everything that could've broken the loop, and homework popped up at the last second. I mean, the subject of homework was only talked about once during the two weeks and after Yuki's infodump I'm sure homework was the last thing on Kyon's mind. Though, it can be argued that Haruhi wanted to do anything on the last day.

In that sense you could call this a total failure on the emotional front as far as I'm concerned. I don't feel sorry for a cast of characters that does nothing at all to help themselves.

I meant that, while we didn't feel sympathetic for the characters, we felt how they felt. We were tired, and annoyed, and PO'd by the 'Endless recursion of E8' and we wanted it to end. It was supposec to make us feel empathetic, not sympathetic.

Mikuru is too much of a crybaby, Itsuki won't move cause he's afraid to upset Haruhi, Yuki won't move because it's not her job, Haruhi won't move cause she is oblivious, leaving Kyon is the sole independent factor who totally drops the ball anyway by not even trying.

Well, Mikuru can't contact the future and doesn't know what the hell to do; Itsuki doesn't want to accidently fuck up the world; Yuki was never given any orders and, thus, can do nothing; and Kyon had to pick one from googles of different things to do or else it's game over and the cycle starts again.

Attempts at what? Honestly I didn't see this series attempt much of anything to stand out other than the incredibly gimmicky Endless Eight arc. If that's being the best and being unique then I'm not convinced in the slightest since I see nothing to do with actual quality in it. To me it's no different then all of those shonen series that add terminology, attack, and power up gimmicks into the story to milk more interest out of something that is really just a familiar formula.

But those things are archetypes and have been repeated over multitude of series. This is like releasing Groundhog Day 12 or 15 times before the final one where Bill finally sleeps with the chick. Now that I think about it, the only thing really known about this series is E8 and Hare Hare Yukai, so you might be right about the gimmicks. But, the story is really deep compared to what it looks like at face value: it looks like a series for girls, but it's actually a deep elaborate plot that continues to screw with my head. I like series' that turn out to be better than what it looks like, rather than some pretentious series like most teen fodder nowadays. IMHO at least.

Likewise Endless Eight has nothing to do with making the story better so much as it does with making it gimmicky and drawing attention to it in the most roundabout and production side manner possible. My biggest problem with this season was the sheer lack of effort put into it on the storytelling, thematic and character and plot progression front compared to first season. Hopefully we won't see such slopiness in the movie and it can actually succeed on the quality front instead of just having the label of success attached to it because it's Haruhi.

Well, E8 is fairly important to the plot in hindsight after you figure out why Yuki would do what she does in the upcoming arc. That's all I'm saying about that.

The fact that E8 was stretched so could be because that they were planning a Disappearance movie for a while and that three storys needed to be stretched to fit one cour. BLR can't afford to be stretched, and Sigh is a short book and would probably only fit 5-6 episodes. So, there are about 8-7 episodes left and, unless they want 6-7 episodes of filler, E8- given it's story and ability to be produced multiple times because of it's story- had to be stretched.

I love debating.

[SgtHydra]

I give it a 10 simply because the entire series is a meme factory.

[Triple_R]

Ok... so after thinking about it, I think that the best approach for me to take is to rate the 14 new 2009 episodes, which essentially operated as a second season of sorts for me, and perhaps for many Haruhi watchers. This is how I experienced this year of Haruhi episodes, as I didn't re-watch the Haruhi 2006 episodes as they re-aired; I re-watched them on my Haruhi 2006 DVDs, but only to help draw comparisons between Haruhi 2006 and Haruhi 2009.

However, I will apply the suggested criteria to rate those 14 episodes...

Animation Quality: 7

I'm judging artwork and animation at the same time here.

The animation quality was rarely in question for me, and I have no substantial complaints to make there. I also felt that Haruhi did a good job of delivering both great artwork, and splendid animation, for the "money shot" scenes; basically, the two big Kyon-becomes-Kamina moments of the anime (the finale of E8, and Part 4 of Sighs).

As for artwork, it was pretty hit and miss for me. Part 7 of E8, and Parts 3 through 5 of Sigh, had gorgeous Haruhi artwork that looked pretty close to the 2006 style that I found very appealing when I first watched Haruhi back then.

OTOH, I was an admittedly outspoken critic of Yuified Haruhi, and this exacerbated E8 for me personally in a few E8 episodes.


Voice Actors: 10

It's rare that Japanese seiyu stand out to me, but this cast does. Hirano brings such passion and life to her character, and I like how she can do everything from innocently playful Haruhi to arrogantly obnoxious Haruhi to fiercely angry and about to have a nervous breakdown Haruhi. Sugita did a marvelous job of raising the tone and tenor of his vice to match the epicness of the "money shot" scenes. Him and Hirano both show considerable range, and know when and when not to ham it up.

And the rest of the cast play their specific roles flawlessly.


Script: 4

I'm not sure if this or Editing is the right place to bring up the inevitable E8 critique, but script strikes me as the more appropriate place to raise critiques against the arc layout of this year (1 for BLR, 8 for E8, 5 for Sighs).

5 was just the right length for Sighs, and I felt that this arc was well-scripted.
1 was fine for BLR, and that was well-scripted as well.

However, the bulk of the new 14 episodes was E8, and well... I'm sure anybody here who knows me at all, knows how I feel about E8. :heh: I would have greatly preferred 3/4 episodes for E8, and pretty much anything else for the other 4/5 episodes... yes, even anime original fillers, to be blunt.

Or... or... what could have saved E8, imo, would be more differentiation between the iterations. E8 could have been a lot of fun if KyoAni had played around with it a bit more, but... oh well, what's done is done.


Soundtrack: 9

Once again... perfect handling of the money shot scenes. The upbeat Disney-meets-Gurren Lagann esque soundtrack for the E8 finale scene was excellent, and the soundtrack was also nicely ominous and tense for the Kyon/Haruhi argument blows up into Kyon trying to punch Haruhi scene.

There were a few times when the soundtrack felt a bit off to me... and that schmaltzy restaurant tune was played a bit too much for my liking :heh: ... but aside from that, I have nothing but high marks for the soundtrack.


Editing: 8

A few little editing cuts struck me as odd... I recall the lengthy focus on Kyon's shoes while Kyon was walking in Part 1 of Sighs for example (others might point to Itsuki's Esquire Watch commercial, although I actually liked that as it drew my attention away from excruciatingly painfully familiar subtitles :heh:). Still, the editing usually seemed Ok to me. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to get upset about either. A very solid 8.


Enjoyment: 9

This is the toughest to rate. This year of Haruhi really was a year of peaks and valleys for me, enjoyment-wise. Again... I just come back to the awesome money shots. As a lover of theatrical drama, I really do have to give credit to KyoAni for having the exquisite sense of timing to know when to deliver the money shots, and also for having the finesse and skill to deliver it in a first rate way.

I'll never forget the E8 finale. I'll never forget the climatic Kyon/Haruhi showdown from Part 4 of Sigh. Haruhi shooting at that temple priest and calling for a hilarious retreat... the suspenseful sequence where Mikuru first shoots off the Mikuru beam, and the cool chaotic chemistry that came from that...

You know... I'm ultimately going to remember the good much more than the bad, so I'm going to go easy here. 9/10 for enjoyment. When Haruhi shined, it really shined.


Emotional Involvement: 8

This is also tough to rate. It was an emotional roller coaster ride, with plenty of ups and downs. On my blog I argued that this is better than just even-keel consistently slightly above average fare, but... nor is it like, say, Gurren Lagann, that kept me emotionally involved purely through content, and never through the meta stuff.

I'll give emotional involvement a 8.

So, averaging out... it actually comes just short of 8 on my calculator. So, a 7.
Ok, I'm happy with that.


Average = Total Series Rating: 7

I guess the moral of the story is that even when KyoAni tries to pull utter crap, Haruhi still manages somehow to be above average. For me, at least.

I can honestly say that I'm thankful for this year of Haruhi episodes... if not for the money shots it would be a lot worse, but... I'm a sucker for those money shots, I have to admit. :heh:

Not as good as Haruhi 2006, but good enough for me to stay a Haruhi fan, and very much look forward to the Disappearance movie.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Do you read the novels? *not an attack, just an honest to god question* Because if you don't, you'll see why all of this hullabaloo matters (both this and Saggitarius) after the movie is shown. Not saying more for fear of moderation.

Not really the place to be discussing the novels even though I would have answer for you.


You have a point there, and that part was bugging me in the back of my mind after typing it. I meant to type "Or, she's your average Moe Moe Girl. Whichever comes first." after that part, but I forgot it. Oops ^^;

I find her to be the least developed of all the characters thus far other than for her adult counterpart that has very little screentime anyway.

Not you, specifically, but there were plenty of people here who might as well have been crying by the time E8 rolled around.

Could have been, but I didn't really get upset or involved with it, it eventually ended up as a large indifference that just happened to take up the majority of the season.

Well, if you were in that situation, what would you do? Would you shout 'I RAV YOU!,' or would you ask her to go to the beach? Would you think about pleasing Haruhi figuratively or literally? Would you do X or Y? There are over half a million things she could've wanted; Kyon was thinking for anything and everything that could've broken the loop, and homework popped up at the last second. I mean, the subject of homework was only talked about once during the two weeks and after Yuki's infodump I'm sure homework was the last thing on Kyon's mind. Though, it can be argued that Haruhi wanted to do anything on the last day.

The homework popped up because it was episode eight and they needed to bring the arc to a quick and expedient conclusion. A very simple Deus Ex Machina if you will that came very much out of the blue. Though I think they were very much aware of this fact in how overplayed the scene was I still don't think it makes up for the lacklustre conclusion to a series of non-conclusions.

I meant that, while we didn't feel sympathetic for the characters, we felt how they felt. We were tired, and annoyed, and PO'd by the 'Endless recursion of E8' and we wanted it to end. It was supposec to make us feel empathetic, not sympathetic.

I honestly don't think there's any way to tell how the characters felt because they pretty much just sat their and excepted their fate. I also don't see that as a helpful thing either the way it was done because it just feeds back into what I see as a gimmick as opposed to the straightforward short story it was originally. Every way I look at it they just made a decent story substantially worse with the way they chose to go about it and I don't give points for that. It's a matter of failed execution.

Well, Mikuru can't contact the future and doesn't know what the hell to do; Itsuki doesn't want to accidently fuck up the world; Yuki was never given any orders and, thus, can do nothing; and Kyon had to pick one from googles of different things to do or else it's game over and the cycle starts again.

I'm not really saying I expected much from the majority of the cast other than Kyon. He's pretty much the least cliched out of any of them and the one who seems to be able to bargain the best outcome more often than not. The thing is we never once saw Kyon even try to do anything and talk with Haruhi even when he had the wrong answer. Would it have hurt to try? The result would have been the same anyway. The problem is he doesn't even try until he comes up with the homework thing which miraculously just happens to be the right answer. It strikes me as lazy scenario presentation and reminds me of how Kyoani presented things in K-On where the solution to every problem seems to come easy. Not very deep, but rather idealistic.


But those things are archetypes and have been repeated over multitude of series. This is like releasing Groundhog Day 12 or 15 times before the final one where Bill finally sleeps with the chick. Now that I think about it, the only thing really known about this series is E8 and Hare Hare Yukai, so you might be right about the gimmicks. But, the story is really deep compared to what it looks like at face value: it looks like a series for girls, but it's actually a deep elaborate plot that continues to screw with my head. I like series' that turn out to be better than what it looks like, rather than some pretentious series like most teen fodder nowadays. IMHO at least.

The thing with Groundhog Day is that there are more themes going on such as Bill Murray's character being trapped in the same day until he can improve his personality and outlook on life and the whole romantic thing with Andie MacDowell's character who is interested in him, but wants him to be a more compassionate person at the same time. There I can say I got to empathize with his character and actually feel something about what he was going through. At first I disliked his general attitude towards other people, then I laughed at his lame attempts to try and use the loop to his advantage, then I pitied him in his desperate attempts at suicide to try and get himself out of the loop (a dark turn if ever there was one) and then I was happy to see him finally find a way out and improve his quality of life as well as those around him. It was a good tale with some decent morals that wasn't too preachy at the same time.

Endless Eight on the other hand felt like just watching a bunch of people frolic and then frolic again for another 7 episodes to the point of indifference. Unlike Groundhog Day where the tone of the story changed even as the events stayed the same, the tone of the episodes remained the same throughout with the frolicking in bathing suits and such during the first 3/4 and then the exact same attempt at a dramatic twist for the last 1/4 with no resolution. You'd think they would realize that after the 3rd or 4th iteration of the attempted dramatic twist that it would have lost what little impact it intitially had, but nope, it just keeps plowing forward until the 8th episode with the magic ending where instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment, improvement and development in the characters actions like I did with Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day, all I'm left with is the chance to say, "oh....so it's over then". Net result, no character development for anybody but for the small amount Yuki get's after 2/3 of a season. Never mind Comedy Network, that's what I call time well wasted. Again it comes down to the execution.


Well, E8 is fairly important to the plot in hindsight after you figure out why Yuki would do what she does in the upcoming arc. That's all I'm saying about that.

The fact that E8 was stretched so could be because that they were planning a Disappearance movie for a while and that three storys needed to be stretched to fit one cour. BLR can't afford to be stretched, and Sigh is a short book and would probably only fit 5-6 episodes. So, there are about 8-7 episodes left and, unless they want 6-7 episodes of filler, E8- given it's story and ability to be produced multiple times because of it's story- had to be stretched.

Let's talk about the future when it comes because I'll have plenty to say then I'm sure. Either way I've seen stories get rewritten because of a movie getting greenlighted plenty of times before (i.e Gundam ZZ) without them having to stretch an arc out to absurd lengths just to make up the time. If this actually is the case though I have to say the manner in which they went about it was incredibly sloppy and it would kind of worry me if a TV series worth of plot got rerolled into a movie just like that. The final question I would ask regarding that would be whether it would it have then killed them to add another arc like the vaunted Snow Mountain Syndrome instead of such a solution as the literal Endless Eight?

I refuse to accept the movie as an excuse for a lacklustre and poor second season either way.

[Ithekro]

Basic problem with the structure. There was only a limited amount of material before what will be animated in the movie. And these three stories was all of it. There is nothing else that hasn't now been animated before the movie. Everything else takes place after the movie, and the movie's plot effects those stories...thus, the animation studio was stuck with BLR, Endless Eight, and Sigh.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Basic problem with the structure. There was only a limited amount of material before what will be animated in the movie. And these three stories was all of it. There is nothing else that hasn't now been animated before the movie. Everything else takes place after the movie, and the movie's plot effects those stories...thus, the animation studio was stuck with BLR, Endless Eight, and Sigh.

Nothing stopped them from doing things out of order before. They could have easily continued down that path. Even continuing with that particular gimmick would have been preferrable to stretching out an arc longer than it was supposed to go and far less lazy too.

[Archon_Wing]

This will be about the 2009 episodes only.

Ah, season 2 of Haruhi-- when I recieved word that there was more Haruhi, I looked on with mild curousity. I guess Bamboo Leaf Rhaposdy was mildly amusing, but nothing spectacular and it seemed to go so fast. But not bad at all.

Oh Endless Eight; it's the dead rotting horse in the middle of the living room, but how can it not be talked about regarding this renewal of Haruhi? It seemed like they were just trying too hard here (or perhaps not as hard) but Endless Eight being eight episodes seems like a really bad joke that anything else. It just seemed pretty gimmicky and a lot of this meta-art stuff seems specific to fans of the series. For a casual viewer like myself, I just thought it silly. The 2006 incarnation just seemed to be more accessible. Now this is typical of a follow up to a series, and an advantge of the original season, but yea.

If Endless Eight did anything right, it was to show the pain that Yuki was going through. Of course, that requires the audience to care about the characters. Do I care about the cast? A little. But not enough to last the whole arc really. Was the feeling of apathy intended. Sure. It doesn't make it "good", it just means it did something it was supposed to do. But really, even though Endless Eight ended with a thud, it's hardly the catastrophe some would have you believe.

And then came Sigh. Started out incredibly boring, but Haruhi's antics grew at first amusing, but then the whole situation seemed really frightening, as if left unopposed. Mikuru's plight was reaching a point where it becomes painful to watch, and really just pushed Kyon's limits. However, Kyon finaly got it in him to do something, anything, and hope for the best because maintaining the status quo wasn't gonna cut it. Indeed, all those Endless loops had definitely installed something in Kyon. OMG it's character development. And Itsuki becomes much more than a smiling jackass, as he moves to work within his confines. And you'd realize how restricted he truly is.

One thing I liked about Sigh is that it really summarized the spirit of the series well. The series has always been about breaking away from the status quo, with its parodying and shattering of practically all imaginable cliches and that bizzare episode airing of the first season. Playing it safe would only lead to a bad end. All the factions involved in this story would like to pass the responsibility to Kyon, because taking responsibility is such a dangerous thing at times. We don't know what would happen for defying Haruhi-- none of the information is trustworthy and much is unknown. Everyone is too afraid of the unknown to act. So the question asked to Kyon and to the audience is "what do YOU think?"

And the cat, just the cat. ;)

Overall: 6/10 Not too bad. I guess it was disappointing, but if it served as anything, it was probably a good advertisement for the movie. That's something to look forward to.

Edit: Overall for the entire series would be 7/10. My rating for the 2009 airing is still 6/10 though, since I didn't watch the reruns of the 2006.

[Ice Block]

I have found a crack and I will tear at it till the thing breaks! Muahahahaha!
Alright, moving on...
50
I'm not fond of lengthy reviews, so... I give the series a score of 9/10 overall. Excellent, as even after all these years, you'd be hard pressed to find something to top Live A Live and The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru Ep. 00. Credit is also given to the excellent adaptation of Sighs, as it managed to make one not-so-interesting book, well, interesting. Not perfect, as because even though I enjoyed the majority of Endless Eight (E8), there were two episodes that I felt were poorly done.

All the other E8 episodes had something unique to offer (my personal favorite being E8 V) except E8 III and VI. Now if you skipped through all those episodes and are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, then I suggest you rewatch them all. :D

And of course, watching this series will never be as exciting and suspenseful without Kadokawa's stunts:

all the hype and secrecy of a second season during the few months before Clannad's premier
July 7, 2007 (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=1030689#post1030689) and December 18, 2007 (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=1302306#post1302306)
gag order on TV stations regarding the rerun's episodes
hotel reservations and the subsequent data explosion on the night BLR aired
shattering all predictions with Kyon-kun denwa~ and the resulting conspiracy theories
LULZ-worthy magazine scan hinting at Disappearance but actually promoting the novel
announcement of a Disappearance movie right at the end of the last ep

Through good and bad times, in Haruhi we trust. :heh:

[Myssa Rei]

Animation Quality: 6

The quality for this iteration was really a mixed bag, I have to say. I'm not expecting high levels like other people here, but what I did expect was some form of consistency. Sadly, it didn't really happen, and the art shifts in many of the episodes of Endless Eight were cringe-worthy (yes, I watched it all). This seemed to have reversed near the end (how apt), but it was probably done only so the show would come back in line with the art style used in Episode 00: Koi no Mikuru Densetsu (and thus not too jarring).

Voice Actors: 7

Eh, I've got a tin ear for Voice Actors (I can name only TWO VAs for certain that I can recognize every time, and that's Kawasumi Ayako and Wakamoto Norio), so I can't really say I appreciate the VAs themselves per se, but I did enjoy their performances when the situation called for really emotionally charged scenes. Kyon nearly blowing up on Haruhi near the end of Sighs was one of these.


Script: 7

The company was working with what little that they had for the Timeline, but it's here where we see that KyoAni's creative pool where it comes to the script is found lacking.


Soundtrack: 7

Again, tin ear with regards to these kinds of things, though I have to agree that if there was a song to be used for an OP, SUPER DRIVER was NOT it. I'd have preferred to have one of the songs in the Character CDs to have been used, but there you have it.


Editing: 7

Err, not really a major in Cinematography so can't really say much in this area, though some scene transitions and camera angle choices struck me as odd.


Enjoyment: 8

Ego loquor , ego etiam utor serius , tamen via Infinitas infinitio Duodeviginti fabula eram tracto vere pluo quam vel a bonus bulla amo Kyoto Animation planto a ingens erroris. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody quod Sighs mos non plene confingo pro is , tamen ego sum magis indulgeo quam alius


Overall Impression: 7

With that, I have to say, I'm cautiously optimistic about the Disappearance Movie. We'll just have to see if it can make up for the damage done.

[Ithekro]

True, most of the Endless Eight episodes, if taken on their own merit, are good episodes. The trouble is that people can't see get past that there are six episodes that are virtually the same, and two others that are partly the same (the first and last ones).

Each one was well voiced, most were well animated. And the story worked for each one. Just together they start to wear on the mental health of the viewer. I was even tired of it after seven weeks...though I did have fun talking about it to someone who doesn't watch the series, because it is actually funny to describe what is happening and see the reaction you get when you tell someone about this show that is repeating the same plot/situation/script week after week. And then telling them it is animated completely differently each week. The puzzled looks are priceless, because having the same plot and other things sounds no different that a lot of sitcoms or many other forms of television of late, but to find out this is animated, and then reanimated completely differently somehow defies all logic. And then to describe how well it is animated throws them for another loop. Then to do it to them again two or four weeks later, when the Endless Eight has still not ended (or just ended). Defies logic, but is fun to see the reactions. Also the description of the solution with its over the top heroic victory charge music, overly dramatic yelling of a mundane solution....its perfect for conversation.


Then there is Sigh. A simple D-grade high school movie project...until you point out what everyone involved is...and that the reality warper/god doesn't know anything about her powers. All is more or less fine and dandy...Mikuru's being abused, Kyon's annoyed, Itsuki's still smiling, and Yuki is there, sometimes reading even....then comes the first Mikuru Beam....situation is no longer normal. Red Alert.

BLR was a good starter and an important plot point. Probably the most important story this year of the lot. Just its important for later more than now.

(Myssa Rei gave something higher than a seven...wow)

[Myssa Rei]

*snips*

(Myssa Rei gave something higher than a seven...wow)

Well there is the mental fatigue, and I really suspect that, combined with the lack of expected resolution, that lowered the opinion of people for the franchise... And Haruhi turning into Yui for two episode. ;)

And if you noticed, I did give a 6. It all evens out. :D

[Proto]

Geez, this is a difficult one. I'm almost tempted to write a long essay on why this deserves a 10 just to annoy Kaioshin sama out, but I don't think that would help my credibility in the future. :heh: In general the E8 made me laugh for all the wrong reasons (mainly laughing at the fanbase and hatebase), and the non post modern type of episodes were quite decent in their own right. Not exactly a let down, but since I never considered the first season to be anything neaing a masterpiece it's not like I came with impossible to meet expectations. The series had to work with some of the weakest arcs in the Haruhi franchise, and well, whether it did it well is debatable, but at least it managed to satisfy me, even if it's not the next ARIA or Cross Game for me. Overall, I guess I'll give it an 8. Mainly because of you guys who hated Endless Eight. Watching your reactions every release day made my day.

Some may say it's a case of laughing at the series rather than laughing with it, but well, I'm laughing in the end I guess. Wahaha.

[bhl88]

oh great a long thesis about Endless Eight.

Endless Eight: The Madness of Endless Eight and It's Spartan Consequences to KyoAni rofl

[SealkidHaruhiism]

Animation Quality: 9 -
I didn't like the K-ON! style for E8 and Sigh, but Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody animation looks good.

Voice Actors: 10 -
I don't really know.

Script: 10 -
I don't really know.


Soundtrack: 10 -
I like Haruhi 2009 op ,and The ED was kinda good, but I was expecting for a new dance.


Editing: 10 -
I don't know?


Enjoyment: 9 -
kyoani should at lease make Endless Eight for 3 episodes and not 8 episodes. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and Sigh were good.

Overall Impression: 10 - I don't know
I'm a Haruhi Fan, thats Why I rated it a 10!

PS: CAN"T WAIT FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!

[Takamura Mamoru]

Realized this is about 2009 Haruhi too late, now I already voted 10. :rolleyes:

Silly me.

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

It is? I thought it was "Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating." You know, with the 06 run included?

Then again, I suppose when something like Boredom is included, it deserves that one 4-vote. :p

[GMT]

First, I'd like to say . . . movie . . . wait, what? I've been away too long. I think I need a drink . . .

. . . okay, now that I've had my liquor medication, we can begin the overall series review of Haruhi Suzumiya! I will be doing two reviews, in parallel. One of just the 2009 episodes, and the 2009 episodes as they fit into the overall 28 episode framework.

Animation Quality
2009 - 8 . . . that's right, an 8. Yes, BLR featured Freaky Kyon, and there were some corners cut in some episodes of Endless Eight, but everything else was excellent.
Whole Series - 9. Haruhi is a beautifully animated series. Yes, there were a couple places in 2009 where a corner or two might've been cut, but there were places like that in 2006 as well. For animation highlights, 2009 gave us Sighs. 2006 gave us Live A Live.

Voice Acting
2009 - 9. I watched 2006 in dub only. Now that I've seen 2009, I went back to the 2006 DVDs and switched between the dub and original language tracks. I felt that 2009's voice acting was better than 2006's.
Whole Series - 7. Yes, I know about twenty total words of Japanese. But I learned them all in 2009. I didn't learn them from the 2006 airing which, at the time I saw it, didn't seem especially notable to my ears. Maybe I'm just weird. Maybe being exposed to fourteen straight episodes of Japanese repeated three times apiece has tuned my hearing to the nuances of Japanese voice-acting. Maybe I just need another beer.

Script
2009 - 7. Well, expending expending eight episodes on Endless Eight was an expansion of the original material that was of . . . questionable wisdom. But, unlike the Cylons of the new Battlestar Galactica series, Kadokawa/KyoAni really did have a plan. We'll see how the movie turns out to see if this plan was worth it.
Overall - 9. The source material is . . . dense. Very dense. My collection of Haruhi light novels (and my computer, every time I visit the pirate light novel site,) are so dense, they bend light. KyoAni has done a superb job adapting it for television expanding it (for the most part) where expanding it would have the best effect, and keeping the storytelling tight and muscular . . . easily accessible to new viewers.

Soundtrack
2009 - 8. Super Driver and Tomare are catchy songs in their TV-sized versions. The new BGM really made Sighs worth watching for me.
Overall - 8. I think there are maybe two people on the entire planet who have managed to escape seeing Hare Hare Yukai and the "Haruhi dance" on IdiotYoutube. I don't think I can really say much more than that, other than What the hell did Kyon's sister do to deserve a character CD?

Editing
2009 - 6. The Cylons have a plan . . . the Cylons have a plan . . . the Cylons . . . okay, the plan pretty much kinda sucked. Kadokawa's planning a Disappearance movie, we've got fourteen episodes of new material to fill, and Sighs/BLR won't take up any more than six. So what to do. Make the viewers' eyes bleed Expand Endless Eight to Eight Episodes!!!111 Brilliant! Only not so much so. C'mon, production committee, you've got Tanigawa on a leash. Couldn't you have wrung another anime-original episode or three out of him?
Overall - 8. As I said in some other review section, the source material is astonishingly dense. If I were Kyon, they'd be taking me away in a padded wagon before I went through half the shit that he does. And KyoAni has turned it into a well-made 28 episode show. It loses a point for making Endless Eight so long, but they didn't have too many options if they wanted to save the Disappearance-related material for later.

Enjoyment
2009 - 8. I enjoyed this run about as much as I could enjoy any show where I didn't understand more than about twenty of the words that were spoken. It reminded me of my high school French class, when we used to watch French movies. None of them I really got because they were all in bloody French. Sure, there was a lot of Endless Eight, but it's possible to get a sort of enjoyment out of watching that too. And, much to my surprise, the DVD sales seem to bear this out.
Overall - 10. That's right. A ten. Note this on your calendars, ladies and gentlemen, for this will never happen again. I love this series. Why, I just got finished watching Episode 00 and the last three episodes of the 2006 run. And I've seen them quite a few times already. Everything else seems to take a while before I feel like watching it again, but not Haruhi.

Emotional Involvement
2009 - 7. They tried. They really tried with these meta-art stunts that they pulled. Make us feel Yuki's pain by taking us through eight iterations of her Five-Hundred Year Summer From Hell at the Hands of Sociopath Sue. Cut Sighs like one long movie, which could've been titled The Brutal Torture Unseen Since the InquisitionPassion of the ChristMikuru Asahina. It was a bit ham-handed, but it's part of the Haruhi Experience(tm). On the up-side, this part of the run gave some needed depth to Itsuki's character, and some of what goes on behind-the-scenes of the SOS-dan.
Overall - 8. I admit it. I get all emotional when I see Haruhi and Kyon. Even though they spend much of their time in denial about each other, and Haruhi has rightfully earned the moniker of Sociopath Sue. I want to see what happens to them. I want to see how Kyon will get himself out of whatever jam Haruhi has gotten him into. This series doesn't quite get a 9 from me because the rest of the SOS-dan is a set of interchangeable cardboard cutouts following well-defined tropes. Of course, one would argue that this is exactly how Haruhi/Kyon have set it up, since this is fundamentally a story about them.

Total Rating
2009 - 7.6: The Good: New material, new music, great visuals, and great voice acting. Sugita really takes it away this year. The Bad: Sociopath Sue and the Stockholm Syndrome Band. Questionable script and editing decisions. Mikuru drowning the Earth five times over in her tears. The Ugly: Itsuki in a Speedo. We have entered an endless recursion of time. We have entered an endless recursion of time. We have entered an endless recursion of time.
Overall - 8.1: The Good: Muscular storytelling, luscious visuals, art that isn't over-the-top. The Bad: Useless moeblobs. Still waiting for :frustrated:-ing Disappearance.

[Jenni]

Let's see... good music, crappy art, fluid animation, asinine marketing shenanigans, great voice acting and the travesty that is Endless Eight. Also considering that only about half the episodes are worth watching... this gets a 5/10.

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

Must people really be reminded?

The poll represents your total series rating for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined

In your review, you may choose to provide an overall rating for the 2009 episodes on their own, but in consideration for the way the show was actually aired on TV, the poll is designed to reflect the series on a whole with the new episodes added in.

So if you're giving it a 4 or 5, keep in mind that said vote includes the 14 episodes from 2006 as well, not just E8... or those two other stories that I forget. :p

[Triple_R]

Must people really be reminded?





So if you're giving it a 4 or 5, keep in mind that said vote includes the 14 episodes from 2006 as well, not just E8... or those two other stories that I forget. :p

Kogetsu... the OP made it perfectly clear that you can make a vote based purely on the 2009 episodes. You yourself are quoting the pertinent section... you're simply choosing to downplay it by bolding the "but..." portion that came after it.

And, as Kaoishin rightly suspected, most people are choosing to vote based purely on the 2009 episodes.

The reason, I suspect, is this... why should the slate of 2006 episodes get credited again?

Many people here already voted on that back in 2006. As such, many people want to strictly judge the slate of new episodes that we experienced as more or less a second season. Thankfully, the OP allows us to do that.

Also, to be blunt... I really don't think that 3 year old episodes (as superb as they are) should save KyoAni from getting a couple notches knocked off its ratings due to its awful E8 approach.

[Ice Block]

Many people here already voted on that back in 2006. As such, many people want to strictly judge the slate of new episodes that we experienced as more or less a second season. Thankfully, the OP allows us to do that.
Ha? There was never an Overall Series Impressions poll for 2006. Also, most of the people that are counting only the new 2009 episodes did not even post in the original thread (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33678). Do a little more research next time.
Whoa! Major brain fart... humbled once again. :bow:

I got too used to the overall impressions being compressed in one thread that I didn't bother to click on when I found the old one. Sorry.

[Pellissier]

Ha? There was never an Overall Series Impressions poll for 2006. Also, most of the people that are counting only the new 2009 episodes did not even post in the original thread (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33678). Do a little more research next time.
I'm afraid I should say the same to you ^^

Actually, the 2006 airing had:

1) An Overall Series Impressions Thread (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33678))
2) A Total Series Rating Thread with Poll (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33855))
3) Even a Favourite Episode Poll (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33744))

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

To be honest, I should really apologize. I just checked, and most of the people posting a rating for the series apparently didn't vote. My mistake. :heh:

[ac195]

I still don't see why anyone still hates E8. KyoAni is pretty much the most boring studio when it comes to adaptations... they pretty much stick to the script and don't bother being creative.

But this time they tried something, while sticking to the script (sorta), and failed (your opinion)?

Hahaha, I just still can't get over the fact that toward the beginning of each episode of E8... Haruhi would say something along the lines of: "You can never get back the time you lost." and "You can only live through each summer once."... and there the viewer was listening to this line said 8 times over 8 weeks (during the summer I might add) basically watching the same thing... that is some twisted humor there.

[Megacrash Gr]

Storyline: 10

Animation: 10

Music: 8

E8 had to ruin it. so im giving it an 8. also I too can't wait 4 the movie. Although some arts and animation were nice during the run of e8.

[Triple_R]

I'm afraid I should say the same to you ^^

Actually, the 2006 airing had:

1) An Overall Series Impressions Thread (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33678))
2) A Total Series Rating Thread with Poll (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33855))

Well... will you look at that? I made a lengthy Haruhi review (on page 10), and a 9 rating, on that poll thread. Reading that old post of mine from early 2008 is interesting... most of my views on Haruhi have remained the same, but, if anything, the anime moved up a little bit in my list of all-time favorite animes.

Perhaps one good thing about this year of Haruhi episodes is that it helped me to see that Haruhi 2006 truly was a masterpiece, in many ways.

Thanks, Pellissier, for pointing out these Haruhi 2006 series review and total series rating threads.

[Soelke]

LOL. Here I go.

Man, was the 2009!series different from the 2006!series. The second season had a much, MUCH darker tone to it than the first season. I could feel pain coming from everyone at some point in the series: Yuki's agony during the Endless Eight; Mikuru's despair during the movie filming; and Haruhi's shock when Kyon tried to hit her. I admit that it became painful to watch, especially when Kyon is asking everyone's opinions on Haruhi (he did, right?).

I give Emotional Involvement a 10/10, because it got such a strong reaction from me.

Oh, KyoAni, you never fail to impress me with your amazing backgrounds and flowing hair. The animation was so good that I would find myself scrolling back a little to watch a clip again, because the animation was SO GOOD! The movements were fluid, and even background characters got a lot of detail put into them. I can see that KyoAni worked very hard at this. However, I noticed that the style everyone was being drawn in was kind of similar to K-ON!. Although it didn't feel quite right at some moments, at least Kyon didn't look like a chipmunk when he was screaming at Haruhi over the drunk Mikuru.

I give the Animation a 9.5/10, because although I looove the animation, I could still see some leftovers from K-ON!.

Characters: 10/10

Where do I begin with this girl? Well, I think I should have paid attention to TVTropes when they said she was a bit of a loony, but I think I had to see it for myself to confirm it. And man, was I convinced she had a few screws loose. She was so willing to get Mikuru drunk, throw her in a pond, and whack her on the head with a megaphone that I couldn't even comprehend it. She doesn't even feel sorry. She calls Mikuru her "toy". She unconciously put Yuki through Hell when she made that last week of summer loop ~15,000 times. She pushed Kyon over his limit and he almost hit her. And she STILL gets her way in the end. Excuse me miss, but WTF are you doing?

Despite Haruhi being the way she is, she's still an awesome character because she has depth. Sure, she's a crazy girl who forces a helpless girl into embarrassing costume, but so were a lot of other anime characters. She feels a wide range of emotions, and literally warps the world around her. You have to give her credit for that.

Kyon is quite different from your average bear. I mean, male protagonist. When a harem of lovely girls come into his life, he doesn't just sit there and accept it! Well, he certainly accepts Mikuru, but that's not the point here. He asks questions, fights back, and isn't afraid to take matters into his own hands...literally. He's cynical, sarcastic, ruthlessly blunt, and I love him. I love seeing unique male characters because, hey, animes with lots and lots of pretty girls don't really seem to spend a lot of time on the guys. But with KyoAni (and a lot of other anime), the guys are just as much as lookers. Kyon's as round a character as Okazaki Tomoya and Yagami Light, and for that, I commend him.

There are so many things I want to tell SOS Brigade's personal moeblob. She's irresistably cute, and you just can't help but love her. She's also rather pitiful and kind of pathetic. What I'd like to say to her is "GROW A SPINE!" Seriously. She's cute, but that doesn't excuse her behavior. She doesn't fight back. Not ONCE does she say, "Enough is enough, Suzumiya-san! Stop forcing me into this racy costumes or I'll report you for sexual harrassment!" She just...goes along with it. It's appalling. It's as appalling as Haruhi actually harrassing her. It's hard to sympathize for her because she doesn't resist. She's more pitiful than anything else.

Yuki was really fleshed out in this season. A lot. Every episode, she's coming closer to having real human emotions. It became more evident with each E8 episode. She started to look more and more tired out, more frustrated, more sad, almost? Yet she can't do anything. Haruhi isn't doing anything to her physically. She isn't treating Yuki like Mikuru, but rather, she's affecting Yuki through time loops and other crazy paranormal stuff. She ends up being relied on a lot, and it starts to get to her after a while. Yuki is more sympathetic than Mikuru because there must be so much pressure on her to help keep Haruhi in line (I mean, the others end up depending on her most of the time), and she can't even express her emotions. Deep down inside, I think she just wants to be normal.

I never really liked Itsuki as much as the others, I'll be honest. He's always sucking up to Haruhi, agreeing with her ever whim and letting her abuse Mikuru. Plus, he always has that smile on his face and it really bothered me. However, this season made me like him a little more. Or rather, gain a newfound respect for him. I don't know the details too well, but he's kind of in a corner. He doesn't go against Haruhi because he can't. He has to keep, basically, a poker face all the time. He can't let the others see how stressed he is because they don't see him as that kind of person.

Actually, I'm starting to like him more because of the Haruhi Abridged Series. Yay Sailor Pothead!

Not much to say here, actually. The music was beautiful as always. I really loved the music playing in one of the E8 episodes, when Kyon sees Yuki looking at masks. It was such a Spirited Away moment.

Soundtrack gets a 10/10.

Overall, Haruhi is an epic win. I was so glad I got to experience this show during my lifetime and ride the rollarcoaster with everyone, y'know? Series gets a 10/10 from me...Hehe, I give perfect scores too easily xD

[Ice Block]

Actually, the 2006 airing had:

1) An Overall Series Impressions Thread (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33678))
2) A Total Series Rating Thread with Poll (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33855))
3) Even a Favourite Episode Poll (here (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=33744))
Thanks for clarifying -- I edited my previous post to reflect my misinformation.

However, my point still stands that people who did not share their thoughts on the 2006 eps on the above threads are being a bit unfair when they only count the new 2009 eps on their reviews here (which applies to most who are disregarding the 2006 episodes from their overall impressions).

[Triple_R]

Thanks for clarifying -- I edited my previous post to reflect my misinformation.

It takes a big person to do what you just did. Kudos to you for that. :)

[Archon_Wing]

However, my point still stands that people who did not share their thoughts on the 2006 eps on the above threads are being a bit unfair when they only count the new 2009 eps on their reviews here (which applies to most who are disregarding the 2006 episodes from their overall impressions).

Can't really speak for anyone, but since it's been so long since I watched the 2006 episodes, that they didn't really have any impact for me on my opinion of the 2009 airing save for the way they link into episode 00 and Live Alive(which I should probably mention, but I indeed did consider, which positively helps Sigh as I mentioned in Sigh V discussion. ). Though this week, I did start rewatching some episodes for the entire series with a friend that I introduced Haruhi to (including some of EE lol). But if I were to express my opinion about the 2006 airing, I will probably post it in thatthread.

But I hope you can understand how I can rate the entire 28 episodes (series as a whole) differently from what I felt from the 2009 airing. And my reviews are always unfair. :) Though admittingly it does seem totally insane to have 3 separate numbers for one thing.

[Dakota]

Haruhi had the most creative implementations of filler episodes of all time.

Let's look at the whole picture: there was 14 episodes in the first run, non-chronological. The second run was 28 episodes. The second run was chronological, though we all know about the Eight-week nose dive.

The main plot line in the first run was Kyon figuring out that Haruhi had the power to manipulate reality (Melancholy I - VI). The other episodes (Someday in the Rain, LIS, Day of Saggitarius) are filler. They are smaller chronicles of their misadventures. By airing the first run the way they did, it was captivating to figure out how the cast got to those points in the plot line. The ending is better viewed as the climax for the first run, as it is relatively close to the middle of the chronologic order of the first run. To make it interesting, they stretched out Melancholy I - VI, shuffled the filler episodes in, did a little dance, and finally watched the audience shit their pants.

Second run.

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. Ok, cool.

Then it ultimately turned into the biggest tease. A new relationship was formed between the animation and the audience. We got pissed. Everybody was at least a little angry with the Eight-week nose dive. I was angry a bit at first, but as soon as I convinced myself to be amused by it, the ending to Endless Eight was wonderful. It may have been a waste of budget and time, but it was another way to fool around with filler. They probably had everything planned out from the start. Azns are good at math, so they allocated their budget to decent looking E8 episodes, and they (should) have a pretty penny for the movie. Sighs took a step froward to prepare Haruhi/Kyon relations for the movie.It did everything that it was supposed to do.

Every week on Thursday this summer I commuted into Boston for my full time job, and Haruhi aired right on my lunch break. So I had my Turkey sandwich and the familiar babble from Endless Eight. This show has unconsciously become a part of my life.

tl;dr

10/10 I'M A HUGE LOSER

[Fishfood1]

Personally when the 1st new epi came out(bamboo leaf rhapsody), it was a new refreshment, and thus i didn't care how that episode turned out to be... because i just wanted to see some new haruhi epis.

but then comes E8 and airing of nearly 8 identical episode, which just really dropped this series' enjoyment. if this series ended with E8, i'd give it probably a 4 or 5/10. however at least i enjoyed the sigh arc (eventhough haruhi was really mean to mikuru due to lack of common sense) a lot, and boosted my overall view back to 7/10.

so yeah i'll just give it a 7/10 mostly thanks to the sigh arc. if E8 was done right i'd easily give this a 9/10.

[typhonsentra]

I can say that even with that huge black hole in the series that I'll never bother watching, I enjoyed Sighs enough to have an overall fairly positive opinion of the season as a whole, which would be something above a 7 but not quite a 7.5 so.... I'm rounding down. :D

[Samatarou]

I give it a nine.
If I wasn't already familiar with Haruhi I'm sure I would have rated it differently, this is definitely a sequel in that you need to already empathise with the characters.
But from my POV this has been one of the few series this year that I unequivocally enjoyed, and I also liked the amount of controversy it stirred up, which topped the debate over the episode ordering of the first series.
Nevertheless, Haruhi2009 wan't untainted joy. The OP is an acquired taste which I am still acquiring. And the artwork isn't as polished, it looks a bit rough at times (all of KyoAni's work these days seems to have lost the air of visual perfection it had in Air and the first Haruhi series). But in the end, I have to say that I am now looking forward to series 3, and feel confident that there will be one.

---------
Edit:
I've just been reading this thread and realised I misunderstood, for some reason I thought the poll was just about the 2009 series (ie. the new episodes) and not a reflection on all 28 eps. I would have given it a 10 if I was voting on Haruhi overall.

Casting my eye over the other comments, I definitely disagree that half the first series was filler. Just because they didn't form part of the plot of the first novel doesn't make them filler. They are short stories in their own right, culled from later novels, so they are just as much part of the canon as anything else. The fact that they were interspersed into the main plot was just a device to make the series end with a bang not a whimper. Of all the 1st series, only "Someday in the Rain" had filler "vibes" in that I found a large part of it somewhat boring. But AFAIK it is also canon.

It's also presumptios to say "Everybody was at least a little angry with the Eight-week nose dive". I wasn't, and I know many others weren't either, but we learned to take time out because of all the total crap that was being posted including shameless spoilers for upcoming episodes from those who had seen the raws. I myself ended up avoiding all anime forums (or at least the Haruhi threads) until the end of Endless Eight because it was not Haruhi itself that was the problem, it was shithead moaners who kept revealing that the cycle was still continuing and thus spoiling each episode for the rest of us. A large part of the enjoyment of Endless Eight was the tension of the "will they dare string it out another week.... surely it's going to end this time or viewers will revolt". Sadly this was spoiled by revolting viewers!

Anyway, despite some of the episodes being somewhat spoiled for me in this way, I still managed to enjoy them all and didn't begrudge any of the Endless Eight iterations.

[thebleachchick]

Ahhh... Haruhi is so great! But, like most people, Endless Eight did bring it down. Obviously, it was repetitive! Same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER! -_-' I got tired. And it took up most of the "renewed" version's episodes! Imagine how much Haruhi we cudve had without the Endless Eight! Moving away from the Endless Eight, it ended too fast!!!!!! I was expecting more Haruhi!

Well, thats my rant. Wheres yours?

[Casshern]

I thought the original series was average. I hated Haruhi's personality, Itsuki and Kyon pissed me off, while Mikuru and Yuki were "ok". After this season, taking endless eight into consideration, and especially after hearing Itsuki and Mikuru's "versions", I hate all the characters alot. So 1/10 from me <3