Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
However, all of the above stated... Haruhi really crossed the line in this episode. Even I, one of her more passionate defenders, can't defend her here. Her treatment of Mikuru in Tsuruya's house is just beyond the pale, and reflects a mind that, frankly, is just out of it.
Totally out of it.
It's not even that Haruhi is being cruel; it's that she doesn't even realize that she's being cruel. She doesn't even seem to view other people as human beings with some basic human rights - no, scratch that, it's deeper than that. Haruhi doesn't even understand why Kyon is getting upset. Even if Haruhi doesn't view other people as human beings with some basic human rights, she should still be cognizant of the fact that most people do... including Kyon.
As a whole, I think that Sigh (the novel) took Haruhi too far. It took her over the edge, I think. While it was nice to see an intense Kyon vs Haruhi bit, the lead-up to it just stretched Haruhi's character beyond the breaking point for me. I don't know - I just would have preferred it if Haruhi's actions were cold (cold enough to legitimately get a rise out of Kyon) but at least understandable. How can Haruhi think the way that she does in this episode? It actually makes her look breathtakingly ignorant and/or stupid, frankly. How Haruhi can be so good at school, and yet be this ignorant of what most people would call "common sense", is beyond me.
For this reason, I can't give this episode a 10. I give it a 9. In fairness, it's not KyoAni's fault - the novel itself is at fault here, imo; there's nothing KyoAni could do about it, short of major alteration. Still, it means that this episode presents Haruhi's character in a way that detracts a great deal from my appreciation of it.
Other than that, an excellent episode.
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Hmm... is this mostly related to the quote about Mikuru being Haruhi's toy? Because I'm not sure that's supposed to be taken at face value. I interpreted that as Haruhi just being defensive and antagonistic because Kyon hurt her feelings; she
was getting pretty emotional even before the attempted punch. So I don't know if her views are quite as extreme as they seem (Even if there's certainly some truth to that statement of hers). I might be wrong, of course, but 'She got worked up and became more of a douchemaster because of it' sounds valid enough to me.