The General Discussion of Haruhi Suzumiya

[C.A.]

I've always thought its a waste to watch a show and only understand part of it, its good for the audience if they feel alright about it. Its good for the publisher/studio if they make their money.

But its bad for the story itself for its purpose and message wasn't heeded.

Its like cutting off a shark's fin and throwing the shark back into the sea.

Eating a bowl of rice but leaving the meat and vegetables behind.

Leaving the bits of gold on the floor which had been spilled out of its mold.

Or valuable timber that wasn't cut down and was destroyed in a land slide.

[SpaceDrake]

Originally Posted by Shirobane

I hope there's a winner soon in the bidding wars. I personally don't mind whatever they do with the dubs, as long as they keep the japanese tracks intact and have decent subs accompanying it. *shudder, terrible memories of Furuba R1 DVDs coming back...

I would be floored if the Japanese track and subtitles aren't included. Outside of something like, say, Pokemon, I can't think of a single anime release ever that's done that.

[C.A.]

4kids's One Piece didn't had any original Japanese OP/ED and OSTs at all. But its one amazing, extreme example of total dubbing failure.

[Varion]

Really, considering the amount whoever wins this bidding war is going to have to pay for the show, they're not going to want to do anything that alienates a huge amount of their potential audience. They'll need a ton of sales to get into profit with this one.

And maybe it is a waste but again, nothing you can do about that. I don't think I fully 'got' everything in Haruhi but I enjoyed the series, I'm happy with it, I'm buying it and I don't feel in any way like it was less of a show for what I 'missed'. If people are buying Haruhi at least they're giving it a go.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

R2's are almost always a ripoff, it must be brutal living in that region for media lovers.

Really. Even by standard R2 prices the Haruhi limited editions are silly - it has fancy packaging and soundtrack CDs. So did a lot of other shows, and they were $15 cheaper or more and wouldn't have dared put a lowly one episode on 2 separate DVDs just because it was home movie style. Oh well.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Valdra

Really, considering the amount whoever wins this bidding war is going to have to pay for the show, they're not going to want to do anything that alienates a huge amount of their potential audience. They'll need a ton of sales to get into profit with this one.

And maybe it is a waste but again, nothing you can do about that. I don't think I fully 'got' everything in Haruhi but I enjoyed the series, I'm happy with it, I'm buying it and I don't feel in any way like it was less of a show for what I 'missed'. If people are buying Haruhi at least they're giving it a go.


Really. Even by standard R2 prices the Haruhi limited editions are silly - it has fancy packaging and soundtrack CDs. So did a lot of other shows, and they were $15 cheaper or more and wouldn't have dared put a lowly one episode on 2 separate DVDs just because it was home movie style. Oh well.

They do it because they believe the fanbase will buy it regardless of the price, content or episode count, sometimes in my more cynical moments I believe they are right, Haruhi has a particularly fanatical fanbase.

[Varion]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

They do it because they believe the fanbase will buy it regardless of the price, content or episode count, sometimes in my more cynical moments I believe they are right, Haruhi has a particularly fanatical fanbase.

Judging by the fact that the first DVD sold 60,000 copies, disappeared from Amazon Japan twenty days before the DVD was actually released only to appear in limited quantities after release for $20 more than it was originally, they are.

Actually, another issue entirely, I wonder if whoever licenses it do a limited edition with the CDs too, or they'll forget them entirely?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Valdra

Judging by the fact that the first DVD sold 60,000 copies, disappeared from Amazon Japan twenty days before the DVD was actually released only to appear in limited quantities after release for $20 more than it was originally, they are.

Actually, another issue entirely, I wonder if whoever licenses it do a limited edition with the CDs too, or they'll forget them entirely?

Just like everything else, they probably were not going to do a limited edition CD because they didn't know it was going to sell well.

Now that the normal version is out on the market, it's unlikely they will make a special edition now. Specially editions need to come out at least at the same time as the normal edition, otherwise the market shrinks from everyone buying the normal CD beforehand.

...I still mourn for the opportunity lost of having an Anime music CD getting to number 1 at oricon...
If only they actually printed enough copies...

[CrowKenobi]

Originally Posted by C.A.

I'm more concerned about the audience and for the audience.

Who's the target audience? What's the age group of the main bulk of audience? Kids who want to watch cartoons? Haruhi definitely isn't for kids, it just loses all purpose if kids were to watch the show.

And also, I'm not sure if people noticed, most American anime fans who watched the Haruhi subs, found the story itself to be pointless and silly. They can't see anything past an alien, time traveller and esper existing in reality, they can't see past the baseball game, the mystery search and a trip to a lone island. They just take these events as random events that this pointless club has taken part in.

Then there's another group who just thinks that the show's science fiction is just randomly added to make the story more random.

And if dubs were not good, it further kills the show for the audience.

Well I didn't find the story to be pointless and silly....

Heck, I live in America and I don't even know how the stateside fans took it, how do you know???

Well, some of us must have got it gauging upon the audience reaction during the Otokocon Kodakawa panel when Haruhi was mentioned...
And the supposed "bidding war" for the rights to Haruhi...

As to knowing all about the series (novels, manga, etc), if the series is a hit here, all that will fall into line very easily, don't worry. I see VIZ or Tokyopop getting the novel/manga license (or even split either way between them).

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Just like everything else, they probably were not going to do a limited edition CD because they didn't know it was going to sell well.

Well, actually, Haruhi DVDs were always planned with two editions in mind, just like a lot of Kadokawa shows. The pattern Valdra explained is probably best explained as: Amazon took pre-orders (at their usual 22-25% off), filled their pre-order quota for the Limited Edition, then, on shipping day, realized they'd have stock leftover due to cancellations and other factors so re-opened orders until they ran out of stock (but at the usual, non-discounted price). At least, I've seen that happen a number of times now.

As for the limited edition soundtrack/radio CDs, I think they'll probably get scrapped for the R1 release. If they did want to release it in R1, they'd have to refactor it to begin with, since I don't think the radio show portions would be that useful to most English-speaking people. Also, if they followed a similar "limited edition with each release" approach, it's pretty certain the R1 release would be on something like 4 discs instead of 8. For them to compile all the soundtrack CDs and release it on a full OST CD would be possible, but wouldn't that just encourage reverse-importing? All in all, I think it's most likely that we won't get the CDs in R1, but of course it would be nice for people who can't get the R2 LEs.

[Rin-Sama]

Well lets all hope that who ever gets the show does the same thing that happend to Psycic Acadamy and just sub it with no dubs what-so-ever...... fat chance huh.

[Kinny Riddle]

http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...6&postcount=74

I don't believe this......Tsuruya-san got outvoted.

[C.A.]

Looks like Its only Haruhi and Mikuru left. I don't think Yuki can beat Haruhi and I'm not really sure whether Imouto will pass the next round. If Imouto does get further its kinda insane lol

[Satsume]

Originally Posted by C.A.

I'm more concerned about the audience and for the audience.

Who's the target audience? What's the age group of the main bulk of audience? Kids who want to watch cartoons? Haruhi definitely isn't for kids, it just loses all purpose if kids were to watch the show.

And also, I'm not sure if people noticed, most American anime fans who watched the Haruhi subs, found the story itself to be pointless and silly. They can't see anything past an alien, time traveller and esper existing in reality, they can't see past the baseball game, the mystery search and a trip to a lone island. They just take these events as random events that this pointless club has taken part in.

Then there's another group who just thinks that the show's science fiction is just randomly added to make the story more random.

And if dubs were not good, it further kills the show for the audience.

Viewers are going to have to need a certain level of intellect to watch Haruhi. It's definitely not for kids. But I don't think I've ever seen anything like Haruhi on cable television. I think it's going to be hard for most people to find any meaning, let alone plot and character development. And the first episode is going to be like.. woah-hey-what is this?! I'm afraid people are just not going to get it. Hopefully I'm proved wrong!

[C.A.]

I can see it go like this:

"Mi- Mi- Mirac-" *Switches to Discovery channel*

The subs were still watched by a good amount of people because we have people on forums telling them to watch episode 2. People who gave up on Episode 1 within 5 mins have already decided that they are not going to watch this show at all.

[Kikaifan]

Unknownst to the mere mortals it is comprised of, the human race has in fact been split into two distinct factions, of two very different and irreconcilable psychologies, who must one day come into conflict. The catalyst for this conflict will satire, and its name will be: Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00.

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by Kikaifan

Unknownst to the mere mortals it is comprised of, the human race has in fact been split into two distinct factions, of two very different and irreconcilable psychologies, who must one day come into conflict. The catalyst for this conflict will satire, and its name will be: Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00.

I feel sad that we belong to the minority. It isn't exactly a distinct half, somehow Haruhi-sama only selected a small percentage of humans.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SpaceDrake

I should point out that the Kadokawa rep at Otakon was specifically asked about the novels and he said that multiple companies had put down offers to liscense and translate them for U.S. release.

I know at least two american companies have expressed interest in getting into the light novel market. Haruhi would be stellar entry for a company doing that.

I somewhat agree with Kaoishin's attitude about over focusing on the comedy and fanservice is missing the emphasis on the novels about the character relationships, science fiction, and philosophy of the novels. I guess I kind of categorize it like Lord of the Rings .... you can thoroughly enjoy the movies but if you haven't read the books, you have only a glimmer of the depth you've missed out on (never mind where Jackson strayed from the storyline).
The anime SHnY is a finely done anime ... but the books are even better (imo).

[C.A.]

Actually the emphasis was very well balanced, at least the effort put into expressing them is there.

Its just that these details are very minute details that requires a good eye. And I realised this when I found the difference between watching raws and subs.

While watching raws I had my eyes on the screen entirely, I can notice every single detail, well, most of them, while I listened to conversations.

When I watch subs, I found that my eyes are fixed 60% on the subtitles, I miss a whole bunch of details on the screen.

The details are there, they are actually very obvious, just that the subs killed the show for most people. And its actually one reason why the show needs rewatching. Though rewatching the show is extremely worthwhile on its own.

These little visual details combined with the speech of characters and good common sense from the audience allows you to understand from the show as much as one would understand from the novels.

[SpaceDrake]

Another thought, vis a vis an American television airing:

The more I think about it, the more I get convinced this series is almost custom-made for the Adult Swim programming bloc on Cartoon Network. They air unedited anime at a timeslot aimed for mostly college students and the like (didn't Haruhi air at like midnight in Japan?) Additionally, a lot of their non-anime programming tends to be really oddball humor (like Harvey Birdman, Attourney at Law; Aqua Teen Hunger Force; things like that) and since Haruhi is practically Monty Python humor in drawings, it'd be a perfect fit. The best part is, the network puts these little joke text messages before each show, and often custom edits them just for that show, so they could easily do something like "And now for something completely different. If you think this show sucks... for the love of Haruhi, watch the next episode next week." (Alternately, they could make Haruhi's debut an hour-long affair and show Koi no Mikuru Densetsu and Yuutsu I back to back and tell people to stick around for the second episode.)

Adult Swim prides itself on being the haven of the odd, and I would not be surprised to see Haruhi air on it. It'd be a perfect fit.

[Satsume]

Hmm, I never thought about Adult Swim airing Haruhi.. that could be a possibility! It's funny enough. Most of their anime is action-orientated though, right? I'm not sure. Haven't watched in a long time. But I think the humor is on par with their non-anime stuff, yeah. It could work! :3 Well, we'll just have to see.

Seeing Haruhi on cable television would be so cool. xD She's well on her way to influencing the whole world!