The 2009 Re-Launch of Haruhi Suzumiya (General Discussion)

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Alesiopdv

Oh, and the "eight" number is an infinite symbol, Kyon just realized (again) how they are in a Moebius trip.

It's "Mobius Strip", but I also like "Mobius Trip".

(Good title for something, thanks.)

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Alesiopdv

Hi, long time! I read a lot of people complaining because how much Kyoani strech this story.. but they are complety missing the point. The story is supposed to be this annoying! If there were only two episodes we wouldnt get the same feeling of angst that Kyon has, having to live the same day over and over and over and over and over and over and over again! In the novel Nagato said they have tried to break the loop 8,769 times!! So the only way to represent that is repeating the same episode at least five or six times. That way we all feel like Nagato, who has probably killed herself a dozen times (yeah, I can totaly picture her kidnapping the groundhog and driving to a cliff jeje).
Oh, and the "eight" number is an infinite symbol, Kyon just realized (again) how they are in a Moebius trip.

I disagree because anime, at least a mainstream title like Haruhi is supposed to be entertainment. Not some piece of modern art. The studio has a perfectly good original material to adapt from, but instead they deviate from it and underperform on purpose. It's not artistic, it's just greedy trolling. /2cents

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Jaden

It's not artistic, it's just greedy trolling. /2cents

They're not going to make as much money off of this as they normally would.

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

... I still find this situation, as well as some of the reactions to it, utterly hilarious.

[Alesiopdv]

"Moebius Trip??" Ooops, my bad ^_^ (I agree its a good title)

Haruhi a "mainstream anime"?? Nobody knows where to put it. Its either a Seinen, a Slice of Life, a Supernatural show, a sci-fi series, a romantic comedy... its anything but "mainstream".

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Alesiopdv

Haruhi a "mainstream anime"?? Nobody knows where to put it. Its either a Seinen, a Slice of Life, a Supernatural show, a sci-fi series, a romantic comedy... its anything but "mainstream".

"Mainstream anime" is mostly an oxymoron. Anime that can be considered "mainstream" are stuff like Naruto, One Piece, etc.

Haruhi is a hard sci-fi comedy with romantic elements.

[Takamura Mamoru]

Haruhi is certainly not hard sci-fi.

Also, it does not have a genre.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Takamura Mamoru

Haruhi is certainly not hard sci-fi.

All the sci-fi elements in the story are based off of actual scientific/philosophical/mathematical concepts. Sounds pretty hard sci-fi to me.

In addition, I don't think it's truly "genre-busting". There's plenty of sci-fi mystery stories, for example.

[Takamura Mamoru]

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both.

Haruhi has no detail or scientific accuracy. It's about as ficticious as Star Trek. Time Travel isn't even explained and neither are Yuki's abilities, and a lot of applied phlebotinum. Physics references don't count as sci fi (as they are real) and math isn't sci fi.

Look, two schoolgirls fighting with force fields and energy tentacles, one eventually hacking the other out of existence has neither scientific accuracy, nor makes sense.

I don't think you really know what hard science fiction is. Go watch Planetes. It has invisible laser beams, realistic effects on your health as an astronaut and no sound in space. Hard sci fi actually follows the laws of physics as good as it can.

However, are there sci-fi mystery stories that have a lot of slice of life, comedy and romance?

[SealkidHaruhiism]

http://www.kyotoanimation.co.jp/haru...atsudou14.html
on the left hand of this page, each episode's name is listed.

Ep12 -15 though seem to be counted as one episode(エンドレスエイト: endless eight). so I am speculating that when the DVD is out, the whole endless eight arc will be counted as one episode (or 1.5) as well, so it wont neglect the sale...

Source:Kyoani's site. and MyAnimeList Forums.

So it might go like.....

Spoiler:

DVD
ep.1 Bamboo Lead Rhapsody
ep.2 Endless Eight
ep.3 The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya part I
ep.4 The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya part II
ep.5 The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya part III
ep.6 The Disappearances of Haruhi Suzumiya part I
ep.7 The Disappearances of Haruhi Suzumiya part II
ep.8 The Disappearances of Haruhi Suzumiya part III
ep.9 The Disappearances of Haruhi Suzumiya part IV
ep.10 The Disappearances of Haruhi Suzumiya part V
ep.11 Charmed at First Sight Lover
ep.12 Snow Mountain Syndrome part I
ep.13 Snow Mountain Syndrome part II
ep.14 Where did the cat go?
ep.15 The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya Prologue
Broadcasting order
ep.1 Bamboo Lead Rhapsody
ep.2 Endless Eight
ep.3 Endless Eight
ep.4 Endless Eight
ep.5 Endless Eight
ep.6 Endless Eight
ep.7 Endless Eight Could be 8
ep.8 Sighs
ep.9 Sighs
ep.10 Sighs
ep.11 Disappearances
ep.12 Disappearances
ep.13 Disappearances
ep.14 Disappearances
ep.15 Disappearances
ep.16 Charmed at first sight lover
ep.17 SMS
ep.18 SMS
ep.19 Cat did it?
ep.20 if endless Eight would have 8 ep.
ep.21^

[Heatth]

They are listed on that way because thay have the same name.

Even if the DVD works like that, the broadcast probably won't. 28 time slot are 28 time slots, no matter if on episode is 5+ times bigger then usual.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Takamura Mamoru

However, are there sci-fi mystery stories that have a lot of slice of life, comedy and romance?

Asimov's Elijah Baley novels (which are mysteries) have everything but the slice-of-life. And Haruhi isn't that slice-of-life. Things HAPPEN.

[Takamura Mamoru]

Slice of life doesn't mean nothing happens. Why do people think that?
Not every slice of life is, say, Lucky Star slice of life.

Hell, I'd even call Cowboy Bebop slice of (sci-fi) life and obviously things happen there.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Takamura Mamoru

Slice of life doesn't mean nothing happens. Why do people think that?

Because that's pretty much how it is.

Since slice-of-life is, well, slice-of-life, it's difficult to have plot direction without getting painfully dramatic, which is when it turns from 'slice-of-life' into 'soap opera'.

I would not consider Cowboy Bebop slice-of-life, but eh.

[Takamura Mamoru]

Slice of life is... Life. A lot of stuff happens in life. It just has to balanced and sort of neutral, else it easily falls into genres like romance or such.

Anyway, the reason I consider Cowboy Bebop slice of life is because that's pretty much what they do: Live their life. It has no real plot, not too much action, it's just bounty hunters living their life. It's a group of people that has a loose connection with each other, all with quite a past and they just... Do stuff... Live their life.
Okay, I mean it's not purely slice of life of course. Especially the Vicious episodes are action-loaded. But all in all it comes off as this.

In Haruhi's case, the slice of life moments all have a lot of stuff going on. Like "Live Alive".

There's also a chunk of literature that is slice of life, like "Of Mice and Men". Although that book still has a story to tell, it's just that it portrays it like it could very much be real life.

As you already implied, the difficulty with slice of life is that if something happens, it's easy to just put it into another genre, like action, romance or drama. I think in the case of SOL, it's more important what it is overall. Does the story want to give us an impression of a "life", or does it want to tell us something in particular?

[synaesthetic]

When most folks see the slice-of-life designator, it brings to mind American situational comedies, sketch comedies like Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, and soap operas, both the Western live-action variety and the Japanese ren'ai-adaptation anime variety.

I used to hate the moniker myself, because in my mind, "slice of life" meant it was a high school drama/romance--stuff was definitely not going to be blowing up.

But Cowboy Bebop is slice of life. Darker than Black arguably is too, since the plot is very loose and most of the episodes detail run-of-the-mill missions and assignments. K-On! is obviously one, but an interesting one as it seems to have an underlying plot and goal--to grow and develop as a band.

Haruhi Suzumiya is a slice of life, but it's also science fiction, fantasy, drama, psychological thriller and comedy. About the only genre it really isn't would be romance.

[Jintor]

And even then, it hints at it.

[synaesthetic]

KyoAni loves to troll us, they will never truly pair Kyon up with any of the girls! He's doomed, doomed forever!

[Jintor]

Well that's Tanigawa's fault really.

[Joe4evr]

The Seitenkan thread had something about this:

Since when his the Haruhi series not a Sci-Fi Comedy with romantic elements.

The fact that Haruhi wants to get into Kyon's pants is like half the point of the plot, whether Kyon wants to acknowledge it or not.