The Q & A of Haruhi Suzumiya

[Ithekro]

The thing about Haruhi plots is that they seem to be arc like, and yet not arc like. They also cross each other in places.

Melancholy starts all the plotlines, but one heads for Disappearance, one heads for Sighs, and one heads for Scheme while all seem to head for Surprise.

[virox]

Here's a question that has been bugging me for a while, for the novel readers:

Spoiler for Baseball bat:

In volume 3, Kyon sold the "aluminium bat with dents" that Haruhi had in the cardboard box, together with nine gloves, to the Kamigahara pirates, right?
Was it ever mentioned whether they won, or if they returned the bat? I think I remember something like that, faintly...
The thing is, in chapter 7 of volume 10, Koizumi draws out the cardboard box once more to execise catch with Kyon, and Kyon describes that the box still holds the dented aluminium bat and a few gloves.
But since he sold the bat, it shouldn't be in there, should it?
I think it's a consistency error, and it is currently annoying me to no end, so please, if there was a brief mention about what happened to the bat or the Pirates afterwards, someone refresh my memory.

[Ithekro]

Almost anything that changes can be answered with one of the following:

"Haruhi did it" (either via powers, stealing, buying, or blackmail)
"Yuki did it" (data hax)
"Time Travel" (um, yeah)
"Itsuki's people handled it" (they got money someplace so that can usually just get stuff)

As for the actual...I don't honestly remember.

[virox]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Almost anything that changes can be answered with one of the following:

"Haruhi did it" (either via powers, stealing, buying, or blackmail)
"Yuki did it" (data hax)
"Time Travel" (um, yeah)
"Itsuki's people handled it" (they got money someplace so that can usually just get stuff)

As for the actual...I don't honestly remember.

It's a little confusing, yeah.
After skimming through the previous volumes, I noticed that in volume 5, during Endless Eight, when they went to the batting cage, Kyon mentions that Haruhi pulled out precisely that bat they used back then and he muses about why she bothered to bring one that is actually rather bad for playing with (because of the dents).
So, I either missed something or the author just forgot about it. In any case, it makes me feel better to know that Tanigawa already made that mistake(?) back then, somehow.
I still don't like it, though, and I hope I will find an answer eventually.
After all, the bat should have been school property, or at least the property of whatever baseball club Haruhi snatched it from, so... It's not unlikely that they returned the bat after the tournament, but I would like some kind of confirmation

[Cachez]

Hi guys, new around here but I got this question that has been at me for a while and sorry if it has been answered before, a lot of pages to read. If anyone can explain this to me I would appreciate it.
Question about episode 00.
The scene where Nagato shows up in the window and has a conversation with Koizumi (13:33 to 15:16), it seems that it is directed towards Kyon, and Koizumi is trying to explain what is going on and looks at the camera in a weird manner. Now, what is this scene all about, I understand the basics but is there anyone that can give me an in depth analysis/answer out of it. Is Nagato foreshadowing occurrences in "Disappearance" storyline?
Tyvm.

[Ithekro]

I think Nagato and Koizumi are having a truce of sorts between their factions.
What I can't say is if Kyon is actually there filming, as that part isn't in the later Sigh episodes that I recall. So it might be Haruhi filming.

[Cachez]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I think Nagato and Koizumi are having a truce of sorts between their factions.
What I can't say is if Kyon is actually there filming, as that part isn't in the later Sigh episodes that I recall. So it might be Haruhi filming.

Hmm, I see how this explanation fits, however, If they are working out a truce, what does Nagato mean with him picking her and advancing or picking the other one (I assume the other one is Haruhi and not Asahina) having a random future? Why would she have dropped that in there?

[Ithekro]

Direction from Haruhi for the scene? (or that she would know Kyon would be editting later, thus talking to him that way)
I'm assuming Asahina is not recording since she was sort of passed out at the time. it could be Tsuruya, but I would think she's tending Asahina off screen.

If it is Haruhi filming, we can assume Kyon left for the day or something. That is if they didn't film that part later. It is hard to tell with the existing information, as we never get a scene with them filming there again in Sigh outside episode 00 which has some odd scenes that look sliced in, including several with Kyon's Sister.

[Pinwheel10]

So, the novels have been licensed, right?
And Baka-Tsuki pulled out all the fan-translated files of the novels due to this.
It's been bugging me, but does this mean that when Volume 12 shows up, we won't be getting any fan-translations anymore?

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by Pinwheel10

So, the novels have been licensed, right?
And Baka-Tsuki pulled out all the fan-translated files of the novels due to this.
It's been bugging me, but does this mean that when Volume 12 shows up, we won't be getting any fan-translations anymore?

Novels 1-9 have been licensed. There has been no word on novels 10+ being licensed, so it is possible that Yen Press could stop releasing them after 9 (though that would be a really horrible thing for them to do), but it's unlikely. When Yen made a site for the Haruhi novels, they originally had all released novels up, but removed the tenth one (and its copyright). I'm assuming it's still being licensed.

But to answer your main question, considering the fact that novels 10/11 were translated even though B-T wasn't working on them anymore, it'd be safe to assume that any future novels will be translated by some fans.

[Pinwheel10]

That's good news then Thanks!

But people, remember to buy the real books still

[Morisato]

From what I have gathered, the Haruhi movie is volume 4 of the LN series... in that case why was it skipped during the 2009 adaptation and made into a movie of its own? It takes place in between the 2009 series.

And the movie is 2 hr 42 min? Isn't that almost 7-8 regular episodes? I can't understand why that one volume in the series would take so much longer. Is it considerably thicker than the other volumes?

[AbZeroNow]

Originally Posted by Morisato

From what I have gathered, the Haruhi movie is volume 4 of the LN series... in that case why was it skipped during the 2009 adaptation and made into a movie of its own? It takes place in between the 2009 series.

And the movie is 2 hr 42 min? Isn't that almost 7-8 regular episodes? I can't understand why that one volume in the series would take so much longer. Is it considerably thicker than the other volumes?

1.) Chronologically, The Disappearance(novel 4) is after all the 2006 episodes(and the 2009 episodes). Of course, they had to air Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody before they showed Disappearance since BLR is quite important to the plot of Disappearance.

2.) Yes, the movie is long, but it is well-paced for such a long movie. The novel is actually the shortest of all the novels, but it is one of the few one-story novels(Melancholy, Sigh and Intrigues are the other novels with one story. The three novels of Dissociation and the first and last part of Surprise all encompass one story as well). Disappearance also has some of the most plot of all the novels and marks a turning point for Kyon(and for Yuki too).

[Ithekro]

It would have been at the end of the 2009 version if it had been done as that version was in chronological order.

The books are not in chronological order. Niether was the 2006 version of the show.

From what I understand the fourth book is the most plot intensive of the stories until books 9, 10, an 11 storyline. Because it is plot intensive, and the most liked of the novels, the movie had to pay a lot of attention to detail, thus it was longer than expected. That and the inability to break it up well into 22 minute episodes is likely a reason they cancelled the second season idea and went with the 2009 version adding in the parts they missed chronologically, and the ones that were needed for build up to the movie. Then made a movie with a real budget to make it look really good.

Book 1, 2, and 4 are single plot stories in order. Books 3, 5, and 6 are short stories that are mixed inbetween the times of these longer stories. Book 7 is the next long single plot story.

All of books 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been made now. Most of books 5 and some of book 6 have also been made. There are five stories left between books 5 and 6 that have to be animated before book 7's story can take place. Book 8 is two stories. Book 9 and books 10/11 are essentially one large story.

All the parts from books 5 and 6 were stuff that happened chronologically before the story of book 4.

These were the stories:

(from book 5)
"Endless Eight"
"The Day of Sagittarius"

(from book 6)
"Live Alive"
"The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00"

(It is kind of funny. The very first thing people saw in April 2006 about Haruhi Suzumiya was from the 6th novel. A story that told what was made during the 2nd novel.)

[CrowKenobi]

To get another idea on how the stories go together, the manga adaptation is also in chronological order (the official English volume 11 included part 2 of Snow Mountain Syndrome and Where Did the Cat Go?).

Volume 12 promises the novel volume 7 prologue, The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina (completes novel volume 6) and Editor in Chief Straight Ahead! (from novel volume 8).

[Makall]

Interesting so they actually have a lot of material to work with then. What was the point of endless eight then? Considering what a cash cow the haruhi series is... Why isn't there a sequel already?

From the looks of it, they have enough material for another 24 episode season.

[Ithekro]

Endless Eight...seems to be designed to fulfill a contractual obligation to fill a 14 episode slot to balance out the existing 14 when the show was reaired in 2009. They had I suppose originally plans to run Disappearance as part of that 14 episode segment, but as the project continued they realized they needed more space for it, and a larger budget, and probably figured out they could do the most anticipated part of Haruhi better as a movie than anything they could do on TV.


But they still need to fill out the rest of the 14 episodes without going beyond Disappearance, since it is the real game changing story. Thus Endless Eight repeated...as it is the only story that can logically be repeated.

[brocko]

To me Endless Eight served two major purposes.

1. Help pad the 2009 re-airing to 28 episodes. It was also nicely timed too since a lot of KyoAni's manpower were focused on the Disappearance movie at the time and this essentially gave them 8 episodes for the script and storyboard of one. Like Ithekro mentioned, they couldn't pull any of the other remaining stories because they all take place after Disappearance.

2. To continue the series rather unorthodox and outlandish tradition (i.e airing the original 2006 season out of order for one) by playing on the Endless Eight title.

[Tiranas]

3. To make Yuki's "malfunction" in Disappearance more understandable. She had to endure several centuries of it, not just 8 episodes. I could relate to her snapping much better after this compared to just having read the novels.

I don't want to defend it too passionately though. They still hurt the franchise unnecessarily. Some anime original filler episodes (with approval of the author of course to not create contradictions) would possibly have been better. Maybe focussing on some minor characters like Tsuruya or even Taniguchi and Kunikida. Even animating Haruhi Theater would have been an option.

[Gamer_2k4]

Originally Posted by brocko

2. To continue the series rather unorthodox and outlandish tradition (i.e airing the original 2006 season out of order for one) by playing on the Endless Eight title.

It's worth noting that they're not just doing it to be wacky. The Haruhi series simply doesn't transfer well to an anime format, and they had to do the best they could. After all, if you air the original story consecutively, what the heck is your climax going to be? The arc would be done after 6 episodes!

So in both cases, the "unorthodox and outlandish tradition" is simply the necessary consequence of filling out complete seasons. Just like the 2009 season had to be padded to 28 episodes, the 2006 season had to be padded to fourteen. You wouldn't have had much more than an OVA otherwise.