The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Episode 14 Discussion / Poll [2009 added ep. 4]

[prnoct90]

Um, my only problem is the lack of anything new. I mean look

Ep 2 - A complete run through of the summer
Ep 3 - A complete run through of the summer, and then an analysis of the neverending summer
Ep 4 - A complete run through of the summer, and then an analysis of the neverending summer - done the EXACT SAME WAY

The difference between 3 and 4 is they didn't offer us ANYTHING new development wise, which is why for me, this really was a waste of an episode.

[Academus]

Originally Posted by daisekihan

Kyon's frustration and anxiety is at exactly the same level.

I think you need to rewatch the episode(if you had already watched it, that is).
It's quite clear to me that Kyon is experiencing more intense de javu than last week.

[typhonsentra]

Originally Posted by Proto

Are you aware that those different angles and costumes cost hundreds of thousands of yens to animate? Just so you can factor in that it is not just them being "lazy"

Except for the fact that this time, they didn't actually animate most of them. A part that's really striking is the entire stretch where they're wearing the yukatas (While buying them, at the Obon, and the fireworks in the park), the girls only have a few scenes where they're moving around and the range of motion is much more limited when compared to the previous episode. Hell, just skipping around on the video there are several parts of the episode where there's almost no motion at all, sometimes for up to 5 seconds. I think that's one of the reasons they like doing all the "Bored" reaction shots of Nagato, because the audience can accept the lack of movement as a part of her character.

[Soelke]

Wow. I take back what I said last time about this situation being "peaceful" compared to the others. In any case, I loved the mask-buying scene. Like someone commented on the youtube video, it reminded me of a Miyazaki movie. I felt soothed watching it ^-^

I feel bad for Yuki. She's the only one who can remember going through that last week of summer 15499 times; she must be bored out of her mind. I wonder if she collected any other masks?

[Slick_rick]

Originally Posted by daisekihan

It's really surprising that there are people saying this is bold and experimental, and even that KyoAn was being "courageous".

I said it took courage with is different than say the courage it takes to pull someone out of a burning building but courage nonetheless. There are many different levels of courage if you fail to grasp the concept.

I understand your line of reasoning---the viewer's frustration is the character's frustration. I won't argue authorial (as in Tanigawa's) intent here, since that's apparently not important. But I will ask, is the alternate that KyoAn has given us more interesting because it isn't what we expected? Granted, if it had been three episodes, I might have thought it so, since it would have been three somewhat distinct episodes, the first being the first iteration, the second being representative of all those in between, and the final one granting release. But no matter how you look at it, this is the same episode as the last, with different angles and costumes. Kyon's frustration and anxiety is at exactly the same level. If, when this arc is over, one went back and rewatched the episodes while omitting either this one or the last, would anything really be lost?

The usual timeloop makes changes to entertain the viewer but they decided to do without many major changes for the fact of reinforcing the idea of an unchanging world. You might say you grasp how Yuki feels but do you really? You might understand the concept but you certainly haven't experienced anything like what she would have gone through. This goes back to my earlier statement that people generally just want more of the same and the risk of trying something different.

Finally, although I admit there are people who will post things like "wtf kyoani? epic troll is epic," I don't think it's fair to characterize anyone who finds this experiment in story pacing to be less than an artistic success as whining five-year-olds. Like I said, I can understand why KyoAni did this and I can understand why some people might like it, I just don't.

I understand not everyone will enjoy the subtle artistic changes nor the message but my statement was to show how watching a show three times can cause people to react when Nagato has done is 15499 times. Imagine what your state of mind would be after that? My statement never characterized anyone who disagreed with me as being a 5 yr old. Read the meaning behind the statement instead of just the words.

Whether people liked this or not I think KyoAni still managed to accomplish what they wanted to.

[Dakota]

It was not done the exact same way. I rewtached EP3 before EP4, and made comparisons.

They're trying to screw with us, then it will be awesome, and they will be loved again because we're suckers.

I also liked the Javanese Gamelan music they threw in there.

[Starry Dust]

I really want to smack Kyon.

And this episode was pretty....pointless.
I enjoyed the Endless Eight arc up until now because it didn't execute nothing new. We already knew that Yuki was suffering and Kyon was starting to become aware of the deja vu, so why stretch it for this long?

KyoAni either thinks we're slow or they're trolling us one last time.
And I'm all up for being artsy-fartsy but there's a difference from presenting a new idea of story-telling and well, being plain annoying with that said idea.

If KyoAni was trying to piss us off, good for THEM.
Some fans think otherwise.
Whatever.

[Ottocycle]

Remember that heavy feeling that Kyon was talking about? The creators sure forced us into empathising with Nagato by giving us just a slight taste(4 out of 16,000) of how it feels. In fact breaking the rule of three would be a given if their intent was to do just that. Without spoiling, this is a great precursor to future events. I give a 10 for that success.

But well, a 1 does refer to a painful viewing experience, so I think its pretty damn apt.

Being torn between a 10 and a 1, I threw out a 5.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I enjoyed this episode, since any Suzumiya Haruhi is better than 95% of anything else, repetitive or not. And I thought they did give us some new development, in the increased awareness of the situation, and even just in the fact that we are thousands of iterations further on.

However, over all I thought this didn't work. With my one-track mind, I want to say that they tried to pull off a Yamakan (outrageous things like the movie and Yuki reading episodes of the first series) but they just don't quite have his comic sense.

[npal]

Originally Posted by prnoct90

Um, my only problem is the lack of anything new. I mean look

Ep 2 - A complete run through of the summer
Ep 3 - A complete run through of the summer, and then an analysis of the neverending summer
Ep 4 - A complete run through of the summer, and then an analysis of the neverending summer - done the EXACT SAME WAY

The difference between 3 and 4 is they didn't offer us ANYTHING new development wise, which is why for me, this really was a waste of an episode.

This.

*facepalm

I could stand ONE repeat, even if it could be avoided, but two... Someone's failed here, not sure which one failed more... Being KyoAni, I take it they only did what the script told them to because in the end that's all they're good for, but I seriously can't believe there's a written work that's actually so... troll provoking... to refrain from actually trolling.

It's plain bad, no matter how you look at it, it's just plain bad. Who's responsible for this I don't know, but whoever it is, the outcome is bad.

[mugener]

Originally Posted by npal

It's plain bad, no matter how you look at it, it's just plain bad. Who's responsible for this I don't know, but whoever it is, the outcome is bad.

.

*shake head*

you will see the real outcome on 8/28,
when new anime dvd is on sale.

.

[npal]

Originally Posted by mugener

.

*shake head*

you will see the real outcome on 8/28,
when new anime dvd is on sale.

.

The outcome as in the recent episode. I'm not talking about the story outcome itself although the story outcome lost any reason of being after 3 cases of copy-paste.

[mugener]

Originally Posted by npal

The outcome as in the recent episode. I'm not talking about the story outcome itself although the story outcome lost any reason of being after 3 cases of copy-paste.

.

if you want to judge an anime outcome in their(kadokawa and kyoani) way,
then it's dvd sale.

nothing else.

.

[Fenrir_valindri]

I think they did a great job creating the frustration that Yuki must feel by doing this again, but my only real complain is how lazy the animation was.

If they had kept the level of animation from last episode for this episode, I would have been incredibly impressed, but I don't think Kyoani is trying to "troll" us as some people are claiming.

Whether it is your bag of chips or not is another thing entirely.

And for the record, I almost didn't watch this series due to first seasons episode 00, but now I appreciated the reason it was the way it was.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Well I wonder if they were being lazy or not because clearly there were differences in animations so that means it took an effort but repeating the same story over with almost exact same dialogue is being really lazy. If they were trying to give out the feeling of frustration then they did that very well but even with purpose like that I think they should have increased the pace a lot.

[Peanutbutter]

I just thought of the following. If Ep 4 was shown before Ep 3, it will be a freaking brilliant move because of the better execution in Ep 3.

Instead we got the reverse and we (at least I) felt shortchanged.

Try watching Ep 4 first then Ep 3.

[npal]

Originally Posted by mugener

.

if you want to judge an anime outcome in their(kadokawa and kyoani) way,
then it's dvd sale.

nothing else.

.

LOL, that's obvious, and yes, your point is noted, there are more than enough Japanese who are going to buy the thing regardless. The fact that they CAN sell even that speaks volumes about the ones who actually buy it.

[Fenrir_valindri]

That is like saying people who buy DvDs of Bleach/Naruto filler episodes speaks VOLUMES about them. It really is a matter of personal opinion, some people will love that they did this (being somewhat sadistic/masochistic) and others who will simply hate it for being "the same thing."

I'd rather watch this loop 4 more times with different animations each time then watch another filler episode of either of those Anime.

[Seravy]

I wonder how they're going to justify putting these episodes together on DVD? You're paying for the same episode twice...

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by Fenrir_valindri

I'd rather watch this loop 4 more times with different animations each time then watch another filler episode of either of those Anime.

Agreed.