Summary:
-While the SOS Brigade’s movie is being shown at the school’s Cultural Festival, all the club members are off doing their own activities. Yuki is working in her class’ fortune-telling whereas Itsuki is giving a performance of some sort. Kyon joins up with Kunikida and Taniguchi and the three visit Mikuru’s class’ yakisoba stand. The big attraction there is the special uniforms that the girls are wearing.
-After parting with his friends, Kyon wanders around and ends up in the gymnasium listening to various bands play. He’s slowly drifting to sleep until he catches sight of Haruhi and Yuki getting on stage with two other girls.
-Haruhi starts by singing a song called 「God knows…」, a song that really gets the growing crowd cheering for her and the band.
-Afterwards, Haruhi introduces the band as ENOZ, which stands for Enomoto, Nakanishi, Okajima, and Zaizen. Haruhi and Yuki are replacing Enomoto and Nakanishi. Since they aren’t the full band, Haruhi tells the audience that they can come by later with a MD to get a recording of the full band.
-Haruhi then sings 「Lost my music」.
-Haruhi tells Kyon the full story later: Enomoto and Nakanishi were both unable to play because of medical reasons. Feeling bad for the remaining band members, Haruhi had stepped in and pulled in Yuki.
-The full ENOZ band comes to talk with Haruhi during class. She’s at first reluctant to go see them, but goes along and pulls Kyon with here. The ENOZ girls have become pretty popular and thank Haruhi for her help during the festival. They reveal that they’re holding a live before graduation and invite Haruhi and her friend (Kyon) to come.
-Haruhi is missing during lunch, so Kyon wanders around school and finds her lying beneath a tree in the courtyard. Haruhi is regretful that she didn’t have enough time to prepare the full version of the band’s song. She admits that she’s thinking about what she’s doing with her own life right now, and can’t figure out why she can’t calm down. Kyon thinks to himself that it’s because she isn’t used to being thanked by other people.
-Haruhi sees Kyon looking at her and returns to her normal state, wondering what he wants to say. When Kyon says nothing, she tries to throw some grass at him, but the wind blows it right back into her own face.
-With renewed energy, Haruhi asks Kyon if he plays an instrument. Her plan is to create a band out of the SOS Brigade to perform at the next festival. That’s in addition to making the sequel to their movie. Haruhi drags Kyon off to go see about getting a guitar, with big plans now in her head.

Preview:

I had heard rumblings last week about how Haruhi would be singing in this episode, so that part didn’t come as a complete surprise. Still, Kyon’s face as he watched Haruhi get on stage was absolutely priceless. The ironic thing was that I had been staring at Amazon.co.jp’s listing for Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsumeawase last week wondering what songs 「God knows…」 and 「Lost my music」 were. Well, now I know…
Ultimately, this episode showed a more human side of Haruhi than the previous episodes have. It was almost a wondrous sight, watching as Haruhi enjoyed the attention and thanks that she got for playing in the band; quite different from her normal self. Actually, watching the end of this episode, I couldn’t help but think to myself that this was like the perfect finish to the series, with Haruhi having more ambitions and dragging Kyon along. But this isn’t the end because we’ve still got two more episodes worth left from the Yuuutsu novel.

27 Comments

  1. I think I was nearly as shocked as Kyon was when she started singing, honestly I didn’t expect she could sing so well and even if she could I’m surpised she took it so seriously. Wonderful episode indeed. And I agree that this would have been a perfect ‘end’ if the series had ended here.

    Anza
  2. Welcome back Omni!

    Next episode is going to be even more melancholous than this one (I think). I found this one a little boring at the end, but I enjoyed the songs.

    Tsuruya is genki as ever!

    Pakxenon
  3. LOL. I guess it’s not just the SOS-dan members. Even the wind favors Kyon over Haruhi.

    Anyway, the Haruhi parts were very nice, but I’d say that LOL FANG-tan was the star of this episode.

    cclragnarok
  4. Eldarwen, yes unfortunately there are only two remaining episodes left for this series. The series should definitely be back for another season after this, but I have heard no confirmation. ::fingers crossed::

    Tim
  5. One of my fav. eps. ^^ Well, if the series come back for another season, it would be from volume two of the book Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki? (The Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi) Maybe. w

    NaThalang
  6. getting nagato ism now more than ever. first yuki was awesome on the fight scene,then on the computer hacking skills then these guitar playing. i hope theres like a h-manga where nagato haruhi and mikuru in it.

    anim3guy
  7. getting nagato ism now more than ever. first yuki was awesome on the fight scene,then on the computer hacking skills then these guitar playing. i hope theres like a h-manga where nagato haruhi and mikuru in it.
    by anim3guy June 24th, 2006 at 7:28 am
    Show Spoiler ▼

    now go away…..

    anyways, the Haruhi X Kyon scene are well done. And if you notice, there are many things happening in the background scene. You can see Haruhi and Yuki rushing by with guitars when Kyon was talking to Tanaguchi

    lol fang-tan FTW!!!
    Man, she’s the most Genki characther in any anime series i’ve seen

  8. Yea this ep is great! Even all the background happenings during the Cultural Festival seem so lively.

    Did you all notice? Haruhi and Nagato were running behind Kyon after he left Mikuru-chan’s cafe. Such minor details… superb! ^_^

  9. The concert scene was AWESOME!!! The crowd was well animated, and the fingers playing the guitars?? OMG!!! Such fluidness!! But the one thing that I find MOST impressive, is the motion-blur. The drumsticks, the vibrating guitar strings, etc! OMG OMG OMG!!!! I think what makes the concert scene so amazing (For me) is how well they managed to pull off “jerking” motions with incredible fluidity. Hence, the animation is fast-paced, but still easy on the eyes.

    Having complimented the art… the song was absolutely amazing. I love Haruhi’s seiyuu ever since I’ve watched Kiddy Grade. When I first heard her in Suzumiya Haruhi, I was like…wow. And now that I’ve heard her sing with such a *powerful* voice, I can only say… OMG!!@$#%$@#@$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hirano Aya 4EVA!!!

    JoshieJosh
  10. According to the trivia page at ANN, Haruhi can be briefly seen in the background at two points of the episode. I checked it myself, and it’s true! See if you can spot them. Here’s two hints: They only occur when Kyon is with Taniguchi and Kunikida, and the one thing you really have to watch out for is Haruhi’s bunny ears.

    Also, the play Itsuki performs in is the Hamlet-inspired “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” by Tom Stoppard, with Itsuki as Guildenstern.

    A line in the “God Knows…” song is considered by some as a foreshadowing to a later episode that chronologically takes place before this one. The line is from the 10:50 – 11:00 time frame.

    Reyon

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