Summary:

It is still summer vacation, and Kyon has been feeling that something is strange. Haruhi drags him and the rest of the SOS Brigade to the pool and each the other activities that she had planned, and Kyon experiences a sense of déjà vu at every step. Then, on the night after the part-time job, he gets a call suddenly from a crying Mikuru who’s with Itsuki, and the three of them and Yuki meet up. It turns out that Mikuru is distraught because she can’t return to the future anymore, and Itsuki thinks that it’s because they’re in an endless loop of these last two August weeks. September will not come in their current world, and their memories are reset each repetition. Itsuki suspects that Haruhi is the unknowing culprit of this because she doesn’t want summer vacation to end and still has things she needs to do. And while he and Kyon experience déjà vu, Yuki is the one who remembers everything from each time. She reveals that they’ve actually looped 15,948 times, and there have been variations in what they do from time to time.

The four of them can’t do anything about this for the time being, but during the stargazing activity, Itsuki suggests that Kyon tell Haruhi that he loves her so that they can try to figure out what she wants. Kyon refuses, so Itsuki considers doing it himself, but he decides against it and claims that it was a joke. Later, during the batting practice activity, Kyon takes some time to ask Yuki why she didn’t say anything about the endless looping to them earlier. Her answer is simply that it’s her duty to observe. The group goes on to do everything Haruhi wanted to and finishes her list again by the end of vacation. Haruhi is once again unsatisfied, but she again accepts it and gets up to leave. Kyon tries to stop her, but he doesn’t know what to say and tries to look for a clue in what Haruhi said. He ultimately fails after being unable to come up with anything, and he goes to bed on the night of August 31st having given up on the homework that he still has to do.

 
 

Well that was a big surprise. As I mentioned last week, I thought I had completely spoiled myself on this mini-arc when I found out that they’d be repeating everything as part of the endless loop, but I didn’t think that they’d do it more than once. One episode of Endless Eight wouldn’t have given the déjà vu effect that two episodes would have (and did), and I was all ready to applaud Kyoto Animation on how they handled this, but now I’m just confused. They don’t gain much from repeating it all a second time, and I have to wonder if they’re just killing time or something because they don’t want to progress too far into the rest of the original story (more material for more episodes means more money in the long run).

On the other hand, maybe they were just trying to fool the folks who were familiar with the story and were expecting a two-part arc after last week’s episode. And it’s not like they’re skimping on production quality – I’m pretty sure everything in this episode was newly animated, and I liked the Itsuki and Kyon rooftop scene in particular because of the music they used. In any case, I’m not really curious how they will approach the third time through next week, and hopefully they won’t drag it out longer than that.

68 Comments

  1. Next week, endless eight again?

    I was surprise that they did not reuse scenes or footages from last week…
    I totally agree with Kyon’s action of not doing the homework.

    tylon
  2. maybe they’re just preparing the stage for those who haven’t read the novel or those who are totally clueless about haruhi betting that remodeling the episode might pique the interest of new viewers

    baka~
  3. wait… so why can’t Kyon say anything to her at the end – when he’s trying to chance after her?

    And is Haruhi really waiting for Kyon to say “I love you,” or something? So once she gets to spend lovely dovely time with Kyon on Aug 31st, everything would be fine again? So, in other words, the world is controlled not only by Haruhi’s desires, but her subconscious self’s desires?

    And did it really take these people more than ten thousand times to realize that they’ve been living in a loop? Deja Vu usually occurs when things already happen JUST ONCE. It doesn’t need more than ten thousand times to have deja vu — did Kyon really not have any Deja vu before then?

    And if Asahina has realized that her “classified information” did not go through so many hundreds of years ago (aka she can’t go into the future), why didn’t she inform Nagato Yuki before, like, five hundred years pass?

    helen
  4. @helen: They DO have deja vu every time. It’s just that they fail to do anything about it. Every time. Mikuru, as well, continues to contact the future each loop, only to find that the future NO LONGER EXISTS.

    Man I love this story. One of the best ones in Haruhi.

    Kaisos
  5. I am so sad about Michael. He was one of my favorite artists. I grew up in the 80’s listening to him. He will be greatly missed. I just hope I can get through work tomorrow. I’ve never seen this series before, maybe I’ll go back and watch it. I need something to keep my mind off Michael. Sniff… :_:

    julygirl17
  6. All of you have no doubt realized that the rest of the second season will simply consist of Endless Eights being repeated, endlessly, until the season is concluded with a final ending Endless Eight episode.

    Meery
  7. I enjoyed this episode a lot for some strange reason, I really liked the melancholic feel of the whole thing

    and I agree, I also loved the balcony scene, and was it just me, or was Itsuki’s confession aimed more at Kyon than Haruhi?

    perhaps just wishful thinking…XD

    dylan
  8. According to my sources, there are 3 more eps of this arc (or at least 3 more eps with the same title like this one) ;o
    Anyway, i wonder what would haruhi do, if she heard itsuki’s confession. Something like in haruhi-chan? xD

    Omiruk
  9. I have a feeling something is going to happen inbetween Haruhi and Kyon in the next episode most likely romantically. It this episode he was caought suddenly staring at Haruhi by that alien guy. That guy tried to push Kyon to say I love you to Haruhi and Kyon was bothered when that guy said he might say it to Haruhi.

    roger
  10. They’re pushing this story a little too far, but you can forgive them with how amazing the production values and the moodiness of this episode, and especially the focus on Yuki in a few scenes.

    I will be officially miffed if they don’t conclude it next time, however.

    penguintruth
  11. LOL when I first saw kyon watching the baseball match I thought, crap! this is not the new episode… wait! he’s not wearing a shirt.. hmm I think I prefer this version XD

    ConfusedGirl29
  12. Heh well I for one enjoyed this a lot. Slice of life is ftw to me, and the subtle an awesome changes they made really improved this episode. If it was some other studio they might have reused footage, but KyoAni reanimated everything XD.

    FlameStrike
  13. Yeah it’s sad to hear about Michael Jackson, that was a shocker really. Anyways to the topic, I found this pretty ingenious to be honest. I really like the quality of this too and from how Haruhi was getting close and the details to her lips, it’s just begging a kiss and some jealous from Mikuru hur hur hur. Can’t wait for the next one, I’m wondering if Kyon is going to snap and say “Okay enough of this endless loop because I actually want to finish my homework earlier now”. You know it’s Haruhi telling Kyon to get his homework done nice and early or he’ll have to continue through this loop and make poor Mikuru suffer xD

  14. I really like how in this episode everything felt a lot heavier. The previous one was very bright, but this felt more oppressive. All the little differences were nice. And the roof top scene was really nice. I liked Kyon’s expression after Itsuki suggested telling Haruhi he liked her himself. Gave the impression that Kyon wasn’t comfortable with that either ^.^

  15. Wow it’s like a more dramatic version of Groundhog Day and I love it. I really liked how KyoAni did the same scenes with new animation, goes to show you they’re not slacking of in the production.

    But wow, 594 years of time looping it sucks to be Yuki now. I love how subtle her reactions are, you can really feel her frustration in her monotone voice and expressions.

    fragbet
  16. When I came to the last part of the episode, I really thought KyoAni had redeemed themselves. Something’s fishy here. They could’ve easily finished it off by simply following the novel.
    Like you, Omni, I’m confused, but on the other hand, I’m also intrigued. Wonder how they’ll finish it.

    BK-110
  17. Good materials! Hopefully they won’t mess their flagship title. Seriously bonus ep of K-On! was a disappointment they should’ve ended it with ep 12. Setting that aside, now that they’ve got good materials hopefully this will be great.

    VERY INTERESTED!

    megalith
  18. Wow, Kyo-Ani just “gets it” when it comes to animating Yuki’s subtle expression changes. On the outside, she’s still expressionless, but you can feel her loneliness, exasperation and even irritation at being stuck in this nearly 600-year long time loop. (Kawaii~ )

    Maybe deep down, she’s starting to feel grateful Kyon is even paying attention to her, which may develop into something…

    A very Haruhi-ist way of adapting this chapter. First starting off with a normal summer holiday, and then deja vu-ing it, and next week we’ll see the conclusion. Maybe it’s a good thing Kyo-Ani doesn’t animate this chapter 15,498 times, or we’ll all go insane long before Yuki even starts to crack. XD

    BTW, anyone know how do I put spoiler tags on in this place?

    Kinny Riddle
  19. I feel this is well planned by KyoAni: They left a couple of whole arcs out from 2006 series in case Haruhi anime would be very popular in future, so they can not put these new episodes in snugly without disturbing continuity in whole story! And everything is newly animated to us, but parts of whats coming out now could well have been planned years ago.
    About R.I.P MJ, aren`t you forgetting those ripped “items” should be seeded too, original creator will not miss any income from now on?

  20. @kaisos

    Actually, from what I remember from the novels Kyon and company do not realize the time loop all the time. I was waiting for the line from Yuki in this episode but it never came. Yuki in the novel, while stating how many cycles they have been through as well as the different stuff that they have done, also mentions the number of times they have figured out the time was resetting. It is not every time they figure it out but every time they have they could not solve the problem.

    Fayted
  21. A very well-animated episode. Although the animation was obviously lazy at some points, I found that KyoAni had used the right effects to not only give the characters a sense of deja vu, but for us viewers as well… Everything in the episode seemed very dull and uneasy… the color, the lighting, the mood…

    What I really noticed was how this episode was more closely related to the novel’s Endless Eight chapter, especially the dialogues made by Kyon.

    –To answer the questions of WHY KyoAni split this into a 3-part episode, I think the answer must be this:

    They want to show the THREE main scenarios of the 15 498 (technically, 15 499, but the last cycle ends without repetition) reincarnations of the Endless Eight summer. I dunno if this got posted else where, but here’s my input anyway:

    Episode 12 (Endless Eight I) represents the first few 6729 times that they were oblivious to their situation…
    Episode 13 (Endless Eight II) represents the ~8769 times that they finally realized their situation…
    And hopefully, Episode 14 (Endless Eight Finale) will represent the final 15 499th time that they solve the Endless Eight summer.

    So yeah, you can go read the novels for these facts. Hope I didn’t spoil anyone~

    Phocus
  22. @Kaisos and helen. they have deja vu every time, and he says “how many times has this happened” and nagato answers 15,948 times. so they’ve had that meeting 15,947 times and asahina has cried 15,948 times. my 2 cents.

    kuma
  23. @kuma

    I thought that Asahina would cry 15,947 times cos in the first time, the future would have existed and she could send classified information. The future was removed on August the 30th first time around.

    Cherubium
  24. @Helen:

    The hint is the fact their memories are erased in each cycle. It seems to be a degrading effect now that the group has gone through some 15,000-plus times and the memory erasure is starting to lose its efficacy.

    I think there were one of two possibilities hinted in this episode on how to end the loop, and I don’t think we’ll know until the third or possibly fourth part of Endless Eight.

    Seeing that I haven’t read all the novels yet, my assumptions for one of those two hints are:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    octoberasian
  25. I just noticed Haruhi is going on with it’s second season and watched all the three new episodes. O.O
    This is the kind of humour I was missing, you can’t but love Haruhi and their wonderfull punch of characters. Kyon’s additude is the best of the best. /^_^/

    I really love how Kyoani is doing so far and wish they will keep everything wonderfull untill the end. The little motions can been seen so wonderfully in everyones faces, I wish the new episode would be here already.

    Thanks a lot for blogging.

    Tuuli
  26. @Lys
    17th to 31st. that may be a typo
    Ok, so here is my IMHO. Mega-spoiler maybe, as I’m not sure if my guess is false.
    The real reason of the time loop is not Haruhi’s unfinished business. It’s Kyon unfinished homework. As we all know, Kyon is the real god, and he doesn’t want to do his homework. Neither he wants to go to school without one done. But here, the main differenc from ranobe, he didn’t ask Haruhi for help. On the other hand he thinks that his homework is not his business anymore and goes to sleep with relatively light heart.
    My guess is that he will wake up on 1st of September with kind of “OHSHI-” face, and we will pass to the next chapter safely.

    solomon
  27. this is a really interesting and a convoluted temporal paradox of mind mangling complexity. I think he is probably going to have to take her on a date but thats just a guess.

    Also Nagato looks so sad when she is hunched up like that by the pool. Id be board to if i spend the last 594 yrs repeating 2 weeks

    chaos
  28. Sure enough, they didn’t end it again. I could handle 3 repeats. The subtlety being applied in the changes is absolutely phenomenal. Also, it might have just been my imagination since i started reasearching after todays ep. but did they actually go backwards in the loop? But yeah, i don’t know if I can stand watching this again. Kyon = idiot. “why haven’t you said anything” “i’m here as an observer” “Say something at the beginning next time.” Problem solved.

Leave a Reply to ahelo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *