First Impressions / Suzumiya Haruhi

Summary:
It’s the end-of-term exam time and Kyon is pissed off that Haruhi can finish 30 minutes before time is up and sleep. In the club room later, Haruhi shows Kyon the design she’s created as the club’s emblem. Though he resists, she makes him put it at the top of their website. The next day, a less than happy Kyon comes to the club room hoping to see Mikuru so that he can feel a little better. He knocks on the door, but it’s Haruhi who answers; only she and Yuki are there. Haruhi had thought that a knock meant a customer, and reminds Kyon of the poster he put up that advertised the SOS Brigade as place for trouble consultation. Anyway, Haruhi shows Kyon that their website is looking strange, with distorted images and messed up words. Since Kyon’s attempts to fix it don’t work, Haruhi starts thinking that this is the work of a hacker and wonders if someone is targeting the SOS Brigade for cyber-terrorism. Itsuki then arrives, wondering why Mikuru isn’t there yet, and Haruhi responds by saying that the second-years have extra exams. The rest of the afternoon is spent with Kyon having to answer Haruhi’s unreasonable demands on the computer. Mikuru eventually does come and brings along a customer.
The customer is a second-year student named Kimidori Emiri, and she wants the SOS Brigade to search for her missing boyfriend. He apparently hasn’t come to school for days, isn’t answering his phone, and isn’t at home. Kimidori says that her boyfriend has mentioned the SOS Brigade before, so Haruhi asks for his name. It doesn’t appear to be someone they know until she says that he is the president of the computer research society. It’s then that Kyon realizes that this was the person Haruhi blackmailed to get their computer. Having no recollection of that, Haruhi decides to take the case, free of charge. Haruhi tells Kyon later that they’ll just need to go to this guy’s room, hit him a few times, and drag him out.
They arrive at the club president’s apartment, but the door is locked. Kyon objects to Haruhi’s suggestion that they go through the window on the veranda because this is the third floor and they are not a juvenile delinquent group of thieves. Haruhi decides instead to borrow the key from the manager, but before she can get too far, Yuki touches the doorknob and opens the door. Of course, the guy they’re looking for isn’t there. Yuki says that they should leave and Itsuki agrees – he’s got a strange uncomfortable feeling. Haruhi meanwhile has found a package of warabimochi in the refrigerator. She tries to force Mikuru to eat some and then eats some herself. Out of earshot from her, Itsuki says that a closed dimension is near – this room has the same smell as that place. Yuki says that a dimensional fault exists and that a phase transformation has taken place. Having found nothing in the apartment, Haruhi decides to let them go for now. They all head off in their own direction, but everyone except for Haruhi soon meets back at the apartment.
Yuki confirms that the club president’s disappearance is because of an abnormal space and then transports them all there – it’s a wide open place resembling a desert. Based on Yuki’s analysis, Itsuki thinks that this isn’t a closed dimension. Yuki supports this by saying that Haruhi has mixed junk information with this dimension’s data. Kyon is more concerned about the president that they’re looking for, so Yuki points her finger behind him at a dark sphere that’s just appeared. Itsuki feels a clear hostility from it, which soon takes the form of a giant camel cricket, the creator of this dimension. Kyon wonders if this is because of something Haruhi did, but Yuki says that it’s a different cause, thought it started with Haruhi. The president is inside this cricket, which is his object of fear, so if they defeat the cricket, they can collapse the dimension. Mikuru is afraid, but Itsuki and Yuki get to work. Between their powers, the cricket is defeated and disappears. The computer research society’s president then appears on the ground where the cricket was.
Back in the apartment, Yuki switches on the computer and explains that about 280 million years ago, a data entity descended to Earth. In order to preserve itself, it went into hibernation. Humans eventually created computer networks which half-woke this entity, but it was Haruhi’s SOS emblem that fully awoke it. It seems that the emblem contained a human-scale equivalent of 436 petabytes of data. The next day, Kyon discovers that the counter on their web site has reached almost thirty thousand. Yuki goes through an explanation about how the data entity proliferated itself through hyperlinks and how the information was copied to the brains of the people who saw the sign. But because the data was damaged, the others did not see the same thing as the computer president. In total, eight people saw the correct emblem. Yuki fixes it by reversing the design, so that it now reads “ZOZ団” instead of “SOS団.” In any case, Haruhi’s still very pleased that they’ve gotten this many hits. Kyon later thinks to himself that maybe it was Yuki’s hope to involve them in all this. An android of space aliens living years in that dull room, maybe she was lonely all by herself.

Preview:

Thoughts on the episode:
-Well it didn’t really start out like it, but the story certainly ended as a Yuki-centered one. And here I thought this series was all about Haruhi lol.
-It was cool seeing what Itsuki’s powers are like. What made the scene even better were the “Fumoffu” and “Second Raid” shouts he did (Kyoto Animation is also responsible for the two Full Metal Panic! series by those names).
-I was quite amused by the scene where they bleeped out the computer club president’s name with a cat and then Kyon realizes who he really is.
-This story explains the SOS Brigade symbol on the official Haruhi site, but I think it would have been funnier if they had put the “ZOZ団” there.

Next week continues the island story started last week. The preview seems to imply that Haruhi and Kyon are going to get a little closer.

Random Haruhi-Related Links of the Week:
Piano version of Haruhi ED
Haruhi ED in DDR

37 Comments

  7. Piano scores for both OP & ED have been transcribed for your preusal by Josh of alphatrance.com. The scores are not the same as the one on youtube, but I’ll say they’re more true to the original than the youtube one. 😉

    bakavic
    Reply

  9. I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET! I WANT THE MUSIC SHEET!

    Hang on, bakavic already gave us a link
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    iamandragon
    Reply

  18. They actually reused animation from FMP The Second Raid (Yuki Nagato repelling bug / Arbalest repelling a venom unit). I know that because I made an animated gif with the latter.

    Eleutheria
    Reply

  24. Absolute shit, as 6 episodes before it. To think people call this bleak stuff “best of the season” is unthinkable…maybe we DO live in the world Haruhi created, or there’d be more people with taste…

    Karnot
    Reply

  25. “Absolute shit, as 6 episodes before it. To think people call this bleak stuff “best of the season” is unthinkable…maybe we DO live in the world Haruhi created, or there’d be more people with taste…”

    Care to say why? If you are going to say “because of the random episodes”, you should stop watching this series. This series is no longer just a comedy series that it was with first couple of episodes.

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  26. Don’t feed the troll, he’s obviously a Narutard bitter that Suzumiya Haruhi is a much better show than his regular narrow anime tastes.

    Anyway, Yuki certainly owns the show. I’ve already liked her when Show Spoiler ▼

    , I liked her even more when I saw the illustration of her looking lonely. Then I just melted after reading volume 4.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  28. @Karnot
    It’s always good to read different opinions about a anime, but please explain yourself better. Just saying something is “shit” don’t tell me WHY you dislike the series. So please next time write a good explanation when giving a comment.

    *Chi*
    Reply

  29. different people will have different preferences or disatisfaction.
    But i am really disguested at people like Karnot who gave such negative comments. If you just dislike it, keep it to yourself and don’t bother to come here and condemn the show. You are just being a nusinces to those who like it.

    And next time you say something like this, state your reasons. Stop acting like a 3 year old kid.

    Tidus
    Reply

  30. Though i enjoyed this episode, it felt like the beginning of it was a little slow.

    The green haired girl seemed to have piqued yuki’s interest, and mikuru also seemed to be nervous when introducing her, i have a feeling she’ll become another ‘interesting character’. Another time traveler perhaps?

    Can’t wait for next week’s episode, looks like more kyon/haruhi development…or maybe not…

    Sorael
    Reply

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