First Impressions / Suzumiya Haruhi

OP Sequence

OP: 「Super Driver」 by 平野綾 (Hirano Aya)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Spoiler ▼

As I said in my earlier post, I think the animation to this is fun to watch, but the song itself isn’t that great.

Summary:

One summer day, Haruhi calls up Kyon and forces him to meet up with her and the rest of the SOS Brigade. It turns out that they’re headed to the public pool, and Haruhi really enjoys herself there. Visiting the pool is just one of the things on her summer activity list for the group though, and she’s got plenty more written down that she wants to do in the two weeks left in summer. Mikuru even adds to the list by suggesting goldfish scooping. And so, the group embarks on completing each of the activities, and this begins with buying yukata for the girls as a precursor to going to a festival, scooping goldfish, and playing with fireworks. The day after that is bug catching, and Haruhi decides that they should see who can catch the most cicadas. Haruhi, of course, ends up being the winner.

Haruhi then sets them up to do part-time work for a supermarket dressed in frog costumes, and Kyon is dismayed to find out afterward that their pay is one of the frog costumes that Haruhi wanted. The group also does some stargazing, and Haruhi is disappointed that she can’t see any Martians, so she looks for UFOs instead. As the days go by, the group continues to embark on different activities based on Haruhi’s interests, including batting practice, a fishing competition, and karaoke. Toward the end of the two weeks, they finish all the activities on the list, and though Haruhi’s still somewhat unsatisfied, she lets it go. Kyon ends up spending his last day of summer at home doing homework, and he goes to bed five minutes before midnight.

 
 

For someone who wasn’t very familiar with this story, I originally thought that this was a fairly enjoyable episode with some humor (the Kakizaki scene made me laugh), fanservice, and slice-of-life summer activities stuff that you can find in a lot of other series, but I didn’t think all that much interesting happened plot-wise. That seemed a little odd to me given how most of the past Haruhi stories have had some sort of twist, and it got me curious enough to find out what’s really behind this. And now that I know, what the Kyoto Animation team did with this episode makes much more sense, as does the title Endless Eight. It makes me very curious how they’re going to show the events of next week’s episode, though part of me wishes now that I hadn’t spoiled myself because I probably would have had a much bigger enlightening moment.

62 Comments

  6. I expect this to be subbed within a day. Some Toradora episodes were like that. Moreso Haruhi.

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    magnumslinger
    Reply

  12. A TRUE fan would watch this 15 498 times, and then watch the next week episode.

    Then again, that’d be…

    15,498 x 25 minute episode / 60 minutes per hour / 24 hours per day …
    ~269 DAYS worth of material

    To think about it in another way, it’d be like watching a fetal embryo develop until it’s born. Constantly.

    Phocus
    Reply

  15. Yeah, unless there’s an Endless Eight 2 next week then it’s certainly divergent from the novel.

    Phocus has it right. There was very little “endless” about this one.

    JR
    Reply

  29. Show Spoiler ▼

    Delwack
    Reply

  30. It’s actually strange, if memory serves then this story should have a serious twist in it before the end of summer. They either saved it for another episode or it got cut altogether (which would be a shame).

    Grant
    Reply

  33. WHAT?! Damn, they screwed up one of my favorite short stories of the Haruhi novels. After the stargazing they completely deviated from the story! Damn you, KyoAni, you better make up for this!

    BK-110
    Reply

  41. Just for people who’d like to know the broadcast schedule for the new episodes (minor spoilers in terms of episode titles):

    05/21: Episode 8 – Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
    06/18: Episode 12 – Endless Eight
    06/25: Episode 13 – The sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi I
    07/02: Episode 14 – The sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi II
    07/09: Episode 15 – The sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi III
    08/14: Episode 20 – The disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi I
    08/21: Episode 21 – The disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi II
    08/27: Episode 22 – The disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi III
    09/03: Episode 23 – The disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi IV
    09/10: Episode 24 – ‘Charmed at first sight’ LOVERS
    09/17: Episode 25 – Snowy Mountain Syndrome Part I
    09/24: Episode 26 – Snowy Mountain Syndrome Part 2
    10/01: Episode 27 – Where did the cat go?
    10/08: Episode 28 – The day after the disappearance

    Hope that helps some folks…

    DarkWind
    Reply

  46. @BK-110
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Fayted
    Reply

  49. @fayted
    Show Spoiler ▼

    @magnumslinger
    Show Spoiler ▼

    @delwack
    Show Spoiler ▼

    @Phocus the fans who have done this could do that:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    @ahelo: she’s a contact purpose interface, perhaps the uniform has something to do with the conditions of space-time in the arc…

    Kakashi_Crusade
    Reply

  51. I love how KyoAni manage to slip in little hints here and there.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Dazzer
    Reply

  52. Creo que esta parte la debieron haber sacado en un especial de 2 capítulos, ya que así parece un tanto difícil de comprender, ya que rompen muy feo el ritmo. Ojala se recupere el próximo capitulo. Viva el haruhismo!!!!

    huitzi
    Reply

  55. FAIL theyleft out the whole point of this part of the story i read the novels its called endless eight because they relived the last 8 days of the summer 15000 times till kyon got it right and asked haruhi to do his home work with him the next new ep is a different arc

    meh
    Reply

  58. people expect way too much on animation quality of this series…. i rewatched the first season and it was almost exactly the same…. as for the story apparentely there’s a twist so next week should be fun.

    ahelo
    Reply

  59. Well, considering Endless Eight actually is a novel story and does include more than just “hooray happy summer time filler”, this must be a two-parter. Really, the title of the episode/story hints at what actually does go down… so this is only the beginning of it.

    mj
    Reply

  60. O one month ago Haruhi episode. How I miss the feeling I had when I watched you. Anticipation. Joy. Satisfaction. If only I knew what your clones would do to me…If only we knew.

    Meery
    Reply

  61. The reason this repetitive story arc is NOT cool while the movie Groundhog Day (or 12:01 pm – the one from 1990, not the one from 1993; the one from 1993 sucked) IS cool is precisely because Bill Murray’s character didn’t lose his memory every day, and so did something DIFFERENT every time around. That’s the critical plot element that the dorks who made this apparently were too dumb to realize. The same thing happens every time because no one does anything different because the only one who REMEMBERS what happened in loops past isn’t trying to DO anything differently from the time before. Save your hard drive space and bandwidth. If you want to experience it in all its horror, watch the first episode, then the second, and then watch the third episode 15500 times. You’ll never notice the difference!

    I guess if there are truly 8 episodes of endless 8, then the one that would air in a week and a half would be the last. It didn’t resolve with the 6th one, so there are certainly going to be 7, and why would they call it endless 8 if there weren’t going to be 8? Unless it’s because it ends on episode 8, which the 7th endless 8 episode. They shouldn’t have done any more than 2 episodes on this. Maybe 3, if they decisively resolved it by the end of the 3rd one.

    Me, I didn’t bother spending more than 30 seconds skimming through the 5th or the 6th Endless 8 episodes.

    Sandor
    Reply

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