First Impressions / Suzumiya Haruhi

Summary:
As they watch a girl tearing up paper and letting the wind carry away the scraps, Kyon asks Itsuki what he’s plotting. He’s a bit uneasy about this trip Itsuki planned for them to a privately owned island. Itsuki refers to it as a closed circle – a mystery term meaning a situation where contact with the outside world is cut. If a storm were to come, they’d be closed in. As it turns out, Haruhi had announced that they were going on an overnight trip, and Itsuki had decided on an island owned by one of his rich relatives. Haruhi was so pleased with this that she promoted Itsuki to vice brigade commander. And not only had she been excited about the interesting things that lay in store for them, she had already decided on her role: Great Detective. On the boat now, Itsuki explains to Kyon that strange events occur where great detectives go. A supernatural ability to call incidents is what makes the detective. And this is probably part of Haruhi’s thinking since she wants to become one.
Since it’s a six hour long boat ride, the group ends up playing the card game baba-nuki. Kyon notes that his little sister forced him to bring her along after he found her hiding in his bag. Haruhi declares that the loser of the game will have to treat everyone to juice. In the end, it’s Kyon who loses and has to do it. Afterwards, he falls asleep and wakes up to Haruhi’s voice and the flash of a camera. The person with the camera is actually Mikuru who took pictures of him sleeping. Haruhi takes back the camera and announces that she’s made Mikuru their temporary camera-man to chronicle what they’re doing.
The group soon arrives at port and Itsuki reassures Kyon that nothing will happen. They are met by Arakawa the butler and Mori the maid who take them on another boat to get to the private island. During the ride, Kyon notices that Mikuru is intently studying Mori, a real maid. Haruhi gets herself worked up about the island, but ends up being a bit disappointed by how normal it looks. They are met at the dock by Tamaru Yutaka, the younger brother of the master of the island. The actual master, Tamaru Keiichi, greets them at the door of the house. Haruhi uses a polite tone to thank him, but that surprises him a bit because Itsuki had said that Haruhi was a pretty frank girl. Hearing this, Haruhi drops the polite manner and immediately asks about incidents on the island. Of course, none have occurred yet.
Haruhi is very unhappy about how there’s nothing suspicious about the island. Sitting around bored, she suddenly announces that her intuition tells her that Keiichi is a criminal and his first target is Mikuru. She lets go of that idea pretty quickly and decides to go swimming instead. The rest of that day is spent having fun in the water and that night is spent having fun with fireworks. On the second day, however, a storm rolls in. Haruhi once again becomes excited at the prospect of some incident occurring. Kyon realizes that they’ve now been closed off on this island – could this be the closed circle? With nothing better to do, the group plays indoor games like ping-pong, pool, mahjong, and the Ou-sama game. On the third day, however, something happens: the butler Arakawa informs them that Yutaka is missing. What’s more, Keiichi isn’t responding to calls. The group rushes to Keiichi’s locked room and forces their way in. On the ground, they find Keiichi with a knife through his chest.

Well with all the talk about great detectives and closed circles and incidents occurring, something was bound to happen. After what Itsuki said last episode about Haruhi’s powers, it’s as if she made her wishes come true here. Actually, with what Haruhi said earlier, I’m surprised that Keiichi didn’t turn out to be a criminal targeting Mikuru. But since Haruhi is involved, I guess that this won’t turn out to just be a normal murder mystery. Heck, nothing about this series is normal lol…
Speaking of not normal, I’m not too happy that they’re leaving us hanging and moving on to a different story – this is the ninth one and next week backtracks to the eighth one. The jumping around didn’t bother me before, but it does in this case. It’s one thing to insert a fun episode between the storyline ones, but it’s another thing to leave a cliffhanger like this. The best I can hope for now is that the eighth episode will have the tenth story (i.e. the latter half of this).

Random stuff:
LOL@this Haruhi ED Re-enactment.
LOL again@a different one.

48 Comments

  6. Weird..
    9th story, 8th story, maybe alien story???
    I love this series, it’s as weird as my character is *finally happy to found someone similar*
    Oo, a murder? Now that shocked me..
    In my opinion it’s a cool thing with this mixed up stories, but it’s sometimes too confusing, as in this episode. Ahh, that beach scenes, as usual fanservice *swit*
    And now, happy to read the summary soon^^

    *Chi*
    Reply

  9. *turns crioppled after watching the ED Re-enactments* >.O;;…

    Out of curiousity, is the anime covering all the novels? Or just a few in particular? (it doesn’t seem like it’s covering just Vol.1)

    Saga
    Reply

  12. The random episode thing is the dumbest idea ever. It basically makes the whole show unwatchable until you have all the episodes AND know exactly how they connect. What kind of a retard thought of this ? Aww…

    Karnot
    Reply

  20. wow the re-enactments were NOT cool
    i feel sad for thouese ppl
    and if they are re-enacting at least get girls to do Haruhi, Yuki and Mikurus’ part

    lol the dude got owned by a knife O==[=(x_x)==>

    Eld
    Reply

  26. i think the fact that guys did the entire thing made it even more hilarious. i think those guys were brave putting it on youtube. i certainly got a kick out of watching it XD

    Shia
    Reply

  27. So a murder happens and theyre not covering it in the next episode? i honestly dont like that mixed episode order at all, i wouldnt mind it if at least it made sense

    Drayen
    Reply

  30. There has to be /some/ reason for why KyoAni is doing this wierd episode ordering thing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this kind of thing will annoy the viewers.

    Shinji103
    Reply

  32. My take on all the jumping around in the show is that it’s designed to underline the entire break in the timeline. This was touched on a bit in Episode 4 (I think), where there was the bit about time not being fluid but rather a series of individual snapshots.

    My guess is that at some point closer to the end of the series, this device is going to be used to great effect to have something happen in a ‘future’ episode, which is then reversed in the next episode from an earlier time where a different decision is made.

    Either way, I’m loving this show. It deserves every bit of hype it’s getting.

    -Ten

    Tensai
    Reply

  33. Nope. Its pretty boring and formulaic. Not to mention the dumb “random episode order” thing. Whoever was the idiot that thought of it…i hope this wont be contagious, too much idiocy around already.

    Karnot
    Reply

  34. Every season there is one show I watch as soon as the raw are out. Canvas 2 was the show last season & Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is the one during the current season. They could not be more different and I enjoyed & enjoy both series immensely . . . .

    loplop
    Reply

  35. i think they will probably show us part 2 sometime after the next ep and may build on the kyon haruhi relationship…. kyon probably cannot take anymore of haruhi(i mean she killed someone so she cld have fun)…. probably he will tell her the truth that she is god and all… not that fast but i guest we have to see guys… but i think probably in the end haruhi will choose to give up her power to be a normal human… maybe… argg up till now i still cant deduce what kind of anime this show is gonna end up as… romance/comedy? action? hmm i dunno 🙁

    cyw1988
    Reply

  36. OMG~I this anime sure is getting weird with every week. At least Mikuru didn’t get bullied by Haruhi this time. I really feel bad for those ppl in the vids. At least they have the courage to do it…..

    dward
    Reply

  37. Is that a guy or a girl dressed up as Haruhi in the music video link#2????
    It’s amazing how many people are infatuated with the Haruhi dance routine… I am glad, even though it’s pretty sad how many spinoffs have come off of this. Like the wrestling one. Can’t wait for a Ninja Turtles one.

    zengbanger
    Reply

  41. The jumping around in eposides is probably necessary due to the length of the series. With only 14 eposides, it is necessary to do introduction –> normal life –> show the power of each of SOS members –> Kyon makes a difficult decision –> A “Happy” ending.

    I have the advantage of reading the latest 6th novel in Chinese which fill in more details on many previous events. In a way, KyotoAni is doing an excellent job of trying to condense so much materials into the length of series. The catch is there is only enough time to show the power of each of SOS members once in the anime series. If we go by the novels, each arc with have one or more SOS members showing off his/her powers, which can get into a repetitious and time crunch problem.

    However I just can’t wait till Yuki showing off her power next eposide. She is the cutest and most powerful SOS member in my opinion.

    Tal
    Reply

  44. I have the advantage of reading the latest 6th novel in Chinese which fill in more details on many previous events.

    Tal, where do you get the Chinese version from? 网友? What is the series called in Chinese?

    zengbanger
    Reply

  48. Hahaha, I feel really sad for the people in the second reenactment video, it looks like they put a hell of a lot of time into practicing that, they did the dance moves way more smoothly than those in the first video.

    This show rocks, not only does it provide comedy in large quantities all on it’s own, it spawns more comedy gold thanks to the power of the intarweb.

    Beckett
    Reply

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