Well, it took 8 episodes but they finally finished wasting all of our time. I would have thought it impossible, but I actually skipped entirely watching episodes 15-18 (and everything but the last couple of minutes of 19). From what I gather from the sad souls that actually watched them, nothing happened. The fun part is going to see how their DVD sales end up, because according to Sankaku it looks like the 8 episodes of Endless Eight will be released as usual, in two episode packs retailing at ¥6,930 ($70 US) each. I’m sure there will be some sad sacks who will drop $280 on 8 episodes of the same crap.
The question then becomes how much we lose by having them wasting time on this. There are still about 5 novels worth of material unanimated, including some of the best parts like Disappearance and Snow Mountain Syndrome. Does the fact that they spent 8 episodes on this mean we don’t get to see one of them animated? Probably, something has to give. That is what disappoints me the most out of all of this.
19 Comments
I guess the Disappearance should be animated, since they also animated bamboo leaf rhapsody. But still, 5 episodes or so are only left. So a story that was 1/3 of a novel long has been given 8 episodes while a complete novel will be given 5 at most. Whatever they do from now on, the season is ruined.
I don’t think this is even trolling. A business corporation has too much at stake to troll as if they were bored kids on a forum. I think they failed at trying to emulate the first season’s success and innovation – let’s not forget things such as the anachronic order, the crazy first episode -the one with the homemade movie-, etc. So they tried to do something crazy as well – to repeat the same episode 8 times. Yes, it was crazy enough, but stupid and, above all, boring. Extremely boring.
By the way, I don’t know if DVDs are advertised much in Japan, but poor marketing guy. How do you make a commercial to sell those DVDs? Do you just play dumb and do as if they weren’t the same fucking episode?
Sooooo~…….
Did Kyon bang Haruhi to save our asses?
The DVD isn’t out yet, but Amazon Japan is flooded with 1 star reviews with subject lines like “Who do they think is going to buy this?” or “I gave up on this show”
I’m glad they’re looking out for their fellow buyers. This kind of BS cannot be supported financially or other companies will think it is acceptable.
If I was the marketing guy, I’d put one endless 8 episode on each disc, so you’d only be getting half a new disc each time, and yet paying full price. Plus, you wouldn’t be able to skip any discs. Mwahaha, TROLLED!!!
I guess it’s time to tune in again.
I’ve been questioning the episode count too!! I pray that they count endless eight as 1 or 2 eps and not 8. If the season is only 14 eps long then we only have 6 new episodes total. One can only hope that they realize this and give us some more episodes.
I read an article a while back that said the new season was 24 eps long, but everyone was sure that included season 1. Maybe it does not?
Haven’t watched the ending yet, after the 6th Endless eight I wanted to slap Kyon for not doing something, he wanted too, why he didn’t is anyone’s guess.
@Sergio
When I say trolling I am only being half serious. I’m sure that they thought this was an awesomely creative way to go about things. I think the theme of repetition would have been served by 3 episodes ideally, but they decided to go the whole 9 yards (or 8 episodes in this case). The production committee (not just KyoAni, as many people seem to think) has indeed made a business judgment, as you suggested, and one that I think many of us think will backfire.
I think they air short commercials for upcoming DVD releases during anime broadcasts. But I think it’s more a short “Haruhi Volume 4 coming June XX!” thing rather than a true explanation since it’s a known series. I don’t think they are marketed in the same way movie DVDs are in the states, since its a TV series, but then again I’m not an expert.
@Rakuen
No, but that would have been vastly more entertaining. His brilliant idea was to do homework together with all of them.
@Jpmeyer
Amazon ratings are quickly becoming a way for customer protests. I’m sure many people remember the Spore DRM incident, where a couple of thousand 1 star ratings were thrown up on Amazon in protest. Whether that deters actual buyers or just represents a bunch of angry 2chers who wouldn’t be buying it anyways remains to be seen. But it’s a powerful tool that actually influences companies, as was the case with Spore.
@Kabitzin
I hope the rage lasts enough to deter actual purchases so companies think about pulling this crap in the future. If one of the top anime franchises can successfully be influenced in this case it would make others think first about trying to pull a fast one on consumers.
@Lowlife
It’s quite the thread to grasp at, but I wondered the same thing myself.
Having suffered through them all (please, step on my cubes!), I found the last two iterations pretty dull. Maybe I was just growing tired of it, but there seemed to be better repetitions to end on. Repetitions 4, and 5 would have been the strong suit to close things out. Repetition 4 had some interesting music (I’m think particularly of the music during the Nagato/Kyon conversation) and that strange repeating airplane motif while Repetition 5 had some interesting shots (i.e. from inside the clock as the scenery outside ticks away).
I had to laugh when the solution to the loop was… homework. Oh poor Haruhi fans.
I still can’t believe I sat through all eight episodes of this fiasco, even though I already knew the crappy resolution to Endless Eight having read the novels last year!
Very disappointed with KyoAni at the moment as I really want to see Vanishment and a few other chapters animated – they don’t really have much time left to really do much new stuff now.
Wow. Now I’m really, really glad I gave up on the new stuff after the third episode. First season was great, but this? Now that it’s over, is it as Crusader says “time to tune in again”?
Man talk about terrible judgement on Ani’s part. You can ask any 8 year old this question and you’d get the same answer. “Would you wanna watch the same episode 8 times in a row?” the obvious answer being “No” Well the same thing applies for people that are older, Ani you dumb fk’s (pardon my language but the endless eight really got to me) Also I’m pretty sure because of this stunt + the three year wait they already lost many fans from the first season. I’m sadly still going to watch it seeing how there’s not much else and Horo-chan can only keep me occupied 30mins a week, but still Ani goddammit, just……….just goddammit.
Oh my god, so it was actually the homework? The homework. Of all the possible solutions, it had to be fricken homework. So sad.
I still can’t believe people skipped episodes. They wasted more time on Endless Eight then the people who watched all episodes.
In future, ANY discussion of SHnY should start with “Are they still in Endless Eight?”
I really think it will end up being 24 eps. When it comes down to it this series and all others is about turning a profit. If they dont then there in the suckage bailout area. With all the secrets about this then have been kept to date nothing surprises me.
they might be thinking something like hey so long as we animate the disappearance, even if we pretend we aren’t going to, everything will be ok… well considering how… what’s the word… anal? some fans can be I wouldn’t doubt that, if they did that it could work
p.s:… hmm damn is anal the right word =_=
kyon-kun denwa
Just 1 question where you get this stuff while I cant find it anywhere …