Let’s all pray for Disappearance, for Yuki’s sake.
Surprisingly enough, the fifth episode of Sighs was actually pretty good, and got us back to the actual story and intrigue that makes this show fun to watch. Too bad we couldn’t have seen this a couple of months ago, but alas that’s a rant for another time at the end of this post.
They picked a wickedly awesome voice for this cat. It is also wickedly awesome that Kyon was engaging in deep philosophical discussions with said talking cat. Reminds me of that old saying where if you gave a monkey with a typewriter enough time he could write Shakespeare eventually. I wish we could have had more talking Shamisen.
Somehow I don’t think they have LARP in Japan.
This is the part of the series I find enjoyable, the competing truths of the world and the different groups competing for influence. There are many, many theories out there, from Kyon being God, to Tsuruya being God, and of course it being all a dream. A bit of a warning, that site can eat 3 hours of your time before you can blink.
That’s a pretty safe assumption to make.
It’s been pretty obvious from the start that Itsuki often tells lies and half-truths, and wears a rather false mask about himself. However, this theory regarding Mikuru has definitely grown on me time has passed. Someone perfectly designed to pull on what Kyon likes, and whose adult form seemingly manipulates Kyon into doing her bidding. Since Haruhi is immune from almost everyone’s influence, the multitude of groups out there instead have to try to get Kyon on their side.
Generally reliable sources have indicated that Newtype’s published TV schedules show the remaining four episodes of this season will be the last repeats from the first season. So, as I feared last week, the entirety of the second season of Haruhi will be Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Endless Eight, and Sighs. What a colossal waste of time most of the season has been. Basically, we had 14 episodes, 3 of which were any good.
Remember way back when? We seemed to be promised that fan-favorite Disappearance would actually be animated. They could always screw with us and air another season sometime after that, but I’ve heard nothing about that. I hope the Endless Eight sales crater as much as we all hope they will. Otaku rage power!
At least the last two episodes were good, right?
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lol, if there were crickets, I think they’d be chirping right now.
3 years for 6 new episodes and 8 new reruns – that is an awful ratio.
According to sources, the Endless Eight fiasco did nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to diminish the sales of the Haruhi 1.5 + rerun DVDs. It kind of speaks of the odd mindset of casual anime buyers where something so reviled (kind of the neutral on the matter myself, eh) on both sides of the Pacific still manages somehow to get decent sales.
Good looking out on that tvtropes disclaimer. That stuff’s like nicotine for nerds.
Also @ Myssa Rei, I hope your sources are wrong. Great DVD sales would legitimize the E8 fiasco in many people’s eyes, and all of the ridiculous KyoAni/Kadokawa trolling leading up it.
Who the hell would pay the same price for (intentionally) rehashed crap? I don’t get it, unless there are a lot of completionists out there.
Amyable: The 4th Haruhi DVD sold about 21,812 in its first week. Compare that to the first Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood remake, that sold 12,578 copies. It’s nowhere near the 50,000 units sold by K-ON, but it’s a remarkable figure given WHAT WE KNOW HAPPENED.
@ Myssa Rei
Those figures are beyond depressing.
I guess 21,000 fans felt that they had to pay full price for a set of redundant episodes. Either that or that they wanted to reward KyoAni’s clever artistic genius, or Kadokawa’s astute marketing strategy.
Or they hate me.
Do take note that the figures I noted aren’t even close to what Haruhi sold in DVD units when it first aired in 2006 (which was about 31,000+ each DVD more or less). In fact, breaking 21k+ units in sales isn’t really that great, given the general decline of anime DVD sales this year — you could say that the studio and the distributors of the franchise barely broke even. Barely. For a franchise to be continually viable, it has to have a significant margin of profit, which guarantees funding for subsequent iterations. Which means, unless the next few DVDs (essentially Endless Eight 4-8) break the 25k+ units sold mark, things are looking rather grim.
Of course KyoAni still has the windfall from K-ON’s aforementioned MASSIVE DVD sales (it’s the best-selling anime in recent history according to sales figures), but it remains to be seen if they’ll actually use those funds wisely. There are rumblings of an Endless Eight MOVIE after all.
What no delicious picture of Nagato biting Mikuru?
If we get more I hope it will be a better and less grindy.
In the words of Nietzsche, God is dead.
“Somehow I don’t think they have LARP in Japan.”
I think that was supposed to be a Record of Lodoss War Reference, but I don’t remember a crystal crescent. And they have everything else in Japan, why not LARP?
There has to be something after this. Surly the powers that be at Kadakowa (i.e. the people with money to loose) wouldn’t stand for this. DVD sales should be down and fan satisfaction is no existent.
However, I put money on a Macross F Season 2 before we see either a Harhui movie or season 3.
@Amyable:
They are just doing what is expected of them as Haruhi fans. It could be a still image shown for 24 minutes and I guarantee they’d still by it in the 20,000+ range out of that misguided sense of loyalty that otaku have in popular franchises. As long as it has 涼宮ハルヒ on the cover it’s going to sell. I don’t know what Myssa’s sources are since I believe the second volume is supposed to come out in October, but I doubt even if it’s an estimate based on expectations that it’s at all far off. I’m guessin somewhere in the 15-20 thousand plus range as well
@Myssa Rei: Considering your average series tends to struggle to break the 10,000 barrier nowadays I’d say Haruhi 2009 is doing quite well saleswise. And when has Kyoani ever seemed to invest the money they make back into the company to any visible degree. With all the money they’ve made by catering to moe otakus over the past 3 years it looks more like they are slowly going bankrupt and being forced to budget when you watch shows like K-On and the majority of Haruhi 2009.
Well, you know what they say: when you have sources you have dirt on, squeeze them for all they’re worth.
Kaiohshin: Bankrupt, in the GONZO sense? Or bankrupt in the creative sense? XD Given our history with the company, I’m thinking it’s the latter, as even if the animation studio only makes a percentage out of the total sales, it’s still a large sum (though one wonders if they’ll actually put it to good use in the future).
Endless Eight = What a waste of episodes
However the last few episodes were definitely enjoyable – particularly Shamisen. xD
Still… feel a bit unsatisfied. Would have liked more of the decent eps.
There’s quite a bit of criticism about this series of Haruhi – although I have to agree the Endless Eight was stupid, I don’t see why it gets so much hate. I’ve enjoyed more episodes then not, so I’m pretty happy with it.
haruhi suzumiya season 2.. really rocks.. due to the point of 8 consecutive episodes that are totally irritating but good to watch at the end.. lol.. cant explain.. its good,, weird but rocks..