Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2 episode 1: She’s back!

Update: It sure was a long time since I’ve blogged on WordPress. Somehow I disabled comments on this post but I got it fixed now. Also to enlarge the image view, click-and-drag the image on the tab bar to open the image in its full resolution glory.

Haruhi is back. And so am I. After being absent for 2 years — though there was a mini-series of somewhat a prelude to this new season — the SOS Brigade will once again leave us in peplexity. Perplexity, ironically, is what I got from this first episode and should this prolongs further, the prospect of this season of Haruhi won’t hold up pretty well. As I mentioned earlier, I myself had blog for quite some time already and I probably need more time to kick start things around in this blog.

We all know Haruhi is always unpredictable, this season premiere too is unpredictable but on the negative side. I find this episode as unpredictably boring, at least from the perspective of what crazy things Haruhi can do to surprise us all. More after the jump.

Synopsis: The opening scene is somewhat something familiar that most of us probably have seen so many times in this anime series, which is pleasant knowing that nothing much as changed since the first season (especially after the event in the last episode where Haruhi actually reinvented the whole world). So, on this pretty-much-normal-at-the-school-summer day, Haruhi reminded Kyon of the upcoming Tanabata festival and not surprising, Haruhi has a big plan for it. Kyon joins the rest of the SOS Brigade members — Koizumi, Mikuru, and Yuki — at the clubroom where moments later, Haruhi arrives with a bamboo tree at her hand. After explaining to them of her Special Theory of Relativity (basically of how long does it takes to send men’s wishes to the celestial gods), she told them to write down their wishes for the next 16 and 25 years. Absurd as it sounds but it does make sense. Of setting life goals, at least. After they have written down all their wishes on paper and hang them on the bamboo tree, Haruhi begins to ponder of the long wait (16 years long) before her prayers could actually being answered (at least, in her theory). Just like that, the entire mood in the clubroom turns dull and quiet. After school, Kyon meets up with Mikuru as promised and she brings him back 4 years to the past for a reason she cannot disclose. Now when Kyon did agreed to follow Mikuru to travel back in time, he then falls asleep; only to be awaken on Mikuru’s lap (lucky bastard…). As vice versa agrees, Mikuru too falls asleep soon after ‘arriving’ 3 years to the past. It turns out that the adult Mikuru sedated her so that she won’t be able to make contact with her younger self which may disrupt the time-space continuum. The adult Mikuru was there to give Kyon some intructions of where he should go next and because of this (and to prove out that time travelling really happened), Kyon encounters the much younger looking Haruhi.

 

 
 

Chibi Haruhi was trying to break enter a school compound and drags along Kyon as the unsuspected accomplice. She orders him around to draw out huge outline of characters on the school field. Once done, she left after a quick chat with Kyon. He returns to Mikuru who came to realize that she had lost her time-travelling device. Somehow Kyon was not looking very distressed. He then remembered about the message Yuki passed to him after school earlier (or should I say, in the future). They both immediately go to Yuki’s apartment to get her help to return to the future. After a long rambling about time travelling and data-whatever, Yuki proposes to them to get to bed in order to go back to 3 years in the future. For both Kyon and Mikuru, it was only a quick wink but as Yuki explains, Mikuru translates to Kyon (and myself) that she freezes time for both of them for 3 years to the exact date when they both have left for the past. The next day, Kyon resumes his normal school life despite the fact that he had just awaken from a 3-year slumber and begins to baffle a thought that he was the one who actually gave Haruhi the idea of the existence of the paranormal.

Thoughts: There was no shock-and-awe as compared to what we got from the first episode of season 1. There were a couple crazy things going on — The Special Theory of Relativity and time travelling — but these were simply not enough to make me feel jumping back in Haruhi frenzy. Admittedly, I must count in to the fact that I have high expectations on season 2 of Haruhi, just as much as I had anticipated for many other anime sequels, such as Code Geass, Nodame Cantabile and Gundam 00. Furthermore, season 2 of Suzumiya Haruhi comes in a little late compared to other animes that had considerably made the show feeling far off unlike most animes that had progressed further in their story development. But still, this anime is a wacky one and random things do come about in the story as it progresses. Also, the episode sequence is possibly jumbled again in this season. So, it’s still early to tell. What can be said earlier at this stage though is the animation. Sure, the drawings are still good as it was and the animation is pretty much the same. But that’s the whole point altogether. The post-production quality did not improve after the 2-year hiatus. It remains almost the same as it was 2 years ago. I’ve been expecting a leap of improvement, though not expecting much but the fact remains the animation is crappy comparatively. Lets not remind ourselves of the fluid animation from FMA2, Basquash and Sengoku Basara, please!

And also, what happened to the Hare Hare dance? No more signature moves from our lovely SOS Brigade? The ending song, Tomare, is also not something I was excited to listen to. I skipped the song entirely just 5 seconds in! Whether I’m harsh on the production team for Haruhi this time around or maybe I’m comparing too much on many other animes currently showing that interests me so much more than Haruhi this time, whatever the reason of my critics, I’m still optimistic that the writers will pull off something mind-blowing next time around. If this is the same Haruhi as we know before, then there shouldn’t be any worry about it.