Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2 episode 3: Deja Vu?

All of the sudden, the story took an interesting turn. Or rather, an unexpected loop of events. Scamp had shared some of his views of how will the matter would resolve though I personally believe that the writers are simply messing us up. Now that we are certain something weird truly is going on with Haruhi and her surrounding universe, we can only wonder how will it eventually resolve. Speaking of continuous loop, I’ve been submerging myself with Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou OST again and again and again. To say the OST is not bad, that would be quite an understatement. After all, it is performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as conducted by Philip Chu who, by the way, had some experience conducting musical scores for games and also had once worked side-by-side with Tan Dun, a Grammy and Oscar awards-winning composer. But then again, it’s not the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra is never familiar with anime works before. Now, enough of the spamming and back to the review.

Synopsis: At the opening scene, Kyon begins to suspect, as many others (and myself) would have suspect later, that something is not right. Although there are obvious differences in the minor details such as outfits or actions, the events leading up to the 2-week summer getaway are exactly the same as the previous episode. From the swimming pool picnic to the hanabi festival; from the bug-catching trip to the part-time job; from the batting session to karaoke. However there are some notable alterations in this episode as compared to the previous one. For example, this time, it is Kyon who had to carry along Haruhi and Yuki on his bike, instead of Koizumi. Along the way though, Kyon had a little suspicion that he had a deja vu feeling about the happenings of the day. Little did he know that Koizumi too felt the same way. Kyon also pointed out that Yuki looks bored thoughout though he can’t seem to figure out why. Later the day, as expected, the gang gathered at a cafe where Haruhi lays out their summer activities to them. The next day is the hanabi festival and it is difficult to ignore Kyon’s ever-horny face when he set his sight on Mikuru. The events of the night are exactly the same as the previous episode though the fireworks were done less extravagantly unlike last time. Even then, the rest follows out just the same. The bug catching, then to the part-time job. It was after the latter when Kyon received a call from Koizumi that night. He meets up with Koizumi as fast as he could where he is surprised to see Mikuru and Yuki there. More troubling is that Mikuru sobbing for not being able to return to the future.

Koizumi begins to explain to Kyon that they are stuck in an endless timeline loop; pinpointing that the events started from the morning when Haruhi invites everyone to the public pool to the last day of the summer break, which is from the 8th of August to the 31st, adding that there won’t be a future from 1st September onwards. Though this seems hard to believe in but it would definitely explains the deja vu feeling they are felt for the last few days. Furthermore, Mikuru not being able to able to return to the future proves this theory. However, Yuki confirms this since she is an independant entity unafftected by the changes in time and space. She reveals that this time loop is at its 15498th repetition or approximately 594 years long. And Yuki had to endure through it all. On the following night, Koizumi suggested Kyon to attempt something out of the ordinary in order to break the time loop because it is possible that the loop is created by Haruhi as if she feels something has yet to be accomplished but Kyon refuses to do anything. And so, time moves on until the second last day of summer break. Haruhi goes through the list; wanting to add more to the list but none could voice out any suggestion. So Haruhi makes her way out to go back home. Kyon tries to stop her in order to stop the time loop but couldn’t think of any suggestion. And so, the loop begins to a new repetition.

Thoughts: So this is what I felt thoughout watching this episode. Time loop fits in well to the realm of impossibility that is imaginable in Haruhi’s universe. This also spells that the writers might actually out of creativity content to even be bothered to repeat the same events on every episode, with slight alterations, of course. Even so, this won’t necessary makes the story any interesting either way. For the first few minutes, I too had a relapse of deja vu; only because the episode progressed accordingly to the events in the previous episodes. So, coming to the question of how will the time loop, dubbed Endless Light, end? IMO, it ultimately depends on Kyon. It is clearly evident that Kyon had influenced on how the universe will shape since Haruhi is in the centre of it. Being close to Haruhi simply means that he is directly responsible to all the unexplainable events happened in the story. From how I see it, Haruhi did felt unsatisfied of how the summer vacation ended but it also looks like as if she does enjoy her time throughout — meaning that she has no intention to end the summer break. Perhaps, we will be seeing Endless Light for a couple more episodes to come until something definitive happens. Until then, we just have endure it all just like Yuki did.