Sep 15, 2009
“I'm getting bored and just fed up watching something that doesn't seem to be changing at all.”
- Asakura Ryoko, chronological Episode IV of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
In 2006, Kyoto Animation made a simple little anime called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was based on a popular series of light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa. Even still, nobody expected it to be very big. Kyoto was not trying to make a popular anime. All they wanted to do was make a good anime.
And maybe that’s what went wrong with its 2009 sequel of sorts. That they forgot what Haruhi truly was. That they, rather
...
than wanting to make a form of art, made a capitalistic envoy instead.
Story/Enjoyment
The story is entertaining, but nowhere near the levels of the first season. The first story was Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, by the way the only story with a good amount of screen time. While pretty interesting, the spunk of any given first season episode is gone; the episode just chugs along.
Then came Endless Eight. The exact same thing over and over again. It could have easily been accomplished in one, two, or even three episodes if you wanted to give the feeling of a loop. But instead, Kyoto Animation decided to drag this on for eight episodes. Needless to say, it gets extremely boring and repetitive. Each episode by itself is passable. But put together, it is one of the most boring, redundant, pointless, and driveling arcs ever devised.
After that ends, we get The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya. It’s interesting, but the charm, the wit, the feel of the first season are still, well, disappeared. The story itself is a bit tedious, too.
Story: 6/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Animation
Another weak point for the show. Kyoto Animation began a show shortly before Haruhi Season 2 called K-ON!, a moe-blob anime with cosplaying, tea-drinking, and a surprisingly small amount of actual rock performances. (Or so I hear; I didn’t have the patience to watch the show.) This show had an extremely large influence on Haruhi Season 2’s animation, and it really hurts it. The character’s eyes are taller, more childish. Everybody suddenly develops buckteeth. The colors are less bold, more washed out. There is much less detail. The animation is not as smooth. Animation changes are expected, especially in a period of three years, but for the animation company to regress rather than advance is a terrible thing. I often found it painful to see K-ON! expressions copied and pasted onto everybody, and had to rewatch a first season episode to try to blot it out of my mind and only think of the first season designs whenever I thought of the characters.
5/10
Sound
The sound is average, which means highly disappointing. In 2006, we got Hare Hare Yukai, Bouken Desho Desho?, God Knows, and Lost My Music. All excellent pieces of J-pop. Even the background pieces are memorable. But in 2009, all we get are Tomare!, Super Driver, and a couple new background pieces that are extremely meh. Tomare! and Super Driver are still fairly good J-pop songs, but when you think of how Hare Hare Yukai, Bouken Desho Desho?, God Knows, and Lost My Music were done so well three years before, they don’t stand a candle.
7/10
Characters
Exactly the same. Still excellent. Haruhi is still God (though she doesn’t look the part anymore due to the K-ON!ification of the animation), Kyon is still snarky, Yuki is still awesome, Mikuru is still a moe-blob, and Koizumi is still gay. Koizumi and Mikuru are still meh, but that’s just a case of me not liking their personalities and mannerisms; they’re still good characters. And I do not think Haruhi is a bitch, because there is so much more to her character. One small complaint: Kyon seems a lot less observant and a lot more slow than last season. (His lines aren’t quite as memorable this time around, too.)
9/10
We have deeply regressed. Haruhi was such an original show. It was indescribable. The second season, however, can be easily described in two words: troll, and disappointment. Which is a pity, because this show had so much promise. There were so many more stories to adapt. There was so much more character to develop. There was so much more merriment to be had.
Kyoto Animation has turned an excellent show into an average show. And they will never learn from their mistakes, because they will still sell hundreds of thousands of Endless Eight DVDs. They will have succeeded in milking as much money as they can from this hot property.
All we wanted was a good show.
Instead, we got a big middle finger.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
