Dec 13, 2008
Warning: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING. THIS ANIME IS THE HARDEST ANIME TO REVIEW EVER WITHOUT GIVING OFF ENORMOUS AMOUNTS OF SPOILERS. READ WITH EXTREME CAUTION. THERE'S A POINT IN THE REVIEW THAT SAYS SPOILER END AND FROM THAT POINT ON YOU CAN READ WITHOUT WORRYING BUT UNTIL YOU SEE THAT BEWARE.
Intro: Holy cow crap, I don't even know where to start with this anime. It's so good and yet so lame at the same time. It's so overrated yet so unnoticed at the same time. It's so Christian and yet so blasphemous at the same time. It's so macho and yet
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so feminine at the same time. It's so short and yet so long at the same time. It's so simple and yet so confusing at the same time. It just flat out puts a spell on you and gives you emotions you've never experienced before. Compund feelings, one would say. Holy frickin' cow crap, where the hell do I begin? I'll start out with how popular this anime is. It has a holiday named for it. Nuff said. Now on to the anime itself. This is an amazing anime.
Story: This isn't it a story summary. Well it is, but it reveals more than just the basic synopsis of the first couple of episodes, so don't delete this review. Moving on... This starts out looking like a Slice of Life anime. High school boy meets messed up high school girl and they start a club where a shy girl with big boobs, a smart, librarian woman who almost never talks and a gay guy who smiles even in the worst situations and they get into crazy situations. Yeah. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? But wait! Don't give up so soon. This anime combines every genre one can think of, so that means Sci-Fi and Fantasy also. Apparently the librarian girl is actually an alien, the gay guy is an esper, the shy girl with big boobs is a time travler, and Haruhi herself is God and she doesn't even know it. Take a look at the last part. A girl has the power to make any of her wishes and dreams come true to reality. And she doesn't. Even. Frigging. Know it. I'm sorry, but that's just genius. Who the hell came up with that? It's brilliant! Though I don't think this is the best anime of all time, it definitely has the best plot of all time. So why isn't it #1? Well, because that plot isn't executed as good as some others on this list. For one thing, the time it takes for the truth of all this sci-fi crap to be explained is unnecessary. There's one episode where it takes the gay guy about 10-15 minutes to explain that Haruhi is God and he is an esper. Couldn't he just tell Kyon that she is God instead of wasting my time? And most of the information he gives is too detailed and never used in the show itself. Now this anime is starting to sound really retarted again, doesn't it? DON'T GIVE UP YET! Once everything is explained about Haruhi and the others, things get fun. But before I get into that, I'll explain the fifth (aka 14th) episode. This is the episode that won me over to this show permanently. It is one of the best single 22-minute episodes of Japanese animation I have ever seen. Through the first half of the episode Haruhi seems to be in a bad mood, clearly seen by the way she treats the rest of the club. But because she's friggin' Haruhi, when she gets in a bad mood, she begins to think that the world she lives in is boring. So why not change it and make it the weird, psycho alien world she wants it to be? She does just that. Kind of. She does it in Kyon and her own dream. She and Kyon are the only two people in the world (which I find interesting how she would set it up that way) and they're at the school which is deserted and there's a barrier blocking them from leaving the campus. At first Haruhi doesn't like ther world that she herself created, but then some monsters show up. Even though they're tearing up the school and trying to destroy everything they see in front of them, Haruhi is amazed by the sight of them and wants to be friends with them. Kyon smartly tries to make her run from the monsters but finally she decides that she likes the world she's currently in and stops. The monster approaches and Kyon tries to tell Haruhi her powers, but without telling her too much. Kyon has to find a way to get the world back to normal, and somehow he finds it. He comments on her ponytail being sexy and they kiss. Then they both wake up, but Haruhi waking up ocurrs off-screen. The next day, Kyon sees Haruhi with a ponytail again. GENIUS BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION!!!! And then from that point on the show involves crazy fun between the club and Haruhi such as an episode where a baseball game has to be won or else the world will die or an episode where Haruhi conjurs up violence to bring excitement to a boring vacation. All this and she still never finds out about her powers. Ever. Then there's a very, very, VERY famous episode where the SOS Brigade (Haruhi's club) films a movie. Just imagine the characters of this show making their own movie. IT'S FLIPPING HILARIOUS. Then there's another very very very famous episode where Haruhi performs in concert as a substitute for a band who got sick or something. The performance is a huge success where many people cheer. I love it because it gives an effect on Haruhi that she could be special. And then there's the final episode of the show (chronologically). Most people either love or hate this episode. The reason why people love it is the same reason why other people hate it. That reason is nothing special happens. Haruhi just asks Kyon to get an air conditioner or something like that and he does just that. The episode itself is somewhat boring and slow, but the ending takes the cake. I'm not even going to tell you what it is. I'm just going to say that this is one of the best anime shows of all time, and whether it looks good to you or not, watch it. Don't start watching it thinking it's going to be the best anime of all time, but don't start watching it thinking it's going to be the worst anime of all time either. Start watching it treating it likes it going to be like any other anime you've seen before and draw your own conclusions to it. Me? I fracking love it.
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Art: Just because I made an epic conclusion doesn't mean the review is over yet. Now on to the animation. Though it's not amazing and mind-blowing, it's still very good and often impressive. Some of the characters looks shorter than they're actual age would assume, but it's much better than Lucky Star as far as that goes. Often you'll see great detail in the scenes that need it most and when you do see that detail it's very beautiful.
Sound: Now this part is hard to review. Now most of the song's in this show would be considered gay if you played it at your school. Show Hare Hare Yukai or Bouken Desho Desho to your anime-hating friends on your iTunes and they're going to believe you're queer. (unless you're a girl, then they're just going to believe you're strange) But I would rather become a transvestite than stop listening to these tunes. They're very catchy, fun, and it's hard not to dance to them. Then we've got some other songs like God Knows and Lost my Music, which are awesome and if you're friends think you're gay just because you listen to THEM, they're just being retarted. Then there's some character songs. My favorite of them, the most famous of them, is the one for Yuki (the smart librarian). It's called Yuki, Muon, madobe nite. and it gets in my head for months, especially the Program Hack Remix. Then there's the symphony music that plays at the "last" episode, and I don't think that scene would be half as epic without it. As far the voices go, this is one of the few animes where the English dub is actually really good, and the original Japanese dub is of course even better. The voices fit the characters they go with perfectly, which helps a lot in the overall department.
Character: This is probably the weakest part of this anime, and you know you've got a good anime if the weakest part has an 8 rating. The only problem I had with the characters is that their basic personalities were somewhat unoriginal. We've got a crazy girl as the main character and a cool but not to the point of where he's bada** guy as her boyfriend. (Let's face it, they're bf and gf, or they should be anyway) Then we've got a really shy girl with a nice body who gets raped all the time. (Yeah like that hasn't been done before) We also have a happy, almost TOO happy guy who always smiles even in the worst situations. He's very questionable and has a strange relationship with Kyon, the cool guy. (also unoriginal) Here's where some people might get mad at me. I think that Yuki has an unoriginal personality. She rarely speaks, is quite smart and can kick your butt to the bitter end. That's been done before. A lot. With both male and female characters in any type of anime. Now that doesn't mean that she's not cool. Even though I've seen this type of personality in many animes before, she still is insanely cool and I've got the hots for her and I've not afraid to admit it. So the reason why the characters got an 8 was because even though most of them have been done before, they're executed in ways that haven't, and are just plain fun to watch.
Enjoyment: The enjoyment of this anime is like a roller coaster ride. That's the best way to describe it. It goes up and up and up slowly but surely and then it soars down fast and hard and makes tons of loop the loops and curls from that point on, then it finally slows down again, but this time it eventually stops. And that's when the show (or this season anyway) ends.
Overall: For this I'll just repost what I said earlier. I'm just going to say that this is one of the best anime shows of all time, and whether it looks good to you or not, watch it. Don't start watching it thinking it's going to be the best anime of all time, but don't start watching it thinking it's going to be the worst anime of all time either. Start watching it treating it likes it going to be like any other anime you've seen before and draw your own conclusions to it. Me? I fracking love it, and whether you end up loving it or hating it you SHOULD watch it either way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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