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I've rewatched the entirety of the Haruhi Suzumiya series a number of times, and each time I always watch the entire Endless 8 arc. I've seen it 3 times now, in its entirety. Every time I feel that it is worth it, and in this review I'll talk about why.

One thing I appreciate about this series as a whole is how it does not pander to the audience. Rather, it often frustrates the hell out of the audience. Whether this comes in the form of an extremely complicated chronology with multiple watch orders, a buzzword-heavy unintelligible pseudoscientific explanation of something crucial to the plot, 10 ... minute scene of Yuki reading in the clubroom with only background noise, a blatantly obvious time paradox that is never addressed, an 8 episode groundhog day loop, etc... These things can not be called pandering--they literally frustrate viewers. But this frustration is an intentional effect of parodying sci-fi and slice of life tropes to such a degree that it almost becomes tongue-in-cheek, as if critiquing those genres, and poking at their flaws. The Endless 8 arc is very much within the ethos of the series for that reason.

Yet, it was still a hugely ambitious and bold move. There's been nothing quite like Endless 8 before and there will be nothing like it again. It was an incredible unique experiment that was extremely risky and unlikely to pay out. There are various theories as to why they did it--maybe Disappearance was going to be covered in S2 and they scrapped it last minute to make it into a movie, as some say. As far as I can find, there is no evidence of this. In my opinion, it feels like a passion project. If you watch every episode, you notice that every episode is goddamn beautiful from every angle--art, music, voice acting, cinematography, etc. A LOT of effort was put into this experiment. Enough that it's very clear this was not some budget issue, production problem, laziness, etc.

Now, why did I enjoy it?
--Endless Eight begs the viewer to try to crack the mystery of what the team needs to do to break free from the loop. After all, "There must've been a hint in something Haruhi said!" KyoAni drops tons of red herrings, none of which pan out, frustratingly enough. When I watched it in 2009, I had my theories that maybe Haruhi was waiting for Kyon to ask her out on a date. I can just see Haruhi thinking, deep down, "no summer would be complete without a tense romantic encounter!" or something like that. Alas, it was much simpler than that. It was NOT anticlimactic though. It was certainly a huge payoff, but the simplicity of the solution definitely was frustrating as someone who had been tracking various motifs and hints throughout the arc, and hoping there would be some solution that elegantly ties them together, and maybe one that develops that Kyon x Haruhi relationship... But no, that would not be in the spirit of the show, to give the viewers that satisfaction.

--The subtle developments throughout the arc were satisfying. Of course there is quite a bit of development from episode 1 to 2, but later episodes have development as well. Something as simple as Kyon's deja vu being so strong that he could remember the exact sentence Haruhi was about to say, and say it in his head in the same exact tone of voice that she had. Or Kyon receiving the initial phone call from Haruhi and responding "Come on my bike, right?" This might not seem like a serious plot development, but I LOVED these moments.

--Watching from Yuki's perspective and trying to understand her psychology is interesting. Many people have thought "man Yuki must be so bored." This is an incorrect analysis... Yuki is extremely, extremely overstimulated, by having to loop DAY IN DAY OUT a hectic summer full of events in which she has no choice but to participate. We all know Yuki's preferred level of stimulation is to sit quietly and read a book. This is something she isn't able to do for 595 years straight because she's too busy with daily summer antics. During my first and second watch, I thought Yuki buying the mask was an attempt to stave off boredom in her own way. Now, I think it was her way of "participating" in the Bon festival in the way requiring the least energy, to maintain as much peace as she could... Sometimes she wears the mask over her face, sometimes over the side of her head to block her ear. Either way, it serves as something to block and lessen stimulation. Anyways, the theory about Yuki's mental state during the arc is more or less proved by the last minute of Endless Eight VIII, in which she misses a day of school, and Kyon guesses it is is because she needed a break to sit quietly at home.

--The delayed gratification and payoff of the end was extremely satisfying. The longer the grind, the better the payoff. If it was only a 2 episode arc it would not be nearly as satisfying, and that's why I feel that viewers who just watched the first and last episode of the arc are missing out.


To the many viewers who did not enjoy this arc--maybe it just wasn't for you, but also consider that maybe you weren't trying hard enough. Think of a mystery novel--in many cases, the effort you put into it results in way more enjoyment. Because you are analyzing everything, trying to crack the mystery. NOT just passively letting it all wash over you. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but I do hold this arc in fairly high regard and think of it as a great addition to a great series.

I'll start this review with a brief summary. Five supernatural factions have been fighting against each other for who knows how many centuries, with the beginning of Aquarian Age always in mind. Kyouta, soon begins to see visions of mystical girls fighting, except they do exist. Soon he and his girlfriend Yoriko become involved and the battle for Earth and Aquarian Age lies in their hands.

That's the synopsis of the show, and that's really all you'll ever want to know about the show. I recommend you to stay away from checking it out any further. It's basically a rip off of 1984, The Tempest, and ... a board game very similar to Yu-Gi-Oh.

Story: 4
So, there are these 5 supernatural factions, right? Well the thing is, there are actually 6. The anime got it all wrong, according to the synopsis there are supposed to be 5. Like, were they even paying attention? But that's just a trifling concern, sorry for digressing so far from the subject.

The story isn't half bad. It's almost half good, but just a little less. About 4/10ths of it was bad. I marked the story category a "4" as a result, I think that's pretty appropriate. The bad parts primarily revolve around Yoriko. She's a horrible character and not fit to love Kyouta. I can see how some people think they are a cute couple, but Yoriko belongs with Junichi. The chemistry between them is so good. Kyouta is more like a Jack Bauer kind of character, and every woman Jack Bauer ever gets with dies on the show 24. That is a spoiler for both 24 and this series, so please take it as such.

In conclusion, the story deserves a 4 because 4/10ths of it was enjoyable but the other 6/10ths left a lot to be desired.

Art: 6.
The art is not half bad. It's almost half bad; approximately 4 out of 10 drawings in this show are shoddy and leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.Madhouse did a good job with the art. The backgrounds are especially good, like when Kyouta sees his visions at the beginning of the series. It looks like a true LSD trip, I kid you not. I have never taken the drug, but I am an expert in this particular field as a result of taking a psychology course.

I asked my friend who is studying art in college what he thinks of the art. He didn't particularly care for it. I'd chock that up to him being biased against anime. I constantly try to get him to watch shows with me but he refuses. This particular show I actually did convince him to watch. I've personally never seen the show, but he told me a couple important things about it that I'm trying to convey in this review for you guys.

Sound: 3.
I didn't like the OST. This is kinda a personal preference thing. Objectively, there's nothing wrong with it. But this is a review. It's all about subjectivity. If I were to be objective, all I could write is facts like "This show primarily uses an orange color scheme" under art, or "The music generally tends to be at around 140 BPM, tempo-wise" in sound. That's why I have to draw the line somewhere and put out my personal opinions rather than just facts.

Characters: 9
In an effort to remain objective I consulted with 4chan's /a/ to get a good idea of what they thought of the characters. I am really biased because I hate Yoriko. I would have given the "Characters" section a 1, but the average of all the votes from /a/ was about 8, so I added 8+1 to get 9. I hope that will suffice. The characters are quite good, very fleshed out. At least that's what a 9 tends to imply.

Enjoyment: 2
My friend in art school didn't enjoy this show. He hates anime with a burning passion. I wanted him to remain open minded so I could get an unbiased report to write this review, but all he had to say was "The animation was trash" and "I would have rather watched Adventure Time", so I figure it must have been pretty biased. He did write an essay about the show for his Animation class, which I am plagiarizing a lot from to write this review.

Overall: 1
This show is a mess. Please do what I did and avoid watching it entirely.

This show is kinda a mess. I don't even know where the begin. I feel as if this kind of show is only fun if you are watching it with some friends and making fun of it, throwing popcorn at the TV, and then muting it and adding in your own voices.

First of all, at the end of the show Geist gets some sword out of nowhere, where does it come from? Biggest plot hole in anime history. Where did that sword come from? The world may never know.

There's no reason to put an unnecessary sex scene. What was the point of that scene, seriously? ... I couldn't take the show seriously after that.

The sound was pretty meh. I could have sworn they stole half the sound effects from Star Wars, not to mention the cheesy 80's anime music that doesn't accomplish anything in regards to building a mood. The voices were horrendous, you could the actors didn't care and the translation by Pamela Parks is clearly not a translation but an interpretation, because she was most likely too lazy to actual translate it or the studio was paying her slave wages to do nearly nothing and couldn't afford a real translator.

Honestly I'm really glad I never watched this anime. My friend told me all about it so I was able to not watch it and write this review to warn you to do the same.

It's hard to write a review of this that isn't biased by the sheer awesomeness of the last 3 volumes. So, part 1 of this review is going to solely cover the first 15 volumes, because realistically, that's the bulk of this manga. Part 2 will talk about the last 3 volumes and the impact they left. (No spoilers) Also, this review is from the perspective of someone who had only a little mahjong knowledge before starting.

Part 1: Review of volumes 1-15 -
Story - 7
The story begins slow. We see a few mahjong matches involving Ten and Hiro that only count as casual encounters compared ... to what is to come. These matches aren't very memorable at all, and the stakes aren't very high, so they weren't very interesting, and certainly not very thrilling. I could blame this on my lack of mahjong knowledge at the time, and that could very well have been the case, but the fact of the matter is that a large portion of this manga's western audience probably doesn't know mahjong in depth. They probably jumped into this after Akagi and expect to go along for the thrill. Let me make this clear -

LEARN MAHJONG IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY THIS. Jump right into the first few chapters, but look up every term you don't know. Meanwhile, practice online, and try to make the same hands that they are making in the manga. You need to know mostly all of the common yaku if you want to enjoy this manga the way it should be enjoyed.

Moving on- After the slow start, somewhere around volumes 3-4, the series introduces the main aspect of the story, which is the East West Battle. I have a few complaints about this, but for the most part is was quite good.

My main problem with the East West Battle was the vague stakes. Something about the balance of mahjong rep players in the underground? Frankly, I didn't understand it. This was somewhat of a problem, because when the reader doesn't understand the stakes of the battle, winning or losing won't seem to matter. You lose, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like you'll fall to your death off of a pole or get a needle into your eardrum. (Sorry, Kaiji is just such a good example of high stakes.) So, the vague stakes make this battle a little less intense, but it definitely isn't a big problem at all.

The East West Battle was very interesting, since at that point, I was familiar with all the common yaku in mahjong and could follow along easily with what was going on. It goes VERY in depth to mahjong gameplay, so aside from having a good read, you learn quite a bit. But we're not here to learn, we're here for an epic mahjong battle, right? Indeed, and the manga doesn't fail to satisfy. The East West battle is full of interesting mahjong tricks, badass Akagi moments, character development, a fair amount of suspense, and overall is just a great read. Let me once again stress that you'll need to have a fair amount of mahjong knowledge for optimum enjoyment.

So overall, volumes 1-15 had a pretty good story. Nothing incredible, but certainly quite a good read.

Art - 7
Fukumoto's art back at the time of Ten's publication is certainly not top notch. For the first few volumes, we get very shoddy character designs with bad proportions, against a minimally detailed background which provides no atmosphere. This also might have contributed to my lack of enjoyment for the first couple volumes. But, as it progresses the art gets better. Towards the end of the manga, we have modern Fukumoto art, which retains his style but is cleaner and more refined. It's brilliant art. I actually really like Fukumoto's style, because it's unique and interesting. People like to say it reflects human nature or something. I guess if you want to be all pretentious about it you could say that, but I just like it for what is is. A unique artform.

Character - 7
The characters are all different, and they have their own barrage of various mahjong tricks, and usually have at least one specialty trick that they have mastered. Watching their playing styles contrast during the East West battle is always interesting. We do get a fair amount of character development throughout the East West Battle, primarily for the three protagonists. So overall, throughout volumes 1-15, the characters are pretty good.

Enjoyment - 8
I've basically combined the "enjoyment" category with the story category, so there's not much to say here. The first few volumes aren't too enjoyable, but the East West Battle is very enjoyable if you know enough about mahjong. It averages out to be around an 8.

Overall - 8
As I rate all series primarily based on enjoyment, I give volumes 1-15 an 8 overall. They are very good.


Part 2: Taking into consideration the last 3 volumes, and overall thoughts -
Forget about everything I've said so far in this review. Here is my brief review of Ten as a whole -

Story - 10
Art - 10
Character - 10
Enjoyment - 10
Overall - 10

You might be thinking right now, "Wait, how does every category become a 10 all of a sudden, in only 3 volumes?" Well, aside from personal bias, I do have reasoning. The story, art, characters, and enjoyment of the last 3 volumes are all TOP NOTCH. The art is crisp and detailed, and Fukumoto clearly put a lot of care into providing a good atmosphere with it. It's a huge contrast from the iffy art early on in the manga. The characters, who didn't really develop too much during the first 15 volumes, are all expanded upon, greatly. I found myself caring about every character, even the side characters who weren't looked into much during the first 15 volumes. As for enjoyment, I read the last 6 volumes in one sitting. I tried to stop after 15, but after a glance at 16 I was sucked in. A mere glance and I wanted more. 16-18 were highly enjoyable for me, since I'm such a sucker for philosophy and emotion. I do legitimately believe that the last three volumes pull every category up to an average 10, however unbelievable that might sound.

I've had a lot of negatives to say about Ten in this review. Let me say, it's hard to do that. It's hard to bring up the negatives when this series left such a huge impact on me. Quite simply, I loved it. The East West Battle, it was great. But what came afterward transcends great. It is groudbreaking. After being a huge fan of the Akagi anime, the ending of Ten was quite shocking, but definitely a very proper ending, considering Akagi's character. Akagi had always been somewhat stiff, though a good amount of his philosophy came through during the East West battle, and even a bit trickled through during the anime, but as you'll see in the last 3 volumes of Ten, those brief moments don't even scratch the surface of the depth of Akagi's character. You'll learn to really know Akagi. He is one of my favorite characters of all time now, and with good reason.

Final comment -
Very enjoyable, highly impactful, and will always have a place in my memory. Ten was brilliant.

This is my first review. I simply had to get my thoughts out about this. I can safely say this is the best thing I have ever read, and that includes all other manga, novels, etc.

So, I'm just going to get to the point and tell you why this was so great-

-The story was really engaging, even from the beginning. I became hooked fast, and ended up finishing all 13 volumes in 2 days. The story is filled with twists, and the outcome is never determinable... you just have to keep reading in order to find out! It definitely had me hooked, and I doubt ... I'd be the only one.

-The art. Very good style, the grittiness is perfect. It goes along so well with the feel of the story. Even if you don't like the style, upon reading you would agree that the art is very fitting, and couldn't be better!

These factors alone made the enjoyment factor an absolute 10. I have no idea what the rating would be if you rated it objectively based on the different factors involved... that's not how I do things. I was blown away, so it deserves a 10 in my book. I loved every second I spent reading.

If you are a Kaiji fan, definitely read this. And if you aren't, and just happened to stumble upon this review, then I highly recommend you watch the anime and then read this manga. It is an experience like no other.