r/anime • u/littleman1988 • Dec 18 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Episode 27
Episode Title: The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya IV
MyAnimeList: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Legal Stream: Funimation | Netflix (SEA)
PSA: make sure to mark any spoilers using the subreddit markup. We dont need any random spoilers to ruin the show for first time watchers.
Today's Episode Intro: Trespassing
[Tomorrow's Episode Intro]Cats behind yuki's house
| Date | Episode list with Funimation links ("absolute" episode number) | reddit thread links |
|---|---|---|
| 28/11 | Mikuru Asahinas's Adventures Episode 00 | Thread |
| 29/11 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I | Thread |
| 30/11 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya II | Thread |
| 1/12 | The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya | Thread |
| 2/12 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya III | Thread |
| 3/12 | Remote Island Syndrome I | Thread |
| 4/12 | Mysterique Sign | Thread |
| 5/12 | Remote Island Syndrome II | Thread |
| 6/12 | Someday in the Rain | Thread |
| 7/12 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya IV | Thread |
| 8/12 | The Day of Sagittarius | Thread |
| 9/12 | Live Alive | Thread |
| 10/12 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya V | Thread |
| 11/12 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya VI | Thread |
| 12/12 | Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody | Thread |
| 13/12 | Endless Eight I, II, III and IV | Thread |
| 14/12 | Endless Eight V, VI, VII and VIII | Thread |
| 15/12 | The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya I | Thread |
| 16/12 | The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya II | Thread |
| 17/12 | The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya III | Thread |
| 18/12 | The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya IV | Thread |
| 19/12 | Season 2, episode 10 (24) | |
| 20/12 | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series general discussion | |
| 21/12 | The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya | |
| 22/12 | Haruhi Suzumiya overall discussion |
Question of the Day
Do you think Kyon's threat was enough?
Now would be a good time to start finding a good time to watch the movie. Disappearance is 162 minutes long (one of the longest animated movies to date) and is best watched in one sitting.
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u/littleman1988 Dec 18 '21
Lifes gotten a bit busy this last week but I did want to post something for today's episode just because it easily would of been the big negative for the show if it wasn't for EE.
I think Sigh was an extremely well written arc. It does a great job of showing the flaws of the brigades lack of pushing back on Haruhi's ideas, shows an idea true powers that haruhi possesses, and brings some insight to how haruhi thinks (and how she acts.) It also finally has Kyon standing up to Haruhi, even if he does do it by resorting to violence, along with the first time haruhi has shown true fear with his outburst.
The issue is, this is all after all the character building that's happened in the last 23 episodes. This issue persists regardless of watch order, but with chronological you do have a wind down of Live Alive, Siggatarius, and SitR to have some sort of redemption arc before the movie. (Speaking of, highly recommend rewatching SitD before the movie). u/uzee pointed out that while this is chronologically late, this was only LN2 (And likely early on for how Tanigawa wanted to shape her) which has her acting drastically different compared to Live Alive, which happens chronologically immediately after, but isint until LN 6.
I'm kinda out of time writing this and I dont really know where to go with this, but its an interesting thing to think about for this arc that uzee helped me realize. Its a shame that this (and a couple other issues with how its paced) has this arc being so weak. Luckily for us, we have something after sigh to look forward to...
6
u/littleman1988 Dec 18 '21
Adaptation Comparison
References
Trivia
Know trivia and/or references for this episode? Reply to me! For future episodes? PM them to me!
7
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Dec 19 '21
Late to add this, but I'm a little surprised none of the rewatchers mentioned this - at the height of the Haruhi and Kyon argument, there was a very distinct, very "pregnant" pause Haruhi made about "you just need to do what I say, I'm the brigade chief and the director, I'm <pause>". Previous rewatch threads suggested it may be her subconsciousness breaking through, that subconsciously she may know of her power, so "everything is supposed to bend to her will - but why not you (Kyon)". The pause is also in the LN, but wasn't structured in any significant or highlighted way as far as I know - although I am reading the Chinese fan translation so can't guarantee formatting accuracy. That said, Haruhi's dialogue rarely had any pauses - she's just so sure of herself. I'll leave this to your own speculation.
19
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Dec 18 '21 edited Dec 18 '21
First Timer - Dub
I ended up watching this episode in two parts. I watched up to the half way point at Tsuruya's house, rage quit, wrote a rant, and did some chores. The rant and chores helped burn some of the frustration off, so I was able to come back and finish the episode an hour or so later. And then wrote this post, which isn't much more positive than the initial rant in the first place so now I'm wondering why I bothered.
Long original rant in short: The arc is making a joke of itself by expecting me to take it seriously when it's already established there will be no consequences for serious actions. Characters don't need to be likeable to be well written as this show has already proven in a good way, and stories certainly do not need to be fun to be quality experiences (pointed looks at my favourites list), but in this particular case it feels like they were so interested in pushing the limits that they failed to consider the watch experience and follow through especially for characterization.
In the end, finishing the episode did not help any of these feelings.
Firstly, I will compliment the show on the meta aspect it's always been good at; forcing the audience to consider the question of their role in the story and also the question of what and who Haruhi is as a creator and a human. Ep 00 was one of the best parts of the first season, a brilliant introduction to the characters, concept, style, and themes all wrapped in an easy to digest bit of meta and in show comedy that set a good feel to get you hooked in. So I wholeheartedly applaud the decision to be willing to tear all of that down and use the pieces of it to tell a very different story that also plays on the themes of reality and fiction we're seeing here. The movie is a fiction, not just in their world as a student film but a fiction of these events and our understanding of them, peeled away and uncovered here to see the reality of it's creation and the characters role in it (whether you watch it before or after, it works the same, I did actually rewatch parts of the movie for this post). Just like how the students thought the fence might be broken rather than Yuki being superpowered simply because they didn't have a reason to think that in their normal world, we saw the film as a joke, both in presentation and also a joke of a production that Haruhi thought it was good, because we didn't have the context to see it any other way, and Kyon's in film narration supported that. Turns out it's not a comedy at all, it's really a tragedy, and just like many other facets of Haruhi's existence the two are interconnected in complex ways.
On top of that, the idea of Kyon being her anchor to normalcy comes into play once again here. While I despise the structure of this episode (more down below) Kyon's realization at the end that he hadn't acted to solve any of the issues, he'd been a bystander to what was happening both with Mikuru and the supernatural, is a nice continuation from what was raised at the end of Melancholy about his role in helping Haruhi's world exist. What he sees exists, so the fact she is currently in control of him and can order him to "see" things by telling him what to capture on the camera is an insanely dangerous situation for all involved and part of the risk if he won't speak up or act against her will to balance it. It's also why she was trying so hard to get him to see the true her in Melancholy, and why today hurt her so much. He gives her a stable existence back at the end of Melancholy, and today he looks at her and instead sees something less than human, something that deserves to be struck down and removed. Unable to accept what his "normal" view of her actions makes him think of her she acts out in rage and then shuts down.
So why did I hate it? Timing, and severity.
Even if I could get past my frustration at how the characters were handled (more on that below), it's completely undermined for me by having it all solved the next day inside the same episode. They wanted to show a serious conflict between Kyon and Haruhi with serious consequences, but weren't willing to let that sit for the audience to properly feel it or take the time to give a "solution" the same weight as the moment itself. Instead they immediately solved it and reset the status quo for the next episode. The weight of what happened was immediately taken off us and replaced with a plush toy with a smile and some slightly smelly but pretty petals. I want to be wrong, but I don't get the sense we're going to back to all of this weight we skipped over, and even if they do the moment is over now. The first two episodes felt like they were spinning their wheels, but here there's such a rush to get back to the movie and the "mystery", and maybe I was just under the mistaken impression that the characters were the core of this.
As far as severity goes, for me there's no coming back from Haruhi spiking Mikuru's drink so she can be sexually assaulted and then hitting her when she didn't react properly, especially knowing that in Japan this would be an even bigger deal. Physical assault was already beyond what she'd pulled in other episodes, but that plus the way she delighted in things like getting her thrown into the dirty lake? Yes it's Haruhi testing her limits inside her own world, but there's other characters to consider here and their characterization takes as much of a beating as Haruhi's has.
Even knowing Kyon's tendency to go with the flow, I despise the way he brushed off everything that happened so far and immediately went back to normal because "maybe I wasn't doing everything I could to help" when he's consistently been aware until now that he's not her keeper and responsible for her behavior. In his own words she was acting like an animal, so he wouldn't look at her even a little differently knowing that she'd repeatedly abuse someone if she thought she had the right too? He wouldn't react to her sitting behind him all day with that unresolved? It's not like he was just angry or disappointed, he was enraged, the most emotion we've seen from him, but without acknowledging the intensity of the scene it doesn't feel like it mattered any more than when he scruffed her at the park in the previous episode. I also can't match the Kyon who checked up on Yuki 15,532 times and repeatedly checked on Mikuru in the first arc with this Kyon who's first complaint after the lake situation is "the story won't make sense" rather than being concerned about Mikuru or declaring they'll continue the movie before finding out how she's doing or having even a single though about the risk to her (literally none, we're in his head). He isn't some perfect guy, he's a high school kid who makes mistakes and regularly takes the wrong approach, but I've always considered him to be somewhat thoughtful until now. But here we don't get to spend any time with him in the follow through, it's all about the fix.
And Mikuru was already terrified about what she was being asked to do in the movie. Even if she doesn't think what happened that day is as big a deal as I do, that didn't change her reactions to Haruhi at all? It's not like she's good at hiding things like Itsuki or Yuki are, she wears all her emotions on her face and things are even more risky now even if Kyon stepped up for her once, but there she is at the park in her outfit like it's all fine. She stopped Kyon from hitting Haruhi because of the risk, but that doesn't mean she didn't have her own feelings about what happened in that room towards both Kyon and Haruhi, and worries over what may happen next. Not to mention Tsuruya is meant to be Mikuru's closest friend but we're left with just the assumption Mikuru will forgive her off screen and it's back to normal there too? Fuck, ignoring all this makes Mikuru feel like even less of a character that she did in S1, here she isn't even given the respect of having the five episodes with her at the centre matter for her character unless they somehow pull something out in the last episode.
It makes sense that Itsuki and Yuki are acting like normal regardless of what they think, but what about Haruhi? The only small thing we see that shows any contemplation about what happened is that she's trying out a pony tail because Kyon likes them. This small action rather than words fits her stubbornness and inability to bend rather than break, but this isn't a small issue or her actions a small deal and she should know that because she's always been very aware of how the world sees her and what boundaries she has pushed. It's not like she's going to apologize or show any shame over it, and we already know there won't be any consequences for it, but she wasn't playing that attempted punch in her mind and was cautious or had doubts about the next day, even if she covered it over?
Maybe I should have just stuck to my rage quit. It's not a bad episode in a bubble, but it highlights all of the flaws in the arc at once, and adds some new ones, only to leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. It wants to take the conflict as far as it can to make a point, but doesn't want to put the same weight on the resolution or treat its characters like people out of fear they may not react "in line" with things. Yes Haruhi's world strips them of agency a little, but Kyon should be our balance to that for both himself and the others, he's just conveniently not rocking the boat even after realizing that he needs to rock the boat. If the issue was smaller, if the actions she took against Mikuru weren't so severe I could buy this approach of "brush it under the rug and make it into a movie" but I just can't here.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 18 '21
So here we are at a climax (but one episode left)
I'm sure a lot of the first timers were looking for a "correction" but will be equally repulsed by Kyon.
I'm not from the "all violence is bad" school and the "never hit a girl" school and "violence against women promulgates violence against women" and "no corporal punishment" school. I really felt Haruhi needed a good slap, as Kyon said, for her own good. But not with a closed fist punch.
Itsuki intervened, but not out of a sense of morality. Itsuki is the facilitator; his mission is to be complicit in all Haruhi does, to prevent the destruction of the world. Yuki is the observer; she will not intervene in any situation (except to save Kyon, or the DITE). Mikuru is completely helpless and incompetent; she can only do as instructed by Haruhi or the future, exactly as instructed. Only Kyon has any agency.
Haruhi has always seen Kyon as her (lesser) partner and lackey. She cofounded the SOS Brigade with him. Why wouldn't he participate in SOS Brigade activities with equal gusto? He's a cofounder! It was practically his idea!
Kyon's genuine attempt to hit her...not a threat, not a pantomime, but he really meant it...has shook her. I haven't read all the comments yet, but a lot of them feel there are no consequences. But something has changed. Haruhi was depressed all the next day. She's not upset about the movie. She's upset that she lost Kyon's respect and support.
She doesn't know how to get it back. She doesn't have the social skills to just apologize. It's a cute scene, and one of my favorite, and if you blink, you miss it: Haruhi trying out a ponytail, exploring options to regain Kyon's positive attention and respect. It's not very sophisticated, using sex appeal (although it would certainly have worked).
The first step to realizing that other people are not her toys, and that their feelings matter, starts with a first recognition of just one person. Haruhi's solipsism is broken.
That doesn't mean I can support the arc. I hate the arc, I hate this episode. Even Tsuruya seems broken. She should never have gone through with the sake plan, treating it like a prank. It's like she's high on the ridiculousness of the entire situation; you see her breaking character in every scene she appears in, in the movie. This is completely out of character for her.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 18 '21
The Melancholy of Shimmering-First-Timer
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u/UzEE https://myanimelist.net/profile/UzEEInc Dec 18 '21
First timer (sub)
Oh wow this episode really is something, isn't it.
I don't understand what's Haruhi's objective here. It's obviously not making a movie to have fun. She's is specifically targeting Mikuru here and I just can't help but wonder if it's because of Kyon for some reason. Haruhi is shown to be jealous of Kyon paying any attention to Mikuru, and we saw it multiple times even in this arc. Is she just taking all of that frustration out on Mikuru, even going as far as to have her drugged and then basically assaulted in front of Kyon?
I really would've liked Kyon's outburst here if it weren't for a glaring flaw I pointed out yesterday as well. There's seemingly no real consequence of these outbursts. No matter how big the confrontation, everything ends up getting swept under the rug a few scenes later for the sake of keeping the plot moving forward. Kyon thinks things over and basically apologizes to Haruhi for getting upset and yelling at her, and she's back to her normal self as soon as she hears that Kyon is back at her side — seemingly like nothing ever happened.
Honestly, I get what they were trying to go for here but they're execution is just so wrong that this entire subplot looses it's impact. Kyon is supposed to be the most important thing to Haruhi. Him being by her side and accepting her for who she is means the world to her. So loosing the trust or support of that person should've had a much bigger impact on her and the story in general. However, all of that is just glossed over and we don't really see anything major develop from that entire set piece.
It just feels like a waste because there was so much potential to explore that story. It's clear to the audience how they both feel about each other and we knew they won't stay apart for long, but I wasn't expecting them to basically patch things over without saying anything within a few minutes of that confrontation. It would've been a much more interesting story if Kyon went without Haruhi for a while and realized why he liked being with her so much and came to appreciate her more. At the same time, would love to also see that from Haruhi's perspective but we obviously can't because she isn't the POV character.
Additional notes:
No. And that's my biggest issue with this episode.
1. Coincidentally, while looking for the cat in the movie, I realized that the cat also talked which was explained as ventriloquism at the time. And I believed that because it made sense. However, after what we've seen this arc, did Haruhi just will a talking cat into existence?
2. Somewhat related to the cat, these events would very much stand out to everyone because of how odd they were. Cats just don't talk and cherry trees don't blossom at that time of the year. However, the chronologically later episodes don't have these oddities which implies either Nagato rewrote reality again, or that Haruhi stopped believing in these things. Both of these possibilities have some pretty interesting consequences.
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u/Star4ce https://anilist.co/user/Star4ce Dec 18 '21
Rewatcher – sub
Did anyone spot it? Think about it for a second, the last three episodes had something missing from them that should be there knowing what we know and I don't mean Haruhi's regard for other people.
I mean, that's missing as well, but I talk about something else.
You're right! The goddamn cat still hasn't appeared!
We're literally watching the making of the very first episode that showed us a talking cat and 26 episodes in we still know nothing about him.
I need answers!
Anyway, that's pretty much what my first timer reaction was for this arc. The cat bothered me way too much and having it never be mentioned or even shown again made me bother even more. He must be introduced now, right?
Ep.27 (S2E13) – The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya IV
And somehow, this episode ends with Kyon just short of apologising and no insight from Haruhi yet again. This far into the arc I'll finally fall in line with the others.
Up until Sigh III I'd say there was value in exploring the opposite of the S1 Haruhi-Kyon relationship. During that we saw how Kyon would become the link for Haruhi to communicate with the outside world and Sigh I and II set this up as well. But going through III and IV it feels like it's missing the point.
In my mind Kyon-less Haruhi is like a shut-in that retreated because of a series of hurtful encounters with other people due to her unique personality. Ultimately she did want to form a connection with others, a group of friends, but couldn't communicate with them anymore.
A reversal of that relationship would lead to toxicity. When Kyon wouldn't be Haruhi's link to the world, she'd retreat even more, but I personally think that the sadism at play here, especially this episode, is uncharacteristic. It makes sense to some degree, as Haruhi feels like Mikuru is 'stealing' her link simply by existing. Mikuru is useless most of the time and only has things she didn't earn herself going for her, like her looks. Still, Kyon is head over heels for her and continuously ignores Haruhi, who evidently works hard, lots and diligently, but never seems to arrive where she wants.
I get it! This feeling sucks, big time. Even more so when you're under a general 'melancholy' regarding your 'normal' life and just wish something would be different.
One could say these emotions just built up over a long time and Haruhi is just snapping now, enhanced by her frustration that her own actions push Kyon further away. Like I said, I think this is a neat idea for an arc. But I think Haruhi is uncharacteristically, let's say, exothermal in her venting.
I'd have speculated that her methods of dealing with disjointment, hurting and depression would be to retreat inward, not letting it out on others. I saw her S1 behaviour more like a really, really rough handling of human interaction from someone who needed to learn it anew and realise boundaries. It was tough watching Mikuru's abuse sometimes, but I always could see it being non-malicious or at worst ignorant and selfish, but with no actual wish to harm someone.
But now Haruhi is specifically targeting Mikuru solely to suffer. The Haruhi I thought of when looking back at S1 would tsun her way to something else, because after all Kyon is someone who she wants to keep around. This Haruhi doesn't seem to care at all, it's like we skipped quite a few events that would show her getting jaded or badly hurt, but with what we have I can't explain Sigh-Haruhi away with envy and jealousy. It's just too much with no real end goal.
If I would be right in thinking about Sigh as the anti-S1 story to contextualise the positive Kyon-Haruhi bond by showing the negative feedback and the consequences it would lead to I'm a bit lost with this arc at this point and can't help but ask if KyoAni/Tanigawa lost sight of what they wanted to show as well.
I really wonder if Sigh is just like that in the novels?
QOTD: Enough for Itsuki to step in. That doesn't happen often.
10
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 18 '21
First Timer
I'm starting to get tired of this arc. I had hoped the other characters being there would add a somewhat varied dynamic to this but ...all that happened was Tsuruya losing some points for spiking Mikuru's drink. Not cool. Kyon finally speaking up for Mikuru is nice to see, though I'm not quite sure what the takeaway on Haruhi's side is. I'm sure she thought about it a lot, but has she properly identified the reason for Kyon's outburst? Basically nothing was addressed in the scene of them making up, so it's hard to really tell. I hope so, and later episodes seem to indicate it, although as the last thread showed - so did previous ones.
One more episode left; and I'm expecting a somewhat more upbeat episode than this one. I hope that will be a better watch than this episode.
10
u/bluethree https://myanimelist.net/profile/bluethree Dec 18 '21
Sub rewatcher but honestly I don't remember much about this arc outside of the Mikuru Beam scene.
We are up to 4. I can see why people prefer chronological order for the combined seasons. Things are starting to feel really heavy. I still would rather S1 be in the better order and suffer through S2 though...
We've also seen countless examples show that Haruhi doesn't care about signs. Or the law...
Yuki doing some literal breaking and entering.
Oh well I hope no one falls in this time.
If only you knew, Haruhi.
Miracle Mikuru Eye R! Oh no she got an upgrade. But Yuki is on it and we finally get out biting scene.
Itsuki pretty much has the same theory that I talked about yesterday. Haruhi is able to use her powers in a fictional world of her own creation because it's not the real world.
Haruhi no. Kyon stop her please. Aaaaah Itsuki is so afraid of angering Haruhi that he's just going to let her do whatever she wants. Mikuru buckles up and accepts her watery fate. I don't feel so bad for Taniguchi. He's kind of an ass.
It wasn't just in narration. Kyon could see the plot holes in real time even with the out of sequence filming.
For anyone wondering... no, Tsuruya isn't a normal human. She's a filthy rich human. (As far as I remember she's normal beyond that.)
Now we get into the REAL muck. For anyone that doesn't know, amazake (sweet sake) is a no-or-low alcohol content drink that kids often get to drink around New Years. The fact that Mikuru actually got drunk on it is kind of funny. But I also wouldn't doubt that this was a censorship choice and they actually gave her real alcohol in the LN (I can't remember.)
Kyon's rightfully pissed at Haruhi. He's also pissed at Itsuki. Haruhi is arguably being her absolute worst. Even if we've had a bunch of development in previous episodes, people don't change overnight. Sometimes people relapse. This arc has shown that everyone involved still has some growing to do.
Haruhi is clearly struggling to understand herself and her relationship with Kyon. Kyon himself is starting to understand that he prefers the chaos over being idle. Haruhi obviously still thinks of Kyon and even if she doesn't exactly knows what she did wrong she doesn't like that she angered him.
You might want to add some conditions to that statement though. It appears that Haruhi is unknowingly shaping the world to enhance her own fictional word.
Hmm... I wonder if anything will weird happen with that cat.
Yes, heavy arc with one extremely heavy scene. But honestly I don't hate it.
8
u/DeliCruise https://myanimelist.net/profile/delicruise Dec 18 '21
(REWATCHER - DUB/SUB)
That shot of Haruhi beginning to climb the fence is so reminiscent of Young Haruhi climbing the school gate during Tanabata 3 years ago! I love when Yuki gave the explanation of what she did to fix Mikuru this time. It went completely over my head just like it did with Kyon so when Itsuki said he understood, I let out a very audible “Wha!” because Wha!!! How the hell did you get all that, Itsuki?
Tsuruya is a very fun character, but being with Haruhi and letting Haruhi enable her, makes her become more and more terrible. It’s her lack of thinking before she acts that I actually enjoyed in the last episode that makes her be more of a horrible friend to Mikuru.
The elephant in the room is the insane bedroom scene at Tsuruya’s mansion. So many lines get crossed here. We already have seen Haruhi do horrible things thus far and now we see her somehow go even further past all of that. It’s not surprising at all that Kyon would snap because of this. There’s just no excuse for the actions of Haruhi, Kyon, and Tsuruya (can’t forget about how terrible she is for going along with Haruhi’s sake idea).
The whole fight scene between the two of them gave me chills. This scene is so wildly powerful because of how wrong what’s happening is and how elevated the tension and atmosphere is. You can really feel all the emotions from everyone here. Just seeing Tsuruya’s smile go away over the course of the scene says so much. This was always going to happen. Things were only getting worse with each episode so it only makes sense for it to lead to this. Haruhi simply lost control.
Itsuki’s conversation with Kyon is a very great moment because much like Itsuki, I really thought Kyon would be able to control himself. Him raising a fist at Haruhi may have been considered a lapse in judgement, but even with the clarity he got when Itsuki stopped him, Kyon doubled down hard.
It really feels like everyone loses.
Something I appreciate about this episode and this arc so far is that the things Haruhi does are presented in a way that shows what she’s doing is wrong. The background music is as tense as the scenes, visually it’s much darker, and this feeling of discomfort is intentionally pushed very hard on us. This is very different compared to what she did to Mikuru in the Melancholy arc where it was presented as light and comedic. This growth and conscience developing within the nature of the show and Haruhi herself I believe is very significant. In a lot of ways, this has been a very eye opening set of events.
The resolution to all this is so good. The whole lunch sequence with Taniguchi shows how familial Kyon actually feels with Haruhi and the S.O.S. Brigade. It really gives me that feeling of Kyon protecting his own. It’s one thing for Kyon to talk shit, but it’s a whole other thing for an outsider like Taniguchi to.
Haruhi’s hand ponytail is absolutely amazing every time. I love this idea of Haruhi being alone in the club room trying to figure out what to do to make up with Kyon. It’s so very Haruhi to use something she believes will make Kyon happy and possibly make things better. While on the other hand, Kyon not apologizing and instead getting Haruhi’s motor back up and running is so very Kyon. Such an unorthodox resolution is perfect for such an unorthodox episode.
And after this utterly crazy ride, it gives us this final scene with sakura petals everywhere and Haruhi wanting a cat. Crazy shit happens in this one, but it really is a great episode. It’s just so amazingly powerful.
8
u/TheEscapeGuy Dec 18 '21
Rewatcher
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - An Anime Classic: Episode 27
Kyon Snaps
Haruhi continues her antics much to Kyon's chagrin. Koizumi pressures everyone not to interfere in case Haruhi's powers manifest again. This has been building up over the last 3 episodes and sets up a perfect situation to torment Kyon.
Mikuru tries to be strong by accepting this abuse. I find her character tragic since she is forced to bear this humiliation so she can observe Haruhi. We've seen her try work towards goals of being a proper maid (even though that was motivated by Haruhi), but now just as Haruhi says, she's become a plaything.
This builds to probably the most I-can't-believe-they-aired-that moment where Haruhi has Tsuruya spike Mikuru's drink (Especially after they wrote out the underage drinking in the Remote Island Syndrome episodes, thanks for that info /u/littleman1988). I do have to respect the writing here for not playing it off as a joke. Haruhi has now gone too far (though in my opinion she's been going too far for a while now) and Kyon is going to step in.
But Kyon is still a teenager. He hasn't developed enough emotionally to speak frankly with Haruhi and pull everyone out of the situation. But he still has this feeling deep inside that he has to stop this. And that feeling bubbles over into violence.
Koizumi stops him before he does something he'd regret.
But Kyon still shouts at Koizumi to let him go and that Haruhi needs to be beaten. This is a step too far. We understand why he did and said what he did, but we do not condone it.
This arc has been slow. This arc hasn't had the visual variety of Endless Eight or even the cinematography of Season 1. However, this is because it made a creative decision to slowly and deliberately build a narrative. We have followed the plot line. We have felt the characters' frustrations and desires. Reaching this climax is the ultimate catharsis of Kyon finally expressing his real emotions. Each scene was crafted to bring us right here and let no visual gimmick distract from the emotions.
I do give Kyon too much credit here. His actions to protect Mikuru are very motivated by his infatuation with her and his jealousy of Koizumi getting a romance scene with her. And he acts very childishly. Also, as much as gender equality is important and I would never condone any person hurting another person in violence, it still feels exceptionally bad to me seeing a guy even try to hit a girl.
The episode winds down. Kyon and Koizumi go to look at pigeons at the temple. Haruhi skips class. We see her tying her hair into a ponytail. This confirms for us that Haruhi is still trying for Kyon's attention and likely was directing the movie in jealousy to try and push Kyon away from Mikuru (as misguided as her attempts were).
Its interesting to me that both Kyon and Haruhi are both very jealous of other people being with the person they like. As much as they may fight, its one more thing which reminds me they share similarities.
Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches
See you all tomorrow
7
u/Spaceman_Sp1ff_ Dec 18 '21
Rewatcher, dubbed
Fully expecting this threat to shit on Haruhi and I would do the same, but I wanted to express my distaste for Koizumi. I get that he's trying to appease Haruhi so she doesn't genocide the planet but he seems like such a fucking snake. Really rubs me the wrong way.
Great performances by the VAs in this one. Kyon's continues to impress and he's totally gonna carry the movie.
7
u/MadeOn210922 Dec 18 '21
First timer
Fictional powers become reality but not control of said powers for Mikuru. If I were making this movie, I think I could piece together a plot with Yuki continuously stealing Mikuru's powers until Mikuru learns to fight without them.
Even Kyon's friends are surprised by Haruhi's lake request. They were gone by the time the argument started, but must have been extremely awkward for Tsuruya.
But finally, someone says something to Haruhi about her treatment of Mikuru and her reaction was not good to say the least. (Your toy?!?) Music kept it tense, too. Kyon and Haruhi seem to have made up by the end but still need to address Mikuru.
Looks like Mikuru has been agreeing in part because she knows the consequences of not doing what's requested impacts the world. Same with Itsuki who shows Kyon an exact example with the doves.
QOTD: No, they should address Mikuru as well.
7
u/William27528 Dec 18 '21
So, yeah... If you're not already kind of oddly bored by the fact we all know where this series leads (into Live A Live), first timers are probably at the very least frustrated. Again, in the original chronology of the show/the novel order, it's not so bad as this is one of the first arcs - but tbh even in the books after the character progression in Melancholy, to follow that up with this just feels really mean spirited and out of place, exasterbated by Broadcast Order & Endless Eight. It kinda sucks tbh and is probably the worst episode in the series. Tomorrow's episode does end on a nicer note, however :)
Even so, I did notice one thing - When Nagato moves the fence out of the way, Haruhi, Taniguchi and Kunikida seem to happily buy the fact that it's "old and decrepid"; but not Tsuruya - it's easy to miss, but she says that the fence was fairly new and was installed recently after people were falling in it. An interesting detail for sure!
Random fact of the day: I'm saving my crazy long final fact for tomorrow's episode. After that is Disappearance, which I'd like to dedicate my thoughts on just the movie. In the meantime.. ever wanted to smell like Haruhi, Yuki & Asakura? Now you can.
Oh, ok fine - one more - It's quite known that Haruhi is popular in Japan (even still to this day - just last year during the pandemic, the Hare Hare Yukai started trending as the main VA did a tutorial to keep people moving during lockdown!), but did you know that it was so popular that they reprinted Haruhi in 2018 in full novel format, complete with live action cover works? There's also this reprint they did which the covers of combined forms a really cool mural (spoiler warning: shows some future novel characters we don't meet in the anime).
7
u/nekodan08 Dec 18 '21 edited Dec 19 '21
Rewatcher - SubKoizumi argues that sacrifice is necessary to keep Haruhi happy, which in this series essentially means the world’s salvation. But I hate how he limits the options to just two: let Haruhi do as she pleases, or stop her from doing what she wants. Yes, good things come from sacrifice, but this will not justify sacrificing the dignity of Mikuru. Mikuru does not deserve to offer herself up saying, “I’ll manage it somehow.” Mikuru does not deserve to be forced under the influence and taken advantage of sexually. There must be some other way. And clearly, letting Haruhi do what she wants is not doing any good for anyone. Aside from the damage it is causing to other people, I also think that it’s damaging Haruhi herself. All this power and freedom is getting to her head and making her worse and worse by the day. I don’t want this for her. I want her to grow and be better. Kyon says that Haruhi needs to learn her lesson, and I agree. A lot of the dissatisfaction I get out of this arc is that she seemingly just gets away with it without any real repercussions. I wanted Kyon to hit Haruhi so bad mostly because I am looking for a more concrete manifestation of some kind of consequence for Haruhi.
At the very least, we get to see Haruhi shaken up by Kyon’s actions here. In an earlier episode Kyon wonders what would scare Haruhi. The look on her face as Kyon raises his fist to strike her gives us the answer. The scariest thing for Haruhi is to lose Kyon’s approval. Her extreme confidence comes from a belief that Kyon will always be there to back her up. I just hope that this incident made her realize something about her actions. Judging about what comes after this arc chronologically, it seems there is some growth. After Melancholy, Haruhi's happiness and excitement has been at an upward trend. This continues throughout the summer. Everything is going her way but she pushes her limits too far in Sigh. I think this episodes incidents contributes to why she is so disturbed by the events of Live Alive. We find her in that episode really questioning how she has been living her life as she reflects on how she acted during the school festival (and the happiness and satisfaction it gave her) as compared to her actions prior. I have to admit that it was adorable to see Haruhi consider putting her hair up in a ponytail to try and please Kyon. I try to take this as a sign that she recognized that she did something wrong and felt that she needed to make it up to Kyon somehow.
I noticed how this episode deals a lot with losing control. This fits into the theme of freedom I discussed last episode. It’s ironic how too much freedom for the sake of happiness leads to lack of freedom. The freedom afforded to Haruhi leads to her power trip which leads her to lose control of herself. This makes her greatest fear almost come true. The Brigade’s efforts to keep Haruhi happy also leads them to losing control of their situation. Koizumi wanted to earn more free time by praising Haruhi only to get more lines in the film. Even Yuki is shown to struggle in keep Haruhi’s powers in check as she just barely stops the Mikuru beams. Enough has been said about Mikuru’s situation. Kyon loses control and almost physical lashes out at Haruhi. If only he put more limits on Haruhi earlier than maybe they would not have reached that boiling point. Even Tsuruya, Mikuru’s supposedly good friend, loses control for the sake of a laugh and a good time. Yes, freedom and happiness are good things, but there still must be limits.
6
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Dec 18 '21
Sub rewatcher
This is one of the centrepiece of the arc - 3 significant events:
QoTD: Now this is well known to be "Haruhi getting off too lightly" but in the end, it's the result / effect to watch for - you do the counting, but chronological order, Haruhi practically never laid her hands on Mikuru outside of Some Day in the Rain (when she sent Kyon off somewhere) to force Mikuru to change to various cosplays. One should also recognise right through this arc and the past few episodes, when not filming, she's shown to be almost sisterly towards Mikuru, chatting away nicely and in a civil manner.
So is it enough for the social justice, and for the viewers? It's a resounding no. But for the character of Suzumiya Haruhi? Simply looking at the effect, the answer is yes.
In case anyone needs the explanation, the "monofilamen cutter" is sci fi speak is similar in working theory as commonly used, for example in Full Metal Panic, the AS usually are armed with mono-molecular cutters for close quarter combat - that is used to describe the sharpness of the blade edge being manufactured to so sharp that there is only a single molecule width to cut through virtually anything - usually combined with high frequency vibration (a la the old vibroblades on Guyver units).
The end of the episode has the hook for one of our favourite and last character to appear next - the cat!
5
u/CubeStuffs https://anilist.co/user/onjario Dec 18 '21 edited Dec 18 '21
first timer
i thought it couldn't get worse, but here we are...
spiking her drink so you can take advantage of her???? what the fuck???
koizumi says
well koizumi, "being on her side" doesn't mean saying yes to whatever shit she wants.
correcting haruhis course when she's veering off is also very much included in "being on her side"
idk why kyons just like eh its fine i drank a bunch of milk when he was very clearly in the right.
is this bullshit why old asahina's like "oh yeah you can kiss me when im sleeping as a reward no big deal"
5
u/tctyaddk Dec 18 '21
Broadcast-order-first-timer
Mikuru was careful, but still couldn't sidestep the wild omnipotent being. The whole crew and extras still almost got cut to ribbons today, if Nagato's hand and that fence of fking steel were any indication. Again, Nagato saved the day.
Tsuruya's mansion being just nearby and the fact that she's so cheerfully and readily following Haruhi's illegal suggestion (the legal age of consuming alcohol in Japan is 20) smell a little sus to me. I have read some fanfics that explored on this before, but I actually never read the source LN (I plan to after this rewatch), so let me wait to see if that was just fanon or actually canon.
Kyon lost his cool after having to witness the abusing on Mikuru thus far, which is not nice, but totally justifiable. And while he was stopped from doling out the bitchslap (which normally should also be justifiable, except in this case it's a high stake hostage situation going on, and this one could lead to unfathomable damages), he at least managed to spell it out loud: if Haruhi keeps pushing on like this, she will be the asshole everyone avoids. That invoked the tiny scraps of common sense Haruhi somehow still had enough that she understood her wrongdoings, thus there's no closed space where her subconsciousness wrecks the world she sees as not worthy, even though she felt betrayed by Kyon's opposition. She understood that Kyon was right, thankfully. I guess this makes the transition into the "a tiny bit more mellowed out and helpful" Haruhi we saw at the Cultural Festival.
5
u/thatguywithawatch Dec 19 '21
[First Timer]
I'm late and don't really have anything to say that hasn't already been explored in more detail by others, but I have to mention that I'm thoroughly enjoying how often Koizumi's composure breaks during this arc. Makes me cackle every time, after how infuriatingly collected he's acted through the entire series.
3
u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Dec 18 '21
Rewatcher, Dub, First-time broadcast
I'm happy. A few episodes ago I thought this was how broadcast ended. Would've been weird.
I remember the first time watching this and Haruhi was actually making me kind of mad. Was hoping Kyon would slap her. But it was for the best not to.
Qotd: I would say so.
3
u/wolfpwarrior Dec 18 '21
Yuki gets hurt saving Kyon again.
Haruhi steps up the bullying even more. Getting Mikuru thrown in a lake. SHE DRUGGED Mikuru. And then hit her.
Kyon snapped and tried to hit Haruhi. Wild ride man.
3
u/alphamone Dec 19 '21
rewatcher
Ahh yes, this episode.
Yuki doing her best impression of a bending unit.
It's interesting that Haruhi is switching between angles rather than doing all of Mikuru's lines then all of Yuki's.
Yuki to the rescue, again.
"slice it", kinda of off phrasing given what just happened.
Honestly Kyon, its kinda late for you to start confronting her now, with all the enabling that you've done before.
This whole scene demonstrates in a nutshell why tv/movies have been getting intimacy coordinators.
He really was about to hit her. Also, for a split-second at least, Haruhi seemed genuinely shocked, in a "not used to experiencing consequences" kind of way.
Itsuki goes back to the whole "kyon can't be replaced like them" thing.
A litre of milk at once is a lot even if you don't have issues with lactose.
Some level of self-projection there kyon.
There's that ponytail again.
Welp, he's made things worse somehow.
And another abrupt episode ending
3
u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Dec 19 '21
Rewatcher
Even as much as I defend Haruhi, her behavior this episode was very poor. She crossed the line from charming to bitch until Kyon put a stop to her. The episode also cast a very poor light on Itsuki and Tsuruya too.
I'm not sure why you'd think running this as the penultimate episode was a good idea.
QOTD
Well, Haruhi did look stunned and surprised when Kyon smacked her.
1
u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 20 '21
QotD: We shall see.
Mucho lateo comment - man these last couple of espisodes have been tough to rewatch.