Endless Eight: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

[KazeCraven]

Discuss.

 

[TinyBubbles]

Discuss.

i would, if i knew what they were.

in the absence of that information, i'm going to discuss your signature:

You might be unique, but I'm more unique than you'll ever be.

this presumes uniqueness exists on a continuum, and if so, likely everyone could likely be considered unique on some level. which would mean no one was.

also, uniqueness is overrated

 

[SPQR]

Kyon-kun, denwa!

...Times eight.

 

[kita]

I didn't know there were new episodes! I really liked the original ones, and the endless eight concept sounds interesting...each one is new animation and dubbing?

I'm going to look for it now

 

[KazeCraven]

i would, if i knew what they were.

in the absence of that information, i'm going to discuss your signature:



this presumes uniqueness exists on a continuum, and if so, likely everyone could likely be considered unique on some level. which would mean no one was.

also, uniqueness is overrated

---

Fine.

Here's what the "endless eight" is:

(OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW)

So anyway, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is about a highschool girl who influences the universe by her emotional state. To give an idea, she almost destroyed the world to create a new, more interesting world (she was bored). Some say that she is God (of the very small people who are aware of her power). The series is centered around her life as leader of a club she made up, called the SOS brigade. Even outside of school she micromanages the lives of her brigade members. As it turns out that all of them so happen to be people assigned to the role of watching out for her well-being, none of them would protest her whims.

The first episode of the endless eight is a typical episode about the last two weeks of summer vacation. Haruhi insists that they fit in as many experiences in as possible, but even after the end of the eventful two weeks, she still feels that something was left undone. However, this regret triggers an infinite time loop, and the world replays the same two weeks over and over. The people who are close to Haruhi begin to experience de javu as time repeats itself, but Haruhi and the rest of the world are completely oblivious to this repetition.

The second episode repeats the same sequence of events, only Kyon (the main character the anime follows) and the others experience have sensations where they feel they've been through this before. In particular, most of Kyon's memory triggers are when he looks at another member, Yuki, and sees that she looks somewhat bored. Ultimately the group (deliberately excluding Haruhi) figures out that they are stuck in an infinite time loop. As they start to discuss what to do about this distortion of time, they realize that one member of the group isn't experiencing de javu because she remembers everything that happens: Yuki Nagato.

To put this character in perspective, Yuki is an alien called the Data Overmind. She looks like a normal person, but she is very emotionless and almost robotic in her actions. (In one episode she was directed by Haruhi to turn around and say "I love you," and she does exactly that with no emotion. It's not like she is just bottling up her emotions.) She only responds to direct questions and commands, and even then will only say something if it cannot be conveyed by a look or a gesture. (Or, better yet, complete silence.) The only time she says more than one word is to explain something, and as the Data Overmind she remembers everything she has seen.

Ok, so then Kyon asks her how many times they've gone through this. She replies 15,498.

The rest of the episode is them going through the rest of the events as Kyon tries to figure out what Haruhi wants. Koizumi (another member) suggests Kyon go up behind Haruhi and whisper "I love you" in her ear, but Kyon rejects that idea (presumably because he'd feel awkward and flustered). Kyon asks Yuki why she didn't mention anything earlier about the time loop, and she says "My job is to observe." Two days before the end of the two weeks, Haruhi again feels like it wasn't enough, but no one offers that they do something else, so she decides that they take tomorrow off and meet up the day after (the first day of school). Then, as Haruhi is leaving, Kyon experiences an extremely strong sensation of de javu and realizes that he must act now if he wants to break the cycle. But, he can't think of anything. The next day, Kyon tries to finish his summer homework, but he realizes it's probably pointless and so he disregards it and goes to sleep.

The next six episodes are the same thing, only with minor variations. In one of the middle episodes, Kyon seems really clairvoyant, but again it is futile. Finally, on the eight episode of the endless eight, Kyon realizes that he hasn't finished his homework! And neither has anyone else, except Haruhi. So he stops Haruhi, rallies the group and has a group study session to get his homework done. Haruhi, being irritated that Kyon has made a decision for the group without consulting her, berates him and insists that she join. The next day they finish their homework at Kyon's house, and when Kyon wakes up the next day, it is the first day of school.
---

I actually sat through all eight episodes (not surprisingly most people opt out of watching the same thing eight times over), and I was really drawn to Yuki. Obviously it's just an anime, and Yuki doesn't really exist, but to think that she spent nearly 600 years watching the same thing over and over again, with no one to share it with really moved me. I don't think I would really have gone beyond conceptualizing it had I just watched the first and eighth episode.

 

[KazeCraven]

I didn't know there were new episodes! I really liked the original ones, and the endless eight concept sounds interesting...each one is new animation and dubbing?

I'm going to look for it now

Yep, they got a dub for it recently, though I'm not sure the dub is floating around the Internet.

And yeah, each episode is new animation with new takes on the same scene. Most of the differences are quite subtle from episode to episode.

 

[Trifoilum]

To me it sounds like a brilliant concept done...totally wrong. I do know the anime (albeit not watching it; but hang around in 4chan and anime community for a while and you can't help but SEE) and it seems to play with lots of.....things. :|

But the way the creators done it....eight episodes...sounded like.... uh what huh? O_O; I couldn't imagine the pain Japanese viewers must have felt due to that; tuning in for 8 weeks consecutively just to see the same scene. still, I can get the way they want the viewers to empathize with. 600 years. WOW. >_>; Of a boring day, no less. At least Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni has murderz and secretz.

STILL.

 

[Angantyr]

I just picked up Higurashi, what are you referring to?

I only saw 3 of the Endless Eight episodes as I wasn't watching much anime when it was airing though from what people have stated there was a lot of drama about it. I don't mind the idea but I do think they went a little overboard. I have recently started keeping up with the latest series and I would be frustrated as well.

Now I'm just waiting for the blu-ray of the Disappearance movie.