Haruhi Suzumiya

I'm indifferent. It'll be nice to get a Haruhi anime back on the air, but a story that plays all the tropes the original deconstructed for character development being played straight seems generic. not bad exactly, there's potential for a few situations that couldn't happen in standard canon.

It's a shame the Surprise arc likely won't get an adaptation, the Anti-SOS would be awesome in animation.

The premise feels... fanficy, for lack of a better word. But it's Haruhi, so better to have than have not and see what comes out of it.

What's the trope for God puts all writers in the corner?

New trailer with a massive improvement on the animation, only got a cam rip though.

edited 22nd Mar '15 5:21:06 AM by Memers

I wonder who they got to do character designs for the anime. They're based off the manga, of course, so they look different from the original anime, but I don't think they look bad at all.

Better Quality/No background noise PV:

Hard to believe this is out a week from now.... time flies.

I'm still pretty excited about this. It's been ages since I read the early chapters, after all.

I remember the good old days. I feel old now with this show airing.

The Disappearance film was released five years ago. It's crazy just thinking about it, and how ignominiously the series has withered since then .

I suspect at least part of it is the ridiculous controversy over Hirano Aya's personal life. I can't exactly blame her for not wanting to go back to a role for the sake of "fans" who sent her death threats.

I actually put most of the blame on the original novels' author over being so damn lazy. Lack of updates will eventually kill any franchise.

Less lazy more Writer's Block I think.

^^That too, but there's still plenty of material they could adapt. Snowy Mountain Syndrome and What Happened to the Cat, for some (if I remember my titles right).

One thing I don't get is why people get so worked up over this series. As much as people look down on shows like Bleach, Naruto and Death Note at this point for being gateway anime that most fans have kind of 'grown out of', I feel like Haruhi's slipped into those ranks as well in the years it's been dormant. It was huge, but with a bit more breadth of experience it doesn't feel like it's worth the hype. People freaking out over Hirano, smashing their Haruhi goods because of Endless Eight - what's the point? I haven't heard of a series causing that much furor since, and frankly, looking back, I don't think there's anything too special about the series. It's solid, nothing more than that.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:54:27 AM by RedSavant

More often than not, the latter ends up being an excuse for the former.

I blame Endless Eight. I can't decide if it was actual 'lets be artistic' impulses or 'let's troll the fans' but it pissed EVERYBODY off.

That wasn't so bad. Sure, people were pissed at the time, but everyone was mostly over it by Disappearance. They just needed to capitalize on that good will to roll out a third season, and they... didn't.

Oh I am definitely on the side of Endless Eight being an artistic choice. There might have been a bit of giggling around the office, but those episodes show a lot of love and care, where they could have gotten sloppy and terrible in the middle episodes.

Now, I don't think it was an artistic choice that payed off monetarily or in ratings. I think it added a lot of that sort of Japanese surrealism that makes you wonder if you haven't missed something vital, or if the video skipped or something (reminds me a lot of Ghost in a Shell's second movie: Innocence in that regard). Having sat down and simply watched Endless Eight something like three times, I can safely say I appreciate what they did, but I don't think I will watch it again.

In all honesty, I am not sure a true third season would really service the Haruhi Suzumiya legacy all that well. I might be in the minority here, but I didn't love the novels following the Disappearance like I loved the first ones. There are a few good stories, but I am not sure that, taken as a whole, I really would have enjoyed four episodes looking for what could be spooking dogs, or the six part arc dealing with "Michiru", which was not an exciting set of obstacles to read. "Move this rock here." "Okay, why?" "Um, because orders." "Okay."

I liked the books leading past the first four or so... but I had nowhere near the passion and personal investment in the story, somewhere down the line. I didn't love but one or two stories, and there is a lot to wade through to get to the good stuff.

I mean, I would take a third season in a heartbeat, but I don't know if the stories and episodes would be as consistently engaging, and the philosophy and high concepts that permeates a lot of the earlier stuff seems to take a background in the later books, turning into "well, I need to keep the audience interested, so I ought to put something action-y, or thriller-y in here so..."

I absolutely understand where Red Savant comes from when they ask if there is something exceptional to this series. I think there are a lot of exceptional things, but they come buried in the philosophy and existentialism that I love in the story, but I understand that mentality completely.

http://www.funimation.com/blog/2015/03/28/funimation-acquires-rights-for-the-disappearance-of-nagato-yuki-chan/

I can kind of agree that the later books aren't that great. Not necessarily because they're worse than the earlier ones, but they're not really any better either, and by that point the novelty of the premise has started to wear thin. Frankly I can understand why the author gave up on it, because I have no idea where it could go either. In retrospect, the anti-SOS seems like a desperate attempt for something interesting to happen, but in the end even that was crushed by the weight of pre-existing inertia.

edited 28th Mar '15 6:05:19 PM by Clarste

My opinion's in the middle. I thought the series was getting directionless and starting to drop in quality for books 5, 6, and 8, but 7 showed some quality increase and the Surprise arc starting with 9 gave it a new story arc rather than just aimless short stories.

The writer's block isn't helping any with the franchise, but running out of material has never stopped anime any, and as a whole has only gotten around to about half of the series.

Personally I'd be just fine if the series only continued in book form. Though pretty to look at, the story gets a bit watered down and I'm fine having it return to a smaller fandom. That... sounded a bit more hipster than I intended.

I think that's mostly it - until the Anti-SOS show up, there isn't much standing in the way of the SOS Brigade. The problem is that three of the five main characters are under strict orders/desires to make sure that every wish Haruhi has is granted, and Kyon's moments of speaking up against her are relatively few and far between. I really love Disappearance because it changes the status quo up a lot, and the focus of the book is Kyon's realization that he does love being weird with the Brigade.

The rest of the series isn't exactly a sparkling example of compelling plot. Heck, the Anti-SOS Brigade isn't much of anything beyond 'what if we made Koizumi snarkier, Nagato catatonic, changed Haruhi into a slightly different flavor of special snowflake, and'... I actually don't even remember if there even was a fourth one. They're just not interesting.

edited 28th Mar '15 10:10:23 PM by RedSavant

Evil time traveler with vague motives? Or random friend of Not Haruhi that said she was an esper or whatever. I want to say her name was Kyoko Tachibana, maybe? Anyway, dunno which one you felt was like Koizumi.

edited 28th Mar '15 10:15:08 PM by Arha

The fourth one was the sycopant girl that worshipped Not Haruhi. But eh

Whatsisface, sneering guy. That's the only thing Kyon calls him the first time they meet, as far as I remember.

Fujiwara, the guy who thought Mikuru was his sister even though the older one denied it. He did this whole thing to make sure that events would be controlled in his favor so she'd still be with him.

Evil Time Traveler, Evil Esper, Evil alien and Anti-Haruhi, as I remember....

edited 28th Mar '15 10:36:24 PM by shanejayell