Monday, June 25, 2018

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 4 Episodes 20-24


As the new term begins, Haruhi concocts another outrageous plan: the SOS Brigade is going to make a movie.  Asahnia stars as a bunny girl dressed superheroine and Yuki is set to play the villain.  As her most ambitious project to date, Haruhi will settle for nothing less than perfection.  For the first time, Kyon is forced to step in the resulting fight might be one he and Haruhi might never recover from.  We all know what happens when Haruhi gets pissed off.  But is Kyon willing to take the risk to show Haruhi even she can takes things too far?

So Haruhi Suzumiya attempted to direct The Room…with potentially big consequences…why am I not surprised. (And now I wonder how warped reality would become if Tommy Weiseu had Haruhi’s abilities while making The Room…I don’t think I want to wonder).  In any case, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya needed to bounce back big time after last weeks Endless Eight Hell.  It took a bit, longer than I would have wanted, but the series did earn back some points.  There was a slow build to a big explosion that might’ve ended up changing things forever…surprisingly for the better.

Since we’re getting closer to the end of the show, it seemed time to test just how much overbearing overlording Haruhi we could handle at once.  Over the span of four episodes, we saw her selfishness hit multiple zeniths.  She pushed the SOS Brigade to shoot a movie with next to no script, with only her brain and “Brilliance” to guide them.  If it felt like a slough to sit through, I guess that was on purpose because Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato all showed signs of wear and tear at different points.  Poor Mikuru got the worst of it as she was pushed, groped, dropped in a dirty river and at one point FREAKING DRUGGED by Haruhi to get the acting she wanted in her film.  It all got super uncomfortable and it’s a miracle that everything Haruhi has done til this point has been tame by comparison.
 
Which led us to one of the best moments of the series.  Now I wouldn’t condone Kyon actually hitting Haruhi but he did take a stand against her and flat out say, “THIS IS WRONG!!!”  It felt like the whole mood had changed.  In Haruhi’s mind, it’s whatever she wants and if its fun for her and not fun for others then it doesn’t matter.  This was the first time Kyon got into a verbal fight from acts that pissed him off.  In fact, what kind of pissed me off was, again, Koizumi, who insisted that the shoot go on no matter what it took so that Haruhi would be forever happy so that the world wouldn’t fall into disaster.  But how far would Koizumi go himself?  Would he let Haruhi insult and abuse Mikuru constantly even if things got too dark?  I know Kyon ends up back by Haruhi’s side a lot but for Koizumi, I have to paraphrase Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, cause he is truly, “Haruhi’s bitch forever.”
 
For a moment I wondered how would things go after Kyon’s outburst.  The movie was going to get finished one way or another but would his shakey friendship (at best) with Haruhi overcome their “first fight”?  The answer is yes, don’t ask me how, I don’t get it.  But let’s just say both learned their lessons because things did improve, particularly in Haruhi’s mood.  Maybe too much.  I haven’t even talked about how reality was really bending itself to Haruhi’s will during the movie shoot.  If she wanted good weather, done.  Talking cat, yep that happened. Eye lasers shooting out of Mikuru’s eye?  You name it, Haruhi subconsciously made it her lucky day.  And honestly, im getting tired of Koizumi trying to explain anything when Mikuru or even Yuki could do it in two minutes compared to his ten minute ramblings.
 
One of the last thing I’ll cover from this set is one of the bigger revelations of the series so far.  Yuki, Mikuru and Koizumi truly all have different opinions of the SOS Brigade Leader.  God, Anomaly, Data Hive.  They all have different answers they’ve been trying to feed Kyon and, in the end, maybe none of them have the right answer.  Still, they all want Kyon to believe them and some are more desperate than others.  I was actually onboard for this shake up in the formula as I am a firm supporter of DON’T TRUST KOIZUMI!!!  I’m still not sure why Mikuru turns out alright in the future because of all of Haruhi’s abuse to her throughout the series.  But if I had to choose between believing her or Koizumi, Mikuru without a second thought.  Yuki though seems the one to trust the most because she has gone out of her way to protect Kyon several times throughout the series.  And I don’t think it’s because he helps steady Haruhi’s ever active personality.  I think she truly cares about Kyon in a way she cant express.  That has to count for something.  Who’d thought this show was capable of getting dark and serious all of a sudden and it would have some good payoff?  Even Haruhi seemed to benefit.  As I mentioned, she turned around her directorial attitude and seemed to be trying to keep Kyon with her by actually listening to his ideas.  True Haruhi still acts like Haruhi.  But the moment Kyon walked into the clubroom and Haruhi was briefly trying to tie her hair in a ponytail though proves that as much as she wants to show the world she exists, she really wants Kyon to notice her too.
 
While the pacing didn’t start off with the best push, this weeks “The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya” arc was a good return to form for the series and also shook up the ever changing status quo in a solid way.  My one mini nitpick is because of the way im watching it in the DVD set, the final episode of this arc feels like a season ender…because it is.  This closed out the second season of the show and probably explains the sudden tonal shift that would play a big part of the movie but we’ll get to that next week (yes next week).  So it feels like a grand finale…but there’s still four episodes left to watch.  It could fool someone unaccustomed to the episode layout of Haruhi Suzumiya if theyre not informed.  Still, next week is the true grand finale of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya…how is it going to end?  That’s a good question.  You’ll all find out next Monday and check in next Wednesday too as we close out our time with Miss Suzumiya on July 4th with my review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.  See ya then.

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