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REVIEW: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVD Second Season


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barrelroller



Joined: 27 Jul 2010
Posts: 104
Location: Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:58 pm Reply with quote
The Endless Eight arc is literally the only thing that is keeping me from buying this immediately. It will probably be better to see them all in one sitting rather than watching a episode once a week.

Anyway, with all this K-ON! talk in this review, it makes me want to buy that series even more when it becomes available.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4633
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:05 am Reply with quote
I had heard that people were pretty upset with Endless Eight, but since I haven't watched the second season yet, I had no idea what the deal was. I can understand being upset about basically watching the same thing over and over, and it makes me leery about it knowing that a voice actor actually took it upon herself to apologize for it.

I have to figure out if I'm still interested enough in Haruhi to go for this. My enjoyment of the series has waned with time.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4538
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:11 am Reply with quote
I love all the second season episodes including "Endless Eight", which I appreciate as an audacious stunt no other animation studio would have had the balls to pull off.

However, I wish that Bandai Entertainment hadn't put the disks in a real mangler of a case, with two disks on each side and the right edge of the flip thingy with the first two disks actually lifts and slightly warps the second two disks because of the terrible way they're laid out. Both disk 3 and 4 have small moments where the disks skip on multiple players I've tried them on and I'm blaming the case.

I know Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 would've been unmarketable in North America as singles because of "Endless Eight"'s notoriety, but I almost wish Bandai had done the limited edition thing again just so each DVD would have been in a normal case. I guess I'll just have to buy 4 empty cases.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4633
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:19 am Reply with quote
Tenchi wrote:


I know Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 would've been unmarketable in North America as singles because of "Endless Eight"'s notoriety, but I almost wish Bandai had done the limited edition thing again just so each DVD would have been in a normal case. I guess I'll just have to buy 4 empty cases.


I'm pretty sure we're not going to see limited edition singles from Bandai anytime soon. Considering that they couldn't justify the cost of releasing the last limited edition of Lucky Star, I wouldn't get my hopes up.
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LUNI_TUNZ



Joined: 28 Apr 2010
Posts: 809
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:26 am Reply with quote
For the purposes of Endless Eight, I'm counting this as a 7 episode set.

Of course I'd have to buy the first season first.
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PlatinumHawke



Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:49 am Reply with quote
Everyone rages over Endless Eight, but I wanted to punch things during Sighs. Thought that whole arc was downright infuriating.
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Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:52 am Reply with quote
Endless Eight: a meditative exercise.

Like Key said though, the (rest of the) series is comprised of the same type of material that made the original what it was. The "Mikuru Beam" antics were one of the high points for me. I can also recall moments of subtle K-ONification in Haruhi's appearance, definitely.

Thanks for the heads up about the easter egg!
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:02 am Reply with quote
Interesting that the review considers Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody the weakest part of the series, as that single episode was honestly the only one I can say that I enjoyed of the second season. I'm no huge Haruhi fan. Apart from the well-executed Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya parts I-VI, I don't particularly care for the first series, though Day of Sagittarius and Live Alive were fun to watch.

I hope that if more Haruhi is made that it'll return to the well written, well executed plot and less of the gimmicky, episodic stuff.

Not sure how this earns a B/B+ since a full 5-6 episodes are effectively useless, but hey. Some people just have really really low standards/expectations.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8501
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:17 am Reply with quote
PlatinumHawke wrote:
Everyone rages over Endless Eight, but I wanted to punch things during Sighs. Thought that whole arc was downright infuriating.


What? Sighs was the only redeeming part of the season, aside from Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.

This review was way, way too generous.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:31 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
What? Sighs was the only redeeming part of the season, aside from Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.


Maybe they hated how much of a b*tch Haruhi was in Sighs. Well, how much more a b*tch she was then usual. Of course I wouldn't know from first-hand experience how bad she was because I refuse to watch the rest of the season.

penguintruth wrote:
This review was way, way too generous.


I think Theron was deliberately not taking Endless Eight into account, as otherwise it would be around the F mark (D if you are a fan of the franchise). But given how Endless Eight is such a huge albatross around the show's neck, perhaps it should have gotten such a low grade.
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SonicRenegade84



Joined: 04 Apr 2010
Posts: 630
Location: Atlantis!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:32 am Reply with quote
Wow......Endless Eight must be horrible if Aya Hirano apologized for it.
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mjharper



Joined: 13 Sep 2008
Posts: 9
Location: Magdeburg, Germany
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:46 am Reply with quote
Sounds like it would be better to wait until this is going very, very cheap...

Or can you skip this altogether and just go straight into the movie? I'm not asking for spoilers, but does anything happen in the second season which has an impact on the movie?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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Location: IL
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:52 am Reply with quote
You need to watch Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody before watching the movie.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:24 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
penguintruth wrote:
What? Sighs was the only redeeming part of the season, aside from Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.


Maybe they hated how much of a b*tch Haruhi was in Sighs. Well, how much more a b*tch she was then usual. Of course I wouldn't know from first-hand experience how bad she was because I refuse to watch the rest of the season.

penguintruth wrote:
This review was way, way too generous.


I think Theron was deliberately not taking Endless Eight into account, as otherwise it would be around the F mark (D if you are a fan of the franchise). But given how Endless Eight is such a huge albatross around the show's neck, perhaps it should have gotten such a low grade.


How can you ignore Endless Eight it makes up most of the series? It's like not taking into account the extreme right wing of Shusen no Lorelei. Personally I have no idea how to even comment on this review, I mean a B+ for what basically amounts to a marketing gimmick that they expect you to pay full price for? I can buy this or I could buy a bunch of 26 episodes series far more worthy of collecting, than a series that's best use is as a drinking game. I mean the highlight of the season was an ass shot of Haruhi in a bikini.
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DKL



Joined: 08 May 2005
Posts: 1962
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 4:29 am Reply with quote
Charred Knight wrote:
I mean the highlight of the season was an ass shot of Haruhi in a bikini.


And don't forget the Hitler meme.

(which, strangely enough, turned me onto Downfall, which was actually a good movie)

That said, what was most interesting about this season (and Tatsuya Ishihara's subsequent direction in the Disappearance movie) was the violence...

It's surprisingly not stylized now (when Haruhi starts hitting Mikuru over the head with her megaphone or when Kyon almost loses it, the show conveys this stuff fairly convincingly and distinctive).

That said, yeah... the experience of Endless Eight kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth... honestly, if it was just like 3-4 episodes, then it would've been cool and I would've had no complaints, but the experience of those long weeks of waiting kinda just stays with me and I likely won't be able to forget it even though you can like... not see all of the episodes in the arc.
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