Forum - View topic
Hey, Answerman: The Confessional

What should I confess? I think I must confess that me as an so called anime fan span less than $100 on anime product per year, ($20 on other type of entertainment -- relatively anime fan) why? because I am such picky jerk! If I do find something adorable, what should I do? Do I treat it as religion? or do I go tell someone how it sucked? No, I think the best way to enjoy it, is to imagine how it could been better. (now in order to prevent some sensitive mind get stressed: I am not attempt to #$&@X the anime industry) I have to respect the creators' effort to bring food on the table, but at the same time felt inspired by their idea and recognize their flaws. I don't have to confess just because someone else marrying him self to Ray Ayanami, or someone think Miyazaki as anime God some sort. Those have nothing to do with me, I like what I like because of my personal feelings, not because others like or hate it. If you find me in line with those annoying "that guys" , get over it.

Can't deny that TMoHS has moe (lol), but loli? Sure, it's there, but it's barely even an issue. Kyon's Little Sister isn't even in much of the show. So I'd say it's just moe fodder. Wink

Last edited by dtm42 on Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:49 am; edited 1 time in total

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: My thoughts so far (watched 3/4 disks):

Most of the characters are "quirky", which is not actually a good thing. BUT, it has Kyon, who most definitely carries the show. I certainly am not impressed by Mikuru, or Haruhi herself. The former is pure fan-pandering doormat, though to which segment of fandom she panders to I shudder to think. The latter is a hyperactive pain in the neck who should be treated for ADHD while being jailed for sexual abuse. Just because she has a twisted personality rather than suffering from doormat syndrome doesn't constitute an improvement in this case. Yuki may as well be a piece of furniture, given how much personality she shows (Kyon makes a remark as to that effect), but Itsuki comes off as intelligent, mysterious and interesting. In the words of my mother, "We'll keep him". Don't ask.

The art style is quite nice and clear; for all the reservations I have about this series, I don't have anything bad to say about how it looks.

The background music is also quite good, competently handled. The opener is better than the ending, which is only good for parodies. The music for both are agreeable but forgettable. I haven't watched the final disk yet, so I cannot comment on the festival.

As for the plot, it must be said that this series is not plot-based, mostly consisting of the random-yet-bizarre antics of the SOS Brigade. I found the part with Itsuki revealing to Kyon the sealed realities to be the most interesting aspect. Also, Itsuki's musings on the nature of godhood and such were rather good, I must say. However, beyond this, the pickings are slim. What gets me is the wasted potential. Here we had a world full of time travel, Espers and a form of alien life, and yet we were treated to wasted episodes, like the two island murder mystery episodes. Single-shot episodes are fine, but this series displays an almost Jekyll-and-Hide attitude to story. I feel that this has enhanced it's popularity by appearing to be deep, while at the same time being little more than candy-floss.

No mention of Haruhi would be complete without talking about the broadcast order. To me, the broadcast order was a gimmick that "failed to fire", meaning it didn't impress me. All it does is provide a little novelty, while attempting to shroud the fact that most of the story has little substance. I notice that the DVD release avoided the broadcast order, and for good reason.

As for Haruhi being a god/ the God, I've seen premises that stretched the bounds of believability just as much. It certainly is more original than most, and it was handled better than I initially believed it to be.

Finally, entertainment value. I've sat through ten episodes so far, and I cannot deny that (despite my dislike of many of the series' elements) all ten of those episodes were entertaining in some way or another. Too bad that I didn't have to turn on my brain (or even had to turn it off) for some of those episodes.

Summation: Looks good, sounds good, and is unquestionably entertaining. Has some interesting and insightful things to say, but is only intelligent in fits and starts. Episodes see-saw between gripping and utterly useless. The female characters were boring, unbearable or there just to please a fanbase. The muddling up of the broadcast order doesn't work.

Conclusion: Overrated. It attempts to be everything to everyone. It fails at that, but was marketed cleverly enough to convince 2246 people that it is a Masterpiece.

@dtm42 - Interesting comments about the story there, you got me thinking. The conclusion I've come to so far is that the story is different depending on whether you watch the show in broadcast or chronological order. Let me explain...

For me, watching in broadcast order, the show was something akin to a mystery story, the mystery being just what happened in those first few episodes. I really enjoyed trying to spot clues, changes in characters' personalities and so on. This also works to build the series up to a climax.
Now, considering your comments on the chronological order, I guess the series would seem a little dull... you'd just be given a relatively simple story at the start with no buildup to it, followed by some slice-of-life style episodes for the rest of the series. Entertaining episodes, perhaps, but not much more to them, lacking as they do a driving force.
As an example of how much the order changes the same episode, let's consider the baseball episode. From a broadcast perspective, I found it to be quite a revelation, explicitly showing as it did the capabilities of some of the characters. However from a chronological perspective it's just another day for the brigade rather than anything special, in light of the first few episodes.
In the same way, I'd argue that the Island episodes that you seem to dislike had their own significance - and I'd argue the same for all episodes except the final one (chronologically), which acts more as an ending note.

One quick comment - I'd argue that Yuki has just as much of a personality as the rest, but is overshadowed by the larger-than-life personalities of the others (apart from Kyon, but we're given his thoughts the whole time anyway, so...).

Last edited by dtm42 on Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:55 am; edited 2 times in total

Warning: Haruhi spoilers.

@Ramadahl and Zalis116: Thankyou for responding. I didn't mean to write a review, just my personal thoughts, though it didn't exactly come out that way.

Well, this will be my first post, so I'd better make it good.

It's been a little while since I watched this anime, so my memory, at some points, might be fairly hazy. First, however, I'd like to defend the fact that the series was meant to be aired in broadcast order for the exact reasons that have been stated above. It's true that, if you place them in chronological order, it takes away a lot of the necessity for certain scenes and trivial development, but it also takes away from the building suspense from watching the series.

In other words, if you were to watch the series in chronological order, it would, of course, seem a great deal less exciting, because you're never caught wondering why a certain aspect of the anime developed as it did.

It could be said that Haruhi attempted to build a fanbase by catering to every aspect of popular anime culture, but I feel it made more of an effort to gain a following through the use of techniques that haven't been seen thus far in the anime world. Given the years of its history, there aren't a lot of anime stories we haven't seen before. In a way, it's the same as video games. If you recycle the same plot, but use new characters who have the same attitude but a different look, you can build an entirely new fanbase around those characters - not the plot or storyline itself.

Were you to watch Haruhi in chronological order, it would, indeed, be just another slice-of-life anime filled with menial banter contemplating the nature of God and self-perception. As much as I'd love to subscribe to the views that this creates a deep and interesting concept within the anime, where the poetic mind can become lost in a sea of scientific or religious thought, I really don't think that aspect of the show is worth being highlighted. If anything, that is the part of the anime that I see as the filler.

The anime contains a complicated love story. However, instead of the common and worn out methods of developing that love story that have been applied through countless generations of sappy, Chobits-style anime, it took an approach where you essentially watch God, an all-powerful being who, despite having no knowledge of this ability, can shape reality as she likes in order to provide herself with the excitement necessary to keep the world functioning, become infatuated with a normal, run-of-the-mill boy named Kyon to the point where she's willing to accept an unexciting world if only to keep him in it.

From this angle, we see where it becomes complicated. In the beginning, Haruhi clearly announces that she's only interested in Espers, Time Travelers, Aliens, etc., so this leads us to wonder why Kyon becomes a part of the story's development at all. Why, when she surrounds herself with these beings of mysterious and unfathomable origins, does she begin to fall for Kyon, the most normal and dull of any of her creations?

To watch the anime in chronological order takes a lot of that away. Since you're so focused on watching the development of the "special" characters, and understanding why they're so special, you don't see the unique ways that Kyon ties into Suzumiya's storyline. I really think that, to understand Haruhi as an anime masterpiece, you have to view it as a unique and never-before-seen work of Romantic art, rather than trying to perceive it as a Sci-Fi/SoL school-time fantasy.

Edit: As an afterthought...

It was said by someone earlier that Kyon carried the show. I feel this sort of adds to my point. In a show where you see a plethora of characters who should be interesting, the fact that there's no lack of those interesting characters makes the one person who would usually be disinteresting appear to be exceptional. In that way, one could justify Suzumiya's growing affection for Kyon by saying, "In a world full of interesting people, the most interesting person is the guy who manages to be disinteresting in that world."

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Next
Page 8 of 10

Forum - View topicHey, Answerman: The Confessional

Forum - View topic
Hey, Answerman: The Confessional