Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-Ray
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rizuchan
 Posts: 974 Location: Kansas |
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This is... what I expected, and unlike Nick's Lucky Star review, I don't really disagree with any of his points here, even though I'm (still) a huge Haruhi fan. That said, I think the one thing Haruhi is still good for is introducing newcomers to SOL anime, since it has just enough sci-fi mixed in to keep it interesting for people who aren't used to SOL. But then again, I don't keep up with many LN adaptations so maybe Sword Art Online or one of those shows would be just as good. I just know that I've introduced a lot of people to "non-mainstream" anime through Haruhi.
I was pretty disappointed with the blu-ray release though. The clips I had seen in trailers back when the Japanese blu-ray came out were so nice I nearly bought the JP boxset... glad I didn't, because it looks like an upscale, and a kind of messy one at that. I guess considering that it was KyoAni, I was expecting too much. Oh! And I didn't know that about Endless Eight. In that case I actually have to applaud the producers for really polishing a turd. I've actually watched Endless Eight all the way through a couple times - I actually thought it was really interesting how they told the same story multiple times with different camera angles, and how the voice actors would change up their performance each time (Koizumi tended to become even more grandiose and Mikuru's speech was a sniveling, incomprehensible mess by the end). |
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Don Perron
Posts: 27 |
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I really can't understand how is possible someone in the world who liked Haruhi in the past can despise her now. Haruhi always was about total love or total hate. If you liked her before then I don't understand how that could change, the same the same for the opposite though. I still think that the only defect that series have was with Endless Eight and the only way to fix that was adapt all the novels, c'mon KyoAni, you still can make it.
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Double Mangekyo
 Posts: 179 |
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For the first time I actually agree with everything a review has to say.
I was pretty neutral to Haruhi's selfishness because it was entertaining. Then this happened in the 2009 series and I lost all respect I had for the character:
Since then I only see her as, much like the review put it, a monster. |
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jojothepunisher
 Posts: 799 |
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The one thing that I disagree about is Kyon's voice acting. Most of the snarky comments or jabs made by modern MC from anime adaptations of light novels sound formulaic without any sort of personality. Kyon's voice actually sounds like a real person speaking. He honestly sounds like he doesn't give a crap about most of the shits happening around him in the most genuine way possible. Kyon's voice and dialogue will always be special, and quite frankly I haven't seen a single character speaking like Kyon does in any of the recent light novel adaptations, or in fact any show in general now that I think about it.
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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But without Haruhi how would we have smoked cheese jokes?
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2335 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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But hilarious misogyny aside, this title especially left its mark/scar on anime for better or worse. You can probably thank Haruhi as well for the oversaturation of light novel anime conversions of late. The only thing that saved me from becoming a huge Haruhi fanboy was the simultaneous release of Higurashi at the time. Those killer lolis stuck with me more than Haruhi ever did. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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personally, when introducing someone to SOL shows, I prefer to use a show specifically aimed at their hobbies, you know how most slice of life are cute girls oding cute thing, so if they ahve an interest in cute thing, that's the slice of life show they get; like videogames, it'snew game, like bikes, it's bakuon, like graphic design, it's ga. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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Much as I like Haruhi, at this point the only real reason to watch the series is to have the requisite backstory for the film. Still, it's better than most of the crap that's been spawned since & at least Kyon didn't turn into a incestuous child molester like a certain other popular light novel protag from the late 2000s.
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Just making sure, the Blu-rays were made from HD masters, right?
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ultimatemegax
 Posts: 412 |
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The 2009 episodes were animated in HD as the painting/photography teams at Kyoto Animation had shifted to producing animation in HD at that time. The 2006 episodes were animated in SD as those teams were producing animation in SD at that time. As such, Kadokawa Pictures (now an internal division of Kadokawa Shoten) paid Q-Tec, the editing studio of the show, to upscale the 2006 episodes for HD. So to answer your questions, yes and no. |
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fuuma_monou
Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Thanks. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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Some, of course, do both. It's difficult to overstate how much Neon Genesis Evangelion influenced the anime industry, but it still has masterful execution. Puella Magi Madoka Magica so far has been similar. JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest such examples, or say Asimov's short stories and other works. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18179 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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So does this set include the Easter Eggs that were in the originals? Sounds like it doesn't.
On other points, I had never previously thought about Kyon being the progenitor of the snarky, self-aware protagonist so common in light novel adaptations these days, but upon reflection that makes total sense. Part of his original appeal absolutely was that there hadn't been a character like him before. Since he is even more essential for how the series works than what Haruhi is, I can definitely see why reactions to the series might have cooled over time. I somewhat see him and the series as a whole as being similar to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit:" it doesn't seem like anything special if you listen to it today, so it's easy to lose track of how ground-breaking and influential it was in its time. As for Haruhi, I always thought she was a monster, a prime example of a spoiled child who gets away with everything because people aren't willing to put their foot down against her. That's why some of my favorite scenes in the series are where Kyon - the one person who can get away with doing so - does put the brakes on her. To use another musical comparison, she reminds me of the line from the Taylor Swift song: "I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream." |
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redcar
 Posts: 172 Location: Texas |
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I had maintained for years that Endless Eight was simply the result of the studio being told late in production that the Disappearance material would instead be made into a movie, necessitating the hurried creation of Endless Filler. When the truth finally came out about it, I was very glad to finally be vindicated on that front.
With regards to the series itself, while I do still have a soft spot for it, it definitely has lost much of its charm through the years. It's like a piece of melon bread that still looks delicious on the outside, but when you bite into it you discover it's kinda stale. The exception is the Disappearance movie, which I feel has easily stood the test of time due to being comparable in quality to the original first novel. If they ever got around to animating volume 7 of the novels and onwards, I would totally watch it. As Nick said, though, Haruhi's time is mostly over. We must now content ourselves with the many fond memories of times past. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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I never even finished the first season when I watched it years back, as I grew tired of it three quarters of the way through. It's something I know I'll have to come back to eventually, unfortunately, since I still need the context to see the film, which is apparently quite good.
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