Haruhi Suzumiya 2009 – Episode 12 Endless Eight

Summary It’s summertime! The time for rest and relaxation, or so Kyon thought. Kyou is summoned by Haruhi to meet up with the SOS-Dan. They had a surprisingly normal outing as they wen’t to a public swimming pool. Later, Haruhi whips out a paper detailing the things she wants to do for the summer. The next day Haruhi gathers them all together again to buy Yukatas for the summer festival. They spent the day doing what any other normal group of teenagers would do, having fun. They then went on a activity spree including, playing with fireworks, catching cicadas,working in a part time job, stargazing, playing in a batting cage, line fishing, and the cliche courage test. They then proceeded to do things a little more conspicuous like watching an unpopular movie, going to the beach in the middle of the jellyfish season, bowling until they all had strikes, and singing karaoke until they had no voices. Kyon then finishes his summer homework and heads for bed.

Onibaku

Like the whole story with Tsuruya and Shamisen the talking cat, the adaption skipped some details like the “time loop”(i’m not saying anything more than that until I know they aren’t going to show it) that was supposed to take place in the summer. Normally I would complain if they leave events out but frankly, I’m just too happy that they are continuing Haruhi to even care. Some people are complaining in the net that this episode was just some random filler episode but that is where they are wrong. There were subtle meanings to the scenes showed. Just like how they didn’t explain why Yuki attacked Mikuru when capturing the SOS-dan movie, and why they didn’t explain Shamisen. I won’t go into details but my point is, the producers are tricky ;)

They did a great job showing how much more “human” and stable Haruhi. It also hit me that Haruhi was being extra mindful of Kyon. Haruhi wanted to ride with Kyon but didn’t want to make it seem like she liked him so she and Yuki went to ride with him. When the guys were waiting for the girls to come out in their Yukata’s Haruhi called out “Kyon” and Kyon alone. Haruhi offered Kyon some food saying “it’s okay if you take one” but she actually wanted him to take one.

It’s great to see that the characters haven’t changed much. Haruhi is still the overly excited girl. Kyon is still sarcastic but yielding towards Haruhi. Koizumi still loves having long and serious talks with Kyon. Mikuru is still clumsly as ever and follows Haruhi without a second thought. Though Yuki didn’t didn’t stand out much this episode, I can’t help but feel like there is some deeper meaning to why they kept showing long close-ups on her and didn’t really emphasize that she was on top of the roof as well when they were looking for aliens.

The animation quality was what one would expect from Kyo-Ani. The close up shots were great but they left a lot of scenes that were less than satisfactory in terms of drawing, at least for me anyway. Maybe I have become too accustomed to Hatsukoi :D Anyway, one thing I loved about the drawing is how colorful it was. Again, maybe I have become too accustomed to Hatsukoi. All in all, great episode!