06 May 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Haruhi Suzumiya]
As promised, my next review of The Most Hyped Fansub of 2006. In fact getting the screencaps was less hassle in comparison to trying to stay objective when everyone else is raving about it. With the pros and cons of all that aside in my other recent entry, here goes...
The SOS Brigade (total membership: 4, above) are now a bona fide school society complete with clubhouse but for their irrepressable leader this is certainly not enough. Her first mission is to 'acquire' the equipment she deems necessary; we are treated to one such operation, in which Suzumiya uses her ingenuity (and subordinates) to procure computer equipment from the IT club (below). The way in which he goes about this is pretty shocking, albeit in a comical way. I can only guess at the reasons why Ms Suzumiya is totally incapable of going about everyday activities in a normal fashion but I'm assuming they must be pretty serious.
As always it's the rest of the Brigade who take the flak for all this - Haruhi makes use of Mikuru's, erm, assets to get things done and Kyon can only look on (or avert his gaze) helplessly. He seems torn between trying to stop Haruhi tormenting the poor girl (I predict she'll be in counselling sessions before episode five) and watching with morbid curiosity - it's debatable that he could actually
do anything to halt Haruhi's steamroller of stubborn determination but still...If nothing else though, his character is getting a little more complex. One moment he's trying to stop Haruhi embarrassing herself and the others; the next he's trying to come to terms with resulting emotions he quite rightly feels less than proud about (e.g. failing to stop Haruhi and Mikuru going out in bunny girl outfits).
I'm still not too keen on Mikuru's inclusion: she's a rather shallow character who is purely there for the eye candy or more accurately to poke fun at the
moe characters who seem to be in every other anime title these days. A series that makes fun of fan service shows by actually using well-endowed stereotyped characters always runs the risk of becoming the very thing it's parodying and
Haruhi Suzumiya is no exception: it sends up fan service shows so well it starts to actually look like one at times. This is something that could prove to be a problem if it's over-used later on but we'll have to wait and see.
From a series point of view I'm finding
Haruhi Suzumiya a bit of a tease - just when the gags of the episode start to wear thing something new is thrown in towards the end that makes me want to watch the next one. In this case it's a conversation in the final scene that made me realise that it could get more interesting than just an offbeat comedy. I'm still not sure why it's received all the hype that it has but I'm still enjoying the show on its own merits.
[Filed under Anime Reviews] [Tags: Haruhi Suzumiya]
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