[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 12: Haruhi goes up to 11
Blimey! I’ve said it before but it really needs repeating: when Haruhi Suzumiya is good, it’s very, very good. When it’s not, it’s just plain mediocre. As the series nears the end of its run I’ve begun to find it interesting and engaging again, and it’s episodes like this one that make me glad I ignored the hype and backlash because this instalment, well, rocks.
The culture festival has arrived and the whole school are putting on different entertainment events and projects (some VERY different, such as the two fetching individuals above). The main focus of the scenes are pretty nondescript with the expected banter between Kyon and his friends as they wander around aimlessly. The real charm here is what’s going on in the background: few TV shows go to the trouble of animating colourful background characters getting up to all sorts of high jinks. In a way, this ep reminds me of Kyoto animation’s other recent high school comedy success story: Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU.
The main event of this ep has been the talk of the town in the blogsphere in the past few days and no wonder. It goes without saying that with such a major social/entertainment thing going on, Haruhi will want her moment in the spotlight: in addition to the dire student film from episode 1 (or 0, take your pick) she truly steals the show with another of her ‘ideas’.
I’d heard a lot about this ep before seeing it so had some idea of what to expect, but still had my reservations. Haruhi Suzumiya in a rock band?! Isn’t ‘moe’ and anagram of ‘emo’? To be honest, the song performed was a little too poppy for my tastes but the way it was presented made the whole series, for a few minutes at least, live up to its reputation.
This is cult comedy anime done right. Thanks to the show’s superb production values the musicians really looked like they were playing, a hard thing to animate at the best of times. Even the instruments looked authentic - I actually recognised the make and models of the guitars (although I admit to being a bit of a geek as far as that’s concerned). The performance was good enough to be enjoyable, while still holding onto the ‘amateur student band’ vibe that prevented it from feeling out-of-place.
Interesingly, Haruhi is actually quite out of character here, even showing a bit of modesty and ability to relate to fellow human beings. This is what the series has been crying out for all along: an examination into the feelings and motives of the central character. Sure, we’ve been treated to Kyon’s inner monologue the whole time but now that Haruhi is shown to be a real, human character, I can allow myself to truly like this show at last.
Once again, blimey.
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