[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 13: The penultimate episode
The series is almost at an end and perhaps because of the awesomeness of ep #12 this instalment, on the face of it at least, is a bit of a non-event. It’s one of those exposition, ‘infodump’ type of episode that delivers little action and comedy but the explanations it offers pretty much make up for all that.
The long-awaited explanation as to why Haruhi is the way she is finally is revealed to us, which finally gives the viewer a reason to try to understand her. It stems back to a cruel realisation in her childhood, presumably giving rise to the show’s title in the process. A typical enough realisation for a normal kid, but with the mindset and powers of Haruhi it’s quite a significant event.
This part of the episode is quite touching and offers some much-needed depth to her character - building on what we saw last time. We knew what she’s like before; last time we saw what she can be like; this time we find out why. For all this though, I can’t help but think it would have been better to show this side to her earlier: it would have prevented my bashing that aspect of the series earlier on, if nothing else.
Then an outing with Itsuki pushes the show back into technobabble territory. Kyon seems to be the voice of the viewer (not to mention that of reason and common sense): as Itsuki reels off the stuff about closed space and whatnot Kyon echoes my own thoughts of “You’re making no sense.” and the like. This includes a lot more long words and some giant creatures that look like the Nighwalker from Mononoke Hime. Even when Haruhi Suzumiya is being too clever for its own good (or when it is trying to project such an impression) the quality of the visuals is still most impressive.
I can see how many fans would be unimpressed with this episode (no action, no fanservice, few laughs) but it is a prime example why I’ve belatedly come to like this show, even though it’s on a bit of a subconscious level. Maybe I’ve grown to like it but don’t want to admit it to myself…*shrugs* At least I can’t stick my neck out and predict the ending, which is quite refreshing: wherever it goes in its last outing I think (hope) I’ll be surprised.
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