The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009): Episode 1
“What universe did her common sense come from?”
Well! It’s about time I started blogging again. As you can see, I’m just a TAD behind on this season, but I do plan to catch up.
This is a time travel episode! As a science-fiction fan, I’m really no stranger to time-travel. The plot of this episode is pretty tame as far as time-traveling goes too, but at least it’s accessible to the casual viewer.
The title of this episode is Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, which is of course, referencing the bamboo used during Tanabata. This means that the episode is taking place after the SOS Brigade plays baseball, but before their website goes up.
As usual, Haruhi brings a lot of pep and zest to Tanabata, first by stealing a bamboo tree from private property (can’t have a proper celebration without a bit of petty theft!) and then by having each club member making a wish that they want granted in 16 and 25 years time. Why? Because the stars they’re wishing on are 16 and 25 light-years away, and since nothing travels faster than light, it’ll take at least that long for the wishes to get to the gods. Man, gotta love Haruhi logic.
I got a light chuckle from Nagato’s simple wishes for “Reform” and “Harmony” and a solid laugh from Haruhi’s wish for the world to revolve around her. Looking at all these wishes, I have to wonder–which ones do they want to come true in 16 years and which ones in 25 years? *shrug*
The good meaty time-traveling stuff happens after everyone except Kyon and Asahina go home. Turns out that Asahina is under orders to bring Kyon to three years in the past so that he can meet Haruhi’s younger self and influence her to go to North High School, where she can then form the SOS brigade so that Asahina will be able to meet Kyon and bring him three years into the past. Don’t you love time travel?
I mean, without time travel, we wouldn’t ever meet gorgeous, lovely, future-Asahina, right?
(Oh, and Kyon? When the future self of a girl tells you it’s okay to kiss her past self, that means she’s INTO you. Just kiss her, okay?)
I could go on about time travel and paradoxes, but all of that stuff is just a huge headache. Especially when you end up sleeping in a room with time frozen while your past self is in the next room finding out about aliens.
Of course, what’s even a huger headache to imagine is what it must feel like for Nagato Yuki to synchronize with her future self. That deserves a very big WTF. I mean…wouldn’t that create a crazy loop where Yuki experiences the same three years over and over again? (That sounds even worse than Endless Eight!) Maybe she just wiped unnecessary memories afterwards.
Anyway, when I first found out this was a time-traveling episode, I thought that Kyon would have a much greater impact on the past than simply drawing some graffiti and talking to a little girl. I was expecting a little too much, I guess.
And Haruhi writing out “I am here.” in an alien language (how did she figure out that language ANYWAY? Or I guess she could have just made it up) in giant letters in front of the school is….just a bit sad. Melancholic, even. Yeah yeah, as we all know, Suzumiya Haruhi is just a lonely little girl.
In any case, this wasn’t a bad episode. It was a good re-introduction to the Haruhi series and I did miss some of the humor the show provided.
And finally..during the part near the end where Kyon starts discussing the continuity between past and future, Nagato says something about the paradox theory and that Kyon would understand soon. Is she referring to Endless Eight? I guess that’s possible.
Well, I’m glad I finally got around to blogging again. Maybe I’ll keep it up this time.
~eNamorD (with the epilepsy-inducing ending theme)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya | eNamorD | 
August 13, 2009 3:09 am
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By dai1313, August 13, 2009 @ 4:58 am
Dear god, now you are making me think back quite a while.
Really you are not THAT far behind in the season, as the next 8 episodes are quite nearly exactly the same. You are undoubtedly aware of this.
By A., December 23, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
That may be a late response, but you should watch the Movie. They’re going to make the fourth novel. I recommend it because I really laughed when you said that you would have expect more from Kyon and his time-travelling. As if that’s all we can expect by the merry members of the SOS Brigade.