Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Ep.#01-02
May. 27th, 2008 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockThe episodes I'm watching list the "home video" as episode "00" and the 'second' episodes as episode "01", so I'm going to go with that distinction. They're DVD rips so presumably that's the numbers they were released with.
I watched episode 0 in subs but once I realized the I had the dub, I switched to that instead, but with subtitles still on. That's my preferred way of watching anime, so I can compare the subs to the dub translation.
Episode 1
I think I'm going to like this show. Already the writing is better than a lot of anime, in terms of dialog flow and pacing. For example, I just watched 2/3 of an episode being set in a classroom, narrated by one character's voice over, and pretty much nothing significant happened. And yet I wasn't bored at all; the pace is quick and the tone is vibrant and amusing. It's weird, but it's a very approachable kind of weird. I think they made a solid choice in showing someone as odd as Haruhi through the lens of a cynic, a "normal" person. He's remarkably normal, actually, by anime's typical character standards.
What I like about him, though, is that he's not the Shinji, Tenshi, Naota or otherwise soppy and boring "average" male character that's usually at the heart of harem anime series. Pretty much any time there's an anime when the main male character is nervous, nonthreatening, and shy he gets a host of bouncy female characters to claim him. Kyon, so far, looks to be very average, not particularly outgoing, and pretty much the definition of "straight-laced"... but he's not a total pushover either, which makes me like him without looking down on him.
His little crush is cute, but I can see how any potentially romantic feelings are being rapidly trampled by the reality of Haruhi's personality. By the end of this series I imagine he'll either be completely in love with her, or he'll be her best friend and realize that as interesting as Haruhi is, he really wants someone more like himself. Or will he break out of his shell and become more like Haruhi? I can see that as a sort of potential "life lesson" in the future--meeting her helps him cosmically loosen up.
This feels like a complete converse of the Ouran High School Host Club main pair: Haruhi and Tamaki. Haruhi of Ouran is a modest, level-headed, intelligent, slightly introverted person who gets along with most people and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Tamaki is loud, weird, charismatic, and possibly insane. The dynamic is very similar to the one in Melancholy, albeit flipped in context as well as gender. In Ouran it's the school setting that's insane/extreme, and Haruhi is alone, a single "normal" person in the madhouse. In Melancholy, the people of the school so far are normal, and the world is normal, but Haruhi Suzumiya is insane/extreme. In both shows, one lead character's "normalness" reflects the other character's eccentricity. Haruhi Suzumiya, like Tamaki, makes the people around her into reflections of her own strangeness.
Episode 2
Haruhi's total domination of everything is amusing. She's not a sensitive person, is she? And she's offensive...she manhandles people. She sexually harasses the redheaded girl.
I think she actually might be the antagonist. Which makes the title even more...piquant.
The colors and animation in this series is stellar. Everything has a kind of glow to it, and all the colors are vibrant.
I was doubly amused by the dawning horror on Kyon's face as he realized Mikiru actually does embody the "moe" theme that Haruhi claimed. She is staying... why? Why would anyone stay after being through that humiliation? No reason is given, which Kyon apparently finds as baffling as the audience (in this case, me). Are all the cast going to be "living" stereotypes like this? Nagato is one as well.
"I'll never let anything like that happen to you ever again." I think that promise is going to last about 3 minutes.
...Yep, didn't even make it to three. :sigh: Try to have *some* spine, Kyon. I was thinking you WEREN'T a total pushover; don't prove me wrong! ...Dammit, and I liked you, too. But you ARE a doormat after all. And Mikiru could do with some confidence points as well. Maybe by the end of the show she'll stand up for herself and smack Haruhi across the face?
The irreverence of how Haruhi's harassment of Michiru is portrayed in this episode reminds me a lot of the movie Heathers, in that scene where Winona Ryder's character is having a conversation and in the background corner of the screen her friend is getting date-raped and no one notices. That wasn't a particularly funny scene either, and being that I don't like the "lolita" complex of a lot of anime shows I don't find these scenes with Mikiru funny.
At this point, the only person I have respect for is Nagato.
What the FUCK is up with that bizarre "marry me" conversation? That has to be some weird anime trope I'm not aware of, dealing with the conservation Japanese culture. I think, from the over-the-top "sad" music that it was a joke of some kind, but it went over my head.
::after the note sequence:: He sure rushed out of there in a hurry, didn't he? He probably thinks she's into him. Somehow I don't think that's going to be the case. Is she drugging him? And... is that porn music?
I really like the visual direction in this-- the framing, the angles. Especially in scenes like this one, in Nagato's apartment. There's some very unusual (for anime) design work in the camera angles, particularly how they use the windows to emphasize that Kyon and Nagato are alone even when they're in the same room.
I watched episode 0 in subs but once I realized the I had the dub, I switched to that instead, but with subtitles still on. That's my preferred way of watching anime, so I can compare the subs to the dub translation.
Episode 1
I think I'm going to like this show. Already the writing is better than a lot of anime, in terms of dialog flow and pacing. For example, I just watched 2/3 of an episode being set in a classroom, narrated by one character's voice over, and pretty much nothing significant happened. And yet I wasn't bored at all; the pace is quick and the tone is vibrant and amusing. It's weird, but it's a very approachable kind of weird. I think they made a solid choice in showing someone as odd as Haruhi through the lens of a cynic, a "normal" person. He's remarkably normal, actually, by anime's typical character standards.
What I like about him, though, is that he's not the Shinji, Tenshi, Naota or otherwise soppy and boring "average" male character that's usually at the heart of harem anime series. Pretty much any time there's an anime when the main male character is nervous, nonthreatening, and shy he gets a host of bouncy female characters to claim him. Kyon, so far, looks to be very average, not particularly outgoing, and pretty much the definition of "straight-laced"... but he's not a total pushover either, which makes me like him without looking down on him.
His little crush is cute, but I can see how any potentially romantic feelings are being rapidly trampled by the reality of Haruhi's personality. By the end of this series I imagine he'll either be completely in love with her, or he'll be her best friend and realize that as interesting as Haruhi is, he really wants someone more like himself. Or will he break out of his shell and become more like Haruhi? I can see that as a sort of potential "life lesson" in the future--meeting her helps him cosmically loosen up.
This feels like a complete converse of the Ouran High School Host Club main pair: Haruhi and Tamaki. Haruhi of Ouran is a modest, level-headed, intelligent, slightly introverted person who gets along with most people and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Tamaki is loud, weird, charismatic, and possibly insane. The dynamic is very similar to the one in Melancholy, albeit flipped in context as well as gender. In Ouran it's the school setting that's insane/extreme, and Haruhi is alone, a single "normal" person in the madhouse. In Melancholy, the people of the school so far are normal, and the world is normal, but Haruhi Suzumiya is insane/extreme. In both shows, one lead character's "normalness" reflects the other character's eccentricity. Haruhi Suzumiya, like Tamaki, makes the people around her into reflections of her own strangeness.
Episode 2
Haruhi's total domination of everything is amusing. She's not a sensitive person, is she? And she's offensive...she manhandles people. She sexually harasses the redheaded girl.
I think she actually might be the antagonist. Which makes the title even more...piquant.
The colors and animation in this series is stellar. Everything has a kind of glow to it, and all the colors are vibrant.
I was doubly amused by the dawning horror on Kyon's face as he realized Mikiru actually does embody the "moe" theme that Haruhi claimed. She is staying... why? Why would anyone stay after being through that humiliation? No reason is given, which Kyon apparently finds as baffling as the audience (in this case, me). Are all the cast going to be "living" stereotypes like this? Nagato is one as well.
"I'll never let anything like that happen to you ever again." I think that promise is going to last about 3 minutes.
...Yep, didn't even make it to three. :sigh: Try to have *some* spine, Kyon. I was thinking you WEREN'T a total pushover; don't prove me wrong! ...Dammit, and I liked you, too. But you ARE a doormat after all. And Mikiru could do with some confidence points as well. Maybe by the end of the show she'll stand up for herself and smack Haruhi across the face?
The irreverence of how Haruhi's harassment of Michiru is portrayed in this episode reminds me a lot of the movie Heathers, in that scene where Winona Ryder's character is having a conversation and in the background corner of the screen her friend is getting date-raped and no one notices. That wasn't a particularly funny scene either, and being that I don't like the "lolita" complex of a lot of anime shows I don't find these scenes with Mikiru funny.
At this point, the only person I have respect for is Nagato.
What the FUCK is up with that bizarre "marry me" conversation? That has to be some weird anime trope I'm not aware of, dealing with the conservation Japanese culture. I think, from the over-the-top "sad" music that it was a joke of some kind, but it went over my head.
::after the note sequence:: He sure rushed out of there in a hurry, didn't he? He probably thinks she's into him. Somehow I don't think that's going to be the case. Is she drugging him? And... is that porn music?
I really like the visual direction in this-- the framing, the angles. Especially in scenes like this one, in Nagato's apartment. There's some very unusual (for anime) design work in the camera angles, particularly how they use the windows to emphasize that Kyon and Nagato are alone even when they're in the same room.
