Ending Haruhi in the Rain
December 18th, 2007
Hype is a giant killer. The more furious the proclamations of greatness the more likely the legend will be dead on arrival. A few days ago I finished The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, its battered and bloody, but it survived hype’s special attack and was a fun show for me to watch.
Throughout, I was aware of the whole debate on broadcast vs. chronological order and I don’t think in the end it makes that much of a difference to me, a person who is watching it for the very first time on dvd and missed the initial broadcast. Will the show feel different? Probably only during the viewing process and not after the whole thing has been watched. I can see how having more buildup would make episode six seem like more of a season finale, but I know me and having a “dream sequence” be the final episode would have annoyed me. Perhaps, knowing another season is in the works has changed how I feel about ending with Someday in the Rain. I’m sure the broadcast presentation did make it better for discussion and ending with the kiss more magical, but I’ve read so many people making it seem like watching it in chronological order would be ruinous. I disagree with that.
I like ending it with Someday in the Rain. Maybe it appeals to my slice-of-life affection to leave them on what seems like an ordinary day. The one umbrella routine is a little cliche, particularly in anime and manga, but its in these last few minutes of the episode that Haruhi feels more real than she has been throughout the entire series, which makes me see the Kyon-Haruhi relationship as even better. Kyon calling to Haruhi to wait up after she runs ahead is way, way, better than a kiss that happened in a dream. Not exactly the type of thing that makes for a spectacular series finale, but like I said knowing that there’s more sort of makes it okay to me.
My favorite moments in the show are when Haruhi tells Kyon what’s got her mind in the mean reds. When she tells him the story about her trip to the baseball park. Killer. When she tells Kyon about feeling her disappointment after singing at the culture festival, wishing for just one more day to have gotten better. We’ve all been on both sides of that one, or will at some point. We’ve listened to friends. We’ve felt empty and disappointed after doing something that everyone enthusiastically tells you rocked.
Of course all of the funky stuff made me laugh a lot.
English Dub Impression
Bang Zoom! produced a polished English dub for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Most of the actors seemed like natural fits for their roles, except for Wendee Lee who played Haruhi. I thought she had the best read from the online auditions, just not the voice that best fit my imagination. Lee’s portrayal of Haruhi was very good from the start, but it really took me about four or five episodes to get into the voice, which varied a little bit. Plus I first watched the early episodes in Japanese before viewing in English, so had to make that adjustment too. By the end though I think she sounded great. The key to the dub and the show I guess is Kyon, who Crispin Freeman played so well.
Release Impression
Bandai Entertainment released Haruhi with style. In addition to the standard stereo mix, the English language version also comes with a 5.1 mix, which was pretty good at creating some depth to the audio. The Limited Editions were freaking expensive, but I got them for the extra disc with everything in broadcast order. I guess it might not have felt as expensive if I cared about the music CDs or the item pack-ins, but I have no use for the headband, armband, or the pillow cases.
11 Responses to “Ending Haruhi in the Rain”
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December 18th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I just recently finish watching Haruhi as well, having watched the broadcast order before I got DVD, I felt that both are as good, broadcast order just have a more climatic ending. I bought the limited edition as well, just so I can have the DVD for the broadcast order ^^
December 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I initially dropped Haruhi after watching the first episode in broadcast order, it just seemed really boring and stupid to me. Then I actually watched the rest and enjoyed watching it, though how it became a cult phenomena is still a bit questionable to me. Maybe people just relate to it somehow and thats what draws people in. I know I’ve had times where “wishing for just one more day to have gotten better.” I haven’t watched the series in a while, maybe I’ll re-watch it later.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I do wonder a little about how it became so huge. The quality is there in the animation and the stuff it does with the story, but it was just freaking nuts. I wonder if hype has led to my wondering about it, because going by how some carried on it sounded like Haruhi invented sliced bread.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I think what makes it different from other anime during its time is that it seems to break the usual highschool story/antics by basically punching some end-of-the-world theme to a highschool setting. But I also would like to see a more simple ending rather than an explosive kissing finale ^^
December 20th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Super Rats: just wondering, your opinions on the dub are done after watching both the dub and the sub or do you usually just watch the dub?
Re. hype: Haruhi’s hype comes, IMO, from the fact that it seems to be a regular highschool/slice of life series but the extra elements make it break the mold. Add to that that the characters have something memorable to them despite being almost romantic comedy cookie cutter characters. These little things start building little by little, start gaining momentum, and at the end you have an avalanche that started from a snowball. Oh, and don’t forget the ending; that helped a lot too.
I think part of the shock is the fact that you started to see the series after the ‘avalanche’ developed. In my case, I started to see the series when it was started to get noticed, so I wasn’t faced with this overhype that I find annoying because it can turn people off.
I do think that Haruhi is overhyped, but the blame is on the Harutards, not Haruhi. At the end of the day I find Haruhi to be a very enjoyable series with a lot of little things that make it refreshing.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I usually watch with both language tracks. The first dvd I usually watch most of the episodes in both languages and then stick with English as the primary view for the rest. With Haruhi, Kodokawa had a stealth screening of Haruhi at Otakon 2006, so I saw it first with the Japanese dub. But, I’ve seen all of Haruhi with Japanese audio, though discs 2-4 I watched the English dub first.
I don’t watch fansubs. I usually watch anime on dvd dubbed English first and then watch it in Japanese and subbed English when I rewatch a show. Some older shows I only watch “subbed”. I rewatch a lot.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Well I watched the un-chronological order first, and I’d admit, I still pretty much enjoyed it, enough for it to become one of my favourite titles of all time. But, as expected from KyoAni, the drawings are impressive as ever. But in the case of “Harutards”, I do find it strange. Perhaps Hare Hare Yukai attracted them, or maybe KyoAni set a curse or whatever-magic-you-call-it.
But one things for sure, being a Harutard is better than being a Narutard/Bleach-tard, which when you ask them, what is your favourite anime, they’d reply Naruto/Bleach almost immediately.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I’ve been watching Air and Haruhi almost at the same time and I can see why KyoAni has a lot of fans.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Nice to see a balanced view on the series for once, from someone who’s neither a hater nor a rabid fan. Interesting point about the ending of the season when viewed in chronological order. I had never really stopped to think about how that would affect the viewing experience since I watched it in broadcast order.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:40 am
I’ll probably wait for a collection or something. It’s nice to see someone *finally* talking about the chronological order in good terms, though.
Excuse me if I got on a tangent here, but I’m so tired of reading impressions from the Haruhi fanbots… it has diluted my interest in the series somewhat. It’s nice to know the dub is solid and the chronological (DVD) order is actually fine, not the Haruhi killer some fanbots make it out to be.
January 13th, 2008 at 2:00 am
At this point that’s probably the way to go. Give you enough time to forget the fanbot ranting and Bandai collections are usually priced very well.