[PREV - KYONISM] [TOP]
MELANCOLY_TRAP
December 15, 2010
February 27, 2011
"The Melancoly of Haruhi Suzimiya"
MELANCOLY
The overall narrative goes nowhere.
The first two DVDs establish everything
of importance, the last two are just
treading water, they loop around and come
back to the same set situation, without
any of the real mysteries resolved.
The end of the series is the shaggiest
of shaggy dogs, an episode where almost
literally nothing happens (the viewpoint
character spends most of it sitting on
a train by himself).
For the "second season" they chose to
interleave additional episodes between Were they embarassed by
the existing ones, adding more stories all the lose ends they'd
where nothing really happens. let drop in the first
season? (What happened to
the talking cat?)
That is "explained"
in the 2nd season, or
at least explicated.
In a story whose relationship with other
stories is the real, central subject,
the refusal to find an ending is a real
failure.
What I find interesting about this work:
a love for genre, self-aware but not
paralyzed by it's self-consciousness. AWARE_BUT_THERE
Inside and outside, but still somewhere.
The rejection of the possibility of a conclusion.
A desperate fear at choosing the wrong conclusion?
What endings might have worked?
At one point this is where it appears that
they're going: they're leading up to the
"declaration of feelings" scene between Kyon NOUNIFICATION
and Haruhi. Maybe:
"You're one of the most annoying people
I've ever met, but I can't imagine
living without you."
Or maybe:
"Everyone else seems to have decided
I'm supposed to do this, but that's
no reason not to do it."
But there are some troubles
with doing this...
This is the sort of story where
romantic love has been set up *in MAGIC
opposition* to magic, the embrace
of love is then the commitment to "we grow stronger
be normal, the end of the real through our dreams,
quest. not through someone"
I think that's the larger problem.
The anti-feminist spin is a corollary:
powerful women are *dangerous* (and
perhaps worse, *annoying*), and all
they *really* want is just to get laid.
So, on top of resolving the love
triangle (pentagram? whatever) you (The way you would really
need to add in the idea that Kyon deal with a Haruhi, would
is *converted* to Haruhism, he be to try to impress them
decides to join her on her quest with the magical quality of
for a more magical existence. every day existance. Take
her to the beach and begin
ADVENTURE sorting through the stones
with a magnifying glass,
looking for "good ones",
until it sinks in that
they're all good if you
really learn to look.)
TRICK_OF_ATTENTION
That *can* be tied
into Kyonism... KYONISM
Kyon has been locked in this
existance as a learning experience, MAKER
and when he gets through it and
comes out the other side, he joins
forces with Haruhi and takes the
SOS Brigade on the road, in search
of the truly weird and wonderful
underpinnings of existance.
That sounds workable to me
as a grand finale, but *only*
as a grand finale... (can
you imagine the SOS Brigade
dressed up in super-suits (Ala Bleach, where by an
and charging around trying unexplained coincidence
to save the universe?) everyone the main character
knows in high school turns
out to have a super-power.)
And this I think, is the *real* hang-up:
they're painted into a corner with
one twist ("Kyon is god") in reserve,
a card that *has* to be played, but once
they play it the game is over, and their
very popular series is at an end.
They can't play the card just yet, but
they also can't do anything that undercuts
it, so they've got to keep everything
static. They can do trivial loop
stories ("Haruhi wants to play baseball!"),
or they can self-consciously play games
with the fact that they have to keep
anything from happening...
This explains the static last
episode of the first season, and Note that the seven
the long "Endless 8" of the second episodes that make up
season, where time continually the "Endless Eight"
resets (ala "Groundhog Day"). display no symptoms of
laziness in production.
Art is not re-used
from one episode to
the next-- essentially
the same scenes are
depicted in slightly
different ways each
time. And they had
the voice actors
record the same dialog
repeatedly to try to
get an increasing edge
in their voices as the
story progresses...
or refuses to progress.
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