The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Season 2 - Episode 5 (aka Episode 15)

"We've entered an endless recursion of time" Koizumi tells us.... Well, no fucking shit Sherlock, I think we've pretty much noticed that by now! Ahem, sorry, amuse yourselves for a moment while I take a deep breath....


Okay, that's better. So, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode fifteen. Or was it fourteen? Or thirteen? It's so hard to tell these days, when every episode is almost exactly the same. Once was fine, twice made sense in the context of the story, three times was pushing it, but four times? Four times repeating the exact same course of events, with only some different animation and a couple of other little changes to hold our attention? Sorry KyoAni, but you haven't so much dropped the ball on this one as filled the ball with lead and dropped it directly and repeatedly onto your own heads until you were struck stupid.

With pretty much any series I watch, I can usually see or at least comprehend some kind of counterpoint to the criticisms I make about a given episode or show, but I honestly can't this time - Why would any production team think their viewers want this? Why would they even want to do it to themselves? I can only imagine how bored the voice actors, animators and script writers are right now. To make things worse, as we're reminded about how poor old Nagato remembers every instance of this endless summer, there seems to be no comprehension that we're suffering from the exact same thing as viewers! Perhaps that's the point in KyoAni's mind, but immersing yourself in a show has its limits - That's why I'm not running around naked outside the White House with a gun right now, although heaven knows this episode has me tempted.

Still, let's try and take something positive out of this, right? Kyon's deja vu is now stronger the ever, and an aeroplane makes a continuous appearance throughout, so we must be getting closer to a resolution of this time loop. Maybe. Hopefully. Let's just hope that the "eight" in Endless Eight doesn't refer to the number of episodes this story arc will fill.

So, there you have it, another week goes by and once again I feel as though this series has utterly wasted my time. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is rapidly turning into the equivalent of a little brother who endlessly asks "Why?" to everything you say. Only less interesting. Plus you can't punch an anime series in the arm to make it stop.