The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Season 2 - Episode 7 (aka Episode 17)

Hello one and all, and welcome to this week's session of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya "Endless Eight" self-help group. I know that times are still hard for you all, but if we work together to do our breathing exercises and share our worries then I'm sure we can all talk one another down from the precipices of anger, frustration and disappointment in which some of us may have found ourselves.


Anyway, I'm sure you all know the drill now... "Something was strange"... "Endless recursion of time"... "Classified information" "There it is again.... deja vu!" and so on. But ooh look, their clothes are different! And some of the lines have been changed! Excuse me while I find an industrial sized crate in which to contain my enthusiasm.

Oddly enough, this episode somehow felt even further away from a resolution than last week's instalment, perhaps because it's even beginning to sound like the show's voice actors are rushing through their lines so that they can race off to the nearest bar and drown their sorrows. Mind you, this change in delivery does put paid to my carefully constructed theory that the real reason for this constant repetition is that Aya Hirano has been captured by North Korea as a symbol of Japanese decadence, and that KyoAni are cunningly trying to keep this a secret until they can persuade Hideaki Anno to build them a real-life Evangelion out of washing-up liquid bottles and bendy straws so that they can rescue her. Come to think of it, that would probably make a pretty good anime... KyoAni, you seem a little short of ideas right now so if you want to license that idea for a series just drop me a line.

Last episode I asked whether anyone cared about what happens to this story arc any more and got twenty-two responses - Considering that I wrote about the episode as well, I suppose that means the answer is yes. Then again, my three reasons for continuing to watch this Endless Eight story arc are (in order of importance):

- To write about it on this 'Blog, because it's what I do.
- Because I'm a terrible completest so I can't leave it alone, like some kind of horrible scab on my nose that simply won't heal.
- Because I want to see if the arc finishes before my MyAnimeList score for the series hits 1. It's currently down to 2, so it's not looking good for KyoAni.

Anyway, to conclude this self-help session, just remember - One day we veterans of Endless Eight will gather to reminisce and laugh about this time, before having a group recital of the entire episode (because let's face it, most of us can remember the entire script after having seen the thing so many god-damned times).