Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion of Endless Eight?
|Question:
What are your thoughts on Haruhi’s Endless Eight arc? As of now there has been five episodes released with four being nearly identical. Is it just bad story telling to continually show the same time loops repeatedly with no story progression between each episode or is the series going somewhere with this? Is the studio just being lazy and trying to milk out extra pointless episodes? Do you think DVDs will sell well for episodes which are nearly the same? I know personally I am already having second thoughts on buying season two if it comes out over here.
Answer:
“Endless Eight,” a story in which Suzumiya Haruhi unconsciously causes the last two weeks of August to repeat over 15,000 times, is the first chapter of the fifth Suzumiya Haruhi novel, The Rashness of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Bousou). That single chapter has been adapted into episodes 12-17 of the current Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu television anime. More specifically, these six episodes all basically depict the same events with minor changes in animation and camera shots. According to a certain former Kyoto Animation staffer who wishes to remain un-named, the studio developed the plan to essentially repeat the same episode multiple times last year. So Kyoto Animation has known for a long time that it would be releasing nearly two full month’s worth of fundamentally the same episode. When BONES released four consecutive re-cap episodes of Wolf’s Rain, fans were outraged and frustrated. But BONES was forced to broadcast four nearly identical episodes by unanticipated production delays and difficulties. Kyoto Animation has no excuse because they’re doing it as a result of carefully planned forethought. That’s an important and revelatory detail that significantly impacts my opinion of the “Endless Eight” episodes.
Like many viewers, I’m not enthused by the recycled “Endless Eight” episodes. I watched episodes 12-14 in their entirety, and roughly half of episode 15 before getting bored and skipping the second half and all of episode 16. The “Endless Eight” episodes haven’t entirely discouraged my interest in the Suzumiya Haruhi anime, but they have caused me to temporarily stop watching the show. So on a personal level, I’m frustrated by the episodes. However, from the perspective of an industry observer, this situation is fascinating. The fact that Kyoto Animation planned this lengthy period of repeated episodes months in advance reveals that this is “KyoAni’s” most recent and most audacious attempt yet to poke fun at anime fans, and maybe even the anime industry itself. The 2006 Suzumiya Haruhi anime caught on because its cynical humor skewered otaku conventions while simultaneously indulging them. (It’s difficult to say that a show featuring bunny-suit clad schoolgirls, alien monsters, and anime in-jokes is entirely an aloof, objective criticism of anime.) Kyoto Animation’s Lucky Star then went one step further, ratcheting up the anime in-jokes, making the series’ protagonist an obsessive otaku, and pointing out the odd idiosyncrasies distinguishing of otaku. Endless Eight may be now KyoAni’s latest and most daring attempt to goad anime fans. It’s literally the knowing challenge, “We can do whatever we want because we know you’ll watch it.” And to a large extent, they’ve been proven right. Taken in a broader context, the Endless Eight episodes are a scathing illustration of the fickle hypocrisy of contemporary anime viewers. Anime fans worldwide complain about contemporary anime being all the same, lacking originality. Yet when Kyoto Animation literally delivers the same episode six times in a row, viewers continue to tune in. I may not like these episodes, but I have to respect Kyoto Animation’s most drastic move yet to point out the irrational, contrary behavior of anime otaku. I don’t know for certain what the Kyoto Animation staff is thinking, but I know that I’m personally thinking: if you’re willing to watch the same episode six times in a row, stop complaining about a lack of originality in anime. Obviously, you’re getting exactly what you’re willing to watch.
If “Endless Eight” is, as I suspect, an elaborate joke simultaneously with and at the expense of otaku, I think we’ll see that especially borne out by the current series’ eventual Japanese home video release. It may seem unfathomable to Americans to eagerly purchase multiple nearly identical episodes on DVD, especially at Japanese DVD prices, which are double or more the price of American anime DVDs. But I can already envision fanatic Japanese otaku eagerly measuring and proclaiming their otaku status by having the willingness and determination to buy all of the “Endless Eight” episodes on DVD. That’s a distinct opposition between Japanese and American otaku. Japanese fans take pride and enjoyment in spending exorbitantly on anime goods. An average consumer buys one. An otaku buys multiples. On the opposite side of the Pacific, American anime fans prioritize economy over all else. While Japanese otaku take pride in spending a lot for anime, American otaku take pride in getting anime as cheap as possible. So I can’t predict how the “Endless Eight” episodes will be commercially marketed to American consumers. But I can say right now that I won’t be surprised in the least if the Japanese DVD volumes containing the “Endless Eight” episodes become, ironically, especially popular as a sort of otaku status symbol – a sign of utmost, unswerving, obsessive devotion.
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KyoAni must be crazy if they expect people to pay for these episodes on DVD. Don’t they come out 2 episodes per disc in Glorious Nippon? And a huge markup to boot.
I don’t know about you, but I waited VERY patiently for the new episodes to come out and this is what I am treated to. They could have found some other way to do their high-brow critique of anime fandom instead of pissing of their loyal fanbase.
This Thursday better be the end of it.
I don’t think it’s simply a matter of “we know you’ll watch whatever we produce” (although that’s probably true to a degree), because I’m sure they were planning to generate the sort of controversy we’re now seeing. I don’t think they were naive in thinking that *everyone* would just lap it up. Among other things, I see it also as a way of messing with the expectations of novel readers who, until now, have thought they could accurately predict exactly the way the show would unfold. This was reinforced by the fact that the re-airing resequenced the episodes yet again to be the way they were presented in the novels, followed by this “twist” which caused all theories to be thrown out the window. In a sense, this “expect the unexpected” sort of message causes the fans to resign themselves to the fact that the way the adaptation goes is entirely out of their control, which brings to mind the episode order craziness from the first airing. Of course, this also adds to their frustration (which is not only that the same content is being repeated, but that they have to wait even longer for the parts of the novels they were hoping to see animated).
That aside, I think it’s astute of you to relate this to the obsessive-compulsive nature of that certain segment of the (especially Japanese) fanbase. In fact, these episodes provide a treasure trove of minor details that could keep an obsessive-compulsive fan occupied for days. The fact that they actually re-animated each episode with different episode/animation directors, and made a conscious effort to introduce seemingly-minor variations in clothing, content, art style, effects, etc. shows that they do understand more about that certain segment of the market (that arguably makes up the largest portion of their paying customers) than some would have you believe. The Japanese DVD release also continues the sticker sheet ordeal from the first airing, with random allotments and special bonuses — collect them all? I think that, once the anger subsides, at least a remnant will view this “story arc” with a certain degree of fascination, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see this reflected in the sales. I think it’s easy for people to judge these sorts of fans, but I say “to each their own”. (Personally speaking, I’ve always thought that calls for “originality” in anime have been vastly overblown — to me, anime has never been about originality — so I’m fascinated by the concept that this may be a play on that idea.)
At the end of the day, though, I think the fan reaction to this has been the most fascinating aspect of all. Even though the re-airing was shrouded in secrecy with only the vaguest of hints, fans built up massive expectations that this would be the “Second Season” they’ve long awaited. One might ask “How do you follow-up on one of the most loved and revered late-night anime of all time”, and I like to think of this as a sort of answer. It sort of takes the expectations head-on and messes with them, in a “we’re going to do what we’re going to do; live with it or leave” sort of way. Whether “history” looks back at this as the moment Kyoto Animation lost their Midas touch or not, it certainly makes for an interesting milestone.
I for one am really enjoying the Endless Eight arc. Sure it’s getting a little annoying but still watching each of the episodes and just noticing the slight variations is worth it. In the end the anticipation is what really makes it worth while and when it finally does conclude I think it’ll be all the more satisfying.
I was also recently asked if “Endless Eight” is the first time a serial anime has basically repeated a single episode with only minor changes. I can’t recall a similar situation in any other anime, but my memory is limited, and I haven’t watched every anime series ever released. However, I do think it’s safe to say that no other anime has ever repeated the same fundimental episode six or more times consecutively. So, for better or worse, “Endless Eight” certainly is a landmark in the history of anime.
And not for the better, John.
I’ll take it one step further and worse: With the studios unable to continue to afford to put out new product, in many cases, expect more of this – a lot more.
It’s sad because this gag/satire comes at the expense of the quality of the product because, at the end of the day, you’re left with several redundant, uninteresting episodes rather than a series worth watching. This was not the case with the first season premiering out of order, because the end product was not compromised for the sake of a joke. Endless Eight however smacks of immaturity.
Part of the problem with Endless Eight, as I’m sure you “real” otaku know by now, is that, like Sailor Moon before it, the anime overtook the original source material, so KyoAni had to extend the series somehow, and the problem was made worse by the fact that they decided to release the anime adaptation of The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi (the novel) as a feature-length movie, so the original plan to have three episodes of Endless Eight and then five of Disappearance got turned into the now notorious Endless Eight Repeating Episodes From Hell. A number of fans have actually praised it because they felt that watching all eight episodes gave the viewer a sense of how poor Nagato Yuki must have felt during all 15,000+ iterations of the time loop, but for a lot of fans, it turned them off the anime pretty much.
I, myself, feel that three or four episodes of similar but different content would have been just enough. After the third repetition, I was debating whether or not to watch the remaining five episodes or just skip them altogether (I decided to watch all eight just for the sake of completion), but since I was watching them on YouTube, I at least had the option of skipping episodes if I wanted to. I can only imagine how much worse it was for those of you watching it the first time through, not knowing how much longer the loop would repeat…
I respectfully disagree with seanny, above, in that it doesn’t reek of immaturity to me so much as just bad decision making on the part of the production staff, even though I know the reasoning behind it. And I hope that if either KyoAni or another animation studio ever chooses to remake the Haruhi anime, they learn from the whole fiasco and not drag out a seemingly endless time loop sequence like that again. As Chuck Jones pointed out about animating the Roadrunner & Coyote cartoons, the trick is knowing how to make a given gag just long enough–too short, and it feels rushed, but too long and it becomes boring and overly drawn out.