First day was package from HLJ. Haruhi Keychains and Haruhi Shirt. I don’t really understand why they used a gigantic box. In fact, they put in a few bags of Japan Air. Are shirts really that fragile? Ah wellz, it’s their perrogative.

The next day saw the arrival of Haruhi figurine from e2046. This costs me double my previous figurine purchase, which had cost me double the figurine purchase before that. This does not bode well.

The package was very solid though. Two layers of bubble wrap protected the main box. Inside the box, huge styrofoam pieces protected your figurine. I was a little disappointed with the cardboard box though. I thought it was going to be a solid plastic box from the photos. haha. But still, your figurine will not be damaged at all.

It’s well… Haruhi. The quality really matched up to the character I must say though. You really do NOT want to stop staring at it.

Overall, I didn’t really feel like there’s any big fault. I didn’t even notice any big seams in the hair as some did. Even the skin tone came in gradients. WAH.

BUT.

I finally understood what people meant when they said the figure was fragile. The hair ribbon and bunny ears are self-fixed. And they dropped out with just small movements. FRAGILE. Same with regards to the position for the guitar. Certain parts of the guitar felt very fragile as well, and I’m sure small pressure will break them already.

When I talk about the fragile parts, I’m referring to the tuning knobs at the top of the guitar. Way too fragile.

I know TJ HAN said that why the noise about the guitar when you can get a normal toy replica of similar quality for $10. Well… it’s part of the figurine and every detail counts! And it makes the figurine more complete. You wouldn’t want some shoddy guitar would you, and shoddy it definitely ain’t.

And I must say, nylon on figurine is just totally different. Looks different, feels different. Just adds many many points in my opinion. (never mind that it’s not real nylon) You’ve got to really feel it for yourself to know the difference.

My favourite figurine definitely. (I’m too lazy to link to the actual large sized images, if you wanna look, they are available at my zooomr photo collection)

Oh, and I did mention that the postman came three days right? He came with my spanking new driving licensee. Yay!

Somehow they created a finale from a “middle episode that’s supposed to be the finale”. This episode expressed fully what haruhi can do, and what she craves for. Her full ability to create a new world. And her love for kyon, where she brings only him into a new world.

This contrasts with the chronological finale. (episode 9) Where we have the “more matured” haruhi.

The kiss was disappointing. Not that it was animated disappointly, but I was sad that kyon did it that way! Just to save his the world, he gives such false hopes to haruhi. Totally unforgivable. *grr*

haha. this series was definitly one of those “hey kyoani! there had better be a sequel” type of anime. it’s THAT good. surprisingly.

Oh. You see more of kyon’s sister in this episode. And you get to see how much she looks like mikuru. Are they the same and one? Very similar actions. The nudge on the head. That winking in the same eye. (go compare previous episodes) I doubt so. More likely to be relative i suppose. It’s your guess!

The whole episode basically served to answer any questions you might still be having about the anime. The first half explained haruhi’s outlook in life, and why she acts the way she has been acting. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi is what the anime series is called, and this part pretty much explains why. Here you have a girl who’s pretty much upset with how her life is. She has all the powers to change it, yet she doesn’t know it.

Pretty much reflects the way most of us treat our lives huh? Pretty deep.

The next part involved an explaination of who Itsuki is and what the espers do. This part pretty got me going HUH!?!

Mmm…. the episdoe wasn’t funny at all. But I still kinda liked it for all the deep meaning it entailed. Kinda made me appreciate the whole series a lot more.

The next episode is the last one. I don’t quite know what to expect of it, especially looking at the trailer. Add to that, the fact that chronologically speaking, the next episode happened somewhere inbetween. But hey. Still looking forward to it plenty.

I thought the animation for the band concert was surprisingly good, and much effort was obviously put in, as compared to most other animations for music performances. The episode is also touching in various ways, and everybody will be surprised to see the way haruhi acts. It’s a pleasant surprise though.

Another surprised was the focus on Kyon x Haruhi. Call me dumb, but I never expected them to bring it out so obviously. I thought it was always going to be a subtle thing. Watch out for the lyrics of the songs haruhi sang. All in all, very sweet though

It’s the cultural festival! The SOS brigade got the theatre club to screen their DVD. (remember ep 1?) with haruhi giving out flyers for it at the front gate. in a bunny suit.

Everybody has their own stall… you have the computer club. (remember ep 11?) Yuki has a fortune telling stall, (remember the outfit?) Itsuki has a play. (it’s suppose to be a famous play. but i don’t know what it is.) Mikuru’s class has a Yakisoba stall, which Kyon of course visits, together with Taniguchi and Kunikuda. Oogle time for the 3 guys.

Kyon goes off on his own, and ends up at the Music group’s concert. Real boring stuff, and he falls asleep. Even during a very heavy metal performance.

The next part is where the episode shines. Next is a band performance by Enoz. But surprisingly, you see haruhi and yuki and 2 other members. Apparently, haruhi and yuki were last minute substitutes. Their performance was surprisingly good. (You’ve really got to watch it, words don’t do it justice) Even kyon coudn’t help but tap his fingers, even though he was trying to act stoic.

You’ve to catch what happens next yourself. It’s a 100% transformation of haruhi into someone nice. And it was really nice to watch though. haha. Lovable.

Not going to bother thinking about why haruhi is now so nice. When I rewatch the series in chronological order, I’ll think about it then.

Many funny scenes again. I burst out laughing on seeing haruhi deliver a flying kick into the computer president. Somehow watching haruhi repeated get blown up during practise was hilarious too. even though… it was just otherwise some mundane repeated stuff.

Yuki is the star again this time round. And she’s really getting to be very lovable. The all serious character, who really has a mischievious and fun inner self. You can just see that twinkle in her eye.

one of these days, i’ll rewatch the whole anime in its proper sequence.

There were scenes that hint at interesting things that happened during the cultural festival, which from the trailer, would be showing next week. It’s the first time that haruhi and kyon agree on the episode number!

Watch out for who crews the different battlecruisers!

It’s just days after the cultural festival. The computer society is back challenging SOS brigade to a computer game that they programmed themselves. They want their computer back, in exchange, they are betting new PCs for each of their members. Haruhi offers up yuki, or mikuru, or even herself if they actually lose.

Battle begins, and the SOS brigade suffers from multiple hit and run attacks, and is totally unable to hit the enemy at all. Haruhi, as the boss, has been holding back after kyon asked her to, but gets impatient and decides to charge ahead as per her usual style. Internal strife in the SOS brigade occurs, as kyons wants her to hold back.

Yuki has been typing furiously away. Suddenly the SOS brigade’s fog of war is 60% cleared, thanks to micro management of units by Yuki. Something that is not normally possible. Kyon goes over to see what on earth she’s doing, and all she has are a bunch of command promt screens, instead of the game screen. Kyon asks what on earth she’s doing, since he had previously requested nobody to cheat. Yuki insist that she’s doing nothing that normal humans can’t do, and reveals that the computer society was actually cheating.

Kyon sense that she’s actually getting excited, and since she looks like she wants to win, allows her to continue what she was doing. Yuki removes the computer society’s cheat, and thanks to her earlier micro management, SOS brigade totally trashes the computer society.

The president comes over in total defeat, and implores yuki to come over to the computer society whenever she is free. Haruhi of course refuses. But kyon interferes, and says that yuki should do what she wants. Yuki agrees to pop by when free… and of course.. has that twinkle in her eye.

weird. I don’t remember seeing any of the new computers in the earlier episodes, which are supposed to happen after this episode. -shrugs- Thankfully kyoto animation did a full blown animation of the game, instead of the boring 2D strategy game that was presented in the manga. Very well animated.

It’s interesting to see haruhi agreeing with all that kyon says, and also koizumi’s analysis of their relationship. haha. Even watching haruhi stare closely at kyon to ‘impart’ confidence into him just had the sweet element.

Surprisingly. ep 9 was a total let down. It was absoutely boring, and even included a scene of nagato reading a book. Imagine, for 3 min, it was simply a scene of nagato flipping a book. I had this urge to fast forward, yet I was still hopping that something interesting will come out of it. But nothing did.
It did redeem itself at the final scene though. Where you get to see haruhi’s softer side. It was really sweet, exuding lots of feelings.

ep 10 was a total opposite though, very brilliant. ANyway, ep 10 continues from i think ep 3 or was it 4. Remember the class rep from the earlier eps, who was so concerned about haruhi. Seems like she’s nagato’s back up. Data collection of haruhi has been slow, and in order to speed things up, she decides to try to kill Kyon. This results in a very well animated battle scene, and you get to see the top notch animation kyoto animation is famous for.

Then you have a future mikuru appearing to drop hints to kyon about things to happen in the future. Makes the future episodes sound real exciting

In this episode, you have hints of subtle undercurrents between kyon and all 3 girls. heh. very cute.

Anyway, I didn’t do a review of ep 5 because the site was down, but here’s a review of 6. Weirdly, ep 6 is a totally new storyline, and somehow inserted into the middle of ep 5 and 7, which are connected to one another. As it is, ep 6 was supposed to have happened before ep 5. Confusing enough? haha

In short:

This episode is about how a girl, Kimidori Emiri, arrives at the SOS club together with mikuru. She’s actually a customer who’s looking for the help of SOS club, after Kyon put up a poster advertising the SOS club. Her BF’s missing, and she needs help looking for the guy. And surprise surprise! It’s the computer club’s president.

Turns out that there’s abnormal space in the president’s room, and the group of them ends up meeting a cricket monster, who’s supposed to be an alien like yuki. This time, you can to watch a display of power from yuki and itsuki. But was this all simply a result of Haruhi’s will? Or was it all planned by yuki…

From the point of view of a guy, mikuru’s whimpers are just so cute. And I think the characters are very well designed. haha =X

I really do enjoy the humor coming from kyon’s point of view. However, some people might be turned off by the large amount of dialogue. (boring?). But at least it was a lot better compared to ep 5.

Different type of animation was used in the abnormal space, and it was very well done I must say. There was a surprising paradoy of “Full metal Panic” series. Apparently, the same animation company did both.

It was real cool to see the super powers displayed though. And it filled in more blanks in terms of knowing what everybody was capable of.

Next ep will continue the story on from ep 5… which ended off with a surprising cliffhanger.