Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:23 am

Come to think of it, has there been any other animé series in recent memory that had its ending theme become so much more popular and more often used than its opening theme?

(Series without opening themes, such as FLCL, need not apply.)

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:58 am

I'm going to leech off posts from peeps in that fansub forum that went to that event in March 18th!

eggplant wrote:I just came back from the Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou Live Event held at the Omiya Sonic Center(capacity 2,500 seats) in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Aside from the Animelo Summer Ride Outride concert held last summer, where the three Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (SHnY) protagonists appeared as a guest artist, this was the first SHnY based public event. The hype for this one time concert was astounding from the time of its announcement, where thousands of desperate people clamored frantically for tickets, making it a premium item on Yahoo! Auctions. I was fortunate enough to procure one ticket online, listening to the SHnY songs as well as practicing the Hare Hare Yukai choreography from the ending clip from DVD Vol. 7.

The gate for today's event opened from 3 PM, but the souvenir vendors were open from 12 noon, and available to the public. I purchased a program of today's event (cover below), but hordes of people who buying up everything from T-shirts to figurines.

The curtain raised at 4PM, where the first half of the event was a talk session with the cast. Today's MC was Shiraishi Minoru, who played Taniguchi, and Mastumoto Megumi, who played Kunikida. All of the important cast members were present, where the three men, Taniguchi, Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon), and Ono Daisuke (Koizumi) were in charge of the slapstick comedy.

The first corner consisted of looking back at each character's best moments. Director Ishihara Tatsuya and Character Designer/ Animation Director Ikeda Shouko participated as guests, where Ishihara selected each character's best scenes from SHnY. Here's a brief summary:
Kyon: Ponytail moe
Suzumiya Haruhi: Self introduction speech; "God knows..." stage
Asahina Mikuru: The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru; baseball fielding practice
Nagato Yuki: Battle scene with Asakura Ryouko; PC mouse and typing scene
Koizumi Itsuki: Battle with insect; battle with the Shinjin
Tsuruya: Laughing scene in ep. 1 (ep. 00); maid cafe scene
Asakura Ryouko: Taniguchi and Kunikida's comments on how impeccable she is (Bloomers scene); Battle with Yuki
Kimidori Emiri: Consultation scene with Haruhi
Kyon's Sister: Loli in a bag; scene with Shamisen (Ishihara was booed by the fans for not selecting the scissors scene)
Taniguchi: Falling into the pond with Mikuru; imposing on Kyon and Yuki's suggestive scene
Kunikida: Explaining Haruhi's eccentricity to Kyon

The next corner consisted of a short play, in which there was no substantial plot, where the guys were dropping references such as Dragon Quest, Ojamajo Doremi, and Hikaru no Go. The highlight scene was when the SOS Brigade members played their randomly selected instruments, churning out nothing but noise.

After a 30 minute intermission, the second half was the live stage, the set list consisting of:
1. Koi no Mikuru Densetsu (Asahina Mikuru)
2. Bouken Desho Desho? (Hirano Aya)
3. Kazeyomi Ribbon (")
4. Yuki, Muon, Madobe nite. (Nagato Yuki)
5. SELECT? (")
6. Parallel Days (Suzumiya Haruhi)
7. Mitsukete Happy Life (Asahina Mikuru)
8. Seishun Iijanaika (Tsuruya-san)
9. COOL EDITION (Asakura Ryouko)
10. God knows... (Suzumiya Haruhi)
11. Lost my music (")
12. Magare↓Spectacle (Koizumi Itsuki)
13. Kentai Life Returns! (Kyon)
14. Saikyou Pare Parade (Hirano Aya, Chihara Minori, Gotou Yuuko)
15. Welcome UNKNOWN (")
16. Hare Hare Yukai (")
Encore. Hare Hare Yukai (TV Version) (SOS Dan)

Some notable scenes worth mentioning:
Gotou Yuuko was fully dressed in her Mikuru maid outfit (this was the fourth time I saw her this year, and she gets better each time).
"God Knows..." and "Lost my music" was played with a live band (ENOZ), with Hirano Aya playing guitar.
Aya was dancing pretty aggressively, considering her skimpy attire. I think the DVD will cut out the flashing her pantsu scenes (for my eyes only).
Aya sang background vocals on Kyon's song.
Kimidori Emiri and Kyon's Sister did not sing (Boo!).
Kuwatani Natsuko (Asakura Ryouko) practiced "Koyubi de Gyu!" in vain, because she was told to perform COOL EDITION only a week before.
Everybody was dancing and moving, a lot of hard work involved.
Aya broke down in tears at the ending, she was really moved.

All in all, a worthwhile and enjoyable 4 hours of pure Haruhi fun. I am priviledged to be able to witness this commemorative event first hand, but this will be sold on DVD subsequently, so Haruhi fans all over the world will be able to experience the same feeling.

Unfortunately, no announcement about a second season was made, although I'm not dismissing the possibility of some kind of news at next week's Tokyo Anime Fair.

And here are the pics:

Kaoru Chujo wrote:Hirano Aya updated her blog a couple of hours ago (around 2:45 am in Japan, judging by 2channel's posts about it) with numerous photos from backstage at the event. Here are most of them, with keys following:

(l-r) Aya; Aya dressed for singing God Knows ("The outfits just get cooler and cooler."); Minorin, Aya, and Gotouza-sama, after their encore, and after singing and dancing four numbers straight; Aya with Aoki Sayaka (Kyon's imouto). EDIT: Note Aya's left hand in the second photo. She has something written on it (lyrics? chords? talk?). This was pointed out just now on 2channel.

Aya with Matsuoka Yuki (Tsuruya-san); Aya with ENOZ (the band who played with her on God Knows, etc.); Aya with Itou Noizi (the artist who illustrated the novels and did the original character design for this, Shana, etc.); Tanigawa Nagaru (author of the novels), Itou Noizi, Aya.

Aya with Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon); Aya with Ono Daisuke (Itsuki); Aya with Yamamoto Hiroshi (episode director of the series, director of the Hare Hare Yukai ED, and director of Aya's new anime Lucky Star); the whole gang.

Holy shit! I didn't know Aya Hirano is fu**ing HOT!!!

And she's 19 so she's legal!

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:36 am

angelx03 wrote:Holy shit! I didn't know Aya Hirano is fu**ing HOT!!!

And she's 19 so she's legal!

Where exactly have you been this past year? I thought Aya's hot-ness was common knowledge. She was a member of the idol group Springs in 2002-2003 (although she was 15 back then).

Infinity Squared · Post by **Infinity Squared** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:13 am

Willen wrote:
angelx03 wrote:Holy shit! I didn't know Aya Hirano is fu**ing HOT!!!

And she's 19 so she's legal!
Where exactly have you been this past year? I thought Aya's hot-ness was common knowledge.

So true...

These pictures of her though are quite different from most of the other images and footage I've seen of her. Her "hotness" has been particularly accentuated here, whereas, I've always defined as cute most of the time rather than hot.

I want DVD of that concert

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:55 am

I thought her cuteness was common knowledge (I consider cuteness and hotness to be rather different), but yeah those pics really accentuated her hotness to levels I didn't expect.

Then again she did it before when cosplayed as Misa Amane.

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:12 am

ASOS Brigade episode 3 is out!

Haruhi is now with Eric P. Sherman in Bang Zoom! Entertainment studios helping out with the ADR directing with their first <s>victim</s> cast member Crispan Freeman! Watch him attempt to voice a schoolgirl and talk about his wild dreams!

And a new poll is out.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:26 am

Episode 003 was amusing. I liked the interview portion with Crispin Freeman. Patricia's (aka. Haruhi's) facial expression at 8:48 was priceless. And the bit at 10:00...

Of course, the 'school girl' recording session reminded me of this photo: I take no responsibility for any suffering you may experience...

Spoiler :

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:38 am

I found this amusing: Super Plastic - The Melancholy of More New Toys. Scroll down a bit for the Haruhi figure preview, and look for a 'low angle' shot (#5, second row, last picture).

Why is it amusing to me? Well, there was an image of Haruhi that was posted elsewhere a few months back doing, shall we say, an examination of a Mikuru figure.

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:45 am

Cobra Commander gets an exclusive view!

The GK figure of bunny girl Haruhi with the guitar is still vastly superior though.

megaman917 · Post by **megaman917** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:44 am

HAIL COBRA!