Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Repetitive Strain Injury – episode 8

May 28, 2006 on 1:45 am | In Suzumiya Haruhi | Comments Off on Repetitive Strain Injury – episode 8

“Remote Island Syndrome (II)”

You’d think that it was a good thing for Mikuru to spend a whole episode unconscious, but she makes painful Gooto Yuko sounds in her sleep. Clearly the most annoying thing about this program.

Suzumiya Haruhi realises, when faced by a dead body, that murder investigation isn’t that fun after all.

Let’s ignore the mystery and focus on Suzumiya Haruhi for a second: the way that she actually started showing concern for Kyon in this episode revealed a tender side of herself that I suppose some might suggest categorises her as a tsunderekko.*
So the real first of this episode is that Haruhi is capable of empathy. The SOS Brigade appears to mean something to her, despite the fact that in reality they’re just keeping her in check. That’s … nice, I suppose.

That said, the camera sucked in the cave. Lower back and torso shots, baby! All the way to the bank. This was counterbalanced by filtered live action sequences for some visual interest, but the clear mentality is “everyone loves this show, let’s do whatever the eff we want”. Is that healthy? Who knows.

PS. It should probably also be noted that Kyon barely got to narrate this episode because he would have otherwise given it all away.

*Tsunderekko is a great word because for so long it was impossible to find a definition for it on the internet, and anime fans would go on at length about it. A word can represent a concept, but if no one reveals that concept anywhere, the word is rendered meaningless.
Tsunderekko, for your benefit, is a word representing “a girl who acts wanton, bitchy and cruel, slowly softened by the passage of time to become caring and etcetera”. It’s kind of an annoying character type that melts the hearts of millions. Once again, I hate fans.