Anime Pilgrimage RTT

The Star Craft of the Irresponsible Commander – episode 11

June 18, 2006 on 1:35 am | In Suzumiya Haruhi | 6 Comments

“Day of Sagittarius”

Turns out our friend Kyon is the real commander of the SOS Brigade. Of course, you already knew that. What could have been a very boring video game episode becomes interesting through its apt use of visual metaphor and Yuki’s attempts at fun.

The Computer Club challenges the SOS Brigade to a face off in the space battle simulation that they wrote, “The Day of Sagittarius III”. If the Computer Club wins, they get their computer back. If the SOS Brigade wins, then they get four new laptops and the people’s fame and ovation forever.
On top of that, Haruhi offers one of the female members of the Brigade as a kind of mascot character for the Computer Club.

So yes, Kyon is the commander of the SOS Brigade. Haruhi orchestrates the situations, but Kyon negotiates them with his firm hand based on his mantra of being too serious to have to deal with all of this crap. He is proactive in beating down anything that may cause big troubles. Minor troubles and annoyances are met only with either annoying pithy voice overs or, now, actual vocalisations of dissent.
I don’t buy the theory that Kyon is actually the god of the situation because he hates any sort of subversive forms of fun. Of course, he could be the ultimate cynic, who subconsciously desires the occurrence of stupidities so that he can shoot them down with acidic unvoiced comments, but that’s the worst idea ever.

On the meta side of the series I watch Yuki reading a book and think of the fans cackling with glee and I shudder. I would have felt the same for the Haruhi jump kicking incident but I found that funny: after all, it was the documentation of something happening.
As for Yuki’s “cheating”, I don’t think she was. Essentially she disabled the computer club’s cheating ways and used her own skills to take them on. The micro-management aspect of “Day of Sagittarius III” is too complex for a human to handle, but an AI would have no trouble. Think on this: a computer would not operate on the painfully slow process of

Okay … hatch three drones … build refinery … upgrade rate of fire … need more vespene gas? Son of a bitch, I just harvested your mother-effing vespene gas! ARGH ZERG RUSH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SAVE ME NOOOOO KERRIGAN

It would think

droneshatcheryrefineryspineupgrademutaliskhydraliskflyingparasect infectedterranbaselurkzergrush?IAMthezergerushkekekeke^_^

all at the same time. That is Yuki’s thought process. Having been around for three years, I’m surprised that Yuki didn’t consider her affinity for computers earlier; I suppose she wouldn’t have had to seeing as she essentially is one. Now, with a computer, Yuki can edit her own fictional universes without having to worry about any of the repercussions of changing the real universe. What is programming or writing if not a form of playing God?

This was actually a joy to watch as the CG was well-executed and the battleship atmosphere emphasised with personal modifications on the part of all of the Brigade members: Haruhi, with her team of assorted aliens; Mikuru, with her cat people; Yuki and Kyon, with their clone teams; and, best of all, Itsuki with a crack team of Heno Heno Moheji. The situation transcends Kyon’s cynicism, because the computer society are playing on the same level as Haruhi. This makes the episode that much funnier. A nearly defeated leader shouting “Honour to the Computer Club!” is a guaranteed recipe for hilarity. Yes, that’s right, this show is back on the track of hilarity.

Preparing this article, I realised I didn’t worry about anything in this episode. I even enjoyed it. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, reverting to entertaining escapism? Who would have thought it!