Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Haruhi Stardust – episode 12

June 27, 2006 on 11:56 pm | In Suzumiya Haruhi | 3 Comments

“Live A Live”

Haruhi played guitar
Jamming good with Kyon and Yuki
– The girl from the stars

Wow, in the preview for the next episode Kyon admits that the story will progress! Still, that matters not in the face of this offering, which features Haruhi very briefly coming to understand the concepts of humility and generosity.

The Cultural Festival is on and “The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru” are a “big hit”. Kyon drifts through the festival finding it impossible to enjoy anything … until a bunny girl suited Haruhi takes the stage and starts to jam.

First order of business: I know that Hirano Aya sings the songs and voices Haruhi but her singing voice sounds nothing like her Haruhi voice. It seemed quite jarring watching the song come from Haruhi’s mouth, but that may have been the intended effect: who would have expected that someone so malevolent as Suzumiya Haruhi might have some genuine talent for something that wasn’t simply causing a ruckus? (Actually, the point of the series is that Haruhi has many talents but refuses to engage any of them for any decent length of time because she is struck with such a melancholy that she has no idea as to how she wishes to shape her life. So the singing really isn’t a surprise; the fact that she would do it for someone else is).

Other fun things include extremely literal fortune telling on the part of Yuki and the sort of background detail that makes me like anime. There were people all over the festival dressed up in funny animal suits and the attention to signs was also somewhat heartening. I should say that Tsuruya (she who must not be named by her meme) was hilarious too but I don’t think that her level of genkitude is that hot.

Of course, an episode with such nice scenes can’t be without its distresses. I think it’s really sad that Kyon is so cynical that he has a hard time eking fun out of anything. He can’t take part in a Cultural Festival without rolling his eyes, and he can’t engage with his friends in a manner that doesn’t involve him judging them inferior. Watching him smile over Haruhi’s revelation was nice, but it’s really hard to genuinely like the guy.

Fans would complain if Haruhi was like this forever, so she reverts to dreaded type. Not that it matters at this point in the series, as we find the rest firmly planted in the past. Drink up, those of us who have not bothered to read the mystery to its climax yet.

Check out how good the animation detail was! These people can play guitars as good, if not better than Madhouse:

Strangely, those images neglected to include a guitar, but this was a great sequence.

Post script: I can’t believe I forgot to mention the presence of meme-kun Hard Gay in this episode. Yeah, he’s in it. Or at least a leather daddy with “HG” written on his shirt is.