Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

I can admit that the first season, while not exactly 100% my cup of tea, was a great show in its time - and still is a relatively enjoyable anime, S2 went wrong in so many ways it's actually tough to figure out all of them. It's possible for me to pinpoint two, maybe three parts of the anime that were actually an improvement from the S1, or at least as good as the original. The concept of the story is still interesting as an idea, and it's sad that both seasons are rarely focusing on the supernatural part of it all. Both the OP and theED are also quite good, a definite improvement from the S1, which only managed to impress me with "God knows", and that one isn't even considered an OP or an ED.

The art team has earned their pay fair and square, both the animation and the actual, well, art are now more refined, more detailed and much more varied (especially noticeable in the Endless Eight).

That about sums up all of the good parts of S2. Oh, and Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was the closest to the S1 level of writing in the entire season, which is kind of sad on its own.

Now with the elephant in the room. I'll just say it, as many have said before me - Endless Eight was a mess. And the Movie arc was sometimes better, and sometimes so, so, so much worse that it seemed like two different shows smashed together. I'll try to keep it brief when it comes to my reasoning:

Endless Eight. Good concept, good art, absolutely horrible realization, bored me to death. The end of this arc was one of the most disappointing outcomes i've seen since Fairy Tail ended, and that one went down as a burning dumpster, quite literally. Showing different moments of the story, showing different parts of it that were mentioned several times but never shown - there were many ways to improve it as a whole.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is where i've realized my biggest trouble with this show as a whole - Haruhi gets away with literally anything, including drugging and straight out abusing fellow "friends" in the process of going for her goal. I'm not too much for, or against, the entire "tsundere" trope, but this goes above and beyond any problem i've had with her character. The existence of an entire world that changes based on whether a pissy princess of a girl gets her way or not - it even sounds dumb as hell, and seeing it animated frustrated me to no end. Even Endless Eight isn't as bad as this for me.

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and my respect to KyoAni are the only two things that prevented me from rating this 1 and leaving it at that. I hope there is some sort of purpose for that in the movie or in the light novels, but seeing something like this without context makes you wonder how could anyone even think about such a mess in the first place.