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Happy Friday! Shavuot just ended and we're back to the regular schedule.. with one day before Shabbat.
Um, I read Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyougaku over the holiday and LOVED IT so here is a reaction post. With spoilers. Lots and lots of spoilers.
Volumes 10 and 11 continue the annoying parallel world shtick from volume 9, but the two time lines diverge drastically here so it's not nearly as repetitive. Plus there are a metric ton of revelations. Off the top of my head: Koizumi is the leader/founder of the Organization, Fujiwara is or used to be Asahina-san's little brother, the future can be changed, Taniguchi dated Suou Kuyou - as in the Canopy Domain alien who's two steps removed from Cthulhu - DURING THE EVENTS OF SHOUSHITSU, the Canopy Domain was not only unaffected by Nagato rewriting the world but watching it with interest, Asakura Ryouko is back and twice as crazy, Kimidori Emiri is also crazy, Asahina-san's very uselessness and lack of agency saved the SOS-Dan from more time messes than we want to know about, and Kyon and Haruhi are now a couple. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah the new member of SOS-Dan is Jesus. And Kunikida has been in love with Tsuruya since middle school.
Seriously Tanigawa was in full steam here. Congratulations man. The book could have done with some tighter editing, but we haven't had the whole cast combined with a threat on this scale ever before. The book also sets up several plotlines for future stories, so the next books should hopefully not be prefaced by as long an interval.
Also, to my relief, the new member of SOS-Dan is not permanent, so the character balance we've had so far is preserved. THANK YOU TANIGAWA.
Character comments:
Haruhi: FINALLY Haruhi moves back to the focus of the series and the story is much better for it. We get to see a lot of facets of Haruhi's personality here: caring Haruhi rushing to Nagato's side and cooking for her, big-sister Haruhi tutoring Kyon in history, obnoxious Haruhi putting the first years who want to join the SOS-Dan through hell, smug Haruhi dissing Kyon, confident Haruhi planning new and ever more appalling projects.... LOVE.
She's also much calmer than before and cares more about others than she ever did. There's really no comparison with the obnoxious spoiled brat of Sighs - she's sensitive and caring without losing that bulldozer energy.
Kyon: I think Tanigawa must have eaten a few dictionaries since writing volume 9, because Kyon's vocabulary is twice as advanced as before. It's hard to believe that he's failing history when he references the battles of Red Cliff, Sekigahara and Tennozan and uses kanji compounds I've never seen before. HOW ARE YOU SUCH AN IMPOSSIBLE NERD I CAN'T EVEN.
Another change from previous volumes is that Kyon is much more honest with his own feelings for Haruhi. He barely remarks on the appearance of the girls this time around and is entirely focused on Haruhi. (Be still my shipping heart!) At the end of the book he's determined to go to university with her and is planning an anniversary gift (from the founding of SOS-Dan, natch.)
Sasaki: The third main character this time around. Sasaki hasn't changed much since volume 9, we just get to know her better. She's a serious, (overly) intellectual person whose sincere goal in life is to be a philosopher. The way she refuses to be a cheap villain despite all the pleading from the 'Anti-SOS' is admirable. Dammit, how is she so self-possessed and self-confident in HIGH SCHOOL?
That said, she's so clearly in love with Kyon, and so clearly refusing to say a word, that it's really hard not to feel sorry for her. She goes on for pages and pages about DNA and how she really wants to leave her thoughts for the future and the whole time I was thinking "you want to make babies with Kyon, just admit it!" OTL Hope the guy who confessed to her is a decent fellow :/
Also she can answer Fujiwara, who was quite scary in this book. He was scowling the whole time and she still asked him if people in the future have managed to get past using oil. Because she's worried about the environment. SASAKI MY BB COME INTO MY ARMS.
Incidentally it looks like Sasaki intends to stay out of the story from now on while Kyon has every intention of dragging her into trouble in the future. Who will win? XD
Koizumi: Wow!!!! Koizumi got angry! He blew up the clubroom to get at Fujiwara! And told off BOTH factions of time travellers (including Big Asahina-san) and the aliens! And said that he'd rather have broken in through the window instead of using the door but he didn't have time wwww
Koizumi also called himself "a part of Suzumiya-san's subconscious made physical" which gives a lot of insight into why he's so faithful to Haruhi. It's a bit sad, though. Koizumi, you're a person, not a chess piece ;_;
Seriously I don't think we've ever seen this much of Koizumi's true personality before, and it doesn't look nice. He practically threatened to make war on the opposing factions if they disrespect the Earth of this time plane. In keigo, of course. (He had Kyon's full approval too.) Plus he deduces that Haruhi's power will disappear eventually because the time travellers are after it now. (He also says later that Haruhi is actually refining her control instead of slowly losing her power as he thought she was.)
Plus for the first time Big Asahina-san and Koizumi meet, and it's explosive. Asahina-san refuses to tell him anything "because you can derive 10 pieces of information from one word of mine." But it does seem as though Big Asahina-san and the SOS-Dan may be at cross-purposes in future.... Hmmm.
Nagato: A bit player for the first time.. ever? Nagato was forcibly sidelined by the Canopy Domain at the end of Volume 9 so she spends the active (beta) timeline in bed. (In the peaceful alpha timeline, of course, she's in the clubroom reading).
Asahina-san: Little to say about Little Asahina-san except that her very refusal to meddle may just have saved the universe. There's little new about Big Asahina-san except that she has a boss. Well, we knew that already, except for Kyon apparently.
Oh and she wanted to make a dramatic appearance from the supply closet but couldn't time travel into it. Asahina-san, you've been corrupted by Haruhi, haven't you? XD
Fujiwara: So this weedy-looking jerk is the villain? ...Wait he's Asahina-san's little brother?! And he came from an alternate timeline to prevent some sort of catastrophe that cost him Asahina-san? (What is this, Noein?) And he's willing to destroy his own time plane to do so?
There was quite a lot of cryptic time-travel discussion that I didn't properly understand (presumably later books will explain more) but I did get that he's a bastard. He treats everyone except Asahina-san as a chess piece for his goal, completely subverts Tachibana Kyouko's plans, calls Sasaki a tool to her FACE, openly mocks Kyon, tries to kill Haruhi...
I still feel kind of bad for him but you can't say he wasn't asking for it. Whether his timeline got obliterated or simply cut off from Kyon's line isn't made clear, but it doesn't look like he'll be back any time soon.
Ironically, the whole time Fujiwara was trying to subvert the set order of history, he may have unwittingly reinforced it instead. When Kyon, Sasaki, Tachibana and Fujiwara take a taxi to the final confrontation (so bourgeois lol) the driver starts telling Tachibana about his son the genius who's being tutored by a high school student. In the backseat, Kyon and the others are talking about time travel.
They were talking about time travel in the same car as the father of the INVENTOR OF TIME TRAVEL! The kid who studies too much is Hakase-kun! Holy ****!!!
Kuyou: Surprisingly little to say about her except that the Canopy Domain is far more overtly evil than the Data Overmind, which is mostly amoral. It seems that unlike interfaces like Nagato, Kuyou has little personality of her own and whatever's in the driver's seat switches depending on the situation. Sometimes she doesn't talk, sometimes she talks in halting fragments, and sometimes she laughs like a madwoman. Freaking scary.
And Taniguchi went out with that? (Apparently he dated her for two reasons: a, because she asked, and b, because she's hot. Taniguchi, desperation isn't charming.) Also he bought her a watch (so she could keep track of time) and went with her to fast-food restaurants until she broke up with him. Because she'd made a mistake. What? Was she unable to distinguish him from Kyon? What?
Watahashi Yasumi: The new member of SOS-Dan in the alpha timeline. Very cute and very hyper. More of a plot device than a character. Koizumi explains her presence as a subconscious defence mechanism activated by Haruhi to protect her friends. You could say she's Haruhi's affection and enthusiasm minus the cynicism, or you could say she's Jesus. Disappears at the end, or rather, is reabsorbed into Haruhi.
Tachibana: Gets steamrolled first by Fujiwara and then by Koizumi. But she gives Koizumi her phone number anyway, ostensibly for negotiations. Koizumi, you bastard! What happened to Sakanaka-san? Are you building a shadow harem of your own?
Kunikida: I think he has more lines in this book than he has in the past nine volumes COMBINED. He argues that while Kyon and Haruhi are similar and should repel, because of the influence of Koizumi and Nagato and Asahina et al, they actually form a stronger bond. Plus he brings the four forces into it and refers to The Fifth Element. Kunikida, since when are you such a nerd? Is everyone at North High a nerd except for Taniguchi?
Also apparently he's been stalking Tsuruya-san since middle school. What.
Goals set for future volumes:
SOS-Dan are going to crash the Tsuruya family hanami party with a performance. Kyon is going to die of embarassment.
Kyon has to find an anniversary present for Haruhi within a month.
Kyon now intends to be the person who college-age Haruhi turns to. Meaning, he wants to be with her in university and is now going to work actively for it.
The futuristic object found at Tsuruya's house is mentioned explicitly. Tanigawa didn't retcon it and it's going to be a point of interest in later books.
Asahina-san will graduate.
There's going to be a confrontation with the aliens.
PS: Forgot to mention that the Rainy Day short story has details on Okamoto (who's been foreshadowed to appear in the future.) She's Kyon's former classmate and beloved of the guys because she's nearsighted and instead of wearing glasses like a normal person, shoves her face into other people's personal space. Also she has big boobs apparently. Oh joy.
Um, I read Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyougaku over the holiday and LOVED IT so here is a reaction post. With spoilers. Lots and lots of spoilers.
Volumes 10 and 11 continue the annoying parallel world shtick from volume 9, but the two time lines diverge drastically here so it's not nearly as repetitive. Plus there are a metric ton of revelations. Off the top of my head: Koizumi is the leader/founder of the Organization, Fujiwara is or used to be Asahina-san's little brother, the future can be changed, Taniguchi dated Suou Kuyou - as in the Canopy Domain alien who's two steps removed from Cthulhu - DURING THE EVENTS OF SHOUSHITSU, the Canopy Domain was not only unaffected by Nagato rewriting the world but watching it with interest, Asakura Ryouko is back and twice as crazy, Kimidori Emiri is also crazy, Asahina-san's very uselessness and lack of agency saved the SOS-Dan from more time messes than we want to know about, and Kyon and Haruhi are now a couple. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah the new member of SOS-Dan is Jesus. And Kunikida has been in love with Tsuruya since middle school.
Seriously Tanigawa was in full steam here. Congratulations man. The book could have done with some tighter editing, but we haven't had the whole cast combined with a threat on this scale ever before. The book also sets up several plotlines for future stories, so the next books should hopefully not be prefaced by as long an interval.
Also, to my relief, the new member of SOS-Dan is not permanent, so the character balance we've had so far is preserved. THANK YOU TANIGAWA.
Character comments:
Haruhi: FINALLY Haruhi moves back to the focus of the series and the story is much better for it. We get to see a lot of facets of Haruhi's personality here: caring Haruhi rushing to Nagato's side and cooking for her, big-sister Haruhi tutoring Kyon in history, obnoxious Haruhi putting the first years who want to join the SOS-Dan through hell, smug Haruhi dissing Kyon, confident Haruhi planning new and ever more appalling projects.... LOVE.
She's also much calmer than before and cares more about others than she ever did. There's really no comparison with the obnoxious spoiled brat of Sighs - she's sensitive and caring without losing that bulldozer energy.
Kyon: I think Tanigawa must have eaten a few dictionaries since writing volume 9, because Kyon's vocabulary is twice as advanced as before. It's hard to believe that he's failing history when he references the battles of Red Cliff, Sekigahara and Tennozan and uses kanji compounds I've never seen before. HOW ARE YOU SUCH AN IMPOSSIBLE NERD I CAN'T EVEN.
Another change from previous volumes is that Kyon is much more honest with his own feelings for Haruhi. He barely remarks on the appearance of the girls this time around and is entirely focused on Haruhi. (Be still my shipping heart!) At the end of the book he's determined to go to university with her and is planning an anniversary gift (from the founding of SOS-Dan, natch.)
Sasaki: The third main character this time around. Sasaki hasn't changed much since volume 9, we just get to know her better. She's a serious, (overly) intellectual person whose sincere goal in life is to be a philosopher. The way she refuses to be a cheap villain despite all the pleading from the 'Anti-SOS' is admirable. Dammit, how is she so self-possessed and self-confident in HIGH SCHOOL?
That said, she's so clearly in love with Kyon, and so clearly refusing to say a word, that it's really hard not to feel sorry for her. She goes on for pages and pages about DNA and how she really wants to leave her thoughts for the future and the whole time I was thinking "you want to make babies with Kyon, just admit it!" OTL Hope the guy who confessed to her is a decent fellow :/
Also she can answer Fujiwara, who was quite scary in this book. He was scowling the whole time and she still asked him if people in the future have managed to get past using oil. Because she's worried about the environment. SASAKI MY BB COME INTO MY ARMS.
Incidentally it looks like Sasaki intends to stay out of the story from now on while Kyon has every intention of dragging her into trouble in the future. Who will win? XD
Koizumi: Wow!!!! Koizumi got angry! He blew up the clubroom to get at Fujiwara! And told off BOTH factions of time travellers (including Big Asahina-san) and the aliens! And said that he'd rather have broken in through the window instead of using the door but he didn't have time wwww
Koizumi also called himself "a part of Suzumiya-san's subconscious made physical" which gives a lot of insight into why he's so faithful to Haruhi. It's a bit sad, though. Koizumi, you're a person, not a chess piece ;_;
Seriously I don't think we've ever seen this much of Koizumi's true personality before, and it doesn't look nice. He practically threatened to make war on the opposing factions if they disrespect the Earth of this time plane. In keigo, of course. (He had Kyon's full approval too.) Plus he deduces that Haruhi's power will disappear eventually because the time travellers are after it now. (He also says later that Haruhi is actually refining her control instead of slowly losing her power as he thought she was.)
Plus for the first time Big Asahina-san and Koizumi meet, and it's explosive. Asahina-san refuses to tell him anything "because you can derive 10 pieces of information from one word of mine." But it does seem as though Big Asahina-san and the SOS-Dan may be at cross-purposes in future.... Hmmm.
Nagato: A bit player for the first time.. ever? Nagato was forcibly sidelined by the Canopy Domain at the end of Volume 9 so she spends the active (beta) timeline in bed. (In the peaceful alpha timeline, of course, she's in the clubroom reading).
Asahina-san: Little to say about Little Asahina-san except that her very refusal to meddle may just have saved the universe. There's little new about Big Asahina-san except that she has a boss. Well, we knew that already, except for Kyon apparently.
Oh and she wanted to make a dramatic appearance from the supply closet but couldn't time travel into it. Asahina-san, you've been corrupted by Haruhi, haven't you? XD
Fujiwara: So this weedy-looking jerk is the villain? ...Wait he's Asahina-san's little brother?! And he came from an alternate timeline to prevent some sort of catastrophe that cost him Asahina-san? (What is this, Noein?) And he's willing to destroy his own time plane to do so?
There was quite a lot of cryptic time-travel discussion that I didn't properly understand (presumably later books will explain more) but I did get that he's a bastard. He treats everyone except Asahina-san as a chess piece for his goal, completely subverts Tachibana Kyouko's plans, calls Sasaki a tool to her FACE, openly mocks Kyon, tries to kill Haruhi...
I still feel kind of bad for him but you can't say he wasn't asking for it. Whether his timeline got obliterated or simply cut off from Kyon's line isn't made clear, but it doesn't look like he'll be back any time soon.
Ironically, the whole time Fujiwara was trying to subvert the set order of history, he may have unwittingly reinforced it instead. When Kyon, Sasaki, Tachibana and Fujiwara take a taxi to the final confrontation (so bourgeois lol) the driver starts telling Tachibana about his son the genius who's being tutored by a high school student. In the backseat, Kyon and the others are talking about time travel.
They were talking about time travel in the same car as the father of the INVENTOR OF TIME TRAVEL! The kid who studies too much is Hakase-kun! Holy ****!!!
Kuyou: Surprisingly little to say about her except that the Canopy Domain is far more overtly evil than the Data Overmind, which is mostly amoral. It seems that unlike interfaces like Nagato, Kuyou has little personality of her own and whatever's in the driver's seat switches depending on the situation. Sometimes she doesn't talk, sometimes she talks in halting fragments, and sometimes she laughs like a madwoman. Freaking scary.
And Taniguchi went out with that? (Apparently he dated her for two reasons: a, because she asked, and b, because she's hot. Taniguchi, desperation isn't charming.) Also he bought her a watch (so she could keep track of time) and went with her to fast-food restaurants until she broke up with him. Because she'd made a mistake. What? Was she unable to distinguish him from Kyon? What?
Watahashi Yasumi: The new member of SOS-Dan in the alpha timeline. Very cute and very hyper. More of a plot device than a character. Koizumi explains her presence as a subconscious defence mechanism activated by Haruhi to protect her friends. You could say she's Haruhi's affection and enthusiasm minus the cynicism, or you could say she's Jesus. Disappears at the end, or rather, is reabsorbed into Haruhi.
Tachibana: Gets steamrolled first by Fujiwara and then by Koizumi. But she gives Koizumi her phone number anyway, ostensibly for negotiations. Koizumi, you bastard! What happened to Sakanaka-san? Are you building a shadow harem of your own?
Kunikida: I think he has more lines in this book than he has in the past nine volumes COMBINED. He argues that while Kyon and Haruhi are similar and should repel, because of the influence of Koizumi and Nagato and Asahina et al, they actually form a stronger bond. Plus he brings the four forces into it and refers to The Fifth Element. Kunikida, since when are you such a nerd? Is everyone at North High a nerd except for Taniguchi?
Also apparently he's been stalking Tsuruya-san since middle school. What.
Goals set for future volumes:
SOS-Dan are going to crash the Tsuruya family hanami party with a performance. Kyon is going to die of embarassment.
Kyon has to find an anniversary present for Haruhi within a month.
Kyon now intends to be the person who college-age Haruhi turns to. Meaning, he wants to be with her in university and is now going to work actively for it.
The futuristic object found at Tsuruya's house is mentioned explicitly. Tanigawa didn't retcon it and it's going to be a point of interest in later books.
Asahina-san will graduate.
There's going to be a confrontation with the aliens.
PS: Forgot to mention that the Rainy Day short story has details on Okamoto (who's been foreshadowed to appear in the future.) She's Kyon's former classmate and beloved of the guys because she's nearsighted and instead of wearing glasses like a normal person, shoves her face into other people's personal space. Also she has big boobs apparently. Oh joy.