Of all the words of tongue or pen...
... the saddest are these: it might have been.
Otaku contaiment field failing... (see panel 15)
While I try to surpress them, I admit I have otaku tendencies. You know, how some flavors of geekdom look down upon them as taking it too far or taking it in the wrong direction. But, you know, if you embrace comics, you'll probably have a passing interest interest in manga, and then it's a short jump to anime. Just have to figure out where to draw the line...
That said, this post really isn't about anime. It's about storytelling, or utter failure at it. Case in point: the second season of Haruhi has an arc called Endless Eight. It, fittingly, has 8 episodes. For comparison, the next longest are 5 and 2. This isn't Naruto, where it takes 4 episodes to walk down the street; this is an epic-sized canvas to paint on.
The gimmick for this arc is a time loop, a la Groundhog Day. And they do nothing with it. Instead, episodes 2 through halfway through 8 are the same thing over and over. Okay, the animation was new (you get to see the girls in 8 different swimsuits and yukatas, bit whoop), but the scripts and settings were so similar that they probably could be reusing voice acting and scenary. There's no build up, no culmination, just some lame ass excuse in the last 15 minutes that frees them from the loop.
There was a really good episode of Star Trek: TNG involving a time loop called Cause and Effect. The first iteration setup the key scenes. Successive versions of the same scenes either: 1) repeated to add to the atmosphere (the creepy voices in the doctor's quarters when she's trying to sleep), or 2) were expanded and contributed to the final resolution (the poker game and brainstorming sessions where they tried to figure out what was happening and how to get out of it). The bits fit together, and even though you know it's Star Trek so the ship and crew will survive, it's tense watching it come together.
Endless Eight could have been so much more (like what was the deal with that thing with wings that looked like those paper darts from Spirited Away?), and that's why it's so sad they wasted the production staff's time and the audience's time. Things they could have done differently:
See? That's like 6 episodes right there. However, I do like how another fan suggested the arc end here.
Otaku contaiment field failing... (see panel 15)
While I try to surpress them, I admit I have otaku tendencies. You know, how some flavors of geekdom look down upon them as taking it too far or taking it in the wrong direction. But, you know, if you embrace comics, you'll probably have a passing interest interest in manga, and then it's a short jump to anime. Just have to figure out where to draw the line...
That said, this post really isn't about anime. It's about storytelling, or utter failure at it. Case in point: the second season of Haruhi has an arc called Endless Eight. It, fittingly, has 8 episodes. For comparison, the next longest are 5 and 2. This isn't Naruto, where it takes 4 episodes to walk down the street; this is an epic-sized canvas to paint on.
The gimmick for this arc is a time loop, a la Groundhog Day. And they do nothing with it. Instead, episodes 2 through halfway through 8 are the same thing over and over. Okay, the animation was new (you get to see the girls in 8 different swimsuits and yukatas, bit whoop), but the scripts and settings were so similar that they probably could be reusing voice acting and scenary. There's no build up, no culmination, just some lame ass excuse in the last 15 minutes that frees them from the loop.
There was a really good episode of Star Trek: TNG involving a time loop called Cause and Effect. The first iteration setup the key scenes. Successive versions of the same scenes either: 1) repeated to add to the atmosphere (the creepy voices in the doctor's quarters when she's trying to sleep), or 2) were expanded and contributed to the final resolution (the poker game and brainstorming sessions where they tried to figure out what was happening and how to get out of it). The bits fit together, and even though you know it's Star Trek so the ship and crew will survive, it's tense watching it come together.
Endless Eight could have been so much more (like what was the deal with that thing with wings that looked like those paper darts from Spirited Away?), and that's why it's so sad they wasted the production staff's time and the audience's time. Things they could have done differently:
- Restructure the script so that repetitions of the same lines gain new layers of meaning (for some lines, this happened on the first repeat but gained nothing by the 7th).
- Excise scenes that add nothing. You can have your 8 iterations, but don't make it 8 episodes if there isn't enough material for it.
- Or, and I know this may sound crazy for a show known for its weird characters and their wacky hijinks, but have them do something different. For instance: N wins the cicada contest, while M interferes with H, so the most passive character becomes chief for the day.
- Or they try to make the summer activities as little fun as they can in hopes H doesn't loop time again, but fails due to unexpected events.
- Or they try to convince N to warn themselves earlier in the loop so they can work out a way to break the cycle, but she's stubborn about her observer role (character-based tension!).
- Or after K declines to try the "I love you" thing, I tries and H gets mad at I because he did and K because he didn't.
- Or K says there's one thing he hasn't done this summer, and that is have a summertime date, and the club spends the last day doing that.
See? That's like 6 episodes right there. However, I do like how another fan suggested the arc end here.