The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Episodes 6-8

 This is part of a series of reddit posts I made for the 2021 r/anime rewatch.  The index for these can be found on the Other Essays page.

Episode 6 - “Why don’t you tell me what you’re plotting?”

It’s the opening line of the episode… 

...and that should have been our first warning when an episode starts with Haruhi telling us what we’re thinking.  It’s like that moment in a magic show when the magician politely asks you to watch the next part carefully so you don’t miss anything: it means you’re about to be tricked.

Here in the Island arc, consisting of the two Island episodes and Mystérique Sign, we've undergone another genre shift, this time into mystery, and is one of the first times we begin to see the fugue-like triple-level mystery that undergirds the series.  First, there’s the obvious question that we’re fed: a murder happened.  Who did it and why?  These are the standard questions of the genre and we obediently ponder them.  But underneath this there is the "secret answer," a clever twist that defies our exact expectations; it was the forcing open of the door which accidentally killed Keiichi, not some nefarious plot.  It's clever, it's satisfying... and it's wrong; that's not the real truth either, and we were merely misled by a string of deliberately-arranged clues.  The deep, and final, solution is to step outside of the genre and realize the nature of the situation: that it was all an act put on for somebody's benefit, and that what got us was our fixation on what we thought an answer had to be.  

Now we begin to enter the realm of genius.  Last episode we were fed the obvious question: what are Suzumiya's powers?  That's what we want to know, and that's what we think is important, not realizing that we were prompted to it as clearly as we prompted to inquire who killed Keiichi with his "dead" body.  However, because the ability to bend reality is so all-encompassing we don't really know how to spot when it is happening.  Thinking ourselves super-sleuths, we hedge (again), and in order to miss nothing adopt the paranoid approach: if it’s not suspicious, it’s suspicious, and if it’s suspicious, then it’s also suspicious.

And Koizumi’s speech was definitely suspicious.  At this point in the series, everybody has figured out that Adventures was “on the nose” and that Haruhi in general is thoroughly self-referential.  Before it was just taken as the show being wacky, but now we’re armed with a new lens to interpret all this through: the self-referentiality was Suzumiya arranging everything like she wants.  Therefore, we treat Koizumi’s speech as an indication of the same, thinking we’re seeing through to the real implications of what he is saying.  It’s our expectations at work again, adroitly manipulated and then allowed to flow down predictable lines to ensure we won’t actually pay attention.

Now, if we were to actually listen, Koizumi is constantly dropping hints that this is a play (he even told us before what he’d be up to), and there are enough small discrepancies littered about to allow us to solve this too.  It's pretty clever.  It's also the red herring.  Just like the door murder was put in place specifically to attract Suzumiya's attention, trying to use her cleverness against her by getting her to follow what she thought were “hidden” clues, the explanation of Koizumi and his organization that we thought was subtly screened from us is not the real explanation.  The final level, as always, involves whether we are figuring out what the show wants to demonstrate, and, not to be a complete tease, I’m going to leave that until Island II so the point can be made properly.  In the meantime, I’m going to wrap up with a few remarks about Suzumiya, Nagato, and Koizumi (how does Haruhi manage to fit in so much?).

One of my favorite short scenes in the entire series is when Suzumiya first greets Keiichi.  This whole time we've watched Suzumiya act like a bit of a pest, and then suddenly, with the flick of a switch, she's perfectly courteous.  Like us, Keiichi is quite surprised by this given her history, which as soon as Suzumiya is reminded of his expectations her demeanor becomes as uncouth as he had heard.

This is a fantastic piece of concentrated piece of psychology (and another clue in the mystery).  I mentioned a few episodes ago about how Suzumiya acts a certain way to spite people.  But it’s also what people expect of her, and kind of what she expects of herself now.  She’s genuinely capable, energetic, and intelligent to the point that she is alienated, but her act has run away from her and she’s become something of a caricature of herself as a result.  When she’s not trying to convince herself and other people of anything, it’s immediately apparent she’s a rational, stable human being who knows how to thank her host (notice she also eats properly at the table and shows all the good graces).  But as soon as she’s reminded that, “You’re supposed to be the zany one,” she slips right back into her persona.  Or, I should almost say falls back into it, not quite able to catch herself, because that’s kind of what happens to us humans.  We don’t consciously think about who we are and why we act most of the time, we just sort of do, and then craft a consistent story later that we then feel the need to uphold.

For Nagato, this episode is continuing to build a case that will come to fruition later.  We’ve mostly gone back to ignoring her, because now we know what she is a robogirl and is fitting our expectations of one: she eats mechanically, lacks vocal intonation, and overall seems oblivious to everybody else having fun.  It’s only natural to assume she doesn’t have emotions or preferences.  Yet as Little Sister’s question should hint, and as we’re pointedly reminded, maybe she’s just unusual rather than unemotional.  Maybe she's waiting for people to come and invite her to join.  But for now, though, Haruhi will let us have our misconception, because it’s going to need it later.

Finally, I want to remark a little about Koizumi because I won’t for the rest of the series.  Functionally I see him as this episode states: Haruhi’s right-hand man.  On the narrative level, that means he’ll always be the one to support Suzumiya’s adventures and specifically is the one to execute it here.  On the structural level, it means that he’s fully in the service of Haruhi’s aims (it’s his speech that sets us off after the wrong quarry).  If Asahina’s the mascot, this guy will help make sure things go smoothly.  In the future it even elaborates that Koizumi is “part” of Suzumiya, the clear-headed rational apologist who has to explain the crazier half by reminding us that she’s really not that crazy.  Again, all part of Haruhi’s plan.

While this is all fine, I’ve never gotten a good bead on him as a character.  It’s obvious Haruhi wants us to slightly distrust him, what with the narrow-eye look that always means evil and the way his grin is framed, but I take that more as a manipulation than a statement about his character.  The way Kyon automatically distrusts him in our stead seems to reinforce that this is yet another case of the audience being easily misled.  However, beyond this I feel like I enter the realm of mildly-pointless speculation.  His apparent insincerity and obsequiousness makes sense in light of propitiating Suzumiya (and by extension, playing nice with Kyon).  He also seems to potentially have an actual attraction to her as well (a point reinforced in Disappearance, although I typically don’t reference the movie for evidence*).  If that is the case, then his restraint in berating Kyon, keeping it largely to short lectures and occasional passive-aggressive statements, is doubly impressive, and would explain why his smile looks rather forced (that and, like Nagato, he’s on duty).  However, that is about the extent of my thoughts on his personality.  It may be that he’s a masterful actor who has a secondary agenda, it may be that his personality is entirely subservient to the whim of the series (or both), or it may be the result of adaptation where the light novels set him up for more in the future but a 14-episode series had to pick its focus.  I’m not sure it really matters truthfully since it doesn’t impact the core themes, and so like my general opinion of him overall I suspend judgement due to a lack of information. 

*The movie inverts much of what the first season says/does, which I think is to its loss.  This is why I don't trust it as an information source for interpreting the 2006 series.  In fact, making this note a while later I'm still doubtful of my speculations and I'm rather inclined to instead interpret his irritation as the intellect being forced to play along with Kyon because the rest of Haruhi (the emotional teenager, the cute body, and the inner "soul") have fallen for the boy.

Favorite Details: 

• “How can you be close in Old Maid?”  I laugh at this every time… and that’s also the joke.  Suzumiya just made a joke and whoosh it went over our head.  Because of her caricature we take her jokes as serious and then berate her for being dense.  I also discovered googling it that apparently the loser in Old Maid traditionally buys drinks - Suzumiya knows things.
  
  
• Speaking of which, Kyon’s in denial too this episode.  He let Koizumi get the card he needed so that he’d be the one to get drinks for everybody.  Kyon kind of likes his role in this misfit little crew.
  
  
• As they disembark the ferry and Kyon narrate-grumbles his thoughts are answered by Koizumi.  He is, after all, Haruhi’s right-hand man.
  
  
• I have no idea why Asahina is examining the maid closely.  Usually when Kyon offers an explanation for why somebody is doing something it’s wrong, but I always thought of Asahina was genuinely a mascot character as she even says of herself (“I’m like a cardboard cutout in this time plane”).  If there’s some deeper reason in her personality I don’t get it.  [Note: I've since figured this out.  See my summary post for more about Asahina.]
  
  
• Speaking of which, when Suzumiya says she’s suspicious of things that both are and aren’t suspicious we take her as a basketcase.  Yet to underscore my point above, it’s what we’re doing this whole episode, and think we’re clever.  This whole show makes so much more sense when you realize every criticism of Suzumiya by Kyon rebounds.
  
  
• Right after Suzumiya quickly changes her mind and wants to go to the beach, the seagull flying by gives off a red-tailed hawk cry.  We’ve got a mismatch between what things look like and what they sound like.  Notice notice notice!
  
  
• I don’t know the rules of mahjong, but I feel like only Suzumiya and Kyon’s tiles being messed up is significant in some fashion.  Like they’re the only two really playing the game.
  
  
• Little Sister asks if bank fraud is wrong.  Haruhi knows we’re on the lookout for the paranormal.  Is Kyon’s little sister some secret evil mastermind we never suspected?!?  Our thoughts go wild as we think we’ve found an alarming clue… wrong signal.  Kyon’s normal and so is she.

[Image of scrambled homepage] 

Episode 7 - SoSícÇĀÉTÉCÉgÇ÷ÇȆǧDZÇa!

What, can’t you tell what this is saying? 

Notto disu shitto agen. Yes, disu shitto agen, and in every way.  The question is whether we’ve learned our lesson since last "interrupt" episode.  You see, this is exam season and while we might think that the mystery has been put on hold for an episode, as far as Haruhi is concerned there are no breaks.  Our previous performance was dismal but here’s another chance for us to show we get what this is all about (Haruhi isn’t holding her breath, though).

Mystérique Sign (hereafter Sign because I don’t want to keep typing Alt 0234) is once again one of those episodes that baffles me how somebody kept it in their head long enough to turn it into reality.  An echo of Boredom, a full reveal of Island I and II's mystery, a setup, an explanation, and a microcosm of the entire series, how do I even begin to explain this…

Maybe with Nagato.  Remember Nagato?  No, of course we don’t.  Why would we remember her?  Not like she’s done [nything remarkable this series, or that an emissary from the Data Overmind would have any reason to be associated with a digital mystery.  Everything is clearly a result of Suzumiya’s powers, and though she protests that she has to leave something for the rest of the brigade members to do (also note who’s listening) we definitely have her number.

Because, really, what other possible explanations could there be?  This absurdly convenient setup has just landed in our lap, clearly without a single inconsistency at all, and our only recourse is to invent an explanation that is self-incompatible while attributing to a person traits they certainly don’t have.  But what do we care?  The outcome can’t possibly change our perceptions much and if we just wait the show will tell us the answer (sticking around to figure it out would be kind of boring anyway)

Although once we’re told the answer, we have to admit it is a little clever: there was another layer to this beyond the flashy-distracting events.  In reality this was a scripted scenario created by one of the brigade members for the amusement of Suzumiya.  It might have looked like a stupid joke, but this seemingly simple creation is actually extremely impressive and contains a vast wealth of information.  Maybe if we’d paid closer attention we could have gotten something out of this.

But wait, do we really have this right?  We were fed a good story but in the closing moments of the episode we realize it doesn’t account for everything: Suzumiya wasn't really interested and Nagato could have stopped this all on her own.  Technically she didn’t need anybody else’s help, or even have to do any of this at all.  So maybe we ought to stop a moment and think about what her actions imply about her character.  Maybe it was a mistake to take her at face value.  And maybe, just maybe, this remarkable, but unusual, person, even though she could do it herself, brought us along because what she really wanted was to not be alone.

Bingo. 

Favorite Details Additional Notes:

My favorite detail of this episode is everything.  This episode wasn't just a random adventure romp.  From telling us the answer to the Island mystery on both levels, to the amusing Kyon comments, to the fourth wall breaks, to references to future and past events (whatever past and future mean in this show), to references to other anime, to giving us pieces of Suzumiya’s character, to using Suzumiya as a parody of our own behavior which we then judge harshly, to mocking that we’re not getting it, to rubbing our noses in the fact that it knows what we’re wasting our thoughts on instead, to shifting our opinions on Asahina as part of said distraction, to setting up Nagato for future episodes, to replicating in miniature the entire show while maneuvering us so we’ll get it eventually… this episode is peak Haruhi.  My entire post today was full of screencaps because there is just no way to convey in words such cleverness with the “timing” required to make it a joke (hence why today’s notes are half the analysis), or fit in everything that could have been said because practically any line or scene can be expounded on for doing more than it just seems. 

•  In Melancholy III, Suzumiya said she'd review our pathetic performance again in two days.  Well, two episodes later it's test season, and we're being checked again for whether we get the message the show is trying to send.
  
  
• I love the conversation Kyon and Suzumiya have in front of the computer screen.  
  
  The quips are great in themselves, but it also manages to pack in some great cinematography.  It basically shows that if we’re given a frame we’ll view everything through that frame, and the placement of the symbol is almost like a character in itself.  Your eye stays on it the whole time as the organizing point, which the series uses to both counter balance the two people while also occasionally being used to highlight Suzumiya when she leans forward.  Then of course there’s the fourth wall break that not only has Kyon talking to the audience but Suzumiya responding to his talking to the audience.  And all this used to criticize us for not trying to figure out what this means.
   
• Continuing with this scene, there’s also Suzumiya’s quip about using erotic images of Asahina to attract attention that causes us to roll our eyes that she’s still trying this.
  
  As people have pointed out, they don’t really like the overt attempts at fanservice (though they’re not against being swayed by eyes like that).  That should be a hint.  Let’s be honest, if KyoAni wants to do cute girls, it can do cute girls, and if Haruhi were really trying to be earnest about it we’d get a lot more shots like this that everybody loves.  The fact that we don’t is the Suzumiya-Haruhi parallel at work.  Suzumiya is trying to get people’s (positive) attention and she’s doing it in all the wrong ways; she thought maybe she could use sex appeal to bring people in, then dominate Asahina to show off how much better she really is once they were there.
  
  However, this has backfired.  It has our positive attention on Asahina and has (rather accurately) painted Suzumiya in a bad light; she’s losing to her romantic rival and it’s entirely her fault.  The only thing we consistently find attractive about her is her cute design, not her character.  We already got a foretaste of this in Boredom, where the cheerleader outfits were a clear parallel to the bunny suits of Melancholy II, but purposefully toned down to be more acceptable, and Suzumiya is punished by Kyon for acting puerile toward Asahina.  We liked that.  So what happens this episode?  Haruhi starts to shift its approach in line with Suzumiya’s development (trust me, chronology means nothing; she learns in the order of the episodes because she is the show).  We’re forcibly reminded of how past-Asahina was treated with a flashback image contrasted with present-Asahina’s adorable little head-tilt; Haruhi knows what we like and don’t like seeing, and Suzumiya’s tormenting in the apartment is framed as nothing but an obnoxious interruption.  Stop being a child.
  
  But we’re also given a real poke about the issue too: what we like seeing from this little doll isn’t her personality.  In the heaviest piece of innuendo framing in the series, Asahina’s introduction is set to a very clear shot of her soft thighs and delicate hands framing her pubic area.  This is where our eyes are metaphorically, and although we think we’ve escaped Kyon’s obvious favoritism, the truth is, it’s very, very hard for males to overlook Asahina’s sex.  It makes point by observing baldly that even we know she is useless.  But just telling us isn’t Haruhi’s style.  It will show us.  Kyon (we) is trying to listen to the explanation Koizumi and Nagato are offering and, just like in the apartment, our attention is forcibly yanked away from what we care about by this female acting “like we want” in the most stereotypically damsel-y way possible.  We weren’t annoyed with Asahina here on accident.
  
  And as a great last touch in all this, Haruhi knows we buy the cacamamie girlfriend story in part because Kimidori is a gentle and unassuming female.  We were being manipulated with sex appeal again… but Suzumiya won’t stand for that and when it’s obvious our eyes are getting too fixated on this new beauty, our attention is grabbed once again: “Hey, look at me”.  The difference is it is no longer in a problematic way, and though funny she'll have to do something a little more to impress us.
  
  
• When Suzumiya lunges forward across the table to Kimidori the camera temporarily loses focus.  The video ended with Adventures and this is the real world.  Right?  Right.
  
  
• Nagato is about to hold up her finger to point when Kyon interrupts her, asking her to explain what she’s doing.  She answers, “Nothing” and completes her pointing.  She does not lower her hand until Kyon tells her she can.  Nagato is trying to be helpful and get our attention in the correct direction, and we’re going to misunderstand her intent.  Moreover, she’s going to keep pointing until we say otherwise because, frankly, we’ve not shown we’re the sharpest tool in the shed, so she’d better make sure we can’t miss it.  Of course, this last maneuver will be interpreted as another example of obtuse robot girl at work.
  
  
• Koizumi notes that Haruhi judged his current level of power to be sufficient.  Always the right-hand man who is exactly up to what is required of him in the series, no more, no less.
  
  
• The image shown in the background as they talk about the digital entity is the Eta Carinae Nebula.  I had a poster of that on my wall for years.
  
  
• Haruhi knows that even after all the mistreatment we’ll always come back for more (just like Kyon)

 

 

Episode 8 - “Then what was that shadow?”

At the end of the episode after we’ve had everything explained, Kyon remembers that Koizumi didn’t account for the mysterious shadow.  Maybe it was nothing.

I keep saying this, but I love the three episodes of the Island arc.   There is a glittering brilliance to how it manages to reflect, like a jewel in Indra’s net, the greater pattern-mystery that is all of Haruhi.

It always starts with a question that strikes us as so obvious we don’t doubt that’s the question: for the characters on the Island it’s the murder, for Sign it is the missing president, for us watching the Island it’s how Suzumiya’s powers work, and for us watching Haruhi as a whole it is, “What is this show and why are so many weird things happening in it?”

After a while we are introduced to what appears to be an explanation.  It feels satisfying as it fits many of the facts, and so we seize on it: the accidental door murder, Nagato engineered this scenario, Koizumi engineered this scenario, and Suzumiya engineered this entire world because she is a goddess.  When we have an explanation we tend to stop there, and spend the rest of our time making sure that the remaining facts fit it.  It’s a not-unreasonable thing to do, but this habit also causes us to stop looking for new theories while downplaying the evidence that doesn’t fit.  This is the trick that allows Haruhi to use one half of its message (what we observe is a product of our expectations) to demonstrate the other (we devalue what is genuinely remarkable as a result).

 As such, in all these mysteries the explanation we are offered isn’t the real truth, or at least not the complete one.  The answer always lies with character and motivation.  Haruhi gave us a hint with Sign: after Kyon explained everything about Nagato’s scenario, he stops and realizes that he has not accounted for Nagato herself.  Now Island II will follow the same pattern, giving us a clear explanation of the prepared answer and then at the last second hinting that maybe the question was why She would want this at all.

---

Let’s start at the beginning of Island I again.  It focused on a faceless woman, obviously lovelorn, first examining a letter she presumably wrote before wiping a tear from her eye and tearing it up to scatter her feelings to the wind.  Then she examines some photographs before destroying those in hopelessness as well.  Finally, she begins to pluck petals from a flower playing does-he-love-me to emphasize her trepidation with how her feelings might be received.  When she gets to the last two she hesitates, realizing that if she keeps going in this manner it is going to end on the result she doesn’t want… so she plucks both (thanks to u/thatguywithawatch for this detail).

Suzumiya has fallen for Kyon, and more specifically is a “tsundere” who despite her extremely strong feelings nonetheless fails to express them outwardly, instead abusing the object of her affection.  Of course, we’ll have this information handed to us in a manner we more easily recognize later, but for now I want to examine the mystery we were supposed to solve and what goes into a tsundere when she’s an actual character.

First, the rest of the details from Island I (that I know of).  While on the ferry, Asahina takes pictures of Kyon’s face while sleeping.  An act with such obvious romantic overtones that it can’t help but send Kyon’s thoughts immediately in that direction… only to have them doused by Suzumiya saying it is she who chooses the pictures.  We get caught up in the small comedy of Kyon’s hopes being rained on and don’t ask why Suzumiya would want picture of Kyon’s sleeping face.

The second tell is her behavior in the bedroom right after they arrive.  At the door with Keiichi we were just shown that much of her eccentricity is an act, and she continues it now with her wild murder speculations.  We even get these absurdly exaggerated shots as she poses and points, underlying the theatrical nature of her behavior.  But then Kyon internally grouses that he wishes she’d just be a normal high school girl and, after the seagull flies by with the hawk cry to underscore that maybe what she is saying is not what she is, she obediently, almost sadly, suggests they go swim like normal high schoolers.  She has it bad for this boy.  Not only this, we learn something else: her pride has a hard time taking suggestions from other people (topic of a future analysis).  Fourth wall breaking aside, she can’t just be what other people want but has to try and cover her about-face with flimsy, artificial reasoning.  And as a last bit of audience commentary: people liked the “normal kids during summer” scenes.  Haruhi is eerily good at knowing its viewers, and in undeniable self-indictment, we’re gladdened to not hear a peep out of Suzumiya’s uniqueness for the remainder of the episode.

Rolling into Island II what we get is a true reveal.  When the situation becomes serious Suzumiya’s eccentricity vanishes, and when we try to hold her to it she is forced to confess that it was just pretend.  She’s a 15(16?)-year-old girl who is both scared and horrified at the sight of a murder, but who yet shows incredible presence of mind to check the pulse and the gumption to act rather than just sit around in the bedroom worrying.  But, as always, our expectations interfere with the evidence, and even as her face tells us we are wrong we continue to nurse the theory that Suzumiya is the “master culprit.”  We misunderstand her just this badly because of her absurd outer shell.

As the episode continues we receive small hints of Suzumiya’s underlying affection such as her clasping of Kyon’s hand in the rain and her speechless relief that he is okay after the fall.  Which brings us to the shadow, the cave, and the explanation of all this.  At the end of the episode we’re reminded of this piece of the story we didn’t account for, and even as we’re fed some theory (“She just didn’t want her friends to be the killer”) it’s evident it doesn’t make sense; there was already a reasonable suspect and none of her friends would have the slightest motivation.  Then the wind blows, the sea sprays, and we recall: oh yeah, the storm.  You know, that piece of overwhelming evidence which could have only had one source.  Haruhi just got us to overlook a typhoon.  Oops.

This is where these two strands, the mystery and the romance, now come together.  Suzumiya did “cause” this, and she did so because she has a very particular dream and the show needs us to understand it.  She will sing about it later, and it will happen again: she wants the whole world to go away so she can stop acting and just be herself with Kyon.  Because let’s again examine the coincidences on the island: she happens to see a shadow, there happens to be a single ledge, it happens to break, they happen to not get hurt, they happen to be near a cave, that cave happens to be comfortably warm to allow for intimacy (with a very suggestively-shaped entrance), and this all occurs during a typhoon so that nobody will interrupt.  We take this for granted because these are just how stories are set up, and as Haruhi has again and again emphasized: it’s a piece of fiction too.  Suzumiya’s power isn’t a mysterious form of reality bending, it’s plot contrivance.  She “makes” things occur because this is a show written “for” her, the protagonist, in order that she may develop and be understood by the audience (hence why there is both consistency but acceptable-inconsistency in how it follows the tropes of each genre it mimics).  But she can’t “write” Kyon because he’s not part of the show.  He’s the audience; his thoughts and reactions are ours.  As such, unlike the other characters who are forced to regard her as the “goddess” of their universe, Suzumiya has to convince Kyon-us of her quality, and so far she, and Haruhi following suit in the most meta way possible by embodying her personality in how it presents itself, has done a terrible job of convincing him-us of anything other than the reality of her eccentric, childish persona.

So now sitting in this cave, Suzumiya has her chance because of the scenario “she” has engineered.  And… she hesitates.  We get very physical shots of Suzumiya… but they’re not quite fanservice.  What do they mean?  Well, let’s follow the conversation.  Kyon asks if maybe she was just seeing things.  At first she boldly says that’s impossible but then backs off in uncertainty, almost unfastening her bra and then stopping.  She is so close to literally and metaphorically exposing herself: “I wanted to be alone with you because I like you.”  I don’t mean that she made up the shadow, but that as we’ll see in the future Suzumiya is capable of grasping the implications of her own show; her “plot powers” have just given her the opportunity her heart dreamed of and she can feel how much she would want to invent that shadow for this chance.  It’s, by definition of fiction, too good to be true.  Yet… again, she quails.  She changes the subject, adjusts her bra so that it stays comfortably in place, and Kyon is none the wiser.  The remainder of the scene she continues to feel the pressure of the intimacy with the shots of her body, glimpses of her without disguise, but as soon as her mind returns to the mystery the camera zooms up from her exposed torso to her face and covered chest; she is fully clothed again and the moment is over.

Which now brings us to what I introduced at the top: Suzumiya is a “tsundere,” but she’s a tsundere for a very good reason.  What can she possibly do to convince Kyon of her feelings?  Confess?  He wouldn’t take it seriously.  We wouldn’t take it seriously.  She can’t even be sure which is worse: that he wouldn’t believe her at all, or he would believe her and treat her feelings as part of her act (which is precisely what we will do).  Her persona, the one she puts on for her own satisfaction (again, this will have to wait until another day), has trapped her and she can see no way out.  She’ll try to do what he wants, and play the part of normal high school girl to please him, but in the end there is so much more to her and unfortunately that is the part he just keeps rejecting.

p.s. on Nagato

The Yuki Saga continues in the background.  Sign ended emphasizing that maybe we should be thinking about her as a person (again, like another female character), and while she doesn’t have much screen time in Island II there are still a few pieces.

Most of her involvement comes in the scene with the locked door, where she stubbornly refuses to open it when Suzumiya comes back.  Again, the trope is that robogirl can’t understand because she doesn’t have emotions.  We know that’s not the case, though; Nagato, as she has said before, just has trouble parsing things in ways normal humans understand.  We get an immediate counter-demonstration when Kyon contravenes Suzumiya’s order and Nagato’s face is full of obvious awe.  The emotional terror that is Suzumiya is being reigned in by somebody else.  Then in a fun little fourth wall break, Kyon grouses that we can’t tell what Nagato is feeling because her face never changes and she gives us a withering stinkeye which refutes the statement.

Finally, I do like the last tie in that Nagato knew what was up all along.  Of course she did, she’s the one that just did the same thing last episode.  Yet once again, Haruhi manages to get our attention to slide away from Nagato, and not wonder why despite our opinion of her as semi-omniscient we never bothered to ask her about the mystery.

Favorite Details:

• “My gut tells me the culprit is the master of the manor, Keiichi-san.  His first victim will be Mikuru-chan.”  I realized while going back over this scene for my write up today that Suzumiya was correct: Keiichi was the perpetrator and Mikuru is the first victim due to her emotional distress.  
  
  
• “Is this a murder case?”   Maybe we should doubt what our questions are and pay attention to the much bigger mystery that is afoot. 
  
  
• I’m not familiar enough with detective games to notice all the references, but the one that I did recognize and laugh at was the butler at the door: that annoying NPC who mysteriously appears and blocks the path so you can’t examine something until a later point in the plot.  The identifiability of the tropes should make us suspicious. 
  
  
• Yeah, this whole thing should remind you of last episode. 
  
  
• “I know the secret behind this murder.”  Kyon isn’t listening.   In one of those audience commentaries Haruhi does so well, Kyon ignores her because he, like us, thinks he already has the answer.  If a goddess wants to kill somebody it really doesn’t matter how, so we’ll let her prattle on while we continue to try to fit what we see into that framework. 
  
  
• Suzumiya’s thought processes are all in full-film.  Kyon’s are in crayon.   Yet another small poke as to who is the more complex thinker, considering multiple angles and contingencies, while the other only barely has the ability to sketch a single idea.  Nonetheless, Suzumiya does recognize his point and quickly updates her thinking as a result.  
  
  
• Suzumiya says there’s no other way back up from the ledge they fell down to.  Koizumi somehow then finds their cave once the important conversation is over and they return easily.   What ever would we do without the patterns of fiction? 
  
  
• Little Sister says Koizumi was stabbed right after we "saw" him strangled.  Just a funny inconsistency to see if we notice. 
  
  
• On Little Sister.   I never had an opinion on Little Sister before this viewing, so my thoughts are tentative, but I wonder if the running gag with her is that children sometimes see things more clearly.  She’s the one properly asking Nagato how she feels, and later she is the one clapping at Suzumiya’s genuine display of intelligence while her big brother grouses (with an ahoge no less).  It would offer another interpretation of her presence in Boredom as well: she’s the only one that “got it” and had fun. 

• I only have speculations for what [that mole on the back of Kyon’s neck means.   The impression I’m given is that Koizumi notices this small back-of-the-mind growing thing on/in Kyon: he’s realizing maybe Suzumiya is a person and it was not only wrong but utterly insensitive to assume she’d kill out of boredom.  However, it seems like such a specific image that it seems like it could be a cultural or genre reference as well (Google tells me “From the perspective of Chinese mole reading, moles with hair are mostly live and auspicious and imply wealth and good luck.”; TIL mole reading is a thing). 

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