Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu ep.1

April 5, 2006 | 19 Comments

A Haruhi Suzumiya Film: 「朝比奈ミクルの冒険」- Asahina Mikuru no Bouken - special culture festival preview!! (12.2MB, for PSP/Quicktime)

I can't believe I almost miss this one simply because judging from the title, I thought that this is actually one of those harem series. Thankfully a friend showed it to me on his computer and I couldn't stop rolling my eyes from the start to finish. This is certainly an amusing episode with a rather unusual twist to it. Even the opening is unusual. And by that I mean it's unusually bad in the off-key singing kind of way. I don't think that the song is actually the real opening for the series since I noticed that a song titled Bouken Desho, Desho? is listed in CDJapan as the opening theme for this series. Anyway, if this series keeps it up, this could probably one of the better offering this season, which unfortunately has been rather dry so far.

The episode opens with a title stating that this is a Haruhi Suzumiya film. The film, which is titled The adventures of Asahina Mikuru begins with an off-key song sung by a girl. A boy then narrates the story by saying that Mikuru is actually a combat waitress from the future. Having said that, the narrator claims that the reason why she is a waitress from the future is irrelevant. It's just something that is a part of the story. According to the narrator, the reason Mikuru wears a bunny costume is because her day job is to attract customer to buy cabbage. While this happen, the film zooms in on a bunch of unprofessional actor trying to read their lines from a piece of paper that is off camera. According to the narrator, Mikuru has been responsible for keeping the shopping district alive from the threat of a nearby Wal-Mart. Cue in a shot of Mikuru running at least 4 times over the same shopping mall alley.

The narrator then realises that the story of Mikuru saving the shopping mall actually has little relevance to the overall plot so he moves forward by introducing another character, Koizumi Itsuki, an ESP-er who has yet to realise his potential. Apparently something big needs to happen for him to gain this power. Because of this, Mikuru is around to protect the boy but her other reason is because she has a crush on him as well. After another painful conversation with an extra in the film, Mikuru goes up to her apartment so she can provide the audience with a little bit of strip and tease. Except that this one is more of a tease than a strip because the film suddenly missing a scene when Mikuru is taking her bunny suit off. The narrator claims that no further filming happpened during Mikuru's changing scene. Once Mikuru is asleep, the narrator introduces another character, an evil magician from outer space called Nagato Yuki.

The scene then abruptly changes again to a battle between Mikuru and Yuki. Mikuru now wears her magic girl outfit and fights Yuki with fake gun and Mikuru Beam. However, thanks to poor animation budget, the beam attack fails to hurt Yuki. All of a sudden Yuki starts to attack Mikuru even though the narrator claims that the scene is not included within the script. As a result, a bunch of people rushing in to the scene to seperate the two. If this does not tell the viewers of the quality of the film, the next scene shows Mikuru and Yuki doing some advertising for an electronic store. After another changing scene, Mikuru goes off to work. At the same time, Itsuki is seen walking with "vacant eyes" according to the good narrator when all of a sudden he's confronted by the evil alien witch, Yuki. Evil alien witch tells Itsuki that she's after her power and is going to take any necessary measure to secure it, including sending a badly animated magic power.

Thankfully for Itsuki, Mikuru happens to be around to push him aside. After threatening to kill Mikuru the next time they meet, Yuki leaves Itsuki alone. This, of course, confuses Itsuki, who according to the narrator shows "a forced look on his face". The film then shows another battle between Mikuru and Yuki, complete with sentai pose from Mikuru and crew members that can be easily seen on the background. Yuki sends his zombified army of classmates to attack Mikuru and throws her into the pool. This means more bad acting and unintentional friend to friend conversation during the film. Anyway, the zombies manage to throw Mikuru into the pool so it's up to Itsuki to save Mikuru from drowning. After being saved by Itsuki, Mikuru forgets her line so someone off screen tells her that right now she's supposed to be fainting now. Because of this Mikuru suddenly faints so Itsuki takes her back to his home much to the jealousy of our good narrator.

The narrator becomes even more enraged when he sees Mikuru being taken to bed by Itsuki to the point that he suddenly has a murderous rage. He, however, tries to calm himself by saying that this is just a film but he immediately forgets about the point when he sees Itsuki trying to kiss Mikuru while she's asleep. The good narrator even threatens to show up on the scene if Itsuki doesn't stop right away. Thankfully before the scene is *completely* ruined, Yuki comes to distract Itsuki. She has come to offer him two choices: join her to shape the future of the world or do the same thing with Mikuru. After some hard to understand conversation about making choice, Itsuki asks Yuki to give him more time to decide. Cue in more shots of Mikuru and Yuki advertising some random shot with Mikuru having to read off a note in order to remember her lines. Back to the actual story, Mikuru and Itsuki are now living together with Itsuki's little sister.

In order to attract Itsuki to her side, Yuki decides to transfer to Itsuki's school and uses her sex appeal. Not wanting to be outdone, Mikuru decides to do the same. Eventually the battle between Mikuru and Yuki reaches its conclusion when the two battle it out on school's rooftop. Just as Yuki is about to defeat Mikuru, Itsuki appears to protect her. All of a sudden, however, the cat on Yuki's shoulder starts to talk until Yuki tap its head with her wand. Eventually Yuki is defeated by Itsuki when Itsuki's hidden power is awakened. The film then ends with a shot of Itsuki and Mikuru about to kiss one another. As it turns out, the film was made by a bunch of high school students who call themselves the SOS group. The group leader and Super Director, Suzumiya Haruhi, thinks that their film is going to win award. On the other hand, the narrator of the film, Kyon, thinks that it's probably better for them to forget about culture festival and just go to sleep somewhere.

Impression:

I really feel sorry for Mikuru in the film. It seems she's unbelievably ashamed at having to wear the bunny suit. In general, however, the student film within this episode is a hoot. Bad special effects, upward panning, shots that are not framed properly, and a narrator who criticises the film as he tells the story. And then there are bad acting, forgotten lines, bad line reading, prop people being seen on screen. In the end, the film essentially becomes one giant mess. A lot of props must go to Sugita Tomokazu, who uses his Hideki (of Chobits) voice acting here. I think it gives his character a youthful inflection that is really needed for Kyon's characterisation. I wish he had done the same thing for his role as Gintoki in Gintama but unfortunately that was not the case. In general, the series feel more like Genshiken in the sense that it tells weird stories involving a group of students inside a specific club.

Ending Theme: 「ハル晴レユカイ」- Haru Hare Yukai performed by S.O.S (10.7MB, for PSP/Quicktime)

I really love the ending theme. I think just by watching this, one can get a quick glimpse into the various personality of SOS members which include Kyon, Mikuru, Itsuki, Yuki, and Haruhi herself. I am particularly amused at the shot where Kyon seems to be wearing a deer head on top of his own head. Plus the dancing sequence of the 5 SOS members were some of the best that I've seen in a while.

© memento 2003