With the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie only about two months away, you'd think we'd have a more substantial trailer by now. Unfortunately for the time being, we'll have to deal with these character sketches. It's still pretty cool though, especially since we can now finally get our long-haired Haruhi. Not only that, but Asakura makes her triumphant return as well. You can check out movie sketches for all the main characters (including a seasonally appropriate Mikuru in a Santa outfit) here:

http://www.cartoonleap.com/2009/12/01/disappearance-of-suzumiya-haruhi-character-sketches

Up & coming famous anime director Mamoru Hosoda revealed at Singapore's Anime Festival Asia convention this weekend that he was offered to direct the upcoming Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Movie. His response was that he'd like to do it, he never fully accepted it & the offer never came to past. He has actually already started work on his next film so it would've been tough to fit Haruhi in there as well. Likewise he wouldn't have been able to partner up with his longtime character design & scriptwriter colleagues on the project, as Kyoto Animation already has those positioned filled in order to keep it in the style of the anime seasons.

Hosoda of course has become famous for his award-winning film the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, & is also fondly remembered for directing the first two Digimon Adventure movies, his earliest professional works as a director. His newest animated feature, Summer Wars just came out this past August. It sure would've been interesting having him direct the Haruhi film, though. The director for the second season of Haruhi was not the same as the director from the first season, & it's unknown if the season 2 director will be doing the movie at this time.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-22/tokikake-hosoda-had-offer-to-direct-haruhi-film

The official Haruhi website has revealed some interesting information about the upcoming Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Movie. First off it confirmed an earlier report that said the film will be debuting in Japanese theaters on February 6, 2010. It was originally slated to come out sometime in the Spring, but actually getting an earlier than expected date after having to wait three years for season 2 is a change no one will be complaining about.

Secondly, it was also revealed that the movie will be a whopping 150 minutes long. That's two & a half hours, practically unheard of for an anime movie, or any animated movie in general. Devoting such an extended period of time to the film truly shows that Kadokawa is trying to make it up to the fans for wasting 8 episodes in the second season by having the movie be about 8 episodes long in length. This should prove to be majorly awesome, & I can't wait till we get the chance to see it as well.

Source: http://www.cartoonleap.com/2009/11/09/suzumiya-haruhi%C2%B4s-will-dissapear-for-150-minutes

Despite the horror that was Haruhi season two's Endless Eight, the DVDs continue to sell like hotcakes. Kadokawa recently released the second Endless Eight DVD (third Haruhi Season 2 DVD overall), & just like the first one, it's been selling very well. Proving that the followers of Haruhi-ism will buy anything that features their goddess. In its first week, it sold well over 12,000 copies, placing it as the third highest DVD of the week.

While we're talking about the DVDs, it should be pointing out that the DVDs for Bakemonogatari have been doing surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly) well. The second DVD took the top spot once again, selling over 18,000 copies in its first week on sale. Not only that, but the Blu-ray version sold so many copies that it's now the highest selling anime Blu-ray of all time, even surpassing K-On. Here are the top 10 DVDs in Japan for last week:

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Ever wondered what an anime loli would look like in real life? Well here ya go! Similar to what we saw if Haruhi Suzumiya were made real, the results are more frightening than hot. & considering this cosplayer is most likely dressed up as Kyon's Little Sister, the comparison is quite apropos.

So what say you, lolicon? Is it still hittable? Would you still fap to that?

Source: http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25200/Anime+Girls.html

Hahiru Suzumiya is back yet again! Three years ago after the original airing of "the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," turning-anime-into-liveaction-porn masters TMA milked off its success by creating the AV (adult video) title known as "the Melancholy of Hahiru Suzumiya." The same porn actress then returned a few years later to make a different title known as Hiharu Suzumiya. But now three years after the first, with the second season of Haruhi over & done with, TMA is bringing Hahiru back!

This new version is based off of the first season 2 episode Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. The trailer for the upcoming AV, seen above (don't worry it's completely safe), is actually a shot-by-shot remake of Kadokawa's official commercial for the episode's DVD release, which you can check out at the bottom of this post. It does seem to follow the anime episode pretty closely, though of course there'll be lots of added sex thrown in as well. So I guess that means there'll be a sex scene between "Kyon" & a 12 year-old Hahiru? Of course the actress wont be actually be 12 or anything, & I doubt they'll ever actually mention the ages of the characters in the movie (all characters are 18+!), but of course the implications will tell a different story. Anyway, here's the original commercial:

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The final episode of the renewed airing of Haruhi Suzumiya aired yesterday in Japan, after an unusually long 28-episode season (with the final four episodes of this chronological airing being reruns from season 1). But at the very end of the episode, a special preview was shown (seen above) announcing that a movie based on the next story in the series, "the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya," will be coming to Japanese theaters in Spring 2010. That's right, a Haruhi movie!

Kadokawa & Kyoto Animation have been dropping hints that they'd be animating "Disappearance" for nearly two years now. But when season two came & went without the major story getting animated, mostly because "Endless Eight" took up eight episodes, many fans felt like they had been cheated out of it & lied to. But now it seems like they were planning to make this movie all along. The downside to this, of course, is that we foreign fans have no way of seeing the movie when it debuts in Japan. Raws & fansubs of the film wont appear online until the DVD gets released, which likely wont be until near the end of 2010. Basically it should come out around the same time the "Disappearance of Haruhi" English novel gets released in the US, so it'll be interesting which will beat the other in coming out first.

Personally I'm not too fond of the teaser trailer. The angelic picture & music just don't feel like Haruhi. I also really don't like how Nagato is depicted here, but that may be because I don't like how she looks with glasses.

The latest episode of Haruhi Suzumiya was quite surprising & intense. The drama culminated with Kyon physically attempting to PUNCH Haruhi. Now I had a problem with this scene for three different reasons.

The first has to do with character portrayal in this second season of the anime. Since when is it in Kyon's personality to do something like that? something so extreme & so wrong? Adding to that, why has Haruhi turned from a tsundere personality in season 1, to a major bitch in season 2? She was really going too far with her treatment of others, especially Mikuru. Viewing the episode as a whole & seeing the big picture, their fight was necessary to show that Haruhi can truly be affected by Kyon's behavior. She may act like she doesn't care about anyone but herself, but Kyon's anger towards her really got to her (& the small ponytail bit at the end speaks volumes too). But with all that in mind, it still felt too out of character to me on both ends. The original novel version of "the Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" comes out in the US next month. I'll be eagerly waiting to read the book to find out if both Haruhi & Kyon acted that way in the original story, or if the anime exaggerated it.

Secondly, I shouldn't have to tell you how wrong it is for a guy to hit a girl. Just what the hell was Kyon thinking there? It wasn't like he was going slap her or anything (which while still wrong, is much more acceptable in the world of anime). He wanted to full out DECK her! Punch her, seemingly in the face. That's just messed up, regardless of how horrible she was being. I mean, even rapists think its wrong to hit a girl. Granted in his first attempt he just snapped, & was as shocked as anyone to see his hand in a fist. But when Haruhi continue to insult him after that, he kept trying to hit her! He felt horrible about it the next day, & blamed it on calcium deficiency, but still.

Lastly, I was surprised to see how many people online were saying things like "Man, I wish Kyon would've hit her" or "I'd loved it if Kyon had actually punched her." For god's sakes, people. It's one thing to have an animated character attempting to punch a girl. But for so many real life people to actually believe he was in the right well, I find that disturbing. No matter how you look at it, that just isn't right.

(EDIT: A lot of people have brought up subjects like self-defense & double-standards. That's a different- & more complex- issue, but the fact remains that Haruhi wasn't physically attacking Kyon at all. At the very least we should all be able to agree that him throwing a punch without her throwing one first is wrong. Not to mention that a girl of average stature (like Haruhi) could NOT handle a man's punch the same way another man could. That's just a fact of nature. Realistically speaking, who knows how badly Haruhi would've been hurt by a blow like that.)

I have tons more thoughts & rantings about Haruhi season 2, & surprisingly very little of it has to do with Endless Eight. But I'm saving that write-up for after the season comes to an end. & with only one more season 2 episode left, you wont have to wait very long.

Right after we learn that Nagaru Tanigawa has been procrastinating on the next Haruhi Suzumiya novel by creating a manga instead, Sneaker magazine announced that he has finally started work on it. "The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya," the tenth book in the Haruhi series that the anime & manga are based off of, was originally supposed to be released over two year ago back in 2007.

No word on when we can actually expect to see the book get released in Japan, but we already know that it wont be coming out for at least another year. We also have to question if Tanigawa still has the self will to write the series, & that he's not merely being forced by his publishers. Did he have writers-block this whole time? & if so, is he ready to write some quality work again, or might he be phoning it in? Guess we'll have to wait for the English version to come to know for sure... in 2013.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/08/31/nagaru-tanigawa-has-started-new-haruhi-novel

Here's at least one reason why we haven't gotten a new Haruhi Suzumiya novel in over two years. The author & original creator of Haruhi, Nagaru Tanigawa, has been busy making his own original manga. Tanigawa has been writing the story for "Kagerou Meikyu" (Mayfly Labyrinth, or supposedly Amnesia Labyrinth) in Dengeki Bunko Magazine for sometime now. & just this month, the first collected volume of the series hit Japanese stores.

The story is said to be a mystery, though supposedly dark events are beginning to unfold to make it feel more like a horror story at times. The story also contains fan-service & frontal female nudity, though Tanigawa only writes the story & doesn't draw it. Still though, we have to question if this may have something to do with the Haruhi novels being on hold for so long. Here's a brief synopsis for "Kagerou Meikyu":

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It's been over three years between the first season of Haruhi Suzumiya & the currently airing second season. With that much time gone by, it might be expected for the art & animation style of Kyoto Animation would change a little bit. This is especially true when you consider they were working on Lucky Star & K-On in between the seasons, two series that have a very different & simplified art-style than the first season of Haruhi. In fact I even expressed my concerns before the new episodes began that I was worried about the new episodes not looking as good (or at least different) as the old ones.

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, the first new episode, aired without much looking different in style. Endless Eight was a different story, with nearly each of the eight episodes looking unique with different styles being used. But considering we were looking for as many differences as we could get, I pretty much let that slide. But with the first episode of "the Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" finally airing last week, you could really see the changes in the anime's art style. The facial expressions, especially those of Haruhi, looked totally different from the expressions we were used to in season one. If anything, they looked like they belonged in K-On. Take a look at the picture of Mikuru above & tell me that doesn't look like Yui's face. But that's not all. Take a look at some of the other expressions in this episode:

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Over the weekend, anime magazine Newtype promised some major Haruhi news would be revealed exclusively in their next issue, which came out today in Japan. Now this isn't the first time that Newtype has promised some amazing Haruhi news would be revealed in their pages. Ever since the second season was first announced, Newtype has periodically teased us with news to come, only to ultimately troll us by giving mostly irrelevant news.

Newtype previously promised us exciting news last summer, only to have it ultimately be an anime image of Haruhi with her "Disappearance" look (should I also point out how "Disappearance" wont even be animated this season, despite all the buildup for it?). Then at the beginning of this year, Newtype again promised big news. But that just turned out to be an announcement of a rebroadcast of the first season. Granted, that ultimately turned out to be yet another trick with season 2 episodes secretly mixed in with the old ones, but the point still stands. Add to that all the Endless Eight nonsense, & it seems Kadokawa & Haruhi really do love trolling us fans, & they like using Newtype as a mouthpiece to do it.

But, can we actually expect something more substantial with this piece of news? Perhaps an announcement of a third season? Maybe a Haruhi movie? Well be prepared to lower those expectations, kiddies. Newtype had a total of four Haruhi announcements, & none of them are really all that important:

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