Haruhi Season 2: Episode 1 - Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
So an episode of Haruhi aired in late May 2009 and it would appear to be a teaser of sorts to bring the new season of Haruhi. It is definitely not a filler episode nor was it the strange pilot episode of the first season featuring the movie the SOS Brigade made.
From the opening scene, it was apparent that this episode was going to cover the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody short story from the light novels as Haruhi is excited about celebrating Tanabata. It’s a good “return” episode for Haruhi as this story ties in with both the Melancholy series as well as the future story arcs. Not to mention, “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody” is also the title of the episode.
In terms of the timeline of the light novels, this particular event is part of the collection of stories in the “Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi”, and this event happens after they’ve made their movie, but before Mysterique Sign and Lone Island Syndrome. As the episode opens out, it follows the novel very strictly. It’s always a good idea to follow the author’s original direction.
As far as the episode itself goes, Haruhi is excited about Tanabata and wants the brigade crew to write down wishes for the gods to fulfill. The activity reveals a little more about the personality of each character based on what they write down on the cards. After this activity, Mikuru slips Kyon a note to stay in the room after the meeting, which he’s obviously ecstatic about. Yuki also slips him a note on her way out, without any explanation.
Mikuru requests for Kyon to go with her to 3 years back to the past. She knocks him out to prevent him from seeing how time travel worked. How convenient… Kyon wakes up in the past and meets up with the older Mikuru that he met before. She instructs him to go meet up with someone down the road at a school and help that person. That person being young Haruhi, of course.
Going back to the first season of Haruhi, it was mentioned that Haruhi was responsible for the infamous school grounds symbol drawing incident. Now we find out that Kyon is actually the one who drew the symbol while Haruhi directed him. This isn’t the only thing. His meeting with Haruhi sparks Haruhi’s interest in attending North High, I guess to meet up with more people like Kyon. Haruhi’s reaction to his obvious alias was great, by the way.
The episode concludes with the misfortune of Mikuru missing her time traveling technology, stranding them there for at least the next three years. Kyon then remembers the note Yuki gave him earlier. The two travel to Yuki’s apartment, where she syncs with her future self. Yuki offers Kyon and Mikuru a solution, asking them to sleep in the adjacent room. The light goes off, then back on as if Yuki forgot something. She didn’t though. They are already, ahem, back to the future. Pun intended.
Again, not a bad episode. This event is a very integral part of the series as the novels touch back to this single event on a number of occasions, so it had to air eventually. Also worked out really well for it to not have been in the first season. This is a perfect episode to act as a springboard to the rest of the Haruhi universe.
In terms of rumors of the upcoming season, many are saying that it’s just going to be a remake of sorts for the series, which confuses me. The first season was pretty solid in my opinion. My enthusiasm will go down the drain as quickly as it did when I found out FMA2 was a “redo”. Lost all interest. But I’m an invested fan of the Haruhi series, so I’ll see what they will do this time around. I’m still praying for the “Disappearance” story arc. If not, I’ll still settle for the movie making arc. Though both are too short to fill up an entire season on their own accord. I didn’t get anything from the ending credits as to what the upcoming season might hold, but the chalkboard image sure looks like a schedule. A movie-filming schedule perhaps? Who knows.