Finished the episode last night. Pros and cons:
Cons:
- after drawing out so many lesser scenes from the film, I was disappointed by the fact that this was the final Sighs episode. I had wanted to see the making of these four classic moments from the film:
(1) Kyon's sister joins the team as they film at Tsuruya's
(2) the SOS Brigade sets off fireworks on top of the school roof, and it draws the attention of the teachers
(3) the final showdown between Yuki and Mikuru + Itsuki, wherein Shamisen begins to talk on camera. (I had
so wanted to see Haruhi's reaction to this!
)
(4) the conversation between Itsuki and Yuki at Tsuruya's home which superficially looks like a conversation pertaining to the film but in actuality is a discussion about
Kyon (hence Itsuki's stumbling over "he-- whoops, in this scene, it would be
me" and what not).
Oh well.
Pros:
(1) Excellent,
excellent comeback (against Mikuru's faction) on Itsuki's part when he talked with Kyon at night time on the bridge. What he said about Mikuru is
1-0-0% in line with my own theory about her and the time travelers. I am so, so excited and happy to see that this theory has been unveiled before Kyon's eyes so early in the storyline. It means I get plenty of time (hopefully!) to see Kyon chew it over.
(2) I love how the pure form of both Itsuki's and Mikuru's theories is disproven.
Evidence which supports Itsuki's theory: after Kyon forces Haruhi to admit that the film is a work of fiction, and after filming wraps up, we see that things return to normal. No more talking cat. No more Mikuru beam. No more pigeons changing colors. If Mikuru's theory was correct -- and these phenomena were all already part of the natural order and Haruhi's role was simply that of a supermagnet which attracted them towards her -- then we would expect Shami to still talk, Mikuru to still fire laserbeams and staple-daggers out of her eyes, etc. Her faction might argue that all of these things
are still present and merely are in stasis right now, but that seems to be poor reasoning -- or rather, desperate reasoning, a desperate effort to maintain that one's theory is the correct one. It would certainly seem that Itsuki's theory is correct -- Haruhi changes the world subconsciously, and things revert to normal when her subconscious accepts the norm which Kyon and the others are pushing for.
Evidence which supports Mikuru's theory: inescapably, this film dealt with the fact that Yuki was an alien magician, Mikuru was a time traveling combat waitress, and Itsuki was an esper with latent powers. By and large, these roles accurately fit the real people.
If Itsuki's theory is true, then we would expect not only for Shamisen to quit talking and for the Mikuru beams to vanish: but we would also expect the trio to transform into three normal high school students! The fact that Yuki is still an alien after the film wraps up, the fact that Mikuru is still a time traveler, the fact that Itsuki is still an esper -- these things fly in the face of Itsuki's theory. This is made especially prominent with the final scene of the episode, in which Haruhi angrily rejects the supposition that the three are who they really are. Again, there is an excuse which we can voice. Itsuki's faction could easily say, "Well, the reason we're all still here is because subconsciously she
does believe that we could be who we are, and it was only her rational conscious mind which rejected our existence," but again, this to me seems like a major copout. The fact that the three still have their powers despite Haruhi acknowledging that they only fulfilled those roles for a student film lends itself to Asahina's theory that the world was always like this and that Haruhi doesn't have the power to alter that: she only has the power to draw the paranormal towards her.
Personally, I've always been a big proponent of Itsuki's theory, and I still am. I found Asahina's theory to have too many contradictions with other episodes in the series. Also, I don't trust Mikuru's faction worth a damn. Of all three factions, hers is the most secretive, hers has the most to lose if Kyon should undertake actions which would alter history as they know it, and hers -- by virtue of being from the future -- has the knowledge of how things should play out. I don't know if the same is true for the Data Thought Entity, but certainly the espers do not have insight into the future. They do psychic and telekinetic actions but that's it: reading minds, levitating, that sort of thing. They can't tell the future. Mikuru's faction can: because they're already from it. They already know how everything will play out. So they already know what it is that they need to do to achieve exactly what they want.
I dunno. Itsuki's explanation was spot on the money as far as I'm concerned. We all saw in Season 1, and all three faction members have told Kyon this, that Kyon is the most important member of the brigade because he alone can influence Suzumiya Haruhi. So it makes perfect sense that if you wanted to control Haruhi, you would want to control Kyon. And what better way to accomplish this than to deliver to him his dream girl on a silver platter?
Really, really excited for Season 3. We won't be seeing any new episodes for at least two more weeks ('cause of the Season 1 culture fest episodes), maybe longer, but here's hoping that Season 3 either begins airing uncharacteristically at the tail end of the Fall 2009 anime season or else it begins airing alongside the other Winter 2010 ones.
