“Now, during these longer sections of dialogue, there isn‚Äôt much to note about the visuals. Kyoto Animation, for all their attention to detail and trickiness, doesn‚Äôt throw us any curve ball symbolism during ‚Äúdown to earth" scenes like these.”

Which sections are you referring to? All of the preceding? I don’t have the episode on hand, but I distinctly remember the (virtual) camera-work in this episode. The perspectives are interesting.

For instance, if I remember this correctly, during the conversation about Haruhi with Tanaguchi there is a wide shot of the boys talking. This is weird, because you would normally use a tight shot there, unless it was an Eva money-saving tactic. However that’s not the case here, because there’s a lot of motion and detail in the rest of the shot. In fact, other students in the classroom walk *in front* of the boys who are talking, which is an odd thing to do. A lot of the angles they shoot (in this episode and later ones) are very awkward, often overhead. The camera is present here, where normally it is not. Normally you do not want the camera to be noticeable, because you want viewers focused on what is happening. Here the literal focus is not even always on what’s happening.

I’d had various theories about this for a while, including the idea that it was trying to stress an omniscient perspective (overhead implying god-like), but in the end I think it is just trying to stress the same parallel construction presented in Episode 01 (00). One major theme of the story is Fantasy as Reality. In the first episode we see the characters act out their own story, but the illusion normally created is destroyed by the SOS-dan’s terrible production which reflects the fact that the illusion isn’t even necessary: the story is real. So when I see these awkward shots in the rest of the show, that knock on the door of the illusion, I think the creators are trying to do the same thing every Fantasy as Reality story wants: stress the idea that your fantasy may be reality.

The conclusions you’ve drawn so far about Kyon are intriguing, considering I never really found him that interesting in the sense that Kyon, in some ways, is the voice of every teenager. We ‘abandon’ our childhood ideals, and spend the rest of our lives ‘looking back’ at them with a fondness for the innocence we had then. The difference is that Kyon’s childhood beliefs, thanks to Haruhi’s crazy God-ness, are shown to be more solid than he realized, making them something that cannot simply be discarded upon adolescent cynicism. In effect, Kyon is shown that the beliefs of childhood are essential.

Haruhi, though you dislike her character, I find more interesting in the fact that she really doesn’t believe in all of the things she says she’s interested in — thus her melancholy. The only way Haruhi will ever be able to lose her melancholy is if she finds the beauty and fantastical in this grounded reality, or else she’ll just keep recreating the world in the same way that a child smashed a newly molded clay doll so that they can make a puppy instead. This would make Haruhi Kyon’s mirror, in the sense that she needs to give up her childish beliefs for the solidity of normalcy (Kyon).

Anyways, I’ll refrain from saying any more (I got a little into it). ^.^;; I’m sorry if I’ve stepped on your toes.

Very enjoyable read; I look forward to your next post on this.

It’s like, Haruhi’s at best a dumb bitch/fuckbuddy, whereas Faulkner is the greatest Southern Gothic writer of all time. Their intelligences are simply incomparable.

:V

A number of reasons actually. First, there’s not much to focus on in episode two. There just isn’t. I could detail her “character”as it were by listing everything Kyon listed, but this isn’t a play-by-play. In terms of what we know of her so far, there’s very little to analyze. Then, yes, I really dislike her, and any analysis of her character would head down a windy road. Finally, Kyon is simply more interesting to the audience in terms of what we’re told; he’s a fairly fleshed-out character and we see inside his mind.