So now I've watched two episodes of
Endless Eight, and I have a much clearer idea of what they're doing, or at least what I get from what they're doing.
For starters, calling the episodes "almost identical" is almost a complete lie. The two I've watched so far have been totally different. The same events occur, but cut-for-cut, they might as well be different scenarios. Scenes are framed and paced differently. Very little footage, if any, seems to be reused, and the dialogue changes quite a bit. It's almost like they gave the same scenario to different directors as some sort of advanced training.
More than that, they feel different. The first one was light and fun. The second was ominous. These are different works, they produce a different effect in the viewer, and I enjoyed them each about as much as other
Haruhi episodes. (Note that I am still not a great fan of
Haruhi, so that's not saying a huge amount, but I had fun watching.)
I think maybe Kyoto Animation is making a point -- that
Haruhi was never about plot, and that, in the end, most things aren't. Haven't you noticed that, when you summarize the plot of a work, it usually sounds stupid and you're forced to handwave, saying "it's better than it sounds" or "it makes sense in context"? That's what the SOS-dan is calling to our attention: That if you excise the plot from a work, you're still left with almost the entire thing, and it generally will stand by itself.
Note that they couldn't have done this by producing a Surrealist or Dadaist piece of anti-narrative, because people will tend to read in narrative terms even when the work itself discourages it. For example, I still don't know what happened in
Eraserhead, but I have a sense that events happened in sequence for certain reasons, and that's enough for me.
Haruhi had to go a step farther, and thus they conceived the idea of a simple plot, already known, that the audience would tend to filter out of their own accord.
It's genius, really. And I've only watched two episodes, and my thoughts may change completely tomorrow. But for now, I'm still impressed.
words from chris, 2009-08-09 00:32:09, los angeles
