Unfunny Internet Meme Comcis #6-17
I had the greatest of issues coming up with a comic for today. Even once I decided to go for the obvious news about the apparent new episode of Haruhi I wasn’t entirely sure exactly what to do – I was veering towards having a Kadokawa exec acting all tsundere towards the shows fandom.
I went for this instead. At this point, I have to wonder if the production of actual, new Haruhi core material can do anything but disappoint fandom to the point of ruining the franchises commercial success as they come to the conclusion that the show wasn’t that great in the first place.
It strikes me that Haruhi fandom has been formed upon a pure surface of jackassery. Really, Kadokawa have been pretty abusive towards their fans, yet they seem pretty masochistic in so much as they keep coming back for more.
I mean, just look back across the series. The shows first episode, whilst it kind of looks like genius now, was a pretty bizarre way to kick things off. Then there was the jumbling of the episode ordering in the show, which at the time caused a fair amount of frustration amongst those who tuned in expecting the continuation of story only to find something completely different. Of course, just when everyone was getting used to the idea of the episode shuffling being a good idea, they do the home release with things shoved back into chronological order.
Even the home release was a bit of a fanboy headache in Japan – the limited edition release came with a first pressing bonus of a sheet of stickers, the exact sheet (and these were all numbered, just to make sure you knew you were missing out) was entirely random. Worse than this is that there was an entirely random chance of you getting another entirely random sheet of stickers. It was basically impossible to get a complete set of stickers, which is precisely the kind of thing which would drive collectors insane, particularly when they were paying extra to get the limited edition.
Even Haruhi-chan hasn’t been completely devoid of asshatery – remember how the first episode was proceeded by a Nice Boat video? Then there’s been the constant baiting and confusing statements regarding the second season of the show, and the whole “no comment” approach to whether this present re-airing is going to include new content or not.
That’s just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head – all of which makes me wonder how anyone can really give a damn about it anymore. Clearly the number of blog posts about the apparent new content I woke up to this morning shows that a lot of people are still excited about it, though. Obviously they just like being abused. No wonder tsundere characters are so popular in fandom…
2009-05-18
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Is it rly that strange? The anime was great, as you said it it was strange at first, but it just looks like genius right now. I think it’s obvious that people want more of that. That and probably just S&M from the fans. Kadokawa is really doing a genius job with the promotion of the 2nd season, the only think that really should be asked is: Will it be as good as the original? Will it surpass it? It will sell, and most of all it’s is the most famous anime show from recent years; even if people just heard about the ‘poor fans waiting for sequel’ news.
Great job Kadokawa! Now just give me more Haruhi-Chan and maybe a 2nd season, and I’ll love you 4ever.
2009-05-18
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Kadokawa’s been a huge dick of a company as far as short term memory serves. Haruhi is like the cute girlfriend with great personality and down-to-earth values, and Kadokawa is her obnoxious drunken jerk of a brother; you put up with the ass because the girl is so good to you. Whatever animated form the Haruhi franchise materializes itself in is unconditionally great, well deserving the love of its fans, while Kadokawa is significantly less great.
2009-05-19
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What in the fucking name of god is the deal with that guy’s hands in the last frame. I can’t really wrap my brain around it no matter how I try.
2009-05-19
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That’s the joke, isn’t it? The evil chariman Kadokawa is actually a squid from outer space.
2009-05-19
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The problem they had, and fandom has had, was that the first book was the best of the series. And the six episodes based on it were the best part of the anime.
On broadcast, if they had played them in chronological order they’d have had a series taht started really strong, and then went waaaaay downhill. They knew it, and that’s why they mixed them up. They used those six episodes as the foundation of thes eries, and stuffed all the others in as filler.
2009-05-19
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“the only think that really should be asked is: Will it be as good as the original? Will it surpass it? ”
The problem is that with expectations of what which have been thought and thought and thought over by die-hard fans, there’s bound to be at least some disappointment involved.
That being said, it would be great if they was new material, but it would also be great if there wasn’t, just to see the reaction from the fans that care so much.
2009-05-19
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LoL, I like the analogy.
I think I prefer Authors reasoning to mine here, which is just that my artwork is really janky ^^;
I do appreciate that, though I do think splitting up Lone Island Syndrome as well was a bit of a needless move, as was rearranging them again for DVD (which they were then incredibly reluctant about Bandai rearranging into broadcast order for the US release).