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I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Its been a while since I watched the original series, but the designs for Kyon and Koizumi feel off here. Asakura and Tsuruya look great though.

As someone who has never read the manga, I can't speak for how good or bad this will be. Having the original cast back helps, but what I loved about the original was both Kyon's and Yuki Nagato's attitudes. The new timeline probably nixes both of their personalities.

On the bright side, I"m fairly sure this series won't have an Endless Eight arc. So that's one thing it has going for it.

 

I'm feeling pretty meh. The original show was entertaining to watch once, but it had no replay value once you knew the story and realized it didn't have anything going for it besides its messed up episode order. Everything that came after lacked any kind of weight or punch for me, it was at best droll.

 

I got into the show long after it ended, so I watched it in chronological order. The only painful part was sitting through Endless Eight.

Kyon and Nagato are the two that kept me watching though. The movie was particularly great.

 

I'm wary of it being produced by Satelight instead of Kyoto.

Kinda wish it was Haruhi S3 instead.

 

Episode 1 was alright.

Likes:
*Kyon still having his sarcasm and wit.
*Asakura. She's probably my favorite character right now. She's fun, and I like her friendship with Nagato
* Tsuruya, and her competitiveness between Asakura. Silly, but fun.
*Some of the humor was on point.
*The callbacks to the Haruhi series.


Dislikes:
*Not having Kyon's narration will take a long time to get used to.
*Nagato herself. She's rather boring. The only thing she has going for her right now is her relationships with the other characters.
*Asahina. Now that there is no time travel aspect to her character, I wonder how they are going to make this character relevant.
*Some of the humor was forced. Particularly Asakura lifting Nagato's shirt at the dinner table in front of Kyon.
*The animation style.


I think I would have enjoyed this episode a lot more if it was dubbed and had Crispin Freeman back as Kyon. I never watched the subbed Haruhi, so to me Crispin Freeman is Kyon. He was a huge factor in my enjoyment of the original Haruhi series along with Johnny Yong Bosch as Koizumi.

I wonder how Haruhi and Koizumi will fit in to this show, and how well they resemble their Haruhi counterparts. They should spice things up.

 

Episode 2 is out.

I don't really care about Nagato and Kyon at the moment, I'm sad to say. The shy girl crushing on the guy does nothing for me. Nagato just doesn't have enough presence to carry a show.

Haruhi is back and just as crazy as ever. I"m glad, she really livens up the show. Her setting a trap for Santa was hilarious. Looking forward to her having a bigger presence soon.

Aside from the Haruhi scene, Asakura was once again the highlight of the episode. I kind of wish she was the main character.

 

Am I the only one watching this?

Episode 3 was really good. Haruhi has joined the club and its a good thing she did. Thanks to her we get more of the old Kyon than we've gotten in previous episodes. Their interactions with eac hother remind me of old times.

I'm not sure how I feel about Koizumi at the moment. Right now he's just a guy with a crush on Haruhi. Also, I'm used to his dub voice - that condescending douchiness in his voice really added to his character.

The main problem with this show is Nagato Yuki. Her shyness and overall attitude is just annoying. Maybe when I first got into anime I would have found it endearing, but not now. As it is, she is being upstaged in her own show by every other character.

 

I was. The show's pretty trash that is supporting itself primarily on nostalgia I think. The character designs are bland and boring, the characters themselves are uninteresting, the script is weaksauce, and the nominal story (Nagato and Kyon's relationship) has taken a back-seat to Haruhi and her antics. How fucking sad is it that Nagato is getting side-lined in her own show - unless that's actually the point, and wouldn't that be meta as fuck?

Literally the only things I enjoyed were the Asakura knife joke and whenever Tsuruya showed up.

It was cute and horribly boring. Unfortunately, the boring won out and got me to drop it.

 

I'd be more upset at Nagato being shoved to the background if she was a better character. I much prefer the emotionless Nagato from the original.

Kyon, Haruhi, Asakura, and Tsuruya are fun and are the ones that keep me watching right now. Especially since Kyon's character is much more enjoyable when he's annoyed at the other characters. If Crispin Freeman returns as Kyon for the dub, it would be a tremendous help.

I remember the original show being horribly boring at times too. The Endless Eight (it really did feel endless to me) as well as the finale that was basically lots of still frames of Nagato reading a book. If there wasn't a movie after that episode I would have been pissed.

Anyway, as long as this series doesn't devolve into Endless Eight levels of boring, I think I'll stick with it.