Stay with me

Go places

[vile-things]

[yellowocaballero]

Considering how it absolutely consumed the 2006-2008 nascent weeb sphere, it's kind of insane to me that I haven't heard anybody mention Haruhi Suzumiya in years.

A lot of popular anime from that time made a lasting cultural impact even 15-20 years later. But even though Haruhi was GIGANTIC and extremely definitive of 00s weeb culture, the work itself isn't really present in pop culture anymore.

I will not say 'not important' or 'not influential', because The Anime When You Were In Middle School will always be some degree of an influence on you as you get older. Haruhi single-handedly introduced light novels to the USA - it was the first series of light novels I ever saw in Borders. But it's kind of silent. Wonder why that is.

[yellowocaballero]

About Haruhi Suzumiya, for the uninitiated:

It was about a teen girl mired in her ennui, depression, and existential hopelessness, seeking relief from the mundane through chasing the fantastical and special in a relentless search not for meaning, but for anything that will alleviate the despair of meaninglessness.

Haruhi relentlessly bullies random people into joining her new supernatural hunting club, which somehow has to involve dressing up teen girls in bunny outfits and lots of boob shots. The new people she harrasses into her club are the supernatural, because this quirky tsundere's desire for the supernatural has willed it into existence, because for unexplained reasons she is God, also we can't tell her this, also boob shots. Also some guy is there and we never learn his name.

It is borderline slop. It would have made a lot more sense as a small obscure-ass anime that five people have seen, because it was so indescribably weird and experimental. It was really good except it wasn't except it was.

The viewing experience was insane.

Every episode of the first season was broadcast out of order, for reasons I still do not understand. It wasn't really an episodic show, so you have no idea what the fuck is happening and you have no context for anything for almost the entire time you're watching Season 1. Insane creative choice.

Season 2 has an eight episode arc that is the same episode aired eight times. They didn't air the same episode. They remade the episode, every time. Eight weeks of Season 2 was 95% the same episode. This is largely credited with why it was cancelled (?) and why it culturally dropped off the map. Because it is a fucking insane creative choice.

There are two seasons.

That's what will always be weird about that show. It was the most popular anime at the time and super definitive of 00s weeb culture. There's bunny outfits and boob shots and it is kind of slop. It makes completely untenable artistic decisions that actively worsen your experience of consuming the show (?), and it does it on purpose, because it wants to. It is a very ordinary show and somehow also a very surrealist experience and also very zany and quirky and also possessed of a subtle but pervasive crippling sadness.

There's plenty of slop anime that's borderline anti-art in its soulessness, but Haruhi is anti-consumer. You don't agree with its decisions but you respect them (except the sexual grossness). God is bisexual.

[distant-screaming]

there really is nothing better than getting asked an innocuous question and being like

[threeofswords]

ohh yeah im a real piece of shit 👍 job please

[captain-price-returns]

Him getting smaller and smaller as he walks up to the truck is some real Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings forced perspective movie magic

[teashoesandhair]

I'm in a little local cafe and the women behind the counter started griping to each other, "Oh Christ, Stephen's back again," "It's him, is it? I thought he'd stopped coming," "It's definitely him, look, it's bloody Stephen on a Thursday morning," "Do you want me to get rid of him or are you going to do it?" and so I was peering outside, trying to spot this nightmare customer, this pestilence of a person, this pox upon the cafe trade, and then one of the women from behind the counter ran outside, clapping two trays together loudly and yelling "GET OUT OF IT, STEPHEN!" and it turns out that Stephen is an absolutely gigantic fuck-off seagull who hangs around outside, menacing people for crumbs

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

You just KNOW that bird is named for Steven Seagal

[noah-wyles]

all i want for 2026 is that gigantic rancid AI bubble to finally burst in such a catastrophic way that the consequences will be so good and i'll never have to see another AI generated image ever again

[fluoritegalaxy]

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

[i-like-reblog-maps]

[wowwforever]

if you told vin diesel fast and the furious you were gay he'd be like "Some people like driving stick…some people like driving automatic…what matters is you cross the finish line.." and then he'd rev up a dodge challenger and drive through a building and kill 16 people

[boogerwookiesugarcookie]

he literally did in the fourth one when he's asked if he likes cars more than women

[explorerrowan]

If you asked if he was cool with trans people, he'd probably say "sometimes, aftermarket parts are the only way to get the vehicle you really want. Everyone should have the right to hot rod."

[orcboxer]

[bloodstainedgauntlet]

my knight you have to live you have to get up you have to put your hand over your wound and hold it there. you have to keep walking and walking and walking because you cannot lay down yet, it’s not time. wipe the blood off your breastplate and look up into the sun. lean on your sword if you need to. lift one foot after another. get up. get up. this would be a pitiful grave.

[rararatigan]

[mirrimblackfox]

I want "Get up. Get up. This would be a pitiful grave." on my memorial.

[theehorsepusssy]

[randomitemdrop]

Item: Frightfruit

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[setulose]

Trace amounts of Monica in my life

[setulose]

A statistically insignificant level of Monica in my life

[setulose]

My life manufactured in a facility that also processes Monica

[cronenburger]

[dailyrothko]

And this post here shows there are a couple of different replies there of course were hundreds of replies. I even replied which I will now put here but besides making a joke about the famous quote, it was also Bloomsday

[draconym]

I've been in an evil mood for hours and I just discovered there was a piece of glitter stuck in my contact lens so I'm going to assume it was that the whole time and now the curse has been lifted.

[draconym]

yeah it was the eye glitter. I'm fine now.

[gardensandghosts]

What in the fuck did you possibly do to get hit with the modern day “shard of magical ice in eye that freezes your soul and makes you unable to recognize joy” curse? Like come back here that is literally how the fairytale goes, WHAT happened to you

[draconym]

Cast in a rock opera about vampires that is set in the 80s. There's a lot of glitter.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

there's a group of high school boys in this McDonald's and I just heard one of them say "I bet you you cannae break your own arm" so something interesting might happen shortly

[caffeinatedopossum]

"I'm still kicking" is such a funny way to say "I'm still alive". Like lol. I'm still thrashing. Flailing. Writhing even. The violence remains.

[thesevenumbrellas]

Lawyer: How would you like to handle the custody agreement?

Parent: I want my wife to take one of my infant daughters to the UK and I’ll take the other one and we will never see each other again.

Lawyer: You want to fucking what?