An alternate universe in which aliens, espers, and psychics aren’t all around. Or maybe it’s the same universe, except Nagato is revealed to have mental issues.
This grew on me quite a bit from the start. I especially liked the part where Nagato turned into her old self. Makes you see the original series in a different light.
Also, a pretty good romance. So much better than Haruhi.
The main problem is that the show is fairly slow.
And it’s not nearly as good as the disappearance movie. But hey, what is?
- Storytelling – B – Good romance, a bit slow.
- Voice – B – Calming and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.
- Characters – B – Honestly, non-alien Nagato is a bit of a bore. Kyon is able to carry the show though. As are their friends.
- Attention Grab – C – Defnitely the show’s weakest point.
- Production – B – Looks fine.
- Overall – B-
Recommendations – The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
The ending was pretty crappy, and I think this story would have been better if they hadn’t tied it to the Haruhi canon – that was the source of most of the problems in the script as far as I’m concerned. Just a story about a romance that runs into the issue they almost explore here could have been pretty gripping, like a more serious “One Week Friends” or something.
Yeah. It was a good romance story, but maybe not a good Haruhi story. You come in with all these preconceived notions of how the characters should be and this iteration didn’t really meet them.
I really loved the part with alien Nagato as well. It wasn’t just that the romance between non-alien Nagato and Kyon was slow, it was the nature of their romance. Kyon liked Nagato, she liked him and ALL that kept those two from having a happy end was Nagato not getting her shit together. Shyness as a character-trait isn’t unbelievable but at some point you just become unsympathetic as an audience-member and want the characters to just get it over with. Meanwhile, alien-Nagato’s short time as Kyon’s romantic partner was so much more compelling. Also the way how alien-Nagato related to non-alien Nagato was an interesting twist because they weren’t just two sides of the same coin but were actually two different people (or that’s what it felt like to me). And then alien-Nagato’s love got this tragic note because of the time-limit and frankly I found the rapport between alien-Nagato and Kyon more interesting as well.
But overall what surprised me most was that the show’s best moments are those romantic, serious moments that worked far better than I expected. It isn’t great because it does hit those familiar romance-beats but the series handles that stuff rather well, so it isn’t unbearable.
Yes! Alien-Nagato finally grew some balls and it was such a relief.