The headiest of head games leaves Kyon and this reader mostly lost.
Creative Staff
Story: Nagaru Tanigawa
Art: Gaku Tsugano
Character Design: Noizi Ito
Translation/Adaptation: Paul Starr
What They Say
A new school year means fresh blood for the SOS Brigade! But not just anyone can join this elite group of alien-, time traveler-, and esper-hunters! As Haruhi puts the new recruits through their paces in one timeline, the veteran members visit the ailing Yuki in the other. Yuki reveals that her illness may be the work of other humanoid interfaces like herself, but when Kyon rushes to confront them, he runs into a familiar face he had hoped he would never see again…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This volume of Haruhi has left me questioning everything, starting with “has this comic always had it’s head this far up it’s own ass?”
This current storyline is split between two separate timelines, designated at the chapter starts with an alpha or beta. It’s trying to keep things as clear as possible, but with the gap between volumes and the events playing out in the story, it gets confusing. In one timeline Haruhi is scouting out new freshman club members, and in the other she’s tending to a sick Nagato. One timeline is peaceful and the other has Kyon in a battle of wits against a trio of lunatics who want Haruhi’s powers placed inside a old friend of Kyon.
There has been no explanation for the split timeline yet. The events of one are only an odd feeling of something not being right in the other. The calm, peaceful timeline makes for easy reading as Haruhi comes up with tests to whittle down the new recruits to see who would fit in best with the gang. The obvious frontrunner being the girl with the happy face hair-thing on the cover of this volume.
It’s the violent timeline giving me a headache.
In that story Kyon is trapped in a situation where Nagato is feverish and trapped in a mental battle with another alien force, and a mirror group of students wants Haruhi’s god powers for themselves. They seem to believe that Kyon is somehow responsible for who gets those powers, and if that’s true then what does that make him? Why would they need his permission, and how could he possibly be in control of that? They hold Kyon hostage, negotiate with him, threaten him, try to barter. The group seems a bit desperate, and also completely not worth dealing with.
Kyon’s friend from middle school keeps pace with all of the evil group’s machinations, spouting of paragraphs of her own psychobabble to counter their arguments. Meanwhile, Kyon sits worrying about Nagato and his own safety. I’m not sure why he didn’t just give up and start punching or walk away from the group. I certainly would have.
If this all sounds fascinating to you, a word of warning. The presentation of this material leaves a lot to be desired. Pages of talking heads carrying out what-if scenarios which mix tenchobabble in with teenager existential crisis musings were putting me to sleep. Kyon’s conversations with Koizumi are always my least favorite part of these books, and the evil gang are like that times ten. It’s confusing for the sake of being confusing, and like a dog chasing it’s own tail, going nowhere. I was left with a deep resentment for everyone involved.
The artist puts more effort into the events in this storyline more so than the previous ones, but still can’t draw a decent action scene. This volume starts with knives drawn and hearts pounding, but it’s just a confusing mess of close ups and stilted panel movement. Overall, it’s just more disappointment for this mediocre adaptation.
In Summary
This volume of the manga adaptation of the long suffering trials of Kyon as he deals with Haruhi Suzumiya mires in psychobabble and confuses with jumping alternate timelines. If it’s goal is to make the reader feel Kyon’s frustration and confusion than it’s done it’s job amicably. It’s not a fun read, with it’s pages upon pages of vague threats and meaningless words spouted by talking heads. The artist actually put more effort in to this volume, and it’s wasted on more characters that aren’t worth the time of day. The only interesting development is the new girl on the cover, whose name I don’t even recall if we were ever given. Such a shame, I had high hopes for this storyline in the last volume. Hopefully the resolution can salvage this mess, but I’m not betting on it.
Content Grade: D +
Art Grade: C +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: May 27th, 2014
MSRP: $13.00
