Well, I’ve managed to go more than long enough without an anime post, so I thought I’d drop one in today. Sadly, I don’t have a lot of cheesecake to tickle your eyeballs with, because this series is based more on its whacked-out premise and implausible plots. Yes, although the title is taken from Ghostbusters, I’m discussing the hijinks of the SOS Brigade, and everyone’s favorite unconcious goddess, Haruhi Suzumiya. If you’re thinking about watching this show in the near future, don’t go below the fold, because I’m speculating about the metastory here and there’s huge spoilers as a result.

Now, folks that already read the first article, or actually watch the series (downloaded from the internet, as it’s not yet licensed for Region 1), know who the goddess is and have probably already converted to her religion (“Haruhiism”). You already know that she’s a 10th grader (a.k.a. “first-year student”) in a Japanese high school. You know that she’s positively weird, maniacal, and even strange. That she wants the world to be full of wonderful things like espers, aliens, time-travelers, sliders and what-not. And that she’s so determined to find them, that she’s dragooned–or kidnapped, rather– four of her fellow students, incuding the hapless master of sarcasm, Kyon, into a club to find and have fun with them.

Of course, such a club of high-school kids hasn’t a chance of finding any such thing. Except of course, that’s exactly what they all are: the cutest girl (Mikaru) is from the future, the bookworm (Yuki) is an alien, the easygoing guy (Itsuki) is an esper, and poor Kyon, well, he’s just a normal guy. Except that he’s probably a slider, only it’s never been revealed (in the animé or novels that I’ve read).

The irony of it all is that the person who was searching for them all is the one who’s totally ignorant of their actual origin: Haruhi has no idea that what she’s looking for is directly under her nose. And that’s the way the first three want it. Kyon, frankly, doesn’t care or believe it until his nose (and very nearly, his blood) gets rubbed in it. After which he works with the other three to keep Haruhi ignorant of the weirdness going on around her because of the reason it all exists.

You see, the alien is there to study the explosion of raw data Haruhi somehow produced three years ago (to them, everything including matter and energy is data). The time-traveler is there to find out how/why Haruhi has blocked time travel beyond three years ago, and the esper is there because… well, according to them, Haruhi created the world three years ago. Including the aliens, time-travelers, and espers themselves. And she doesn’t know she did it. If she did know, she might decide that part or all of this world was too boring, and she’d change it again–which would destroy the world as it is now. Being a part of that world, they all have a vested interest in keeping it going.

As a kid, Kyon wanted to believe in things like aliens, espers, and such, and he wanted have grand heroic adventures with them. Actually, he decided (per the novels this animé is drawn from) that he wanted to be the sidekick to the hero, and be the one to make the observation at the end that allowed the hero to save the day. But he grew up, set those silly childhood dreams aside, and became rather cynical in his outlook. Haruhi was the same way, except she chose to continue believing in all those things and somehow had the power to bring them all into existance, thereby making her life more interesting — except they’re all trying to avoid her notice for the reasons previously given.

As I looked at the situation though, it occured to me that it wasn’t as straightforward as it appeared. (Uh, straightforward? This?) If Haruhi is god, like the espers suspect, why would she create a fun universe and then hide it from herself? It doesn’t make sense. And why become so fixated on Kyon that she conscripts him first and foremost to form the club? Oh, sure, he gave her the idea, and Itsuki gets made deputy commander. But it’s Kyon that Haruhi is obviously fixated on. Who is it that she suddenly gets self-concious about undressing in front of? The rest of the “potatoes” in the class? Not hardly.

And Mikuru likes him a lot–though she’s too terrified by Haruhi to do anything about it. She even comes back from the future (in a later guise) to visit him, and she’s obviously fond of him.

And the ever expressionless Yuki changed her appearance permenently after he remarked she was prettier without glasses; she even pulled a very strange and silly joke once–only desisting when Kyon ordered her to.

Moreover, look at who’s really getting what they wanted: Kyon, not Haruhi. Kyon gets to be the sidekick, yet save the world. Kyon gets to be surrounded by three cute babes and a non-competing guy who’s easy to get along with. Kyon gets dragged into adventure after adventure where the “heroes” save the day–even as he’s getting something out of it (like Mikuru gluing herself to him).

And who was it that gave Haruhi the idea of collecting the SOS Brigade anyway?

Things that make you go, “hmmmmmmmmmmmm.” After all, if you make someone else front for your unconcious godhood, then you don’t have to know it’s you pulling the strings….

Shadow master and the puppet? Or puppet and shadow master?