Last night when I pretended I had nothing to do, I marathoned Endless Eight. It has become kind of infamous among anime fans, but for those who don't know, Endless Eight is eight consecutive episodes in the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya where the characters are caught in an infinite time loop recounting their two week summer vacation. Yes, you've guessed it, there's eight full episodes where the same events are repeated over and over again. Over and over and over eight times. Eight times.  Anyway, I had heard of this from several disappointed Haruhi fans, and I'd seen many people boast about marathoning the entire thing, turning it into some sort of challenge. Considering I have too much free time, I figured I could take this challenge, and last night seemed like the perfect time. Before I watched it, I was kind of excited. I was thinking 'Oh, man. I can totally do this. I'm going to watch all of them and see what all the fuss is about.' I was also a bit afraid; I didn't know what levels of boredom would be reached. And well, after surviving the eight episodes of non-stop summertime activities, I can say that it really wasn't all too bad. I can see where KyoAni was going with it and why they chose 8 episodes (when turned 8 = infinity herp). On paper, the whole idea is actually pretty good, but it just wasn't executed correctly. Each episode was almost exactly the same- the same activities and lines- but to make this "Endless Eight" really work, they should've taken a Tatami Galaxy approach. In Tatami Galaxy, each episode has the same main cast of characters, but each episode shows a different way that "Watashi" could've lived through his college years. If, in E8, they had a bit more variation between each episode, it could've been more successful. But they didn't, and most Haruhi fans flinch when they hear of the eight monotonous episodes airing during summer of '09. From what I've seen on /a/, it was an eight weeks filled with rage and massive trolling on KyoAni's part. Click for an enlarged rage-filled /a/ As for my personal thoughts? I thought that the first 4 or 5 episodes were bearable; not all of the lines were the same and there was a little bit of variation, but from then on everything was mostly recycled. Every single goddamn line was used over and over. I believe these are the sole reasons I was able to make it through the eight episode marathon: Tomokazu Sugita's voice. Endless hnnnnnnng- My computer taking way too long to buffer and during that time, I may or may not have reread the last chapter of Breaking Dawn. -.-  About half way through, I barely even registered what was going on. I simply read the subtitles, barely comprehending them, and watched the images flick by on my screen. I wasn't really bored until about episode 6. Before that, I was almost numb, not really giving a fuck about anything going on. It wasn't entertaining, but it wasn't boring either; I was lost in the middle ground. In the end, I really think it only needed about four episodes- eight was dragging it out waaay too far. As I have said before, they could've handled it a lot differently. They didn't, though, so the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 will forever be remembered for its troll-tastic endless eight episodes.  Have you seen the endless eight? If so, what did you think of them? I believe everyone who watched E8 deserves one. If you marathon it and post your reaction to your own blog, I will personally create one of these for you as well as link your post here. Medal source: source I survived Endless Eight: source
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