The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Endless Eight

Endless Eight- the first short story of "The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 5).

I'm changing the way I review the novel series from here on. This is due to the fact a short story published in novel 5 is a brand new unadapted story, and I plan on reading and reviewing the unadapted stories in the order the story flows in, not the published reading order.

I dont know the exact details, but in Japan all the short stories have been published in a magazine called The Sneaker, and as an afterthought they are published as part of the novels by Kadokawa. This is crazy and has resulted in the series jumping in time numerous times without a real reasoning for doing so.

Its not that its suppose to be done for artistic reasoning's either. Its either two things, one being that the reading order depends on the publishing dates of the short stories found in The Sneaker with the publishing dates of the full novel stories published by Kadokawa, OR number two being that the reading order depends on when Tanigawa actually wrote the damn series.

Either way the real reading order should be following Kyons exploits from when he entered high school. So this is me making amends by reading all the stories that have been adapted into the anime, before moving onto brand new unadapted stories in a linear way following the story as I personally think it should.

So next up is Endless Eight, famous for being adapted into 8 anime episodes.

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This is set after Remote Island Syndrome during the last two weeks of their summer holiday. In fact between the two stories, Kyons family visited the cousins, nephews and nieces in the countryside for two weeks, enjoying rivers, beaches, mountains and prairies.

Kyon-kun, denwa!

On August 17th 2003, Kyon is watching a baseball match on TV with his sister, when Haruhi rings his mobile phone. This is the first time he thinks something is strange, almost like Déjà vu.
She demands he collects his swimming things and rides his bike to join them at the usual meeting place by the station.
He arrives last, and is forced to carry Haruhi and Nagato on his bike to the public pool, whilst Koizumi has Mikuru on his bike.

They all enjoy the pool, but Kyon and Koizumi get the Déjà vu feeling again.

Afterwards at their usual cafe, Haruhi shows them a list of activities they will be doing until summer ends, saying that they need to enjoy Summer whilst they can.

During the next morning, the girls shop for Kimonos for attending a bon festival somewhere in the city later that evening.
After the bon festival they buy fireworks and have a mini private party by the river. Kyon asks Haruhi whether shes done her homework, and she says she did it at the start of summer. Kyon has been putting his off.

The next day they collect insects (cicadas) at the local forest park located on the same hill as their school. Haruhi collects the most and they set them free.

The next day Haruhi has them working a part time shift for a local supermarket. The job- handing out balloons fully dressed in frog costumes in the sweltering heat. Oh, everyone but Haruhi, naturally. The payment they get is to keep Mikuru's frog costume, so she can dress up in it whenever she likes.

Kyoani made Mikuru cry.

That night, Kyon gets woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from Mikuru. shes sobbing on the other end and Kyon gets worried. Koizumi then speaks on the other end and asks Kyon to meet them near the station.

At an outside area with benches, Kyon meets Koizumi, Nagato and a sobbing Mikuru. She tries to explain that she can't access the future. Koizumi explains that everyone has been repeating events from August 17th through to the 31st. This is due to Haruhi not feeling satisfied with her summer, like she hasnt done enough activities before shes willing to go back to school.

Nagato explains that shes experienced all 15,498 repeats, totaling 594 years worth of memories. Kyon is stunned. He asks on what time loop did they all first discover the situation, and Nagato says on the 8,769th loop. She also says she cant do anything about it as shes there to observe only.

The next day they do star gazing in the evening, at Nagatos apartment using Koizumis telescope.

Their fun adventures also include visiting a batting center, a proper fireworks display, a Goby fishing tournament where both Haruhi and Kyon get sun burnt and the others don't, and lastly a test of courage in a cemetary with candles.

On Saturday 30th they are at their usual cafe. Haruhi seems melancholic as she dismisses the brigade after not thinking of anything fun for them to do on their final day. She says her goodbyes and says that she will see them in class on Monday. She turns to walk out.
Kyon is hit by a violent sense of déjà vu. This is not like the others. Its like he can sense that if she leaves, they will repeat the last two weeks again. He comes up with a thought and goes with it. He shouts across the cafe to Haruhi at the door. She turns around and Kyon says "My list isnt finished yet!" he goes on to admit that he hasnt even touched his homework yet. He calls to the others sitting around the table for a study group session to be held at his house tomorrow. Haruhi barges up to him and demands that he shouldnt act like a leader, before she shouts at the top of her voice that she wants to come too. lol you could say she acts cute here.

Next day and they all have a study session, and the next day is Monday September 1st, the first day back at school. Nagato is strangely absent. Maybe she is recovering from an emotional situation? Maybe one that causes the likelihood of The Disappearance taking place 3 months later? Maybe??

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Unlike the anime, there were NO repeats. Not even one. Zero. Zilch. Nada. This is kinda a shame because we dont get any idea what it must be like to be Nagato. Oh well you could say the anime covered it, and then some.

8-10.

Up next: The Sigh.

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