The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya - Novel 12

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Set in late November.

So for some reason all 5 members of the SOS Brigade are located in a medieval castles' throne room, with 'Haruhi the Hero' being asked by the king to 'vanquish the demon lord who has kidnapped the prince and princess'.

Is this a stage play, or an isekai? We the readers are not given an answer. However, Asahina is a mage, Kyon is a warrior (complete with armour and longsword), Koizumi a bard and Nagato a thief.

We readers are left to believe that everyone comes from their normal world. "My expertise with a sword was limited to some time with a wooden kendo sword in junior high gym class". So this is an isekai then?

Regardless, after negotiations with the king about a reward, it is decided that the boys and Nagato would carry chests full of gold coins.

They find the nearest pub to which Haruhi promptly orders 5 of everything 'on her', and pays for everyone's meals and drinks, starting a true party with the locals.

Kyon and Koizumi have a discussion in this pub. Neither can remember exactly what they are doing or how it came to be. It's like they are playing a game of some sort, and were simply sucked into it. Asahina suggests they were at an amusement park and went to a place where you pretend to role play. The boys call Yuki over and ask her. They didn't need to ask however, she simply states "simulation" but even she can't pinpoint how. It's like simulated space somehow.

Apparently there are end conditions to restore themselves to the real world, much like a game then; defeat the demon lord.

An old wise man comes into the pub and calls Haruhi the Hero as being a fool. He calls himself the 'Sage of the Forest', and will make sure the party will keep on track to defeat the demon lord, however he is shocked to find them still in town, and not halfway there already. Haruhi gives in, saying something like 'this was bound to happen anyway'.

This 'sage' takes them to their first trial. He leads them to the edge of a forest. They have to follow a footpath to a cave to reach a single treasure chest inside, of which contains a key to the demon lords castle. The sage tries to hold Haruhi back to explain something, but she just barges straight ahead, with the SOS Brigade following. They enter the cave and come across a huge dragon, and are instantly killed by its fire breath.

They then find themselves back with the sage at the edge of the forest, who explains that they have to carefully manoeuvre around the dragon without it noticing. Again, Haruhi doesn't listen and barges in again to everyone's death once more.

5 deaths later and Haruhi finally admits they need a plan.

The sage says he has an orb on his person which can help the dragon not to attack, but in order for him to give it to the brigade members, they first must go to another location to collect a herb to help with his ailing body. Haruhi promptly dismisses this idea and points a sword to his throat. Nagato takes the orb. In fact, the team then proceeds to take more of his possessions to help bypass other fetch quests.

Not too long later they are at the demon lords castle. Without a plan, both Kyon and Koizumi are worried, however Haruhi reveals her secret plan is to help Mikuru tap into her dormant mage powers. Mikuru herself is kinda reluctant, saying she doesn't wield powerful magic, however after some persuasion from Haruhi, she unleashes 2x of the most unbelievable spells ever known.

The Demon lords castle is obliterated. So is everything within a 20 mile radius. Nagato had to send everyone to a hill on the outskirts of the blast, in a fraction of a second.

The game world quickly changes and they all find themselves in space. Their objective to win the previous game is proven "incomplete".

They are on a space ship. A guy appearing at the console looks extremely like the king from the previous game world, and is saying to the brigade that they must 'save the universe and the Prince and Princess from space pirates'.

Haruhi agrees to save them "this time", meaning that was what they were supposed to have achieved last time, and simply forgot.

Kyon is the pilot, Haruhi is the captain (I mean, of course she is lol), Nagato is the navigator, Asahina is supposed to be Comms officer but is currently acting like a waitress, and Koizumi is copilot. They are all in uniform, and the girls are showing a lot of skin.

After following Haruhi's hunch, they travel to a part of space that probably has space pirates. After only an hour, they are caught in a tractor beam. They are surrounded by hundreds of ships.

They are hailed by a man that looks like the forest sage from the previous game. It becomes clear they turned up at the head of a fleet preparing for a sneak attack on another faction.

Haruhi works out that this enemy fleet has most probably kidnapped the royal children. The main ship uses a tractor beam to bring our heroes inside. Nagato hacks their computer to work out that they are indeed on the same ship as the missing royals.

Koizumi suggests Nagato should hack in to make the fleet obvious to other vessels, as they are due for a sneak attack, so by doing nothing other than turning off their jammers, other factions would be aware of the pending assault. He says that 'stealth units that have been revealed tend to be rather flimsy'.

Panic and chaos ensures. The guards that previously guarded their ship at the dock have run off. The SOS brigade go in search of the missing children, blasting their ray guns at any opposition along the way. They find the children and scramble back to the ship. They blast their way out the flagship doors and find a safe place in space to communicate to the emperor. The emperor is glad, but asks them to stay back in hiding whilst they obliterate the opposing side. Nagato reveals they actually rescued decoys; robots, so therefore they lost the game.

The scenery changes to the American Wild West. Haruhi blurts out their new mission; to rescue the rancher’s son and his bride from outlaws. She is facing a quick-draw duel in a rather typical Western fashion. We do a quick time skip to just before this happens where the Sage is now the mayor, talking to our heroes. Kyon and Koizumi are deputies, and the girls are a well known bounty hunter trio called the 'SOS Brigade', a natural fitting name for it for once. lol. The Sage/mayor requests Haruhi go stand in for him in a duel with the local opposition, over land ownership arguments where tempers have risen to the point of gun fights.

The time skip catches up to the present, however Nagato swaps out realistic western buildings for an indoor soundstage, where everything is a prop for a film, and makes the ceiling lights fall down.

From here on out things start being noticeable to be less about video games and more about movies / TV shows. A car smashes its way into the indoor western themed soundstage to kidnap the actors that were the rancher’s son and his bride, and another car comes along just behind (with no driver). They take this cue that they are supposed to give chase, so the mayor takes the wheel and Haruhi sits up front, with the others squished in the back seats.

Everything now plays out like a black and white gangster movie, set in the prohibition times. They have to go to a speakeasy and play poker to gain access to the kidnapped duo. Naturally the gangsters want to cheat, but Nagato changes into her witches costume and uses her wand to swap the cards around. The gangsters call foul play, but then the cops arrive. The SOS Brigade flee from a back exit whilst the gangsters and coppers have a gun fight. They jump in the getaway car and speed off, again with the sage or whatever, doing the driving.

The setting changes again, and now they are in a 17th century English setting, and the car replaced by horse drawn carriage. The girls are all dressed very fine and dainty, and the boys dressed in something you would wear to a wedding. The sage is driving up front.

Turns out they are tasked with preventing the assassination of a young king and queen. They stop the attack but get caught up in the explosion, only to find themselves in Europe during the Second World War. The new task is like Mission Impossible to capture an Enigma machine, so they go from Dover through occupied France, to Berlin. They manage to steal the code machine and sneak onto an American submarine under cover of night in Calais, but a German destroyer sinks it but they get away by rowing in a rubber dinghy with the destroyer up in flames.

They pass out to arrive in a police drama setting, where a serial bomber leaves them with riddles to solve, and they have to disarm ticking bombs. Next is an Heian-era setting with nobles locked in a nasty courtroom power struggle, to which Kyon mentions its worthwhile to see the girls in their twelve-layer kimonos. After this they are vampire hunters, invading a vampire’s lair. Then after this cleaning berserk robots out of a post-apocalyptic ruin, then after this an Arabian Nights setting, stealing a lamp, then an Edo-era zombie story, then another submarine for a "nerve-racking deal involving nuclear missiles", then on a failed mission to turn Jupiter into a sun, then escape from a labyrinthine death game, then time travelling back to fight dinosaurs, and on and on and Ariston.

After another bad ending, they are now the Pirates of the Caribbean, looting ships for treasure with a packed crew of NPCs as well as the SOS Brigade. Eventually on a quiet but sweltering day out in the calm ocean, Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato are trying to work out what on earth is going on with their lives, whilst fishing. Why is it every time they remember they are not of this world, their memories become hazy?

They try and work out if they are the real versions of themselves, or more simply digital copies somehow placed into an ever changing computer programme of some sort. Logic would dictate that the only real people in any of these worlds are the members of the SOS Brigade, whilst everyone else are NPCs.

Maybe their real world bodies are lying in beds, all connecting their brains up to a machine? But why?

Nagato says it's not the Data Overmind doing this, as it doesn't seem likely. Regardless, her link is severed. Kyon notices its the first time in a long time that Nagato uses body language to convey her thoughts and feelings whilst being questioned. Her answer is this: "We are not on a computer server. We are not data in any sort of mechanical memory conduit. We are quantum information in a data space".

Explanation becomes too complex, but essentially they are the real versions of themselves, whilst the real, real world versions of themselves are living their normal lives simultaneously. They are stuck on a different plane of existence, against their will, and are being observed when put under different tasks to achieve. The user only has a short grasp of life on earth, mostly data collected from Movies, TV shows and video games it seems. Nagato is playing along trying to figure out how to escape.

Nagato explains her cognitive functions are being restricted with something occupying her processing powers. Every time she tries to overclock herself to work things out, she breaks down. Kyon prods her further and she says she wore a witches outfit in the prohibition world because she felt they had made a movie in the real world. This causes her to crash like a blue screen of death. Kyon instantly regrets probing her and vows not to do so again.

The Spanish Armada arrives to blow them out the water so they forget about their little chat. Nagato comes back to her senses and they naturally forget everything they just talked about.

After the battle, Kyon notices a piece of paper in his pocket, with Nagato's straight handwriting which reads "Remember me".

Fog covers everything and they find themselves in a new world, one of which based on both Roman and Greek mythology simultaneously.

The 3 girls of the SOS Brigade are now goddesses. The boat has now changed to an ancient trireme which has loads of oars to help steer the ship.

Haruhi is Goddess Hera (wife of Zeus), Asahina is Goddess Aphrodite (goddess of beauty) and Nagato is Goddess Athena (goddess of wisdom).

They land ashore of Troy, and are escorted to an amphitheatre. The three goddesses are escorted to their own seats, with Haruhi's throne being centred and laden in gold and lilies. Kyon and Koizumi are just men so they don't count. But they are seated at a table nearby.

A play goes ahead on stage. “Witnessing a play about the Trojan War in Troy during said war…,” Koizumi murmurs “What a layered construct. Two—no, three layers deep”.

During a moment everyone is eating, Kyon calls Nagato over via hand signal and she comes over to sit with them. They discuss their adventures and how to escape.

The Sage turns up out the blue and joins the boys and Nagato at their table. He is now Zeus in this world.

In turn they discuss their predicament and the Sage explains things from his NPC-main-guy sort of way.

He senses the being that has trapped them there to be not of evil and very protective. He continues to say he has more power in this world purely because he is playing the part of Zeus. He mentions it feels like everyone is in a 'canopy' of some sort.

He requests to be taken to the real world if possible, to join them in their escape. He is curious about a world written with law and order. He gives Nagato the power of Goddess Artemis (daughter of Zeus).

Nagato allows the boys to see Haruhi through the eyes she has, therefore they can see her true radiance.

Kyon goes up to Haruhi. She questions “Done with your nefarious scheming?” lol she knows a lot but we readers only see hints like this from time to time.

Kyon only has one thing to really say to her; "I want to go home".

Haruhi and Asahina join the rest and they all hold hands. Haruhi 'feels like she could do anything', and jokes about if they are calling up a UFO. Nagato harnesses the other two girls goddess powers to her own as well as Zeus's. She turns the sage into an owl, and they all escape the weird quantum plane of existence in a mix of goddess wings and halos.

Things black out and the words "Mission complete" can be heard.

The fall breeze hits Kyon as he is now tied into his real world self. He has a vague feeling of spending a decade in the local amusement park they are walking away from, having come here to celebrate the success of their home movie.

The sage and the two young victims are able to escape into the real world disguised as a balloon which drifts off into the sky, from the hands of Kyons tired sister, now sleeping on her brothers' shoulder from a long day out with his friends. Kyon reaches into his pocket to find a note that simply says "Remember me".

---

7-10. This story marks the official introduction of the antics caused by what would later be known as "The Heavenly Canopy Domain". Spoilers if you are reading this in context with the timeline. Sorry not sorry lol.

This novel, in my opinion, is the long-awaited sliders storyline. It’s not exactly how I imagined it would go, yet it has to be it, right? I imagined the SOS Brigade travelling from universe to universe, trying to return to their original world. Basically, exactly the same premise as the 90s show of the same name. This was a bit different however, yet essentially the same. I guess the author Tanigawa had to think of a way of supressing Haruhi’s memories somewhat so she considers everything happening to be normal.

Talking of which, those new readers following the timeline order will now read Kyon bang on about wanting to see the Sliders show up, and think "Yeah, we already had that Kyon". However, us readers up till this point, in 2025, had been waiting for the sliders storyline what felt like forever.

Nagato wasn’t quite herself in this novel. As she was cut off from the Data Overmind, she started acting a little more human, showing a little bit more emotion and overall being less restrictive in her own demeanour. It was nice to see. I hope to see her a lot more like this if the series progresses past the middle of 2004.

Haruhi’s personality shined through in this one. As always. She didn’t give a fuck and was always up for whatever they faced, loving to dive into whatever was up next. To me, it was obvious she knew what was going on really, but as per usual keeps it to herself.
Throughout the series released so far (as of when I’m writing this), She’s given hints before that she sort of knows more than she lets on. But in this story with EVERYTHING being really obvious, her blind eye to it all comes across as really funny.

Interestingly, we finally learn more about Asahina’s time travel device, the ‘TPDD’. Apparently it is embedded into her DNA, and only surfaces when needed. It may explain the star-shaped mole on her breast, as some sort of visual representation of its installation.

I'm pleased the book itself is canon. Going into it, I assumed it was more like alternative versions of themselves (as sliders), but I had also a vague thought it could be like a silly non-canon story thing made up for fun. I say this as the original release dates for parts 1 and 2 were released in 2004 and 2006 respectively, in The Sneaker. So yeah, the characters go back into their real world selves at the end of the day.

It’s possible the publishers pitched the initial idea to Tanigawa with the suggestion of building upon what was already written, with him only having to write half a books worth of story in order to reap the rewards of a completed novel, and all the crazy money and prestige he would get from that.
He had to have read the first two shorts before starting work on the Wild West story, as his continued writing seems to be on par with the early work, like the way the first two short stories are written is in line with his heyday at the hight of his creative freedom, so he must have re-read them before starting to write. Somehow the buzz of the early day writing style rubbed off on him for the rest of the novel.

Apart from in a few places.

The only issue I have with this book, is that once again, Tanigawa decided to teach us readers a lot of rubbish that is inconsequential to the Haruhi storyline. He REALLY went off on one with his research in order to fill pages, probably to justify the necessary word count. In this novel in particular, it was about quantum mechanics- or something. My god he really waffled on and on about it, pages and pages and pages of it. True filler content, especially in the last third of the book. Just rubbish. I ended up listening to this kindle book via the Alexa app.

It’s taken me a while to get this review out. Half a month in fact! I don’t have the time these days and I was waiting for Yen Press to release a limited-edition paperback version set to the original release cover art style, to satisfy their oldest fans of the novel series. Alas, they didn’t release anything. So I got the cheapest option which is the kindle edition. I guess Yen press did throw a bone to us though, as page 2 or whatever has the artwork on a simple white page in what was designed to be it, had they gone ahead. The art this time being two swords over what looks like a swirling vortex. I do feel extremely miffed about this though.

I wanted to cheat for my synopsis above, by copy and pasting and reworking something found elsewhere on the internet, but there isn’t one.

This is it folks!

The only synopsis for the Theater of Haruhi in English, on the internet, so far at least! So I had to go back and write it properly.

The Kindle version has a way of copy and pasting, so I was able to grab some sentences here and there, and get the pictures. I have included most of these as they are glorious.

The picture of Kyon and Koizumi fishing, looks to be from a rowing boat. However in the story they were fishing directly from the pirate ship. I’m pretty sure. Oh well.

I didn’t understand quite what The Sage wanted at the end. As a last-minute thing he took the kidnappees with him into the real world. And they were transformed into a balloon which flies off into the sky. What happens when the balloon pops? Maybe that’s the point, flying away is a metaphor of the data life forms being set free to exist somehow without any physical body? Oh, here’s a thought!; What if they somehow turn up at a later date when our heroes are all indisposed from an enemy attack, and they can’t get out of the situation they’re in, and just when you think it’s all over, the Sage turns up completely out the blue to save everyone! Well, you’ve heard it here first folks! XD

Oh and to all those fans that claim we ‘already got the ending to the series’, and ‘anything else we get is just filler epilogue stuff’- how completely wrong you are. We have not had the ending! The author has been in a slump. Even said he is getting over his sleep deprecation in the Afterword to this book. The final ending storyline will be something to do with the metal rod found from Tsuruya’s estate, probably.

If this novel was a TV anime, they could make it 26 episodes Very Easily. Like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronical. It would be a very interesting take on a Haruhi TV series too, with 2 or 3 episodes set in each world. Hollywood loves a good multiverse story (for some reason), so why not adapt this then, Japan? Hu? Hu??

The stuff written in the synopsis about the 17th century England, moving forward to WW2 and the submarine, then moving on again etc, all of that was just one or two paragraphs in the actual book. What I wrote could be longer than what was in the book itself!

Asahina fans would be crying after reading this novel, as she was here, present in this book, but hardly talked or mentioned at all. The least focused character in this for sure.

I’m happy the book told us when it was actually set in the timeline- despite only saying it once or twice. It was enough.

The Sage only mentioned the word ‘Canopy’ once. That was enough to let us readers know what the hell is actually going on. Oh, sorry to readers that are reading this in timeline order for the first time, you guys will have to stay as clueless as the characters for a little bit longer.

I would have preferred this novel to be set a lot longer down the timeline, however the author probably felt he had to cram it into the end of November due to what was already said and published from the first two chapters, released way back when. Oh well.

Overall, really happy with this novel. A solid 7-10 from me. I hope he has gotten out of his slump to write more content, and hopefully it will be set after everything written so far, AKA the middle of 2004 onwards, as a proper sequel storyline. Well, see you in the next one, whenever that may be!

Up next: The Day Of Sagittarius.

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Animal Crossing: A Personal Guided Tour for 2024

Map as follows:

Video as follows:

The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Tsuruya's Challenge

 *MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Tsuruya's Challenge- the third short story of "The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 11)

Set in June, apparently.

The SOS Brigade are in the club room after school. The nameless mystery club blonde girl who was in the last story (Seven Wonders Overtime) is now named simply as "T". The reason is revealed towards the end though.

Koizumi and Nagato are having a conversation with T in one corner of the room about their favourite mystery novels, whilst Mikuru is agonising over which move to make in a tabletop game with Kyon. T had dropped by the clubroom just to hand a borrowed book back to Nagato, but struck up a conversation whilst being there.

Haruhi finally enters the room having been stuck in a beautification committee meeting that she somehow found herself in. They get an email from Tsuruya to the SOS brigade email address (which Asahina has recorded the line "you've got mail" for). She is not in school due to having to run errands for her family, so that's why she's emailing. However Kyon reads that the attachment is a challenge set for them.

With her best Tsuruya impression, Haruhi reads the attachment. It's a story that is presumably about one of Tsuruyas adventures whilst travelling around the world with her father. At a fancy party where she had to wear a fancy ball gown, she met a girl equally dressed up and bored, so they decided to go to the hotel tennis court and start volleying, completely dressed up. In the locker rooms after their showers they discovered that one of the dresses was bugged, so they dressed up in the tennis clothes that were initially provided by the hotel staff when they got the balls and rackets, and then headed to the lobby. They discarded the bug on some passerby and headed to her hotel room where they spent a lot of time chatting. Eventually they hid under the bed in anticipation of being tracked. But the next thing she knew she was drifting off and eventually found herself in bed properly with the other girl not there.

The club members can't figure out where the challenge lies with this passage, but then Haruhi assumes that the trick is that the reader assumes that it was about Tsuruya in the first place. They deliberate it some more and realise that the trick to the story is that it simply took place in her past. A second email arrives to confirm this. Tsuruya simply wanted to share her story from 7 years ago to a bored audience. Who better than the SOS brigade?

Attached in the second email is a second story that took place in the fall of last year, also when she was abroad and also with the same friend again. The story is about ditching their parents and minders from GPS trackers, taking a hot springs together and joining in on a local autumn festivals' grape stomping competition.

At the end of the story they print out copies for themselves and read it again for clues to whatever mystery they should find within the text. Mikuru chimes up to ask why would they hop aboard a train if they were going to a party via car?

They also mention something about how Tsuruya speaks without quotation marks, much like the author of this series does.

They all realise that the minder is a guy, and they gave him the slip when they aboarded the train.

Tsuruyas last email comes through once passage 2 is deducted. Apparently the GPS trackers became so advanced that they are now invisible to the naked eye. The technologies being pushed to their limits created a breakthrough of computing power on a DNA scale, and Tsuruyas new party she had to attend with her father this time was in celebration of this new discovery. All because they had to make GPS trackers smaller and smaller to keep tabs on 2 teenage girls. Anyway they meet a guy at this party who could possibly be a suitor to the friend of Tsuruya. In this story though she is named only once as being "Shouko". This suitor is assaulted in a nearby room to the party hall, and it's Tsuruyas' question to the SOS Bridge as to whom it was.

 

They try to work out the culprits name based off of what he said in his 'final moments' using wordplay for the English of 'Do Not Ingest' and 'Do Not Swallow'.

Tsuruya sends over a few more hints and it seems Haruhi and Koizumi work it out.

Eventually Nagato stares at Kyon to get his attention, then adjusts her head to look at T. Kyon doesn't get it, so she uncharacteristically gets up and sits at the table and stares at T some more. Kyon finally gets it. T is in on it. Kyon gets up and shouts "HAH!" at T's face. T's mobile phone starts chiming so she answers it and puts it on speaker. It's Tsuruya. Kyon realised that T was bugged by a listening devise being used by Tsuruya (a hair pin), and that T herself is actually the unnamed girl of stories 1 and 2.

It comes into conversation regarding the nickname of 'T', and that it was decided upon from her classmates due to her confusing real name, which is actually "Ottilie Adrastea Hohenstaufen-Baumgartner". There is even a 'von' in there which she omitted. Lol. In Germany it is pronounced "ogh-till-e-air" (in English as "Ogh-tilly").

Mikuru makes some bad tea which both Kyon and Haruhi consume. She forgot to add sugar. After that its Ok.

After that they think that something still isn't quite right. After some more deductive work T admits that stories 2 and 3 are somewhat made up. Story 2 is embellished. The bit about the festival is actually world famous. Story 3 is mostly true up until it becomes a 'murder mystery'. After this it's purely made up.

The planning and development of this whole so called 'mystery' was actually derived from the mystery club president, with T and Tsuruya supplying the ideas and supervising. The SOS brigade were actually test subjects for the mystery club's cultural festival event. So from this they will tweak the stories to iron out the issues to make it harder to solve when used for real at the culture fest.

One last thing to solve was the first sentence of the 3rd story; "Where am I?"

Haruhi has a hunch that Tsuruya is close by, and sure enough the door bursts open with Tsuruya at the door, back from her family excursions. Turns out she just made it home before sending the emails, getting dressed in her school uniform to join the gang and actually setting out towards school the end of her 'challenge'.

After the day's finale, Kyon and Itsuki escape from the escapades of the club room just so that Koizumi can do his usual spiel at the end of these stories, probably just because the author wants him too. Again, if they are so worried about Haruhi's unconsciousness, why not seek out Yasumi for help? The only thing of relevance from this conversation between the two guys was that Koizumi thinks Kuyoh Suoh is still a threat, but that needs to be figured out between Kyon, Yuki and Kuyoh at a later date, (and might involve the metal rod from the treasure map story).

Back in the club room, Kyon asks Asahina what she was staring so intently at during a passage of episode 3. Turns out it's the bit about DNA Computing. She couldn't say anything to Kyon with Haruhi in the room, so she just puts her fingers to her lips to let him know that its 'classified'.

Kyon wonders about these new listening system & GPS tracker technologies that are most likely embedded within both T and Tsuruya, naked to the eye. Maybe the hair pin was a decoy? He then wonders whether Nagato was interfering with them when she was staring at the two girls earlier, as a way of sending their parents into a spin, like in the stories. Kyon thinks he sees Nagato have a very wry smile regardless.

---

5-10. One thing that I have noticed over the course of this short and Seven Wonders Overtime is that the author Nagaru Tanigawa is making his characters act as mouth pieces for his interests in talking about other forms of literature, which is quite irritating to be honest. As if Koizumi has magically read all these fantastical novels. I can see Nagato doing so, yes, T, yes, but Koizumi? When would he have the time? During the middle of the night when fighting celestials? Come on. What's more, I only care for THIS novel series, not what the author wants me to care about. This is the first time I have decided to skim read anything in the Haruhi series.

Luckily after the first third of this chapter it gets much better. Its like the author gets back into the grove of writing again.

If the author ever gets on with it, T could be a great girlfriend for Koizumi. Similar interests and both transfer students. I think something regarding the two of them will happen. May or may not be love related. Just a hunch.

I'm so sorry it took me years to get around to reading this. I'm just as slow at reading as the author is at writing, apparently.

Next up is 'The Theater' according to the publishers. If Tanigawa ever gets around to finishing writing it. It might be about Sliders? I hope so!!

Up next: Nothing for now....

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Animal Crossing Blog: Jan 2024

The annual New Years party was great, as per every year on this island so far to be honest! The fireworks display is second to none. Tom really splashes out on the budget. I don't know where he gets his money from! Actually that's a lie, of course I do, we all do. His mortgage rates! Sigh. Anyway, the party is always very well organised and everyone dresses up.

There is always an annual announcement at 12:15am from Tom, and this one was more interesting than the previous years so far. He announced plans to move the museum, brick by brick, to the center of town. It was previously located in the north western corner of the island due to his initial idea of getting people to move around the island a bit more. However due to the islanders criticism of having to travel such a long way to get to it, more interest in the tourism boom to this island (due to us gaining a 4 star rating), and the expansion of the farm which was also located in the same area (which is a huge export money maker), Tom felt it was necessary to move the museum to the cliff located just above the town hall.

The other major announcement for our island was the inclusion of a new botanical garden, which was set to be located southwest of the town plaza and next to the campsite. This is due to rising tourism yet also for the lack of a social space other than the plaza itself. The botanical garden was to intrude into Lionals property, but Tom was to oversee his move to a new yet unknown area.

On top of all this, Tom announced a new stretch of the highway, to run in a straight line west of the plaza, in line with the eastern highway that already runs in a straight line heading east of the Plaza to shore. The whole project would mean both highways would effectively be dead straight from the south eastern shore to the south western shore, being connected to the plaza in the middle. Unfortunately this also meant intruding into a few gardens, but it was at this point that two rather inebriated Squirrels took over the mic and announced their official love for each other. This being Sally and Filbert. Filbert was supposed to be affected by the highway intrusion plans however Sally drunkenly announced he could just move into her huge island peninsular anyway.

Olivia and I, also very drunk, looked at each other and decided now would be a great opportunity to move next door to each other as well, so in a drunken stupor, we announced to do the same. This meant that in a few minutes Lional went from kinda moving to an unknown place to looking at moving to the land that was currently occupied by both Filbert and Olivia. Overall not a lot of deal breakers.

It's been over half a month now into the new year however things have been moving very fast. The museum was moved, the western highway built, Filbert moved into Sallys peninsula by the river, Olivia moved directly next door to me, and Lional moved into his new property and land space, gaining a slight extra bit of land than he did before. All the residents are extremely happy. In a bizarre move, everyone actually gained more land from the shifting around. The botanical garden is in its final stages of competition, and the farm has expanded on the mountain top. We also have a new wind turbine and solar panel installed by the museum to offset carbon emissions. Tom really knows how to plan a town. It's probably why he's such a tycoon. The major constructions were completed in such a short time so that it didn't really affect the tourism industry. We were also awarded the 5 star island status only a few days ago after an inspection of the new layout. The boost to the island revenue is going to be huge because of this!

Behind us you can see what used to be the locations of Filbert and Olivia's houses. Now this land belongs to Lional.

Filbert and Sally together. They are still deciding on their garden centerpiece.

Animal Crossing Blog: End of 2023 update

I'm writing this because fate gave me a second chance with my beloved Olivia.

Once I came back from my fruitless journey to find my friends, I stayed the mayor of Melodune until the town was fully established. I got so used to landscaping and decorating that it became my professional calling. Basically I was overworking myself to forget about losing Olivia.

Around late 2019, Tom Nook told me of this Island in the South Pacific that he had recently purchased and was moving to, and was head hunting me for my landscaping expertise. When I decided to sign the deal, some of the original remaining Melodune residents including Blathers, Resetti, Mabel and Sable decided to relocate to the island as well. It was very heart warming to know a fair few of us would still be neighbors as we are one big family really. I did connect well with the locals that moved into Melodune after the original residents decided to move out, but a lot of them only stayed for a few months or years. Some stayed for the long-term though. Regardless I saw this opportunity as my time to leave too. I also knew in my heart that if Olivia ever did come back to Melodune she would be told of my new location, so I wasn't ever worried about that.

Once again I decided to sell all my assets in order to build up a new town hall and an impressive Museum so the new island would be debt free come moving day.

This was march 2020 by this point.

I was given the right to name the island. I decided upon the namesake of the resident parakeet, the 'Kakariki'. I even helped design the flag.

Once we all moved to the Island, I got straight to work on the landscaping. It needed a lot of work including re directing the river. I was done with the basics within the first year. After that all that was left to do was razing funds for decorations.

Occasionally campers would come and visit. And one such camper just so happened to be my Olivia last week! I was stunned when I entered the tent. I couldn't believe it. Olivia was right in front of me. Obviously I convinced her to stay. But I also wanted to know why she broke my heart nearly 11 years ago.

She explained that leaving Melodune around the time of the railroad construction was too much for her, likewise as it was with all the other residents. She missed me terribly but couldn't stand to lose to her own principles. She invested in Melodune for the quite life, and for a time things were fine, but the railroad and landscaping situation was anything but quite. She couldn't come back as she wanted the town to remain how she remembered it in her memories.

She decided to travel. And spent the last 11 or so years going from place to place without feeling attached to anywhere or anyone in particular. One day she was reading a magazine and saw an article about the worlds richest tycoons, with Tom Nook being in that list. In the article about Tom it mentioned the island of Kakariki where he resides now. There was even a blurb about myself as the island landscaper. Olivia was so blown away by this that she decided to pick up her things and head straight here.

I do forgive her and understand her reasons. I just wish she wrote to me occasionally. She treasured our relationship yet considered it something belonging of the past. Only over time did she come to realize she was just being stubborn. Her travelling around gave her new perspectives in life and changed her personality slightly. I've been with her a number of days now and she's a lot calmer than before. Not so snobbish like before, so yes I believe in her.

It didn't take even a day before we decided to be a couple again. It was an emotional reunion. She decided to move here permanently and really loves having her house and furniture out of storage. Because she is such a close neighbor I have joined our lands together with a shared fence line.

The happy couple

Review: Tenchi Muyo OVA 5 episode 3 (episode 27)

After nearly 30 years, this anime series has finally surpassed the number of episodes of an average TV series *slow clap*.
The animation looks sloppy. I know its better than OVA 4 at least, but after rewatching Code Geass this week, which aired in what, 2006?, this series looks marginally worse.
The plot is really unthought of. Its a no brainer to have had an episode show Sasami's transition into Tsunami, but we got none of it.
In fact the whole episode, and series thus far, seems to be an animatic or radio drama with light animation.
This episode didn't tell any storyline that wasn't covered in its 2 minute trailer. The household visit the spaceship island. Oh and Kajishima inserts a bunch of new characters. The end.

FANFICTION: How To Erase 'Star Trek: Picard'

How To Erase 'Star Trek: Picard'.
by Alan Morton.

Captain: "Stardate blar blar blar, meaningless numbers.
Un route to Galfrean 4 with the Romulan ambassador Fhqwhgads, our Bridge finds itself compromised by the sudden strange presence of a man in a back suit. He has taken the liberty to somehow change the bridge to look like a funeral parlour, including ourselves to wear black attire, suitable for such occasions….."

Man: *floundering around* "Ohhhhh woah is I on such a monumentally tragic day!"
Captain: *look of horror at this black dressed figure. "What is the meaning of this? Who or what are you? What have you done with my ship?"
Man: *looks around* "You must be the captain, I presume?"
Captain: "Yes. Now change this, and us, back to how it was immediately".
Man: "Oh, well you don't look very much like a captain to me".
Number 1: "What is the meaning of this? Are you from the race known as the 'Q'?"
Q: "Very clever. Sharp. Intelligent. Now you should be the captain of this starship, wouldn't you agree, captain?"
Captain: "The Q? Right. Right. The federation has not had a run in with the entity known as the Q for a few decades now".
Q: "Oh quite the contrary mon ami. You lesser species are frequented by us more than you realise. Why, just now I have come from the funeral of Jean Luc Picard. So tragic. So very sad". *starts sobbing again*
Number 1: "Jean- Admiral Picard is dead?"
Q: "Oh why yes! The once famous captain of The Enterprise has passed on to the other side..." *Hand gestures into the air*
Ensign: "Captain? Sir?"
Q: "Well not one from this Enterprise, obviously, little girl. The one from 20 odd years ago. Oh, what jolly times we had. Such sweet memories".
Captain: "And, this is why you feel it appropriate to see how the current Enterprise and its crew is doing?"
Q: "In a way, yes. My trip down memory lane made me acutely interested in the most recent iteration to bear the name". *Changes the ship and crew back to normal with a snap of his fingers* "However this vessel is by no means as impressive or aesthetically pleasing. What's with all the grey?" *changes the bridge to look more colourful and less dark* "Now this is much better.."
Captain: "Is this all a game to you?"
Number 1: *playing along* "Oh I believe the ship holds up pretty well to your, expectations, Q". "This is after all the most advanced starship in the quadrant".
Q: "Oh really? I'll have you know there is no such thing! I watched with delight the downfall of your, Federation. It was all very, very, amusing to me really. Brought down by the Romulans, including a certain individual standing on this very Bridge, no less". *pans over to the Romulan ambassador*
Fhqwhgads: "Me?! This is absurd. Captain this is a mockery and an outrage on my people and the current state of affairs!".
Q: "Oh but it's true! You and your fleet were smarter, quicker, and outgunned the squabbling feeble Federation, sending them to their knees and their ultimate demise. It was such a sight to behold! Oh the joy it brought me! To be proven right that you humans are all nothing but a savage race was such sweet sorrow". *Becomes distant in thought*
Captain: *looks to Number 1 in confusion*
Q: "...of course after reviling in merriment for a few millennia, I got bored. Tired. I missed the fun and excitement of days gone by. Oh I thought long and hard, agonising over my loss and the constant feeling of nothingness, but eventually I decided to rectify the situation by changing the past. It was all I could do to feel whole, myself, again". *Stares into space*
Security chief: "Captain, permission to deal with our Intruder!" *takes out phaser*
Captain: "No!" *Looks to Q cautiously* "Changing the past? Does the Q Continuum even have such powers?"
Q: "You really don't know much about us do you? Yes, I realised your demise as a species started with an ill timed supernova in Romulan space. I simply went back and stabilised the star. Very simple. It allowed me to once again watch my flock of humans flounder around space, struggling once again to justify their fragile existence". *smug faced*
Number 1: "And? Are you satisfied with our progress?"
Q: "Oh, there is no question that you are a savage race, but I admit I do find you all very amusing. I think I will, pop in again sometime. I need to go continue my mourning and visit some more places that remind me of the recently deceased. Until next time. Ta Ta!". *Snaps fingers, and disappears*
Number 1: "Well, I'm glad that's over".
Security chief: "But sir, what about the state of the Bridge?"
Captain: "Q! I know you are still there! Change this mockery back to how it was immediately! Q!.... Q!".

REVIEW: Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki OVA 5 episode 1 (episode 25)

Episode 1 (episode 25):

This was an okay episode. I get that the most immediate story to tell in this franchise is that of Kenshin and Reia, so they are finally starting to deal with the story of Reia's origins, how she met Kiyone, and what Kiyone did to figure out how to send Reia's son or daughter back to her world (Geminar).

Chibi-Tokimi was in this episode too, which was great. Its nice to have it established that she knows of Geminar, as that dimension is under her jurisdiction. Whats most intriguing though is a new character called Jovia, who is associated with Seinas gang. At some point Seina and his wives were 'playing' an RPG type fantasy game turned real in another dimension, also under Tokimi's jurisdiction. Jovia is from this world, and has actual magic, which somehow is compatible with the laws of physics in the Tenchi dimension, cause she was able to summon a sea dragon.

Tennyo is in this episode too, finally shown with her real hair colour, and not in disguise to look like her mother, as she was portrayed in OVA3. Its about time! Tennyo is in the Tenchi household to sort through her mothers notes on how to deal with sending Kenshin to Geminar. So far its taking her 5 years!

Also another nice touch was that now, officially, Seina's home on earth has been transferred to the Tenchi Household. Probably cause its tucked out the way from view from the rest of the village. Talking of which we get an excellent overview of the Tenchi house and surrounding mountains, and its location away from the village. Nice touch AIC. Much appreciated.

As much as everyone wants to see the original girls banter over Tenchi, we have these plot holes left to fill, and I would rather see them sorted out before moving on.

The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Seven Wonders Overtime

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Seven Wonders Overtime- the second short story of "The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 11)

Set at the end of May.

Kyon and Koizumi are trying their best to play a classical Japanese poetry game in the literary club room, with Asahina trying to help the boys, and Nagato instantly coming up with the answers.

After giving up that game, they just start getting into a new card game, when bam! The club room door is hit hard from the other side. Everyone looks at the door and then a tap tap could be heard from the bottom of it.

Asahina opens the door to be greeted by a blonde girl holding a mountain of books and notes. That explains the door kicking, thinks Kyon. The student asks to be let in. She is apparently helping 'Haru' by delivering these books to the SOS club room. Standing there, she asks Kyon for help with the books, saying his name wrong. She catches him off guard by calling him 'Kyam', saying its hard to pronounce his 'Kyon' nickname (Later on, Koizumi thinks this could pose troublesome if Haruhi finds out that a girl has a new nickname/pet name for Kyon).

Kyon helps the girl, recognising her as a fellow classmate from 2-5. The books are all supernatural based. The girl explains that Haruhi ran into her during lunchtime that day, asking her if she knew anything of the schools '7 wonders'.
The girl explains that she is a member of the Mystery Research Society. She goes on to say that after Haruhi asked the question, she went to the chairman of her society and asked if there was anything regarding a possible 7 wonders that could have been passed down from previous generations of pupils. The answer was no, so the girl reported this back to Haruhi.

Kyon asks the girl how she ended up having to carry such a large amount of books to the SOS club room. She replies that even she doesn't know. He asks her to take them back, but she refuses, implying he is being rude. She then asks him why he doesn't call her by her name, in which he replies that he cant remember everyone's names from the new class after only 2 months of school term. Besides, she is a transfer student for this new school year.

The girl turns her attention to Nagato, requesting politely of her to compile a club journal for the mystery society. She pleads for it to be ready for the cultural festival in the autumn, saying that Nagato is a great writer. Nagato looks up to Kyon, questioningly. The girl takes this as a form of a positive response. She quickly shakes Nagato's hand, then eyes up a book she likes from the bookshelf, almost in disbelief of the fact its a first edition. She again pleads with Nagato to borrow the book, once more asking Kyon to translate Yuki's answer of 'Yes'. The girl once more shakes Nagato's hand excitedly and takes her leave.

Koizumi and Kyon discuss these 7 wonders, hopeful they dont turn into a reality of Suzumiya's making. Koizumi picks out a book left by the girl from the mystery society. He tells two stories in Japanese folklore about instances of demons being recorded, but also explains logically how it was humans who were involved after all.

The group are trying to come up with a plan to dispel any weird consequences of Haruhis current interest. They conclude that whats needed to be done is to create North High’s seven wonders themselves, under a safe environment and not just magically created by Suzumiya. Kyon says it would be a bad idea to plan such a scheme in the club room, in case she bursts in with their notes and plans scattered on the long table, but Koizumi rests assured that his people know where she is, and is keeping him up to date on her location via his phone. They share their thoughts and wonder if Haruhi could jump ship from school wonders into full blown looking for world wonders instead. Kyon says that she would make a great archeologist, but Koizumi retracts that by asking about the repercussions of finding something that could change humanities known past (This reminds me of the metallic object they found on Tsuruyas estate).

One idea they come up with is to change the alloy composition of a possible Ninomiya Kinjirō statue, that could magically reveal itself in the school grounds, so that it could potentially change its look slightly at night, returning to its original composition when the sun rises.

Another idea is to have some sort of music playing in an empty music room, playing it off as being an alarm once Haruhi catches wind of it.

Another idea is to create a mystery around a school passageway mirror, so that in the dead of a night with a first quarter moon, if a person’s whole body is reflected in it, the molecule structures of their body’s amino acids are then reflected. Also, if they execute the second round of radio exercises, their reflection in the mirror will have a slight discrepancy in the stopping action at the final moment. Occasionally, a doppelganger might come out of the mirror, but chance of that happening is very low. It is rumored that even if the doppelganger does show up, it immediately disappears.

Their next idea is a door which seldom opens. They say the mystery could be a toilet cubicle that upon exit, takes you out of the cubicle door next to it. But if this is too boring, it could be a door where a person could be transported to a different world, in which they live in for two months. However, on their return, they find that only one hour has passed in the real world, and they also lose all their memories of the other world. Without ironing out the finer details, they move on to the next mystery.

The next story is one that was actually reported from the mystery society, about a biology dummy that freaks people out by being in different places. But the more they research the incidents, the more they conclude that the mystery society probably fabricated the story just to please Haruhi.

The Seventh Wonder of the Seven Wonders is unknown, and cannot be known. That is the mystery of the Seventh Wonder.

Nagato types the rough notes into a polished copy within seconds, and prints it out. Haruhi then barges into the club room not long after, to announce that they should create some mysterious wonders of school. She says the school hasn't been around for such a long time, so naturally there wouldn't be so many stories, but that shouldn't stop them from creating such strange stories about the school, to pass down to future generations of pupils.

Kyon takes control of the situation and passes the printout to her. Reading it, Haruhi seems dejected at first but claims she is proud of her brigade members. All this time she was forced to play Shogi by the school principle whilst she was questioning him for school wonders (meaning he is on Koizumi's team). She gets upset that she couldn't help them coming up with ideas for the wonders, so she says she will think up an eight wonder.

---

6-10. This wasn't the greatest of continuations that I've ever read, but none the less at least it actually IS a continuation. So far this is the most recent we have seen the story go to, end of May 2004, other than the moment Kyon was taken to the future with an older Haruhi in college. The new girl could be very interesting indeed, but who knows! I look forward to a possible continuation with this nameless character.

You know I cant help but think if they didn't want Haruhi to create any 'seven wonders', they could have simply consulted in Yasumi and ask her not to do so? They should always have asked Yuki of Yasumi's whereabouts and simply requested for Haruhi not to do anything dumb. But I guess we wouldn't get any more stories if this happened? I dunno. This to me is still a major plot hole from here on out.

Up next: Tsuruya's Challenge

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"I'm Back everyone!"

Music: I have completed my Bis collection!

I have finally completed my Bis collection. To celebrate, here's a poster I created, listing every song Bis have (ever?) done.

Its as complete as I have been able to research and collect. This has taken me months and its cost me a fair bit too! Worth it though!

https://imgur.com/a/L9ftWaP

REVIEW: FLCL 3 - 'Alternative'

I'm not exactly happy. Its just a generic 'flat' anime. Nothing seems epic or over produced. Every frame in the original was designed and animated with care and attention. Here, its just flat and boring like a lot of other anime out there. Tis a shame.

In episode 1, Why the pillows featured in mid episode whilst a montage of future episodes happen is beyond me. I just checked and this wasn't included in the Japanese version. Its in the advert break. Why did the American version have this?

Episode 2 is showing itself to be equally as good. Its on par with how good the first series was during its normal scenes. Though to be honest this has more in-tune hi junks than Progressive. It just shows that its creators have genuinely studied the first series for ideas and to retain as much of the original tone as possible.

The rest of the episodes are okay. Still fan fiction but trying too hard to be the same as series 1 but in disguise. Reminds me of how The Force Awakens was too similar to the first Star Wars trilogy. At least this is set in an alternative universe. its no sequel. But its still pointless. 5-10

REVIEW: FLCL 2 - 'Progressive'

This isn't even a shadow of its former self. A shadow is still part of a person. This is more like having someone else's body parts, an arm or a leg, attached to what was already a perfect human being.

For starters, this isn't made from the original creators. At best this is made from fans. No scratch that, FLCL was never popular in Japan. This is made from individuals that may or may not have worked at Gainax during the animator manufacturer years. You know, the more recent years where they churn out animators all the friggin time then bring in fresh blood. Rinse and repeat.

To say the show is now 'flat' compared to the original is an understatement. There are almost NO high-jinks. There is now flat animation scenes with no zanyness pushed to 11.

Whats really terrible is that they missed a trick. During the promotional campaign I would have thought that the character Julia Jinyu was actually Haruko's boss. You know, the one that she was talking too via Naota's cat.

If they wanted to do a sequel right, why not have its climax being Haruko actually finding and capturing Atomsk's power. Maybe she needed Naota after many years of attempting solo, or behind the scenes trying (and failing) with humans, like Amarao was? Why not have it that the kids from the original show are now in those terrible in-between months / years of adjusting from a school/uni life to having real world jobs. That would be cool, right?
Instead we have this amazing opportunity ruined in the ending credits of the first episode, which wraps up Haruko defeating Atomsk who doesn't even look to be captured by Medical Mechanica. Sigh...

The Pillows being back is cool and all, however its off. This is because most of the time in the original, the voice track would be removed. Especially during moments when the characters are talking. Here, the songs are played with the voice track in tact, clashing with what the characters are saying, and for me, ruining the mood.

The kids in this series are lame and uninteresting.

Why were some punks in episode 2 talking Japanese? Did Cartoon Network have no budget for hiring a few voice actors?
WFT so the main characters can fly now? Yuh hu..

In episode 3 Haruko tries to fly but falls. Yuh Hu..

In episode 4, Haurko says she doesn't take orders. Yuh Hu.. series 1 she was getting orders from whoever she was talking to from the cat.

In my opinion they cant fly unless they have their colour powers. If that's what you call it.

Episode 6 was the only genuinely interesting episode, though the animation is sloppy as hell.

REVIEW: Pogo- Ascend

For starters, I try before I buy. I'm no collector, So I dont think Star Charts nor any album before this is worth a purchase (not talking about EP's or singles). I consider Kindred Shadow the first REAL album from Nick. That was flawless. I'm no fan of artists like Pogo/Nick re-using samples in later songs. Its like they arnt happy with the original. There are 3 songs which I deleted off of Weightless because I felt they just didn't belong. These were Trumpular (god- no, not Trump), Hoo ba ba Kanda (its just more annoying Americans), and Dream Reaper (sounded evil- and it uses samples from the previous album). I'm pleased with this new album. In actual fact I think its solid. Its dreamy, the flow of the songs fit nicely, and nothing sounds off, apart from Take Those Pills, which doesn't have a place on the album but feels like the eccentric kid in the middle.

The mess that is Clamp, and why i'm now avoiding them

UPDATE:

I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.




 -------

 OLD:


I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.

After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.

Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.

I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.

Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.

Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.

As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.

With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.

And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.

So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?

Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.

Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:

Episode one clearly repeated events showing Sakura and Shouron at the airport just before he left for Hong Kong. This means that the episode 'prologue' doesn't happen in the Clear Card arc. HOWEVER, the background during this shot is not exactly the same. The moment is the same yet the airport layout with the air hostess and the guy with the green bag are completely different.

AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now! this ISNT set in the early 2000's meaning its NOT the original anime canon.

Okay now I'm pissed off. This episode just said that Sakura stayed up all night to give Shouron a bear before he left. That never happened in the original anime, that was in the 'prologue'. Whats more that happened at a bus stop in the prologue, but this episode earlier referred to the airport scene in the original anime. And there is absolutely no way the prologue happened after the second movie so WTF?

---

No way am I watching this clusterfuck. Seriously, how much effort does it take for writers to understand the previous plot? HELLO! WATCH THE FINAL FEW EPISODES! sloppy. No way am I watching a window into a CCS universe that is somewhere between the original anime and the 'prologue', yet set in modern times.

There are now 3 Cardcaptor Sakura anime universes because of this fucking mess.

---

And that's why I have decided to stop out-rightly being interested in anything Clamp do ever again.

They never officially ended TusbaHoli, and have decided to undo any endings for Cardcapor Sakura too. This is a total clusterfuck. I never read the Cardcapor Sakura manga and therefore don't care for events that happen in that world, INCLUDING this clear card arc sequel. I realise now I'm only interested in watching a direct sequal to the original Cardcapor Sakura anime, leading off from its second movie.

Now that its 100% official that the Clear Card arc anime is NOT a direct sequel to its original anime, I'm past caring. I'm still interested in continuing the TsubaHoli manga though, just because I invested so much time into reading them.

But hell, I'm totally expecting this Clear card arc to never end anyway. Thats just how Clamp works.