The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya- novel 6- Where Did The Cat Go?

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Where Did The Cat Go?- the fourth short story of "The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 6).

Set on new years eve 2003, the day after Snowy Mountain Syndrome, this is the story of the winter version of the murder mystery, with the same people that were on the remote island last summer.

The SOS Brigade have to wait until the afternoon before starting the Murder game. They all decide to stay indoors because Haruhi insists that Yuki needs time to recover, and it would be better if they all had fun together.

Yuki Nagato inspecting her abstract Fukuwarai portrait

As part of the murder game, everyone has to stay in the living room from 2pm-3pm, then have a 5min break before spending another hour in the room. They use this time to have fun with a homemade SOS Brigade board game, where Kyon ends up landing on tasks that requires him to do push ups and other exercises. They also play a game of Fukuwarai, a game much like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but they have to use a picture and cut outs of a face, and in this case, the faces are similar to the participants. Tsuruya ends up in hysterics during this game.

The murder investigation then properly starts. Itsuki assigns himself as the games master, Keiichi Tamaru pretends to be dead in an out building, while Yutaka Tamaru and everyone apart from Arakawa and Mori serve as suspects. A snow storm outside serves as an ideal prop because it would cover up the murderers tracks leading back to the lodge. Shamisen the cat is also used as a prop because he is locked inside the out building along with the murder victim, despite the fact he was inside the living room with the others for much of the previous 2 hours.

Haruhi and Tsuruya end up as joint winners because they conclude that Itsuki must be the killer because he was the only one to have left the room during the time that Shamisen was away, and must have been using a fake Shamisen to fool everyone.

Joint winners Tsuruya and Haruhi

Haruhi goes to the bag that Itsuki has been using for the board games and out pops a new cat, one that looks identical to Shamisen but is female. He explains he spend months finding a lookalike calico and training it, and even went as far to dye the cat in places to make it as close looking to Kyons cat. Her name is Shamisen 2.

Haruhi liked the game so much that she declares that she wants next years summer game to be set in a castle overseas, and Tsuruya declares that she could arrange it. Itsuki sighs.

They have a party that night and see the new year in with the phrase "Omedetou Gozaiimasu!"

They plan on playing a Japanese style game of badminton tomorrow, and visiting a shrine when they get back home.

Welcome to 2004.

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7-10. Not a bad short story, not as great as I was expecting, but fun none the less.

Up next: The Prologue to the Intrigues (part 1).

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RANTS: Orange Dolphin pay as you go ate my credit

Topping up £10 gives you 100MB for a month. After the month is passed it eats your credit up in seconds. Ever since I got the phone i have only ever used up 33.11MB.

I installed a statistics app to make sure i would never go beyond that 100MB when not in range of my home router.

This message is made clear and simple so people reading this dont fall into the same trap.

Solution: Permanently turn off mobile internet after that month has passed. Top up when needed then feel free to turn mobile internet on for a month.

The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya- novel 5- Snowy Mountain Syndrome

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Snowy Mountain Syndrome- the third (and last) short story of "The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 5).

Much like how Remote Island Syndrome started, things start out at the bleakest point in the chapter, that being that the SOS Brigade are lost wading through thick snow in the middle of a snow storm. Then the flashback starts.

This flashback takes us back before Love at First Sight. It starts during the SOS Brigade Christmas hot pot party, starting right where The Disappearance left off on December 24th.

When Kyon walks into the club room, he finds Tsuruya among the usual brigade members. Haruhi has invited her as a guest because she has invited the SOS Brigade to her family's villa to go skiing to see the new year in. Kyon thinks that Mikuru must have mentioned something about Haruhi's winter vacation plans to Tsuruya sometime in the last 5 months. Koizumi then chimes in by saying that Tsuruya is providing the setting, but he is planning the event, which will be another detective game involving the same people that were on the remote island.

The hot pot goes well. Afterwards they continue their party around Yuki's apartment, where Kyon and Haruhi play a game of Twister. Unfortunately not much else is mentioned about this party.

Fast forward to the 30th December. Kyon's packing to leave very early in the morning, and his sister finds out. She clings to his bags and demands to go too. Unlike last time, Kyon allows her to tag along. The cat Shamisen is also needed so he tags along in a carry cage. Everyone meets at the station and boards a train which takes them deep into the mountains. They are met at the mountain station by Butler Arakawa and Mori the maid, where they then board a truck driven by Mori to a short journey to Tsuruya's family lodge. There is a ski slope a short walk away and Haruhi is raring to get out there. Tsuruya explains that the complex used to be privately owned by her family, until they sold it 10 years ago. Hence why its not very busy or popular by the tourists.

Yuki takes to the slopes with no fuss. Mikuru gets into it after a bit of practice. Tsuruya teaches Kyon's sister how to ski, but they end up building snowmen. Haruhi gathers the official SOS brigade members to ski together, but out from nowhere an unexpected snow storm turns up. They stick very close together because the snow comes down so hard they cannot see that far ahead. Yuki leads the way but after a while she informs Kyon that they should be back by now. After half an hour of walking and getting lost, Haruhi spots artificial light in the distance. They walk towards it, which turns out to be a huge western style mansion with its lights on in every room. They knock on the door but nobody answers. They decide to go inside otherwise it would mean freezing to death. Haruhi and Kyon inspect the house for residents whilst the others stay in the lobby. Every room is devoid of people.

Haruhi has a heart to heart with Kyon alone on one of the upper floors. Its the first time shes had a chance since Someday In The Rain. She suspects Kyon of becoming intimate with Yuki. Kyon makes a story up on the spot about how shes feeling emotionally wrecked due to family issues which could see her being transferred from school in a few months for the start of their second year. He strains the point that she lives alone but her family want her back. Its a lie but Haruhi buys it.

They go back to Mikuru, Koizumi and Yuki in the lobby. Kyon is taken to one side out of earshot of Haruhi. Apparently they have been gone 3 hours, whilst it seemed like only 10mins or so for Kyon. The group decide that its best to stick together. They end up making sandwiches, deciding on the rooms to sleep in, and eventually Haruhi and the two other girls take a lavish bath together. Its during this time that Kyon talks to Koizumi about events that happened and things that still need to be sorted out from the Disappearance arc. Koizumi says that he feels like Yuki's power may be slipping because she's becoming more like a typical high school girl, and the same goes for Haruhi too. hummmm........

We learn that Yuki's connection to the Integrated Data Sentient Entity has been severed, and that the mansion is a trap designed to keep them locked in there together forever, which means its not Haruhis fault this time.

That night, each member has a dream of seeing a fake duplicate of another SOS brigade member in his/her room. Its implied that said duplicate is coming onto each person. Kyon has a dream about Mikuru coming onto him, Haruhi has a dream about Kyon, Mikuru has a dream of Haruhi (lol), Koizumi has one with Kyon for some reason ( :X ) and Yuki has one about Kyon.
In each case the real person chases the duplicate out of the room. They then wake up and begin to continue chasing them out into the hallway. They all simultaneously open their doors to find each other standing there at the exact same time. They then explain each of their dreams to each other.
I would like to point out here that Haruhi is coping quite well under the circumstances. This is her first proper adventure with the SOS Brigade, discounting the time She and Kyon had that adventure in the school grounds with the Celetrials blowing everything up.

Yuki collapses right there and then in her doorway, saying that things have taken a toll on her. Haruhi takes charge and concludes that she has a fever. She orders everyone about to collect things to aid her.

After Kyon collects an ice pack from the fridge, he finds Koizumi wondering what on earth a maths equation is doing placed on the front door. They deliberate what its all about for a while until Haruhi turns up. She nags at them to get a move on, but then she too helps them figure out how to solve it.

In a nutshell according to Haruhi, Yuki was muttering a word that sounded like "Kyon", but Koizumi realises must have been the word "Yon", or four in Japanese. This is the answer they need to solve the maths problem. Koizumi explains that the dreams they had was all done by Yuki on purpose to determine the answer of four. Anyway, they sort out the riddle and the door opens.

A second later they all find themselves back on the ski slope on a beautiful day. Haruhi broods over Nagato, despite the fact that Nagato is now back to normal. Koizumi, Kyon and Yuki refuse to speak of their adventure whilst Haruhi talks about it to them as if it was as real as anything. Mikuru slips up and agrees with Haruhi about the experience. This leaves koizumi to start explaining some ridiculous story about group hypnotism. Haruhi buys it, eventually, though sort of doesn't because she carries yuki back to the lodge on her back, and forces her to rest in bed.

Personally I think this adventure has shown Haruhi to cope well with strange goings on happening around her. I would bet that she's ready to know exactly what she is now.

Tsuruya explains to Kyon that her intuition tells her that she knows the SOS Brigade is mysterious, and that its members are not normal humans, apart from Kyon that is. Kyon feels like she should become a full time brigade member.

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9-10. As I mentioned this chapter is interesting because Haruhi is active during when all the weird stuff is going on. She copes really well, including during the moment when things go from the mansion back to reality.

Tsuruya explaining to Kyon that she 'knows' about the club activities is interesting. I'm now expecting her to join in next time something weird happens. Haruhi would cope too, but I doubt she will join in until the end of the series, though she kinda proves here that she wont freak out about it when she learns the truth.

Kyon keeps mentioning Sliders. He's expecting one to turn up, which makes me think that this may happen soon.

Up next: we are continuing with the snowy retreat story in Where Did The Cat Go?

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Thoughts: Oh My Goddess!

Yeah I dunno what happened. I decided in the summer just to read them all in one hit. So i did. I tried to blog my way through them, and kept a review in edit which was on the permanent back burner. It needed to be completed, so i did it just now. My love for the series diminished completely. Fujishima just keeps retconning things to the point that it ends up being nothing like the original vision. Im not saying its a bad series, its just been overdone. Things would have worked better if it just ended, and not come out with boring lack luster events. This series was all about K1 and bell's relationship, which may be getting sorted out now after the hell arc, but things still dont feel right. The movie did it better.

REVIEW: Oh My Goddess!- Manga volumes 29-

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Volume 29:

The Polka-Dotted Cat and the Broom Race arc (continued):

Belldandy and chibi Hild are still racing. Bell damages her broom and starts to slow down. Watching on TV at home, Velsper comes up with an idea to help out. As Hild and Belldandy passes overhead, K1 thwacks the poor hairy cat with a baceball bat into the sky, which is timed perfectly so she can join Belldandy. the cat uses itself to stabilize the part of the brush that is damaged, so the broom can get back to full power.

Eventually Hild looses because Gluhende Herz is apparently a short range racer.
As the loser, Hild has to tell them what to do to sort out Velspers problem. She needs to name her recently acquired angel. Thats it.

Urd and Skuld spend the next chapter pestering Velsper about what name she has chosen for her angel. After chacing the cat around town, belldandy reminds urd that the naming process requires 2 goddess witnesses and must be done by the time the sun sets after the name is chosen. The cerimony begins and the name velsper chooses is 'Wasp of the Blue Lance'.

Urd: First Class Goddess Candidate arc:

Peorth informs Urd that she has been chosen to become a first class goddess. apparently its one of the resons Peorth is on earth in the first place.

Urd was originally turned down when they were kids. After passing a test from belldandy a spell is cast upon urd which sees her first class powers unlocked, which is immense. Urd is tested a few time.

Volume 30:

One of the tests is to make K1 truly happy by the time its sun set.

The scene then changes to the past and to the time that Urd was originally rejected. I personally thought she was rejected because of racism, but it turns out that it was because of another reason. Either way young urd told young belldandy
that it was because she 'lied'.

Belldandy and K1 are walking around town. Urd causes it to rain in the hopes of the couple foring to find shealter in a love hotel.
Sex isnt on the mind however for belldandy and she asks K1 if its alright for her to use her powers to make the rain stop. K1 then buys an umbrella and they walk out into the rain. Its the act of being forced to shair an umbrella that makes K1 truly happy, which then makes Urd pass this test. In the end though urd chooses to stay a second class goddess, not because of being able to lie, but because she doesnt want the power to protect the universe, but the power to protect her family. i also suspect that having too much power may be a bad thing for if the devil in her turns it to the gods disadvantage.

The "I love You" arc:

Peorth and later on Chihiro try to teach K1 to say the three magic words to Belldandy. Peorth tells K1 that he has a "limiter on his heart" which is holding him back. So she tries to help by forcing him to ignore it. K1 practices saying it to Peorth and Belldandy walks in the room.

Volume 31:

Its painfully obvious that they were just practicing, and nothing comes from it.

Peorth is teasing him. he ends up next to bell and is about to confess his true feelings to her when Urd forces him to swallow a pill. K1 goes to say how much he loves her, but the word forces her to collapse in emotion. this is urds pill at work.

skuld interfeers and he says the l word to her too, which makes hr collapse too. in the end, the other goddesses get caught in the trap too.

The Gate arc:

Peorths time on earth is over, but she cant get back. The gate functionality is wrong. it turns out that he gate is a living being, in the shape of a girl. It/she explains that she is on strike because she wants experiance living a life like everyone else do. all she ever gets is a copy of peoples memories when they pass through her, but he says she wants to create her own memories.

they let her have fun, and she even kisses peorth which is funny. but she next wants to kiss the others. she kisses urd and skuld, and wants to kiss bell and k1.

things are sorted out when K1 says love to her. yup, his spell is still in effect. in the end she turns back into a proper looking gate, but will only allow Peorth passage under a certain speed because shes just rebooted, or something.

Volume 32:

Miss Gate is transfered to another plane so she woulnt be board.

Beach Vacation arc part 1- The Lorelei:


Chihiro decides its time for a beach vacation, leaving Otaki and Tamiya to run the shop.

K1 and Bell are on the beach. K1 cannot swim and starts to drown, and notices a mermaid like creature in the water at the time. Bell saves him and the issue of his lack of ability to swim is brought up with the others.

Back at the inn K1 collapses due to a song he hears.

Something causes him to run about frantically to find Bll to tell her how much he loves her.

That night a song forces him to sleep walk to the beach to meet a mermaid like creature called a Lorelei. But the goddesses follow.

The female Lorelei tries to kidnap K1. Belldandy starts brewing up another one of her jellousy storms, this appears to be more powerful then in past situations. Other Lorelei turn up and explain something about a love festival.

A song is sung, K1 is treated and everything is normal again. Male lorelei turn up and the females make for a quick exit. Why would they retreat if they are celebrating a love festival? Maybe im thinking too much into this.

Volume 33:

Beach Vacation arc part 2- Motor contest:

Chihiro asks K1 what sort of motor he would like to build. She asks her local friends for help, and soon enough they are building two different vehicles, to be swapped for their test drive. Urd and Skuld interfeer. K1's is built for fun, whilst Chihiro's is built for speed. Bell learns that the other two goddess have sabotarged the bikes, so goes off on Chihiro's bought bike to rescue them, which she customises along the way using her power. She really hadnt have bothered because things are fine. Chihiro rides her custom bike home, and fails to notice it changing back along the way. FFS.

Volume 34:

Back home, Otaki and Tamiya have made a mess of whirlwind. Stuff happens regarding a bike.

Sentaro makes Skuld control her powers a little better.

Volume 35:

Sentaro was worried about moving, but it turns out to be nearby.

The next story is about a old style camera that holds memories.

Megumi gets dumped.


Volume 36:

Everyone looses there memories due to something to do with skuld and urd. Things are sorted out when K1 recites his wish to Bell.

Volume 37:

Chrono arc:

Goddess Chrono arrives in town. Apparently the songs of the world are being deleted. They have adventures around town to find and repear the program, or something.

Volume 38:

Oh yeah, she also has a thing against cats.

The Hell arc:

The longest arc ever. this should mark the end of the tired series.

Hild gets overthrown, and its up to the gang to go into hell and sort it all out, defeating demons one at a time.

Volumes 39,40,41,42,43:

Still in the hell arc. nuff said.


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Go here http://lanssidequest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thoughts-oh-my-goddess.html