Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Haruhi Parodies and Easter Eggs

Firstly. Yoroshikun, I am Darkshaunz and Retsgip has so kindly allowed to contribute to this really awesome Anime blog. Retsgip, depsite his ever busy real life schedule, manages some time to update this little corner of passion. I am a big supporter of his work as it is also major passion of mine. I’ve decided to focus my entries on Feature Anime themes, New anime releases and also a kind of Insight into certain anime which you may have missed. Plus even though I am a contributor now, I am still a hopeless Retsgip anime-review fanboy.

Now then, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is not just a great anime in itself, but it also pays tribute to so many cult hit animes and also many mainstream anime. It’s main characters are unique to the anime, obviously, but they draw on many inspirations as well. In every episode, there are easter eggs which can be easily missed, and I have taken it in my stride to sift through as many as I can and dig up anything I can find. I also used a good old-fashioned research technique in my quest to preserve the Imperial Glory of the SoS-Brigade.

In writing this, I will automatically assume that you have seen the whole series, and if you have not already, I will kindly ask you to stop reading at this point. Grab all the necessary episodes you need (all 14 of them) from searching torrents via http://www.mininova.org or you may wait until it’s licensed and DvD-ed (that might take close to a year though).

Let’s start with Haruhi Suzumiya herself. Protrayed as our modern day God, who is clueless of who she truly is, Haruhi Suzumiya is actually a direct parody to many female leads who start off strong, stern and relatively cold to the male lead, but end up showing their softer side as the series progresses. This is called “Tsundere”, for those of you who are familiar with this term, you would know that Tsundere comes from Tsun-Tsun (Cold and Strong) to Dere-Dere (Soft and Gentle).

This can be shown in a simple 3-picture diagram:

In Episode 2, Haruhi says that an attraction for many people are Lolita-type characters. She then flashes to Japanese/Anime magazines in front of Kyon as an example. Upon close inspection. it would seem that Kyoani nearly gave us the slip again. Guess who is on the cover of the magazines?!? (which happen to be Megane, a sexy moe magazine which I would kill someone for a subscription). They are none other than Kaede-chan, Asa-sempai and Nerine-chan from the H-game convert anime known as Shuffle! Coincidentally, they are very much lolita characters and is also one worth watching.

Next up is Yuki Nagato, everybody’s favourite Silent-Moe-Loli-Robot-Killer Alien (Phew, what a mouthful). The most obvious character Yuki Nagato is parodying is Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Rei Ayanami. Their physical resemblance is obvious from the offset, Short and weird coloured hair for a normal person and both have an attachment to glasses in some sense. We know that in NGE, Rei obssesses over Ikari Gendou’s glasses, and in one instant in Melancholy, Yuki worries about materializing her glasses after saving Kyon from a killer class president. They are both quiet in demeanour and share a warm relationship (platonic) with the male lead. Just like Rei shares a very warm bond with Shinji Ikari.

In Episode 14, aka The Kyon x Haruhi episode, we were too wrapped up with Kyon locking lips with God. the whole episode actually parodies the End of Evangelion when Shinji and Asuka start a whole new world from scratch, Shinji plays God in this section and chooses Asuka/Rei Hybrid as his Eve on this new world (Look at Asuka properly, she has Rei’s eyes). Also, pay close attention to the orchestral/biblical music playing in the background in the episode…it’s very Evangelion-esque. But, the main parody is more obvious, it comes through in the form of the destructive giants, aka “Haruhi’s (aka God) Servants” to rid her of boredom-related stress. What do you call helpers to the Jeudo-Christian God? Angels. And Adam, the first angel was the most destructive of all of God’s angels in NGE, causing the second impact and killing half the world’s population. Adam and Haruhi’s angels both have destructive power, are eminating lights from their somewhat transparent-selves and are identical in terms of height.

Our Goddess is also a very profound detective! We saw her in action during the episode known as “Remote Island Syndrome”. When she so dramatically executed her “I know Whodunnit” action in such a unique manner….or was it!?? Very smart Kyoani, but you can’t fool us! That was a direct parody to a very popular lawyer game called “Phoenix Wright” for the Nintendo DS. It’s a good game, so if you have a DS, go get it.

Just another about the “Remote Island” syndrome…what about how Itsuki’s relatives were introduced in the episode? Why did they have captions to introduce them? We didn’t get any captions when we met Itsuki, Yuji or even Tsuruya. Why are these guys special? That’s because that style of introducing characters is parodying that of the legendary detective manga series known as “Detective Conan”, in this series, the main characters which will be involved in some crime (usually murder) will be highlighted by the exact same type of captions. I personally have over 30 mangas of Detective Conan, and as with any Conan fan, when we see this type of caption, we instantly know that someone is going to die.

Did you know that Kyoani also made the Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu! series? Well, they did. They sure did reward us Haruhi fans with subtle references to the second FMP series we all knew and loved (I liked TSR the best, but lets leave that for another time ). Apparently Kyon has a Ponytail Fetish with Haruhi…coincidentally Pony man in Fumoffu! had a ponytail fetish too! (He wanted to attack Chidori until Sagara intervened).

The Kyoani easter eggs doesn’t stop there just yet. In the episode, “Mysterique Sign”, listen carefully to what Itsuki says as he launches his Fireball from a volleyball stance. That’s right, he shouts the series titles from Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu and Second Raid. It’s no shameless plug though, because Full Metal Panic series is near-legendary and worth watching too. Hey, these are the folks who made Haruhi, you can’t go wrong with watching an older series they made.

In the Episode “Live”, we were rocked in our socks (and pants - Haruhibunny moar!) by the Goddess and her band, ENOZ. ENOZ is the backwards for “ZONE” a popular Asian music band. There’s also an irony when she played God Bless, seeing that she IS God in the series. But that’s not the parody here, as those are too obvious. The Tribute goes to the instrument that she wields. So its a guitar…whats the big deal? That guitar is a REAL guitar being sold in stores. The Guitar is the Variax 300 Electric Guitar…whats scary is that the colour she is using is a new colour scheme. Just how awesomely up to date are the writers!

In the episode “Day of Saggitarius”, our Commander in Chief wore a crimson red grand admiral uniform. Besides looking smoking hot and moe in it, its also symbolic to another icon in anime/space warfare history. That character is Char Aznable from the venerable mech series, Gundam. Char Aznable is also a great commander in the Gundam series, and led his fleet to many a victory. He was the crimson fist of the Gundam Universe, and he piloted a red Sazabi (which is my favourite gundam type). Not only did the uniform’s main colour match, but Haruhi’s also has golden locks similar to Char’s. The interior of Haruhi’s ship is also mostly red, just like Char’s Red Gundam.

Like many, I am big fan of the episode “Day of Saggitarius”, because it pays tribute to Char and its got a kickass Star-Wars-y feel bla bla. But thats not all. It pays tribute to one of the best Space Combat titles out there today, called Homeworld 2. Have you played Homeworld 2 yet? You need to play it, the feeling of commanding a Space Fleet to crush your enemies is a feeling no other titles can give you. In the anime, the game uses a Flagship system…this is identical in Homeworld 2, where a victory condition is the destruction of your enemy’s Flagship. If you look closely, the ships in Haruhi look like Large cannons basically. This is an exact copy of an unit called the “Ion Cannon Frigate” from the Higaaran Faction in Homeworld 2. Just like the anime game cousin, the Ion Cannon frigate is devastating as it is used to cut Capital Ships to shreds. The anime even tributes PC Games of a Western Background. Win.

I am a massive fan of Shakugan no Shana. I am also a fan of the particular scene where Shana jumps to intercept a lethal missile to save her love, Yuuji. It’s a breaking moment of the series which is highly dramatic and touching. It also pays to know that Shakugan no Shana is the forefather anime to Haruhi, as the publisher used Shana’s success to produce Haruhi. So what…no Shana tribute? Wrong again. In fact, they tributed the most important scene in Haruhi. But you probrably forgot about it because you were too bust watching Yuki Nagato kick Asakura’s hawt moe ass. Yuki too, leaps (AND somersaults) to intercept deadly projectiles to save Kyon’s life. Coincidentally, Yuki and Kyon share a warm relationship (so its no random saving of someone’s life).

If you’ve watched Higurashi no Kara Kiri, then you would know of Satoshi’s silver bat. You should also know that he got transferred out in the series…But where did he transfer out to? Now you are thinking, haha Darkshaunz, I saw no trace of Satoshi walking around Haruhi’s high school after furiously rewatching each episode again (lol, I hope you didn’t). Yes well we never got a glimpse of Satoshi in the anime, but we know he used to be a member of the Literary Club in North High. After all, his beloved Silver Bat is out of reach on a silver cupboard in Haruhi’s clubroom. SOS-Dan…beware! Guys, weird camera angles in this anime always has a Reason (never forget that).

Well, thats it from me. For now.

I hoped you guys enjoyed this entry of mine as much as I enjoyed every single second of creating it. It was a spooky, yet satisfying effort on my behalf. But I live by saying that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is Leagues ahead of it’s time (I say at least 5 years) in terms of doing what it did (Tributing, Parodying and Easter Eggs + Being a rock solid title in all respects), and I have been humbled as a Jaded Otaku, by what has been a Tour de Force of Quality by Kyoani.

God knows, what level of Hidden Secrets Haruhi Season II will bring upon us.

Ja Mattane,
Darkshaunz