FINAL UPDATE: 9/24/11 – Due to Yen Press soliciting an official English release of Surprise, I have removed links to the fan translation

Originally scheduled for release in mid-2007, the 10th volume of the Haruhi light novels, The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyougaku), has been delayed for four years since then. Finally, after getting only a short preview chapter of volume 10 last year, volumes 10 and 11 went on sale in full yesterday in Japan and a few other countries.

In this post, I’ve rounded up all the current spoilers available in English for the new novels, and will continue to update the post when necessary…

WARNING: This post contains major Haruhi spoilers. Do not scroll any further unless you’ve read the novels or you don’t mind being spoiled.

*The majority of these spoilers were provided by my friend and fellow Haruhi enthusiast Ultimatemegax, as well as various 2chan users.*

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The two novels (volumes 10 and 11) were released simultaneously on May 25th in Japan and several other countries. Volume 10 is 291 pages and volume 11 is 282 pages.

(if you need a memory refresher on the events that occur before volumes 10-11, my Haruhi timeline of events should help)

First, some general spoilers:

Kyon meets Yasumi

The new female character, mentioned in the α (alpha) timeline of volume 9 as a freshman showing interest in joining the SOS Brigade, is named Yasumi Watahashi. The plot of both volumes revolves around her existence.

Sketches of Yasumi from the LE booklet

It’s later revealed that she’s actually the human form of Haruhi’s subconscious, which she created in order to save Kyon and Yuki from the events in the β (beta) timeline. Her phone call to Kyon in volume 9 is what begins the divergence between the two timelines. Because she called Kyon in the alpha timeline, she was able to prevent Sasaki from calling him, thus he does not go to meet her and the anti-SOS Brigade group, so the trouble he and the others have with them does not occur. Yasumi is able to shift between the two timelines and even create Closed Space and Celestials, but isn’t considered a slider.

Encounter between Mikuru (big) and Fujiwara

Fujiwara is Mikuru’s younger brother. His goal is to use Haruhi’s powers to alter the space-time continuum in order to save Mikuru from a time crime. However, Mikuru (big) denies having a younger brother and says that they may have been siblings in the past, but now (in the future?) they are not.

Kyon’s encounter with Kuyou from ch.1 of vol. 10

The preview chapter that was released last year is the first chapter of volume 10. It’s the only chapter where Asakura and Kimidori do anything major. Same with Kuyou, though apparently she’s the mastermind behind Fujiwara’s plot.

Below are scans of Noizi Itou’s illustrations from volume 11:

Points of interest for each character in the different timelines (rough translations from a 2chan post):

Alpha timeline:
Haruhi – Flirts with Kyon and perhaps begins the process of going to the same university?
Kyon – Flirts with Haruhi and has doubts about Yasumi
Mikuru – Thinks Yasumi is *ADORABLE!*
ITDE Interfaces – Nothing
Koizumi – Advises Kyon and has meaningless conversations
Yasumi – The expected new member? Takes guidance from Kyon and integrates the routes
Sasaki/others – Not seen

Beta timeline:
Haruhi – Takes care of Yuki
Kyon – Is ordered to hand over Haruhi’s power to the Sasaki side
Yuki – Has the “cold” due to contact from the Sky Canopy Domain
Koizumi – Advises Kyon, but finally shows his true character
Sasaki – Doesn’t want to go along with the others’ request. Seems to be infatuated with Kyon. Declares that she wants to change the world with Kyon.
Kyouko – Apologizes from beginning to end. Appears to be no threat
Fujiwara – Acquires a “regulated item.” Very “bad guy”-ish
Kuyou – Wants to know more about humans but had a bad experience
Asakura – Encounters Kuyou and that’s it
Yasumi – Appears briefly

Integrated timelines:
Haruhi – Runs from being killed by Fujiwara. Also continues plans for university with Kyon
Kyon – Is absolutely useless. Goes to Haruhi’s rescue, but can’t do anything. Later appears to begin plans for university with Haruhi.
Yasumi – Uses Haruhi’s power to mend the universes
Koizumi – “Don’t look down on this time period’s people!” and challenges Fujiwara
ITDE interfaces – Silently supporting everyone
Mikuru (big) – Affirms that regulated items are regulated
Fujiwara – “Mikuru-oneechan!”; Is in a rush, so tries to kill Haruhi but that ends poorly
Kuyou – Is the mastermind behind Fujiwara’s plots
Sasaki/Kyouko – Don’t appear

The limited edition release of the novels comes with a 64-page booklet that contains a short story called “Rainy Day” about Kyon and Sasaki when they were in middle school.

Cover of the booklet

Illustration of Sasaki in the story

Additional spoilers from volumes 10 and 11:

- These are not the final volumes of the series
- Kyon ends up going to Haruhi’s house
- Yuki tells Kyon that she accepts the world-altering decision he made in Disappearance
- Haruhi and Sasaki were once in the same elementary school class. Sasaki’s parents divorced and her name changed. Haruhi didn’t recognize her without her long hair that she admired at that time.
- Itsuki shows his angry side when he attacks Fujiwara in order to save Haruhi
- Kyouko is apparently incompetent – while she can’t seem to use Haruhi’s powers herself, she was easily able to adapt them into Sasaki. Those disappeared when Yasumi appeared in the alpha timeline.
- Kunikida is apparently in love with Tsuruya (?)

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I will continuously update this post as more major spoilers are revealed and when fan translations become available. So check back soon~!

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After weeks of translating and editing, our little group has finally gotten all the chapters of Surprise translated into English ^_^ Ultimatemegax has complied both novels into two PDF files for your convenience:

Vol.11 – The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (First)

Vol.12 – The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (Final)

So with that, it looks like my work on this post is done. I’ll leave the old updates below if you want to see how our work progressed =) I want to thank my fellow translators and editors – Ultimatemegax, cnet128, carl14706, Zyzzyva, and Kaisos Erranon – for all their hard work on this release, as well as bloggers like Lloyd and fans like those at AnimeSuki for keeping tabs on and supporting our work ^_^ Thanks again to everyone who made an English translation of Surprise possible and to those who will enjoy it for the years to come until the official release comes out!

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*UPDATE: 5/26/11*

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Last night I preregistered for Anime Expo 2011 and booked a hotel for my stay there. Even though the con is still months away and hardly anything about its events is known yet, I can’t contain my excitement and am already making tentative plans in my head. It also got me thinking that, despite the fact that we all love anime, fans have a variety of reasons for why they go to conventions…

Some fans go to cons strictly for the guests – seiyuu, directors, singers, or whoever – and will wake up at the crack of dawn and stand in line for hours just to attend the guests’ events and get autographs. Whether favorable guests will be appearing or not often determines if they’ll even go to the con. Others go mostly for cosplaying and prefer hanging out in their costumes over going to other events. Still other fans go just to buy things in the Exhibit Hall or Artist Alley (I believe they used to sell passes just for those places). Casual fans of anime might spend most of their time playing video games in the arcade or console gaming room, or watching whatever anime is showing in the viewing rooms. Others make sure to attend all the industry panels because they’re interested in all the latest news from (what’s left of) the American anime companies. And still others care mostly for the big events like the AMV Contest and Masquerade, or making the cut in AX Idol. It really is interesting how there are so many reasons for why people attend big anime conventions like AX.

My reasons for going to anime conventions has been pretty steady for the past few years. I mostly enjoy perusing the Exhibit Hall and Artist Alley for hard-to-find anime characters goods. Seeing cosplayers and snapping photos of excellent ones is fun too. If there are panels and guests I’m particularly interested in, I’ll work them into my schedule but they’re not the deciding factor for whether I’ll attend cons or not. I’m only willing to go so far when it comes to waiting in hectic lines for hours when I could be using that time to enjoy myself elsewhere at the con. It has to be something I’m dying for if I’m going to sacrifice many hours of my time at the con in line (also why I don’t have much motivation to attend the AMV Contest or Masquerade even though I love AMVs and seeing cosplay). Thus, as much as I loved May’n and Megumi last year, going to their concert was enough and I wasn’t going to jump through hoops to get their autographs (I don’t ever want another AX ’07 experience). If people like Nagaru Tanigawa or Satoshi Tajiri were guests however, that would be a different story XD

Buying goodies and attending events I like are major reasons I go to cons, but lately my main reason is to do something I rarely get to do otherwise – meet up with lots of friends and fellow anime fans in person. Since 2006, I always run into at least a few people I know that I wasn’t necessarily planning to meet at anime cons. At AX ’07 I coincidentally met ten people from high school or college that I hadn’t seen for years, and last year I managed to meet up with just about all my friends from my university anime club. Also at AX ’10, there were two meet-ups specifically to bring together blogger and Twitter anime fans. One was a larger, general one organized by Debi Aoki, and the other was a smaller one specifically for anibloggers organized by Shinmaru. If Shinmaru doesn’t want to organize another blogger meet-up this year, I’d be happy to (though it would probably be better for someone who will have Internet at the con). Hopefully everyone who came last year – omo, Neo-Shonen Fujoshi, zzeroparticle, CCY, Mystlord, and the staff of Anime Diet – will be able to meet up again. And I know f0calizer and Ultimatemegax would like to join too, and perhaps have a karaoke session in Little Tokyo =D

During every summer starting in 2005, I had either a trip to Japan or Anime Expo. Since I doubt I’ll be going back to Japan anytime soon, I want to make this AX ’11 one to remember! I was originally going to stay only three days until I realized that the 4th of July will be a Monday this year, which means I shouldn’t have work. So perhaps I’ll be able to stay the full four days after all =D It’ll be hard to make any concrete plans for a while until AX gets their schedule together and people know whether they’ll be able to go or not, but it can’t hurt to start thinking ahead ^.^

As many of us are aware, a couple of incidents involving Funimation and anime piracy have recently come up. The first incident involved the halting of Funimation’s simulcast of Fractale by the anime’s production committee until Funimation put a stop to illegal uploads of the series (after a week’s delay, it was just announced that the simulcast will resume this Monday). The second incident involved Funimation suing 1,337 bittorrent users who downloaded a fansub file of One Piece episode 481. A recent post by Ultimatemegax got me thinking about possible ways to combat anime piracy in this day and age of streaming and torrents…

After giving it some thought, I’ve come up with a possible method. Before I get into it, I just want to make it clear that I don’t know much about how licensing works for anime companies, nor if the technology and expenses I infer in my method are even possible for anime companies. This is simply one fan’s idea of what would personally give me no incentive to download fansubs of licensed anime:

Several years ago, the solutions for diminishing anime piracy were 1) making the episodes available within hours of the Japanese airing, and 2) making the episodes free (or relatively cheap) and easily accessible. In current years, these issues have been addressed with simulcasting and large archives of free (for most non-new episodes at least) streaming episodes on sites like Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Funimation’s site. But despite this, there are still tons of fansubs being made of licensed or even simulcasted anime. Why is that?

Obviously I don’t know everyone’s reason for choosing a fansub torrent of the latest show over Crunchyroll’s official stream when they’re released on the same day, but for me, my main reason is that I don’t like streaming nor does my computer do well with it.

I have a six year old computer and I haven’t yet had the funds to buy a new one. My computer has been working perfectly fine all these years, so buying a new one hasn’t been a pressing issue. But whenever I play streaming videos via YouTube, Crunchyroll, or whatever site, it rarely plays smoothly – there’s always choppiness and sometimes the audio and video get momentarily out of sync. When I play downloaded videos however – .avi, .wmv, .mov, and most .mkv – I don’t have this problem. My old computer can even play some large H.264 .mkv files smoothly, but an HD YouTube video streamed at 720p is almost unwatchable.

I know I’m not the only one who has this problem with streaming videos. Even if the capacity of your computer isn’t the issue, in order to enjoy streaming videos one must not only have an Internet connection, but it must be a good one. If your Internet gets a little slow or uncooperative, which I know happens to all of us, your chances of watching a streaming anime episode smoothly are practically nil. And what if you’re suddenly without Internet for an indefinite amount of time?

In summary, one issue to combat anime piracy that hasn’t been as fully addressed as simulcasting is – the ability to download actual episode files of anime rather than just streaming them. Again, I don’t know if such a thing is financially or technologically possible for companies, but here’s a rundown of what I had in mind:

- When a company, let’s say Funimation, licenses an anime, the anime will be available on their site(s) for streaming and for download as an .avi and/or .mkv files (in 480p, 720p, and perhaps 1080p since I know video quality is another common reason to turn to fansubs). This way, those who prefer streaming can still watch streaming and not have to use up the bandwidth for those who want episode downloads.

- If bandwidth expense is too much of an issue for direct downloads, perhaps Funimation could incorporate their own private IRC channel or something that would only be available to members who sign up on their site.

- When signing up, there would be different options available for paying and non-paying members, but both will have to make an account on Funimation’s site first in order to access any anime and both will be able to access the latest episodes subbed within hours of the Japanese airing (unlike Crunchyroll, which makes non-paying members wait a week for the latest episodes, which greatly increases their desire to watch fansubs).

- For non-paying members, in order to access an episode to downloaded, you’ll be forced to watch a couple of minutes of advertisements, visit a few pages of a sponsor site, or something similar. After you fulfill this obligation, you’ll get a code that will allow you to download the episode to your hard drive. The downloaded episode file will “expire” after a number of days so you’ll have to watch it before then or else it won’t work properly. Your account on Funimation’s site will keep track of all the episodes you’ve either streamed or downloaded and will prevent you from downloading the same one within a certain amount of time. There could also be other restrictions such as not being able to download more than 70 episodes per month or something (but streaming will always be available).

- For paying members, you can choose to either pay by episode or pay a monthly fee. As a paying member, you’ll be able to access your anime ad-free. You’ll also be able to keep your downloaded episodes longer before they expire (I’m debating whether paying members should keep them permanently or not). Your account will also keep an archive of everything you’ve streamed or downloaded. If you pay per episode, you can download as many as you want per month. If you pay monthly, you can stream as much as you want but there may be limits on how much you can download. There could also be other additional perks for being a paying member.

- If you want to download batch files of an entire series all at once, you’ll have to pay. I’m not sure what a good price would be (cheaper than the DVD box set for sure), but perhaps paying members can get a discount and non-paying members can choose to pay just for that or some other obligation.

This is basically what my method entails. The main piracy issues nowadays are 1) fans want episodes to download rather than just stream and 2) they want such episodes to be better quality than 360p-480p. My method should satisfy both issues. If I were a non-paying member, I certainly wouldn’t mind sitting through a few minutes of advertising if I could download official files of anime episodes that are the same quality as any fansub…

…but like I said, a method like this could be impossible to implement for financial reasons (hosting all those video files if something bittorrent-like isn’t plausible) and technological reasons (how can you make the episode files “expire”?) There are other problems too, such as preventing people from illegally re-uploading the episodes (on YouTube, bittorrent, or wherever) after legally downloading them, or what to do with fans who prefer to watch fansubbed blu-ray episodes. And what about all the fans who want to watch the latest anime that don’t get simulcast? Well, the post is titled “A possible method for combating anime piracy” not “ending anime piracy,” as I don’t think such a thing is possible, at least not anytime soon.

Do you think my method, or some variation of it, is possible? If not, what do you think should be changed, or do you have an entirely different idea you think is better? If people don’t get their thoughts out there, we’ll never find a solution =)

I’m sure many of you have read a recent editorial posted on Bang Zoom!’s Anime TV web site. The relatively short article (which can be read here) consists of Bang Zoom! president Eric Sherman’s bleak prediction of the future of anime – that the continuation of illegal downloads will bring about the demise of the industry.

I don’t have the time or patience to read through the nearly 200 comments on the post, nor the many comments about it on other sites. So I’m just going to discuss my own thoughts about it here…

While the general idea of Sherman’s article does have some merit, I feel that his view has two major flaws, which I will discuss below.

Firstly, his comparison between illegal fansub downloads and shoplifting. This is not an accurate comparison because, with fansubs, what you’re taking is an altered copy of the original product, while shoplifting means you’re taking the actual product itself. Downloading a fansubbed episode does not necessarily result in loss of profit for the creators because the person taking it would not necessarily have spent money on it, whether the fansub existed or not. But with shoplifting, there definitely would be a loss in profit because they’re taking the actual product out of the store’s inventory and not a copy. I’m not saying this legitimizes fansubs, I’m only saying that the two are not very comparable. Can taking an altered copy of a product that you had no intention of spending money on whether the copy existed or not, be called “stealing”?

I’ll illustrate with an analogy. Let’s say I created ten paintings that I’m now trying to sell, with me representing the anime companies and the paintings representing the episodes and DVDs they’re trying to sell for profit. If Person A, representing the shoplifter, came along and stole three of the paintings, I would definitely suffer a loss in profit because I had spent money and labor on making ten and will now only be able to sell seven at the most. If Person B, representing the fansub group, came along and secretly made many copies of the paintings, and then distributed those copies to Persons C through Z for free, would I also suffer a loss in profit? I would still have my original ten paintings to sell. The answer lies in whether Persons C through Z would have spent money on the paintings if the free copies never existed. Going back to anime, in my 10+ years of experience in the fandom, the majority of fans would not spend money on most of the anime they watch even if free fansubs ceased to exist, either because they’re cheap, or for the less blamable reason, they simply can’t afford to put out money on anime when they’re not even sure if they’ll like it. Therefore, in most cases, downloading fansubs is unlike shoplifting and does not necessarily result in loss of profit. The only time it would is if the downloaders would have spent money on the original product if there were no free copies. But as most of us know, the ones who would are too few to invoke the catastrophic consequences that Sherman dictates.

I’ll go further with another example from my own experience as someone who relies on fansubs to watch 90% of anime. I watched all of Clannad via fansubs. If the fansubs never existed, would I have spent money to watch it legally? No. Therefore, how could there be a loss of profit for the creators by me viewing this anonymous copy? However, somewhere along the line, since I prefer to buy character goods over DVDs, I may spend money on official Clannad products, which I never would have if I hadn’t watched the fansubs. But for anime I watched the fansubs for that I really liked, such as Haruhi, Shakugan no Shana, and Mushishi, I did indeed end up buying the official DVDs, again something I never would have done if I had passed on watching the free fansubs. I can’t afford to spend money on anime DVDs very often. But even so, I’ve spent a decent amount of money on other anime products over the years, both in America and in Japan, which I never would have without watching them via fansubs. I can only conclude that me watching free copies does not result in any loss for the companies but only potential gain because I may eventually buy an official product for that anime.

And lastly, the other flaw in Sherman’s article is that he fails to make the distinction between the anime industry in Japan and in America. While the future of the American anime industry does look bleak, anime is still going strong in Japan, at least as far as DVD sales and the like. Japanese fans have much greater previewing access to anime, through TV and browsing through products at local stores, while Americans have little means of previewing the same variety of anime legally without having to spend money. It’s unfortunate, but I think this is one of the main reasons why American fans don’t have the inclination to buy anime – would you want to spend money on DVDs of a TV show or movie if you’d never seen it before on TV, in the theater, or promotion at local stores? Probably not.

Fans who have the money to spend on official anime collections will continue to buy anime, and cheap or financially struggling fans will continue to not buy anime, whether fansubs ceased or not. I truly love most of the anime I watch via fansubs and I regret that I can’t spend money on all of them. But I try to do my best in other ways by promoting them on my site or wherever, and buying official products if I can. Abstinence from fansubs will not put money in my pocket to buy the DVDs. If fansubs did cease, the most we would see is perhaps a little increase in profit for the official companies, but nothing to the extent of deciding whether the entire industry lives or dies. I think this is only a minor one of many factors (the bad economy?) involved.

Cover of The Sneaker issue containing the first Haruhi chapter in three years

After a three year hiatus since the release of volume 9 in mid-2007, the Haruhi novels have finally started publishing again in the latest issue of The Sneaker magazine. Chapter 1 of volume 10, “The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya,” is out!

Scans and info after the jump. I will continuously update this post as translations, images, and other resources for volume 10 become available…

*Credit goes to Akibablog, Cartoon Leap, and this thread on AnimeSuki for the majority of these scans and info*

WARNING: This post contains major spoilers. Do not scroll any further unless you’ve read the Haruhi novels, especially vol. 9, and/or you don’t mind being spoiled.

First of all, from ANN:

“Tanigawa reports that he has completed 75% to 80% of the novel (vol.10). So far, he has written 370 pages in the novel’s current draft; 400 characters can be written on each page of Japanese-style composition paper.”

As of my writing this, only questionable summaries and bits of info as to the content of ch.1, vol.10 have cropped up on places like 2chan. This issue of The Sneaker was actually supposed to come out on April 30th, but a few stores released it early. Perhaps when more copies are available on the actual release date, more info will follow suit.

A full translation of chapter 1 has yet to be available. But a few things have been confirmed so far…

* Ryouko Asakura returns
* Kyon has an encounter with Kuyou
* The β timeline is the prominent one in ch. 1

UPDATE: 04/28/10
A few more things in ch.1 that are not 100% confirmed, but are likely…

* Kimidori interferes in the confrontation between Ryouko and Kuyou
* Haruhi is apparently good at cooking
* Kyon contacts Sasaki again

UPDATE: 04/30/10
A more chronological summary of what happens in ch.1 (courtesy of mine and Ultimatemegax’s translations from this Japanese blog).

“a-7:
Nothing special worth mentioning happens.

b-7:
Yuki stays in bed.
Yuki is calmer than I thought, but it’s no ordinary illness. Kyon is worried, too.
However, we get to see an unexpected side of Haruhi.
For the first time, Haruhi’s mother is mentioned.
Or should I say that Haruhi has too much common sense…though there’s a reason why she was like that from the start.

Kyon leaves and encounters Kuyou…
After this – Ryouko Asakura!
I thought this was a dangerous development and that she would try to kill Kyon…
No, on the contrary, he was saved by her!

Kuyoh mobilizes beyond reality.

Asakura soon vanishes, the normal course of action with her.
Kimidori looks on from the side.

And with that, I wonder what will happen from here on.
The mystery about the division has yet to be revealed.”

* Kyon later contacts Sasaki to find out about Yuki’s illness. He arranges to meet with her and the anti-SOS Brigade.

UPDATE: 05/01/10
Scans of all the pages for chapter 1 are now available for download here. If anyone wants to help with translation, leave a comment =)

MAJOR UPDATE: 05/02/10
This weekend, Ultimatemegax and I have been working on translating chapter 1 of “The Surprise.” We decided to launch our own blog where we’ll post each page of the chapter as we translate it (and subsequent chapters when they come). We’ve already translated page 1, with page 2 on the way. Check ‘em out here! =D

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The following are scans from The Sneaker issue that contains ch. 1 (along with some of my translations):

The table of contents. Seventy pages for chapter 1 of The Surprise.

A reintroduction to the characters (it has been three years after all).

As was hinted at the very end of vol. 9, the gang goes to visit Yuki. The large subtitle reads “Nagato is far from recovering…”

Poor Yuki is still suffering from the effects of Kuyou’s influence.

The line to the right of the picture reads “We’ve kept you waiting!” Biggest understatement of the year.

The cropped line to the right of the picture says “A part of the previous publication.” Below that, the line in bold says “The story so far,” and the rest of it is basically a summary of the story up until this point (from a third-person perspective, not Kyon’s).

Kyon’s encounter with Kuyou! From what I can tell, the words going down the middle read “Why are you here? Seems like you were waiting for me, huh?” The large red and black line just says “The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya.”

Ryouka Asakura returns, apparently to attack Kyon yet again.

My (amateur) translation of the words on the page:

“…was cold like (*cropped*). Like (*cropped*) it was quiet. Too quiet. All at once, I noticed it. I blinked…what happened to the railroad crossing signal? And the harsh, fading (*can’t discern kanji*) sound? Why didn’t the train come?”

Apparently Kyon’s encounter with Kuyou and/or Ryouko happened at the railroad crossing.

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Once again, I will keep updating this post as more translations and other stuff relating to “The Surprise” becomes available in the coming days/weeks/months. Also, feel free to share any additional info you may have in the comments section (but please make sure it’s reliable).

Stay tuned.

“The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” (Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu) has now been officially released in Japanese theaters, with the first showing today at 8:00am JST. Current news and fan reviews are coming in via AnimeSuki and other sites. Unfortunately, it may be many months before a DVD will come out and allow those of us outside Japan to watch it. So for those of you who have not read the novel and want to find out at least a little of what happens in the story, I’ve complied a “sneak peek” on this post…

A few weeks ago Lantis, the company producing the movie’s soundtrack, released a majorly spoiler-filled PV for the movie, later replacing it with a less spoiler-filled one. The one with major spoilers has since been deleted from YouTube, but I managed to save a copy of it. Together with images from that PV, I’ve complied a synopsis of the first half of the movie below.

WARNING: The images and text below contain spoilers for the movie, but only the first half. They do not reveal the major concluding plot points nor how the story ends. If you want to find out what happens in the first half of the movie, keep reading. If not, quickly scroll down to the bottom of the post.

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It’s winter, December 17th, and the day starts off like any other. Kyon is walking to school while Taniguchi brags to him about his girlfriend.

Haruhi is making plans for the SOS Brigade to have a nabe party for Christmas.

Haruhi brought a Santa costume for Mikuru, much to her dismay.

Even Yuki is getting into the holiday spirit.

However, when Kyon comes to school the next day, Taniguchi, who was so full of energy the day before, appears to be sick with a bad cold. A small foreshadowing of what’s to come…

Then the real shocker. Instead of Haruhi sitting at the desk behind Kyon, who should show up but Ryoko Asakura! When Kyon demands to know what she’s up to and what she’s done with Haruhi, she appears to have no idea what he’s talking about.

Kyon desperately searches for Haruhi’s name on the list of students but it’s not there.

He questions his other classmates about Haruhi but none of them know who he’s talking about.

He finds Mikuru and hopes that she can help him figure out what’s going on. However, she has no clue about him, Haruhi, time traveling, or anything else he tells her.

Tsuruya also has no idea what he’s talking about. Thinking he’s harassing Mikuru, she gives him some additional pain.

After vainly searching for Itsuki (his classroom doesn’t even exist anymore!), Kyon goes to the SOS Brigade clubroom and finds a very different looking Yuki.

Unlike the calm, stoic Yuki he knows, this Yuki is very shy and flustered when he questions her about what’s going on. Like Mikuru, Yuki too seems to have become a normal human being with no memory of Haruhi or the SOS Brigade.

Finally Kyon is able to get some help. He finds a bookmark that appears to have been left to him by the alien version of Yuki which reads “Program Run Condition: Collect the keys. Deadline: Two days later.” It’s something, but he still has no idea what’s going on or what to do.

Despite his suspicions, Ryoko appears to have become a normal human being like the others. She’s even friends with Yuki.

When a still bewildered Kyon comes to school the next day, he hears that Taniguchi knew Haruhi from middle school! Finally a connection to the world he once knew! He frantically questions Taniguchi and finds out that Haruhi is going to Kouyouen Academy.

After waiting outside Kouyouen Academy, he finally sees a long-haired Haruhi, surprisingly with Itsuki, come out. Unfortunately, they too have no memory of the SOS Brigade and Haruhi gives Kyon a bit of a beating because he won’t leave her alone. However, he’s able to convince her when he tells her “I’m John Smith,” proving that their meeting three years ago in “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody” is still a part of this new world.

Kyon tells Haruhi and Itsuki everything that’s happened up until that point – about the SOS Brigade and how they’re not normal humans in the world he knows. Even in this new world, Haruhi retains her enthusiasm for mysteries and is ecstatic about the whole thing.

The three of them come to North High and head to the literature club room, with Haruhi and Itsuki disguised in North High P.E. uniforms.

They figure out that the “Collect the keys” part of Yuki’s message means collecting the five SOS Brigade members in the clubroom.

Suddenly, the computer turns on and a message from YUKI.N appears on the screen.

Via the computer, Yuki asks Kyon whether he will choose to initiate the “Emergency Escape Program” or not.

…

What will Kyon choose to do? What will happen to him and the others should he decide to execute this Emergency Escape Program? Will he ever be able to restore the world he once knew? And most importantly, who is responsible for changing the world in the first place?

My sneak peek ends here. You’ll have to find out the answers to these questions when you watch it =)

—–

I’ve uploaded all the PV images, both the ones on this post and the spoiler-filled ones from the second half of the movie, into a convenient zip file here.

Lantis’ less spoiler-filled PV for the movie can be viewed here.

An English translation of the “The Disappearance” novel can be read here.

This thread on the AnimeSuki forums is currently being updated with photos of crowds at the theater, the first impressions of fans, and other things related to the release of the movie.

Cartoon Leap’s article about the epic opening day of the movie here.

UPDATE 02/06/10
My friend 2DT was one of the lucky ones who got to see the movie on opening day. His review here. I believe it’s the first full English review.

Via Cartoon Leap, here are videos of the premiere:

UPDATE 02/07/10
More discussion and initial reviews on the MAL forum here.

Below is a video of a TV segment featuring some scenes from the movie and a recent Haruhi event that was held in LA.

UPDATE 02/08/10

Thoughts and review of the movie via J-List.

—–

UPDATE 04/05/10

A camera rip, filmstrip video, and artbook scans for the movie are now available. More info on my post here.

Feel free to share more info in the comments.

Today (Christmas Day in the U.S.), the “official” Haruhi English web site, ASOS Brigade.com, updated with subtle hints that the new season 2 episodes of the recent rebroadcast will be officially released in the U.S., perhaps with Endless Eights and all…

The ASOS Brigade web site has added the below one-minute video of the SOS Brigade logo spinning in an endless loop…

Also, if you view the html source of the web site, you’ll see a string of endless kanji eights like the image below…

All I can guess is that North American distributor Bandai does indeed have plans to release Haruhi’s second season officially in English. Whether they’ll include all the “Endless Eight” episodes, whether the release will be on DVD or steaming, dubbed or subbed, or even if it will happen at all, has yet to be determined.

Source: ANN

The first trailer with actual animation footage for the upcoming “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” (Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu) movie just recently went up on the official haruhi.tv site…

Visiting the site here will take you to a (likely temporary) error page. If you wait a few seconds, the trailer will start streaming.

First impressions? Looks awesome! XD I recognized all those scenes from reading the novel. Since December 18th is an important date in the story, I knew something would happen today. I’m so excited!

UPDATE: YouTube video posted:

Click here for my previous post with more info about the movie.

UPDATE 04/05/10

A camera rip, filmstrip video, and artbook scans for the movie are now available. More info on my post here.

Recently, around 10 people between the ages of 23 and 57 were arrested in Japan for illegally uploading anime episodes, games, and music via the file-sharing program Share…

A lot of people have been freaking out that this may be the beginning of the end for obtaining free yet illegal episodes of anime online. Most of the raws that fansubs use come from Japanese people like those arrested who publicly upload them on sharing sites. But although it’s kind of shocking that the Japanese government is starting to take this issue seriously, I think it will be a long time before it will critically affect the anime fansub community outside Japan, if at all.

An arrest of 10 people out of the probably thousands who upload anime episodes is not impacting. The speed, anonymity, and inconspicuousness of putting things on the Internet will make it extremely difficult to find and prosecute people on a large scale. If web sites and file sharing programs are shut down, unless the people behind such sites are stopped, new ones will just keep cropping up.

Additionally, we’ve only been talking about the uploaders. If it’s this difficult to prosecute the uploaders, it will be even harder to pinpoint the much more numerous and anonymous downloaders. Starting this coming January, a new law making it illegal to knowingly download copyrighted content without permission will go into effect in Japan. I’m curious to see how much of an impact this new law will have.

While uploaders and downloaders in Japan are getting a little threatened, American anime companies lack the funds and man power to execute these kinds of large scale assaults on the fansub community. There have been some cases, but they’ve had virtually no overall effect. Even if illegal uploaders keep getting caught on file-sharing programs, I’m sure they’d figure out some other way to upload anime.

In conclusion, I don’t think the anime fansub community has to worry about anime raws disappearing anytime soon. Unless some massive innovation springs up on the Internet that makes it possible for authorities to easily find the thousands of illegal uploaders and downloaders who use all manner of web sites and programs, things like this shouldn’t have a huge effect.

Just some food for thought, imagine if Japanese authorities really could find illegal uploaders easily. I can imagine Japanese fans recording anime episodes off of TV, but instead of uploading them onto file-sharing sites, they instead send them in a private e-mail or something to someone in America. The American person is then the one who uploads and shares the raw (and if Americans start getting caught too, the raw is sent to an uploader in another country). I don’t think things will get this desperate anytime soon, but you never know.

Sources and further details about the arrest: ANN, MAL News, zone otaku, Cartoon Leap

Anyone remember the controversy from a while ago when a petition went out in Japan to legalize 2-D marriage? It was started by a man who wanted to marry Mikuru Asahina, but it didn’t pass. However, a few days ago, another Japanese otaku actually went through with a 2-D marriage, regardless…

This man (anybody know his name?) went to a church in Guam (though he intends to celebrate the marriage in Japan) and, with Nintendo DS in hand, “married” Nene Anegasaki, a girl from the dating sim game Love Plus.

Here’s the link to where Nico Nico Douga has posted a video of the wedding (you need to sign up in order to access their videos).

The video starts with the man discussing how he was dating Nene, such as taking her (in the DS) to a carousel or the beach. The rest of the video is the actual wedding in the church, with music, people giving speeches, and the man kissing his bride (well, kissing the DS screen). One of the hosts even read some of the video comments to the audience.

I’m still not really sure what I think of the whole 2-D marriage thing. I can’t understand how it could ever work out since 1) there are so many people who would want to marry the same character, and 2) the character can’t say which one they’d rather marry, so who would decide who could marry the character of their dreams? Would it be the original creator of the character? Would the suitors have to compete in some way? Since it’s Japan we’re talking about, I don’t know how far 2-D marriage will go, but it certainly is amusing to follow =P

Sources: Ani-Gamers, Tiny Cartridge, AAA Anime, moetron

UPDATE: YouTube videos of the wedding posted.

UPDATE: YouTube video of CNN coverage: