In celebration of an announcement that makes me feel like fighting the fight just a little longer, I submit a request for your help.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I love Suzumiya Haruhi. If I had the confidence that I used to, I’d make Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) required viewing if you and I were going to continue to be friends. Luckily for you, I’m going through a transitional period, and I don’t feel like I have any right to tell you what to watch or what you should think of it. Instead, I’ll just say that, whatever your bias is against Anime or my current fixation with modern Japanese culture, it’s worthwhile to check this out. Having watched it (almost) twice now, it’s up there with Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop as one of my all-time favorites. But you didn’t watch those, either, did you? Well, this one’s only half as long (so far). And, it’s just been announced today that an official US DVD release is imminent. 

I won’t spend too much time rehashing things from my last post, but I will say that Haruhi is dissatisfied with life and prefers to take an active role not only in finding an alternate way to live, but potentially in creating that way of living. She is a brat. She is at many times stubborn and immature. Judging by her behavior, she is probably an only child. She’s my hero. You may not agree with her approach, or her methods, or most likely her actual goals, but for me, it is hard not to be intimidated and inspired by the way she reacts to the world forcing restrictions on her. Despite her age and her surroundings, she refuses to stop using her imagination. She’s a dreamer, and I’m of the opinion that the world needs more like her.

Sometimes, I can pretend that’s me, too. So, I’m also kind of trying to pat myself on the back here, and muster a little bit of self-confidence. These days, it’s harder to do than it used to be. I find that I had encouragement for having such immature hobbies and fascinations. In the past, even if it seemed silly or developmentally stunted to love toys and cartoons so much, there was someone who made me feel like it was entirely worthwhile to live that way, even as a supposedly grown adult. From my limited knowledge of psychoanalysis, it seems generally frowned upon to reject reality in the pursuit of mental health. So, I guess I’m now wondering if there’s a solid line between being unable to distinguish reality from fantasy and being unable to accept reality as it’s presented to you.

I don’t mean to make it sound like everyone’s against me, here. I think there’s a lot of encouragement in the world for people who think unconventionally. I think that it’s highly valued in certain circumstances; Specific fields of study and technological development. Certainly, I’ve always loved the way Miyazaki Hayao is able to employ an imagination that sympathizes with and rekindles a child-like attitude rather than patronizing such a mindset. But I wish it were more applicable to every day life, or emotionally-charged circumstances. I feel like I’m being told too often lately that I’m being impossible. That the world just doesn’t work the way I want it to. That there are things that simply need to be accepted and dealt with within the accepted specified models of behavior. And, some days, when I’m feeling in touch with Haruhi, I can say fuck that.

I could spend paragraph after paragraph talking about the details of the show: Its long list of clever in-jokes and references that demonstrate the care and meticulousness that went into its production, the beauty of the character designs and animation, the catchiness of the music or the joy of spirit and the sharp and hilarious sense of humor. But I’m not able to do it justice by simply writing about it, because it was created by far more talented folk than me. So instead, I have a couple questions: Isn’t there some way for us to chase our ideal life without constantly settling for less and making sacrifices, building resentment all the while? Is it better to appreciate what we have and stave off greed, or to refuse to give up on hope for even more? These days, I honestly don’t know. Any help on the subject is much appreciated.

This entry was posted by eugene on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 8:58 pm and is filed under animation, japanese, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.