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Summary:
As Kyon is being dragged out of bed by his little sister, he’s thinking about why he is involved with Haruhi when everyone else around her is an alien, a time traveler, or an ESPer. At school, he asks Taniguchi if he’s a normal male high school student. Taniguchi doesn’t think Kyon’s normal, citing the incident where he caught Kyon with Yuki in his arms. Kyon tries to make up a story that involved Yuki collapsing because of anemia, but Taniguchi doesn’t believe him. During class, Haruhi is dressed up in her gym clothes because it’s hot and because she has cleaning duty today, so those clothes will be easier to move in. A really bored Haruhi starts wondering what the next costume for Mikuru should be, suggesting maybe cat ears, nurse clothes, or a queen outfit.
During club hours, Kyon has control of the computer and turns on the option to reveal all hidden folders. He checks the one labeled “mikuru” and specifically looks for the birthmark in the photos. It is indeed there on her left breast. Mikuru comes by to serve him tea and catches sight of that folder with her name on it. As she’s trying to get him to open it, Haruhi walks in and sees the two of them really close together. An angry Haruhi kicks him out of the room so that she can change out of her gym clothes. Haruhi ends up putting on her bunny outfit and then works on Mikuru’s hair for the rest of the afternoon. While playing Othello with Itsuki, Kyon thinks about how everything is normal and they’re going about their monotonous life. Kyon feels that it’d be good if these peaceful times continue, but he knows that Haruhi doesn’t feel that way.
That night, Kyon goes to bed, but soon gets awakened. He opens his eyes and sees Haruhi’s face. They are both dressed in their school uniforms and are at school. Both of them have woken up in this gray world, which Kyon realizes is a closed space. On Kyon’s suggestion, the two try to leave the school, but come to the edge of the closed space and can’t go any further. Inside the school, they try the telephone out, but that doesn’t work. Surveying the landscape, they see the entire gray world around them, a sight which gives Haruhi a bad feeling. The two make their way to the club room where Kyon brews some tea while Haruhi continues to stare out the window and try to figure things out. She decides to explore around the school and instructs Kyon to stay in the club room.
After Haruhi leaves, Kyon sees a red sphere floating outside the window. The sphere changes into a silhouette of Itsuki and carries Itsuki’s voice. Itsuki explains that these are abnormal circumstances: if this were a normal closed space, he would be able to enter, but because it’s not, he can only appear in this incomplete form. He says that Haruhi became disgusted with the old world, so she decided to create a new one. No one knows what happens to a world when it loses its god – it could continue on as it is or it could become nothing in an instant. Itsuki notes that Kyon and Haruhi have disappeared from the old world and are now in the new one. This new world is closer to what Haruhi actually wishes for than the old one was.
When Kyon asks why he’s here, Itsuki is surprised that Kyon hasn’t figured out that he’s the one chosen by Haruhi, the only one Haruhi wants to share the new world with. He jokes that the two of them are like Adam and Eve because they can bear children and increase the population. Anyway, Itsuki says that this will become a world Kyon is familiar with, but it will still be different. As for returning to the original world, Itsuki suggests that it’s possible if Haruhi wishes it. With his form fading fast, Itsuki gives Kyon two messages: one from Mikuru apologizing to him because she feels at fault and one from Yuki telling him to turn on the computer. Having said that, Itsuki disappears.
Kyon turns on the computer, but gets only a black screen with a cursor. Suddenly, Yuki starts communicating with him through the screen. She tells him that the Integration Thought Entity is disappointed because the possibility of evolution has been lost. Haruhi has the power to create data, a power which the Integration Thought Entity does not have. If this ability of hers were analyzed, they thought it would be possible to find out how to auto-evolve. As Yuki is typing this, Haruhi is exploring a classroom and sees a bright light outside. Yuki continues on by saying that she’s betting on Kyon. They want Haruhi to return to their world because she’s an important observation subject, and Yuki personally wants Kyon to come back; she wants to go to the library again. The final words Yuki types Kyon are “sleeping beauty.”
As Kyon is thinking about what Itsuki and Yuki said, he hears an explosion and a bright light starts coming through the window. There is a shinjin right outside. Haruhi bursts into the room excited about the shinjin, but Kyon grabs her and runs outside as it starts destroying the school. Haruhi remains excited and happy about the strange things around her, and doesn’t seem to care about returning to their original world. She doesn’t even care about the SOS Brigade – she’s now having these interesting personal experiences, so there’s no need for her to search for mysterious things anymore. Kyon tells her that he wants to go back to their original world, and explains that he liked the way he was living with all of this friends around him.
Haruhi says that he’ll be able to meet them again because she knows that the darkness won’t be here forever and that the sun will rise tomorrow. Kyon continues to insist on the old world, so Haruhi lets go of his hand. She asks him if he’s not fed up with the boring world and if he doesn’t want something more interesting to happen. Kyon responds that he used to think that, but he’s been through some interesting things in the past several days. He tells her that although she doesn’t know it, the world revolves around her and it’s moving towards an interesting direction. As the two are being approached by a shinjin, Kyon starts thinking about what Haruhi is to him and realizes that he doesn’t think of her like Itsuki, Yuki, or Mikuru do.
Remembering how future-Mikuru had mentioned Snow White and how Yuki had typed him “sleeping beauty,” Kyon figures out what those two had in common. With his hands on Haruhi’s shoulders, he tells her that he thinks ponytails are moe and that it would suit her best. He then leans in and kisses her just as the shinjin gets to them. The entire world seems to get sucked away and when Kyon opens his eyes again, he’s fallen onto the floor of his room. Unable to sleep, he wonders if it was a dream and how real it all felt. He’s not sure if this is the original world or a new one, and doesn’t know if he has a way of ascertaining this. At school, Kyon is surprised to see that Haruhi is sporting a ponytail hairstyle. She tells him that she had a nightmare last night and couldn’t sleep. Looking at the ponytail, Kyon tells Haruhi that it really suits her.
In the aftermath of everything, Itsuki thanks Kyon for what he did. He suggests that it’s possible this is a world created last night, but in any case, he feels privileged to be able to meet Kyon and Haruhi again. In the club room, Yuki reports that Kyon and Haruhi disappeared at 2:30AM the previous night. Kyon asks her about others like her and if they’ll attack him like Ryoko did. Yuki tells him that it’s ok because she won’t let allow them. Mikuru enters the room and tearfully hugs Kyon since he’s ok. She quickly pulls herself away though, because the same thing would happen again if Haruhi sees them together. Kyon doesn’t understand that, but does mention to her about the star-shaped mark on her chest. She checks and discovers that she does indeed have such a birthmark, and starts hitting him trying to figure out when he found out. Haruhi catches them, but she has a smile on her face because she’s got another costume for Mikuru – a nurse outfit.
Kyon explains that he later turned in the club application for the SOS Brigade. But because they wouldn’t approve of “Suzumiya Haruhi Brigade to Make the World More Exciting,” Kyon changed the full name to “Assisting the Student Council in Changing the World Association.” As for today, the club is meeting once again for a search for mysterious things. However, it’s only Kyon and Haruhi this time because the other three couldn’t come. He arrived early since it’s only the two of them and they have the rule that whoever is last gets fined. Kyon has got various things to talk to her about, such as their activity plans, Mikuru’s cosplay clothes, etc. But first, he knows that he’ll talk to her about aliens, time travelers, and ESPers.
Well there was no OP for this final episode, they just went straight into it. The ending credits came on as they showed the epilogue, with Bouken desho desho? playing in the background.
So pretty much everything Itsuki explained to Kyon in last week’s episode comes into play here. The biggest surprise this episode was the kiss, though I’m sure most people reading this already spoiled themselves through the novels so it probably wasn’t that big of a surprise. I wish they had given a closer-up shot of it, but then again, the overall scene wasn’t all that romantic. It did have some great choral music, which I’m told is Gustav Mahler’s 8th Symphony.
Overall, this was a good ending, though I’d hesitate to say great. It doesn’t leave me with quite the same omg-wtf-this-was-such-a-good-ending-nothing-can-compare feeling that I get at the end of some series (FSN and Mai-Otome for example). That may be partially because they jump around so much in the timeline, so I know that this really isn’t an ending. Along that vein, I was also kind of hoping for some grand revelation on why they skipped around so much, but I didn’t see any. In any case, I’m hoping for a sequel. There’s plenty of things they haven’t explained (like the talking cat as many of you have mentioned), and there is plenty of material left from the novels that they can still cover. I’d love to see how Kyoto Animation handles it.
Final Thoughts:
A little over three months ago, I admit that I hadn’t really even heard of Suzumiya Haruhi. That’s mainly because of the lack of promotional information and the lack of a good website, so I didn’t even cover this show in my spring shows preview. Boy was that all a mistake. One of my first thoughts after watching the first/zeroth episode was “this is genius.” Practically overnight, the Haruhi phenomenon exploded, and suddenly Suzumiya Haruhi stuff was everywhere in the anime community, especially related to the ending song and that dance. 14 episodes and a lot of aliens, time travelers, and ESPers later, it’s hard to find a person who wasn’t greatly impressed by this series. I once again have to applaud Kyoto Animation for the fabulous work they did here. I don’t think any other studio could have pulled it off quite like they did. The voice actresses also did a fantastic job, so a round of applause for Hirano Aya, Chihara Minori, Goto Yuuko too. Hirano Aya in particular showed us how incredible a voice she has with her songs in episode 12. Like I said earlier, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel 🙂
