The above scene from the original 2006 anime "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu"（涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱...The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya）initially reminds me of that part in "Back to the Future". You may know it...Marty McFly reassures a stunned 1950s student body at The Enchantment Under The Sea dance that though his 80s hard rock solo may be lost on them, their kids will love it. However, any similarities vaporize within the first few seconds of Haruhi's surprise performance since:
1) It is Haruhi Suzumiya, after all, who has more of the personality of Lucy Van Pelt than that of Marty.
2) Haruhi is wearing a Playboy bunny outfit.
3) The audience does get into it.
4) Haruhi has a quiet if supremely powerful demigod-like humanoid interface as one of her stage sidekicks (as we all do).
"God knows..." is a rocker that's been played by my anime buddy on his stereo from time to time during the Sunday anison hour, and it fits even better on Haruhi than her bunny costume since it sounds like the character truly throwing out her hopes and ambitions in something more effective than primal scream therapy (take a look at Haruhi's face...fury much?). Hear that, Kon? For that matter, hear that, Thanos?
Aya Hirano（平野綾）is, of course, the seiyuu behind the character and the song with prolific anime lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composer Satoru Kousaki（神前暁）responsible for the creation of "God knows...".
Hello, J-Canuck!
ReplyDeleteNice parallelisms on this post! Haruhi used to be my favorite anime - now my tastes have changed and I'm not so sure if it still is. But surely it has a very special place in my heart.
Here's some trivia for God knows: the band that accompanies Haruhi is called "ENOZ" which is a parody to the famous girl band ZONE.
Hi, Joana!
DeleteThanks for the trivia tip.
Over the years since my buddy brought me back into the anime world, I've seen a lot of shows since "Haruhi" and a few of them have eclipsed "Haruhi" as my favourite. I think part of the reason is that the main character has been a little too grating with her personality. But it's still a significant show made from an ambitious light novel, and the character of Kon did prove to be Tomokazu Sugita's breakout role.