Review by Jong Chung
The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya presents three stories with excellent pacing throughout the volume. By title, they are: Endless Eight, The Day of Sagittarius, and Snowy Mountain Syndrome. More so than any of the other previous volumes of the series, I found myself appreciating the order of the stories to fit well with the series itself. Be it a coincidence or not (as each chapter was published as separate short stories, it seems, going by the afterword by the author at the end of the volume), I found myself happy to think back to how much I enjoyed the ride that is The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Before I begin, I must address one issue. There were groan-inducing rumors floating on the internet regarding the anime adaptation of the Endless Eight chapter which had me brace for a disaster. Thankfully, it turned out to be hardly as repetitive (or rather, not so at all) and turned to be a “mundane yet exciting” chapter. I suppose that lives up to the very essence of the series, and it proved to be a satisfying read.
While a minor fault, The Day of Sagittarius remains the weakest link in the volume, though it serves its purpose well as a “cooldown” chapter between the major stories. This chapter focuses on Yuki's desire to enjoy a humanly activity together with the rest of the SOS Brigade, getting fired up over something more so than ever before. Between all three chapters though, we see a humanization of Yuki Nagato, and subtly begs the reader to sympathize with her. (And by all rights, she's a character that deserves it.)
The final chapter, Snowy Mountain Syndrome, places our cast stranded in a seemingly inescapable mansion during a snowy mountain excursion. The final chapter closes it out with a tense sci-fi/horror story. The tension really seeps through as the SOS Brigade's most capable members remain nearly helpless in escaping from a mysteriously accommodating mansion, and its abilities to disorient the members' sense of passage of time.
Overall, this installment is quite entertaining, and I urge the long-time fans to not skip anything. I value the pacing in this volume over any previous volumes of the series, and find it necessary to expound this point. It'll prove to be a much more satisfying if you sit through the ride and let it take you along its course. There are minor errors here and there, but the technical aspect of the print isn't something that will detriment the experience.
© 2011 Linda Thai
No comments:
Post a Comment