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Impressions:

Being able to watch a series again without getting bored at all just proves to me that this series IS one of my favourites, even though I don’t really need confirmation of that. Episode 9 was disliked by quite a few people because nothing really happened (there was a full 3 minutes of Nagato reading with voices in the background!), but I for one actually liked it quite a bit. That episode shows how close Kyon and Haruhi have become, which is quite touching. Tsuruya’s appearance in that episode was awesome too, even if it was extremely brief. Episode 10 was definitely one of the most exciting episodes in the whole series, but I almost cried when Asakura ‘died’. I had been wondering why she was never in the previous episodes, which are actually later in chronological order. She was such a good character too…Anyway, the part from episode 11 which I remember most clearly is when Kyon is about to put his faith in Nagato to win the competition, when he sees her trying to move her mouse in the air…LMAO that was hilarious.

Episode 9

As always, without Haruhi, the SOS Brigade waste time in the clubroom, this time playing a card game. Nagato is reading like every other day and Mikuru is knitting in her maid costume. All is quiet until…

Haruhi comes.

She bears great news once again, and Kyon fears for what it is. Thankfully, Haruhi announces that she’s made arrangements for there to be heating in the room (it is winter by the way). The manager of the electronics store who sponsored their movie (the first episode) decided to give away an unsold heater. Haruhi tells Kyon to go get it and he does.

When Kyon leaves, Haruhi decides to take some pictures of Mikuru for the cover jacket of the DVD of their movie. Mikuru looks to Koizumi for help, but he just shrugs (obviously not daring to defy Haruhi). Haruhi changes Mikuru for her (several times), the view of each scene blocked by Nagato and her books.

~Sigh~

When everyone except Nagato leave the clubroom, there is a full 3 and a half minutes of random chatter. A time filler, or something that’s actually important and vital to the plot of the show? Who knows…

Mikuru, Koizumi and Haruhi are taking photos in another room, so when Kyon gets back, there is only Nagato in the room, who might as well be a stuffed animal.

Haruhi records embarrassing moments of Mikuru in the gym.

As Kyon waits, he sets up the heater and falls asleep. When he wakes up, Haruhi is hovering over him trying to get her cardigan (which is on Kyon’s back as a blanket). It’s raining outside and Haruhi offers hers (but Kyon notices that it isn’t hers, but the school’s). The two walk together under one umbrella before Haruhi takes it and runs ahead playfully. Kyon runs after her.

Episode 10

When Kyon arrives at school in the morning, Haruhi has her head buried in her arms feeling sick. Ryoko Asakura is trying to help her, and upon seeing Kyon, tells him to take care of her.

Earlier in the day, Kyon had found a note in his shoe locker, telling him to meet in room 1-5 after school when everyone’s gone. Kyon ponders about this, eliminating Nagato as the one who had given him the note, as the handwriting did not look like hers. Kyon considers Mikuru, but doubts it. Haruhi? No way.

As he is thinking about this, he notices Haruhi browsing the explicit pictures of Mikuru on the club’s home page. As Haruhi is talking to herself about the publicity it’ll bring, Kyon begins to delete the files. Kyon explains to Haruhi about the reasons NOT to do such a thing, and surprisingly, she listens. She allows Kyon to delete them, but he secretly puts them in another folder for… personal use.

When everyone is leaving at the end of the day, Kyon decides to go to the meeting place and see who had given him the note. It turns out to be Asakura, with a somewhat… creepy smile. The fact that she is standing in the room alone, waiting for Kyon’s presence is also somewhat eerie.

Asakura begins to question Kyon about Haruhi. She also asks him if in a bad situation where leaving things be would only worsen it, but nobody knew the best course of action, what would he do? This question is actually leading to Asakura’s resolve to kill Kyon. That’s right, kill Kyon. The question refers to Haruhi. Asakura wants to kill Kyon to see what Haruhi would do. She then begins striking at Kyon with a knife. Kyon tries to escape but Asakura informs him that the room is under her data jurisdiction (another Nagato…) Asakura freezes Kyon’s body and prepares for a final lunge, but is stopped by Nagato (Asakura is meant to be Nagato’s backup).

Now begins the battle of the aliens!

Anyways, Nagato manages to terminate Asakura’s connection to organic life, even though she is speared through the chest multiple times. Reminds me of Terminator! Afterwards, Nagato repairs herself and the space around.

The next day, Kyon finds another letter in his shoe locker. However, this time it has Mikuru’s name on it. He arrives at the meeting place at lunch (the club room) and the person who is waiting for him is indeed Asahina Mikuru. And yet it’s not Mikuru…

The woman is taller and has a deeper voice. Kyon mistakes her for Mikuru’s sister, but she is actually Mikuru from the future. With the incident regarding Asakuru yesterday, Kyon is ready to believe anything. Mikuru asks him if he knows what Snow White is. She then tells him that if he finds himself in a distressing situation to remember those words. The event should happen with Haruhi, but she shouldn’t notice anything wrong with the situation. The last thing she tells Kyon before she runs off is to not get too close to her.

Kyon meets Nagato as soon as Mikuru leaves. He asks her if she can travel through time. Nagato says she can’t but it isn’t very hard. BAHAHAH!

Episode 11

“Your Excellency, Suzumiya…” What does this first line indicate? Well apparently, Haruhi is the commander of a massive fleet of space ships and is about to engage battle with the enemy. Each of the members of the SOS Brigade has their own fleet. Haruhi is prepared to attack, but Kyon tells her to stay back as she is the ‘king’.

A week earlier… The computer club challenges the SOS Brigade to a competition, a game of ‘The Day of Sagittarius III’, designed by the computer club. As the presideny is repeatedly saying the word ‘contest’, Haruhi comes and kicks him in the head, sending him a few metres down the hallway. Haruhi agrees after she hears the president’s proposal. The match will be a 5 on 5 team battle. The rules are if the SOS Brigade loses, they will return the computer that they took. If they win, the computer club must give the SOS Brigade 4 laptops.

As they walk home, Kyon says that they will not cheat because he wants to play fairly. Koizumi objects as Haruhi will get pissed and something bad might happen.

The game is a simplified type of RTS, except that you can’t build anything. Each player starts with 15000 ships that appear as a single triangle. The objective is to kill the enemy fleet or the enemy boss. For the next week, the SOS Brigade plays the game, practicing against AI (Haruhi charging wildly at the enemy and losing each time). Kyon knows that they will lose if they leave everything to Haruhi. He believes he can rely on Nagato, but when he sees that she doesn’t even know to move the cursor, he immediately takes it back. He also observes that Nagato is actually having fun.

The battle starts and before long the SOS Brigade are already losing. They are fired on, but the enemy quickly retreats. Meanwhile, Nagato is busily typing into computer. Haruhi then sends out her Gun*** (the ‘***’ were bleeped, I wonder what it could be… hehe). Mikuru is lost, far from anyone else. Haruhi, Kyon and Koizumi move their fleets close together but are fired on. Kyon believes they have lost until a large part of the map is revealed by Nagato. It seems that she is using Micromanagement, splitting the fleet into 20 groups and controlling them individually. It is humanly impossible to control them all, but not for Nagato.

Kyon tells Nagato not to cheat, but she says she isn’t because she isn’t manipulating data in anyway. It’s actually the computer club who is cheating, as their fog of war is off. Nagato is busily rewriting the entire game code during the game! Kyon says it’s okay and Nagato turns the enemy’s fog of war on. The tides turn and the SOS Brigade win the match (Haruhi obviously thinking that she did all the work).

The computer club president admits defeat and asks Nagato to go over to his club every now and then. Haruhi objects but Kyon, who thinks that Nagato actually had fun playing the game, says she can do whatever she wants. Nagato says she will go every once in a while.

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