Haruhi Endless Eight Arc – Director Yamamoto Yutaka Apology

At least he's sort of out of the blame game after this.

DAMN IT, I wish i was at that panel. When was it? I spent way too much time in the Dealer's Room... and ha ha, I like how the video ends.

apology accepted :)

but it wasn't just your fault...and the episode still wasn't worth it.

Os, it was epic and Yamakan is pure class, I can say that w/o an doubt.

I always knew he was cool from the picture Otakon provided with the description, but man, I didn't really witness it until the Bandai Night Panel, by then it was too late. I regret my course of actions.

Brilliant. Thanks very much for this. Like him, I think that if he were still there, they wouldn't have made this mistake. He knows how to do outrageous things and make them work. Others have to try too hard.

But he really can't let go, can he? He'll take any opportunity he can to stick the knife in. And he made sure we realized he quit before he was fired.

I think Yamamoto tends to shy away from doing "outrageous things". His directorial philosophy (at the very moment) is strict adherence to the source material with minor variation when called for. You can really sense this in his series directorial debut with Lucky Star, where there was little improvisation from the 4koma.

True enough of Kannagi, which absolutely had to succeed, for the sake of his new company. We'll see what happens in the future. I think of him as outrageous because of his ep00 of Haruhi and his having storyboarded the Yuki reading episode, but those could have been things he was ordered to do, I guess. Based on his OP for LS and ED for Haruhi, I think of him as having great musical sense and an excellent feel for comic timing. And actually, I think that staying so close to the 4koma was fairly outrageous for an anime. It got him fired, after all.

Great interview, thanks for posting this. I can only shake my head at what's become of the Endless Eight arc. It drives me nuts, because the ending is so anticlimactic anyway!

1. I highly suggest that those of you who weren't there at the panel not to take this answer way too seriously. It's meant to be spoken at the panel ant there was a pretty funny and notable sarcasm streak going on when it comes to issues surrounding his breakup with Kyoani. I mean, he catches on with the atmosphere pretty well but he is very serious business about the questions that were for him. Definitely more so than the fans, lol.

2. He is serious about his answers, and I think they are insightful. But do take it on its face (along with the "don't post on the net" bit).

Well, I do hope that it sheds sufficient light on the matter even though I'd like to think that Ishida is above this kind of thing. Still, you'd almost have to wonder how good the payoff is going to be...

As I was the one who originally asked the question, I agree that his response was totally win. Still guys...Why did you make me break my promise when I said we wouldn't go blogging about this...(well, I'm guessing he knew we were going to...lulz).

"But it's a secret!" Yeah, don't worry, heh heh, they aren't going to write about it on the net, just post a video recording of it. Kind of like that joke on Saturday Night Live or whatever that was where the comedian looks into the camera on national TV and says "Now don't tell anyone! It's just a secret between you and me!"

Really, bearing all, the apology is just an empty gesture. A way of pandering to those Haruhi-ists who feel that something was stolen from them all the while directing such simpletons who would actually STOP watching to his side of the encampment. As much as I respect Yamamoto, the whole thing was really underhanded. Now if Ishihara or someone who had or has intimate dealings with the Haruhi renewal and the choice to present Endless Eight in such a way were at Otacon, I feel we'd have more valuable information than a former KyoAni employee circle jerking a room full questionable people in a unorganized atmosphere. Which is the only thing we really got.

It should also be noted that Yamamoto was at the same time plugging the R1 release of Kannagi, decidedly his entire reason for being there.

As an apology, it was an empty gesture. But its real purpose was a finger in the face of KyoAni. He really bears a grudge. And all the participants in the circle jerk -- including most of us reading this post -- are now bonded with him. But truths like this do only come out when the atmosphere is "unorganized" and "questionable" people (an unnecessary insult IMO) are there. When things are more organized, you get only the whitewashed PR.

I should add that I do not hate Endless Eight, and enjoy each new iteration -- but I think three eps should have been it, max. I think all the new eps have been real Haruhi, and very good.

I completely agree. My limit was four episodes but I will continue to watch without any deep bias as well. I only used the word "unorganized" because of the lack of any real structural planning involved in Q&A sessions with industry members at not just Otakon but all anime conventions. And as others have mentioned, Yamakan was certainly influenced by this "whatever goes" atmosphere. I use "questionable" because, much like the internet, Q&A sessions are an open forum and do not eliminate the ill-informed or heavily biased, as PR events ,like you mentioned, do. I feel the whole situation has been overblown and unexpectedly violent.

all i can say is that, i didnt like the 2nd season.. specially the repeatetive episodes.

There's only one way out for Kyo-Ani and that they should make all Endless Eight episodes count as two episodes instead (making the Endless Eight episodes sort of filler.

not going to happen, sorry.

I don't accept your apology

Pardon me for being out of the loop, but what is he apologizing for, and what is the Endless Eight arc? Isn't Endless Eight the latest(?) episode in season 2 where they're on vacation? What is this talk about it being 6 episodes?

Seven episodes now: they have shown basically almost the same episode seven times in a row now, all called Endless Eight. (The latest being the eighth episode of the second season.) You could just watch episodes 2 and 3 (and perhaps skip even the third one) and then skip straight to whatever episode ends the loop without missing anything.

I'll say more: you can only watch episodes 1 and 3 without worries of missing something important