Shidoshi Wrote:I don't think this has been posted here, some guy made this awesome little game featuring Apple Bloom as the main character.

It's really great.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/573755

madanthony Wrote:Not gonna dig through this whole thing to see if I missed it.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/573755
Takes 5-10 minutes.

Solarboy Wrote:

Solarboy Wrote:

Mike Wrote:Oh, yeah. I don't know about you, but I enjoyed the talent show episode. Their song was strange but in a funny way!

Shidoshi Wrote:It's much the same problem as watching the Endless 8 one per week or all in one run.

IllegallySane Wrote:Endless 8? Refresh my mind, if you may.

ModeWarp Wrote:When the first season of The Meloncholy of Suzumiya Haruhi aired on Japanese television, and subsequently leaked to the internet, we were all blissfully unaware that we would be participating in an elaborate prank by the up and coming studio Kyoto Animation. In order to spice things up a bit for the television airing, and extend the 6 episode story arc till the end of the season, Kyoto decided to air the episodes in non chronological order. An episode or 2 of the main story would air, followed by a “filler” episode or arc comprised of one shot plots from the chapters of later books in Nagaru Tanigawa’s popular novel series. This shake up is not something that would have been entirely out of left field for the Japanese audience as they already had several novels available, which also portray the goings on of the S.O.S brigade out of order. I cannot speak for the Japanese audience, but the unintentional overseas participants gleefully drank Kyoto’s kool-aid faster than a dog laps up spilled antifreeze. Little did they know they would be the victims of an even greater prank three years after the first season had concluded.
Season 2 of Haruhi was born in 2007 with a newspaper announcement, and an internet prank involving a self referential “404″ error page on the official web site, followed by two years of absolutely nothing. No information whatsoever, until a “renewed airing” popped up in the April 2009 tv schedule with a reported length of 28 episodes. This renewed airing was to air each episode in the order they appeared on the DVD release, with new episodes in the order they take place, making it the only chronological version of the story, as well as the polar opposite to the original airing. And then, Kyoto Animation pulled what may possibly be the most expensive prank in history.

On June 18th, 2009, Endless Eight began airing on Japanese television, eventually making it’s way to hard drives all over the world, for the express purpose setting the stage for two entire months of the greatest 4th wall gag ever concieved. Endless Eight was a originally the name of a chapter from the fifth novel, The Rampage of Suzumiya Haruhi, the contents of which were a set of seemingly mundane end of summer events, narrated with allusions to a feeling of déjà vu. During the course of the chapter it is revealed that the characters are stuck in a time loop, upon which it is the 15,498th recursion, explaining the narrator’s misgivings. Loop 15,498 turns out to be the last, as the narrator manages to break the endless cycle within the confines of a single seventy nine page chapter. Tatsuya Ishihara had other plans.
Each week, for eight entire weeks, a completely different version of Endless Eight would air again. Each episode containing slight variations to camera angles, scene length, music, character wardrobe, dialog, narration, and other subtleties. It’s as if they had eight separate staffers storyboard the episode and said “screw it, we’ll use them all.” The first Endless episode had the cast simply going about their summer activities, with no mention or hint that anything was wrong. When the second week rolled around, several segments were shortened to make room for exposition where it is revealed that time is looping. This pattern would be repeated for six more weeks.

Kyoto’s prank goes much much deeper than just airing the same thing re-animated and storyboarded eight times in a row. They decided to mess with the viewers and the fans of the novels in much more devious ways. The original novel had very specific descriptions of the clothing the characters were wearing at certain points in the story. In each of the eight episodes, the characters have a completely different wardrobe, usually matching up with the description in the book at least once, possibly making the more perceptive viewers think “this might be the last one,” when it’s absolutely not. Endless Eight originally ended on recursion 15,498, while in the cartoon version this is the number used the first time they reveal the loop. Subsequent episodes skip around numbering wise, the last spoken loop count at 15,532, leaving everyone completely in the dark as to how long the arc was going to go on for. During the last 2 episodes, scenes are actually repeated within 10 seconds of each other like a skipping record. I knew ahead of time Kyoto would be screwing with everyone, so I decided to wait till the arc was over to begin watching and catch up but these 10 second “skips” still got me, as if they were created specifically to drive the point home to someone viewing it as I had.
I would have killed to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting where this was all planned. Imagine how crazy pitching this to the sponsors at the TV network must have been, how much work went into pulling this off without a hitch. Two entire months of their time slot, god knows how much time spent animating (not that these were A tier episodes, but still,) recording, and putting it all together. Picture a board meeting full of old Japanese men, Ishihara walks in and says “Hey guys, I know I made you a ton of money by animating those crappy porn game adaptations for the last 4 years, mind if I blow a bunch of it on a 2 month long 4th wall gag?”

My opinion on this whole matter is a bit of a lonely one in that I enjoyed every minute of it. The internet raged week after week with each subsequent episode in the arc as I waited till they had concluded the arc. #chans on both sides of the pond were furious at having to watch the same thing over and over. Endless Eight works on multiple levels, not only as a prank, but as a really clever way to break the 4th wall and pull the viewer into the same shoes as the characters experiencing this in the context of the show. There were comments made on various message boards about how Yuki (the only character to actually remember all 15,532 recursions) was looking as bored as the viewers were. These people may not have realized that that was the point. Could this have been done in fewer episodes? Probably. But it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun watching the rest of the internet whine about it. I’m sure someone at Kyoto is sitting back in his chair doing the Gendo fingers with a wry smile on his face, satisfied with a job well done every time someone posts an internet rant about it. The first DVD volume of Endless Eight is still number 24 on the amazon.jp best seller list as of writing this, in spite of backlash. At 2 episodes per volume for 70$ a pop, that smiling man will likely be doing so all the way to the bank. Bravo Kyoto Animation, bravo. Not only did you successfully convince the networks to air your 2 month practical joke, but you are bankrolling it using the very fans you set out to prank. Studio Khara would be proud.