Note: This post was originally published on 5 June 2009 and was written before the current "Endless Eight" debacle. I still have not watched any of the episodes in question. I've actually been meaning to post this in the forums, but that never worked out.

In this post I attempt to explain why it’s just plain wrong to throw an episode guide into a blender and pass the output off as art.

People who know about my stance on the show are telling me that I will enjoy the second season. I hear that everything is actually in order this time, supposedly rectifying one of my prime criticisms of this show. From what I understand, the first season is currently being rerun on Japanese television. However, the second season has premiered at the same time in the form of new episodes inserted into the chronology, albeit at their proper places in the series timeline. As a result, not two, but one giant frankenseason that at least makes sense is currently airing. Although certain people tell me that I will actually like this change, there is one major problem with this approach: I don’t live in Japan.

I’m watching the fansubs in the United States. I already have all of the fansub videos of the first season, numbered according to the order they were aired. (I’m reluctant to rename release files.) The benefits that come with combining all of the episodes and airing them in the order they were supposed to be aired in the first place are entirely lost on non-Japanese viewers. They do not get to watch the story in the only proper order once a week. They have to wait for a new episode to appear and then work out where the new pieces figure into the material they have now. The first new episode was released a few weeks ago and there’s no telling when the next one will randomly appear (if one is keeping themselves as far away from spoilers as possible). When a new episode does appear, viewers may have to watch the episodes before and after it to refresh their memory of the context. I imagine that this can be irritating for the Japanese audience at home who can’t tell a new episode from an old one if they’re trying to save time.

It’s not much better for new viewers. If they already have the DVDs of the first season (luck permitting), they will probably be confused with the release of the new season in their region. The only mercy that they’re given is that the first season DVDs are structured in mostly the right order, so they were exempt from the disastrous chronological abortion of a broadcast back in 2006. I don’t know how the second season will be handled come DVD time but no matter what they do, it is not going to solve anything thanks to the new episodes’ place within the season one timeline. If a viewer with only DVDs wants to watch the new episodes in the only proper order, there is going to be plenty of needless disc swapping involved. I predict that the people currently unaware of the solution regarding this new season will be enraged with the announcement of a special edition that will contain every episode of these two seasons after they paid full price for one. The only way around this is to wait for all of the episodes to finish airing (and be released online) or be released on home video, then obtain them all and work out the proper order once again. Admittedly, this problem is smaller than the anachronism menace of the first season, but the message it sends across is clear: whoever is responsible for these presentation decisions that are noticeable enough for me to rant about them is never going to stop. They believe that raising Cain with one of the most fundamental elements of storytelling is good form. Even if this isn’t the case, the resulting product is irreconcilable because apparently there are pacing problems if they are presented in the only proper order. I don’t know about that, but there are definitely chronological problems if they are presented in the “original” order. Something has clearly gone wrong, but no one has the gall to bring it up to anyone important. Lord have mercy on the poor souls who wait around for the third season.

This approach has only created more problems than it fixed. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like rewatching episodes they’ve already seen, so I don’t want to have to watch half of the first season again just to get the most out of this new season. I don’t know about you, but this show’s demands are too much for me. For those of us who the show wasn’t made for, we are presented only two choices: either wait, or play one protracted game of connect-the-dots after another with each new episode as they come out. Fortunately for the creators, I am a very patient man. I can’t say the same of anyone else.

I will post a video of me hanging myself on YouTube if they manage to outdo themselves in this brand of treachery with season three.

Addendum: The following was written on 1 July 2009 as a followup post.

The fact I’m still griping about it after three years is a testament to my belief that the author is a modern evil genius. All of the infighting, the flame wars, the fandom, absolutely everything, was orchestrated by a very sadistic author with more time on his hands than should be legal. He crafted a story in such a way that it would generate a massive fanbase that will spawn from itself an equally charged hatedom, sprinkling in just enough fanservice of every variety to make it all work. The way I see it, his purpose is to bait people he probably cannot stand into starting as much conflict as possible amongst themselves, facilitating all kinds of rigorous procedure on something that ultimately doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. A look through all manner of discussion of the series has shown that it could not have gone better: fans struggle to defend it, critics struggle to substantiate it, and haters struggle with both. In the end, no one is happy, except those too smart to fall for it and those too jaded to allow themselves to know about it.

Meanwhile, he gets to laugh all the way to the bank while everyone behind him starts flailing torches at each other thinking that any result is better than letting the other side have the last word. No one has “missed the point”; everyone involved has fallen squarely into the same trap. Whether they did this to encourage people to use parts of their brains that are otherwise idle 90% of their lives out of pure concern or for any other reason just because they hate us all is entirely up to you.