The artwork doesn't sing, doesn't have that sharpness to it, the backgrounds aren't as well defined, layouts feel random rather than intentional. We spotted some garish, inharmonious colours we never noticed in the first season. And what's with the glow filter? We're familiar enough with After Effects to know that every filter has a "strength" setting. No excuses for leaving it at 100% all the time guys.
The animation has become a bit more cartoony. Not that it's bad, it's just not as good. There are quite a few poses that looked like they came from some stock anime-poses library. Animation clip-art if you will. It was the contrast between the dry reality and the fantastical that was one of the things that made the first season work so well, once the characters become more cartoony, that divide stops working.
Then there is that focus-point of the anime-fan's obsession: opening and end credits. The current ones are instantly forgettable. Compare that to the classic end titles of season one: The catchy Hare Hare Yukai dance with its annoying, squeaky J-pop soundtrack (think "I'm a Barbie girl" to the power ten). A sugar-rush made of dance and music that spawned hundreds of real-life imitators and hospital-wards filled with sprained ankles. The new titles are merely functional in comparison.
Season one's storytelling was succinct, sharp, surprising and constantly pulled the rug from under the viewers feet without being annoying. It was an easy-viewing series with a surprising amount of depth. None of that seems to hold really true for this second season.
The first season was refreshingly low on fan-service. And when there was some, it was playing with the concept, not just simply showing it for the sake of it, even though that is of course the definition of fan-service. So imagine our shock when we spotted some actual fan-service in the new episodes. Sacrilege!
Of course, we wouldn't even dream of watching any anime without using our patented Anti-Fan-Service Filter® made of irony, eye-rolling, head-shakes and some apologetic mumbling about "cultural context". Never watch anime without an Anti-Fan-Service Filter®, kiddies! Even so, it was an unpleasant surprise having to crank up the old filter while watching Haruhi.
But lets forget all that.
Haruhi is about eccentric storytelling, playing pranks with the audience. It's about taking classic story-telling mechanisms and turning them on their heads, pulling them inside out, and replacing them with their evil twins, all at the same time. And that, our friends, is exactly what the new season still manages to do.
As of the time of writing, we have watched all episodes of the "Endless Eight" story-arc. Said story-arc has to be one of the most outrageous stunts we have ever seen performed by any television series.
Anime bloggers and commentators all hate it, claiming Haruhi got killed off by this crazy stunt. Effectively, the bloggers aren't being given anything to write about, so they write about how they're not being given anything to write about. Boohoo.
Of course, we love it. Since when was Haruhi supposed to be about easy viewing? Wasn't Haruhi the wrench that needed to be thrown into the stale world of anime? The Goddess is still showing some true spirit after all then.
And no, we wont tell you what it's all about. Like we always say about all things Haruhi: Those who want to know, should find out for themselves. The rest is unworthy.