The Music Video of Haruhi Suzumiya

So I was prowling around the YouTubes tonight, giving my mind a break from dull repetitive tech writing, when I found this little gem, an insert song from the Haruhi Suzumiya OST titled “God Knows…” (It was used in the scene where Haruhi and Yuki fill in for two of the members of a band who couldn’t perform in the school festival due to illness – if you want to see it, it starts at about 10 minutes into the season 1 episode “Live Alive”)

But, damn, what a catchy tune!! I spent most of the rest of the evening with it on auto-repeat, much to the detriment of our neighbors.

I have no idea how I missed this the first time… oh wait, actually I do. It’s because when I watched Haruhi, I was watching the English dub. And in the English dub of Haruhi, they committed the cardinal sin (in my book anyway) of ~~translating the song lyrics~~ replacing the Japanese vocals of a song with the English voice actors/actresses singing it in English. FAIL. I’m sorry, even though I have nothing against English dubs, especially if well done, I absolutely abhor the dubs where they (attempt to, usually badly) ~~translate the lyrics of songs~~ dub the vocals in English as well. (EDIT: I actually meant when they have the English voice cast sing the songs in English and replace the Japanese audio with that. I know they have to translate the lyrics anyway for the English subtitles, which I don’t mind. English is hard.)

Anyway, the version of the song used in the anime is truncated; the full-length version was later released on various singles and Haruhi soundtracks. Well one fan decided to take it upon him/herself and make a “music video” of sorts using the full-length version of the song, combined with footage from the part of the anime where it was performed. Obviously there’s some repetition (since the actual song is longer than the version in the anime), but on the whole this video is very well done and the editor did a good job of covering up its repetitive nature.

(I also couldn’t help but draw parallels to K-On! while watching this, but that’s another story…)

I present it below for your enjoyment.