On Inconvenience

In the Aria Special Navigation, Parallel World (The Natural, ep 22, pt 2) President Aria is maybe transported to an alternative, genderflipped reality. Alternatively he just hit his head and got delusional, but maybe all of the proof-token’s of Akari’s supernatural visitations are mere fakes concocted by her cynical Tyler Durdenesque alter-ego. In the spirit of enjoying a better life, I prefer to think that Akari is magic and President Aria was truly transported.

This would of course be consistent with Aria’s habit of portraying cats as creatures with access to mystical space. Since they stroll between the boundaries of present and past, reality and mythology, why not parallel universes too?

Which leads us, via the President’s life, to the realisation that this shit might be kind of inconvenient. Being a creature of limited brainage, the President hardly masters his power to operate across the boundaries which restrict more mundane existences. Rather, he is prone to accidental journeyings - strolling into ethereal bars when the day gets too hot, pushing himself between the planes of reality on a whim.

This leads me to the conclusion that Haruhi Suzumiya, of Endless fame, is, in fact, a talking cat.

Cats, as we all well know, are commonly associated with the naturally occurring arcane - witchcraft, Egyptian death myths, and other lolz. Presumably because they look like they know what they’re doing. In fact, so widespread is their role in association with the mysteries of the world that only one other breed of creature can claim even partial equivalence: women.

Now the Eventfulness of Suzumiya Haruhi series does feature paranormal women beyond the heroine, but they are strictly genre-bound. Nagato is statistic-powered. Asahina relies on time travel. In contrast the true heroine manipulates reality through instinct and accident. This is because she is The Woman in the show, and so connects to the true other via the mainline.

In part her spectacular level of occult talent stems from the fact that, unlike women in less monastically silly artforms, Haruhi is unclaimable. The romantic end of her franchise is the end of its story/universe. There’s no future in Kyon having to save the world by taking her out to dinner once in a while, mowing the lawn, or spending more time with the kids. Haruhi’s always a step away. Even if we learn everything about her, she remains separate by virtue of storytelling rules. Maybe this is why I don’t mind how Kyon, dwelling in dreamland, spends so much time bitching about it.