I think, though, that it occupies a similar place in modern anime that Hitchhiker’s did in SF literature: a lot of absurd humor based on existing tropes, with a splash of  philosophy mixed in. Hitchhikers proposed an alternative origin of the world, for instance, and dared to answer the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything–and Haruhi also presents a strange and funny universe origin (at least for the characters). They also ruminate on the blurry line between fantasy and reality. And both simultaneously comment and indulge in the trappings of their genres, and I think it’s a reasonable viewpoint as you stated that maybe it did a bit too much of it to be truly original. Then again, Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu has to have some unoriginal elements if it’s to serve as a meta-commentary, if you will–all parody is in some sense derivative work.

moritheil: well of course stranger origins for religion have happened. Perhaps, like many of the traditional pre-modern pagan religions, the apparent capriciousness of the world as it is can be explained by an equally human-like and capricious god(s), who must be appeased for all to go right with the world? Maybe from a certain point of view the world sometimes seems like it is being controlled by a moody teenage girl. :)

And actually I agree with you that any coherent story–any orderly narrative–is in a sense theological, in that it makes sense of the world. (It assumes there is a world to make sense of and that making sense is somehow possible, which are metaphysical assumptions.) I of course meant in a more immediate sense that there is some suspicion that Haruhi is actually divine, and so competing theories of how she influences the events around them are, for that universe, theological debates. How her “sovereignty” is worked out, if you will. And don’t get me wrong, it’s great fun, especially for people like me.

It may seem frivolous, but that frivolousness is exactly what post-modern existentalism prescribes when dealing with deep, fundamental questions of reality.  All stories, in some sense, border upon theology, and Haruhi all the more so.

That said I did find these episodes a vast improvement over what we’ve been given for the majority of this season. Enough to call it a redemption? Well it depends on what one would consider a redemption to look like. I’d really have to think about it, but probably not a redemption in outright quality so much as a redemption in effort. As if to be able to say “look everybody, they actually tried with these episodes”.