From SOS団 Wiki
"Remote Island Syndrome (Part II)" (孤島症候群（後編）) is an episode in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. It is the eighth episode aired in the series. It is the tenth episode in the series timeline. The episode's original airdate is May 21, 2006.
[edit] Overview
Haruhi and company continue to investigate the murder case on the island.
[edit] Episode details
[edit] Differences in the novel
The two part-episode is based on the chapter "Lone island syndrome" in the novel The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi. These comparisons are made using the Baka-Tsuki-translation, which may not be 100% accurate.
- Itsuki and the butler touch the dead body instead of Haruhi and the butler.
- Neither Kyon nor Haruhi falls off the cliff. There is no cave scene.
- There is no mysterious shadow lurking around.
- The discussion between Haruhi and Kyon in the cave is done at the hotel where Itsuki presents ideas to Haruhi and Kyon on how the murder was done.
- Different evidence is presented when solving the crime.
- There are no scene where someone tries to stab the murder victim again.
- There is no grand finale where Haruhi expose the fake murder.
[edit] Trivia
- This is episode 10, chronologically.
- In the sequence where Haruhi is explaining the truth behind the events at the villa, her, Itsuki's and Mikuru's poses are imitations of those used by Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth and Maya Fey respectively in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game for the Nintendo DS (the series is known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban).
- At the beginning of the same sequence, Haruhi uses the trademark arrogant laugh of Naga the Serpant from the Slayers anime.
- The original air date of this episode, May 22, also coincides with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday.
- The "unknown" perpetrator of the crime was shown on screen as a black figure so that his identity is hidden. This follows the style of Detective Conan and Tantei Gakuen Q. Furthermore, when Haruhi strikes her final pose at the end of her Phoenix-Wright-style deduction, the last few notes of the music are reminiscent of the Detective Conan main theme (However, some fans argue it's a take on the "Cornered" music of the Phoenix Wright games).
- The episode has the camera focus on Kyon's eyes during the more particularly dark scenes. This is a reference to the anime version of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, where the camera tends to focus on Maebara Keiichi's eyes whenever he experiences a particularly traumatic event.
- As of the beginning of the episode one person is dead and another has disappeared. This is the format of Oyashiro-sama's curse in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
- Near the end of the episode, Keiichi is seen waving the knife while it is stuck in the notebook. Since his pocket is undamaged except for the hole, this is only possible if he pulled the knife out, then took out the notebook, then stuck the knife back in.
- This is the only episode in the series where Kyon is witness to a conversation between Nagato Yuki and Suzumiya Haruhi. Even then, it is merely Yuki making one simple, undirected statement with a door between them. There are only two other times when it is implied they have exchanged words, when Haruhi commandeers the Literary room and when she asks Yuki to play guitar (though even in the latter case, Haruhi does not imply that Yuki responded to her). Yuki has still spoken in Haruhi's presence (orating her lines during the making of the movie and saying 'I love you' during the game session in Remote Island Syndrome (part one)) though in both occasions she was passively obeying Haruhi's orders (speculatively, in order to remain a neutral observer).
- Though Yuki and Kyon's relationship is not explained much during the series, it is quite interesting that, when asked to open the door, Yuki opens it for Kyon, not Haruhi. This may be because she was given a new set of orders, or because her bond with Kyon is deeper than her bond with Haruhi.
- Near the end of the episode, Suzumiya Haruhi refers to Kyon as 'Watson-kun'. This is a clear reference to Dr. John Watson, from the Arthur Conan Doyle series of Sherlock Holmes books. There are in fact many similarities between Kyon and Dr. Watson, mainly their observational perspective towards their eccentric accomplices. In both series each plays the part of the main narrator and we see the stories unfold mainly from their perspective, rarely seeing it directly from that of the other main characters (Suzumiya Haruhi and Sherlock Holmes).
- In traditional English, names are spoken by the first name followed by the Surename/Family name, while in Japan they are spoken with the Family name followed by the first name. In English, Sherlock Holmes has Haruhi's japanese intitials, 'S.H'. Could it be that Kyon's real name is the same with John Watson (J.W)?
- The relationships between Kyon and Suzumiya and that of Sherlock Holmes and Watson can also be seen as similar. In both cases, the duos are originally pushed together by forces beyond their control (Watson needed a roommate in Holmes, and Suzumiya and Kyon were sat together in class), and it is the curiousities of the narrator characters that causes their bonds to grow stronger. More interestingly, the bonds on the side of Holmes and Suzumiya mirror each other, as they involve their accomplices in their activities despite having no obvious need to (indeed, both appear to see it as troublesome to have their partner come along, although both always seem to insist it is necessary). As it were, both Holmes and Suzumiya need an audience for their performances who agrees with them, and this is filled by the narrator characters (who, in turn, take the place of the reader).
- Near the beginning of the episode, where Haruhi and Kyon are talking outside their rooms by themselves, we see Haruhi's legs as she paces. She pauses and turns to Kyon but her legs turn individually, her right leg becoming her left and her left becoming her right. This was fixed in the DVD version.
- In the novel, Haruhi never gave her deduction like in the anime. In fact, Kyon's sister wasn't there to distract the butler and it was Kyon who told Koizumi that the murder was a fake. Koizumi gave up the charde after that.
- At the very end, Koizumi seems to be watching a large mole on Kyon's neck with a significant look. No explanation is ever given, and this scene does not occur in the novels (indeed it could not, since Kyon seems unaware of what Koizumi is looking at, and the narration in the novel is from Kyon's point of view). It is possible this is foreshadowing with the approval of the author, but it would have to foreshadow a novel or anime not yet published.
Current state of the "SOS Brigade" Dan hompage" No links, except for the fan club and etc..; The Profiles of all of the characters have been removed, the main signia is SOS, and only the agenda link is still there.
-This is most likely due to season 2 airing very recently. In otherwords certain occurences have yet to taken place in the most recently aired episode of the anime.
