The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime)


 * This article is about the anime episode. For the short story, see The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (story), which is part of the novel of the same name.

Key Events

 * Takes place in June - one month since the series premiered.
 * Haruhi enters the SOS Brigade in a baseball tournament, and their first opponent was a college team called the Kamigahara Pirates.
 * Losing, Haruhi creates a huge closed space, so Yuki uses magic to cheat.
 * SOS Brigade gives in to make it fair.

Summary
Haruhi decides to enter the S.O.S Brigade in a baseball tournament. She reasons winning the tournament will create good publicity for them. She orders everyone out to the school's sports ground to practise catching "a thousand grounders!"

The day of the tournament arrives and along with S.O.S. Brigade members they rope in: Taniguchi, Kunikida, Tsuruya and Kyon's sister to participate. The S.O.S Brigade perform poorly in the opening rounds. To distract the opposing team, Haruhi drags Mikuru off to change both of them into cheerleader outfits. Unfortunately they still perform poorly and Koizumi reports that because Haruhi is disappointed at their performance, a massive closed space has formed.

To turn things around, Yuki 'changes' their baseball bat, so that it always hits the ball, racking up many runs. For the final round, Yuki takes position as catcher and causes every ball Kyon pitches to accelerate so fast, the opposing team's batters all strike out. As a result, the S.O.S. brigade win the first part of the tournament. Kyon convinces Haruhi to forfeit the rest of the tournament, since they've had their fun and seeing how they ended on a high, she agrees.

Characters

 * Haruhi Suzumiya
 * Kyon
 * Mikuru Asahina
 * Yuki Nagato
 * Itsuki Koizumi
 * Kunikida
 * Taniguchi
 * Kyon's Sister
 * Tsuruya
 * Baseball team members (voiced by Daisuke Ishikawa, Takamasa Oohashi (the catcher), Riichi Nishimoto (the batter) and Hidehiko Kaneko)
 * Umpire (voiced by Eiji Yanagisawa)

Trivia

 * This episode was broadcast as episode 4 of Season 1, and as episode 7 of Season 2.
 * Itsuki's cell phone is a Nokia 6630 Bordeaux Roughe.
 * Itsuki foreshadows Remote Island Syndrome Part 1.
 * The theme song from the anime “Touch” was played in the background as Kyon pitched his Yuki-modified baseball.
 * Paranormal phenomena observed: "homing mode" applied to a baseball bat to hit only home runs and trajectories of a ball modified (data manipulation), Itsuki says that a closed space has been created
 * The ponytail is referenced in this episode by Haruhi holding Mikuru's hair up in that style. Upon seeing Kyon looking on with interest, she drops it back down.
 * The episode hints at an alternative explanation for the formation of closed space during the game: When Kyon stops Haruhi from punishing Mikuru and says she should have tried to steal home, Haruhi is reduced to a discontented silence. The original short story does not mention Haruhi's reaction to Kyon's rebuke.