Editing User talk:Nutcase (section)

== Live A Live ==

This is the one story that I feel was substantially improved upon in the anime compared to the book. Of course the story as written has an unworkably long performance sequence for the anime, but set that aside.  "God Knows" in particular is an actually great performance of an actually great song. Hirano Aya belts this one out of the park, and the animation did it justice. Beyond that, the reaction of the audience is more congruent. Audiences don't reward a stunningly great pop music performance with stunned silence. Also it's more in the realm of plausibility to get solid interpretations for two songs worked out in an hour, rather than trying to construct solid interpretations on the fly for several songs. Finally, I like how "God Knows" can be taken as a "confession." You don't have to read it that way, but I take it as a factor in Kyon's stunned expression.

In Volume2, I noticed on my second pass through that Kyon notes Haruhi humming various movie music time and again. This makes the Live A Live performance less magical wish fulfillment and more a plausible act. At least she is actively working the right parts of her brain. It's like her hitting a thousand balls before the baseball game - she may be fantastically talented, but she also steps up and does the work. This makes her much, much more interesting as a character for me. However, if you just want magical wish fulfillment, you can look past the work, as it's approached so playfully.