The Endless Eight

In my opinion, is a stroke of genius.

But first, a resume: The Endless Eight is a story arc occuring in the second season to the infamous anime "The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" In this arc, which lasts 8 episodes, the characters realize that they have been trapped in a time loop that resets their world to the second half of august before september rolls around. The viewer is thus subjected to 8 consecutive episodes of the same storyline, until finally, after many failures, the main characters are finally able to break the cycle.

This arc elicited a violent reaction amongst anime fans, but, as I said, from the perspective of an art student, it is a stroke of genius. The "Endless Eight" has acheived a timeless infamy by doing something that no other series has or probably will ever dare do. Incidentally, some enraged fans have decided that this is a product of laziness or lack of ideas on the producer's part. As an art student, however, I believe  that this decision was premeditated and most likely very deliberate.

1.Every episode, though sharing the same plot, is entirely re-animated, the backgrounds are redone in many of the scenes, the voice acting presents subtle but noticeable differences in tone and speech, etc etc.
2.Nevertheless the Endless Eight is incredibly boring. It is a stroke of genius in the sense that no other anime that I know of has attempted to remove itself from the usual plot driven story to this extent. I do believe that the piece functions better as an art piece (with all it's strangeness) than as an anime. This is great, since the producers do not attempt to use recycled material to get away with working less.
3. Fans misunderstand that the studio was in fact, trying to make the E8 into an interesting retelling of the same story, but this has already been done. I believe that the original purpose was to create, within the viewer, a sense of expectancy - viewers half remembering the exact lines used by characters throughout the show, to the point that upon listening to the track of the 8th episode, they would be surprised when noticing that the story is written, in fact, very differently compared to the others.
4.The E8 also acts as a kind of social commentary, if one pays attention to the complaints of angry fans and to the general direction that the industry is has taken. Fans demand good series, and when they are dissapointed, they voice their opinions with ravenous, single-minded reasoning. But enough. The E8 proved to me that a large population of the anime fanbase has become, unwittingly, dependant on the manufactured stories that pollute the net. Not to say that originality does not receive praise - fans are particularly pleased when something new is well done -  but they will curse and swear and promise to abandon a series if something too new does not fit the accepted standard of normality.
5. In other words, fans operate on a parabolla which is more or less highest when something is moderately different and original and lowest when something is extreme. Manufactured anime. The problem is that most studios listen to their fans, and so if normalcy is what is expected, then the anime world is liable to go towards the mainstream and never return.
6.Of course, if E8 is a work of art, then I am the viewer, because I am viewing both the show and the reactions of others to the show, which is interesting in and of itself. However, I am deeply reconnassant of the production staff for not half assedly trying for 4 or 5 episodes of the same deal, and definitely not for 2. For E8 to function as a art piece, it must keep going until all but the insanest - and this is why I like the idea, anime fans are driven away by it's weirdness by industry standards. Art students, however, usually hate the concept of an industry standard, even when they themselves emulate it. Also, such a thing as deliberately inducing boredom and anger is incredibly interesting to witness and experience.

All things considered, I will never forget the E8. If a studio's purpose is to become known, in that case Haruhi does the very best in advertising itself - and in the media industry, it is known that negative advertising is still advertising. I never would have guessed though, that some fools would actually drop a show in a fit of revenge towards the producers. For my part, I'm streaming it online from the translated version, and so I'm not paying the producers didily squat. So I'll spare them the useless ranting. I think I'll go and buy it, because I like the idea and the shelves are likely still full, and because of it's value as an art piece. Obtaining documentation of actual performance art/ sound art/ video art is inredibly difficult or illegal, as often only a few copies are made.