This idea that the show is trying to make you understand what Kyon is feeling is misplaced because he and most of the group are mostly indifferent to what is going on until the end. The emotions building for our characters are vastly different from the ones that are building for the audience. In time loop stories, we usually have at least one character to latch onto. We sympathize with their struggle and root for them to get out. There is no character here that accomplishes this and thus that emotional attachment is gone. If this character is suppose to be Nagato then the arc fails since she isn't the POV character. We don't empathize with her because she herself is not expressing anything; thus, there is no shared connection.
And yet almost everyone who watched it still feel the frustration without even needing a character to exhibit said frustration, cause the experience is indeed annoying, that's the shared connection right there.
If it was the same then what was the harm in showing the audience those loops with more drastic variations? It would have gotten the same point across while keeping things fresh. Nagato mentions how there were times where one of the central events did not occur. In order to really understand the full extent of what she went through, these more distinct loops are needed or else we are only given a snapshot of her experiences. A strong sense of progression where we start at the first loop followed by the 100th, 1000th, 5000th, etc. would have added to the hopelessness of the situation. Instead skipping immediately to the final few loops makes things feel pointless because you are missing much needed context. A loop suddenly diverging with the gang visiting a different place can instill false hope only to crush it by making the next loop the same as the one before. Would that not be more meaningful? That the show baits you and then tricks you? Instead it's a one trick pony.
Didn't the 7th or 6th episode did something similar? even if it was a very small thing, but anyway the end result would still be the same and feelings of annoyance for this arc won't change, if anything the baiting would be more cruel.
There's nothing in the actual Endless Eight arc that suggested this. The argument that this arc is integral to Nagato's character is derived from the movie and how she yearned to know what it felt like to be alive. Exclusively singling out the Endless Eight arc as what justifies what happens in the movie is weird to me because this struggle found within Nagato is explored throughout the series. In the episode where the group duels the computer club, she is shown to have actual interests of her own. The island arc shows her developing a sense of humor. She is shown to save Kyon when her counterpart goes haywire, which is something she was NOT programmed to do.
This idea that this arc is necessary for Nagato's actions would make a lot more sense if the timeloop is the impetus that drives Nagato towards making the decision that she does in the movie. It isn't though. Time passes and chronologically speaking things like her bonding with Haruhi or learning she has an interest in gaming occur that get the point across that there is something different about her now compared to before. My point is Endless Eight does not do ANYTHING for Nagato. The same guiding character development is found if you remove the arc and in this arc she is nothing but a background character. She is a dull, emotional void and does not do anything for over 500 years. There is nothing to empathize with because the arc doesn't make her out to be anything in this arc. She acts like she does in other points in the anime where she is a blank slate.
And finally I ask the question... what is this arc about then? People who defend this arc like to point out how deeply it fleshes Nagato's character. That's it. Their praise is that it set-ups a future arc well. It doesn't tell a well put together story on its own. It's an argument made in hindsight and the point being made is that this arc does not work if the movie is not watched afterwards because nothing about this storyline tells a compelling story on its own. It's like arguing Thor 2 is this remarkable piece of work because it set the stage for Thor's arc in Avengers Endgame.
Why do they need to make audiences relive the same thing? That's my question. They could have made the audience feel exasperated and lost in a more efficient way. Does that not feel cheap? Their only way of getting this idea across is just by showing you the same thing over and over instead of capturing that same feeling in a shorter amount of time and with carefully laid out events. Many stories do not need to hammer home the point a million times for you to get something. They don't. Once again, why 8 instead of 10? If you really are arguing artistic merit than the whole season should have been Endless Eight. Why the fuck not? This would make the arc lead right into Disappearance.
Sure Nagito had developed over the whole series to do what she did in the movie, not something exclusively to this arc, but it sure contributed a lot to it.
The fact that time passed after it before we reach the movie doesn't mean the arc didn't still affect it, Some things don't need to happen immediately to be considered the cause of something else, but they can still leave an impact still, a lot of stories use flashbacks when something happen that had a root in the past, and sometimes people be like "why they didn't establish it before?" , sometimes it's more convenient to group related stories together., this same series actually had a random episode that was also important later on to Haruhi in the movie too...but anyway
Since you asking what the point of the arc, i would answer that it's not JUST about Nagito, it also offers couple of things
The extent of Haruhi power, for how much she showed, that was the most terrifying thing of all things she showed, and she showed a LOT, yet to me nothing was as terrifying as creating a loop that last +15000 times.
And the loop thing, it approach it differently that it warrants itself to exist in this form, sure there are many stories about this concept in media or outside of it, some are done in way better works than Haruhi -like steins;gate and rezero to name a few in the anime scene- , but how many can actually claim to make you feel the loop itself to such an extent? Nothing ever comes to mind, Haruhi anime was the only one to even dare try this concept to such an extreme, that it actually effectively worked on viewers
and i merely talk about this after watching it like 2 years after airing , as
Jexhius pointed out, the experience of actually watching it weekly for 2 MONTHS must have been something else entirely, no one knew when it would end, there was no schedule and no list of upcoming episodes names , it was basically a big prank to viewers of one of the most popular anime of it's time back then, and something that bold that can only lead to disaster and self sabotaging the whole thing, and IT'S GLORIOUS.
Oh and the payoff is weak,almost too disappointing, but also kinda works in the most terrifying way, it basically establish that this insanity that occurred over hundred of years has only happened because of the most trivial thing in existence, not some huge issue that needed a lot of work to solve and validate the insane amount of loops -as we usually see in...re zero for example- , but something that can easily be averted, yet it didn't happen until the last loop, it's almost insulting, but it also shows us how terrifying Haruhi powers are and how she affects the world around her.
in the end. it's not the most amazing thing ever and i didn't claim anything like that, in fact i can see why anyone would hate it and find the experience not fun, but i can't help but admire it still, cause the experience for me was unique and added to the series methinks.
Why are you all acting like I should know this story?
You should only know about it if you were living in Japan ,it's one of those japanese folk tales and quite popular there
