Endless Eight
Figured I'd post my collected thoughts since I finished all eight episodes. As I previously said, when I first talked about it yesterday, I was really reluctant to dive into it. I previously got back into the anime scene around the time the second season was coming out, so I was already well versed with the meltdown these episodes caused in the fandom. I more or less got spoiled on how the episodes end, but I decided to give it a go anyway.
This was definitely quite the experience. Maybe I'm drinking the kool-aid, but it was definitely clever writing on KyoAni's part. While things like Nagato getting a new mask and different shot compositions I caught on right away, it took me until the 4th or 5th episodes for me to realize that they were constantly switching outfits. It was a really clever way of "forcing" deja vu onto the viewer without specifically calling attention to it.
And I'm guessing Nagato purposely bought a different mask in each timeline in an attempt to trigger the others into realizing what was happening to them.
And yeah, the triumphant music that played into the background in the final episode when Kyon finally succeeded in getting Haruhi to help him with his homework. Definitely good stuff there.
I'm glad I got to experience this.