This volume is all about "Asahina Mikuru no Bouken (Episode 00)." No, this isn't the movie. Instead, it's all about how that movie came to be.
First 6 episodes of the anime follows the book almost letter to letter. It's so close to the original, it may make some people wonder if it took any creativity at all. In some ways, I suppose it really didn't require much creativity, at least on the story side of things. Don't even think about taking that as there being no creative writers at Kyoto Animation because Episode 00 of the anime proves that there are great playwrights at Kyoto Animation.
My guess is that the first 6 episodes of the anime were made to please the general audience, including those who never read the original novel. On the other hand, Episode 00 was made for the people who read this book. To those who did not, it's merely an eye candy, albeit a great one. Actually, it's an eye candy for the people who read the novel, too, but it's a more meaningful eye candy. I suppose I should give a spoiler warning here, but I don't think it will change the eye candy value of the anime at all, so unless you're really strict about stuff like that, feel free to continue reading.
Mikuru-Beam is real! In fact, it's based on Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. That's LASER, silly. There's a good reason why Nagato jumps on Mikuru in that one scene. Heck, it's not just LASER beams that come out of Mikuru's eyes. There are even more amazing things that come out of her eyes, all of them extremely dangerous. I'll just leave it at that.
Remember the last scene where Koizumi and Asahina walks away near a stream, surrounded by falling cherry blossoms? This movie was taken for a "bunkasai," which occurs in fall. Cherry blossoms in fall? No, this isn't Da Capo.
Shamisen never actually speaks in front of Haruhi. He does in the anime because there was no other way to show that he can (or rather could) speak while keeping the episode within the context of the finalized SOS-dan movie.
And finally, the end notice that Haruhi was made to say at the end of the movie about it all being fictional and what not is very important. She doesn't know why, which is why she complains, but everyone else does. Do you?
I guess that wasn't much of a spoiler.
Anyway, there are some very serious thoughts thrown out at the readers near the end of the book. All three organizations (Nagato's, Mikuru's, and Koizumi's) have very different purposes and there's bound to be conflicts. In fact, it's hinted that there are many more organizations interested in Haruhi. After all, she's like a self-aware virus in the Matrix(??), a self-UNaware divinity, or something else. Who wouldn't be interested in her? Then again, it might not even be her at the center of everything ;^)
I'm starting to think that this story may come down to a really simple concept. For now, it remains, or rather continues to get more complex.
Update: Ignore most of the drivel above about anime being different than the book. It turns out, there's a chapter in a later volume (Suzumiya Haruhi no Douyou) describing the movie itself (instead of the making process), and the anime more-or-less matches that chapter.
