1 I still haven't watched the second season or the movie.  I really should.

2 I stopped subtitling in the middle of Endless Eight. (Not so much "oh god, I can't take any more" as it was "you know, these days I make better money at my day job"...)

The show is great. Just high quality all around, clever dialogue, a great dynamic, and a plot that lets them go nuts without running into the x-of-the-week issue. Though eventually the novels did have that problem - they had to figure out a way to take Nagato out of the equation in order to build up any tension, since she's kind of the ultimate trump card.

Not that ultimate trump card is bad - I just read all of One Punch Man...

3 I liked Endless 8.  I guess I get the consternation from some people, but the one criticism I didn't really understand was the allegation that KyoAni did it to save money on animation.  They changed so many little details in the animation from episode to episode, I don't see how they could have saved money.

Still haven't watched Disappearance, though.

4 The movie was decent. I was not fan of Kyon losing his pants at the beginning. His overreaction seemed unwarranted. Also, the idea of him liking his role enough to go to length to get it back did not agree with me. I prefered his Stockholm Syndrome being more ambiguous. Otherwise, decent. Nice animation, albeit not as good as Hyouka.

5

I thought the first series and movie were pretty good, if not as good as everyone and their brother were making it out to be (One guy who appeared on Bang Zoom!'s short-lived anime review series, called it the best anime of the decade...Before the decade was out.).  The second series made me not give a damn if the whole franchise got junked into the garbage disposal.  Endless 8 was something that should have ended in two episodes, not 8.

The best thing that ever occurred from Haruhi was Haruhi-chan.  That is truly great.  But at least we can say Haruhi was not like Infinite Stratos...

6 It never bothers me when a show or movie or whatever is declared "best of the decade" before the decade is over.  Statistically, they're more likely to be correct at that point than they will be two years, five years or even nine years later.

I remember when the Steve Martin comedy L.A. Story came out.  They started advertising it late in 1990, and one of the reviewer blurbs was "Best comedy of the '90s!"  And I thought at first, "well, that's rather bold" but then it dawned on me that, at that point in time, that claim could in fact be correct.  Sure, I know it's just advertising, but if you look at it philosophically...

7

It never bothers me when a show or movie or whatever is declared "best of the decade" before the decade is over.  Statistically, they're more likely to be correct at that point than they will be two years, five years or even nine years later.

I think what bothered me was less the timing, and more the attitude of certainty especially for a series that while entertaining (At least for the first season and movie.), did not strike me as outstandingly good, heads and shoulders above everyone else even at the time.  What is more, it is striking that a lot of the excitement and praise were being lavished the series using a novelty (Randomly ordering the episodes.) that in the end, is a cheap gimmick which does nothing to improve the story.

Novelty is not inherently better - as anyone looking at the news could attest.

8 There have been a lot of things which were worse. No question about that. But in the pantheon of "reasonably good series" I can think of a lot which I consider to be better. I thought the hype for it at the time was overblown and I still do. (My review includes commentary about that exact thing.)