Another Haruhi second season announcement? After the original series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya finished airing in July 2006, an announcement for the second season was made in Newtype Magazine’s August 2007 edition, and another set of images came from Newtype’s July 2008 edition. Will someone release the actual anime already??

Our prayers have been answered: APRIL

Rumors have stated that the actual “Haruhi second season” anime announced in 2006 was canceled and started anew as the production studio decided that instead of making a sequel, they were going to do a completely new Haruhi - methinks something along the lines of the three Minami-ke series?

The shift in approach makes conceptual sense as the new series is the fourth novel in the Suzumiya Haruhi series, 涼宮ハルヒの消失 (Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu / The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), in which the world has completely changed:

In this novel, the story takes place from December 17 until December 24, a month after the cultural festival. On December 17, everything is normal—the SOS Brigade plans to have a nabe party for Christmas. However, on December 18, Kyon arrives at school to find everything has changed—Haruhi Suzumiya is missing, and Ryoko Asakura is a normal student. Kyon is the only one who notices anything different. Nagato is an ordinary human, and Mikuru does not recognize him. The only clue is a bookmark left by the alien version of Nagato, which leads Kyon on a quest back in time, where he interacts with the storyline from “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody,” trying to sort out the mystery and return to his own time line.

Source

Of course, given the previous delays, the KyoAni hype machine is not to be fully trusted, but this is a pretty freakin’ definitive announcement. An April air date is consistent with the new Spring 2009 season, typically when most big-name shows are launched; with CLANNAD ending at around that time, it’s high time for another highlight KyoAni title.

I’m not usually one to get overexcited at this kind of stuff, but OHMYGODHARUHIFINALLYAHHHHHH
 

 
More at Sankaku Complex (NSFW site)

Unfortunate UPDATE: J-CAST has confirmed with publisher Kadokawa that the announcement was their sick way of giving wannabe fans a new chance to watch it on TV. In short, RERUN. Like they can’t go borrow the DVDs from their friends. Yea, we (mainly I) got trolled pretty badly here, but dammit, what a bunch of dicks. Gonna go crawl back in my cave now.

More information at J-CAST, Sankaku Complex