1 Well, that's another slot of my Top Ten Worst that's locked in already, and it's not even August.

2

It's possible to do a good "time loop" series, but only if some measurable progress toward breaking out of the loop is made in all the loops the audience has to sit through. Anything that is completely forgotten by all the characters is only pointless filler, and a loop that none of the trapped characters have any chance of affecting in any way (instead having to wait for "the stars to align just right" or something) is nothing more than a bunch of what-ifs, that only the most hardcore fans are willing to sit through (and usually only if they get to write the episode).

It's like a "silent protagonist" video game, done right it can be a dramatic and immersive experience, but done wrong it becomes a reason to put your fist through the TV screen and cut your wrists with the glass shards.

3 The original novel did not iterate the loop. The only loop presented was the final one.

I could see doing two - first one as cute filler (which it is, mostly - pool, costumes, yukatas) and then the second as the breakout. You could even do three - a cute filler, a "we have a problem, Houston" loop, and then the breakout.

Four? More than four? I dunno. People are honestly speculating at this point that something has gone horribly wrong with the legal end of the production and that KyoAni is spinning their wheels because they don't have any other choice. I can't imagine that anything this dumb is a purely artistic decision.

On the other hand, MAN, these would be easy eps to time! ;p

4

Avatar, they wouldn't be any easier than normal, as there's variance in the shots & scenes.  Kyoto isn't taking the easy way out by showing the same episode 4 times; they've actually animated the same story 4 times, with different scenes, different dialog, etc.  The first overused still shots, but had the great fireworks scenes; the second and third have had fewer stills, but nothing particularly spectacular. But it's not different enough each time to make it interesting. 

As you say, when it was obvious that it was to be a two-parter, that was OK. It would allow the viewer to watch the first loop as "a day in the life" story, with the second as "breakout."   When they didn't solve it in two, I seriously started thinking about panning the series at the end of the year for this stunt.

5 It's actually worse than that.  Over at Random Curiosity, some commentator actually found out that Kadokawa ordered 6 episodes of Endless 8 last week.  The sponsors were not amused.  One of the producer was fired to appease the sponsors, but by this time, it's too late to back out.  This week is the 5th iteration, and they STILL haven't resolve it.  Hopefully next week, they'll finish it..

Between the often false advertisement by Kadokawa and this whole Endless Eight mess, it seemed like Kadokawa is determine to kill their golden goose.

6

ST:TNG did a time loop story. But they wrapped it up in a single one hour episode, and as Tatterdemalian says, they made progress on each loop so it didn't feel like pointless wheel spinning.

I think this is going to end up being legendary in the industry, and I don't mean that in a good way. Legendary in the same way that the ending of Mahoromatic is legendary.

7

According to ANN there were episodes of this on 6/19, 6/26, 7/3, and 7/10. The 7/17 ep will be the fifth, and if the rumor is true then that one still won't resolve it all.

They must be out of their minds. There's got to be some strange story about this, and I wonder if we'll ever find out what it is.

8 For true legendary fail, you need Lost Universe episode 4...

But this is close.

9 Wait... I haven't been keeping abreast of anime developments. Did somebody animate Groundhog Day or something? 

10

Yeah, except not as well. Each of the episodes of "Endless 8" has followed essentially the same story. But each time it's been reanimated. For instance, as part of it they attend a summer festival, and each time the three girls wear different yukatas.

The story is that they're caught in a time loop because Haruhi is unhappy about something. And in fact they've repeated it something like 15,000 times. Yuki knows this because she has memories of every iteration.

The only problem is that they've done this four -- or five? -- times now, in four (or five?) episodes, and show no sign of breaking out of the loop yet. As a story idea it's interesting enough. But KyoAni is pounding it into the ground.

It's not like it's saving them any money, either, since they've reanimated it every time.

11 The simple explanation is that they thought this would go over great with the audience. It's experimental and unexpected, and that worked for KyoAni in the first Haruhi series. This time, not so much. Feelings of dread and hopelessness in the audience similar to Yuki's? YES! Wanting KyoAni and Kadokawa to disappear and never return? YOU BETCHA! 

And I remember boos occuring in the theater when I Got You, Babe came on the radio for the last time in Groundhogs Day, cause we wanted it to end. So even the best applications of time loop stories get tedious.

12 Doing it in two episodes, or even in three, might well have worked with the fans. Using six episodes is extremely poor judgment.

13 I was going to comment, but I turned it into a post at The Pond.  

14 In another forum I said the same as you Steven about the DVD sales.  Who's going to want to buy the same episode 5+ times now.  I'm enjoying them weekly and the episodes are different enough that they are interesting but I couldn't imagine watching them one after another on DVD.