Note that the 2009 season consisted rerun of the first season as well as 14 new episodes in between. I will only refer to the new episodes in this review.
A lot of people hated the second season (mainly the "Endless Eight" episodes), but I actually really liked it. One criticism to it was the laziness by Kyoto Animation, but I beg to differ. Every single scene in the Endless Eight episodes were redrawn, and there were no recycled scenes. This is actually harder than brand new episodes, because it's like writing a paper on same topic 8 times without self-plagiarism. I personally really enjoyed watching the brand-new-old-episodes where every episode has slightly different drawing styles, and they obviously put more effort into cinematography in latter episodes. It also made me feel the tediousness of the same events happening, much as what Nagato had experienced in anime. And when Kyon finally made a move... that was nothing short of epic. The ending of the final Endless Eight episode, even the afterthoughts, were extremely satisfying. I must admit though, I always watch anime series after the final episode has been aired, so I did not experience the excruciating wait for new episodes. That may have worked in my favor.
"Sighs of Haruhi" episodes weren't an amazing conclusion to season 2, but it was decent. I feel the second season wasn't meant to be a sequel, but as an anecdote to the first season. It probably would've been more appropriate as an OVA (if there weren't so many Haruhi fans around the world, which makes financial sense to broadcast) As the first season, the animation was very good, voice acting was nothing short of perfection, and just plain Haruhi fun.
A lot of people hated the second season (mainly the "Endless Eight" episodes), but I actually really liked it. One criticism to it was the laziness by Kyoto Animation, but I beg to differ. Every single scene in the Endless Eight episodes were redrawn, and there were no recycled scenes. This is actually harder than brand new episodes, because it's like writing a paper on same topic 8 times without self-plagiarism. I personally really enjoyed watching the brand-new-old-episodes where every episode has slightly different drawing styles, and they obviously put more effort into cinematography in latter episodes. It also made me feel the tediousness of the same events happening, much as what Nagato had experienced in anime. And when Kyon finally made a move... that was nothing short of epic. The ending of the final Endless Eight episode, even the afterthoughts, were extremely satisfying. I must admit though, I always watch anime series after the final episode has been aired, so I did not experience the excruciating wait for new episodes. That may have worked in my favor.
"Sighs of Haruhi" episodes weren't an amazing conclusion to season 2, but it was decent. I feel the second season wasn't meant to be a sequel, but as an anecdote to the first season. It probably would've been more appropriate as an OVA (if there weren't so many Haruhi fans around the world, which makes financial sense to broadcast) As the first season, the animation was very good, voice acting was nothing short of perfection, and just plain Haruhi fun.