The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Every so often in Japan, an anime series gets aired on TV and becomes an instant phenomenon. Inevitably, word of it reaches foreign countries, leading both fan-sub communities and license companies alike getting there hands on it, leading up to of course, fan-subs over the internet and licensed DVD releases. As a (perhaps inevitable) result, the anime becomes a phenomenon world wide as well. Love it or hate it, there's no escaping it, with fans talking about it, articles and/or reviews on the show being featured in magazines specializing in anime, manga or Asian culture, cosplay, youtube and sites on the net dedicated to anime.
One such show, is of course, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

From the infamous "Hare Hare Yukai" dance seen in the closing credits to the unbelievable amount merchandise ranging from figures, clothing, apparel and even video games, Haruhi and her SOS Brigade have become recognized by this generation's otaku and anime enthusiasts worldwide. Those of you who haven't even so much as heard of Haruhi have obviously been living on another planet this past decade. But fret not, 'cause you're about to get schooled. So sit up and pay attention.

The show is based on a series of light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa, with illustrations by Noizi Ito. The story revolves around a young lad who goes by the nickname (yes, you read that right) Kyon who has just started high school.
After introducing himself to his classmates during a class introduction, a beautiful girl seated behind him introduces herself and decrees: "I'm not interested in ordinary humans. If any of you are aliens, time travelers or espers come and see me. That is all". That girl is who else, but Haruhi Suzumiya.
Kyon soon learns that Haruhi is eccentric to the point of ridiculousness, including stories of several incidents during Hauri's time middle school to joining different school clubs to which she leaves every last one.
Eventually, Kyon manages to strike up a conversation with Haruhi, much to the astonishment of his classmates. After conversing with Haruhi regarding her displeasure of the existing clubs, Kyon is dragged into a club Haruhi creates the next day which she names the SOS (Save the world by Overloading it with fun with Haruhi Suzumiya) Brigade. Other members soon follow including the silent, book loving Yuki Nagato, cute, well endowed but shy Mikuru Asahina, and "mysterious" transfer student, Itsuki Koizumi. Unknown to Haruhi, each of these three are actually an alien, a time traveler and an esper. The very kinds of people Haruhi has been looking for have gathered under her nose with the objective of keeping Haruhi happy. Why? Because Haruhi actually has god-like powers and is capable of destorying the world with but a thought if displeased. Haruhi is actually oblivious to this and Koizumi believe it's best if she's kept ignorant of this as well as the fact that aliens and such do exist. So Kyon and the other club members join their brigade leader's activities to prevent the end of the world as we know it.

The anime is pretty much a random series, in that one minute it's a slice of life school comedy and the next it's just a little bit darker in tone with Evangelion style psycological moments and similar scenes of distruction. One episode's story has a murder mystery who-dunnit theme set in a mansion on deserted island.

The stories in each episode are greatly enjoyable, split up into different story arcs following the original novels, which are titled after whatever mood Haruhi is in.
Haruhi herself is an interesting yet charming character with an energetic go get 'em attitude, great mood swings and of course her eccentricities. On the down side, she is also extremely bratty and will do just about anything to get what she wants without even the slightest though to the consequences or to whoever my get hurt in the line of fire.

All in all, Haruhi is just a fun, random and just an all round great show with interesting characters, brilliant, fast paced yet easy to pick up story lines, slick animation and has just about something for everyone. It's easy to see why it's so popular. If you haven't watched it yet then sign up to join the SOS Brigade right now.

Whenever people recommend anime, it's always a given that they will recommend one of the more popular series. When someone asks for a giant robot anime, you hear names like Code Geass and Gurren Lagann thrown out there. For Slice of Life, it's usually Lucky Star. But whenever you ask about an anime that has simply changed the face of a genre, you look to anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion for those giant robots or Madoka Magica for magical girls. That's the stance that people often take with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Which is also why I put it on a "To Watch" list and blew it off for the next three months, until now.

Plot: Watch these episodes in order! And I don't mean watch these episodes the way they are placed on Crunchyroll. Watch them in the order they were supposed to be viewed in! If you don't, you will be as lost as the guy on Episode 14 saying, "That plot sucks." It doesn't. I guarantee you that this is a good series, but you will only enjoy it if you watch it in order!

With that said, I did enjoy watching this series because, while the paranormal events do not cross over due to the nature of the show (with Haruhi being completely unaware of them), the writers try their best to integrate those events into the main plot. This is also not a "chosen one" story, where the protagonist is chosen to save the world by some "otherworldly being" or something, or is just chosen for any given reason. It's the protagonist, describing a chosen one, basically watching from the sidelines. In a plot, I feel that it's not always "the most important man in the world", rather, it's sometimes better to focus on "one story you feel is important to tell".

Characters: Let's just throw it out there: everything happens because of Haruhi. She's the secondary protagonist, because Kyon is the main focus. He's the narrator, after all. I think that stories tend to be better this way, because we don't immediately find out what the "chosen one" feels. It creates a little more suspense, and opens up the floor to more conflicts than we'd otherwise never see. The supporting characters are also charming in their own way. Mikuru Asahina, the shy girl who is always forced to cosplay, Yuki Nagato, the emotionless Rei Ayanami, and Itsuki Koizumi, the guy that goes to your class and just seems strange, all have their own quirks and charismatic traits which make their SOS Brigade an easily likable group.

Content: It's a really funny show, especially when Haruhi takes it upon herself to take the initiative and do things her way. However, in season 2, you've been warned: you will be watching the same episode in different variations, eight times. While I certainly didn't mind watching those episodes, I do admit that the repetition quickly irritated me, and by Part 5, I was entirely sure I knew what would happen until the loop ended. There are also times of dead silence in this series that I wish could've been filled with more over-the-top antics, but I suppose I didn't mind, since my perspective of this series wouldn't have changed either way.

Miscellaneous: I love the music in this series. Especially when Haruhi sings for a band during the school festival; I began looking for that song as soon as I finished the series. I like the animation, because this was definitely the first time since Neon Genesis Evangelion that I've ever seen a Kuudere that looked decent. Aside from that, I really don't find many flaws with this series.

Overall: It caught me off-guard, thinking that this series was just a normal high school series. I'm so glad I was wrong, because these tend to be the better series, one of them being Puella Magi Madoka Magica (anxiously waiting for the movie to come out here). It still has its flaws, but that's okay. Watching this was like watching Neon Genesis Evangelion to me, which had its own set of random happenings that were a bit difficult to keep up with at times. These happenings did not stop either of them from being great shows that you absolutely must watch.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an interesting work that for its time, tried something different for a change. It is not revolutionary by any means, nor is its concept that original. However, it has a freshness to it and a delivery that makes a rather superb anime. It breaks away from the typical high school anime series with a guy being attractive to every girl. Instead, we have the haruhi gang doing wacky adventures, which at least is better than the norm. Haruhi may not have a whole lot of depth, but she is so much fun to watch, one can't help but enjoy when she is on the screen. While each episode may in essence be them goofing off, it is done with such taste, and flow, they never cease to please. The only major gripes is that the beginning may turn off people,and the second season is total trash. Besides that, go see this anime.

"If there's really that many people in the world, then there had to be someone who wasn't ordinary. There had to be someone who was living an interesting life. There just had to be. Why wasn't I that person?"

Have you ever wondered if there were aliens and time-travelers on this planet? Or people with special abilities, like the power to read minds? My life is so painfully average that I was able to relate to Haruhi so well. Of course, she is far from average. I hated this anime the first time I watched episode 0... the second time I fell in love. Kyon is absolutely hilarious and lovable and sarcastic and so human. The light novels are good too... I wish they made a third season (even though the second season was painful).

This series is one of those that every otaku should know since it features one of the most interesting characters of all time.
Plot: 9/10
The SOS brigage (Haruhi's club) was solely built to remove Haruhi's boring days.
I almost gave it a perfect 10. But because of the endless eight episodes, I took one point because of a hint of a lazyness (Just watch the first and last endless eight episodes). The series has two chronology. There is a linear version and a jumbled one. Linear version makes the story more sense but less climatic towards the end. The non-linear version does make a more climatic ending.
Characters: 10/10
Haruhi is a blast to watch. Cute,funny,lively. It's better to watch her for yourself
Kyon, the protagonist, has nothing really special about him, no deep background or such. But the way the writers wrote his lines make him the best person to narrate the story. Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki all have special abilities that makes Kyon's life an adventure.
Animation/Audio:10/10
No flaws here. Be it dramatic scenes, intense battles or sexy Mikuru, the animation stays consistent throughout.
Summary
A must-watch anime. I can't recommend it more. Also after watching this series, don't forget to watch the movie. The movie provides a truly epic ending to the anime.
Marked: Must-watch

This anime was GREAT! it had a good story line that stimulated my brain and really made me think about what is going to happen next. it always kept me interested from the very beginning. Yes i know the Infinite " 8 " could have been a bit shorter (im sure alot more people would be happier about it) but i wouldn't call it a waste of my time. i enjoyed every minute of this anime and i would GLADY LOVE TO SEE ANOTHER SEASON OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!
Sign this petition to help get another season
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/176/bring-back-the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya-and-make-more/?cid=fb_na#bbfb=354479181

Source: http://thedarksideofequality.blogspot.sg/2013/02/my-take-on-melancholy.html

Introduction

I think anyone who watches Anime would have been introduced to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and for good reason; because like Animes such as Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a contemporary classic that has become the face of the Anime genre. Ironically though, I came to watch know about this anime pretty late into my Otaku life. My first Anime was actually Chobits and ever since then, my love for Moe have not subsided. However, I recently got about to watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and I was an immediate fan for reasons quite unlike those that made me fall in love with Chobits. The reason I've come to love The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is that it engulfs me in a world of sci-fi mystery, romance and friendship in a coming-of-age plot.

I think most people would have some theory about what actually is going on in Haruhi's world, and so I thought I would write my theory here and see if anyone agrees. My theory is that the real 'god' of the group, is the group itself.

(note: I haven't gotten around to reading the light novels and so my opinion here is entirely based on the Anime series and movie)

Why Haruhi isn't the one with all the power (like God)

I think that the entire focus on Haruhi as the 'god' figure is a red herring. Firstly, Haruhi's powers were awakened after her chance encounter with Kyon when she was still in middle school. Moreover, there is no indication that Haruhi had powers before this encounter. Secondly, it was not only Haruhi who is obsessed with Espers, Aliens and Time Travellers; Kyon himself acknowledged that even though he doesn't believe in Santa, he does find such supernatural beings to be possible. Thirdly, in 'Mysterious Sign,' even though Haruhi designed the logo, it was Kyon who uploaded it to the website after doing some 'resizing'. Thus, there is no reason to assume that it was Haruhi who have discovered the Rune-ish sign, as it is possible that Kyon himself had made alterations to it during the upload. Moreover, it was Kyon who call it a 'tapeworm,' an imagery that is very close to the activation of the alien species that laid dormant in the stomach of the earth like a tapeworm. Furthermore, I noticed that the sign that was uploaded is in fact inverted from Haruhi's original symbol, which was first shown to us from the perspective of the computer screen. This perspective is only possible from Yuki Nagato's (a data integration thought entity) point of view.

Why no one is 'god'

I argue that no one is god, and that everyone is 'god', for the following reasons:

1. Almost everyone can be god.
A. Yuki has shown that she can harness Haruhi's powers in the disappearance to become god (well ok technically she stole it but its the same thing).
B. Mikuru is able to critically affect the flow of Time. For example, when she spoke to Kyon about her star shaped mole and when she urges him to call out to middle school Haruhi that left a big impact on Haruhi.
C. Many of the instances of alleged Haruhi powers, could in fact be attributed to Kyon. This is made especially suspicious when adult Mikuru chants something soundlessly during The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya when she leaned on Kyon's shoulder.

2. Events happen mostly because of trial and error and chance, rather than by anyone's determination.

I first realized this when I watched the whole of Endless Eight (because I didn't look it up before and had no idea it was going to be that way). As I was watching it, I felt that the key point that the Endless Eight episodes was trying to bring out is that there are small changes in every occurrence. For instance, the position that the group seats when they discuss their realization of time repeating itself, Yuki's mask etc. This seems to hint towards the notion that what drives the changes and the eventual breaking away from the cycle is not will or even Haruhi's decision to join the group in doing their homework, but rather the little changes that lead to a drastically different ending. The references to chaos theory are quite frequent too. Below is a screen shot of a butterfly that hints towards such a view (chaos theory is commonly known as the butterfly effect due to the words of Edward Lorenz who said that a butterfly's fluttering of its wings can have deep impacts on the weather elsewhere).



3. However, this does not mean that everything is entirely random. Instead, there seems to be some ability to navigate these changes. At this point, I think Yuki's words here are significant. Yuki mentioned that Haruhi is 'the key to autoevolution,' which indicates that Haruhi has the power to effect change without being influenced by the environment. (Hence auto- i.e automatic or independent evolution) However, it is strange that Yuki says this as she is clearly able to effect autoevolution as we have seen in the series. Mikuru too, calls herself a 'guide' for Kyon, which means she can point him towards particular actions, which isn't all that different from autoevolution. Similarly Koizumi's actions to ensure that the world isn't covered in 'closed space' isn't all that different.

4. From this, I think the natural conclusion would be that it is the group's collective will/decisions that truly drive changes. In this way, it is the group that is 'god'. Thus, even though every time something is done to ensure that Haruhi stays in some kind of equilibrium, it is really a red herring for the group to maintain their own version of what the world should look like. However, if we were to push this argument far enough, then the question of 'autoevolution' is in itself a fallacy since it means that the environment (of the school circle) still has an effect on anyone's (or in particular Haruhi's) powers. We can then go one step further and realize that this is very much similar to any living organism, whereby life is as much determined by its genetics and environment, as it is by its own volition to do what it wants to.

At this point, I feel that this is precisely why The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya can be such an abstract story with characters that time travel, change time dimensions etc, and yet feel so close to the heart. I think that it is more than just the slice-of-life elements that really draws us in, instead it is this story hints towards our sensibility that we have some control of our destiny; and it is this control that makes us feel the tension that we call desire, which only 'God Knows' how strong this emotion really is.

Conclusion

I hope this theory strikes a chord with some people. I am interested to know what you guys think though.

Follow this link to a Wiki article which will take you to the 2009 listing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Melancholy_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya_episodes#2009_version

Watch both the 2006 series and the 2009 series according to this list and you will thank me. That makes for a reasonable 28 episode series in chronological order, which makes the most sense.

This is one of those anime with a strange and difficult-to-understand set of series. What are really season one and season two are two series with the same generic title, " The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". The only distinguishing difference are the years in which they were released: 2006 and 2009. Seasons 1 and 2 contain episodes that fall within the same period of time, so they have episodes that follow one another and even contain the same bits of story, produced 3 years apart!

Season 1 is a complete mess, with the original episode order being way out of chronological order. Season two is made up of an eight-part mini-series, a five-part mini series, and a few single episodes, all of which fit right into the first season's storyline. By watching it according to the aforementioned Wikipedia list you will see both seasons in their entirety in chronological order. This is the best way to watch them. You aren't missing anything by watching them in their original release date order. In fact, you'd be doing yourself a dis-service by doing that.

This is truly a 4 out of 5 star anime. Sure, I thought the review by fluffywalrus was very funny and even voted it as being "helpful", but this anime deserves much more than 1 star. It is entertaining and has interesting characters, even if the title character, Haruhi Suzumiya, is annoyingly and frustratingly bossy. Go watch it and good luck jumping around to watch them in chronological order!

Mark O.