The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

Also Known As: Haruhi

Genre: Drama/Romance

Format: 14 Episodes

Allegiance: Kyoto Animation/SOS Dan

Director: Yamamoto Hiroshi

Vintage: 2006

Intelligence Agency Report by: Kuzu Ryu Sen

Kyon had always wondered about supernatural beings, but over the years, had grown to consider their existence impossible. However, on the first day of high school, he - and the rest of the class - is shocked by new student Suzumiya Haruhi. Not only is she a “striking beauty,” but she openly declares in her self-introduction that she is only interested in time-travellers, ESPers, and sliders. Any attempt by Kyon to make serious conversation with this mysterious student is rebuffed, until one day Haruhi, acting on inspiration indirectly given by Kyon, suddenly founds the SOS Brigade. Immediately seizing both materiel and personnel, Haruhi launches into a quest to seek out the supernatural… and Kyon can do naught but go along for the ride.

Field Agent Report by: Kuzu Ryu Sen

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

3.50
5.00
3.75
9.50
8.50

Overall

4.25

(not an average)

It’s hard to know where to begin with a show like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. After all, when placed among other anime, Haruhi is certainly very, very unique. However, does this uniqueness translate into quality? The answer is a resounding no. Despite its uniqueness, the plot is lackluster at best and downright invisible at worst; the characters are flat and one-dimensional; and Haruhi’s pacing and time management skills are the poorest this side of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. To be utterly frank, a person could skip all 14 episodes and just watch the opening credits - if they paid close attention to the lyrics, they wouldn’t miss a single damn thing that this show was trying to convey.

So what makes The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya so unique? Well, first off, the episodes are intentionally run with little concern for continuity or chronological order (ironic, for this would have been a far better show if this had not been the case). The show also attempts to deal with just about every science-fiction and supernatural concept ever used in fiction at the same time. As a result, the characters are incredibly eclectic in order to facilitate the abstract concepts utilized in the plot. All this creates a unique atmosphere, concept, and situation that set up what should have been a promising show.

The execution, however, is astoundingly poor. The plot feels like the writers simply asked themselves, “what can we randomly throw in here to hook people?” While this may have been an intentional decision in order to add another level (that of a parody) to the show, the result was a complete failure, as it blurred the line between comedy and drama. Although Haruhi explains everything it introduces to a satisfactory degree, most of the concepts themselves simply feel as if they’re just there to score brownie points. As for the characters, while their traits and personalities are actually interesting, there’s a dreadful dearth of character development throughout the series. In fact, almost none until the final two episodes.

Still, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya does possess outstanding visuals and very enjoyable music. Kyoto Animation has done a fantastic job providing vivid colours, detailed backgrounds, excellent special effects, and amazingly fluid motion. The music was lively, catchy, and most importantly, actually had some meaning. However, this was certainly not enough to compensate for the tacky and clichéd humour deployed throughout. It’s a sad thing when, thanks to the terrible plot and the unfunny humour, one is filled with the most joy during the opening and ending sequences.

Appropriately, the ending was just as much of a cataclysmic disaster as the rest of the show. The rising action lasted all of 10 minutes, the climax about 15, and the denouement took about another 10 minutes. Certainly not enough time to generate any sort of real emotional attachment. And really, that sums up The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The drama fails to generate any sort of sentiment/attachment to the setting or characters; the comedy fails to generate any sort of amusement or laughter. In the end, all that we are left with is quite simply a waste of time, space, effort, and energy… much like Suzumiya Haruhi herself.

Field Agent Report by: Loner

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

5.75
6.75
6.75
10.00
8.75

Overall

7.00

(not an average)

Spring of 2006 was supposed to be a quiet one in the world of anime. That all changed when episode one of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya aired. This anime took the anime world by storm, going from an obscure title to one of the most popular ever made seemingly overnight. Across Japan, seemingly hundreds of parodies of that certain Haruhi theme song suddenly appeared, and “Haruhism” appears to have become a real religion. From that point on, every millisecond of this anime has been deeply scrutinized by every otaku all over the world. Whether elevating it to the seventh heaven for being the best anime ever made or condemning it to the ends of hell for being an overrated piece of filth, everybody is talking about Haruhi. This reviewer cannot help but ask this: just what is all this uproar about?

To talk about this anime, everything must start with its main character Haruhi. Yet for a character that the producers try to portray as unique and different from everyone else, Haruhi ends up just being a slightly more eccentric tsundere. Her antics, while initially rather refreshing and hilarious, eventually gets old. While her character is developed, the hacked up chronological order that the episodes are aired in renders her development confusing. She is not a horribly stale and completely one-dimensional character, but not a groundbreaking “god” either. The real star of this show is actually Kyon, the male lead and the “normal” one in this group of eccentrics. His biting sarcastic commentary contributed a lot more to this series’ humor than Haruhi’s antics. He is someone that the audience can actually truly relate to and the one that shows the most development.

The plot is frankly quite a mess. Putting that notorious “episode 0” aside, the anime actually starts quite well with the forming of S.O.S. Brigade. From there on, however, the producers decide to air the episodes completely out of order (Haruhi’s doing, apparently). Artistic license or whatever, this is a totally unnecessary move. While some of the rearranging made some sense, it would make much more sense if they just leave the “original” episode order alone (and leave “Haruhi” out of the production process). Meanwhile, every science fiction concept is thrown in to create a chaotic mix of Yuki’s hyper-speed techno-babble and ugly CGI insect. This anime tries to be everything, and end up losing its identity along the way. Is it supposed to be a parody? A sci-fi drama? A mystery? It may be all these things and a lot of other things too, but it fails to be excellent at anything plotwise.

There is one thing that this anime is truly exceptional at. Credit must go to Kyoto Animation for making Haruhi a visual masterpiece. Indeed, I have not seen such detailed animation and fluid-like motion in any other TV series except Air, yet another Kyoto Animation anime. Indeed, the only fault I can point to is that aforementioned ugly CGI insect. The soundtrack is not as outstanding as the animation, but it is never out of place and always a treat to the ears. Perhaps these two aspects alone contributed to Haruhi’s cult status. After all, Haruhi herself became popular at first through that insanely detailed dance routine in the ending sequence, since she only made a cameo appearance in “episode 0.”

One word can be used to describe The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya perfectly: gimmicky. The producers never tried to present an outstanding and powerful story, but instead included countless gimmicks to make every hardcore otaku squeal with glee. Haruhi herself is the biggest gimmick of them all, and when you get past the faux-god facade, she is just an ordinary anime character with stereotypical antics. Haruhi certainly does have a lot of appealing factors, but in the end, it is still just a gimmick.

Field Agent Report by: Erigion

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

7.75
7.00
6.00
9.00
7.75

Overall

7.25

(not an average)

I love when writers understand that the devil is in the details. Take for example, Memento, an American movie, where the writers used a unique storytelling technique, along with an eye for detail, to create a sense of mystery, which easily drew me into the movie. However, by the time I reached the end it became apparent that the story was not up to par with the storytelling. So, what I love even more is a well written script that uses those small details to paint a much larger picture, such as in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Sadly, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is more like Memento than Eternal Sunshine. The writers focused too much on the details and missed the forest for the trees. I’ve seen the forum posts about how the series put in real landmarks and how the band scene matched the music video frame for frame. I’ve read the web pages with mounds of trivia and in-jokes. I’ve heard the discussions about the credits and the fan-made EDs. Most importantly, I’ve seen the anime for myself. It is a mighty impressive piece of work, and I give all the credit in the world to the writers and directors for paying attention to the details, but the main story just wasn’t there.

The biggest problem with the story was that the creators couldn’t quite decide if they wanted a sci-fi comedy series or a sci-fi love story. But to further exacerbate their indecision, three episodes out of the fourteen had nothing to do with either of these main story arcs. The result was a lack of time for the creators to flesh out both stories, but especially the romance between Kyon and Haruhi. To develop their relationship, they relied on foreshadowing and dropping hints so heavy-handed that even a blind and deaf person could figure out what was going to happen later on. For example: Haruhi forces Kyon into starting a club with her; Kyon is the person Haruhi goes to when she wants something; Haruhi becomes extremely jealous when Kyon is paired with other girls during a trip, etc, etc. All of this could be excused if there was a worthwhile story to be told later on, but just as things were truly advancing, the series was over.

Aside from the lack of a story, the first episode was one of the worst, if not the worst, excuses for a parody that I have ever seen. In fact, it was quite possibly the single worst episode of anime I have ever seen. I’m sure the director was going for the “so bad it’s funny” angle, or maybe he wanted to make fun of all the horrible high school plays that get put on, but you just can’t intentionally create unintentional comedy. Despite these problems, Haruhi Suzumiya does have a lot of things going for it. The art is crisp, the characters are distinct and well drawn, and the animation is smooth. This is also where the attention to detail is shown the most; I could see it in the cinematography and directing. Most importantly, the characters were interesting and diverse, especially the title character, Suzumiya Haruhi. Her introduction was more captivating and interest-inducing than most introductions in similar shows trying to be mysterious and cryptic. Kyon, the male lead, and his commentary was genuinely entertaining, and the side characters fit the series wonderfully.

There are rumors that a second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is being developed. If these rumors turn out to be true, I’ll watch because as much as I found the story lacking, the series made up for it through sheer entertainment. But, I hope that next time around the writers and directors pay as much attention to the story as they do the minor details.