Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

First, in my review, I'm referring to the anime as a whole and not just the first season. I chose to start watching this anime for two reasons: I just got done watching Ghost in the Shell and after watching something so complex and suspenseful I just wanted to watch something simple; when I read the summary for this anime I didn't really know what to expect because I've never heard of an anime sounding so ordinary so my curiosity was peaked. For the most part this is a pretty ordinary anime about teenagers just experiencing high school; it's not like some animes e.g. Bleach, SailorMoon, Kekkaishi, etc. where the characters are living double lives. However, while I usually hate high school drama, I actually really like the characters in this anime.

Usually in high school dramas, you have the popular kids and the unpopular kids and the unpopular kids are always the main characters and the popular characters are always the antagonist, but Haruhi doesn't care what other people think of her ideas, no matter how crazy they are.

Harui Suzumiya has actually become my new favorite anime character. What I love about her is how she always seems to have an idea of something she wants to do on her mind and she'll do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Seriously, this character will stop the sun from rising if she wants to. Also, I think it's hilarious how Harui never asks other people's opinions, how she just tells people what to do and before they can say no she gets them working.

Kyon is another character I love because him and Harui argue like an old married couple. Kyon's responsible, Harui's irresponsible, Kyon's a kill joy, Harui's the life of the party. Also, Kyon's the narrator of the anime which I think is really creative because we can hear his inner thoughts about things. Also, Kyon is the only person brave enough to say no to Harui.

I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say this anime is full of surprises and every once in a while it crosses into the twilight zone.

The only thing I don't like about this anime is that there really isn't any romance between Harui and Kyon. It's one of those situations where you keep saying "just kiss each other, it's so obvious you love each other". However, this is a slice of life anime and by definition the story is centered around only a particular time in characters lives so maybe the writers wanted to hint at that in the future, after the anime ends, Harui and Kyon get together then.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this anime; I laughed some, I was almost constantly surprised, and I love the characters. I suppose why I didn't give it a 10 out of 10 was because I find slice of life animes a little boring and, while I love the characters, I didn't enjoy the story too much.

Side Comment: Koizumi's eternal smile may be the creepiest thing ever. Stop smiling all the time and feel something other than happy!