Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

As counterintuitive as it sounds for a show about time-travellers and espers and God-being-an-ordinary-high-school-student, I think the word I'd use to describe Haruhi Suzumiya is 'understated'. It's understated. It comes across as a weirdly smart anime for its genre and aesthetic, revelling in subtleties, never trying too hard to please, travelling along at its own pace and being its own likeable self in a way which paints the creators as 'totally chill, cool people' in my mind. But perhaps that's because 'Haruhi' never belonged in the 'moe-moe' genre it resembles at face value. I've heard 'parody' being used to describe the show but I'm actually more temptedto reach for the fancier 'deconstruction', although that makes it sound too serious, so perhaps Haruhi is more like 'deconstructive parody'?

At any rate, I wouldn't call Haruhi Suzumiya 'moe', and that's coming from someone who despises the concept of 'moe'. Big- and sparkly-eyed as they are, the fanservice in Haruhi is more in the vein of 80's and 90's anime - sort of innocent, and never gratuitous enough to be off-putting. This light touch applies to the rest of the show - it dabbles and dances between mundane and supernatural and absurd with admirable nonchalance and yet never allows itself to overindulge in the more explosive moments.

Because that isn't what Haruhi is about! At its core, underneath all those layers of quiet, self-reflexive wryness, 'melancholy' does seem to be what it's about. Or a very mild variety of melancholy, at least. Haruhi Suzumiya has a dissatisfation that's easily related to: she's bored and frustrated with the trappings of ordinary life, and wants adventure, except this isn't one of those fantasy shounen animes where that gets to happen - at least, not for her. The events that follow are Haruhi's efforts to ease that boredom, and her methodology is less than ideal, causing either extreme humiliation or long periods of the characters sitting around doing nothing, but at least she's trying.

I think I've made it clear how much respect and affection I have for this anime, so I won't reveal too much more or say things that don't need saying. The supporting characters - while rooted in parody - are prominent and vivid; the atmosphere created by the art and music is warm and dreamy. Above all, you know an anime has done something special when you begin to have muscle-memory for an SOS clubroom that doesn't exist.