Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" is an odd duck. A story that has an strange cast of characters brought together by a common thread, our title character of Haruhi. All the characters are fine, while some of them are slightly two dimensional and predictable our title character, Haruhi, and our narrator for the story, a High-school boy named Kyon, are more dynamic and interesting. Haruhi is a high school student that wants to be interesting and unique, and as such only wants to be associated with unique individuals. They can't just be any unique person though, they must be uniquely strange. Espers, Aliens,Time Travelers. She has no time for people that don't fit into one of these categories, and isolates herself from the rest of her classmates.

However our Narrator Kyon decides one day to try to make friends with Haruhi. While unsuccessful at first, he does start working up a report with her, and eventually gets her thinking about how she can meet such unique and strange people : They'll start a club. And thus begins the odd relationship between Kyon and Haruhi. Haruhi dragging along Kyon, and later others, along for all her crazy plots and plans.

The majority of the story is delivered to us by incredibly dry and dead pan Kyon through Voice Over Narration, and honestly is one of the best parts of the show. His narration is often funny and offers insight into the story that you would not find in a strictly third person perspective show. However while the narration is interesting the story lacks. It never lacks for ideas, but it almost always seems to lack depth. The show will prod and poke at deep and interesting ideas, but never fully dive into them and explore.

While I can forgive the show for only skirting the edges of interesting ideas I can't really forgive it for it's genuinely creepy subtext. Throughout the show you will discover that many of the things that Haruhi has a fascination in not only exist, but refuse to make themselves known to her. Not only that but Haruhi is probably even more unique then the Time Travelers, Espers, and Aliens that she fixates on. But once you find out this information, you realize that the rest of the series carries with it an almost cruel subtext of subjugation for some of the characters.

This show is generally regarded as a classic and one of the best. While it is worth watching, I can't give it the high praise that some give it. The story feels like it could go in so many interesting places, but it never goes there. It makes a lot of the episodes feel like filler. If nothing else, you should watch it so hardcore fans will stop pestering you to see it.