Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

After the first season of Haruhi Suzumiya, fans couldn't get enough. In 2009, a second season came out. And what were the fans' reactions? "THIS IS THE WORST SHIT EVER! PHUK HARUHI! PHUK KYOANI! I'M NEVER GONNA BE A FAN OF HARUHI AGAIN!" Pay no heed to these people, for they are butthurt fanboys, or trolls, or both. Having just finished the second season in preparation for the film version of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, I can say that the second season . . . is definitely a disappoint compared to the first. Was it a waste of time though? Story: The antics of the SOS brigadecontinue in three story arcs. The first arc is the first episode. It's a clever episode, more mysterious than funny, but it intrigues you. The second arc, and where most of the complaints come from, is about Kyon and friends stuck in a re-curring timeloop. The so-called "Endless Eight" runs for eight episodes; five of those episodes are wholly unnecessary. You only need to see parts 1, 2, and 8 to see everything. Also, the ending to this arc was a let-down, I thought. The last arc is about the making of Haruhi's movie. This is definitely the best part of the second season, for it's here that the show acts like the Haruhi I remember, the Haruhi I love. It's hilarious, fun, and even dramatic occasionally. However, the developers could've used those five superfluous episodes from Endless Eight to make another story arc or two, and because of that, the story score suffers. 5/10.

Art: For the most part, still good. However, some of the character designs don't look as nice. For that, I'm deducting one point from the art score I gave the first season. 8/10.

Sound: There's new music, but it's not as catchy as the music from the first season. The background music is still good.

The voice-acting, in both English and Japanese, is still top-notch. No complaints here. It's reassuring to know that even though this season doesn't match up with the first one, at least the characters still sound good. 8/10

Characterization: And speaking of characters, this is the one thing that kept me going throughout the season; the characters are still great, even if the stories are not. Kyon is still a sarcastic master of observation, Haruhi is still an energetic troublemaker, Yuki is still a silent yet kickass "Data Entity", Itsuki is still the token bishounen, Mikuru is still the token moeblob, Taniguchi is still obsessed with girls, et cetera. Not as much character growth here as in the first season, but there's a reason why this cast has become iconic among anime fans, namely, I didn't drop Endless Eight because of them. 9/10.

Enjoyment: The last five episodes were great. The other episodes were good although not great, or complete and utter filler. Filler and I usually do not gel well together. If these characters weren't so likable, I probably would've dropped this series. Was it a waste of time? For the most part, no. If the entire series were as good as the last five episodes, I would've given this season an 8. As it stands, I'll go with 6/10.

But of course, I'm sure a ton of people are gonna downvote this review because I didn't join the hate bandwagon. Luckily for us all, I don't care if I get all downvotes or not. I only write these reviews out of boredom. But seriously, if you hate the anime version of Haruhi that much, I have a suggestion; read the original light novels instead. I've been told that they handle the stories in the second season much more effectively than the anime. As for me, I'm still a fan of Haruhi. I like the premise and the characters too much to abandon it just because a story arc ran a little too long. Still, I'm not going to be buying the second season on DVD. Let's hope that Disappearance is worth owning.