Review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
After having watched the second season of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", I heard that there was a sequel to the series called "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya". Just by reading the title alone, I wanted to watch the movie immediately even though the second season left a bitter taste in my mouth. Now that I have watched the movie........ (There will be some SPOILERS in my review) [Story]: (10/10) It is mid-December, and the SOS Brigade chief Haruhi Suzumiya announces that the Brigade is going to hold a Christmas party in their clubroom, with Japanese hotpot for dinner. The Brigade members Kyon, Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsukistart preparing everything for the party. But a couple of days later, Kyon arrives at school only to find out that Haruhi is missing. Not only that. but Mikuru claims she has never known Kyon before, Koizumi is also missing, and Yuki has become the sole member of the literature club. The SOS Brigade seems to have never existed, nor has Haruhi. No one in the school has ever heard about her...except for Kyon.
As you know, this movie is a chronological sequel to the first season. The events takes place after the school festival. Anyways, if you watched a Haruhi series before then you already know that the series has a simple, light-hearted, non-complicated story that is packed with comedy. However, the movie is a complete opposite. It's a dark movie, the story is complicated and serious and this time; the comedy is almost non-existent. This is why I had to watch the movie 2 times because I wasn't expecting the movie to change their tone and I wasn't expecting the movie to have a complicated and dark story. The movie also had time-travel which I wasn't expecting to work that well but it did. It was executed perfectly.
Some people might say that the pacing is very slow but in my opinion, it was perfect. The movie is about 2h and 40 min. long and every second of the movie was worth watching. Every scene had a purpose in the story and nothing felt like a filler. I mean, if there were fillers in the movie then why would it be 2h and 40 min long? For both Western and Anime movie standards, that's pretty fucking long.
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[Art/Animation]: (10/10)
Ahh, the animation. The animation was already perfect to begin with and they even managed to make it more beautiful. From awesome visuals to beautiful character designs (Ughh, the alternate version of Haruhi is giving me eyegasms), the movie has it. The scene where Kyon and Nagato were walking home together had a beautiful background. The passing cars and how the lights reflected the character....it's simply astonishing to see.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
When it comes to soundtrack, I focus on 3 things. The background themes, the OP and the ED theme song. Wanna know why the sound category is not a perfect score? You guessed it, it's the ED theme song. I absolutely hate the ending credit song. I mean, we got a depressing ED theme song that did not really fit with how the movie ended. If the movie ended the other way around then I would have liked the ED theme song a helluva lot more. Anyways....
The background themes are amazing. It perfectly fit with the scene that was playing in the screen. Emotional scenes, shocking scenes, cheerful scenes..the background themes nailed it.
The OP theme song is "Bouken Desho Desho?" by Aya Hirano which was also the OP theme song for the 1st season of the series and "Yasashii Boukyaku" by Minori Chihara, that got-awful ending song. It's actually nice to hear the original OP theme song back...Ahh, the nostalgia.
I watched the show in English Dub so I'll be giving reviewing the English VA. In my opinion, they all did a perfect job. Especially Kyon and Yuki's voice. They absolutely nailed it. It's nice to hear Yuki's voice sounding a bit different.
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[Characters]: (10/10) (SPOILERS)
The characters from the TV series are all here. No new characters were introduced and Kyon and Nagato gets a lot of screentime for this movie. It's about time Yuki and Kyon gets a major character development. The lead heroine of the series "Haruhi" is thrown aside.. meaning she's just a side character for this movie but she is still important to the story. Same goes for Mikuru and Itsuki. They're now side characters but they are still important to the plot. What makes the movie great? Kyon and Nagato's character development. For Kyon, you see that even though he got annoyed at Haruhi's crazy "missions", the movie shows exactly what Haruhi means to Kyon and how much he prefers to live in Haruhi's world than living in an alternate world that Yuki created. For Yuki, you see that even though she's an alien with no personality, she got fed up with the SOS Brigade. Errors compiled withing her and next thing you know, she just changed the world. However, she also changed the world to give Kyon what he wanted which is peace and quite.
I just love the "shy" Yuki in this movie. The reason why I didn't like Yuki that much in the TV series is she has the most blandest personality I've ever seen. Her shy personality in the movie now makes me more sympathetic with her. The way she cries a little, the way she looks away; you can't help but feel sympathy for her..It's like you want to defend her.
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[Enjoyment]: (10/10)
I didn't really enjoy the movie on my first watch because of how different it was compared to the TV series and how it caught me off guard. I watched the movie for the second time and I enjoyed every second of the movie. I didn't feel bored, even for a second. I just had to change how I viewed the movie.
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[OVERALL]: (10/10)
"The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" is one of, if not, the best anime movie I've ever seen. It has a dark and perfectly executed story, perfect time-travel concept, major character development for Kyon and Yuki, and I think that's pretty much it. If you're a Haruhi series fan then I would definitely recommend that you watch the movie right now. If you dropped the series because of the "Endless Eight" arc then you will not be disappointed with the movie.
Pros:
+Outstanding Story
+Beautiful visuals and Outstanding Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+Characters are well done
+Darker and serious tone
+Perfect use of Time-travel
Cons:
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