Review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

~~SOME SPOILERS~~ The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is truly a masterpiece like everyone says. The only issue with the film is the extremely long run time which is close to three hours. While every frame of animation is high quality, I found myself fatigued by the time the exposition ended and the real plot started (hitting the Enter key on the computer). An hour and a half of exposition is way too much, and half an hour could easily be cut from the first half of the film. But my god was the payoff during the second half of the movie huge! During this portion ofDisappearance, we get some great character development for both Yuki and Kyon. By the end of the film, Kyon realizes just how much he cares for his friends and the misadventures they share, and how he couldn't imagine going back to life the way it was before joining the SOS Brigade. And for Yuki, let's not forget that the entire basis for the movie was Yuki yearning to experience human emotion. Considering the fact that Nagato was essentially a robot for the first two seasons, seeing her struggle with wanting emotions is a really big deal.

The conclusion of the film was also well executed. Kyon realizes how important his friendships are and makes it back to the current timeline. It is also hinted that Yuki was able to retain some of her emotions. Overall, it was an extremely satisfying end to a great movie, and for how good the ending was, it makes up for some of the show's other short comings.