Review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Rather than calling it The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, a more appropriate title would perhaps be The Melancholy of Kyon, because now it’s Kyon’s turn to make his decision. In essence, this movie is a major opportunity for character development of not just Nagato, but more crucially, of our beloved narrator as well. In the previous seasons, it is mainly about Kyon being dragged into situations and going with the flow. It was just always about Haruhi. The series was pretty much about Kyon observing and commenting upon Haruhi's actions. Sure, he gets pulled into all the bizarre events, but as far as he isconcerned, he is just an observer. A key trait of the Suzumiya Haruhi series lies in Kyon’s narration to the hijinks that goes on around him. This movie thus goes beyond that, serving as a platform to truly explore his thoughts: where beneath the sarcasm, the continuous face-palms and the frequent sighs, is one who does genuinely enjoy the ludicrous situations that he sardonically remarks upon.

Shoutshitsu thus acts as both a response to and contrast with Yuutsu. In Yuutsu, Haruhi’s melancholy is derived from her frustration with how normal, how mundane the world is and thus yearned for some fantasy to exist. This climaxes with her almost re-shaping the world unknowingly due to her Reality Warping. As we already know, this results in the finale that is her subconsciously acknowledging that she is satisfied with the current world and that even though there is nothing supernatural (not that she knows of, of course), that’s fine with her. The world may, in her eyes, be boring but that doesn’t mean she has to follow suit. She can make life interesting for herself as long as there is the SOS Brigade to take command of. Kyon started out being similar to her; from the narratives in Yuutsu (more prominently in the novel's prologue), we can see how outwardly, he behaves like the average, typical guy, but well, the narratives say quite a lot. However, rather than get frustrated like Haruhi, he just heaved a sigh and moved on.

Haruhi, and by extension the other members of the club, hence made him regain the fantasy that he used to have. The events in Shoushitsu thus challenged Kyon: the stable but very much dull world or the exasperating one filled with Espers, Aliens and Time Travelers? His long epic rage against the heavens of a soliloquy in Shoushitsu is his answer, a callback to the opening narration in Yuutsu's prologue. That’s why Haruhi got along so well with Kyon. The paths both of them took may be different, but in the end Kyon shared the same sentiments as her. This movie is Kyon’s affirmation that John Smith is every bit as eccentric as Espers, Reality Warpers, Aliens, Time Travellers and any other oddities.

Next, we have Nagato as the second focal point of the film, where we get to see her as beyond the emotionless doll that she was in the series. Or rather, it would be more appropriate to say that in the series, her development as a character was mostly subtle, more of a gradual build-up whereas the film finally provided her the vehicle to express more of herself. Last but not least, is none other than the titular heroine. As the name of the movie may have revealed, Haruhi does not have much screen time, but she does get her moments and similar to Nagato, one can see the stark difference in the world without the SOS Brigade. All in all, the movie excellently ties in the dynamics of the characters, bringing about a fulfilling addition to the franchise.

KyoAni certainly went all out on this, for the production value is high in more ways than one. 5cm/s often gets praises about it being a movie comprised of amazing wallpaper-worthy scenes. Well, Shoushitsu deserves to claim some of the limelight in the visual department too. It’s not just the details given to the background, as the animation such as the characters’ movement is fluid - the scenes as envisioned by KyoAni are fantastic and I particularly like the snow motive that is being used throughout the film.

When it comes to audio, the studio didn’t hold back either. The voice actresses of the film’s main heroines sing the theme songs, so it sure is nice to hear the upbeat and energetic “Bouken desho? Desho?” as the opening theme again. This is contrasted with the ending theme: a quiet, soothing track by Chihara Minori. In addition, great use of orchestra pieces during the appropriate scenes. Hirano Aya returns to portray Haruhi’s over-energetic personality while Chihara Minorie did well in depicting the differences between both worlds’ Nagato. The highlight however, has to be Tomokazu Sugita, who shows just why he is the ideal voice actor for Kyon. Prior to this film, I’ve always been considering his best role as being Sakata Gintoki of Gintama. Shoushitsu just shows that yes, his role as Gintoki is great, but Kyon is not to be overshadowed too. The superb voice acting, along with the meticulous animation for the facial expressions, thus combines to convey an emotionally poignant and memorable performance. Indeed, his soliloquy near the end of the movie is absolutely fantastic. It shall suffice to say that every element in the movie worked seamlessly, for good art style and pleasant audio alone are not enough. In short, the movie is well paced and the scripting is well delivered.

Top-notch production values, intriguing storyline with poignant scenes, delivered by distinctively memorable and very much appealing characters, this movie is in essence, a perfect combination of faithfulness to source material and production staffs’ own creative input. This certainly is one adaptation done right, for it didn’t just meet my expectation: it exceeded it.

*The above is a spoiler-free version of the review. For the version that includes potential spoilers, see here:
http://mizunoyuutsu.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/shoushitsu/