Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

NOTE: This is a review of both Season 1 and Season 2 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. INTRO When I look for a new anime to watch, it can feel a tad overwhelming. So whenever I get stuck and I don’t feel like picking one at complete random, I’ll just take a look and see what’s popular. Doing this led me to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a slice of life comedy anime that everyone out there seems to love. So I made the decision to check it out. But the real question is, was it any good? THE SETUP The main character for The Melancholy of HaruhiSuzumiya is Kyon, your average everyday highschool student. Kyon is enjoying a normal life, until one day he gets put in the same class as Haruhi Suzumiya. He doesn’t know what to think of Haruhi, until she proclaims in the middle of class that she’s looking for any time travelers, espers, or aliens. This has Kyon labeling her as a Class-A weirdo. Haruhi then decides to start up her own school club after trying all of the other clubs that the school has to offer and she ends up dragging Kyon along for the ride. Haruhi ends up creating the Spreading Excitement all Over the World with Suzumiya Haruhi Brigade, or SOS Brigade for short. To Kyon’s surprise; the other three members of the club are an alien, esper, and time traveler. As it turns out these three were sent by their respective organizations to watch over Haruhi. This is because apparently Haruhi is god. Yes this overactive highschool girl is the creator of everything as we know it, and she isn’t even aware of her powers. And if Haruhi gets bored or realizes that she is god, she might accidently destroy the entire universe. So it’s up to the SOS Brigade to make sure Haruhi is kept entertained while keeping that fact that she is god hidden.

THE GOOD
A likeable cast – One of the things that is essential to a slice of life comedy, are the characters. They are essential for carrying the show along and making it entertaining. Luckily the cast in this anime is fantastic. Kyon is very sarcastic and cynical but he is also the narrator for our story. His commentary over the events of the anime helps make it incredibly enjoyable. Hearing his opinions and viewpoint over the story is one of the things that made this anime a joy to watch. Kyon is an everyday guy and the sense of rationality in this irrational group of people. This helps make him a relatable character for the audience watching, as many of us would think along the lines with him if we saw all of these supernatural elements. He actually ended up being one of my favorite lead characters in anime.

Mikuru Asahina is the name of our time traveler. She is your typical large breasted, innocent, moe character who even has a variety of cosplay suits that were provided by Haruhi herself. Yuki Nagato is the cyborg alien and she comes off as being and emotionless always aloof character who but she is also an intelligent, very powerful, and a complete badass. And finally Itsuki Koizumi is the mysterious transfer student who is our esper and he also comes off as one of the most passive aggressive dicks that I’ve seen in anime.

The final character is Miss ADHD herself, Haruhi Suzumiya. Haruhi comes off as funny, eccentric, and even somewhat unpredictable. With a burning desire to find the phenomena in the world, she is generally unapproachable and finds ordinary people boring and uninteresting. She can be very spontaneous, upbeat, and hyperactive. Her determination, persistence, and resourcefulness drive her endeavors of finding strange phenomenon and promoting the SOS Brigade. Because of her dedication, she becomes hot-headed when things don't go her way. Hand-in-hand with her cleverness and creativity, and a certain ruthlessness, even seeming amorality, she can often get what she wants, an example of such is when she blackmailed the President of the Computer Club into giving her a brand new computer for the SOS Brigade. Kyon is actually the only person who can put up with Haruhi’s personality which gets him caught up in her plans to make a club.
Haruhi’s antics and her desire to see new and interesting stuff can lead our characters through many types of stories. Whether it be wanting to win a baseball game, to playing in a band, to even solving a murder mystery. The characters help set up these interesting plot lines throughout the show and help bring life, and to an extent, the enjoyment that the series has to offer.

A Dub Done Right – One of the things that I’m normally skeptical about when entering an anime is if the English dub is any good, well I can safely say that it was done incredibly well here. We have great performances from Wendee Lee, Michelle Ruff, and Johnny Yong Bosch, but special mention needs to go to Crispin Freeman for playing the role of Kyon. He is able to fit Kyon’s snark and cynical personality incredibly well. And since he is our narrator throughout the entirety of the anime, it was important for his voice to be good. Well it’s a good thing that it is and Crispin’s role as Kyon is the main reason why I would recommend the Dub over the Sub.

Beautiful Animation – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was animated by the studio Kyoto Animation. They’re normally well known for their beautiful animation and production values that they put in their shows. Haruhi is no exception. The anime contains Kyotoani’s signature cute-ish style combine with animation that is consistently fluid and packed with color. One of the best examples of the great animation in the series is actually the ending for the first season where all of the members of the SOS Brigade perform a choreographed dance. It was extremely weird when I first watched and it stands as one of my favorite parts of each episode.

THE MIXED

Viewing Order – One of the interesting things about Haruhi is how it was originally released. You see it’s because when it was airing in Japan, it was shown out of order. And to make matters even more confusing when season two aired it was aired in the middle of a rebroadcasting of the first season. So some people are confused about which order to watch it in. Well no need to fear because there is a chronological order that you can watch the series in in order for you to not get confused while watching it. Although it is a bit of a strange experience if you try to watch it in release order.

THE BAD

Endless Eight – Okay, so anyone who has watched the series knows what I’m about to talk about. But for the uninformed, Endless Eight is a story arc in season 2 in The Melancholy of Hauhi Suzumiya. This story arc is eight episodes long, and each episode is exactly the same, with small differences. That’s right, the story events, scenes, and even character dialogue are all nearly identical to the episode before it. In fact you could watch the first, second, and eighth episodes while skipping the rest of them and not miss anything at all. Endless Eight was one of the most boring story arcs that I’ve seen in anime. This story arc could have been easily cut down to four or five episodes and it would have been perfect. Now don’t get me wrong I did think that it was one of the most well directed arcs in the entire series, it’s just that sitting through the entire thing was a chore and I don’t think I will be doing it again anytime soon.

FINAL VERDICT

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was an incredibly fun series to watch. The characters were some of the most entertaining that I’ve seen in anime. Kyon was hands down the perfect narrator for the story giving his sarcastic thoughts and opinions for the events that were transpiring. The dub was extremely well done as was the animation. Watching the anime can get confusing depending on what order you choose to watch it in. Unfortunately the Endless Eight arc brings down the quality of the story a bit. Despite this though, Haruhi still stands as a really great show that displays what anime can and will be, creative stories and characters that you just don’t see in other forms of media. If you’re an anime fan and haven’t seen the series, I give a full recommendation for you to check it out. It became one of my favorites; it might become one of yours too.

Season 1 Final Score: 4.5
Season 2 Final Score: 4.0

Video Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=MsZ_adeHG7I