Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

The second season of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" is the anime equivalent to watching a train wreck in slow motion. And when I say slow, I mean slooooooow. Obviously the Endless Eight is what comes to everyone's mind with this anime, and yeah, it's not great. But what absolutely killed this series for me (at least until I watched the movie) was the fact that the following arc, The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, managed to be WORSE than the Endless Eight. The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya takes an interesting premise and makes it morally reprehensible. The main cast goes from making efforts to keep Haruhihappy to letting her do whatever the hell she wants and get away with it with no repercussions to keep her happy. I won't spoil anything that happens, but the main conflict of this five-episode arc is resolved in under five minutes. The structure of this series has went from intriguing to devoid of any soul.

Then there's the worst episode of the series: The Sigh of Mikuru Asahina, a.k.a. The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Summed Up in 22 Minutes of Reused Animation and Awful Sound Quality. While Haruhi isn't my least favorite anime that I've ever seen, this episode is definitely my least favorite installation of any anime. It has even less of a point to it than episodes 3 through 7 of the Endless Eight, because at least those episodes changed the animation and voice acting. I loathe this abomination of an episode, and even if you elect not to skip through the Endless Eight, I would definitely recommend skipping this one because it's even less worthy of your time.

The second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya takes a series that I found enjoyment in for the better part of the first season and throws it all out the window. I don't know what happened to create this drastic of a drop in quality, and even more surprising is the fact that I found the movie and the Yuki spin-off to both be very enjoyable even after enduring this soulless husk of an anime. I doubt I'll ever come across a larger outlier in the world of anime than this particular season of the Haruhi Suzumiya series: in the midst of a genuinely interesting anime series, this season sticks out like a sore thumb and has the power to ruin its reputation. Looking through these reviews and seeing the Endless Eight rants, I can tell I'm not alone in thinking this way.