Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

Cute At Times, But Terrible Storytelling... Sorry to everyone else that loved this show, but I think it only deserved 4/10 -- i.e. "below average". Here's why: The entire story line basically didn't make any sense. There is supposed to be a super-secret time traveling alien beings affecting everyday life, but this part of the story is completely botched. On the one hand, we have Haruhi who starts out quietly and smugly ignoring everyone, and then suddenly picks Kyon to become her partner in starting a school club. From that point on, she's hyper full of energy, sociable and wanting to be involved in everything. What madeher change? No explanation. No deep character studies either, we know nothing about them other than how they interact with each other over the school year. Then we have a second character, Mikuru-chan that somehow traveled back in time and cannot return to her time -- yet that part of the story is never really developed. Instead, she's basically used as a comic foil for Haruhi to manipulate and embarrass as she sees fit. The main plot point of the story, the repeating two weeks of summer, takes 8 episodes to resolve -- 8!! So unbelievably boring, boring, boring! After the first two cycles through, I didn't want to see it repeat again. Definitely not 8 times. Definitely did not need more than 2 -3 episodes to resolve that mystery. Haruhi herself is attributed some to have supernatural power, but if she does, it never actually appears. Instead, she's bossy and arrogant throughout the series, and only at the end does Kyon ever confront her about it. Kyon himself is dark and grouchy throughout the whole story. The only really interesting character is Nagato, but of course we never find out much about her.

Bottom line: it was not terrible, but the plot was so weak and repetitious that it became a chore to finish the series. If you skip it, you won't miss much.