Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Note: As I watched all 28 episodes together, this will be a review of the show in its entirety, apart from the movie, which I have reviewed separately. Overview: At first glance, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" may seem like your typical school life comedy anime, with the main appeal being a mentally-challenged girl and her crazy antics. While that's certainly what the series is about, it is also a very intriguing series that masterfully combines supernatural mystery with slice-of-life elements. It is definitely one of the funniest and most unique anime I have seen so far, even if it is far from perfect. Story (8.5/10): The story openswith our narrator Kyon, a cynical, practical and ever-so sarcastic teenager who has just begun his first year in high school. Little does he realise, that's where his ordinary world is turned upside down when he meets the titular Haruhi Suzumiya, an eccentric (to put it VERY mildly) and anti-social teenage girl who has no interest in ordinary humans. What is she interested in, then? Aliens, time-travellers and espers. Yeah, as I said, 'eccentric' doesn't even begin to describe her. After about a month of her just sitting around being bored (and joining and leaving just about every club in the school), Kyon somehow manages to break the ice with her and have a real conversation with her. After a while, he indirectly gives her an idea to form a club called the SOS Brigade and gets pulled into it against his will.

The first three episodes serve as the introduction. This is probably one of the best introductions to a show I've ever seen. It perfectly sets up the tone, characters, setting, theme and what kind of direction the story will take. Apart from Kyon, Haruhi recruits three members into the SOS Brigade, and these three are revealed to be the very things Haruhi is looking for i.e. one's an alien, one's a time-traveller and one's an esper. However, they only reveal this to Kyon, as they have been sent to observe Haruhi as they believe her to be an omnipotent entity with the ability to change reality. As if she wasn't odd enough already. However, Kyon is quite a realistic person as he outgrew the supernatural a while ago and so doesn't believe in anything he can't see. In other words, it takes actual proof and demonstration of their powers to convince him of the truth.

Despite the brilliant introduction, the quality of the story can unfortunately be quite erratic at times. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great story, but some arcs tend to be better than others, and there is one particularly infamous arc that may put some viewers off altogether.

Animation (8.5/10):
"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" looks very good. The humans are well-animated and there are some really impressive one-scene wonders. However, some of the animations can get quite repetitive at times, particularly the movements of certain characters. These aren't too noticeable most of the time but you can expect a few times where it's very obvious. Overall, the animation is great, but not amazing.

Sound & Dialogue (9.5/10):
The soundtrack is very unique. It really fits the mood of the series depending of what is going on at the time and considering the mood changes quite frequently, you can expect one of the most varied soundtracks you could find anywhere. Special mention has got to go to "God knows..." which was translated for the dub and plays during my favourite scene in the series. Unfortunately, the opening and ending themes aren't exactly noteworthy. The voice acting is also really good, with Crispin Freeman as our sarcastic narrator. It may come as a shock to fans of him in that here he sounds totally different and is voicing a teenager. Besides him, the main cast consists of Wendee Lee, Michelle Ruff, Johnny Yong Bosch and Stephanie Sheh, who lend their voices to Haruhi, Yuki, Itsuki and Mikuru, respectively. The dialogue is also very funny, with more than a few lines that will leave you laughing for a while.

Characters (9/10):
As I've mentioned before, the introduction does a great job at establishing the main characters. Within their first minute of screentime, we instantly know what kind of characters we're dealing with. Haruhi's very first line in the series is 'I'm not interested in ordinary people, but if any of you are aliens, time-travellers or espers, please come see me. That is all.', which is pretty much the basis of her entire character. Kyon's opening narration shows him as both a snarker and a realist, which he absolutely is. Yuki Nagato is introduced as answering 4 questions with 8 words and showing no emotion while doing it, which easily establishes her as the silent, stoic type, Mikuru Asahina is pulled into the club because Haruhi wants a moe character, and she is very moe, and Itsuki Koizumi is introduced as asking what kind of club they're in and, when Haruhi explains, he agrees, showing that he's a guy who just goes with the flow all the time. Not long after their introductions, Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki reveal themselves (to Kyon) as an alien, time-traveller and esper respectively and later they show what they can all do. But honestly, I've only described the basics of these characters. In fact, the five of them are all so complicated that there are several different ways to interpret each one of them.

Out of the five, Haruhi is definitely my favourite, which is saying a lot since she's locked out of the loop and knows nothing about the overall story. Her crazy club activities are always funny, but there's far more to her than a girl who harasses and blackmails people without ever suffering for it, as she overtime proves herself to be very sympathetic and even lovable, more so as time passes. Tell you what, if episode 5 doesn't change your opinion of her, episode 26 definitely will. The fact that we're basically exploring her mental state and what effects it's having on the world also helps. In truth, despite her eccentricities, she's actually a very relatable character. I mean, who among us can honestly say we didn't want something amazing to happen to us when we were younger? I know I can't. This very fact only adds to her complexity and I found myself almost never getting frustrated with her in spite of the fact that she does some pretty frustrating things.

Kyon is also very relatable and a great narrator with his sarcasm, as you can immediately tell even from his opening monologue. As mentioned above, the best way to describe Kyon is that he's a realist, something he's implied to have been his entire life. He claims to have never believed in Santa Claus, saying that even as a little kid, he knew better than to believe in some old man who only worked one day a year (by contrast, his younger sister is 11 and STILL believes in Santa Claus). However, he also has an open mind and is willing to look past his disbeliefs once the SOS Brigade members prove that they are what they say they are. Ultimately, despite their being pretty much nothing extraordinary about Kyon, he consistently proves himself to be just as likable and fleshed-out as his supernatural companions. That being said, I can't say I liked him 100% of the time, largely because of the fact that he always seems to have to be annoyed by something, to the point that no matter what the situation, he'll always manage to find SOMETHING to complain about.

Most of the supporting cast are just there for the most part, with very few exceptions, so the main characters are the ones who really shine. None of them are similar to each other in any way, or at least no way that's particularly noteworthy. Ultimately, I really enjoyed all of them.

Enjoyment (9/10):
I can safely say that I was both very intrigued and entertained throughout the entire series. Unfortunately, one arc really annoyed me and may put off some people. Apart from that arc, however, I really enjoyed the series and was left laughing very often.

Overall:
"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" is one of the most unique anime I have seen, taking the average setting of a slice-of-life series and touching it with the supernatural mystery genre. It might be hit-and-miss for some people and to really get the most out of it, you will have to watch the movie. Nevertheless, I would definitely say you should check this series out.

Score:
8.5+8.5+9.5+9+9=44.5/50=8.9/10