Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

Disappointment. That was the overall feeling I got as I finished the second season of the Haruhi Suzumiya series. The first one got me hooked up and I felt that the second season was actually a potential to develop the plot progression of the first season, which meant to answer questions and form resolutions from previously established conflicts, and which unfortunately was one of the big problems back then in the 2006 version, and although the premise and the mechanisms by which the plot was presented was surprisingly valid and interesting, and disregarding my personal bias on Haruhi Suzumiya as my new waifu, it feltthat the story and the 'mystery' aspect of the series needed so much polishing to make it as coherent and logical as possible while being mysterious at the same time. Having the drive to understand more of the entire mystery going on in the anime, I proceeded on watching the second season, and for the most part, I was absolutely disappointed. Nevertheless, I still love Haruhi Suzumiya and she's still going to be my waifu for life.

I decide to discuss the storyline in two parts - one for each season, mainly because I haven't made any review on the first part since I anticipated so much on the show to continue the plot on the second season and I wanted to voice out my thoughts on the amazing first half of the series but I don't want to make another review, as well as to give a comparison of the two seasons why the discrepancy in the scores I gave for the 2006 and 2009 version is somewhat significant. Moreover, specific details about the 2006 version will be discussed since this review is on the second season and I doubt that people would watch this without watching the 2006 anime.

The 2006 version was the introductory part of the mystery, various explanations to the seemingly godlike powers of Haruhi were offered, and were reflected in the daily activities of the SOS Brigade. For the slice-of-life/school part of the anime, I'd say it did pretty good on simulating real-life situations as it adapted usual happenings in schools and for highschoolers, like going on trips and adventures and the typical sightings in a classroom setting - yes it was cliched to an extent but the plot was on-point - there exists a particular conflict for each story arc and a resolution was made logically and reasonably. The addition of fictional concepts, like capabilities exemplified by Yuki Nagato fitted well with the atmosphere and overall plot. The comedy was also good; I love the sarcastic remarks of Kyon, added with the clumsiness of Mikuru Asahina and the weird combination of being an idiot and smartass of Haruhi. Although these may sound generic, the combination unsurprisingly fitted well. The mystery part of the anime was the best and worst part of the show, I'd say. The good thing about the mystery is it carefully reveals parts of the mystery in a comprehensible manner, the explanations, or rather speculative theories of Koizumi, Yuki and Mikuru were interesting (although I did not bother to understand some parts) as Kyon began with joining the puzzle pieces together. It was also good that Kyon adds up subjective interpretations of the explanation to raise questions necessary to back up the plot and provide an understandable summary of what they are theorizing at. The jumbled sequencing of the episodes was also crucial in building up the mystery, but if you watched the series in chronological order, the mystery becomes less of a thrill but is still existing. However, one of the things that also became a problem for me is the sequencing. I somehow thought that for a mystery anime to be successful, unconventional plot devices (which are usually used in the mystery genre) utilized must be significant to the overall storyline, like when you remove that particular plot device, the story becomes poorly presented - in short, the plot device must be one with the story itself. In terms of the 2006 anime, I am not pretty sure whether the story would have been poor if the jumbling was removed; in fact I felt that the jumbling, as much as it adds up to the mystery, it also adds up to the confusion, and does not really contribute much to the overall story impact whatsoever. I felt no significance in changing the sequencing, because it resulted to an apparent skipping of unresolved conflicts of individual story arcs. Moreover, it seemed that the anime left too much unanswered questions and focused more on the sci-fi slice-of-life theme it largely presents by doing all those typical school scenes, rather than contributing to the overall understanding of the mystery.

In comparison to the former, the 2009 version was a whole lot worse, in terms of plot progression, forming resolutions and continuing the mystery. The Endless Eight, this is a spoiler necessary to bring up to point out the bad things of the anime, is probably the worst story arc I have ever seen in an anime, objectively speaking. It is a pointless eight-fold repetition of a singular episode without literally changing details of the main plot progress. The only things you'd see changing are the clothes, the way the characters deliver their lines which derives the same thought from their previous conversations and some minor plot details. The problem with this kind of repetition is that it does not do anything but excite the viewer who does not literally care about the plot as long as his favorite characters are present. It does not develop the plot or the characters, a viewer might as well skip the next six episodes and proceed to the last episode of that story arc. The repetitions do not even bring up questions to the mystery or offer answers, they just literally repeat the plot of the first episode of the arc. What's even more appalling is the resolution on the last episode of Endless Eight. Since the plot still repeated itself for the succeeding six episodes, why did something change in the last part? No details or hints on this plot progress was fleshed out; in fact for the most part that last episode was still the repetition of the previous episodes. The latter part of the show was not even dedicated to the mystery anymore. The explanations by Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina were just more information fed up to Kyon without trying to solve any mystery. Of course, the comedy and slice-of-life parts were still great. So in comparison, what made the 2009 version worse in terms of story was the grave mistakes committed being worse than the first season.

There was no character development in general which I personally felt was not too bad, I just hoped that Haruhi and Kyon had some character development. The other three main characters were tools in making the story interesting while being logical and realistic, so what they had to have are solid and interesting personalities. I felt that the anime was more of an attempt to present the events which support or back up the abilities of Haruhi Suzumiya, and explain stuff on how the world revolves on her wishes and visualizations. I felt that that kind of premise is valid to some extent, and therefore justifies to some extent why there was very little room for character development. However, the lack of character development of the two main characters, Kyon and Haruhi, by which the world revolves around them, made the two less of an enjoyment factor and even got to the point of dragging the story along, without any real resolutions. However, the portrayal of the personalities of Itsuki Koizumi, Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato were excellently solid and plot-engaging. What I liked about Itsuki Koizumi was his role in being the supportive person of the group, while guiding Kyon into understanding more of the mysterious phenomenon. Mikuru Asahina, the hot clumsy chick of the group, and the center of Kyon's fantasizing, was also significant in pointing out suggestive romantic feelings Haruhi likely harbors towards Kyon, and somehow I was disappointed with that avenue left minimally exploited, because it supports the idea why Haruhi chose Kyon. It was inconsistent at times when Haruhi literally reacts with nothing when Kyon expresses his desires over Mikuru. Yuki Nagato is literally a badass. Her superpowers are essential in maintaining the existence of the group, and her contributions to the overall mystery was astounding and invaluable. Kyon was what I'd like to say a fitting character for a comedy-mystery type of anime. Kyon is amazing in terms of leading the viewers into what the mystery is all about. See, one of my problems in mystery genre characters is that the MC forgets to ask the basic questions. They tend to jump towards the mystery itself, leading to assumptions that would "conveniently" be the case. What's not good with this is that the mystery tends to be manipulated to be the case, and the MC seems to already have an idea of what's going on. Kyon was good in asking such basic questions. However, I don't personally like his laziness and his tendency to become a mere spectator. For the most part of the anime, he tends to observe and make conclusions without doing something to change stuff. Because of this, Kyon lacks character development. He became stagnant and far from being participative. Rather than events happening based on his actions, events happen and his actions become more of a response to the events that happened. To some extent, it felt like he was detached from the show. However, his sarcasm and fantasies on Mikuru actually livened up the anime and added overall entertainment. I also wonder why his full name was never pointed out. I somehow felt that it should have had some significance to the mystery but it wasn't tackled that much. Haruhi Suzumiya, my waifu, is not exactly the best character out there. She had so many inconsistencies in her character and I personally didn't like her abusive tendencies, her bossy attitude and never-listen-to-people personality. I really had hoped that the anime took effort in discussing how she ended up with that kind of mindset. Why she became my waifu, it was totally subjective in nature and the main reason why I took the agony of finishing the second season. In terms of animation and sound, they were pretty decent and I don't really rate an anime based on those criteria.

In conclusion, should you watch Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 2009? Nope, I don't recommend it. But if you were hyped by the first season and couldn't get enough of it, then watch this and you would enjoy it. Of course you would be disappointed, but for a person so much addicted to any of the characters (Haruhi Suzumiya in my case), you would find it rather enjoyable. Heck, I'm even surprised I finished it, all for the sake of my dearest waifu Haruhi Suzumiya. But objectively speaking, it was lackluster and a total disappointment.