Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." If you really sat through and watched through all 8 of the summer episodes, then I really don't know what to say. If you haven't watched the show yet, there is an 8 episode long arc of the repeating summer time loop cliche but even worse - the characters never grow and do literally the exact same activities every loop. 2 minutes into the second one, and I already found myself skipping through to get to the end. Then the third was the same again, so I skippedit entirely. I kept going through episodes to find out when this arc would end and was BAFFLED to see that it lasted for 8 episodes long. What the actual heck? Nothing different even happens each time. Usually, the meaning of these repeating time loop arc is to make characters realize something each time and actually change. Here, every single episode is the same and adds no real value. Sure, there are subtle differences, but nothing I remotely care about. So I've talked about the arc a lot of people hate so far, but I have to say that I actually hate the rest as well. Here's why.

There are a lot of things I can talk about for why I think this show deserves a 1. But many other reviewers have already talked about that, so I'm simply going to talk about one of the biggest reasons why. This show has no character development, progression, or anything that would make me invested in this show. I legit just don't care about any of the characters because they never change. If I showed someone an episode from the middle of the first season and the last episode of the second season, they wouldn't be able to tell that they were from completely different seasons, or even that they had more than 3 episodes in between them. There is no change. It's more of a "monster of the week" standalone episode series than anything continuous.

But sure, there are plenty of shows that are episodic but still good. But here's the thing, in those shows, even though characters may not develop, each episode still tries to show something DIFFERENT by revealing to you different aspects of the characters. How they deal with different situations, their likes and dislikes, their different traits, and more. Take Spongebob as an example. Every episode reveals something new that is interesting to learn, and in turn you keep watching to see the characters in even newer situations. This show does just the opposite - it takes the characters and puts them in the same types of situations and just shows Haruhi's interest in the supernatural, her selfishness, and how little she care about other people by treating them like toys. Kyon is just reactionary and does whatever he can to make sure Haruhi doesn't blow up the world, but we don't dive in deeper beyond that.

Then you might say, it's because it's more of a slice of life genre. But even in slice of life series, I actually care about the characters, and even in those types of shows characters actually grow. The relationships between characters grow stronger as they learn more about each other. Even though it's just comedic random stuff that happens, each experience develops the character and makes you want to know how they will continue to develop in the future. But the characters in this show are just so boring. They don't do anything. They just try to make Haruhi happy and complacent, while never trying to do anything to make her change and solve the problem of her unhappiness and boredom with the world. Even Teen Titans Go has more character development than this, and I'm sad to say that I care more about what happens to Robin from that stupid kids show than I do about Haruhi or Kyon or any of the other boring characters. The side characters also basically do nothing besides stand there and obey Haruhi's orders like mindless drones, and never grow their relationship with her. From the beginning all the way to the end, the side characters are still just toys to Haruhi. Maybe this is the point of the show, but to me it makes a completely dull and boring one.