Review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

I recently binged the entirety of the Haruhi series, including this movie. The show itself I very much enjoyed, and found myself quite invested in the world and the characters that inhabited it. My enjoyment of the original series and the praise the movie had gotten may have somewhat influenced my opinion of it, however I can't help but feel that disregarding these biases, my review score would have remained stagnant. Just as a note before getting into the details, watching both seasons of the original 'Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED before watching this movie. I cannot accentuate enough how lacking and confusing thismovie would be to anyone unfortunate enough to view it unknowing of the original series.

First of all, I'd like to commend the level of detail present throughout this movie. It really does feel like this movie is the amalgom of all the events leading up to it from the show, with tons of events from it being directly referenced and important to the plot, with many nods and callbacks to minor details. KyoAni is known for their smooth and conistent animation, however when given the freedom to work with a movie, they turned that up to 11. The art and animation are absolutely stunning, with some great direction and cinematography to boot.

A gripe that some had with the show was the inconsistency of the characters, for lack of a better phrase. In particular, Haruhi being extremely unlikable and annoying at times. I personally didn't feel this way, but understand where others would make those claims. Fortunately, this film shows these characters at their best, with a particular focus on Nagato and Haruhi, while also doing a very good job of representing the rest of the main cast without anyone feeling majorly excluded, nor making it feel like a character has overstayed their welcome. Touching back on Haruhi's personality in this film, her abrasiveness from the show is pretty dormant here, being mostly replaced by the charming, endearing character she's always had the potential to be, with some especially heartfelt moments here and there.

To talk about the plot itself, I really enjoyed it. It does an amazing job at accentuating the lingering character dynamics and events that didn't really get touched upon in the TV show, most notably the infamous Endless Eight arc, which in retrospect I can greatly appreciate for it's artistic merit to really deliver the impact that this movie brings. There are also some very unforeseen plot twists along the way keeping things exciting, with certain events from the show becoming directly related to the movie's plot, making it extremely gratifying, feeling like a love letter to the original series.

I've heard people say that the movie is a bit slow at times, but I didn't feel that at all. The whole way through I was enamaored by the intracacies of the plot, directorial decisions, characters, and animation. If you've seen The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and even mildly enjoyed it, I'd consider this a must watch. If you disliked it, I'd still highly reccomend this. Honestly, even if you've never seen the original show, I might just reccomend you watch it solely for the sake of this movie. I don't typically rate the anime I watch. I honestly hate doing so, as giving an abstract numerical value to something just feels contrived. However, in this case, I felt the need to go out of my way to review this movie and give it a rating that I think should only be given to something that succeeds at everything it tries to do, and appeals to me strongly on a personal level. I feel like I'm overselling this, and I'd hate to do that, but in my opinion, this movie, coupled with the TV series, of course, is that for me. That is why I believe this movie to be something truly special. 10/10