Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Melancholy of Harhui Suzumiya is one of the strangest and most fascinating anime I have ever watched. It will have you amazed and dumbfounded as it becomes more and more absurd. The show is about Kyon, a high school student who meets a girl named Harhui, who he eventually gets to know. As they get to know each other, Harhui persuades (forces) Kyon to join a club that is designated to finding time travelers, aliens, and espers. early on in the show, Kyon finds out that Harhui is actually one of the most powerful beings in the world, as she is able to manipulate hersurroundings to get her desired outcome. Because of this, the members of the club (a time traveler, an alien, and an esper, as well as Kyon) have to closely watch and interact with Harhui so that their entire world doesn't turn into chaos.

This plot is ridiculous, and Kyon is all too aware of this fact. Most people who watch this show really like Kyon, and it is one of the main reasons why this show became so popular: Kyon is very self-aware. He thinks that he is in a ridiculous situation that he does not want to be in, but feels like he has to. Throughout the series, he acts as a narrator, and the show is filled with his monologues complaining about the situation that he is in. It's pretty entertaining seeing this kind of protagonist who clearly does not like his current situation he is in.

There are two major issues with this show: its viewing order and one particular story arc. Originally, the show was designed to be viewed out of order, which to me is an extremely bizarre way to create a show. Today, as far as I am aware, most streaming services and websites have the series in chronological order, because to most viewers today this makes the most sense. However, this can make some episodes feel out of place. The finale of the 2nd season, for example (yes I know that I am talking about the 2nd season but it is still relevant to this season) takes place in the middle of the season chronologically. As a result, the chronological finale of the show has far less of an impact than the original finale did, which can be a bit awkward, however, this is the only major issue with viewing the series in chronological order. The other issue is the endless 8 arc (spoilers for this arc ahead!!!). The arc starts with a typical episodes, but by the second episode the characters realize that they are in a time loop, and unless they find out how to stop this time loop, they will experience the summer that they are in forever. This is actually a really interesting idea for an arc, but here's the problem: out of the 8 episode arc, episodes 2-7 are almost exactly the same, with minor changes here and there. I assume this is to show how long the characters have been in this arc, but it becomes a huge problem when you realize that there are 6 episode slots that are essentially the same thing. From what I researched, this happened because the creators of the show wanted to adapt an arc from the manga in the show, but eventually decided to turn it into a movie, which serves as a finale for the show. The problem is, there were a bunch of empty episode slots that they needed to fill in, hence the drawn out arc. Apparently the endless eight arc was just the last episode in the manga, where the characters finally end the time loop. While this arc would have been would have been a pain to sit through when the show first came out, you can skip most of it now, and I would recommend watching the first two episodes and last episode of the arc, and even then it gets a bit repetitive.

One last gripe that I have with this show is that one of the characters is very moe, and I don't really care for that kind of stuff, however, the show uses this character in some funny ways so that it is a bit more bearable.

While the paragraph of the flaws I saw in the show is pretty long, these flaws do little to impact the show for a modern audience. If you want a show with one of the most unique plots in anime and a self aware protagonist, then please go watch this show.

Side note: When I first started to watch this show it was during the school year, and every day I was so excited to go home and watch this show. While I have really liked a lot of anime shows in the past, I have often had to postpone watching them due to me being busy during the school week, however, with this show I would always try to watch at least one episode a day, no matter how busy I was. If that doesn't tell you how great this show is then I don't know what will.