When The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was first aired,
it was split between two seasons. Much
of Season 2 takes place within Season 1 and ergo answers a couple of questions
Season 1 never covered while also taking things in a decidedly more serious
direction. I bring that up because, aside from a partial change in Haruhi
attitude, the final four episodes, which originally closed out Season 1, don’t
retain any indication of that aforementioned serious direction from the bulk of
Season 2. I was back to business as
usual with a couple of stand alone episodes and the ultimate final product of
the SOS Brigade’s labor to make a movie.
And you know, besides the final episode itself, I was right at home with
this.
The School Festival and the Age of Sagittarius episodes might be my favorite episodes of the whole series. The Festival itself if a relaxing setting and I can totally relate to Kyon’s tired state, reminding me of how I feel two or three days into an Anime Convention. It’s a fun event but the real highlight, besides seeing the Adventures of Mikuru Asahina film in its entirety (and it’s just as hilariously bad as you’d expect, I actually laughed a lot), is Haruhi’s rock band session. This whole sequence bears shade of another personal favorite series of mine, K-On, another Kyoto Animation classic that came out right after or around the time of Season 2 of Haruhi Suzumiya. Both “God Knows” and “Lost my Music” are great tracks that get you in a good mood. What’s more special about this is we got to see Haruhi do something incredibly selfless for a change. She didn’t demand anything from the all girl band in return. Haruhi just got up there, helped them out with their final performance of their high school careers and had a blast in the process. What’s more, she was actually praised. It’s a pretty big thing to happen to Haruhi after everything that’s gone down in this series and she’s probably painted in the best light in this episode. Some of her snarkiness and general Haruhi-isms are still about but if we’d gotten more of this Haruhi throughout the show, she’d be better in my books.
As for the Age of Sagittarius, this episodes just a
guilty pleasure. We get some awesome CG
effects, a battle simulation straight out of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and
Yuki Nagato at her most bad ass, using her skills to outhack the computer club. I liked how Yuki actually was able to explain
her strategy to Kyon and get his approval to proceed. It shows that these two have the most stable
and likeable friendship of the series, sometimes more than Haruhi and Kyon. Haruhi was more or less back to her normal
self, screaming orders and demanding blood.
But she did listen to both Kyon and Yuki’s suggestions on how to handle
the Computer Clubs challenge. I wonder,
had I watched Season 1 and Season 2 as they were originally aired, would any of
this growth feel earned if I didn’t watch the Season 2 stories that filled in
these blank spaces? Well if anything
else, the episode did remind me that some of the best times ive had with The
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya have been the stand alone episodes.
And then there’s the series finale which…well lets face it, nothing happens, nothing really. It’s raining. Kyon’s sent to get a heater. Haruhi’s back to forcing a crying Mikuru into various outfits. And we get about two minutes straight of Yuki just sitting around in an empty club room reading her books. In the end, the only thing of true importance is Haruhi walks home with Kyon while sharing an umbrella, my guess is its her way of thanking him. But is this the start of something more? Haruhi and Kyon do have some more natural scenes in this last set. Nothing romantic besides the umbrella but they do have moments where Haruhi isn’t biting Kyon’s head off and talks to him like, well almost like a normal girl. And Kyon’s is show as genuinely impressed with the steps Haruhi’s taken to become a little better, even if she cant understand or admit it herself. Still, for a series that tried to be grand sometimes, it kind of fizzled on the ending. And no, knowing there’s still the movie to go is no excuse.
How would I sum up The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? Well it’s a lot of things. It’s slice of life/scifi/high school comedy/coming of age/supernatural mystery/add in like five other genres to get the idea. It crosses into so many territories that the show almost becomes unclassifiable. That kind of unpredictability does make it very unique. As for the characters, Haruhi Suzumiya herself is easy to hate. Basically 90% of her actions are criminal: she blackmails to get what she wants, she frequently abuses poor Mikuru (who refuses to defend herself btw), she acts like a dictator and refuses to listen to any words other than her own. And there were plenty of times where she became so unbearable I think I wanted bad things to happen to her. So what stopped me from outright despising her? Those few and far between quieter moments where Haruhi was most vulnerable and honest. She wasn’t trying to be special to stand out, she just wanted to talk to an honest friend, one she found almost exclusively in Kyon. If loud and obnoxious Haruhi is your thing, then more power to you. Me, I’ll take a bit of the rowdy with a lot of honest heart anyday.
Everyone else was hit or miss. Yuki always stood out to me and I have a lot
of theories as to what’s really going on inside of her head but I will wait
until I have watched the movie to talk about those. Kyon was both servant and hypocrite. Again, much like Haruhi, he stood out most
when he actually stood up to the maniacal Haruhi when the need called for
it. And yes, a lot of his internal
monologuing was funny. But he let too much
of Haruhi’s antics slide and for all his defending of Mikuru he couldn’t help
but thank Haruhi for putting her in sexy outfits…pick a stance dude. Mikuru got on my nerves mostly because I cant
see how she becomes her future self when she refuses to stop crying and stand
up for herself against Haruhi.
Seriously, half of Mikuru’s dialogue involved balling her eyes out. As for Koizumi, I straight up don’t like
him. Fanatic, creeper, man in love with
the sound of his own voice. Not even
Johnny Yong Bosch voicing him in the English Dub could redeem him. I’m surprised Kyon never told him to STFU
once or twice. For all the fear of
Haruhi’s moods potentially bringing about the end of the world, I’d probably
blame Koizumi more cause he’s more than likely to do nothing to stop it and
leave it all to Kyon…lazy bum.
Wow, I was supposed to be doing my final thoughts on the series but I went off a bit. Well then, my final thoughts: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a tough watch in that there’s a ton of story with wild explanations and lots of lag time. There are plenty of episodes where nothing happens and it slows everything down. Then there’s the Endless Eight which is the ultimate Otaku torture, seriously I cant imagine how Japanese audiences reacted to that horrendous Arc as it was airing. However, there are a few nuggets of goodness sprinkled throughout. Much of this last set of stand alones for example I loved. The initial first Arc was a good set up and like I said, the more quieter character driven moments between Kyon, Haruhi and Yuki always stood out to me. In the end, this is a tough one to grade. While the series did take Japan by storm, I cant see why. I’m glad I watched it though and I don’t flat out hate it. Heck even the frustration sometimes felt intentional and led to good payoff, so I wouldn’t call it a terrible show. In fact, id call it different, clever and worth at least one good watch.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya receives a 7/10 (though honestly with the Endless Eight in this show it was never going to get higher than an 8).
But we’re not done yet.
Check back Wednesday for my review of The Disappearance of Haruhi
Suzumiya, a film that many say corrects all of the wrongs of the TV Series and
is probably what The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya should have been all
along. Bold claims, let’s see if they
pan out. See ya.
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