First anime review: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu

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             Of all of the anime I could have chosen to write about for this first journal entry, I decided upon Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because it is a series that I have consistently been enjoying since the time that I first saw it in middle school.  My reason for starting to watch this series was basically a spur of the moment decision I made while hanging out with friends. In middle school before the internet was basically dominated by a few main social media websites, I used to visit various random websites which had information on subjects which I enjoyed, mainly anime and manga. Around this time period many anime related websites were talking about the Suzumiya Haruhi series, but that was basically all I knew. One day while I was hanging out with two of my friends, who were also fans of anime, we all agreed that we did not know anything about the show but we had seen various things about it online so we decided to watch it because we had time. After watching the first episode, my friends and I were both amused and confused, and after being pulled in by the first episode, the rest is basically history.

            In a brief summary, The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya is a series about an average high school boy, referred to the audience only as Kyon, whose life drastically changes when he meets an eccentric and extremely bored girl named Suzumiya Haruhi. He then gets dragged into joining her club in search of extraterrestrials and supernatural beings. Although Haruhi does not end up with a more interesting life as a result of the club, Kyon’s life gets turned upside down when the beings that Suzumiya is searching for end up becoming a growing problem in Kyon's life.

 Although the name Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu is the title of the first anime series which was released in 2006, the anime series is actually based on a series of light novels written by the Japanese novelist Tanigawa Nagaru. The first novel, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu which shares the same title as the 2006 anime series, was written in 2003, and the series is currently still ongoing with 11 novels, although the last novel was released in 2011. The 2006 anime, which I will be focusing on, is based around parts of the first, third, fifth and sixth novels of the series. For his work on these novels, Tanigawa Nagaru won an award from the magazine in which the series was initially serialized. The anime based upon this popular novel series was created by Kyoto Animation and was directed by Ishihara Tatsuya. After the release of the 2006 anime series, the franchise grew even bigger and more adaptations of the series were made. In 2009, a second series of the anime was made which covered some of the other volumes of the novels. In addition to these two anime series, a movie version of the forth Haurhi novel was released in theaters in Japan in 2011. According to wikipeia page of the series, other adaptions of  the series involve six separate manga series, a series of video games, and various anime based off of spin-off or  parody manga that are still being created. 

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A large reason why I believe the series to be successful as a whole is due to the strength of the characters in the series. The 2006 anime adaption of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu revolves around five main characters: Kyon, Suzumiya Haruhi, Nagato Yuki, Asahina Mikuru, and Koizumi Itsuki. The series is told from the perspective of Kyon,  a sarcastic and ordinary high school student who ends up getting dragged into the eccentricities of Suzumiya when he ends up sitting in front of her in class. After talking to her about her strange interests, Suzumiya ends up forcing him to create a club with her based upon extraterrestrial beings. As the story progresses, Kyon ends up living the life that Suzumiya has always dreamed of, full of strange characters and danger, although he is not allowed to tell her of his adventures. The entire story is shown from the sarcastic perspective of Kyon, who narrates his adventures as if he were speaking to an audience. At some points it is indistinguishable whether the commentary being spoken by Kyon is simply narration or being spoken allowed by him as a character. 

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Suzumiya Haruhi is the name of the eccentric high school girl which the whole series is based around. Suzumiya is a highly intelligent woman who seems to excel at any sport or activity that she tries. At a young age, Suzumiya comes to the realization that human beings all lead disturbingly similar lives and vows to make her life as different and interesting as possible. Due to this wish, Suzumiya is extremely interested in searching for things others have never seen before such as aliens, time travelers, and espers and she creates a club called the SOS brigade, in which the goal is to find creatures like these and “hang out with them”. Although Suzumiya is bored by how ordinary the world seems to be, she is actually far from an average human. In addition to being seemingly able to excel at anything she tries, Suzumiya also has the ability to alter aspects of reality to her will, although she is not consciously aware of her dangerous powers. Due to these strange powers, Suzumiya’s boredom can often cause problems for both the people around her and the universe. As a result, Kyon and the other members of the SOS brigade have to work in secret to make sure that Suzumiya is happy enough to not accidentally destroy the universe. 

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Nagato Yuki, is the name of the first member of the SOS brigade besides Kyon and Suzumiya. Nagato is an extremely quiet girl who is always seen sitting in the club room reading a book. She was originally the only member of the literature club before Suzumiya usurped the clubroom for the SOS brigade and made her an unofficial member. Nagato is depicted as quiet and emotionless almost as if she were a robot. As the story goes on, she begins to speak to Kyon a little bit, however, she is not really shown speaking to anyone else. Nagato confesses to Kyon that she is not an ordinary human being and that she is actually a representative of the “Data Overmind” from outer space that was sent to the earth to observe Suzumiya. Throughout the series Kyon depends on her alien powers to get through many of the situations that Suzumiya unknowingly places the club into. 

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Asahina Mikuru is the name of the upperclassman Suzumiya basically kidnaps and forces to join the SOS brigade. Suzumiya decides that because Asahina is so adorable she should be the mascot of the brigade and forces her to wear strange costumes during the meetings for the club. Asahina is a very shy and timid character and gives into Suzumiya’s whims although it seems as if she is often embarrassed by the things that Suzumiya makes her do. As the series is told from the perspective of Kyon, it is clear that he has a crush on her because he often describes her in an endearing manner and spends a good portion of the story staring at her and feeling sorry for her. Later in the series Asahina, like Nagato, also reveals that she is not what she seems and tells Kyon that she is a time traveler from the future who has been sent to watch over Suzumiya. 
 

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The final member of the SOS brigade is a young man named Koizumi Itsuki who is asked to join the SOS brigade after Suzumiya decides that he should be in the club because he is a "mysterious transfer student". Koizumi is shown to be extremely polite and seems to be constantly smiling; however, Kyon seems to be suspicious of him and thinks that he is faking his happiness. As the series goes on, Koizumi, like Asahina and Nagato, reveals himself to be a person with strange super powers.  He claims that he was turned into an esper by Suzumiya and that he now has the power to destroy dangrous beings called Celestials which are created by Suzumiya unknowingly when she is angry. Like the other two powerful members of the SOS brigade, Koizumi was sent by the organization of espers to watch over Suzumiya.

In terms of the series as an anime, I personally found the plot and the characters to be quite well developed, and I think this is due to the fact that the series is already based upon a novel.  My personal favorite element of this series is the characters, because every single one has a distinct and different personality type, and all five members of the club seem to have an equal importance to the story. A particular strength of the story, is that because Suzumiya gets bored quite easily by things, the story covers a variety of different topics. For example, in one episode Kyon almost gets killed by an alien who is going against the orders of the data overmind, and in another episode the club simply plays a game of baseball. However, something which could cause confusion for the viewer is the order in which the episodes occur. When the series was initially aired on television in Japan, the episodes were shown in a manner which does not follow the story in a chronological manner. The very first episode which is typically shown in “chronological order” deals shows a movie the SOS brigade has made in which the characters are acting and none of the characters are formally introduced for who they actually are. For a first time viewer, this can be quite confusing. Another issue involved with having the episodes out of sequence is the fact that the anime series has its climatic ending in the middle part of the series and in the actual last episode which is shown, not much happens in terms of story or plot. An aspect of the series which makes it strong, however, is that because Kyon is so normal compared to the other characters, it is quite easy to sympathize and place yourself in the position of the character, regardless of gender.

            That being said the series is listed on Wikipedia as being a part of the Shonen genre and this is quite obvious when it comes to how the female characters are looked at in certain situations. For example, because Asahina often dresses in costumes there is often a lot of focus on her body. Another aspect of the story which was a tad unrealistic in terms of women is the fact that one of Suzumiya’s quirks is that she had no qualms changing her clothes in front of the entire class when it was time to get ready for gym class. Besides the fanservice which is directed towards the male demographic, I think the rest of the story is applicable to many different people because there are many different types of episodes.  

            Personally, I believe that people should watch this show not only because it is funny and covers many different episode types, but also because it can also be seen as an anti-pessimistic outlook on life. When the story begins Kyon does not really believe in anything and has basically given up on miracles and has a super realistic outlook on how the world works. However as the story progresses, Kyon is introduced to impossible events and is forced to have a more open minded outlook on the world. In a way, the story kind of takes the viewer back to the mindset that a child has when they are younger and still believe in miracles. Another reason why it is worth watching is because of the way the characters slowly begin to change for the better as they begin to interact with each other as a group. Overall, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu has interesting characters and many different types of episodes which provide something for everyone. Although the series may be confusing at first due to the disordered sequence of the episodes, I encourage viewers to watch at least two episodes before making any judgments about the series.

            Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu used to be available legally to watch on Crunchyroll.com, however it seems to have been taken down for some reason. However I did find a fan-made trailer which seems to do a good job of showing some of the scenes from the anime. The original series is 14 episodes long.