Once upon a time on a certain bowshaped archipelago there was a young man who had become jaded and cynical towards the world around him. Known as Kyon to his friends as well as his relatives and anyone else he ever meets this young man once believed in the wildest things from aliens and the supernatural to superheroes and the evil syndicates that they battle. Hes mostly given up on such fantasies and although he does think about them from time to time hes accepted reality as it is Unfortunately that reality is so boring and tedious that hes settled into a deep pit of ennui shuffling through each day in a cloud of gloom as he lets his annoying friends his bratty sister his fellow classmates and the punishing climb up to school up a steep hill fly right by him. Does any of it matter? Is there any point in resisting convention going against the grain when it will just get him branded a weirdo and a social outcast dealing with a day to day life thats even more underwhelming than it was previously? For the most part Kyon had resigned himself to reality and a long life of blase blandness. Thats when he met her. Standing proudly during first day introductions wearing a stern expression and speaking directly with no room for misunderstanding Haruhi Suzumiya proclaimed to her entire class that shell only waste any of her time on them if theyre aliens time travelers or espers. This could have turned out to just be an inconsequential blip on the radar of Kyons life if it wasnt for the fact that while absently picking her brain he winds up inspiring her to start her own school club and use it to bring the weirdness of the world to her. Kyon winds up dragged into this plan having sealed his fate the minute hed decided to poke the prettylooking bear. This club is named The SOS Brigade a name that impressively makes less sense than it sounds and Haruhi winds up dragging three more poor souls into her mess. They turn out ot be interesting people but as Kyon will soon find out they might be just a little too interesting and the supernatural phenomena that Kyon had once given up on may have been easier to find then he or Haruhi had thought. With the boundaries between reality and fantasy becoming more blurred by the day will Kyon ever be able to get his normal boring life back? Or will this bizarre new routine dominate his life forever? The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is part of what I like to call The Golden Age of Kyoto Animation and yeah a few points of this review are going to focus on the time frame of which it was released. In any case this golden age occurred between 2005 and 2008 after their inaugural effort Fullmetal Panic Fumoffu but before theyd switch to a cheaper visual style with Clannad Afterstory. The second season did fall victim to this change but thankfully Haruhi did not and is a shining example of the kind of visual quality that it could put out back then. Movement is fluid with a lot of inbetween work being done to keep everybody looking as crisp and graceful as possible and Im not just talking about the people in the main section of the foreground. youll lose track of the amount of background people surrounding crowds and random cutaway figures there are who were given independent movement of their own sometimes even just as good as what the main cast is getting. It does slow down in parts but aside from a few odd choices it all blends together well. There are some shortcuts here and there We get one extended segment where a character is just sitting at a chair and reading silently to herself for at least a minute or two although you dont have to reach very far up your ass to find an excuse for it. That aside Kyoani is generally very clever at disguising their budget cuts from view often using camera angles and cinematography techniques that at the time were easily considered avantgarde before Studio Shaft stole them and ran them into the ground. Characters are almost realistically proportioned and while the facial constructs lean towards moe you wont find very many anime expression cliches in this title. If I recall there arent very many if any upturned eyes sweatdrops anger lines etcetera to be found. Instead characters deliver their emotions through highly diverse and intricate facial expressions and body language. This can be pretty useful for people trying to track the true feelings of the shows more duplicitous characters seeing through their nuances. Backgrounds are exquisitely detailed down to the very smallest objects that can be pointed out in the SOS Brigade club room. On the very rare occasions that the budget seems to be dropping its normally indicative of an intense visual happening soon such as Haruhi singing as the frontman in a school rock band or an allout no holds barred action scene because yes this slice of life title has some serious action in it. I wont go into spoilers at least not too deep but when this series busts out the CGI its time for jaws to start hitting the floor. Even outside of the action which may or may not involve space fleets alternate dimensions and a giant cricket monster even something as menial as flowing water in a river can wind up looking beautiful. Its a good looking show way moreso than any title of its ilk has any business looking and Kyoto Animation clearly put a lot of care and effort and good old fashioned giveadamn into making it one of the most visually appealing titles they could. The music isnt quite up to par with the visuals but its serviceable enough. There are several tracks that feel like they were ripped directly out of a dating game considering how repetitive they are but theyre still pretty fun to listen to and a few of them have even become relatively iconic. Even when creating tunes that are just going to fade into the background and get skipped after a few repetitions in the soundtrack Satoru Kosaki does not skimp on effort. A lot of different instruments are also used from acoustic guitars to drums trombones to bells keyboards to full on electronic orchestrations and it all comes together rather nicely. The best tunes tend to pop up during action scenes including one of the major electronic tracks whose very name would be a spoiler of the pivotal scene it accompanies. The climax of the series which will happen either at the end or in the middle depending on how youre watching even goes as far as to have a greek choir playing over the action and heightening the effect. Of course thats just the background music. In all fairness it probably wouldnt be so easily taken for granted if it wasnt for just how overwhelmingly the themes and insert songs stick out. The reason you wont come away from this series humming Oi Oi or Nanika no Okashi is because youll be too busy trying to get the Live Alive songs out of your head. Theres a moment in the series when Haruhi and clubmate Yuki Nagato step in as subs for a couple of absentee members of one of the schools biggest rock bands and the two songs she performs God Knows and Lost My Music Are awesome. Not only does this scene feature some of the best animation in the series as Haruhi is so viscerally articulated on stage that shell make YOU feel exhausted afterwards but they work just as well in standalone for as they do in context. Ive even heard from some people that theyre meant to be metaphorical for her relationship with Kyon but I personally dont see what theyre getting at. But who are we kidding? The real stars here are the opening and closing themes both of which can easily be counted among the best of all time. Much like the rock and roll tracks the opening and closing are sung by Haruhis Japanese voice actress Aya Hirano who both is and was a famous singer and that talent is put to spectacular use in character. The opening Bouken Desho Desho which basically translates to Its an Adventure Right? Right? Is beautifully animated with imagery that keeps pace with an incredibly catchy song chronicling aspects of both Haruhis everyday life and fantasy life. The closing theme is by far the most recognizable of the bunch Hare Hare Yukai which translates to Sunny Sunny Happiness and its notoriety can be drawn directly to its usage in a onetime viral video that set it to a full length elaborate choreographed dance sequence which was clearly designed to be addictive on both audio and visual terms. That dance is used partially in the ending theme but they still featured all the best bits to entertain anyone who doesnt feel like skipping ahead. The English dub an effort by Bang Zoom Entertainment is a mixed bag to say the least. The writing while nowhere near the worst effort Ive ever heard can occasionally sound forced and unnatural as though the turn of phrase that they use to match the lip flaps doesnt always sound like actual human speech. Its not easy to describe but for a handy example imagine the line Like a cat were extended to Like some kind of highstrung pet or something. Thats an extreme generalization mind you but hopefully it will give you an idea of just how awkward the dialogue can get at times. Normal sounding words are swapped out for longer versions that dont sound quite right and entire sentences are sometimes rewritten for seemingly no reason at all. It gets pretty cringey when Crispin Freeman decides to adlib because while his penchant for it may have resulted in a great line or two in .Hack theres something offputting about a fifteen year old calling his friend Sport. Im probably being too harsh as these moments are relatively rare but they do happen. Of course the writing is at its worst with the two LiveAlive songs which dont translate nearly as well to English as the songs from Beck do. The acting thankfully is leagues above the writing which I guess you could call serviceable overall. First off the name in the title may be Haruhi Suzumiya but the main protagonist is Kyon and his combination of snarky commentary and exasperated reactions make up about a third of the overall dialogue. He narrates the story doles out the occasional exposition dump and plays the part of the audience cypher albeit with more than enough personality to stand up as a fully realized character. Crispin Freeman is borderline perfect for this part and while he may sound a little too old for the part he sells every bit of it flawlessly. Hes said at a panel that he tries to play every part with genuine sincerity and he proves it here. Wendee Lee plays the titular character and while I hate to say that she sounds a bit miscast in the beginning as she sounds a bit too tame and controlled to really live up to Haruhis spark of insanity she does grow into the part as the series progresses eventually standing on equal footing with Kyon. The other actors Well its a little difficult to talk about them without going too far into spoiler territory but Ill try my best. Out of the characters that gravitate towards the SOS Brigade for their own purposes of course they all talk in fairly standard almost stereotypical ways This is very much intentional for reasons youll come to understand and it really takes multiple viewings to catch all of the little nuances and secret meanings that all three actors were trusted to convey. For example johnny Yong Bosch plays the laid back eager to please Itsuki Koizumi and while hes rarely seen without a smile an astute viewer can pick up on what hes really feeling with a little bit of context to go with the small changes in Boschs delivery. Stephanie Sheh is playing very much to type but shes played her fair share of duplicitous characters and the slight changes she makes in a particular episode are significant. Michelle Ruff almost feels wasted playing the monotonous role of Yuki Nagato although in her case she doesnt show much variety until the second season. Perhaps the most impressive of these comes with Bridget Hoffmans turn as a Class Rep character whos sweet smile takes on a whole new meaning in one of the shows climactic moments. When The Melanchoy of Haruhi Suzumiya came out just over ten years ago it was like nothing the anime medium had seen before and it changed the landscape in ways were still seeing to this day. You may think thats a compliment but this series serves as living proof of how an entity can be too influential for its own good. First of all taking a look at its most obvious contribution Haruhi proved that a light novel adaptation can be a serious financial success. No its not the first show of its kind to enter the public consciousness what with titles like Read or Die and The Twelve Kingdoms being modest successes but the vast majority of light novel adaptations that have come out did so after 2006 and you have Haruhi to thank for it. One of the ways it did this was by using odd camera angles and framing techniques to keep the viewers attention during long stretches of dialogue an avantgarde tactical style it used sparingly but was soon picked up by Akiyuki Shinbo a Shaft director who would run it into the ground with the various Monogatari and Zetsubou Sensei titles that he put out as well as other various properties ultimately making the technique feel so cliched and pretentious that you really cant look at Haruhi the same way anymore. And it doesnt stop there. The very premise of the series which I wont spoil has been copied and twisted around over and over again by people trying to one up the original product and make their own little profit off of what they see as a proven trend. Some of these titles include SasamiSanGanbaranai Kotourasan and Haganai each of which take a different approach to recapturing Haruhis proverbial lightning in a bottle. On a more simple note the premise of a socially unacceptable person forming a school club with unclear motives that has to find the necessary member count to stay open while filling itself up with odd characters and generally proving to be a nuisance for more people than not Yes all of that Has become a very popular trend in and of itself thanks to Haruhi. Worst of all this premise has been adopted by the harem genre and is often used to sell merchandise based on colorcoded characters from said clubs. Thats not even all because it also proved how successful a series can be if it panders to otaku in just the right way offering both a tongueincheek parody and a sincere love letter to otaku culture in a very forthefans bythefans kind of way. Where Haruhi Suzumiya was once one of the most popular and interesting shows around Its inspired so many copycats over the last decade that its kind of difficult to look at it with the same sense of awe that it originally inspired. What was once one of the most popular anime on the block is barely mentioned by contemporary audiences and its all due to just how poorly the series has aged. Watching it in 2017 without that nostalgic context to back it up it can get a bit cringey. Im not saying thats necessarily a bad thing Ive been guilty of turning up my nose at older anime in favor of newer titles that managed to surpass them before but I really dont think any of the anime that Haruhi inspired have really managed to surpass it Theyve instead drove its best qualities into the ground and while I dont think thats entirely fair it does become easier to see the flaws in the material with all of those distractions taken out of the way. This includes a certain weakness in characterization as aside from our two leads none of the characters really impress outside of their gimmicks and relations to the plotat least not this season and this lack of depth can be a serious flaw if youre not totally engulfed in what youre watching. One of the biggest problems however is the story structure. This season of the series was released out of order in Japan and while that may not come as a surprise to anybody who regularly watches the Fox network its a rarity among anime. It was done this way because when you watch the season in chronological order the climax of the series happens in episode 7 followed by a bunch of loosely related episodic stories. This is partially because of the fact that it follows the first few volumes of the light novel to an almost religious degree of accuracy and the first book really is the main story with every following novel expanding and continuing the universe. Ive read the books and yeah once the first novels over you dont really get anything resembling a major plot until the Disappearance story several volumes later. Because of this the first season peaks early and while that never bothered me for the first few years after my initial viewing I did start to get what people were complaining about upon my recent rewatch. It turns out the solution they came up with and that I alluded to earlier was to air the episodes out of order giving you a jumbled and confusing experience but hey at least the peak is near the end and the spoilers arent given away early Ill be honest Ive never watched it this way but Im also pretty sure it would only work for you if you were coming into the series blind and for the first time. Either way this does make for a damned if you do damned if you dont kind of experience neither method really offering a complete satisfying experience. Even when I was trying to expose one of my friends to the series all I showed him was the first seven episodes three episodes of season 2 and the movie. The rest is largely unimportant from a plot standpoint pointless fluff thats geared exclusively towards people who are in love with the style and characters and just want to see more of them which I am although I know that Im in a vocal minority in that respect. And if that were its only problem Id be a lot more forgiving of it. Aside from the innovations I mentioned earlier the only trope that this series actually manages to subvert is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl one as were initially led to believe that Haruhi will be filling that role but no Kyon winds up filling that role for HER. Thats really clever. But every other trope that appears in this show Every cliche they used every character archetype every story convention They just exist. They appear someone mentions the fact that theyve appeared and thats about as much effort as it puts in. This is a very selfaware series to be sure but selfawareness does not equal depth nor does it qualify a story to call itself smart or satirical. You cant even really call it mature as even with the shows biggest secret revealed the premise ultimately boils down to humoring an insufferable brat to keep them from throwing a worldending tantrum. Kyon and Haruhi are one of my favorite anime pairings as I really do feel that they complete each other but that dynamic is still pretty questionable almost as much so as the selfinsert stuff thats going on but dont even get me started on that. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was available from Bandai Entertainment and while that company did go under its been rescued and redistributed by Funimation. The entire series can be found on DVD and Bluray in countless different collections and formats very few of which are actually expensive. A second season as well as a movie called The disappearance are also similarly available. Spinoff series Haruhichan and ChuruyaChan are also available. Several different written versions including the original light novel series by Nagaru Tanigawa a handful of manga adaptations are also available stateside. Well I did it I went into this review as honest and unbiased as I could and as a result I wound up saying much worse things about it than I originally intended. Im still not sure Ive scratched the surface of its issues. Its nowhere near as smart or well written as it pretends to be and while that does fall well within the definition of pretension it never really goes as far as to feel pretentious. It is as another reviewer once pointed out to moe what Evangeleon is to Mecha An awesome blast of fun when taken at face value but puddle deep at best and it just gets more and more shallow under scrutiny. Now with me saying all that you probably think Ive turned my back on this show and that I wouldnt recommend it to modern viewers. Youd be wrong. Not only do I still love it not only is it still number three on my top ten favorite anime list but I still believe that even with all of its problems there are still very good reasons to watch this show even in 2017. In addition to offering a look back at one of the biggest shows of the 2000s and setting up its more modern analogues its still just as fun and entertaining as it ever was but dont expect anything too profound from it. I give The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya a 7/10.
70 /100
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