Spoilers for Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu Imagine you hang out with this certain group every day. Each member has their own eccentricities but theres that one in particular that manages to really grind your gears at times. She harasses everyone in one way or another shes loudmouthed shes obnoxious and sometimes you really wanna showcase true gender equality by giving the same slap she might sometimes give you. However what do you do when shes gone how would you feel? Given the title of this movie that seems like the appropriate question to ask but in reality it isnt. What you should be asking is: What would happen if you were the one who suddenly disappeared? How would you feel? How would the other group members feel? Two of these questions happen to be the ones that main character Kyon is forced to answer. That begs the questions: Does the movie hold up in comparison to the praise people give it? and Is it better than the first season of Haruhi or at least the second? There have been a lot of questions here and I can only really answer the last two right now with the rest of this review. If you wanna answer the rest or all of them then go ahead: tell me after reading this review. So in regards to those final two questions lets find out shall we? Its almost Winter Break for the SOS brigade and its your typical day with them as typical as it going to get for Haruhi standards anyway. However as Kyon wakes up not only does the day repeat and not only is Haruhi not in this school but no one recognizes him except for a much more expressive and timid Yuki Nagato. Kyon is now in an alternate reality and the bulk of this movie is him developing a stronger connection with Yuki Nagato while also trying to find a way back to his reality and there are lots of incredibly handled moments here like when Kyon tries to walk out but Yuki Nagano silently and nervously grabs his sleeve without anyone saying a word which ends up convincing him to stay with her longer. For most part the plot is really well handled and interesting of unsettlingly alienating at the 1020 minute mark intentionally. The problem lies with the final act more specifically the resolution. Ryouko Asakura who is alive here is once again a crazed lunatic who stabs Kyon and all of this is after some time travel that ends up connecting to the events of second seasons first episode. He then chooses between the new reality with the more tolerable Haruhi that he doesnt really know yet is a better person altogether and the one of both that he is familiar with. He ultimately chooses the latter and then the former gets erased which should basically erase 95 of this movies events and ultimately this raises paradox after paradox but for the sake of plot its how the conflict of the film is resolved. There are probably more logical ways to arrive at the same conclusion than and then that reality got erased like for instance both have their proper Kyon back after they ended up getting swapped by that thing Yuki Nagato did. Needless to say this was an instant breaker of my suspension of disbelief. Whatever the gang is all happy and relieved to see him since he manages to recover from that nasty knife wound the end. I must stress that for the most part the film executes its premise rather well and up until the falling actions there really isnt anything wrong with the plot but that one moment basically wrecked the plot of the movie since it in all logic should basically erase all of the events of most of the movie from ever happening yet Kyon still remembers them. Nonetheless I do still appreciate what the film does up until that point since it manages to really flesh out its characters and make them even better than they were before. Lets discuss them while the segue is still natural. Kyon is as we love him a snarky and tired man lost. However not only is he every lost and confused at this scenario but he almost becomes timid. Its nice to see him in a more isolated situation without having to put up with Haruhi all the time that way we actively see him in more typical scenarios. However the real star is Yuki Nagato or rather her new self in this alternate reality. We get to see just how timid and lonely she really is under that stoic and badass exterior and its genuinely charming to see that partly due to the films impressive directing. Haruhis presence is as unwelcome as ever but the alternate Haruhi is infinitely superior. Not only does she have a better hairstyle and clothes but her attitude is much better and calmer. I found it especially funny when she effectively called our Haruhi an idiot. Alternate Itsuki and Ryouko are the same as ever and its still cool to see them here. Mikuru is somehow the same in both realities and as beautiful and adorkable look it up as ever. As for Tsuruya we dont see her usual self this time. Instead we see the alternate reality version who is rather protective of Mikuru to the point of hurting anyone who scares her which Kyon learned the hard way. Well with that we covered all of the characters important to this movie whatsoever aside from Kyons sister who we still dont know the name of and theyre mostly good. Again the real stars of the film are Kyon and Yuki Nagato and again its touching to see their chemistry blossom in the way that it did. Given that this film was animated by Kyoto Animation its no surprise that this film looks as impressive as it does even by KyoAni standards. The movements feel even more natural and methodical than before as it really helps the more grounded emotional and quiet tone of this film. I also like how the films color palette is much whiter and more washed out than with the rest of the series to really sell the aforementioned tones as well. Its hard to really do this films impressive direction and animation justice really. Even pointing out scenes like the aforementioned scene of Yuki Nagato getting Kyon to stay or even the iconic moment of Kyon making the decision to go back to his reality while glass snowflakes fall cant do it enough justice as those scenes deserve to be talked about in greater lengths than what I can provide. Unfortunately there really isnt much that I can remotely remember from the OST. While it has been over a year since Ive seen it thats no excuse given that I can vividly remember and celebrate scores from anime that I hadnt seen in less than or over a year such as the OST for Fate Zero and the songs from Macross Frontier. At the very least it was really joyful to hear the first Haruhi OP return as the OP of this film as it is a great song. The ED doesnt stack up unfortunately. The dub is as good as ever and some of the weaker voices dont have as much of a role here. Its still nice to hear Crispin Freeman as Kyon and Johnny Yong Bosch as Itsuki and its nice to hear Michelle Ruff give a heartfelt and fragile performance as Yuki Nagato. Its the best dub of the franchise even though they all have the exact same actors each time probably due to the more emotional material here but hey its still great and thats what matters. This is certainly a wellwritten and impressively directed film and a great sendoff to the main series since nothing got adapted past this until a few spinoffs. Im sure that many of you enjoy this film more than I did but ultimately its still an impressive film and a charming one at that. Its certainly a breath of fresh air after the abomination that was the second season endless 8 included. Well with all that said I bid you adieu.