WWHCurrent Anime & Manga Blog: Past Anime Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 1

November 9, 2011
Posted by MedusaS

Yes, I'm finally back! That was a very long vacation, and I do apologize for the lateness!

So now I will be doing a review on the extraordinary anime, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya!"

You are probably wondering this: Why do I always see THIS girl everywhere, on posters, wallpapers, youtube vids and EVEN other animes like lucky star? Well, rather than contrary, it is TRUE. This anime did generate a lot of popularity back in 2006, actually even NOW. So why is it so popular? Well, apart from the randomness, retarded scenes and vague plot lines, it is actually an anime that probably ANYBODY can relate to, in terms of plot, theme and whatnot.

Firstly, the anime starts off with a video, that, at first glance, you probably won't understand a shit.

So let's briefly explain the plot first. Well, the protagonist is Kyon, and he will be the one telling you the story. Firstly, he enters high school as a first year student, yeah yeah, the usual anime development, BUT THEN, things take a LARGE change when he meets Haruhi Suzumiya, a weird girl. Why weird? Well firstly, she changes her hair ornament and style on a different day of the week. Secondly, she changes in class in front of the boys. Thirdly, that she does not care about humans and believes in aliens, espers and time travellers. See where this is going?

Haruhi & Kyon

So she sets off this club called the SOS Brigade, (which is actually on one of our banners here :D) where there are five members, mainly, Kyon, Yuki Nagato, Itsuki Koizumi, Mikuru Asahina, and herself, where they all look normal. But of course, we all know where this is going. Firstly, Yuki invites Kyon to her house, where she explains the "Integrated Data Entity" and that she is alien. And to top it off, Haruhi has the power to create or destroy the fabric of existence. And then suddenly, one way or another, it leads to the class president attempting to kill Kyon, of which she is also an alien.

Then, through some other weird and wacky plot, Mikuru reveals that she is a time traveler, and Itsuki reveals that he is an esper, and for both cases, the one who decides their existence is... HARUHI.

Then, out of the blue, Itsuki's relatives invite the SOS to a REMOTE ISLAND, where they have a great beach holiday but then the house butler is MURDERED... and the whole thing becomes a detective story.

Of course, the anime also blends with the normal every-anime school life. With the school festival approaching, the computer club society, of which trying to reclaim their stolen computer, challenge the SOS to a video game contest. Then the anime suddenly becomes some Star-Wars type Battlestar Galactica movie. XD. After which everything becomes normal again and Haruhi plays in a concert.

Yuki Nagato

Well, the last episode is epic. Haruhi and Kyon are suddenly whisked away in an alternate world, where a blue giant roams free and destroys the area. The world is at an end, and neither the time-traveler, esper, or alien, can do anything to stop it. All fate falls on Kyon, as he... kisses Haruhi? I don't know what happened, but thats how it looks like. She manages to transfer both of them back to the "normal world" and everybody is happy again.

Itsuki Koizumi

Now, of course, my review might have things in the wrong order, but this is the anime order (The one you will see). There are in total, THREE DIFFERENT EPISODE ORDERS, the Haruhi one (Live TV), Kyon order (Chronological order) and the DVD order.

This is a very confusing anime, but if you follow all three orders, you can get a detailed insight as to WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED IN the anime.

Mikuru

For its complex structure, I believe that there is a plot between the lines, so I won't say anything else. But one thing's for certain, on the surface, plot's very confusing.
Theme-wise, I sincerely believe that the producers did a good job if they were aiming for a sci-fi sort of anime. As for atmosphere, I felt that that it was RANDOM. Do expect lots of random an unexpected scenes in the anime, for most parts in the anime aren't taken seriously, except for the finale of the season, which I felt was SERIOUS. All in all, good anime for watching.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has 14 episodes in the first season, and 28 episodes in the QUESTIONABLE second season. It also has a light novel version available. And I DON'T KNOW WHO SUBBED IT!