The Essentials

Name: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Genre:: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance
Episodes: 14
Released: April 2, 2006 – July 2, 2006
Based On: Suzumiya Haruhi light novel series by Nagaru Tanigawa
Director: Tatsuya Ishihara
Produced By: Kyoto Animation, SOS Dan
US Distribution By: Bandai Entertainment

Major Japanese Cast

Kyon: Tomokazu Sugita
Haruhi Suzumiya: Aya Hirano
Mikuru Asahina: Yuko Goto
Yuki Nagato: Minori Chihara
Itsuki Koizumi: Daisuke Ono
Tsuruya: Yuki Matsuoka
Ryouko Asakura: Natsuko Kuwatani
Kyon’s Sister: Sayaka Aoki
Taniguchi: Minoru Shiraishi
Kunikida: Megumi Matsumoto

Major English Cast

Kyon: Crispin Freeman
Haruhi Suzumiya: Wendee Lee
Mikuru Asahina: Stephanie Sheh
Yuki Nagato: Michelle Ruff
Itsuki Koizumi: Johnny Yong Bosch
Tsuruya, Kyon’s Sister: Kari Wahlgren
Ryouko Asakura: Bridget Hoffman
Taniguchi: Sam Regal
Kunikida: Brianne Siddall

Scores

Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 173/190 (91.1%)

Review

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was touted as one of the best series coming out of Japan in the spring of 2006, and while I didn’t watch that many series coming out of Japan to compare it to, I did find Melancholy to be an excellent series in many respects.

The story is centered around Kyon and part of this first year in high school. On the first day he is seated in front of, and introduced to Haruhi Suzumiya, a girl who is only interested in aliens, time travelers, and espers. Just looking at her, she seems normal, if not optimal for a girl – she’s good looking, she’s athletic, and she gets good grades. But her personality is way out there, and that’s literal. Haruhi quickly collects Kyon and three other students and forms the SOS brigage, which is a club formed with the purpose of seeking out time travelers, aliens, and espers. Little does Haruhi know that the three other students she’s collected is each of those three things. Kyon on learns the reason they they are here, and the truth about Haruhi and how the fate of the world may very well lie in his hands.

The series, as aired on tv, is broadcast out of chronological order, having an effect of reverse foreshadowing – the hinting or discussion of events that have already occured but that we have yet to see. This probably did cause the Coherence score to go down a notch, and for 2 reasons. First, the jumping around interrupted the normal flow of the story so that no single story line is directly carried from one episode to the next. And second, there are a couple of issues which I thought weren’t resolved or left open for a possible second season (hint hint nudge nudge). However, this didn’t really bother me personally because I thought it still worked having the series aired out of order.

I debated between giving this series a 9 or 10 on animation. I’m usually very reluctant to go below a 7 on any score, but i’m just as reluctant, if not more so, to give a flat out 10. However, I felt that the animation in this series deserved just that. It is sharp, crisp, colorful, and the CG that is used, for the most part, looks good. Even the fact that they made the first episode look and feel like an amatuer movie scored points for the series.

The music was also very good, and the ending credits are hilarious. The story, as developed over the 14 episodes, is also deeper than what it may appear at first.

First Watched: May – July 2006
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes