Wednesday 5 July, 2006

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

What can I possible say about one of this year’s biggest anime hits in Japan, Kyoto Animation's Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu) without giving out any spoilers? I’ll try anyway, as this is a series we’ve really enjoyed watching because of its superb storytelling and plotline, and its fantastic characters.

Kyon and Haruhi SuzumiyaStory starts… well, here’s the first problem. The story doesn’t actually start from the beginning, but from a disastrously bad amateur film the characters in the series will film later on. It makes very little sense at this point, but it’s funny as hell - mainly due to the cameraman’s sarcastic commentary about the film’s weaknesses and misgivings.

Then the story starts. It’s the first day of high school and first year students all come to a new school. Amongst these are Haruhi Suzumiya who immediately proclaims that she’s not interested in mere humans but wants to meet time-travelers, aliens and espers, and Kyon, the ordinary boy who sits in front of her in class. Haruhi is an incredibly forceful personality and since none of the clubs in the school interest her she ends up forming one of her own: Save our world by Overloading it with fun Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short) where Kyon is dragged (literally) against his will. Other forced members in the club are Yuki Nagato, a literary club member who inhabits the club room SOS Brigade invades, a second year student Mikuru Asahina (because “strange things always happen when Lolita-type character is around” according to Haruhi) and a transfer student Itsuki Koizumi (because “mid-year transfer students are suspicious”, again according to Haruhi). So far so good – these couple of first episodes are dead ordinary high school anime with over the top silly characters, and Haruhi charging around making life miserable for Kyon and Mikuru.

Nagato, Koizumi and KyonAt this point it’s worth mentioning that Anime News Network classifies Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in the comedy, psychological, science fiction and supernatural genres, and the reasons for these follow shortly in the next episodes. How the story opens up is done very cleverly – the episodes are not shown in chronological order but in a random order the “ultra-director” Haruhi Suzumiya decides. In one episode we come across something very strange, and then in the next episode some of the background is explained and pieces of the puzzle start coming together. But it’s done so well it’s never hard to follow, and it always always leaves you wanting for more.

Mikuru and HaruhiAnimation and voice acting are also very high quality – pretty much all the major characters have excellent expressive voice actors, but if I had to pick a favourite it would have to be laconic way Tomokazu Sugita plays Kyon (who, if I had to pick a favourite, would also be my favourite character).

The anime is only 14 episodes and although it kind of leaves the story open for more, no second season has been announced so far. On the other hand it’s a complete story that does work on its own – despite the strange ordering of the episodes there is a beginning, middle and an end, and despite the end actually being in the middle of the story it does finish off in a very satisfying way. I would love love love to have more, and I hope they translate the original manga over here too (now there’s my limit – I won’t download literary material, I just can’t). So far the series hasn’t been licensed in US, but fansubbed episodes are easily available on your average friendly torrent site.

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has been the best new TV series this year. Get it, watch it, love it. You’ll thank me you did.

Posted by kolibri at 5 July 10:54, 2006
Comments
# 1 - Dragon (on July 6, 2006 12:16 PM):

Some of the best TV ever produced. Puts Pulp Fiction to shame with its non-linear story-telling, and superior to just about any supernatural TV-show created.


# 2 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on July 6, 2006 12:32 PM):

And another thing is that the replay value is huge because of the non-linear storytelling. In fact, I'd really want to watch it again, at least twice - I'd like to watch it in the linear order, and then again in the non-linear way... there's so much going on that you can't fully appreciate everything with just one viewing. And I've seen episode 12 several times just because of the music...


# 3 - Chu (on July 20, 2006 05:51 AM):

The plot and the non-linear storytelling work very well, but ultimately it's the characters and their interaction that got me.

At first I couldn't stand Haruhi, didn't understand Mikuru and failed to see the point in Yuki. Koizumi only comes in later, so the only person I liked and could relate to at all was Kyon. Considering the concept, this is hardly a coincidence - I'm sure the Ultra-Director had her say in everything :).

Also, the series (and Kolibri) introduced me to the concept of "fan service", which I enjoy a lot.

So arigato gozaimasu, Kolibri-chan, it was a treat!


# 4 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on July 20, 2006 02:38 PM):

You make it almost sound like you didn't like the series ;)

Like I said to you earlier - it's not like we haven't had fan service for ages (see: Apollo coming from a shower in BSG), we just never had the word for it like anime does. It's the concept describing an element in the story that's totally unnecessary for the plot, but is there to please or excite the audience - typically in anime this would be the panty shot or lately the mandatory beach episodes where we get to see the cast in bikini.


# 5 - Chu (on July 21, 2006 07:45 AM):

My bad: While I'm not ecstatic about it, I liked The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya a lot! I guess I just left that bit to be taken for granted... Blame the tiredness :).

Admittedly I had serious doubts at first, mostly with the characters (Haruhi in particular) and the series' atmosphere: somewhere around weird and silly and strange and just... very foreign. I don't mean sci-fi strange but, you know, cultural nuances, most of which are probably Japanese things, or anime things: the funny stuff didn't really strike me as very funny, some of the other scenes felt just odd, off-key or embarrassing, and I was downright shocked with the way Haruhi treats poor Mikuru.

My resistance only began to dissipate around episode 4 or 5 (screening order). At that point I'd been able to adjust to the series coming from a different cultural background, and gotten over with my initial dislikes with the characters, so when the storytelling kicked in big time, I started to enjoy myself. The elements of revealing important parts of future points in time, not explaining too much about them, only hinting to things that had happened in between, and going back later to fill the gaps work for me superbly well.

And the characters? Kyon remains my firm favourite throughout the episodes, and Koizumi was easy to like from the first, but dear, sweet Mikuru and especially the infinitely capable Yuki really grew on me in the shortest of times. Haruhi was the most difficult character for me to like, and truthfully it wasn't until the episode where we learn about her history that, through understanding, I stopped being irritated by her. She would still be her impossible self; it just wouldn't get on my nerves anymore. In a lot of ways, I see where Kyon is coming from :).

To sum it up: Mostly cultural difficulties at first, but as the characters get to know each other and get used to each other, so does the viewer, and the series becomes much easier to watch. The next thing you know is you've started to care, and the characters' relations to and interaction with one another start to evolve. The storytelling is clever and the metaplot develops effortlessly into a beautiful finale.

All in all, I enjoyed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya tremendously and would absolutely love to see more made!

Please, Ultra-Director, please?


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