The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

[MaxonTreik]

I think the episode order was fine, and it never bothered me in Stand Alone Complex either, I wouldn't go as far as calling it a gimmick at all. However as I stated before, I'm just annoying that people call this series 'random' merely because of how the episodes are listed.

That's because SAC is intelligent and still stays simple. Haruhi Suzumiya uses a lot of physics and philosophical/theological jargon that is lost on most people who aren't strong in either, and people mistake that as being intelligent.

 

[Fellistowe]

Haruhi Suzumiya uses a lot of physics and philosophical/theological jargon that is lost on most people who aren't strong in either, and people mistake that as being intelligent.

Hmm, funny, it never occured to me to think of TMoHS as trying to be intelligent, probably because I don't think its ever tried to be serious in that kind of sence. Much of the sudo-science lingo that was thrown around was just there to set up the roles of the characters, least that's how it seemed to me.

Anyways...

For me, Haruhi was one of the first series I ever watched on discovering fansub, so I was watching it as and when it was coming out in Japan and riding the front end of the hype wave. I think I was lucky in that respect because I was able to watch it with a "clean" perspective, without any preconceptions and bias against any of the hype.
I loved it to bits, and still think it's one of the most entertaining anime comedies I've seen.

Also, when I asked people what they thought of Haruhi, the word 'random' seemed to pop out of everyone's mouth. Can we really call Haruhi that much of a random series?

I'd agree that random is a bad descriptive; I've always thought that Haruhi was a very well structured series (Talking about TV showing order here).
It made a big fuss at the time because it's showing order was "at the whim of Haruhi" (which at the time was quite original in itself, here was an anime series where the main character was the ultimate director and decided the episode order as she felt like it!), but when you actually look at it the flow and structure of the episodes works really well. Your fed bits of the story peacemeal and it actually requires a bit of though (well, memory) on the viewers part to piece the story together. Its part of what makes it enjoyable to watch, because instead of just being fed a story, it uses its fragmented nature to draw you in instead.

I don't know about my fellow AUKN members, but I thought Haruhi was pretty damn selfish. It seemed that Kyon was the only person who was anywhere near decent to actually be friends with. Haruhi usually didn't even listen to what other people had to say, and even though this was just for entertainment I thought she was quite the bitch.

Yup, that's part of her appeal. She's a brat character through and through, and that's a big part of what makes her charming (look at Louise in Zero no Tsukaima or Hazuki in Tsukuyomi Moon Phase). Its a fairly well used character stereotype, and the appeal is that even though the character can be an absolute bitch they still have a core of goodness and insecurity about them, and its that vulnerability that makes them appealing (in Haruhi's case her insecurity is that she realised at an early age just how small and insignificant she is in the world, so most of her behaviour and actions are just an extended form of attention seeking).
If its not a character stereotype that appeals to you, then that's probably a big part of why Haruhi doesn't "click" with you.

...and found Kyon to be a good character to follow from start to finish.

Agreed, for as much as everyone raves about Haruhi, Kyon's the real star of the show. It's his constant monologue and deadpan humour that sets the pace of the show, and it never would have worked without him. His viewpoint provides the stable bedrock from which to view the rest of the characters from; without it the series would have been lost in a maelstrom of over-the-top personalities. It's the biggest part of why I think it's such a well written and constructed series. Like a lot of Haruhi fans, I'm really looking forward to the chance to be able to read the light novels, to see just what it all was based on first hand.

In the end Haruhi is one of those series you either love or you don't, but like all anime I believe people should be free to make their own mind up on it (that's probably why I don't get involved in anime discussions very often, who am I to tell you what you should like of not!).
Hype is hype and it exists because a lot of people like something a lot.
By the sound of it Nemphtis you did mostly enjoy watching TMoHS, you just sounded a bit dissapointed that it wasn't the second coming or something (well, umm, it is actually, Haruhi is a god after all...)

Probably best to just shrug and let us Haruhi nutbars have our fun until the next big thing comes along....
(ooh, look, Clannad *runs off*...)

 

[Maltos]

I watched the series after hearing a bit about it and i was looking for a new series that wasn't just shonen action like alot of stuff i see. I watched the series in Kyon-ological order (chronological) and i thought it was fantastic.
I didn't know what it was about it that made it so amazing, but it put it up there with my favourites like love hina...

I like the fact that you get the mix of characters: sure you have the moe character with Asahina but you also get the mix of quiet girl (Yuki) the hyperactive Haruhi and the lazy Kyon, oh ye and the enthusiastic Itsuki. It's something about all these personalities put together that make for a really fantastic story.

Of course its not to eveyone's liking but for fans i can see why people get fanatical over the series.
I'm reading through the novels at the moment again in chronological order and they're even better than the anime.

It's an unexplainable success, and i can see why some people would just see it as an average story but i thought it was a fantastic story, and i'm enjoying every minute !

Kyon's the real star of the show. It's his constant monologue and deadpan humour that sets the pace of the show, and it never would have worked without him.

Definately agreed, i think kyon's humour is one of the things that makes the show work, he's really the one that hold the story together.

 

[Jaymii]

but i thought it was a fantastic story, and i'm enjoying every minute !

Wait. Can someone explain the story to me please. ?!?!

There was bits and bobs about her being God and the creator and destroyer of the world. But Explain please. :X

 

[Fellistowe]

Wait. Can someone explain the story to me please. ?!?!

Heh, OK, I’ll give that one a shot. Bear in mind it’s been over a year since I last watched it and I haven’t had the chance to read the novels yet, so other Haruhites please feel free to correct me!

Switching to spoiler mode:

Spoiler

At its basic level, TMoSH is a harem style romantic comedy. Haruhi, Yuki and Mikuru are the harem, Kyon is the lead male protagonist, and Itsumi is the none threatening male friend, possibly gay (joking). Haruhi is obviously the main romantic interest and the one you know will end up with Kyon in the end

First, a word from the wiki:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya follows the high school life of Haruhi Suzumiya, a young and very active high school girl, and those who are caught up in her antics. While Haruhi is the central character to the plot, the story is told from the point of view of Kyon, one of Haruhi's classmates.
Kyon is an ordinary freshman high school student who has recently given up his fantasies of espers, time travelers, and aliens as he left middle school. When he chooses to speak to Haruhi, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events which drag him into surreal situations; he is drawn further into a world eerily like the fantasies he had just managed to outgrow, with Haruhi at its center.
Searching for a group that interests her, Haruhi joins and quits every club in the school, finding only dissatisfaction. Kyon makes a snide remark about her actions and accidentally provides Haruhi the inspiration to create a club of her own. To help start the club, Haruhi forcefully drafts Kyon, who only stays in the club to protect other helpless victims of Haruhi's "voluntary arrests." As the story progresses, Kyon finds that each of these supposedly "helpless victims" has a specific reason to be there.
The first of these new members is Yuki Nagato, a silent bibliophile who usually wants to simply be left alone to read. Without Haruhi knowing, Yuki is in fact a "humanoid interface," or an artificial human, created by the extraterrestrial Integrated Data Entity. The next member is the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, who is one year above Haruhi; she is actually a time traveler. The final member of the SOS Brigade is Itsuki Koizumi, who is almost always smiling and more than willing to give in to Haruhi's strange demands. He turns out to be one of many espers in an organization known as the the Agency.
Except for Kyon, the members of the club are secret agents of various organizations who are sent to observe Haruhi. They gradually explain that Haruhi has superhuman control over every aspect of the universe — an ability which she is unaware of. Whenever Haruhi becomes bored or otherwise dissatisfied with reality, she unconsciously creates a new universe — one more to her liking — and attempts to switch over, thus leading to the destruction of the current universe. In order to prevent this, the members of Haruhi's club spend their time attempting to keep their god-like leader entertained, hold her powers in check, and maintain the illusion of a normal life.
The series never clarifies whether the club members gathered around Haruhi by their own free will, her subconscious, or were simply created out of thin air for Haruhi's amusement. The question of their origin is a motif seen throughout the series.

OK, that sets out the basic story outline. Bear in mind the first series only cover a small portion of the first few light novels, so it’s primary purpose is to introduce the situation and the characters.

All of the three organizations mentioned above have one similar root cause, they all experienced a major event 3 years before the main story; for the aliens it was a huge data burst centred on Japan, the time travelers a major time quake, and the epsers the emergence of their abilities and the closed spaces. It took them all about 3 years to pin it back to Haruhi.
Those “closed spacesâ€

 

[Arbalest]

Wait. Can someone explain the story to me please. ?!?!

Heh, OK, I’ll give that one a shot. Bear in mind it’s been over a year since I last watched it and I haven’t had the chance to read the novels yet, so other Haruhites please feel free to correct me!

Switching to spoiler mode:

Spoiler

At its basic level, TMoSH is a harem style romantic comedy. Haruhi, Yuki and Mikuru are the harem, Kyon is the lead male protagonist, and Itsumi is the none threatening male friend, possibly gay (joking). Haruhi is obviously the main romantic interest and the one you know will end up with Kyon in the end

First, a word from the wiki:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya follows the high school life of Haruhi Suzumiya, a young and very active high school girl, and those who are caught up in her antics. While Haruhi is the central character to the plot, the story is told from the point of view of Kyon, one of Haruhi's classmates.
Kyon is an ordinary freshman high school student who has recently given up his fantasies of espers, time travelers, and aliens as he left middle school. When he chooses to speak to Haruhi, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events which drag him into surreal situations; he is drawn further into a world eerily like the fantasies he had just managed to outgrow, with Haruhi at its center.
Searching for a group that interests her, Haruhi joins and quits every club in the school, finding only dissatisfaction. Kyon makes a snide remark about her actions and accidentally provides Haruhi the inspiration to create a club of her own. To help start the club, Haruhi forcefully drafts Kyon, who only stays in the club to protect other helpless victims of Haruhi's "voluntary arrests." As the story progresses, Kyon finds that each of these supposedly "helpless victims" has a specific reason to be there.
The first of these new members is Yuki Nagato, a silent bibliophile who usually wants to simply be left alone to read. Without Haruhi knowing, Yuki is in fact a "humanoid interface," or an artificial human, created by the extraterrestrial Integrated Data Entity. The next member is the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, who is one year above Haruhi; she is actually a time traveler. The final member of the SOS Brigade is Itsuki Koizumi, who is almost always smiling and more than willing to give in to Haruhi's strange demands. He turns out to be one of many espers in an organization known as the the Agency.
Except for Kyon, the members of the club are secret agents of various organizations who are sent to observe Haruhi. They gradually explain that Haruhi has superhuman control over every aspect of the universe — an ability which she is unaware of. Whenever Haruhi becomes bored or otherwise dissatisfied with reality, she unconsciously creates a new universe — one more to her liking — and attempts to switch over, thus leading to the destruction of the current universe. In order to prevent this, the members of Haruhi's club spend their time attempting to keep their god-like leader entertained, hold her powers in check, and maintain the illusion of a normal life.
The series never clarifies whether the club members gathered around Haruhi by their own free will, her subconscious, or were simply created out of thin air for Haruhi's amusement. The question of their origin is a motif seen throughout the series.

OK, that sets out the basic story outline. Bear in mind the first series only cover a small portion of the first few light novels, so it’s primary purpose is to introduce the situation and the characters.

All of the three organizations mentioned above have one similar root cause, they all experienced a major event 3 years before the main story; for the aliens it was a huge data burst centred on Japan, the time travelers a major time quake, and the epsers the emergence of their abilities and the closed spaces. It took them all about 3 years to pin it back to Haruhi.
Those “closed spacesâ€

 

[Fellistowe]

... As for genre, its not really a harem at all, its a slight comedy and has small bits of romance, but its main subject is sci-fi....

ooh, I'm intrigued now Is that your perception from the basis of the light novels, or from the anime?
I'll concede that harem is probably not the best lable as it brings the wrong images to mind, but on basic setup it does have many of the key qualities: Central male protagonist who freely interacts with several primary female characters, all who have developed emotional feelings for him, yet he doesn't immediately choose between any of them. Strikes me as being very harem in setup, even if it doesn't follow in what we consider to be the conventional harem style. Something I'm picking up from having only watched the anime?

sigh... who do I have to beat to death to get the light novels brought to the west

 

[Arbalest]

... As for genre, its not really a harem at all, its a slight comedy and has small bits of romance, but its main subject is sci-fi....

ooh, I'm intrigued now Is that your perception from the basis of the light novels, or from the anime?
I'll concede that harem is probably not the best lable as it brings the wrong images to mind, but on basic setup it does have many of the key qualities: Central male protagonist who freely interacts with several primary female characters, all who have developed emotional feelings for him, yet he doesn't immediately choose between any of them. Strikes me as being very harem in setup, even if it doesn't follow in what we consider to be the conventional harem style. Something I'm picking up from having only watched the anime?

sigh... who do I have to beat to death to get the light novels brought to the west

well thinking on it that way, yes and no. I'm really basing it on the light novels, which are far superior to the anime, though the anime sticks basically 100% to the novels itself. Harem wise, he still drools over asahina as you'd expect, but he does have feelings for all three, though he knows he can't get close to asahina, and yuki, well i'm still not to sure there. Haruhi i think he starts to understand her more which is evident in the novels. I'd say more but i have work to get too =/

 

[Fellistowe]

Many thanks for the reply, it really has my interest peaked in the novels now
For me, the sci-fi aspect of the series kinda took second place to the characters themselves and it was the relationships between them all (most particularly Haruhi and Kyon; when they kissed, yay!!!) that I followed with bated breath. That's probably why my thinkings a little more different from standard

heh, guess I'm a big softly like that, I just love my romantic anime's

(go's off to hunt down the light novels..)

 

[Nemphtis]

I found Haruhi as romantic as the scene when Solid Snake had to stare at Meryl's ass as she ran to the elevator in Metal Gear Solid. Not that the kiss was the only part that mattered to me, but if you actually took out the scene where they kiss, most people would probably not even consider there being any romance to begin with. There's so little of it there that it barely deserves a mention.

 

[Maltos]

You could class it as romantic because as the series gos on you get to see the relantionships of the girls in the SOS brigade develop with Kyon, like how Mikuru cant get to close to him or Haruhi will get jealous, and we all know what happens then. You get to see how Yuki subtly softens up to Kyon and how Haruhi starts to get closer to Kyon.

I still think that sci-fi and comedy are the main genres of it but it's my opinion that it is worth mentioning the romance part even if it plays only a small role in comparison to the comedy and sci-fi.

 

[Arbalest]

You could class it as romantic because as the series gos on you get to see the relantionships of the girls in the SOS brigade develop with Kyon, like how Mikuru cant get to close to him or Haruhi will get jealous, and we all know what happens then. You get to see how Yuki subtly softens up to Kyon and how Haruhi starts to get closer to Kyon.

I still think that sci-fi and comedy are the main genres of it but it's my opinion that it is worth mentioning the romance part even if it plays only a small role in comparison to the comedy and sci-fi.

Yeah, the romance side is definitely not by any means a big factor in the series, but even then, there is more of it, at least development in feelings between the SOS members as it goes on.

 

[Nemphtis]

I simply don't see the point in relating a genre like romance to the series just because there's a drop of it involved. Many action movies need to save a girl who they end up falling in love with, yes there is romance but they prefer to simply call it an action movie because that is the overwhelming genre which is present throughout the show.

I suppose this isn't even a topic worth debating but I just wanted to state my general opinion in giving a genre to someone based on a small part of the program you're watching. I find this especially problematic in music and video games as genre is basically defined by the creators of the media, it's generally categorized based on what the director wanted it to be categorized as, in my opinion.

 

[Arbalest]

I know what you mean, i haven't said its a main genre, its more like just a little extra in the series, which it is. The main genre's are comedy and Sci-fi by far and thats the genres of which this series is generally looked at.

 

[killa_fairy]

most people seem to agree with what im going to say, it was kinda funny.. sometimes. but from what i hear about it and the fact that it was number 4 on one of tv asahi's polls, i was really disapointed. it wasnt that bad but it couldnt retain my interestn enough for me to bother finishing it

 

[Arbalest]

Wow, I think I love this anime too much, I really do. I even bought 1-8 of the novels even though I'm awfully slow at reading them. Then I've three of the DVDs, the (absolute crap) manga, two fan books, most of the character CDs, Sound Around, opening/ending theme, insert songs, posters, the never ending sea of figures...

Just out of curiosity, i'm guessing you bought the light novels from japan? Since from what i know there is no release whatsoever in the US or UK for them yet unfortunately.

 

[Arbalest]

I would like to go buy them just so i could re-read up to volume 9 in the actual book form since it would be far better(much like it is for Full Metal Panic!), but i guess its a case of having to wait. I'd buy the japanese ones, if i could read japanese, which is only improving slowly =/

 

[cardybean]

I think this anime is very 'hit or miss' and a perfect example of a marmite situation haha. The plot is so 'random', and gives little explanation in certain areas of it, not to mention the way the episodes are mixed up.

I'm going for the hit though, and for the love rather than the hate.

 

[chaos]

I simply don't see the point in relating a genre like romance to the series just because there's a drop of it involved. Many action movies need to save a girl who they end up falling in love with, yes there is romance but they prefer to simply call it an action movie because that is the overwhelming genre which is present throughout the show.

I agree with you. In a certain way, you could link almost every single series to love after all =)

 

[CitizenGeek]

Gimmicks + Moe = The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I don't see how it's gimmicky and it certainly is not moe. It mocks and parodies moe, but it's not moe in the sense that garbage like Kanon, Clannad or Moon Phase are.

I've only watched the first three episodes and I think it's hilarious (maybe those who don't think it's funny should watch the - gasp! dub?) and interesting. I can't wait to watch the second disc :]