Author note: As I was just about to hit the post button, the second season has been announced. While this news is in its early stages, it is great news and I guess timely with these thoughts I’ve been brewing for some time now. So, yeah, second season, color me ecstatic. Oop…wait…marginal happiness, someone that actually might know japanese, thinks we may have all be scammed. I see KyoAni pointing fingers toward the US going “Stupid Gaijin”. More to come…still hopeful though.
I now bring you probably the longest post in anime blogging history. Here’s my wrap on The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. If you haven’t watched this show and plan to, read no further. There will be spoilers, but since I don’t go into major plot re-hashes, they’ll be mild.
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi is about a very bored teenager. Haruhi is infatuated with the supernatural, so much so that she doesn’t really like normal, good old, boring humanity.
Kyon is the guy that gives her the idea to start her own club. He’s 100% human being that gets caught up in the antics of Haruhi. He provides more running commentary in this show than most sportscasters do. His comments are spot on and usually quite funny.
Along the way we meet Asahina Mikuru, our time traveling power meido. Nagato Yuki, mysterious alien. And Last but not least, Koizumi Itsuki, Esper and all around “Don’t get too close to me” guy. These are the main players in this show, aside from Haruhi and Kyon.
All of the characters kind of played to some type of anime stereotype, and in probably any other show, I’d bitch about that for a few paragraphs. But in this show, the stereotypes are played for what they are and are given meaning since the heroine wants these people in her life. The fun part is that she doesn’t even suspect that they’re right under her nose. The three “special” characters are there to observe Haruhi and make sure she doesn’t destroy the world by accident.
The voice acting in the show is also top notch. I’m not really surprised by this since the show has such high production values. Tomokazu Sugita (Kyon) plays the part of a non-believer to a T. His deadpan delivery of the monologues Kyon gives is well done. The performance is more subdued than his Tsuchimi Rin from Shuffle, but it’s supposed to be.
On the opposite end of the spectrum Hirano Aya (Suzmumiya Haruhi) played the vibrant teenager perfectly. She doesn’t have a ton of roles under her belt, but the choice of her to play this part was enhanced several times over since she can actually sing. We not only get the voice acting, we get the OP and ED and the insert songs in episode 12 sung by her as well. From the beginning you get the feeling that the whole package is being delivered here. I was even impressed enough with her voice acting to actually check out Ittsudatte my Santa, which was a very poor show turned mediocre by her performance there.
The show’s music was also well done. While BGM music was somewhat standard and reused a good deal, the fun sensibilities of the show were well portrayed. OP and ED themes are well performed by Haruhi herself, and are rather standard anime OP/ED. The insert songs in episode 12 when Haruhi and Yuki take the stage with the rest of ENOZ, gets me pumped every time I hear them. While I enjoy ”Bouken Desho Desho?” and “Hare Hare Yukai” a lot, I feel that Hirano Aya is well suited to the power rock ballads that “God Knows” and “Lost My Music” are.
Moving onto animation, boy was this well done. From character designs, art direction, backgrounds to openings and endings, all of it was top notch. The show is already famous for its super dance ending animation, but everything was beautifully done as well. I seem to be talking an awful lot about episode 12, but the live show ranks up there with some of my favorite animated scenes ever. More on this scene later on, since I have more to say on it. As I re-watch portions of the show I notice things like how even the eye blinks look great. I haven’t watched too many Kyoto Animation shows, and honestly never really paid much attention to studios before, but I am now.
The show has a lot of favorite moments and even favorite episodes. I like to say that the whole show was just a big ‘ol favorite, and that it easily will win best anime of the year on most lists. Favorite moments include:
Anytime Itsuki got too close to Kyon.
A surprise that I didn’t expect, which was only enhanced by the episode order.
Classified information!
Nyoro, and the LOL-Fang-tan meme.
Kyon coming to grips with his feelings. Even if in this scene he ended up being a total jerk, moron, and a stupid idiot.
Kyon again coming to grips with his feelings. This time in a slightly more direct way. Even dwarfs “Super size me!”
The stare of motivation
I’d like to insert all of episode 12 here. The satisfaction of the school festival was beyond any measure of an anime school festival ever filmed. From the insert characters, the costumes, and the fact that the entire school seemed to be into something weird, it all clicked. The live scene was what I would consider, legendary. Superb animation, perfect Foley work, and excellent attention to detail made the scene stuff of legends. And it gave us the first hint that Haruhi herself was starting to understand the world she lived in to some extent. No doubt that this relieved Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki some, it also showed great character development as well.
So in the end, I loved this show for a ton of different reasons, but no one can actually talk about this show without talking about the episode order. As most of us know, the show was run in the wrong order. Not since Fox aired Firefly all wrong has there been more discussion about a single anime and this topic. I don’t really want to complain or argue whether the show would’ve been better if they ran it right or not. What I can tell you from viewing the first six episodes in the right order is that the show is a very different thing to behold at that point. What I’ve noticed, since the major plot is out of the way, is that the last eight episodes are going to be very slice of life. I also imagine that there will be some more little Easter eggs that will be coming my way. I’ve already caught one in episode seven that I shall keep for myself, but caused an evil chuckle to escape my lips.
So thank you to Kyoto Animation, a.f.k., and finally Haruhi-sama herself. This was one of the best rides I’ve had, and I only look forward more and more to season two.
