Number of Episodes: 28 (about 20 minutes each)
Plot: A *Kyon is a typical boy entering his freshman year of high school. But the friends he meets from becoming acquainted with the bizarre Haruhi Suzumiya are anything but normal with Haruhi somehow being the oddest of them all. As Haruhi drags him into more and more shenanigans in the search for things that are "interesting", the world as we know it is at stake thanks to some interesting forces at play that all link back to Haruhi and her timely meeting with Kyon. Probably the second-most ambitious and unique anime story-lines that I've ever had the pleasure of watching only below Neon Genesis Evangelion. And easily the most ambitious slice-of-life anime ever. My only issue with it is that the story doesn't take its concepts as far as it should... until the movie.
Visuals: B *Everything KyoAni touches has a sort of charm to it. The character designs are cute. The facial expressions Kyon makes are hilarious. Haruhi's smirks are so goofy that it's hard to stay mad at her even as she drives the viewer and Kyon crazy. And the classrooms and settings always have so much detail which makes the world feel more believable even as the laws of physics break and low fantasy elements come into play.
Voice Acting: B *As usual, I went with the dub. And this would be perfect... if it wasn't for Mikuru's voice actress Stephanie Sheh. I love her as Yui Hirasawa in K-ON!, but ooof her voice is irritating in this. A special shout-out to both Crispin Freeman for voicing one of the most likable and hilarious anime protagonists of any series that I've ever watched and to Wendee Lee's energetic performance as Haruhi which lead to lots of laughs.
Film Score/Soundtrack: B *
***My favorite track Itsumo no fuukei (The moment this song played and Kyon began his opening monolog, I knew I was in for an absolute treat. This is the type of theme that doesn't just get stuck in your head, it becomes a part of you and makes you feel nostalgic every time you hear it forever.)
***Bonus: Mikuru Densetsu (Mikuru Legend of Love) (Come on let's dance. Come on let's dance babbbbbyy!!!! For all of the wrong reasons, this song is so awesomely bad! I was damn near in tears laughing when it played in the beginning of their video as the SOS brigade watched it together. Yet, the official beat is actually catchy and I can't lie and say that I don't both ironically and unironically enjoy the hell out of this)
***Double Bonus: God Knows (I was just as stunned as Kyon watching this. Why does KyoAni do concert performances so well?)
Characters: B *If this was based on the character concepts, this gets an A+ because I love the dynamic of the SOS brigade and I love the concept of Haruhi desperately craving excitement in her life and being surrounded by it yet never realizing it and her eventually doing so being a potential cataclysm that could end the world as they know it. However, as I hinted at when I talked about the plot, the show doesn't take it as far as I was hoping and the same can be said in regards to the development of the characters. Part of that is because 8 of the 28 episodes are a time loop that repeats itself. And the other part could be the fact that the show was intentionally aired out of order for the "broadcast order" while there is a "chronological order" you can also choose to watch the show with. So because of this, seeing the characters develop and then regress and develop again could have been awkward from that standpoint, however, it would have been nice to see Haruhi reigned in a bit and to respond more to Kyon. However, the lack of character development does make the payoff in the Disappearance movie that much more rewarding when you see how their relationship with Haruhi changes each of the SOS Brigade leaders over time.
Cringeworthy Anime Moments: The downfall of the show and the main reason this is going to be so hard to recommend this anime to anyone. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has some of the worst fanservice I have ever seen. Essentially once an episode if not more, expect to see Haruhi undress Mikuru against her will. Expect to see Mikuru in all sorts of revealing costumes that give her voluptuous boobs a very Gainaxy bounce to them. Expect to hear Haruhi talk about Mitsuru's boobs and to grope her and to use the idea of groping her and forcing others to grope her as blackmail so she can get what she wants. There are times where the audacity and shamelessness of Haruhi being totally comfortable with using her own body and others for her own personal gain is hilarious, but the frequency that it happens on the show is pretty disturbing.
Opening Titles:
Opening 1: Bouken Desho Desho *The type of J-pop opening that will forever be stuck in your head. But on top of that, you can see how much energy Haruhi has from the animation. Haruhi is that irritating friend that never stops chugging forward, but you know that if you go along with her, something exciting is going to happen. And that's because she is willing to give her all in everything she does. Whether it's cheerleading, walking at a very brisk and determined pace, dancing, creating a club, exercising, or even playing the piano. Haruhi gives her heart in everything she does. And it's fun to watch)
Endless 8 Opening: Super Driver *Thank you for helping me to make it through that sludge. Not only is this song really catchy, but the comic-like style actually makes me think of it more like a JoJo intro as opposed to a KyoAni one. And since I am a big fan of JoJo, I am not complaining about the presentation at all.
Closing Titles:
Ending 1: Hare Hare Yukae *If this isn't God's greatest gift to mankind, then I don't know what is. Love everything about this. The song itself is ridiculously catchy. And the dance... is AMAZING! It might not look as good in real life as it does hand-drawn, but I love that so many people felt inspired to record themselves and their friends dancing to this and trying so hard to match the energy that Haruhi, Nagato, Mikuru, and Koizumi dance with and the dead-pan sarcastic "I hate my life" energy that Kyon gives off as he dances in perfect synchronization with everyone else. Probably my favorite outro from any anime.
Tomare! *Almost matches the first in terms of overall catchiness in the choice of the song overall with a super fun chorus that picks up until it ends with a bang. The main issue is, it happens during the endless 8 so you are desperate for it to end and the visuals are seizure-inducing and not the most pleasant to look at.
Final Verdict: Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 7/10
I really wish the fanservice was toned down a lot. And I also wish that the show took its plot in a more profound way than just choosing to troll its viewers with an endless 8 cycle and playing the show in an intentionally confusing order in addition to making fans have to watch a nearly 3-hour movie so they could get the closure that they needed from their characters and for the plot to really be driven forward. If The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya wasn't so damn great, my rating of the series probably wouldn't be as high as it is because this series absolutely is frustrating to watch. But much like Kyon is reluctant to admit, the shenanigans of the SOS Brigade are a lot of fun. With a plot as interesting as this show has, I was hoping for something more than a fun slice-of-life comedy. And up until the movie, the show was missing that "something more". With that knowledge in mind, I can look back fondly over this series and applaud the boldness while simultaneously being annoyed at the pretentiousness of KyoAni for the way they presented this series. I'm looking forward to rewatching this one day with the broadcast order.
7.5/10
Plot: A *Kyon is a typical boy entering his freshman year of high school. But the friends he meets from becoming acquainted with the bizarre Haruhi Suzumiya are anything but normal with Haruhi somehow being the oddest of them all. As Haruhi drags him into more and more shenanigans in the search for things that are "interesting", the world as we know it is at stake thanks to some interesting forces at play that all link back to Haruhi and her timely meeting with Kyon. Probably the second-most ambitious and unique anime story-lines that I've ever had the pleasure of watching only below Neon Genesis Evangelion. And easily the most ambitious slice-of-life anime ever. My only issue with it is that the story doesn't take its concepts as far as it should... until the movie.
Visuals: B *Everything KyoAni touches has a sort of charm to it. The character designs are cute. The facial expressions Kyon makes are hilarious. Haruhi's smirks are so goofy that it's hard to stay mad at her even as she drives the viewer and Kyon crazy. And the classrooms and settings always have so much detail which makes the world feel more believable even as the laws of physics break and low fantasy elements come into play.
Voice Acting: B *As usual, I went with the dub. And this would be perfect... if it wasn't for Mikuru's voice actress Stephanie Sheh. I love her as Yui Hirasawa in K-ON!, but ooof her voice is irritating in this. A special shout-out to both Crispin Freeman for voicing one of the most likable and hilarious anime protagonists of any series that I've ever watched and to Wendee Lee's energetic performance as Haruhi which lead to lots of laughs.
Film Score/Soundtrack: B *
***My favorite track Itsumo no fuukei (The moment this song played and Kyon began his opening monolog, I knew I was in for an absolute treat. This is the type of theme that doesn't just get stuck in your head, it becomes a part of you and makes you feel nostalgic every time you hear it forever.)
***Bonus: Mikuru Densetsu (Mikuru Legend of Love) (Come on let's dance. Come on let's dance babbbbbyy!!!! For all of the wrong reasons, this song is so awesomely bad! I was damn near in tears laughing when it played in the beginning of their video as the SOS brigade watched it together. Yet, the official beat is actually catchy and I can't lie and say that I don't both ironically and unironically enjoy the hell out of this)
***Double Bonus: God Knows (I was just as stunned as Kyon watching this. Why does KyoAni do concert performances so well?)
Characters: B *If this was based on the character concepts, this gets an A+ because I love the dynamic of the SOS brigade and I love the concept of Haruhi desperately craving excitement in her life and being surrounded by it yet never realizing it and her eventually doing so being a potential cataclysm that could end the world as they know it. However, as I hinted at when I talked about the plot, the show doesn't take it as far as I was hoping and the same can be said in regards to the development of the characters. Part of that is because 8 of the 28 episodes are a time loop that repeats itself. And the other part could be the fact that the show was intentionally aired out of order for the "broadcast order" while there is a "chronological order" you can also choose to watch the show with. So because of this, seeing the characters develop and then regress and develop again could have been awkward from that standpoint, however, it would have been nice to see Haruhi reigned in a bit and to respond more to Kyon. However, the lack of character development does make the payoff in the Disappearance movie that much more rewarding when you see how their relationship with Haruhi changes each of the SOS Brigade leaders over time.
Cringeworthy Anime Moments: The downfall of the show and the main reason this is going to be so hard to recommend this anime to anyone. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has some of the worst fanservice I have ever seen. Essentially once an episode if not more, expect to see Haruhi undress Mikuru against her will. Expect to see Mikuru in all sorts of revealing costumes that give her voluptuous boobs a very Gainaxy bounce to them. Expect to hear Haruhi talk about Mitsuru's boobs and to grope her and to use the idea of groping her and forcing others to grope her as blackmail so she can get what she wants. There are times where the audacity and shamelessness of Haruhi being totally comfortable with using her own body and others for her own personal gain is hilarious, but the frequency that it happens on the show is pretty disturbing.
Opening Titles:
Opening 1: Bouken Desho Desho *The type of J-pop opening that will forever be stuck in your head. But on top of that, you can see how much energy Haruhi has from the animation. Haruhi is that irritating friend that never stops chugging forward, but you know that if you go along with her, something exciting is going to happen. And that's because she is willing to give her all in everything she does. Whether it's cheerleading, walking at a very brisk and determined pace, dancing, creating a club, exercising, or even playing the piano. Haruhi gives her heart in everything she does. And it's fun to watch)
Endless 8 Opening: Super Driver *Thank you for helping me to make it through that sludge. Not only is this song really catchy, but the comic-like style actually makes me think of it more like a JoJo intro as opposed to a KyoAni one. And since I am a big fan of JoJo, I am not complaining about the presentation at all.
Closing Titles:
Ending 1: Hare Hare Yukae *If this isn't God's greatest gift to mankind, then I don't know what is. Love everything about this. The song itself is ridiculously catchy. And the dance... is AMAZING! It might not look as good in real life as it does hand-drawn, but I love that so many people felt inspired to record themselves and their friends dancing to this and trying so hard to match the energy that Haruhi, Nagato, Mikuru, and Koizumi dance with and the dead-pan sarcastic "I hate my life" energy that Kyon gives off as he dances in perfect synchronization with everyone else. Probably my favorite outro from any anime.
Tomare! *Almost matches the first in terms of overall catchiness in the choice of the song overall with a super fun chorus that picks up until it ends with a bang. The main issue is, it happens during the endless 8 so you are desperate for it to end and the visuals are seizure-inducing and not the most pleasant to look at.
Final Verdict: Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 7/10
I really wish the fanservice was toned down a lot. And I also wish that the show took its plot in a more profound way than just choosing to troll its viewers with an endless 8 cycle and playing the show in an intentionally confusing order in addition to making fans have to watch a nearly 3-hour movie so they could get the closure that they needed from their characters and for the plot to really be driven forward. If The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya wasn't so damn great, my rating of the series probably wouldn't be as high as it is because this series absolutely is frustrating to watch. But much like Kyon is reluctant to admit, the shenanigans of the SOS Brigade are a lot of fun. With a plot as interesting as this show has, I was hoping for something more than a fun slice-of-life comedy. And up until the movie, the show was missing that "something more". With that knowledge in mind, I can look back fondly over this series and applaud the boldness while simultaneously being annoyed at the pretentiousness of KyoAni for the way they presented this series. I'm looking forward to rewatching this one day with the broadcast order.
7.5/10