miya; A genre defining masterpiece
Back at it’s time everything was simply Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s literally everywhere, you’ll see it in T.V, posters in Akihabara and even in god damned commercials in American television and of course with every commercial success comes a thousand copy cats and wannabe’s trying to desperately copy it’s cerebral in order to get even the slightest portion of that sweet sugar it literally spawned a thousand unholy kindreds, everybody was trying to imitate it but only a few have been able to duplicate it, what I mean by that is very few shows has been able to capture the main thing that made Evangelion
a “Great Show” and to be honest here it saturated the anime a bit because the only thing that I see every season is overhyped mecha shows which very few are actually interesting but then throughout all this gank and bullshit The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya came. It was fairly absurd of course all because un a time where it’s just full of mecha shows we saw a somewhat comedy, romance(?) and science fiction show and as an innocent teen who just watches anime for action and unrelenting shonen I was expecting it to be a big bore I mean it doesn’t have what I want for the love of god! But because of prevalent peer pressure and high ratings, I decided to give it a go and I never regretted it ever since.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is about this boy named Kyon who met a rather titular and eccentric girl named Haruhi Suzumiya who attempts to seek the supernatural and surreal phenomena’s such as UFO’s, aliens, time travelers, espers and such things that share some similarity. With Kyon’s unenthusiastic help they made a club named SOS Brigade (Which Kyon named in the official paperwork passed to the student council “Support the Student Body by Overworking to Make the World a Better Place Student Service Brigade” which I must say is a somewhat respectable name.) to investigate superstitions and peculiar events later on in the series Haruhi soon recruits three additional members; the anti-social Yuki Nagato
the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina
and the imperturbable transfer student Itsuki Koizumi,
they, later on, revealed that they are the types of people that Haruhi seeks with Yuki being an alien, Mikuru a time traveler and Koizumi being a literal esper who has been sent by their mysterious organizations to observe Haruhi who is unaware that she has the capability to create a new world from nothing thus creates the conclusion that she is a goddess and to prevent such destruction and madness the three believed that Haruhi shan’t be aware of her powers so together with Kyon they work to keep life interesting for Haruhi and to prevent her from getting bored so that she may alter reality and eventually end it all.
As for the characters it’s the main factor the holds the entire show together it’s the framework the keeps the whole thing from crumbling down and what can I say about the characters? Well for starters their chemistry is just well made. Nagato’s lifeless and straight to the point personality, Koizumi’s yes-men and
optimistic attitude, Kyon’s gullible wit and Mikuru’s absolutely adorable and waifu material personality just fit together so well! As for Haruhi however, she is the centerpiece of the show it just revolves around her and her desires no matter how illogical they may seem. At first we see a person who doesn’t care about the state of the people around her and only expresses interest in her wants but as the series goes on we saw her other side that despite her overly ecstatic and annoying attitude (for her peers.) we saw her become someone who cared about the people around her we actually her grow to a decent woman. The very definition of great character development I must say!
The story is a seemingly simple one on paper it’s just about High school students doing what High school students always do and that is enjoying the freedom of youth but as the series goes on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya became not one but many things Drama, comedy, mystery thriller and perhaps a little bit of romance The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is like water it is formless able to morph into anything and everything and that is one of the greatest things about this show it’s able to surprise us with every passing episode able to bring us something unexpected and unprecedented. It’s the ability to surprise its viewers is what kept us hooked and on the edge of our seats waiting what genius this show will offer us next and also I must include one of my favorite part of this show is endless 8. It is a series of 8 episodes each one taking part in the same day, literally it’s the same things over and over again only it’s not the same thing as for every episode they kept adding different details whether or not it be subtle or major. But what I liked about it is even though it was a gimmick ( It was just used so that Nagato the only one that remembered all of the 15,000 repetitions will have a logical reason to do what she did at “The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya”the
movie in which marked the end of the series.)it never failed to make every episode the same and different in the same time it’s one of the things that awed me as I watched this show as we saw how fluid and well thought the entire show is.
As for the art there really is nothing special about it as it is very old and is one of the KyoAni’s first production’s which is completely understandable but talking about shot composition and initial directory it never fails to keep us entertained even in the most mundane aspects of the shows as well as through long lines of dialogue. In season 1 episode 3 where Itsuki explained how he is actually an esper we saw different shots of the terrain and the overall place that they are in order to keep us invested as well as interested in that particular episode even through long lines of dialogue and mind you this happens a LOT throughout the series but it never fails to entertain us like Kyon and the rest of the club entertains Haruhi.
The sounds, as well as the OST, is nothing short of astounding as it fits the overall tone and atmosphere of the show as expected from KyoAni. As for the OST I must say that it’s good back at its time it really has that 2000’s aesthetic inside of it and even if some people don’t like it as they listen to it in this day and age that’s completely understandable as music has aged so fast in very little time and is continuously evolving till this day. It’s ED Hare Hare Yukai is one for the history books as it is considered as one of the most popular songs of its time! DAMN! I even saw Cebuano prisoners dance to it! It united the entire anime community and inspired people to get up in the comfort of their chairs and dance to this absolute maestro.
Overall i must say that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is probably one of the best anime of all time (for me at least) even though just like Evangelion it’s commercial success spawned a thousand more copycats and just like Evangelion very few have been able to be as great as Haruhi Suzumiya and truth be told even KyoAni fell into the same bunny hole that it made but throughout everything and anything I will remain as a true and loyal Haruhiist 13 years later and will probably be for the rest of my life.
10/10 You guys fucking deserved it.
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