Before reading this review, ask yourself this. Do I believe in the paranormal like Espers, Time Travelers and Aliens? If so then this is a series that is diffidently for you! The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a series about a bubbly optimistic girl and a down to earth no nonsense guy and the school adventures of their friends. Haruhi is the type of girl who makes crazy seem sane, she loves everything interesting and supernatural, hence her declaration on the first day of school “I am only interested in; Time Travelers, Aliens and Espers. If you are one of these things please see me!” She is very eccentric and doesn’t care what people think about her. This is why she founded the S.O.S Brigade an extracurricular club which takes mysteries given to them by students and solves them (as long as they are over the top interesting and dealing with the paranormal). She was not alone in the founding of this club; the club did not even come into existence in her mind until Kyon suggested she make a club if the other clubs did not suit her needs.
Kyon is the second founding member (by force mind you) of the S.O.S Brigade and unwitting best friend (and spoiler love interest) of Haruhi Suzumiya. Kyon is not even his real name, while it is never mentioned in the animated series it is however mentioned in passing in volume nine of the graphic novel by one of Kyon’s old middle school classmates. The name Kyon comes from a nickname given to him by his little sister and that nickname was passed to Kyon’s friends at school (much to his embarrassment, being a proper Japanese boy, he prefers to be called Onii-Chan [Big Brother] by his little sister). He too was once like Haruhi, utterly enthralled by the world beyond our own. But upon reaching high school he confined himself to the mundane world and became serious. That is until he met Haruhi, what seemed like a whim he began talking to her about the strangeness of how she changed her hair every day. (Hint #1 guys, women love being asked about their hair, it makes them feel pretty and that you notice her.). It completely threw Kyon through a loop when she came in with her hair short after he had offhandedly mentioned he liked girls with short hair. As they talked more and more even after he had tried to get away from Haruhi Via seat change, it seemed fate wanted him near Haruhi because she got the seat directly behind him again.
Haruhi is not known for her subtlety when it comes to things, she does not care if there is boys in the room when she changing, which causes a huge uproar among the boys in the room who get promptly kicked out by the female class president. So it really only came as a shock to Kyon when Haruhi pulled him back in his chair so he hit his head on her desk to announce she was going to make a club, in the middle of a class.
Now for the other members of the brigade, you have Yuki Nagato a quiet girl and third member of the club (also by force via absorbing of the literary club). It is revealed in the second episode that Yuki is a humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity, or as so a human can understand it an Alien. She is here to observe Haruhi Suzumiya because according to Yuki, Haruhi has the ability of auto evolution the ability to seemingly create streams of data at will including life. Yuki is first seen using her power when Kyon’s life is threatened by another alien girl in Kyon’s class. Despite taking what we would consider fatal injuries Yuki manages to survive and rebuild the area of data corrupted by the other alien.
Next you have member number four (also by force, via kidnapping) Mikuru Asahina, the constant recipient of Haruhi’s treatment of being forced to do things, be it changing into a bunny girl costume or being used to frame the computer club for sexual harassment in order to get a computer without having to pay for it. She is soft spoken, shy and seemingly subservient to the will of Haruhi. It is revealed early on that she is a time traveler sent back to the current time line in order to investigate why members of the time police cannot travel back in time three years prior to the events of the story. When she speaks of things related to her mission it is much censored and often speaks the phrase “That’s Classified”. Kyon develops a crush on Mikuru which causes Haruhi to become jealous of the relationship. Which can be seen during the brigades first mission to discover paranormal activity in the city when Haruhi splits the group and says “THIS ISN’T A DATE KYON, SO YOU TWO BETTER NOT JUST GO OFF WALKING AROUND. “ It is debated on whether or not the jealousy of Haruhi toward Mikuru’s influence over Kyon is the cause of Haruhi creating a closed space with only Haruhi and Kyon inside closing out all others including Aliens, Time Travelers and Espers (which basically killed the fifth member of the brigade because he couldn’t get in the closed space in his Esper form).
The last member in the brigade is Itsuki Koizumi the only member of the group to willingly join the club. He is perky and somewhat naïve or so it appears. Haruhi view Itsuki as strange and interesting because he is a midterm transfer student to the school. Prior to the events of the story according to Itsuki, he was a normal person before suddenly one day receiving the powers of an Esper. The “upper brass” of the Esper agency think that Haruhi is the cause of Espers being allowed into closed space to fight the Celestial beings inside of said closed spaces who if left unattended could destroy the world. In essence the Espers view Haruhi as a god.
The group gets their first brush with the unknown when the class president Ryoko Asakura suddenly up and transfers to Canada with her parents. The only people who truly know of what happened to Ryoko are Kyon and Yuki. They allow Haruhi to investigate the disappearance to keep her entertained and not bored (much like a child with ADD). Despite finding out that Ryoko seemingly lived alone and moved out of the building without a trace of a moving truck, Haruhi becomes distant still and agitated at the world. It was after investigating the disappearance of the class president, that Kyon is approached by Itsuki who takes Kyon to closed space to see what Espers do for the world. Despite being armed with the knowledge that all three of the support members of the brigade are supernatural beings Kyon cannot bring himself to tell Haruhi. Because as Yuki put it so bluntly “She will not take the knowledge you give her seriously and not believe you.”
With Haruhi becoming increasingly distant, Kyon returns home to sleep, only to be awoken on the grounds of the school by Haruhi. When he is awoken to a gray and dingy world with only Haruhi around, it dawns on Kyon to check the perimeter of the school only to find out they are inside of a closed space Along with two Celestials and no Espers in sight. That is until Kyon is left alone in the club room and he spots Itsuki in energy form outside the window with a message from Yuki and Mikuru. Kyon figures out through outside help of Yuki that the closed space was created by Haruhi who was unknowingly recreating the world and that the only way to restore the world was a hint Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. The Episode and this half of the review of Haruhi Suzumiya ends with Kyon waking up from a dream where he has kissed Haruhi after telling her “That day you wore you hair in the pony tail you were so good looking it should have been criminal.” The next day in class Kyon walks in to see Haruhi with her hair in a pony tail.
Until the next half of the review my faithful readers, please leave comments in the comment section and come back for the next and final half of this review tomorrow.
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