Anime: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Sep. 4th, 2006 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katikatThe Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a strange anime. Either you love it or you hate it. I loved it to pieces, really. The anime has 14 episodes but the first one, called "Episode Zero" is actually a prank episode and depicts the movie Haruhi and her club filmed. Don't judge the series after this ep! I did it at first and almost skipped this wonderful anime.
The series tells the story of Haruhi Suzumiya who is not your average girl. She doesn't like boring stuff and if you are not an alien, a time traveler or an ESPer, there is no chance that she will even look at you... that is until she meets Kyon. Kyon is a bit put off by her gruff demeanor but he keeps talking to her anyway. And the result is that Haruhi decides to establish a club with him, a club that will concentrate on finding supernatural things. Haruhi steals the room of the book club and includes its only member, the withdrawn girl Yuki, into her own twisted plans. Then she forces a well-endowed senpai, Mikuru, to join the club stating that they need big breasted bunny girl to attract new members (not that they succeed). And the last member is the transfer student Itsuki who just goes with the flow knowing that it's useless to try and oppose Haruhi. But Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki are not what they seem, just like Haruhi is more than a simple school girl. The only truly normal human being is Kyon who just doesn't get how he ended up in a club with all these nutcases!
This anime is hilarious. From the first ep to the last one. But beware, just like the characters are not normal, the series isn't normal either. The episodes don't follow the story chronologically. So, you have ep 0 but it's listed as ep 1, ep 4 is actually ep 8 (or something like that), so you have to watch the preview at the end of the episode to understand where in the story you are. At first, I thought I missed an ep or that I don't have the whole series but it's intentional.
And I truly loved the characters. Especially Kyon. He is the poor, suffering victim of Haruhi's twisted plans and his inner comments are so full of irony and so hilarious that you have to laugh out loud. He tries to dampen Haruhi's exuberance and stop her most devilish plans but he doesn't succeed every time. He is usually miserable and annoyed by the fact that every member of the club is a weirdo and that everybody goes to him with their secrets and expects him to mum about it.
But all that makes the relationship between Haruhi and Kyon even more engaging. Until the last episode, you don't actually understand why Kyon is a member of the club, what's his role in the grand scheme of things, what is he to Haruhi. And even though Haruhi is the main character, I can't tell much about her because every thing I would say would be a spoiler.
And there was another thing that totally got me - the way the series is animated. I have never encountered an anime where the movements would look so fluid. Especially in the ending credits where the heroes dance to the song. It's simply wow! Totally smitten here!
This anime is unusual, weird and touching, sci-fi and romance. I would recommend it to everybody. Go and watch! 5 stars out of 5!
The series tells the story of Haruhi Suzumiya who is not your average girl. She doesn't like boring stuff and if you are not an alien, a time traveler or an ESPer, there is no chance that she will even look at you... that is until she meets Kyon. Kyon is a bit put off by her gruff demeanor but he keeps talking to her anyway. And the result is that Haruhi decides to establish a club with him, a club that will concentrate on finding supernatural things. Haruhi steals the room of the book club and includes its only member, the withdrawn girl Yuki, into her own twisted plans. Then she forces a well-endowed senpai, Mikuru, to join the club stating that they need big breasted bunny girl to attract new members (not that they succeed). And the last member is the transfer student Itsuki who just goes with the flow knowing that it's useless to try and oppose Haruhi. But Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki are not what they seem, just like Haruhi is more than a simple school girl. The only truly normal human being is Kyon who just doesn't get how he ended up in a club with all these nutcases!
This anime is hilarious. From the first ep to the last one. But beware, just like the characters are not normal, the series isn't normal either. The episodes don't follow the story chronologically. So, you have ep 0 but it's listed as ep 1, ep 4 is actually ep 8 (or something like that), so you have to watch the preview at the end of the episode to understand where in the story you are. At first, I thought I missed an ep or that I don't have the whole series but it's intentional.
And I truly loved the characters. Especially Kyon. He is the poor, suffering victim of Haruhi's twisted plans and his inner comments are so full of irony and so hilarious that you have to laugh out loud. He tries to dampen Haruhi's exuberance and stop her most devilish plans but he doesn't succeed every time. He is usually miserable and annoyed by the fact that every member of the club is a weirdo and that everybody goes to him with their secrets and expects him to mum about it.
But all that makes the relationship between Haruhi and Kyon even more engaging. Until the last episode, you don't actually understand why Kyon is a member of the club, what's his role in the grand scheme of things, what is he to Haruhi. And even though Haruhi is the main character, I can't tell much about her because every thing I would say would be a spoiler.
And there was another thing that totally got me - the way the series is animated. I have never encountered an anime where the movements would look so fluid. Especially in the ending credits where the heroes dance to the song. It's simply wow! Totally smitten here!
This anime is unusual, weird and touching, sci-fi and romance. I would recommend it to everybody. Go and watch! 5 stars out of 5!
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 05:19 pm (UTC)http://www.tokyotosho.com/details.php?id=33509
here's the torrent file:
batch (http://a.scarywater.net/afk/%5Ba.f.k.%5D%20The%20Melancholy%20of%20Haruhi%20Suzumiya%20-%2001-14.torrent)
This series is definitely woth watching!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-08 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 05:45 pm (UTC)I love Kyon's dripping sarcasm and the way he is always sucked into Haruhi's schemes. The way they cheat those poor computer club members is just so funny. In the end Haruhi always gets her way. And all the while she's oblivious to everything that is really happening right under her nose.
The way the story is told makes it really intriguing to watch and I also like the visuals. The dancing scenes in the ending cracks me up every time. Kyon looks like he is reluctantly participating even though he is keeping up pretty well and therefore it seems like watching all this irony manifest itself.
bouken deshou deshou - lalala~ This song won't leave me alone XD.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 09:50 pm (UTC)I love the dancing scenes during the ED. Their movements look so natural! It totally floored me!
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Date: 2006-09-17 02:43 pm (UTC)I don't want to spoil things for anyone else but I do have to make this one comment; after watching the last episode, I don't think everything that happened was Haruhi doing it for Haruhi's sake or just because she was bored. She was doing it for Kyon. Remember what he said in the beginning? The things he used to believe in but doesn't any longer?
Re: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Date: 2006-09-20 07:16 pm (UTC)Though there was one thing I didn't understand - do you remember the episode with the island, the so called murder etc. etc.? When they were on their way back home on the ship? Kyon had this really weird... mole... on his neck. Obviously it was important since the "camera" showed it too. But I kind of didn't get its significance *scratches her head*
Re: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Date: 2006-09-21 01:37 am (UTC)