La malinconia di Haruhi Suzumiya

At first sight this is yet another highschool anime with lots of excuses for 'fanservice', but there is a lot more going on. The 'fanservice' is part of the plot, the main character is a tired cynic (unusual), and most importantly there is a clever plot that ties all the episodes together, and that poses some interesting questions. The episodes are deliberately non-chronological, and it is certainly worth watching the series again in chronological order.

The series is worth watching carefully, because there are a lot of casual hints in there that foreshadow and explain things, plus a good number of in-jokes about other series, anime and other.

Suzumiya Haruhi no yûutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) might at a first glance make you think that this is just another animated school comedy/drama. Well, it's not! The setting just happen to be a school environment. This is a comedy alright, but a very smart one with a lot of sarcasm. And the characters does have a psychological sublimeness which is almost in the same class that can be found in the works of Ingmar Bergman. The episodes is aired, as it seems, out of order, i.e. the pilot is in fact episode 11. This makes it possible to present small clues to upcoming episodes. The show is an adaption of Nagaru Tanigawa's popular novel series about Haruhi Suzumiya.

What about the story then? Like in all the episodes does the story revolves Haruhi Suzumiya, who tries to ease her own boredom by embarking in adventures. Haruhi her self has no interest in ordinary humans, and actively searches for aliens, time travelers and espers (persons with supernatural forces). To find this sort of people she has formed a club which she calls the SOS-Brigade (Save the world by Overloading it with fun: Haruhi Suzumiyas Brigade). Except for Haruhi, the other members of the SOS-brigade is Kyon. He is the real protagonist of the show. It's trough his point of view that we follow the story. He just happen to sit in front in class when Haruhi came up with the idea to form the SOS-Brigade. He is quite sceptical to most club activities and tags along just to ensure that Haruhi don't go to much to the extremes, and he is the only one in the class that Haruhi likes to talk with. Another member is Yuki Nagato, which is the "indispensable silent member" and is also the only remaining member of the Literature club, which room the SOS-Brigade has occupied in the quest for a free club room. She doesn't mind that the SOS-Brigade uses her clubroom, as long as she can sit in a corner and read her books. She also participate in the brigades activities. Mikuru Asahina was "voluntarily arrested" by Haruhi because the club needed a Lolita-like mascot for anything suspicious to happen. She often act as the clubs maid. The last member is the always smiling Itsuki Koizumi, who happens to be the "mysterious transfer student" (meaning he transfered two months in to the semester which Haruhi finds to qualifies as mysterious).

Haruhi thinks that all members but Kyon are some random picked people in school, but the do indeed have their own interest in her.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is a very high-rated anime in almost every review page you'll find on the web. So I really wanted to know why, and I was anything but disappointed.

If you can get past the very bizarre (but rather funny) first episode, you'll find yourself in a very entertaining and much strange world. A very well drawn, perfectly animated world, that is.

I can't tell much of the story without spoiling it, so I'll just say that it's a high school comedy... and yet it's not. I can't really say what it's about, really.

Seriously, I'm a HUGE anime fan, and I've got around 50 full series, and I'm not kidding when I say that, even though I haven't finished watching Haruhi Suzumiya, it is actually standing in a very high rank in my personal collection. I fell in love at first sight with this one, and I assure you that, at the very least, you won't be indifferent to its irresistible charm. Trust me, I don't go around giving a 10 to every thing that I watch.

A very strange and interesting show. Some parts I really did enjoy and some not so much. Some characters seem to have a lot of depth while other are shallow. I can imagine this being really great when it was released, I probably would have liked it more as a teenager.

Good animation, nice character design, and a light-hearted story make Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu enjoyable to watch.

After my first viewing, I thought that this anime was pretty good, but but was much better on for a second watch.

This is because it is done out of chronological order, and once you re watch it in correct order you notice connections you didn't see before. (OR it may be that you see a second meaning to some events you didn't notice before) You may want to read the original novels (not manga) by Tanigawa Nagaru before/after seeing this. The anime is very good at visualizing every detail in the stories it shows.

However, there are some short stories from the book that are not animated, but are referenced to.(bamboo w/ wishes attached shown in episode 14) Overall, this anime is actually very good once after brief analyzation of the plot (reading the book improves upon it as well). It is a nice break from the shounen-jump anime that seem to be taking over.