Thoughts on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Today's anime review came as a surprise to me. I tend to not really go for "slice of life" anime, since they seem to be mostly the same. That and the whole School Days/"Nice Boat" debacle kind of ruined the genre for me for a while. However, after going through series such as Welcome to the NHK, I decided to give the genre another try. I kept hearing things about Haruhi online and from other reviewers, so I decided to check it out. The series is to the "slice of life" genre what Gurren Lagann is to the mecha genre. Tropes are thrown out at a breakneck pace, trampled on, manipulated, and twisted to serve a purpose. Both series are irreverent in their approach to their respective genres and both take viewers on an emotionally-charged ride full of high ups and pretty depressing downs. Plus, memes out the you-know-what.

Kind of a spoiler, but not really.

Haruhi Suzumiya is based on a light novel series which revolves around a group of seemingly normal high school students (above). Told through the unreliable narrative lens of "Kyon," a young man who once believed in aliens, time-travelers, and espers, the series eventually reveals that everyone in the group pictured above is either a time-traveler, an alien, an esper, or (quite possibly) an unaware-of-her-powers goddess. The others work for secret agencies that are designed to keep this goddess in line--or use her to aid their own causes. The goddess in question, Haruhi, has the ability to alter time, space, probability and everything in the world. Why? So she won't be bored.

That's right. This series revolves around a goddess manipulating the world to please her whims. Sounds ridiculous and confusing, I know, but stay with me. What makes this series work isn't its reliance on cheap thrills, fan-service, or over-the-top insanity. That's all there, but the writing and character development make this series one to watch. You actually begin to feel for these characters and care about what happens to them, even if it's just something along the lines of "will Haruhi and her friends win that baseball game?" The series deals a lot with the human condition, mainly questions of happiness, desires, and our fascination with "what ifs?" It's a pretty dense series for it to be so bright and colorful, hence my Gurren Lagann comparison.

Before I start rambling and end up altering the universe to keep me happy from the sheer amount of mind-blowingly craziness in this series, I'll leave you all with this.

Watch it. Now. It's being re-licensed by FUNimation right now, but several YouTubers have posted the series. Support the release even if you check out the YouTube videos, guys. It's worth it.