The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya | complete

I actually finished this one last Saturday the 26th, but was so underwhelmed I haven’t been motivated to write about it until now.

As per the first comment I made in the notelog for this series, I feel it has grown in popularity because of its simplicity, and I don’t mean that in the graceful/minimal/stylish sense of the term. ‘Haruhi promised a complex narrative, but fails to deliver something truly clever, instead turning out to be so ordinary it disappoints. The experience reminded me of the expectations of the two later Matrix films before they came out. Some friends and I being cyberpunk, sci-fi and real-science readers were theorising about the possibilities: that Trinity was actually the One, that the entire humans vs machines universe was itself in a construct, that Trinity and/or Neo were actually purely programs themselves… what we ended up with was stunningly far less than that, and at the end of the day, quite mundane and ordinary. I felt almost exactly the same about ‘Haruhi. The story wasn’t anywhere near as intricate as it suggested it might be, and to my pragmatic active mind, it was greatly disappointing.

As for the characters, all of them are drawn from bog-standard anime staples: the apathetic and passive male protagonist (Kyon), the hyperactive and cruel female who never listens to anyone and rarely feels any consequence for her actions (Haruhi), the demure and shy victim (Mikuru), the quiet yet powerful genius (Yuki) and the playfully confident support male character (the esper, forgot his name – Taniguchi?). Once again I thought the anime might play on those clichés, making them some kind of illusion about stereotypical life that Haruhi has regarding what people should be, but alas no such depth was to be found.
Haruhi herself is a stupendously selfish character with very few endearing qualities. She has perhaps two moments where she exhibits the slightest inclination of thinking of anyone besides herself and her opinions, and as usually happens in anime like these, those moments are totally killed by an embarrassed return of her normal behaviour. That Haruhi was rewarded at the conclusion of the series was to me a glaring exhibit of poor values.
Kyon himself at least has some subtlety. He actually isn’t as uncaring as he seems to be, but I thought that he and the other characters had a great deal more respect for one-another, showing far more affection for one-another than any of their interactions with Haruhi. That Mikuru ultimately loses out on her desires is yet another unfair presentation of values.
I’d go on and on, but basically all the elements of this production keep pointing towards Haruhi not exhibiting any change at all, yet she receives all the rewards. I didn’t like that one bit: her character is in no way endearing, nor are her actions.

What perhaps disappointed me the most about this series was its brilliant first episode; a scathing parody of clichéd sci-fi/social narratives… yet it becomes a victim of its own cleverness and ends-up being precisely what its poking fun at. There was nothing different about this series at all, and in the face of other fantastic narratives, it simply doesn’t stand up.

Note to self – be far more wary of popular series aimed at younger teens. I’ve been watching far too much Hachikuro, Parakiss, Marimite, Kare Kano, Nana, Stand Alone Complex and the productions of Yoshitoshi ABe to tolerate this kind of lacklustre presentation.