こんにちわみんなさん
After going through the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise I'd like to offer up my opinions on the series as a whole. So that is going to include talking about the two seasons and the movie. Now there will be some spoilers as I discuss the series so if you don't want to be spoiled then look away now.
Season 1:
I think it's safe to say the series got off to a great start. All of the main characters introduce themselves. Yuki Nagato is an alien; a humanoid "robot" sent by the Information Thought Entity (or something like that), Mikuru Asahina is a girl from the future, and Itsuki Koizumi is an esper sent from his "agency". What is the purpose of all three of them? To observe Haruhi Suzumiya, a girl with the ability to alter reality. As Itsuki explains once in the series "a kind of god". They're there to watch her and make sure she doesn't cause an event that will destroy the world. Each of them has their own agenda but it's not really clear why they're there except to observe. Haruhi is unaware of their real identities and believes they are ordinary humans. Kyon is... well a normal human but Yuki, Itsuki, and Mikuru believe Kyon was "chosen" by Haruhi as her companion. By far the most interesting character out of the 5 is Yuki Nagato and it's made pretty clear early on that she knows way more than anybody else. I predicted after her fight with Ryoko Asakura that she was going to be essential to the story. Was I ever right... After The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya arc, the story takes a back seat to the normal life of the 5 characters. Now, we simply follow the 5 of them during their day-to-day life. I personally thought this was all the anime was going to be about so the beginning surprised me a great deal. For me, the split between The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya arc and the other episodes was well done, presenting motives early on and explanations of the future.
Season 2:
When discussing The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, this is the time most fans would like to forget. What I'm talking about is the Endless Eight arc. While the first episode was great and provided the backdrop for both the first season and the movie, what followed was the Endless Eight; 8 episodes of pretty much the same thing over and over again. The scenes were slightly different and the clothes everyone wore were different but pretty much everything was the same. I'm sure fans didn't know it at the time, but this arc was helpful in understanding the movie. As such, looking back, it was a painful but necessary 8 episodes. For further evidence, just watch the movie or, just look at Nagato's face over the course of the 8 episodes. Her eyes just seemed to droop more and more with each episode. Well, if I had to live through the same damn thing for 595 years, I would start getting depressed too. And more than that... The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya arc was somewhat unnecessary to the story but it was funny to watch and it did provide an explanation of why certain things happened in the first season's first episode.
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!)
This is the movie fans have been hoping for. I'm likely going to write a review later on that spoils less and focuses more on other elements of the movie but I would like to talk about the story of the movie. Man, that was epic! Up until this point, I have always thought to myself: Spirited Away has to be the greatest anime movie I've ever seen! But yesterday, I was proven wrong. Never did I think that the series could throw this many twists and be this serious. This movie was DEAD SERIOUS. No light-hearted parts here except for the beginning. Since obviously Haruhi was missing, the focus of this movie was on Kyon and Yuki Nagato. With all traces of Haruhi Suzumiya being gone, everything changed. Itsuki was missing (since he had been a transfer student), Mikuru was a normal human and so was Yuki. Now, since Yuki during the enitre series has been an omnipotent, strong force relied upon by Kyon a lot, this Yuki was completely different. Yuki was always quiet and never said anything she didn't have to say but now that she's human, she takes the same role. Her human self is INCREDIBLY shy and timid. It's like with Mikuru out of the picture, there has to be a cute girl to take her place and Yuki is that replacement during this movie. Her constant blushing and timid demeanor brought out emotions for her I didn't know I had. You know what? Go ahead and laugh until you see this movie and see what I mean. It's such a stark contrast to her normal self that it left me in shock. The revelation at the end is too juicy to spoil so I won't do it but as I called early on, I KNEW she was going to play a big part of the story. Remember the Endless Eight arc? Well, this is when all those pent-up frustrations inside of her (she refers to them as "bugs" in her system) finally cut loose and she does the most drastic thing possible. Now obviously the person who got the most development is Kyon. Throughout the series he was really just "there" and never really was a big part of the club. Now left all on his own in this alternate world, we get to see a whole new side to him. Although he constantly complains about wanting a normal life, when he finally gets it in this alternate world where everybody is normal he rejects it. His final speech at the end is the clear development of his character over the course of the movie. The conclusion of the movie was equally satisfying as the rest of the movie. By the end of it all, Kyon and Yuki have obviously become very close to each other and Kyon realizes without Yuki, everything would have gone haywire a long time ago since she is his steadfast ally. She is the one that throughout the series has prevented Haruhi from becoming angry or bored. Kyon finally gives his thanks to Yuki which is something he did not do in the entire series since he always thought she had no emotions. He ends up saving her from punishment from her boss from disobeying and she too seems to have finally gotten used to human emotions and she expresses her gratitude to him.
This movie was the complete package. References to dialogue from the main seasons, character development, a serious plot filled with twists (sorry for spoiling a bunch if you haven't watched the movie yet but I did warn you!), a powerful musical score, and an unexpected "romance" between Yuki and Kyon. I thought for sure that Kyon and Haruhi were going to be the ones to fall in love with each other but it still seems like they will. The movie was open-ended after all and anything could happen afterwards. Besides, it's not like Kyon can really get together with Yuki anyway. It's still clear that Haruhi cares a lot for Kyon though she clearly does not want Kyon to find out.
In my opinion, the second season could have been better if they chose to omit the Endless Eight but it was important to the movie. It was still boring to watch though. The first season really didn't need to improve except for maybe more of a focus on Mikuru Asahina since she was the one who got the least development through the whole series. The first season she was more of a toy for Haruhi to mess around with. The second season shed more light on her background but it still felt incomplete to me. I'm starting to think she's just there to be cute just like Haruhi said at the beginning of the series. Itsuki also did not develop a lot but it was better than Mikuru's development. Other than the lack of development on two of the 5 main characters, even after the focus on character development in the movie, the series did well by me. The movie is going to sit in my mind for a while since it's one of the best movies I've seen in my life.
Now I happen to have watched the movie yesterday which happens to be December 18th which is the day in the movie when everything in Kyon's world goes screwy. Yesterday there were rumours of a third season in the works to celebrate the day the movie takes place on. As of right now, the rumours are unconfirmed as the Japanese article has to be translated but if there is a third season, I definetely would be on board to watch it. As I said, the movie was open-ended and since it's a daily life anime, they could pick it up whenever they want. No one's going to be graduating from their school; they're all freshmen aside from Mikuru who's a junior. Hopefully it's true and if it is, expect the anime world to turn upside-down as the fans prepare to watch another season of Haruhi's antics.
So that ends my long blog on the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. So in short, first season was great, second season was also great aside from the Endless Eight, and the movie was simply amazing. Characters were interesting and their life under a "god" is fun to watch.
またあとで
↧