Haruhi Suzumiya is a beautiful first year high school student who is smart, athletic, and won't turn down any guy who asks her out. The problem is that she isn't interested in anyone or anything who isn't an alien, time traveler, slider, or ESPer - as such no guy has lasted for more than a week with her.
When she realizes that none of the clubs at school cater to her highly eccentric tastes, she drafts her classmate, Kyon (the narrator and voice of reason) and forms the "Suzumiya Haruhi's Save our World by Overloading it with Fun" Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short). Nobody quite knows what the club does other than to satisfy the whims of Haruhi, but it is becoming evident that there is more to Haruhi than it seems, and that there may be more truth to her delusional beliefs than reason would leave most to believe.
Story & Characters
Long before the start of High School, young Kyon had given up on the idea of aliens and UFOs, but soon finds all of his
ideas of reality compromised after Haruhi, a beautiful and eccentric classmate of his, drags him into helping her create
the SOS Brigade- a school club determined to find espers, aliens, time travelers-basically, anything out of the
ordinary. Now, with a club of four other members who aren’t quite what they seem, Kyon struggles to figure out the
strange occurrences revolving around Haruhi while maintaining his sanity, satisfying Haruhi’s outrageous demands, and
deciphering his own role in the madness all at the same time.
Truth be told, Melancholy (as the series will from now on be referred to) has a very fun and interesting premise.
Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to know where it wants to go-it advertises itself as a comedy, yet also tries to
have a decent story, only to fall flat on its face. For a comedy, Melancholy has tons of potential, yet all too often
lacks originality and usually settles for providing comedy through making a large-bosomed, shy young girl wear
ridiculous and often showy outfits. For something story-based, Melancholy lacks sufficient character development and
bonds. While it is neat to see how some of the brigade members become attached to Kyon, it’s truly disappointing that
most of the characters do not grow or depend on each other as they easily could have. Another issue with the story is
that it seems to think it is philosophical. However, to say that the series is philosophical would imply that it is
thought-provoking, which applies to all of about five minutes of the show as Haruhi explains the reason for her
eccentricity and another character discusses the anthropic principle. Everything else is merely science fiction-almost
like an anime version of a bad 80s sci-fi film that takes itself too seriously. As a whole, Melancholy’s story and
humor is crushed by the weight of its own ambition and half-baked development of both areas.
The characters are easily the best and worst things about Melancholy’s story. Of the five main characters, two are
plain stereotypes, one is original but frustratingly unchanging, and two are fascinating. For one, you have Itsuki, a
mysterious transfer student whose only real personality trait seems to be being mysterious. In fact, his sole role in
the story seems to be that of a convenient plot device who spouts off knowledge about the strange occurrences
surrounding Haruhi. Conversely, the cute and well-endowed Mikuru’s role is merely to be a sexy yet shy group mascot
that can’t stand up for herself. Granted, it’s made clear in the series that these two are supposed to be
stereotypes, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re not very interesting. Haruhi, original and quirky as she
is, never seems to grow up from her bossy, self-centered nature despite being the titular character. While she does get
some depth, as she reveals her reasons for her eccentricity and appears to get jealous of other girls near Kyon, she
doesn’t seem to get much love from the people creating the show. This finally brings me to the interesting characters,
Yuki and Kyon. While Yuki somewhat falls into the category of a stereotypical “silent girl who seems to have no
emotions,” her lack of speech actually makes her few lines that much more revealing. It’s extremely interesting to
watch as she slowly shows her concern for Kyon as well as her competitive nature. However, interesting as Yuki is,
she’s nothing compared to Kyon, the dry-humored conscience of the SOS Brigade. Kyon, though hard to put into words, is
the most gripping aspect of Melancholy, narrating the events of the series while revealing his quirky personality
beneath his normal appearance. Without Kyon to tie them together, the other characters would all fall apart.
Before I end this long story section and assign a rating, it’s important to mention the confusing episode order of
Melancholy and its pacing. In chronological order, the episodes of Melancholy consist of six story episodes followed by
eight filler ones. This order makes for horrendous pacing, as the series reaches its obvious climax half-way through
only to give you eight random episodes afterwards. However, when Melancholy was first aired on television, it was aired
in nonlinear order, which opens a whole ‘nother can of worms. In this order, characters appear in fillers before
officially introduced in the story, not to mention that one moment you’ll be in spring and next you’ll be in the
previous winter. To those who haven’t seen the show before, it will probably seem as if they missed an episode, when
that is most likely not the case. Of course, there are benefits to this order, one of which is better pacing. The other
benefit is that the last story episode seems to better wrap-up everything when at the end of the season, as you can
better piece together what Haruhi means to each character-Kyon in particular- and enjoy the climax without eight goofy
episodes afterwards.
Rating: 3
Art
For all its story shortcomings, Melancholy has fantastic art. Noizi Ito’s distinct art style is consistent and
detailed, so you never have to worry about those odd moments when artwork takes a sudden dive in quality. Colors are not
very vibrant and backgrounds are not particularly eye-catching, but the artwork perfectly captures the feel of ordinary
life in every episode-which is somewhat ironic, considering that the premise of Melancholy seems to be searching for
something out of the ordinary.
Rather than the backgrounds, the characters are center-stage in terms of artwork. Every character’s facial expressions
are distinct and, well, expressive. Every emotion that crosses Kyon’s face is accurately conveyed by the art, while
every other character also has their own unique expressions.
Rating: 8
Sound
Both the opening and ending of Melancholy are fun, but unremarkable. While the lyrics accurately portray Haruhi’s
overall outlook on life, neither track is particularly exciting to listen to. The ending does give one the urge to
dance, but that’s more due to the choreographed dance performed by the characters than the music itself.
While background music is usually either inexistent or beyond notice and the series songs are so-so, Melancholy’s
voice acting is a step above average, with both languages performing admirably. Haruhi’s Japanese voice actress is a
bit more suited to Haruhi’s hyper and loud speech than her English one, but neither version is something to scoff at.
Itsuki, Yuki, and Mikuru all have decent, fitting voices in both languages, but it is once again Kyon’s voice acting
that is the most remarkable. While his Japanese voice fits, Crispin Freeman perfectly captures both his quirks and
normalcy. And no, I’m not just saying that because Crispin Freeman has a voice that sounds like it should belong to a
Greek god and I’m a huge fan of his. He really does pull of Kyon’s dry humor and personality without a hitch.
Rating: 6
Presentation
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an original show with an original premise and painfully unoriginal humor, despite
the fact that it presents itself as a comedy. Considering that the series revolves around the supernatural, the sky was
the limit in terms of originality and possibility. Actually, not even the sky was the limit-provided the creators had
the originality, anything was possible for Kyon and his friends-which just makes it that much more depressing that the
series settles for fan-service humor and filler episodes such as the typical baseball outing without providing enough of
a twist to make them memorable. That said, there are a few episodes that really shine-namely the Star Trek style gaming
battle and the character-made movie detailing the adventures of a battle waitress from outer space. Had the developers
put as much effort into all the episodes as they did those two, Melancholy would be a top-notch anime. Unfortunately,
they didn’t, and instead Melancholy is a so-so anime that could have been so much more.
Despite the fact that the pacing, story, and humor were poorly executed for the most part, Melancholy does have some
redeeming features that make it worth watching, particularly the normal and at the same time bizarre Kyon. The episodes,
despite their flaws, are still interesting to watch and might be worthwhile for those looking for a neat anime, but all
should be forewarned: after considering what Melancholy is and what it could have been, you might just find that you
feel a bit melancholy yourself.
Rating: 3
Final Verdict
4.3333 (below average)
Reviewed by SnickerdoodleNinja, Jul 31, 2011
