I always enjoy anime sequel movies (such as End of Evangelion, Madoka Magica Rebellion and Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul), so when I found out that the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya had one of them, I knew I was going to like it, and it didn’t disappoint.
From the title of the movie, I knew that Haruhi would be disappearing, and it felt a bit like the movie was teasing the viewers by making them feel like Haruhi was gone and then having her make her appearance, until suddenly she doesn’t appear.
The gradually increasing tension and Kyon’s growing despair were done very well and the desperation he felt as his world disappeared and only he knew.
Let’s say there is a very unfortunate person somewhere.
But he wakes up one day to a world that has completely changed.
Throughout the series Kyon’s attitude has clearly been outwardly shown to be one of being tired of Haruhi and wishing for a normal world, but once he apparently gets what he wanted, he grasps for anything that remains from the world he left behind.
Let’s say the world has turned into an indescribable utopia, and he encounters absolutely no misfortune anymore.
In the space of one night, someone whisked him away from hell and brought him to heaven.
However, this person did not wish for that to happen.
The way that the tone of the movie at this point contrasts the happy and more joyful tone of the start of the movie and majority of the series makes Kyon’s despair all the more impactful in this section. After spending so much time in the summer during the Endless Eight and similarly hot days of the Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya arc, the freezing cold of Disappearance’s setting sets in the less fun tone and tells you that this isn’t the same world that we know from the upbeat parts of the series. Kyoto Animations prove here that they are some of the best in the industry because their use of more dull colours and less contrast to make the viewer feel the cold and bitter world that Kyon has been thrown into.
He was taken by someone he doesn't know, whose identity remains a mystery.
He doesn't know who did it or why, and no one ever figures it out, either.
In this case, should this person be happy?
The next big chunk of the movie brings the tone slowly back up as Kyon tries to settle into this new world. You could call this section the build-up of hope and recapturing the world that Kyon left behind, but it isn’t exactly the same.
The first instance of this in the midst of Kyon’s despair is Nagato’s note inside the book. This moment gives the viewer a thread of hope that makes them think that Kyon really can get back to the world that we grew to love throughout the 28 episodes of the series.
The next thread is the discovery that Taniguchi still remembers Haruhi and knows where she is, and then the next thread is when Kyon meets Haruhi and Koizumi and talks with them. These parts are very rewarding for viewers who remember small details from early on in the series such as knowing that Taniguchi was the person who first talked about Haruhi back in episode 1 and remembering that Kyon called himself “John Smith” when he went back in time with Mikuru in season 2, and it made me feel even more involved and invested in the movie.
Kyon grabs onto these threads of hope and brings together the keys that Nagato mentioned in her note, but even when Kyon has remade the same world as what he left behind: one in which the SOS Brigade with all of its members exists, but the only major difference that there are no aliens, future people or espers. However, what this world does have is a version of Nagato who is fully human and has full emotional freedom, so Kyon has to make the choice between the new Nagato and the old world with all of the supernatural phenomena
…but first we have some time travel shenanigans to reach the point of climax in the movie and the moment that Kyon really is forced to choose.
The scene where Kyon affirms his choice is a very powerful scene for many reasons and was probably my favourite scene of the series. The visuals in this scene are fantastic and the metaphors of Kyon’s attitude that he shows towards Haruhi and the original world manifesting itself as another Kyon pushing him down and working against him, and the visual of the gate that Kyon goes through and leaving the human Nagato behind. From the very first scene of the series, it is established that Kyon has decided to move on from his silly delusions of supernatural people, and he frequently thinks about how much of a pain it is that he can’t just live normally, but when he is brought to the world he seemed to want and is faced with the choice between staying there or going back, he makes the decision to go back. I think one of the messages of the movie that comes through in this scene is about escapism. Where End of Evangelion is about the choice to live in reality and not rely on escapism, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is saying that it’s ok to immerse yourself in fiction. Where human instrumentality in Evangelion is a euphemism for the negative side of escapism, the world that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya takes place in is a euphemism for the fun and enjoyment that comes from fiction and escapism, and this movie tells us that it’s alright for us to go back to the absurd worlds and supernatural situations that we find in entertainment.
After Kyon is back in the original world, we get another nice moment of Haruhi waiting for him, but despite the title, this movie is really about Nagato.
Despite the main character of the movie clearly being Kyon, Nagato is the most important character in the movie and acts as the driving force behind the plot, but we don’t know this until late in the movie. The reason her character works in this movie is because of the Endless Eight, which effectively put us in the shoes of Nagato and shows us her perspective as she lives through the same 2 weeks for almost 600 years of time, and this is also the event that gave her the time for anomalies called emotions to begin to surface and made her choose to rewrite the world, which is why I feel that it is worth watching at least most of the Endless Eight, but I enjoyed it anyway so I’d say it’s worth watching because it’s fun to watch. She makes a choice for the world, but leaves Kyon an escape plan of sorts, and Kyon makes the choice to revert that choice because he preferred the world how it was, despite everything that Nagato gave him, including the ideal human version of her with all her feelings and emotions without restriction. Finally, Kyon gives her a new world in which she can have emotions without being “corrected” by the Thought Entity, and I thought this was an amazing ending to the movie and the series, but I’ll probably read the novels at some point because I love the series.One moment I loved a lot in this scene was when it started snowing and Kyon says “Yuki”, which simultaneously is Nagato’s first name and also means “snow” in Japanese.
If you’ve read this whole thing then thanks. I spent ages writing it because I felt that there was a lot to talk about that this series and the movie in particular did well.
