Today, I woke up feeling like a hater. That means it is finally time to write my review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009). Because, OH BOY, do I have some mud that I will be slinging. SPOILERS AHEAD!
For context, I watched the series in chronological order, as it is ordered on Crunchyroll. I also watched the dub, which will come into play later.
A New Hope
I started watching this show almost purely because of the title. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. So intriguing. And the first arc didn’t let me down. It was a fascinating character study into a complete wild card who has so much more power than they know. As the episodes moved on, I was shown teases of new plot threads involving aliens, time travelers, and espers (oh my!). These were some entertaining times. How couldn’t they be? It really seemed like things were moving somewhere. Then, everything went wrong.
The Empire Strikes Back
If you have watched this show, it should be no surprise that Endless Eight is a controversial arc. For those uninitiated (and still reading this review), Endless Eight is an arc set in a time loop. On the surface, it is an interesting concept. An extended time loop arc with no end in sight? I’ll bite. However, it is implemented horribly.
The obvious reason is that there is little to no change in the actual events that happen each episode. This is an eight episode long arc in which 5 episodes are completely redundant. Sure, there are slight outfit changes, slight placement changes, slight dialogue changes. It’s a cute idea. However, it is worse than boring. It is like a punishment whipped up by the cruel showrunners. You might be thinking, “Well, it’s a time loop. Of course it’s gonna have the exact same events”. That’s not what Yuki said! She says that sometimes there are events that happen differently. Sometimes it’s a different part time job, sometimes they don’t go to the festival. Yet, we never get a single moment of alleviation from this monotony.
Another one of my reasons is that this arc takes away from my favorite part of the show: Haruhi Suzumiya. She is a wonderful character whose spontaneity brings life to every episode. Do you know what kills my enjoyment of that spontaneity? Repeating the same events every single episode. However, I can’t even spend much time talking about her because she is not prominent in this arc.
The final reason I hate this arc is one that has truly taken away my enjoyment of the show as a whole. Besides Haruhi, the cast of this show is either mediocre or downright awful. I didn’t realize this before due to secret organization plots and Haruhi blinding me, but this is one of my least favorite ensemble casts in a long time. I think it was the third loop that made me hate Mikuru. I never really liked her, but she was enough of a side character that I didn’t mind too much. But something snapped inside of me when I heard her whining voice on the phone talking to Kyon. Every word she spoke, or rather sobbed, during her explanation in the park met my ears like nails on the chalkboard. Maybe she would be better if I watched subbed, but even her mannerisms have started to grate on me. The next to fall was Koizumi. This took until around episode 5 or 6 of the loop. With my hatred of Mikuru decided upon, I found Koizumi’s smug face and meaningless talk the new draw of my ire. He is less annoying than Mikuru, sure, but he is still a cast member who hurts the show. With 2/5ths of the main cast ruined for me, I finally reached the end of Endless Eight, where I was met with an entirely unsatisfying resolution to the time loop.
Return of the Jedi
I wish I could say that my experience with this show returned to what it was. However, the harmful effects of Endless Eight lingered. I never got back to enjoying the show like I did at the start. It was alright? I guess?
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#The Cast
A show like this is only as good as its cast. So, I will take some time to break down my thoughts on each main character. The format will be:
Name
Haruhi Suzumiya
Kyon
Yuki Nagato
Koizumi
Mikuru Asahina
Besides Haruhi, this cast is not particularly good. I don’t know how they managed to make an alien, esper, and time traveler boring. Oh wait, I know. It’s not doing hardly anything with them. There was a moment near the end of the season where Koizumi and Mikuru hinted that there was some strife between their organizations. This was the last time I had hope for the show. Could we actually see something interesting with the side characters? No, of course not. It just turned out to be nothing.
Most everything added to the show in 2009 did nothing but ruin my perception of the original show. Endless Eight is one of the worst arcs of television I have ever seen. That being said, the original show is actually pretty decent. If I was rating the show as a whole, I would give a higher rating. For reference, I would probably give the original show a 70/100. However, I see no reason to watch a lot of the episodes added in 2009. That makes my score of these episodes:
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