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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu) is an anime based upon the Suzumiya Haruhi books by Nagaru Tanigawa, named after the first book in the series. There are two manga series based and a radio drama on the books. The story first appeared in The Sneaker, a seinen novel magazine. Currently, there are eight individual volumes.
Both manga adaptations were published in Shounen Ace, but the earlier one illustrated by Mizuno Makoto was cancelled after the first volume. The reasons for this stem from the fact that the manga was considerably different from the novel and had little input from the original author .
SOS Brigade
Also referred to as the SOS Dan (SOS団 エス・オー・エスだん, Esuōesu dan), the club name is actually an acronym of: Suzumiya Haruhi's Brigade to greatly enliven the world (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団, Sekai wo Ooini moriagerutame no Suzumiya Haruhi no dan). Some English-speaking fans translate it as Save the world by Overloading it with Fun: Suzumiya Haruhi's Brigade, in order to retain the acronym.
This is the club that Haruhi Suzumiya starts with four initial members, Kyon, Yuki, Mikuru and herself, and gains a fifth when Itsuki joins later. In the beginning, it is unsure what they do until Haruhi reveals that their main purpose is to find aliens, time travelers and espers and have fun with them. Originally, it should have been Association instead of Brigade, but they didn't have enough members at the time to be recognized as one.
Initially, Haruhi didn't have a clubroom to use, so she borrowed the Literary Club's room. All the members had graduated the previous year, leaving Yuki as the sole occupant.
The goal of the SOS Brigade is to "Bring More Excitement to the World", though the only known contribution the club has produced is a film intended for the High School cultural festival titled: "Episode 00: The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" starring Mikuru, Yuki, and Itsuki as the main characters, filmed by Kyon and directed by Haruhi.
Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮 ハルヒ, Suzumiya Haruhi), (Seiyū - Aya Hirano)
Haruhi Suzumiya is a girl in her first year of high school, as well as the focal point of the anime series. She is characterized by her classmates as: eccentric, beautiful and explosive. She is very athletic, and her grades are described as "better than others". Her social life is non-existent - she detests small talk and is viewed by others in her class as a deviant. She appears to be interested only in aliens, people with supernatural powers (espers), time travelers and sliders (dimensional travellers), with no desire to mingle with normal humans.
She will not turn down any dates but is notorious for dumping them quickly and without hesitation, citing reasons like the dates being repetitive, and the men being stupid. The rumoured record low for a relationship with Haruhi is five minutes. She seems to regard boys as little more than potatoes, and will go so far as to undress for Physical Education while boys are still present in the classroom.
When she had longer hair, she would change her hairstyle each day, as she thought each day gave off a different image. This was done through a system of different numbers and colors that represented the days of the week: 0 through 6 and yellow, red, blue, green, gold, light brown, and white, both starting on Monday. These colors symbolize the first kanji used to write the days of the week in Japanese. For example: the first kanji in the Japanese word for "Tuesday" (火曜日) is 火, which means fire. So on Tuesdays, she would wear red ribbons to symbolize fire.
However, she stopped doing this and cut her hair after Kyon took notice and brought the subject up.
Haruhi is regarded as the cause of an incident 3 years ago, when there was a crack in the space-time continuum that affected all life in the universe, which also gifted selected lifeforms with supernatural powers. This drew the attention of aliens and future human civilisations with advanced robotic, dimensional and time travelling technology. Haruhi may be the first technological singularity to be spontaneously born in the universe. That "event" would be the off-the-scale data spike (awakening) and the subsequent timequake (protecting her origin). As such, Haruhi Suzumiya, although an all-powerful post-human, could be in her "infant" stage, and thus explain her attitudes and baby-like "tantrums".
Kyon (キョン, Error: {{nihongo}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) (help), (Seiyū - Tomokazu Sugita)
Kyon is one of Haruhi's male companions. He is described as cynical and sarcastic, and is the sole voice of reason and the only normal human in the SOS-dan.
The name Kyon is actually a nickname his aunt gave him, and his sister is responsible for it being used by his schoolmates. His real name remains unknown.
Although the title of the series implies that Haruhi Suzumiya is the main character, the story is actually told from Kyon's point of view.
The only member of the club not recruited by Haruhi, Yuki Nagato was originally the lone remaining member of the Literary Club, but became a part of the SOS-Dan when Haruhi forcibly took over the club room.
Yuki is in fact not a human, but a "humanoid interface" sent by the galaxy-wide group of information synthesis thought-entities to investigate the cause of the "explosion of information" 3 years ago which far exceeded anything they have ever observed. She used to wear glasses, but stopped after Kyon told her that she looks better without them.
Mikuru Asahina is Haruhi's senpai. She was "voluntarily arrested" by Haruhi, who was searching for potential members, and caught Mikuru daydreaming in the classroom. Mikuru was forced to leave the Calligraphy Club and join the SOS-Dan instead.
The primary reasons for Haruhi wanting Mikuru to join were her moe appeal, lolita-like face and large bust. Haruhi believes that a mascot-like "loli character" needs to be around for anything extraordinary to happen.
Mikuru's character is cute and she has a childish naïveté when compared to the rest.
The future human society had sent Mikuru to investigate the cause of the turmoil in the space-time continuum three years ago which prevents them from time traveling any further back than that point.
There is another Mikuru from even further in the future.
Itsuki Koizumi is a mysterious transfer student with supernatural powers and a membership in a secret organization known simply as "The Organization" ("機関") consisting of humans who gained powers three years ago, that has been actively protecting humanity by fighting the Shinjin ("神人").
Itsuki was sent to observe and protect Haruhi, as some people in the organization believes that she is god who created the universe, and that the universe might be destroyed and rebuilt if she becomes displeased with it, or simply destroyed, if something happens to her. This often leads to situations in which they must keep Haruhi happy for the reason that "the world hangs in the balance".
Haruhi got him to join the SOS brigade because he qualifies as a mysterious transfer student by her standards.
At first, Ryōko appears to be a normal, nice, caring high school girl who is particularly concerned about Haruhi and how she has distanced herself from the rest of her classmates over the years. One of Kyon's friends places her in the top three of their year, with an AA+, stressing her niceness.
However, it turns out that she is Yuki's backup, and as such, is also another "humanoid interface". At first she cheerfully supports Kyon's reaching out to Haruhi, encouraging him to 'open her up to the class,' but eventually tries to kill him. Her efforts are stopped when she is defeated and destroyed by Yuki, with a cover-up of her moving to Canada.
Kyon's Sister (キョンの妹, Kyon no imōto), (Seiyū - Sayaka Aoki)
As of present, not much is known about Kyon's fifth grade sister. Much like her brother, her real name is not given; the other characters simply refer to the eleven year old as Kyon's (Younger) Sister or Little Sis (妹ちゃん, Imōto-chan). She has a cat and very few speaking lines.
To sum her up, she's carefree, happy, and playful. She seems to get along well with all of the SOS Brigade, especially with Mikuru, sharing a sister-like relationship with her.
Tsuruya is a friend of Mikuru (from the current time plane) with a prominent tooth and loud voice. Not much is required to elicit long fits of unrestrained, intense laughter from her. Almost all her knowledge of the members of the SOS Brigade comes secondhand from Mikuru (she is often heard saying "I've heard a lot about you from Mikuru!"). Though not a member of the SOS Brigade, she does play a minor role in Asahina Mikuru's Adventure, Episode 00 (though she is a the most noticeable and lively among them), and serves on their baseball team in episode four.
Sealed Reality
"Sealed Realities", or "Closed Spaces", are odd occurance in the cross-dimensional faultlines catalyzed by Haruhi Suzumiya, a sort of practice round for godly powers. Though they are normally impossible to enter, those people like Itsuki Koizumi and others in the Organization have the ability to both enter and to sense the creation of these places.
From the inside, if one were to try to reach outside of the closed space, they would find a rubbery, impenetrable resistance. The world within the Sealed Reality is a reflection of the corresponding area of the world, but breezeless, grey, and devoid of people.
Blue Giant
When Haruhi's frustration reaches a certain point, it manifests itself in a large monster, a Blue Giant, contained within a Sealed Reality, where it wreaks havoc harmlessly, unbound by the laws of physics. The more a Blue Giant destroys in the Sealed Reality, the more it grows, enveloping, and eventually replacing the world, if left unchecked. When the Blue Giant is destroyed, so is the Sealed Reality.
The Organization
Within a Sealed Reality, the powers of members of the Organization are made apparent; they may take the form of a large red ball of energy in which they are capable of red laser-like attacks and flight. The Organization uses these abilities to hunt the Blue Giants, in order to keep the Blue Giants from spreading the Sealed Realities over the world.
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Episodes
The episodes of the anime have a bit of an odd numbering system, and many of the episodes seem to be aired in an anachronic order. The earliest example of this is the fact that episode two is generally considered the real episode one. During the previews for the next episode, the viewers are always given two different numbers for the following episode. One number from Kyon, who lists the episode numbers in the order in which they aired, and one number from Haruhi, who numbers the episodes according to where they actually fit chronologically in the plot.
The anime is set in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, as it is the site of the Kwansei Gakuin University, where Nagaru Tanigawa studied. Names of real train stations and baseball teams were altered in the anime, for example:
The Kōyōen Station (光陽園駅) is named after the real Kōyōen Station (甲陽園駅), only the kanji is different.
The rival baseball team featured in Episode 4, Kamigahara Pirates (上ヶ原パイレーツ), has the same name of its real life counterpart, Uegahara Pirates of the Kwansei Gakuin University, only the pronunciation is different.
In addition, several scenes in the anime include faithful portrayals of the scenery in and around Nishinomiya.
In Episode 2, Haruhi holds up issues of Comptiq (with Shuffle! on the cover) and Comp Ace (with cover illustration by Navel, the original makers of Shuffle!) to illustrate the necessity of moé in the SOS Brigade. Additionally, the opening theme song to the Shuffle! anime, "YOU" by YURIA, is played in the first episode of the radio drama series.
In Episode 7, the computer club president's room has posters of Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto - the voice actors of the female leads. A copy of Dentaku Otoko (parody of Densha Otoko) is also found on his bookshelf. Itsuki's attacks, "Fumoffu" and "Second Raid", are the titles of Full Metal Panic! sequels - they are also animated by Kyoto Animation. Also, when the giant bug attacks Yuki, she protects herself with a defensive barrier identical to the one generated by the "Lambda Driver" from Full Metal Panic.
The preview for Episode 8 mimicks the episode titles from the anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. See comparison at right.
The official website of Haruhi Suzumiya once reflected what had happened in episode 7 of the anime. When it did, the title and the SOS Brigade logo were corrupted just like in that episode. Sometimes the logo changes to ZOZ Brigade and the title would not be corrupted, just as the website was when it was "repaired" in the end of the episode. When the page was not corrupted, the counter reads 29819, matching episode 7's counter. (The website is now fixed at ZOZ Brigade version permanently, and the counter started to generate randomly again).
In episode 8, in the sequence where Haruhi is explaining the truth behind the events at the villa, her, Itsuki's and Mikuru's poses are imitations of those used by Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth and Maya Fey respectively in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game for the Nintendo DS (the series is known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban). The original air date of this episode, May 22, also coincides with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday.
In episode 9, the card game that Itsuki and Kyon are playing is Dragon All Stars (ドラゴン☆オールスターズ).
In episode 9, the last shot of Haruhi, before the credit titles, is the same as the cover from the 6th novel in the Suzumiya Haruhi series, The Agitation of Suzumiya Haruhi (涼宮ハルヒの動揺), but in mirror. The novel in the series of Suzumiya Haruhi is about the making of the film "Asahina Mikuru's Adventure Episode 00".
Episode 9's title "Someday in the Rain" is the opposite phrase of "On one sunshiny day" (ある晴れた日の事, Aru hareta hi no koto) which is a line from the lyrics of the ending theme Sunny Sunny Fun (ハレ晴レユカイ, Hare Hare Yukai) . This would imply that the theme of this episode is opposite from usual.
Theme songs
Opening theme
Mikuru Legend of Love (恋のみくる伝説, Koi no Mikuru Densetsu) (Episode 1)
Sunny Sunny Fun debuted at #15 on the daily Oricon charts (which tracks the best-selling singles in Japan) on May 92006; peak of #2 reached on May 122006. On the weekly Oricon charts, it debuted at #5 with sales of 34,881 copies of the CD.
