The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

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This article covers the first Haruhi Suzumiya novel and the anime series. For an overview of the rest of the series of light novels, see Haruhi Suzumiya (light novels).

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu)
Genre	Comedy, Philosophical, Postmodern, Psychological, Sci-fi, Seinen, Supernatural
Light novel
Authored by	Nagaru Tanigawa
Artist	Noizi Ito
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten Kadokawa Media (Taiwan) DaiwonCI (Korea)
Publish date	June 6, 2003
No. of volumes	10
Manga
Authored by	Mizuno Makoto (art)
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in	Shōnen Ace
Original run	May 2004 – December 2004
No. of volumes	1
Manga
Authored by	Gaku Tsugano (art)
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in	Shōnen Ace
Original run	November 2005 –
No. of volumes	3
TV anime
Directed by	Tatsuya Ishihara
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Licensor	Bandai Entertainment
Network	Chiba TV, SUN-TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Kanagawa, TV Saitama
Original run	April 2, 2006 – July 2, 2006
No. of episodes	14

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu^?) is the first Japanese light novel in the Haruhi Suzumiya series written by Japanese author Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Japanese artist Noizi Ito. It is also the name of a 2006 anime based on the series of novels.

The story of Haruhi Suzumiya initially appeared in The Sneaker, a seinen novel magazine by the Japanese publishing company Kadokawa Shoten. Since then, the story has spanned a range of media, all based on the earlier novels. Two separate manga series were created, though the first was discontinued shortly after production began. The second is still currently running in Japan.

The anime adaptation, produced by Kyoto Animation, shares the first novel's plotline, interspersed with self-contained episodes (with the exception of the two-part Remote Island Syndrome) taken from short stories from later on in the novel series. The first of the 14 episode series premiered in Japan on April 2, 2006. Notably, these episodes were not originally broadcast in chronological order.^[1] There has been news about a possible second season to the anime series set for a fall 2007 release.^[2]

Soon after the show aired, Kadokawa Shoten received various offers from companies in regards to licensing the anime, manga, and novels.^[3] On December 22, 2006, the website asosbrigade.com revealed that the anime version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA, who sublicensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment.^[4][5] The first DVD is slated to be released on May 29, 2007.

The latest incarnation of the Haruhi Suzumiya series is a series of radio dramas based on the anime version. The first volume was released on July 5, 2006 by Lantis with the second volume having been released on September 21, 2006. A drama CD was released on January 24, 2007.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 SOS Brigade 4 Themes 5 Affiliations 5.1 The Agency 5.2 Integrated Data Entity 5.3 Future humans 6 Adaptations 6.1 Light novel 6.2 Manga 6.3 Anime 6.3.1 Setting 6.3.2 Theme songs 6.4 Audio dramas 7 Reception and fandom 7.1 ASOS Brigade 8 Notes and references 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya follows the high school life of Haruhi Suzumiya and those who are caught up in her antics. While Haruhi is the central character to the plot, the story is told from the point of view of Kyon, one of Haruhi's classmates.

Kyon is an ordinary freshman high school student who only recently given up his fantasies of espers, time travelers, aliens etc. as he left middle school. When he chooses to speak to one eccentric girl by the name of Haruhi Suzumiya, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events which drag him into surreal situations; he is drawn further into a world eerily like the fantasies he had just managed to outgrow, with Haruhi Suzumiya at its center.

Searching for a group that interests her, Haruhi joins and quits every club in school finding only dissatisfaction. Kyon makes a snide remark about her actions and accidentally provides Haruhi the inspiration to create a club of her own. To help start the club, Haruhi forcefully drafts Kyon, who only stays in the club to protect (or try to protect) other helpless victims of Haruhi's "voluntary arrests". As the story progresses, Kyon finds that each of these supposedly "helpless victims" has a specific reason to be there.

Except for Kyon, the students in the club are secret agents of various organizations who are sent to observe Haruhi. They gradually explain that Haruhi has superhuman control over every aspect of the universe - an ability which she is unaware of. Whenever Haruhi becomes bored or otherwise dissatisfied with reality, she unconsciously creates a new universe - one more to her liking - and attempts to switch over. This leads to the destruction of the current universe. To prevent this, the members of Haruhi's club spend their time trying to keep their god-like leader entertained, hold her powers in check, and maintain the illusion of a normal life. Their adventures lead to humorous results.

The series never clarifies whether the club members gathered around Haruhi by their own free will, were drawn together by her subconscious, or were simply created out of thin air for Haruhi's amusement. The question of their origin is a motif.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters relating to Haruhi Suzumiya

In the series, the story centers on the five members of the SOS Brigade. The founder of the club, Haruhi Suzumiya, is a very energetic and eccentric girl who began the club after talking with the only other person that would converse with her, a fellow classmate named Kyon. Her main purpose to start the club was to be able to find aliens, espers, time travelers, dimensional travelers (specifically sliders), and other oddities so as to alleviate her boredom.

Kyon, a cynical classmate of Haruhi's who began talking with her out of curiosity alone, is dragged into the club, though is unsure what will come of it. When two other members are "recruited" by Haruhi to join, Kyon decides to stay in order to make sure no harm comes to them per Haruhi's wacky ideas. He serves to stop Haruhi from going too far, but is not always able to stop her.

The third member of the club is Yuki Nagato, a silent bibliophile who usually wants to be left alone to read. Yuki is in fact a "humanoid interface", or artificial human, created by the Integrated Data Entity. As this entity exists in space, she is technically considered an alien. The fourth member is the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, who is secretly a time traveler. The final member of the SOS Brigade is Haruhi's yes man, Koizumi Itsuki, who is a member of an organization of espers. Each of the three members were sent by their particular group to investigate Haruhi Suzumiya, who appears to all three of them to have extraordinary powers equivalent to those of a god, such as the power to remake the world, should she desire. Haruhi, herself, is neither aware of this power nor the fact that her own club contains the very people she is searching for.

[edit] SOS Brigade

The SOS Brigade (SOS団 (エス・オー・エスだん), Esuōesu dan^?) is a club that Haruhi started shortly after entering high school. The club name is an acronym of "Sekai wo Ooini Moriagerutame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan" (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"^?), which roughly translates into "Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade to Greatly Enliven the World". To retain the acronym, the official North American adaption refers to the group as the "Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade",^[4] whilst unofficial fan translations generally adopted the title "Save the World by Overloading it with Fun, Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade".

Haruhi initially received the club idea when Kyon lectured her about how meaningful inventions throughout history were created by geniuses: that technological advancements in the world were wrought by a limited number of lucky individuals. Inspired by this speech, Haruhi decides to create a club to address the woeful lack of aliens, time travelers and espers in her life.

The goal of the SOS Brigade is to "Bring More Excitement to the World". The club's main contribution is a film intended for the High School cultural festival entitled The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina: Episode 00 starring Mikuru, Yuki, and Itsuki as the main characters. It was filmed and narrated by Kyon and directed by Haruhi. Kyon edited the movie during an all-nighter, which resulted in poorly edited work and story incoherence. The film's plot consists of a number of meta-fictional parodies of anime clichés.

In addition to the movie project, Haruhi involves the club in various activities such as participation in a baseball tournament and a summer trip to a tropical island owned by one of Itsuki's acquaintances. All such activities prevent Haruhi from boredom.

The original emblem by Haruhi was very unrefined and resembled "a drunken tapeworm" according to Kyon. Nagato informed Kyon, after the Cave Cricket encounter, that its data was far too large for terrestrial standards for conversion, which was utilized by the Cricket. The final version appears refined but the "S" are actually backwards and more closely resemble "Z" in order to avoid another Cave Cricket incident.

[edit] Themes

Some of the series themes seem to be inspired by the science fiction writings of the Hyperion science-fiction novel series by Dan Simmons. The book that Yuki gives Kyon is clearly visible as the Japanese version of the book, and the scene in which a grown-up, buxom version of Mikuru from a future point in relation to the main story timeline echoes themes involving the character Aenea from the Hyperion books, who appears to a younger version of her lover Raul Endymion because she had been "unstuck in time."

[edit] Affiliations

There are three organizations who have taken an interest in Haruhi and the SOS Brigade, which ties all of them together. Each has their own reasons, which stems from one single incident three years prior to the storyline. Each has managed, half through coincidence and half through design, to have a representative within the SOS Brigade.

[edit] The Agency

Three years prior to the storyline, a seemingly random selection of people in the world were given abilities that could only be described as those of 'Espers'; they were able to enter new Sealed Realities, which they could instinctively feel and of which they were given innate knowledge. These select few banded together, numbering ten in total, and have found the epicenter, the source of their powers, Haruhi, and now seek to protect and appease Haruhi without letting her know of their existence, while simultaneously containing Sealed Realities. They fear that if anything were to happen to her, or if she were to become displeased with the world, that she could simply wipe it clean and start it over. Itsuki Koizumi is their member in the SOS Brigade, there to prevent that from happening. This trend of thought often leads to seemingly harmless situations becoming something on which the fate of the world hinges.

"Sealed Realities" or "Closed Spaces" are odd occurrences in the cross-dimensional faultlines catalyzed by Haruhi Suzumiya when she is antagonized, as a sort of practice round for godly powers. The world within the Sealed Reality is almost identical to a corresponding area of the world, but is completely grey and devoid of people. If her frustration grows yet further, it manifests itself in as giant blue monster, a Shinjin, contained within the Sealed Reality, where it wreaks havoc harmlessly, unbound by the laws of physics. The more a Shinjin destroys in the Sealed Reality, the more the Sealed Reality grows, enveloping, and eventually replacing the world, if left unchecked. When the Shinjin is destroyed, so is the Sealed Reality.

Though they are normally impossible to enter, Itsuki and others in "The Agency" have the ability to sense and enter Sealed Realities. There, the powers of members of "The Agency" are realized; 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 Agency" uses these abilities to hunt the Shinjin, in order to keep the Shinjin from spreading the Sealed Realities over the world.

From the inside, if one were to try to leave the confines of a closed space, they would find a forcefield - impenetrable except by espers; that resistance marks the boundaries of that dimension.

[edit] Integrated Data Entity

The Integrated Data Entity, also known as the Data Integration Thought Entity (情報統合思念体, Data Integration Thought Entity^?) is a being of the Haruhi universe born from a "sea of data" which covers and parallels the universe. This data accumulated until it gained consciousness and sentience which became the Integrated Data Entity. It continued to evolve in this fashion, obtaining more data until there was no more to gather, effectively meeting its own evolutionary dead-end. Data lifeforms themselves possess no physical body but are highly intelligent. This entity grows with the expansion of the universe and the addition of more data.

Much of the data manipulated or utilized by the data lifeforms cannot be observed by humans by ordinary means. The exact nature of this data usage remain too nebulous and abstract a concept for most humans to grasp. In spite of this, The Integrated Data Entity took a particular interest in humans over any of the other sentient creatures in the universe because of their unprecedented ability to seek and obtain data, or knowledge.

Three years prior to the storyline, an extraordinary explosion of data came from one of the islands of Japan. At the source of this odd, spontaneous generation of data, they found Haruhi Suzumiya. In order to observe this phenomenon firsthand they created a number of "humanoid interfaces," in the hope that they could find a way to break through their own evolutionary dead end. Humanoid interfaces are able to reprogram or react with their environment in ways that would seem spectacular or magical to most humans. Humanoid interfaces are capable of superhuman feats of logic, hand-eye coordination, endurance, agility, memory and perception. Two of these humanoid interfaces, Yuki Nagato and Ryōko Asakura, were introduced to Kyon. Yuki became a member of the SOS Brigade, effectively being pulled in by Haruhi's strong wish for aliens to exist.

There are conflicting voices within the Data Entity. The dominant mindset wishes to simply leave Haruhi undisturbed and provide minimal interference so as to observe her under controlled conditions. The dissenting voices within the Entity wish to provoke a reaction from Haruhi; with the goal being to motivate Haruhi to gather information and generate data faster, regardless of the possible negative consequences. The latter course of action was attempted when a rogue agent, Ryōko Asakura, assaulted Kyon in the hopes of killing him, and causing the reaction the dissenting voices have been looking for.

[edit] Future humans

Time travelers from an unspecified time in the future were surprised to find, like the other two groups, that a ground-shaking incident had occurred three years before the storyline began centering around Haruhi Suzumiya. From their perspective, a timequake had occurred, fissuring the time-space continuum in such a manner that time travelers were rendered incapable of traveling further back in time than that event. In the novels, Koizumi suggests that three years before the storyline begins Haruhi created the current version of the world - which included espers, aliens and time travelers - therefore there is no time existing before the event to travel back to.

In order to investigate how and why this event occurred, they sent their very own time agent - Mikuru Asahina - to observe Haruhi. Few details have been mentioned about this group, possibly to avoid temporal contamination and changes in history. In effect, nearly anything that pertains to the future is dubbed "classified information".

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Light novel

Main article: Haruhi Suzumiya (light novels)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel, written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Itō, was first published by Kadokawa Shoten on June 6, 2003, and is the basis for the bulk of the anime incarnation. This is only the first novel in the Suzumiya Haruhi series which currently has eight volumes, and is still running in Japan. The novel contains a prologue, seven chapters, and an epilogue. ^[6]

[edit] Manga

There are two manga adaptations of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series, both having been published by Kadokawa Shoten. The first one, illustrated by Mizuno Makoto, ran from May 2004 to December 2004 and the second, illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, started in November 2005 and is still in production, with the first three volumes currently released. A fourth volume will go on sale on June 10, 2007.^[7] Their target age group is younger than the original novels to expand the series' fan base.

Both manga adaptations were published in Shounen Ace, but the earlier one was canceled 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. In addition, the mangaka was producing a related side H dōjinshi at the same time, which unsettled the publishing company. They canceled the manga, denying its existence.

[edit] Anime

The anime series of Haruhi Suzumiya, which aired in Japan from April 2, 2006 to July 2, 2006, had a total of 14 episodes. For more information, see a listing of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episodes. The anime was mainly based on the first novel in the Suzumiya Haruhi novel series of the same name - the prologue and seven chapters of the first novel were arranged into six episodes. Intermixed between them were seven episodes based on chapters from the third, fifth and sixth novels (The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの退屈, Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu^?), The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの暴走, Suzumiya Haruhi no Bousou^?) and The Agitation of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの動揺, Suzumiya Haruhi no Douyou^?) respectively) and one with a new story written specifically for the anime by Nagaru Tanigawa.

The first DVD, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya The Adventure of Mikuru Asahina Episode00 Limited Edition, debuted at #1 on the daily Oricon DVD sales charts on June 23, 2006.

[edit] Setting

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 Kitaguchi Station seen in the anime is actually the Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi Station.
• The Kōyōen Station (光陽園駅) is named after the real Hankyu 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 reading of the first kanji (上) is different.
• North High School where Kyon, Haruhi, and the rest of the SOS Brigade members attended is the real life location of Nishinomiya Kita High School.^[8]

In addition, several scenes in the anime include faithful portrayals of the scenery in and around Nishinomiya. ^[9]

[edit] Theme songs

Opening themes

"The Mikuru Legend of Love" (恋のミクル伝説, Koi no Mikuru Densetsu^?) (episode 1) by: Yuko Goto

"It's an Adventure, Right, Right?" (冒険でしょでしょ？, Bōken Desho Desho?^?) (episodes 2-13) by: Aya Hirano

Ending themes

"Sunny Sunny Fun" (ハレ晴レユカイ, Hare Hare Yukai^?) (episodes 1-13) by: Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto

"It's an Adventure, Right, Right?" (extended) (Episode 14)

Insert songs

"God knows..." (Episode 12) by: Aya Hirano

"Lost my music" (Episode 12) by: Aya Hirano

[edit] Audio dramas

A series of radio dramas have also been released. The first volume entitled SOS Dan Radio Shibu Bangai Hen CD Vol.1 is based on the anime version of the series and was released on July 5, 2006 by Lantis. The second volume was released on September 21, 2006 while a third was released on December 21, 2006. A drama CD entitled Sound Around, based on the anime adaptation was released on January 24, 2007 by Lantis.

[edit] Reception and fandom

The series has been met with immense popularity and a dedicated fanbase, and has become a cult television series. As of December 2006, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is the most popular anime in Japan according to Newtype magazine.^[10] Fans of the series call themselves "Haruhiists" (in the same manner that Star Trek fans are Trekkies), and the collective fandom is known as Haruhiism (ハルヒ主義, Haruhi shugi^?).^[11] The concept of Haruhiism is humorously portrayed by fans to be somewhat of a pseudoreligion, with Haruhi as "God".

DVD sales in Japan have been strong with 70,000 and 90,000 units sold of the first two DVDs respectively as of August 2006.^[12] A 2006 online poll of Japan's top 100 favourite animated television series of all time, conducted by TV Asahi, placed the series in fourth place.^[13] The series has also become somewhat of an internet phenomenon in both Japan and English-speaking countries thanks to the distribution of English language fansubs, and over 2000 clips of the series and user-created parodies and homages were posted to video sharing websites such as YouTube.^[14] The popularity of these clips (and those of other popular Japanese series) lead the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) to request that YouTube remove clips protected under copyright.^[15]

Hare Hare Yukai debuted at #18 on the daily Oricon charts (which tracks the best-selling singles in Japan) on May 10, 2006 and reached its peak on May 12, 2006.^[16] On the weekly Oricon charts, it debuted at #5 with sales of 34,881 copies of the CD.^[17] It was also sold out on many online retailers and was amazon.co.jp's #1 selling CD.^[18] Triple A–side single Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsumeawase (涼宮ハルヒの詰合, Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsumeawase^?) debuted at #9 on the daily Oricon charts on June 21, 2006; peak of #5 reached on June 24, 2006. On the weekly Oricon charts, it debuted at #5 with sales of 32,499 copies of the CD.

This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

[edit] ASOS Brigade

In December 2006, Bandai Entertainment registered the website asosbrigade.com, which was linked to from high-profile anime sites such as Anime News Network during the week of December 18.^[19]

On December 22, 2006, the website begins with a live action presentation video resembling a fan-made production, featuring Haruka Inoue and Akiyo Yamamoto in the roles of Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato, with Haruhi Suzumiya being played by Patricia Ja Lee.^[4] The video confirmed (in Japanese) the specifics of the licensing arrangement. A few days afterwords, a subtitled version of the video replaced the original on the site, translating the Japanese licensing announcement into English.^[20] The website also linked to a blog on the popular social networking website MySpace, which entered the list of the top 50 most viewed MySpace pages within 24 hours.^[21]

On December 25, the website was updated with a Christmas message and a link to a page (in Japanese) allowing users to listen to and vote for clips of voice actresses performing the part of Mikuru in English.^[22] This practice continued as similar audition pages for Yuki,^[23][20] Itsuki,^[24][25] Kyon^[26] and Haruhi^[27] were posted in the days that followed. It is currently unclear if the audition results will affect the casting choices at all, but the second audition page claimed that "[the] choices will be noted and taken into consideration".^[23] The audition pages have since been taken offline.

On January 22, 2007 another poll had been put up asking voters to choose which order of episodes they preferred to view the series in, Haruhi's order (chronological) or Kyon's order (broadcast). The site notes the release of a Regular Edition set, which arranges the episodes chronologically. Then a special edition set will have the episodes in broadcast order. ^[28]

The poll that appeared on January 26, asked, "Which character do you prefer to see in a bunny suit?" and lists the choices Haruhi, Mikuru, Yuki, Kyon, Itsuki, and Shamisen.

On January 25, 2007, a new ASOS Brigade video was released which announced that the first DVD of the series would be released on May 29, 2007.^[29]

On February 9, 2007 a new episode of the Adventures of the ASOS Brigade revealed information on some of the voice actors that would be voicing the English voices in the anime. They are: Wendee Lee as Haruhi, Crispin Freeman as Kyon, Michelle Ruff as Yuki, Stephanie Sheh as Mikuru, Johnny Yong Bosch as Itsuki, Bridget Hoffman as Ryōko, and Kari Wahlgren as Tsuruya.^[30] It may be worth noting that the actress who portrays Yuki in the ASOS Brigade episodes was changed in this episode from Akiyo Yamamoto to Kana Yuasa. While this change is explicitly reflected in the credits, it was hinted at by calling attention to Yuki throughout the episode.

On February 20, 2007 a poll on the ASOS Brigade website stated, "You are on a deserted island with a giant sandworm. You can only choose one, which do you pick? Little time left, make decision now before worm comes!" gave the choices between the chronological or broadcast (anachronic) order, as in January. The comments in the source code of the website were also changed to reflect that the majority of people voted for one of the characters to be in a bunny suit over a new episode of The Adventures of the ASOS Brigade. There was also notice at the top of the page stating, "The Adventures of the ASOS Brigade: Episode 005 World Premiere at New York Comic Con Haruhi Panel... details within 48 hours."^[31]

On March 10, 2007 it was announced in the source code of the website that the regular edition of the series will have English-translated openings, while the special edition will have the original Japanese openings and endings.

On March 16, 2007 the English trailer for the anime was released on the website and the ASOS Brigade Travel Blog was made public.^[32]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Official Website (Japanese)
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Kyoto Animation Website (Japanese)
• Sosbrigade.com (Japanese)
• Asosbrigade.com Official North American Release Website
• Rinku.zaq.ne.jp Comparing anime backgrounds with real life counterparts (Japanese)
• Stalking Haruhi Suzumiya Same as above but in English with latitude and longitudes listed.
• SOS-dan Wiki
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

Haruhi Suzumiya v • d • e
Series:	The Melancholy (book 1) | The Sigh (book 2) | The Boredom (book 3) | The Vanishment (book 4) | The Rashness (book 5) | The Disturbance (book 6) | The Scheme (book 7) | The Anger (book 8)
Characters:	List of characters | Haruhi Suzumiya | Kyon | Yuki Nagato | Mikuru Asahina | Itsuki Koizumi
Additional:	List of anime episodes
Soundtracks:	Haruhi Suzumiya albums | Character albums