Haruhi Suzumiya 1: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Posted: May 29, 2009 Filed under: Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 12 Comments »Nagaru Tanigawa – Yen Press / Little, Brown – 2009 – 9+ volumes
This is the original novel.
So, it’s really impossible not to know about this franchise. I haven’t seen the anime or read the comics, and I know nothing about the novels (is this the first in a series? is the series something different?). All I know is that people are really, really insane into this series. I considered watching the anime, but I usually don’t get the best impression from anime series, even short ones like this. After all the recent hoopla about the new series that just got underway, I decided to try out the original novel as an easy one-shot dose of the series.
Hmm. I guess it’s popular because it uses almost every anime trope in an extremely self-aware fashion? There was a mental checklist I was going through in my head as I was reading it. Angry, pushy girl? Check. Main character who lets everyone walk all over him? Check. Moe girl that gets dressed up in appealing bunny girl/maid costumes? Check. Smiling, popular boy? Check. Quiet girl with glasses? Check. Weird school club? Check. Aliens, time travelers, and espers? Check, check, check. Love story? Check. End of the world imminent? Check. Giants that pulverize buildings? Check. Mecha?
Uh, mecha? Hello? Giant robots? No? Did this even come from Japan, the country that sneaks giant robots in magical girl series?
Despite the fact I normally hate all this stuff, especially when I know it’s being used for maximum fanservice, I couldn’t help but like the book. I liked Kyon, dammit. I like the subtle ways that Haruhi would get angry at him that showed her feelings. I laughed when all three of the other club members came forward to tell their stories to Kyon, how they all had different versions of the same story, and how eventually Kyon got a live display of everything that the three were talking about. And Kyon didn’t really feel compelled to share any of it. Most of all, I loved that last scene which combined the powers of shared dreams and alternate dimensions in its giant-pulverizing-the-school climax. I knew what Kyon was going to have to do. I saw it coming. I loved it dearly anyway.
Mostly I loved the last line of the last chapter. I couldn’t tell if Kyon was being serious or just said it to mess with Haruhi. The ambiguity was excellent.
About the only thing I didn’t like about it was Asahina, who Haruhi brings into the club with no pretenses as to her role. She says straight out that the club needed a moe member, and then proceeds to regularly strip Asahina and dress her in fanservice-y costumes. The book never pretends that Asahina is anything more than fanservice in a book that’s really all about fanservice, but I still hated her. The fanservice certainly wasn’t for me.
I liked this novel an awful lot, enough that I finished it in two sittings. I don’t feel all that compelled to seek out the manga or anime or other novels since the story was self-contained and pretty satisfying, but I can see why everyone seems to be addicted.
I and a lot of others I’ve talked to feel that Asahina’s the weakest of the characters. Nagato’s probably the strongest :) And I think everyone like Kyon as a narrator.
The anime’s one of the best novel-to-anime translations out there, and covers some stuff not in the first novel.
[...] Jihai (2 screenshot limit) Greg Hackmann on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Mania.com) Connie on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (the original novel) (Slightly Biased Manga) Oyceter on vols. 6 and 7 of Mushishi (Sakura of DOOM) [...]
“Uh, mecha? Hello? Giant robots? No? Did this even come from Japan, the country that sneaks giant robots in magical girl series?”
The mecha originally allocated for this story had been misplaced. Instead, it ended up in Finland.
http://between-two-worlds.net/fi/stoori/kmv_216.html
I completely agree with you on this. I was really disappointed (but not surprised) when the anime completely eclipsed the Mushishi US release.
I will say the art/direction of the anime was also absolutely stunning which I’m sure helped. Better than the source material itself in a lot of ways.
ZeroSD: Does the anime cover more of the novels? Like up to the second or third? I keep thinking I’ll watch it, but I feel like if I’m going to do that, I might as well read the books first if I feel compelled to keep going with the story. Kyon does make for a good narrator, come to think of it. He’s just the right mix of sarcasm and regular guy.
Lynne: I keep hearing things about the anime that rouse my curiosity, too. Is the anime nonlinear? I’m a little confused by the alternate ways to watch the episodes, but maybe that would make more sense if I’d read more of the novels.
Sara K.: Haha, nice. What is that?
A Finnish fantasy webcomic, “Kahden maailman välissä”.
And no, I don’t know any Finnish. I read the English translation.
http://www.between-two-worlds.net/story/archive.php
First season was out of order, didn’t include the whole novel, incorporated bits of later novels, and added a filler story written by the author for the show. The gag-based and Asahina plots are front-loaded and the more serious/mystery plots lead up to the finale.
The cliche characers also allow for some visual homages, my personal favorite being Itsuki/Haruhi doing an entire scene as Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright.
-Does the anime cover more of the novels? Like up to the second or third? -
Mostly it contains some scattered bits from later ones. It’s not going to spoil you on the conclusion of later novels or anything like that. Some stuff happens a bit different than the novel (like the concert). And it does have an anime-only ep which is really good.
I compare it to the novel favorably.
This is the anime’s treatment of Haruhi’s monologue on personal insignificance while she and Kyon are at the train crossing. Probably my favorite bit from the book/series.
Ooh, thanks for that. It really was a great scene, it was sort of the point where the entire novel came together. Looks like the anime nailed it, too.
Getting the other novels really would be worth your time (there’s a translation project over at Baka Tsuki). As for this particular one, in my opinion it is one of the weaker in the series (but it is the intro, so it can be forgiven for that). The best are (once again, opinion) 3, 4, and 9.
Hmm. Alright. I’ll keep that in mind for now, but I’ll probably wait for the English versions to be published if I decide to read them. It’ll give me plenty of time to decide. ^_^