Haruhi Suzumiya 2: The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya

Nagaru Tanigawa – Yen Press / Little, Brown – 2009 – 9+ volumes
this is a novel

While I liked the first one for poking fun at different otaku-y genre conventions, this followup seemed… to miss that mark a little bit. The SOS Brigade makes a movie, and things get weird when Haruhi’s fantastic demands become reality, such as Mikuru gaining the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes, or a stray cat suddenly talking.

The problem I had was with Kyon, unfortunately. He was a great deadpan narrator in the first volume, and his tone was perfect for cataloging all the wackiness. In this, however, he comes off as extraordinarily whiny. He is also constantly calling attention to the true nature of the brigade members for some reason (once as a refresher would have been enough, but he dwells on this obsessively), and he also just makes these extended metaphors to try and drive home the weirdness of a situation when that’s… just not necessary. I get that Haruhi is being bossy. I know that Nagato is like a computer alien. I know that you hate Koizumi. I know that Haruhi is abusing Asahina, and I could actually go for far less of a graphic description of this.

I also know this is written for young adults, but I think that even they would grow tired of the repetition.

And my other problem was that nothing happens in the first half of the book. It’s just Haruhi dragging everyone all over the place making a crappy movie, with Kyon’s extended complaints to fill up space. In fact, when stuff starts getting weird, there’s actually far less time devoted to the problems and solutions than I would have liked, and the resolution is both overly philosophical and completely underwhelming. That was the interesting part, and nothing really happens.

As much as I liked the first one, this put me off the series quite a bit. I had bought the third installment before I read this, and that looks like short stories, so I’m going to give this one more try before I throw in the towel. I love the idea, and I liked the first book, so I’m hoping the short story format does the formula some favors. I think it will, since the repetition and boring parts will have to be reduced in them.