Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The

[sevencreature]

It was nothing special. Or rather - it was not interesting enough for me. Nice workmanship though.

Those two eps on the island were downright boring >_>

[plasticheart]

Hey!
Below is my prospective review of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya for consideration to be put on the reveiws section in the site.
Please read and tell me what you think!
Thanks ^-^


The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Review
By Plasticheart


Story
8/10
When you first have a look at this anime, the story looks like its going to be a typical harem-type high school show, but look closer and you find that it is much more than that. There is a clever mixture of sci fi and comedy in the plot, plus many other genres that are sometimes picked up on for a few minutes and sometimes take up a whole episode. The thing that I really like about the show is the way that you are never quite sure what is going to happen next, true it doesn’t hold the watcher in suspense but that is part of the charm; things just completely take you by surprise.
The story follows a high school student called Kyon- who long ago gave up dreams of meeting aliens, time travellers and ESPers-unexpectedly meeting all three when he is forced to help create a club by the eccentric and strong willed Haruhi Suzumiya. The plot revolves around the various activities of the newly founded SOS Brigade, from making block-busting culture festival films, to trying to search out mysterious circumstances; even if various members of the Brigade have to make these circumstances themselves.
The episodes of this anime are not in chronological order, which can often lead to a little confusion, especially when you first start to watch it, but this gets less confusing as the series develops and adds intrigue to the storyline. The story, although given to you in pieces by the mix up of the episodes, still carries itself through and comes to a good close; something a lesser anime might not have managed.
The thing that really gets to me about this story is the lack of character development. I like a story where I can really get involved with the characters and this is no such story. Nearly all the characters in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are fairly one dimensional and change little throughout the series, but because of the unique storyline and the general feel to the anime, this weakness is compensated for well.


Visuals
10/10
In my opinion, one of the best things about this series.
Since this is a relatively new anime, the animation is not at all dated, but instead a nice mix of classic animation and CGI. The colours used are vibrant and the lighting gives a nice subtlety to the art work. The movement is very smooth and flows very realistically.
I have to admit, that I am a huge sucker for cool fight scenes, and this anime provided this amazingly, with the scenes being short and snappy but not overdone, making them quite rare, but a pleasure to watch.
There are no chibi drawings, which is unusual for such a light hearted anime, but give the drawing a refreshing feel and adds realism. Overall, I loved everything about the animation in this show; it reflected the mood very well and made the series enjoyable to look at.






Audio
7/10
The backing tracks to this anime are really nothing special. They are the stereotypical high-schoolish easy listening stuff, not terrible in any sense bit certainly nothing memorable.
The opening and ending themes are strangely addictive. They are both sung by Aya Hirano, the seiyuu of Haruhi and are really catchy and nice to listen to. However, these tracks are not something you’re likely to like if you’re in to rock or metal since they are distinctly bubblegumish.
I really loved the voice acting for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; Hirano does a really good job voicing Haruhi and really gets her character across. The other seiyuus are just as good, completely capturing the character’s essence and making this a thoroughly convincing cast.



Characters
6/10
The first thing I want to say is that the characters are good ones, they are often funny, interesting and generally great to watch.
Why give it such a low score? Partly, I didn’t particularly like all the moé stereotypes that characterised the girls in this anime. Mikiuru’s constant squeaking and clinging on to Kyon’s arm didn’t endear me to her and Haruhi’s brashness was another thing that got to me. I’m not a huge fan of harem animes and since this could definitely class as one I was almost instantly irritated by the female stereotypes.
There was next to no character development and I didn’t feel as if you really knew many of them at all; the one exception to this was Kyon. I loved Kyon’s character simply because he was the normal guy who had somehow got sucked in to the whole off the wall plot, and was secretly loving it. His constant narration was a really nice touch and added humour to the show. I have given this section a low mark because of the one dimensional feel to many of the characters, but generally the characters are great, if underdeveloped.



Overall
8/10
No matter how much I moan about this anime, in my heart I love it. It’s clever, nicely animated, funny… true, it isn’t a deeply immersing anime with amazing characters and a really atmospheric feel, but it is a hell of a lot of fun.

[rockenroll4life]

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[countzarroff]

I like this anime when I saw it. I didn't LOVE it. But I liked it. It kept me watching for a couple of episodes. It was funny, it had good character design and it opened itself up reasonably okay. I guess the only problem I had with it was that it's story was somewhat poor. The main character as I remember was not a very good main character. I personally cannot stand when the impulsive and angry character is in the center of the story. They make much better supporting characters. She was just too much for me to be listening to all the time. The whole thing about her changing the universe became really lame and overdone. So I got sick of it after about ten episodes. But again, I did find it funny and somewhat entertaining for a little bit.

7.8/10