The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの消失) is the theatrical adaptation of the slice of life supernatural light novel of the same name by Tanigawa Nagaru and Ito Noizi.  The film had its initial theatrical release in Japan in 2010.

    The winter break fast approaches and the cold weather does little to dampen Haruhi's endless energy.  To celebrate the birth of Jesus she plans to secretly hold a hot pot party in the SOS Brigades club room.  A few days later, Kyon wakes up to a bitterly cold morning that has more in store for him than discomfort.  The first sign that something is wrong is Taniguchi suffering in misery with a terrible head cold.  The day prior he was full of energy and boasting about an upcoming date he had scheduled for Christmas Eve.  Suspecting the date thing was a lie and the cold is a terrible attempt to cover it up, Kyon thinks nothing of it, heading to the normal classroom.

    To his surprise, the cold that Taniguchi has come down with has taken out a sizable portion of his classmates.  When questioning Kunikida about it, learning its been going around for a while, he assumes he just hasn't been paying much attention.  What has him concerned is that it was powerful enough to take out Haruhi, who's desk has been absent all morning.  Before he can bring it up to Kunikida the last person he ever expected to see again strolls into the classroom, acting as if they belonged there.  Standing before him is the human interface for the same alien god that created Nagato and someone who almost killed him back in the Fall, Asakura Ryoko.  Blindsided by her sudden reappearance he begins to verbally attack her, confusing her with his declarations of intent.  He begins to question why Asakura is there but Haruhi is missing.  No one seems to know who he's talking about and when the seating chart is presented to him he doesn't see her name anywhere on it.

    Something is definitely wrong, he has woken up to find himself in a world where Asakura is a member of their class and Haruhi has been wiped from everyone's memories.  He flees the classroom, searching for some sort of familiarity to validate his expectations.  Koizumi's classroom does not physically exist in the school, the version of Nagato he finds in the SOS Brigade club room is still wearing glasses and is far more emotional and vulnerable than the robot-like version he's come to respect and rely on.  His beloved Asahina has no idea who he is and fears him as a perverted stalker with Tsuruya acting as her personal bodyguard.  Kyon is lost and confused.  

     The world has gone crazy around him, returning to a state that existed before Haruhi, a world of boring normalcy.  He is unwilling to accept this world and anticipates there is something that will let him return to his world, hinging everything on some sort of escape program set up by Nagato.  His suspicions prove correct and while browsing the tomes in the literary clubroom a book mark falls to the floor with a simple and direct statement.  Gather the keys in 3 days.  He doesn't know what the keys are but before he can put much thought into it he receives a break the next day when Taniguchi returns to class.  He grills Kyon during lunch about his erratic behavior a few days earlier.  When Kunikida relays the sequence of events, Taniguchi offhandedly questions him about being so obsessed with a crazy girl like Haruhi.  This snaps Kyon out of his haze and he forces Taniguchi to confirm her existence to him.  She does exist, but in this world she decided to go to a different school.

    Not wanting to waste a moment, desperate to see her, he rushes out of school to wait for her outside of the private high school shes enrolled in.  Before long he see's her, striding confidently through the gates, hair as long as it was when he first met her, with Koizumi following next to her.  Panic overtakes him and he forces himself to confront her, afraid he will miss his chance.  Harui has no idea who he is and almost beats him down until she is stopped by a simple phrase, 'remember John Smith'.  A phrase that only she and the strange older kid that helped her three years earlier during Tanabata would remember.  Her interest is piqued and she agrees to here Kyon out and the three of them retire to a nearby cafe.  He lays out to them the insane reality he finds himself in, telling them about the Brigade, Haruhi's abilities, the other members supernatural status and his sudden transition into this normal world.  She's more than willing to believe the unbelievable story and suddenly wants to create the Brigade in this world.  The wheels begin to spin and Haruhi once again pulls everyone into her gravity well, forcing the disparate members of the Brigade to join in the literary club once more.

    Kyon is still unsure what to do, but the keys appear to have been gathered.  Before he can push his brain further the club rooms old computer comes to life with a simple line of text.  Nagato, his Nagato, is communicating with him.  She presents him with a choice, a god like power that only has one use and is only available for a limited time.  Which version of the world does he want to exist in?  The current one, where the consistent existential threat of annihilation does not exist or the old world where super natural occurrences pepper his ordinary life with adventure and excitement?  He knew the answer even before she asked him and initiates the mechanism to shift him back to the realty he knows and loves.  But he doesn't return to the point he left, instead he is once again back to the night of Tanabata three years ago.  He needs to find the reason for the split in the world and a way to fix it before he can return to the hot pot party celebrating Christmas.

    This has long been a favorite movie of mine, typically watching it once a year.  The past year saw three viewing of it...I might want to mention that the movie is close to three hours longs.  I digress, this is a fantastic cap to the legendary Haruhi anime adaptation.  After reading all of the available light novels for the franchise, this being the end cap for the anime works rather well.  There is still more story beyond this and one very specific thing is not resolved within its runtime, this is handled quite a bit later in the light novels.  But this is the perfect culmination of everything that is the Haruhi world.

    That said, the animation is high quality, some of the best work by KyoAni in my opinion.  It's hard to really come up with things that can improve this film.  It's far stronger than the series in both design and story.  It's superior even to the source material, which does lack the life that KyoAni breathed into the franchise with the TV anime and this movie.  The only downside is that the casual views has to watch all of the TV anime before diving into this, given how much story needs to be understood beforehand.  The English dub is just as satisfying as the original Japanese as well.

The anime has been widely available for a long time in North America.  It is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.