The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2

Back in 2006 a weird little series came out called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya that was based on a number of light novels by the same name. The series became a huge success in otaku circles, spawning a plethora of YouTube related antics and plenty of cosplay. In 2007 the people responsible for the series began hinting and outright referencing a second season of the series. It wasn’t until this spring (2008), as they began to replay the original series that new episodes were released, playing in between original episodes.
 

    Here is a little bit of background on the series before I get into the second season..

    Haruhi Suzumiya is a bored first year high school student. She is bored because normal things in life do not interest her. The thing she strives for, that drives her forward is to meet aliens, people from the future and ESPers. Unwittingly a clueless classmate, Kyon, gets dragged into her schemes as she chooses him to be a member of her soon to be created after school club...the SOS Brigade, whose sole purpose is to find aliens, time travelers and ESPers. With no compulsion to truly resist, Kyon is dragged into her world head first. Soon enough three more members are recruited to the club, Yuki Nagato (the last remaining member of the literature club whose room Haruhi overtakes), Mikuru Asahina (shy, soft-spoken and voluptuous target of Haruhi’s cosplay fantasies) and Itsuki Koizumi (carefree, always amused, mildly gay transfer student). As the troop has to endure Haruhi’s oddball and sometimes spontaneous antics Kyon is approached individually by the other Brigade members who confess to him in secrecy that they are each a representative of the three supernatural types Haruhi quests for. They all inform him that they were sent to observe Haruhi and to keep their true identities secret. Haruhi, for unknown reasons, has the unconscious ability to control reality. They urge Kyon, who is the only normal member of the group, to do whatever is necessary to maintain Haruhi’s interest and relative good nature…they don’t want her getting bored or pissed off for fear she might recreate everything to better suit her needs. In other words, Haruhi Suzumiya is god and Kyon is being used by three super natural powers to keep her in check.

    Season two starts off after the real end of the original season, the summer of their first year of high school. The SOS Brigade is content with following their fearless chiefs orders, with the concern of Haruhi becoming bored and throwing a cosmic tantrum at stake.

    Haruhi is one of the more original anime to be released in a long time. It basks in its eccentricity and antics. The first season was aired out of sequential order with the first episode being the SOS Brigade viewing a video they made for the cultural festival. Yet with season 2 they have outdone themselves in eccentricity and sheer drive to break not only convention but the viewers. I understand the ideals behind their tactic (soon to be explained) and believe that it is also done as a test to the legion of fans that have sprung up around the franchise. I also have respect for the way they were testing the network/producers/advertisers, etc.

    The first episode was a nice intro back into the oddity of the series. It deals with Asahina having to take Kyon 3 years in the past for an important event.  They get stuck in time and end up calling on Nagato to get them back to the present. The second episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event list. They go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs; they go through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the club room on the first day of school.

    The third episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event list. They go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs; they go through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the club room on the first day of school. At some point…in either episode 3 or 4 (it all started to blur together) Kyon and the others realize that something is wrong and they are stuck in a time loop involving the last two weeks of summer vacation. They talk with Nagato and find out they have repeated the loop 15,498 times. Nagato, being what she is, has experienced and remembered every single loop, while the rest of the Brigade has had their memories reset. Each time has slight differences but the basic things keep repeating.

    The fourth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, thye catch bugs; they go through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the club room on the first day of school. At some point…Kyon and the others realize that something is wrong and they are stuck in a time loop involving the last two weeks of summer vacation. When they talk with Nagato they find out they have repeated the loop 15,499 times. Nagato, being what she is, has experienced and remembered every single loop, while the rest of the Brigade has had their memories reset. Each time has slight differences but the basic things keep repeating.

    The fifth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs in order to see who would win the right to be Brigade chief for the day; they go through a test of courage, etc, etc. At the end of the two weeks they have the entire list checked off, much to the Brigade members delight and when Haruhi asks if there is anything else no one responds. She wraps it up, gives everyone the last day off and tells them to be at the club room on the first day of school. At some point…Kyon and the others realize that something is wrong and they are stuck in a time loop involving the last two weeks of summer vacation. When they talk with Nagato and find out they have repeated the loop 15,528 (or so) times. Nagato, being what she is, has experienced and remembered every single loop, while the rest of the Brigade has had their memories reset. Each time has slight differences but the basic things keep repeating. They realize that there is something that Suzumiya is not content about with the two weeks of summer excitement, but are unable to figure it out.

    The sixth episode was more fan service fluff, which I guess is kind of expected as the series is a huge hit with the Akitaku (more on that later). Haruhi concocts a 2 week long wish list of things to do before school starts; the stereotypical Japanese student summer vacation event list. They buy yukata’s and go to a Bon festival where they catch goldfish, eat takoyaki and light off fireworks. They get part time jobs, they go swimming at the public pool, they catch bugs in order to see who would win the right to be Brigade chief for the day, they go through a test of courage, etc, etc…

    As you can see, if this were any other series they would probably not be able to get away with this. The episodes are different too, while the events and the dialogue are the same, the clothing and scenes are different. It’s like a weird otaku costume fetish fantasy…lets see how many times we can reenact Haruhi and the other girls in different bikini’s and yukata. Yet at the same time it also goes to solidify the series uniqueness, while trying…eventually they break through the loop.  I fear what the sequence of events for this loop was like in the light novels.

    The final story arc deals with the process the Brigade went through in order to create the movie for the cultural festival, which was the first aired episode in the first series.  In this arc we get to see some pretty explicit yet subtle ways that Haruhi changes reality and the lengths that everyone else goes to in order to cover these abnormalities up.

    Now the thing that has somewhat confounded me is the fact that this series is such a huge hit with the Akitaku…even though it doesn’t really pander to them and their likes. In ways it does, but the intent behind those devices is unknown to me and probably intentional for some ulterior reason…perhaps to help boost the shows popularity. I do know the light novels were pretty popular before the anime was created, but that is more then likely due to the inventiveness of the story. While the series is not overtly otaku fodder, it has defiantly cashed in on the fan base, licensing the prerequisite merchandise and spinoffs that are common in the traditional Akitaku series. There are a plethora of figures, CD’s, video games, radio dramas and plenty of limited edition buys to scoop up that hard earned dork money. So while the series cashes in on the sheep, I’m going to sit back and enjoy its intelligence. One of these days, now that they are being released in America, I’ll check out the light novels and who knows…maybe pick up a Haruhi figurine.

    If you liked the original series, you will like the new one. Don’t watch this one without seeing the first stuff…you won’t be able to make it through episode 4 at most. Too bad it was only 14 episodes.  There is a full length movie though...so this may actually put closure on the series as well as some ONA and bonus episode material I need to view to see if any answers are taken care of and/or to just enjoy this insanity some more.

    As with the original series this second season was licensed in North America and is available on DVD/Blu-ray and streaming via Crunchroll.