The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan (長門有希ちゃんの消失) is a 16 episode slice of life romance based on the manga of the same name by Puyo. The series is a spin off of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series and aired on TV in Japan over the Spring and Summer of 2015.
This series takes place in the alternate world which was featured in the move The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. In this world Yuki is a shy, video game obsessed classmate of Kyon's who also happens to have a one sided crush on him. Kyon ends up joining the Literature Club, of which Yuki and Ryoko Asakura are members of. If your memory is hazy, Asakura is the construct from Haruhi that attempted to kill Kyon...twice. Asakura, being Yuki's closest/only friend and guardian of sorts, tries her best to encourage Kyon to be receptive of Yuki's hidden feelings. Eventually the entire cast from Haruhi shows up. As in the movie, Haruhi and Koizumi attend a different school, with Kyon and Yuki encountering Haruhi one day in a town park. As boisterous as ever, Haruhi forces herself into the club, dragging Mikuru and Tsuruyu into the mix as well. The story primarily focuses on Yuki's inability to express her feelings for Kyon, who in turn only seems semi aware of her feelings. Asakura blatantly operates to foster the pairs relationship. Things go smoothly, if very very slowly, until Yuki is hit by a car. Immediately following the accident her personality shifts to that of the Yuki from the Haruhi world; solemn, reserved and calculating. The 'other' Yuki grasps the situation and fears for her own continued existence, battling against the memories of the 'old' Yuki in this world. With the 'old' Yuki now missing, Kyon has to come to terms with his feelings for her and whether or not he can meet her emotional expectations.
Lets just be really honest here, this is nothing more than professional fan-fiction. The animation differs drastically from the original Haruhi anime due to Kyoto Animation NOT being a part of the production of this series. Thankfully they were able to get the original voice actors to reprise their roles. That being said, this was a rather boring and pointless series. The story was slow, the character interactions were not very interesting and over all it did little to capture the spirit and originality of the real Haruhi series. Even though this is set in the world of the Haruhi movie there are some discrepancies between that worlds portrayal and this one. The most glaring one is that Yuki is in the same class as Kyon, when she was always a year older than he is. It was fun to see more attention given to Asakura, as she was the most prominent antagonist of the original series, even if her screen time was very limited. The few nods to the original series were entertaining but ultimately are not enough to make this trial of normalcy worth while.
I was hugely disappointed with the series. The arc where Yuki switched personalities was promising but ended up fizzling out. The end of the series does a nice job referencing the Endless Eight story arc, positing it as perhaps one of the Endless Eight realities. The artwork was sub-par for the characters, given the sub-par writing it suits it just fine. In reality, the original voice actors should have declined, forcing this project to be abandoned. I can see why Studio Kyoto may not have wanted to be part of this. It's disappointing and one can only hope for a continuation of the original Haruhi timeline as there is more of that story to be told.
This anime was simulcast in North America by FUNimation and will undoubtedly be released by them at some point in the future. There is slated to be an OAV for the series released in the Fall of 2015.
This series takes place in the alternate world which was featured in the move The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. In this world Yuki is a shy, video game obsessed classmate of Kyon's who also happens to have a one sided crush on him. Kyon ends up joining the Literature Club, of which Yuki and Ryoko Asakura are members of. If your memory is hazy, Asakura is the construct from Haruhi that attempted to kill Kyon...twice. Asakura, being Yuki's closest/only friend and guardian of sorts, tries her best to encourage Kyon to be receptive of Yuki's hidden feelings. Eventually the entire cast from Haruhi shows up. As in the movie, Haruhi and Koizumi attend a different school, with Kyon and Yuki encountering Haruhi one day in a town park. As boisterous as ever, Haruhi forces herself into the club, dragging Mikuru and Tsuruyu into the mix as well. The story primarily focuses on Yuki's inability to express her feelings for Kyon, who in turn only seems semi aware of her feelings. Asakura blatantly operates to foster the pairs relationship. Things go smoothly, if very very slowly, until Yuki is hit by a car. Immediately following the accident her personality shifts to that of the Yuki from the Haruhi world; solemn, reserved and calculating. The 'other' Yuki grasps the situation and fears for her own continued existence, battling against the memories of the 'old' Yuki in this world. With the 'old' Yuki now missing, Kyon has to come to terms with his feelings for her and whether or not he can meet her emotional expectations.
Lets just be really honest here, this is nothing more than professional fan-fiction. The animation differs drastically from the original Haruhi anime due to Kyoto Animation NOT being a part of the production of this series. Thankfully they were able to get the original voice actors to reprise their roles. That being said, this was a rather boring and pointless series. The story was slow, the character interactions were not very interesting and over all it did little to capture the spirit and originality of the real Haruhi series. Even though this is set in the world of the Haruhi movie there are some discrepancies between that worlds portrayal and this one. The most glaring one is that Yuki is in the same class as Kyon, when she was always a year older than he is. It was fun to see more attention given to Asakura, as she was the most prominent antagonist of the original series, even if her screen time was very limited. The few nods to the original series were entertaining but ultimately are not enough to make this trial of normalcy worth while.
I was hugely disappointed with the series. The arc where Yuki switched personalities was promising but ended up fizzling out. The end of the series does a nice job referencing the Endless Eight story arc, positing it as perhaps one of the Endless Eight realities. The artwork was sub-par for the characters, given the sub-par writing it suits it just fine. In reality, the original voice actors should have declined, forcing this project to be abandoned. I can see why Studio Kyoto may not have wanted to be part of this. It's disappointing and one can only hope for a continuation of the original Haruhi timeline as there is more of that story to be told.
This anime was simulcast in North America by FUNimation and will undoubtedly be released by them at some point in the future. There is slated to be an OAV for the series released in the Fall of 2015.
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