The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - light novel

  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) is the first volume of the slice of life fantasy series that spawned the franchise of the same name.  The novel was written by Tanigawa Nagaru with illustrations by Ito Noizi.  This first volume was originally released in Japan in 2003 and in English in 2009.

    Yes, we are all familiar with Haruhi, as it's now one of the classic/icon anime franchises, but, with it's 20th anniversary and a sudden urge to ingest light novels, here, finally, is a breakdown of said novels.

     Kyon is a typical first year high school student who regrets some of the choices he has made, particularly his choice of North High, which requires him to hike up a steep hill each morning.  Unfortunately for him, the unplanned exercise regime is not his biggest regret of his high school life.  That would be the beauty seated behind him in class, Suzumiya Haruhi.  Why would a healthy, normal high school boy regret being near a desirable girl all day long?  Calling Haruhi eccentric wouldn't do her personality justice.  When she opens her mouth to say anything her other attributes; beauty, intelligence, athleticism, are utterly destroyed.  Haruhi does not keep her opinions to herself and when she chooses to engage with anyone verbally it comes out in a torrent of abrasive conviction.  She understands exactly what she wants from encounters with those around her and will quickly push them aside if they aren't able to provide her with anything useful.  Her natural mode of existence is aggravation and contempt for everyone and everything around her.  Her personal communication skills aren't exactly the biggest problem though.  The thing that truly sets her apart from her peers and isolates her is her undying obsession with things that are out of the ordinary.  Particularly she is only interested in the unnatural, specifically; aliens, time travelers and people with ESP.  She makes this fact very clear when she introduces herself to the class on the first day of school, setting a strong tone from the very beginning.  Kyon, against his better judgement, can't let her lie and finds himself continuing to engage her as the days go by.  This obsessed and unique girl itches at his brain in a way he can't help but scratch, even if he realizes its a bad idea.

    As all of the first year students begin to settle into their life in high school, Haruhi remains agitated and restless.  She demands stimulation from her surroundings and is not finding a sufficient level of it.  She has participated in most if not all of the after school clubs in an attempt to satisfy her needs, but none of them come close to meeting her expectations.  The last thing she wants to be is mundane and standard.  She is angry that the world around her is trying to force her to be just that.  In an offhand remark, that Kyon will probably regret for the rest of his days, he suggests that she start her own club since none meet her rigid standards.  In a flurry of excitement she does just that, dragging him into her plans.  She quickly commandeers the mostly abandoned club space for the literary club, who's sole member, the emotionless book worm Nagato Yuki, agrees to go along with.  With considering herself, Kyon and the pliant Nagato part of the unnamed club, they are still two members short from being able to apply for official status.  When Kyon presses her for details about what the club is supposed to be about, the name she chooses provides him the answer.  SOS Brigade (Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade).  What exactly does that mean?  Whatever catches Haruhi's attention, but mostly devoted to her search of the supernatural.  She quickly kidnaps a fourth member, second year beauty Asahina Mikuru.  Asahina is easily flustered, child like in stature and well endowed, leading Haruhi toher, claiming every good story needs its doe eyed buxom loli.  To further push the realm of decency, Haruhi frequently assaults Asahina, forcing her to wear alluring costumes to enhance her appeal.  Kyon both regrets the abuse and appreciates the results, conflicted between trying to protect the scared upper classman and absorbing his sexual fantasies.  All that is left is a fifth member, but Haruhi is displeased with the level of normalcy she has encountered, even with the formation of her club.  The final member arrives in the form of a 'mysterious' transfer student who has come to the school well into the first semester. Said transfer student, Koizumi Itsuki, is more than willing to join Haruhi's band of misfits, joining with a calm smile stretched across his face.  With that, the SOS Brigade can officially apply for club status and begin their mission of...entertaining Haruhi's whim.

      Things are not as they seem though and one by one the forcibly recruited members confide in Kyon that there is nothing normal taking place in his suddenly hectic school life.  Nagato tells him that she is an artificially created being that serves as a point of interaction with humans for a pure data being scattered across the universe...an alien.  Asahina tells Kyon that she is not from this timeline and is from a unnamed future time period of which she can not divulge any information about...a time traveler.  Koizumi informs Kyon that he is part of a wide spread organization of people with ESP...wrapping up the three things that Haruhi declared she wanted to meet on the first day of school.  Kyon of course does not believe anything until each of them, in turn, demonstrates some truth behind their claims.  All three represent groups that are focused on observing and trying to 'control' Haruhi.  Everything stems from an unknown anomaly three years in the past, when Haruhi was a first year middle school student, in which everything changed.  The change is unknown but all information points to her being the catalyst of that change.  What is understood or perhaps more appropriately theorized, is that Haruhi has the ability to bend reality to her will.  That ability seems to be tied to her subconscious and emotional state and she herself is unaware of this ability.  All three groups; alien, time traveler and ESPer, are desperately trying to understand the girl at the center of the universe and prevent her from altering it beyond recognition.  At the center of her attention and emotional state is Kyon, much to his annoyance and confusion.  All three groups have provided observers to be close to Haruhi and help guide Kyon to subtly sway her erratic behavior, for fear of her resetting the world and wiping everything away on a whim.

    OK, the first volume covers the first six episodes of the TV series in Haruhi Order.  The characters are all introduced, explain their specialty to Kyon and provide proof.  Nagato ends up saving Kyon from her backup companion, class rep Asakura Ryoko, who attempts to kill Kyon to make Haruhi do something drastic.  An older version of Asahina pays Kyon a visit to help convince him she is a time traveler and Koizumi takes Kyon to see his organization battle a manifestation of Haruhi's destructive subconscious in an alternate space.  This culminates with Haruhi beign angry, in a fit of jealousy over Asahina being too close to Kyon, where both Haruhi and Kyon find themselves in one of the closed spaces, with the world in danger of being erased.  Through guidance by Nagato and Koizumi, Kyon convinces Haruhi to return the world to normal through a kiss.  This sets up the overall premise of the franchise that Kyon, a perfectly normal human of no exceptional abilities, is the thing that interested Haruhi the most.  She has fallen in love with him but in incapable of expressing those emotions, so she continues to brute her way through reality, trying desperately to bend it to her will.  Unknown to her, she is bending reality to her will and everyone is using her feelings for Kyon to limit those changes.  Kyon on the other hand isn't sure what her true feelings are and isn't ready to accept anything like affection for himself.  Even though he struggles with her abuse and erratic behavior he begins to relish the unique position her finds himself in.  He is surrounded by supernatural beings, experiencing mind altering events and isn't willing to tell anyone about any of it, for the simple fact none of it is believable.  He is uncomfortable with being gods' minder and struggles with what would happen if Haruhi understood the incredible things happening around them, things she is largely the genesis of.   

     It's good to finally get into this light novel series, I have been a huge fan of the anime since about midway through the original season, having a false start with it and dismissing it as trash.  To me the movie that caps the anime is one of the most enjoyable anime movies I have ever watched and usually view it once every year, all three hours of enjoyment!  The anime so far does a pretty good job of being faithful to the original source material, so much that I can vividly recall the characters voices in many parts.  It will be fun to move through the series that exists in animated form and beyond to stories I am not familiar with.  So what better time than the franchises twentieth anniversary!  Enough gushing, this one didn't end up being much of a review just a synopsis of something that most readers are already intimately familiar with.  Onto book two...