The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの消失) is the fourth volume in the Haruhi light novel series. It was written by Tanigawa Nagaru with illustrations by Ito Noizi. This forth volume was originally released in Japan in 2004 and in English in 2010.
Click here to read the synopsis of the third volume, The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya. This series is 20 years old at this point, but spoilers follow.
We find the SOS Brigade preparing to celebrate Christmas by having a secretive hotpot party in the club room. On the day Haruhi plans to reveal the entire plan for the clubs activities Kyon finds himself is a different world than what he went to sleep in the night before. The first sign that something isn't right is running into a severely exhausted Taniguchi, who the day before had been practically sprinting up the hill beaming about a Christmas date he had. Instead he mumbled about how his father won't let him stay home to rest and questions Kyon's sanity when asked about date plans. Kyon brushed this off as something sudden and embarrassing on Taniguchi's part and heads to class. Class however proves even worse when half of the students are absent with this same sudden illness. Even the seat behind him remains empty, meaning the mighty Haruhi has also befallen pray to the cold. During lunch as Taniguchi is telling him its been going around for days, Kyon's entire world shifts to the realm of peril as the last person he expects to walk into the class puts her things at Haruhi's desk. Asakura Ryoko has suddenly reappeared and no one seems to think its odd that the girl who transferred out in the Spring has waltzed into the room as if she has been there the entire time. In reality Asakura was destroyed by Nagato to stop her from killing Kyon...yet suddenly here she is, sitting in Haruhi's seat, as if she wasn't a biological interface for the data entity that also created Nagato. Kyon freaks out, questioning why she is there and why Haruhi isn't a part of their class. The half empty room stares in horror and refutes his accusations and pleas, forcing him to flee the class in search of any semblance of familiarity.
He searches for Koizumi first, only to find his entire classroom is no longer a part of the schools floor plan. Next he searches for Asahina, finding her wandering the hallways with Tsuruya. In a lapse of judgement he grabs her and begins to babble about how everything is wrong. When her shocked and frightened reactions cause him stress he continues about how he knows she has a star shaped mole on her breast to try and convince her that they know each other. The ever protective Tsuruya removes Kyon from Asahina at which point he recognizes that things are very wrong, he flees to the last refuge he can think of, the club room. Once there he finds the room restored to its state before Haruhi usurped it from the literacy club and as always, the lone figure of Nagato is seated at the table, reading a large book. With out thinking Kyon begins to interrogate her as he did Asahina only to realize this is not the robotic Nagato he is so familiar with. Instead the bespectacled girl is frozen with fear and surprise at the sudden intrusion of her sanctuary. No, this Nagato is a normal, shy and bookish high school girl, not an all powerful living computer. Kyon finally admits to himself that he has somehow woken up in a version of the world were the people he calls friends are ordinary humans, lacking all of their special qualities. The question is, does Haruhi even exist in this world and what will it take to return to the world he knows, the pain in the ass, stressful, supernatural world full of terror and danger. The world he loves.
Out of anything in the Haruhi anime universe the movie is my favorite so it was fantastic to return to this story once again in text format. I've seen the movie so many times I could hear the characters say almost every line of dialogue as I was reading the light novel. That also put into perspective how faithful the anime really was to the original source material and how disappointing it was to know that very little was left out. I was hoping to experience a bit more in the book than in the movie but aside from some interesting side details it was exactly like the movie. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the read from start to finish, and it made me want to watch the movie yet again, but its a little disappointing that it was so faithfully transcribed. That said, there were a few details that made things come into a bit cleared perspective. I don't recall as much detail being given to the exact whereabouts of Kouyouen Academy in the movie. In the book Kyons internal dialogue explains that the private school is located at the base of the hill that he travels everyday to go to school. The way the movie portrays it, the school feels like it is much further away. Another noticeable change, that seems quite significant and a little less dramatic compared to how it was handled in the movie, was the identities of the figures that show up in the climax of the story. In the movie Kyon's point of view is hazy and confusing and you can only half guess at who is all part of the climax. In the book he clearly goes over in his mind who was all involved, laying it out more than the movie did, of which it was a passing point of narration.
Either way, this is one of the strongest story line in the Haruhi world, at least in the parts that are covered in the anime. As I approach the volumes that take place outside of the anime, I grew eager to finally have some new adventures with this crazy cast of misfits. Up next...the dive into how the notorious 'Endless Eight' are going to be handled in volume 5! The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya.
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