Click here to read the synopsis of the fifth volume, The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya. This series is 20 years old at this point, but spoilers follow.
We find the members of the SOS Brigade enjoying the fruits of their Cultural Festival labors...or on Kyon's case, avoiding the terrible movie they made as much as possible. His first stop is the yakisoba restaurant done by Mikuru's class, to enjoy the food graced by their heavenly beauty. Afterwards he hides himself in one of the performance halls, only to be blindsided when Haruhi and Nagato appear on stage with instruments. The two Brigade members are accompanying two older girls and they play a small set of original tunes that causes a stir all through out the school. Once the performance is done Haruhi explains that she and Nagato decided to step in to help the band as their singer and lead guitarist was unable to perform due to an illness. Given that Haruhi only had a few hours to learn the material her latent musical and performance skills we quite astounding. How much of it was raw ability and how much was due to her mysterious abilities to bend reality. Nagato on the other hand, can be perfect at anything her overlord allows her to excel at. Either way, Kyon and the rest of the school was quite impressed with the showing and Haruhi adds another feather to her hat of notiety.
The second part is the actual film the Brigade made, going through the ill paced and terribly wandering story of the Crime Fighting Time Traveling Maid Asahina,
Next we see the Brigade experience a little bit of strangeness in the short time between Kyon's fall down the stairs and their trip to the mountains. A classmate of Kyon's from middle school suddenly calls him, professing his undying love for Nagato. He convinces Kyon to act as his messenger and deliver a detailed and uncomfortable confession letter to the resident alien. The following day he delivers the message and to his surprise she is actually interested in meeting the crazed boy, even if she can not agree with the terms of his love letter. In a moment of thoughtlessness, the rest of the Brigade is soon aware of whats going on. After relying the reply to the boy, the Brigade finds themselves standing in the cold late December winter watching two private high schools play each other in a game of American football. Things become dire when the boy is carted off the field on an ambulance, potentially due to supernatural interference on the part of Nagato. What is the reality of her response to this boys confession and is there something more sinister going on, as hinted at by Koizumi.
The fourth story returns back to the snowy mountain mystery game being held at Tsuruya's familly cabin. Once everyone is safe after the strange events in the abandoned lodge, they settle in for part 2 of the muder mystery they did during the Summer. This time around, to prevent too much trouble, everyone is aware it is a game and nothing terrible is really happening. Kizumi acts as the game matser, laying out the rules, introducing the parts of the performers and overseeing the group as they try to solve a locked room murder again, this time with out all the drama of it being staged like a real murder.
The final story finds Kyon going on a date with Asahina, in secret, to buy new tea for the club room. His dreams are soon crushed by reality as he notices that Asahina is hiding the reality of their day around town from him. Asahina is merely following unexplained requests from her superiors causing her stress and lack of self confidence. Through their wanderings the idea that alternate organizations, with motives counter to those he has been dealing with since the Spring, are out there as potential threats to his and everyone else's' safety. Kyon is beginning to doubt who he can trust and what is really going around everything that is centered on Haruhi and how the world changed three years earlier, during Tanabata.
We finally see the last of the story lines produced in the anime and are completely into territory that only exists in light novels with the conclusion of this book. Again, the locked room mystery was incredibly boring to me, more so than what I thought was going to be the only story line from the mountain winter retreat in the last book. But the depth that is starting to surface with the events of the date and love interest stories start to show future narratives that could be quite entertaining. I have never liked the episode of the anime that showed the movie and it was even harder to get through in text form. I have been struggling with the light novels for Haruhi. I find I enjoy the anime far more than the novels. I was wondering if it was because of the amazing work KyoAni did or how much I've watched the series over the years. The light novels were pretty much translated verbatim for the anime scripts. But there is something about this world that feels better animated. I keep comparing it to literally the only other light novel series I have yet to read, a series that I also compare to Haruhi, The Rascal Doesn't Dream series. I read all available Rascal novels as quickly as I watched the anime. was immediately drawn into the world and find the novels to be far superior to the anime. I have so much love for Haruhi but am not driven to burn through the books the way I was with Rascal. What does that say about me or the source material? Regardless, on to the great unknown for the last 5 volumes that are currently available, hopefully I re-find the joy I have in this series.
Next up, book 7!
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