The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憤慨) is the eighth volume in the Haruhi light novel series. It was written by Tanigawa Nagaru with illustrations by Ito Noizi. This eighth volume was originally released in Japan in 2006 and in English in 2012.
Click here to read the synopsis of the seventh volume, The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya. This series is 20 years old at this point, but spoilers follow.
Kyon settles in for what he hopes will be an event free end of the year as everyone prepares for finals and spring break before the new school year begins. Unfortunately his desires amount to little...and a new threat to the existence of the SOS Brigade makes it's self known. But it's not from some unfathomable source that could only exist in the depths of Haruhi's imagination. The threat is from the recently elected student council president and a declaration to defund and close the literature club due to Nagato being it's only member. If the literature club loses it's status as a club it will lose its room this depriving the SOS Brigade of it's hijacked meeting space. The Brigade still exists in a status of unofficial and I recognized limbo that the student council has tried to ignore. But the new president feels a need to flex his authority and target the unlawful Brigade in an indirect manner that could officially spell it's end
Nagato is given an ultimatum related to the continued status of her club as the new year looms. It hasn't don't anything in the past year that would be considered club activity, therefore forfeiting it's status, coupled with the reality of their only being a solitary member. The student council had approached Nagato as a way to avoid confronting Haruhi, understanding her brazen attitude. The attempt failed when Haruhi, sniffing something amiss, bursts into the student council room to confront the president as he was delivering the ultimatum. She rightfully recognized the immediate threat the ultimatum presented to the continued existence of the illegal student association known as the SOS Brigade and challenged the president to allow the literature club to continue existing if it was able to churn out a story collection, as the club had done in prior years. The president relented to the demands, expecting them to fail. With victory in hand, Haruhi set the task into motion, assigning the Brigade members with specific stories to compose. Unknown to her, the entire incident is a charade put in place by the Agency which Koizumi is a member of. The president, whether an ESPer or not, is part of the plan and was installed in his position at least partially to give this distraction to Haruhi with the potential for more in the future.
Knowing the reality behind the ultimatum, Kyon finds it hard to invest himself in his own task of writing a romance for the anthology. He isn't the only one struggling though, as the others find it hard to meet the critical demands of the self appointed editor-in-chief Haruhi. She thrust writing assignments onto the others in the club, in a manner she felt fit their personalities. But her task as final arbiter of the writings becomes the greatest threat to the publications completion, particularly with her continued critique of the works Asahina submits. She understands that the core of the Brigade won't be able to produce a sufficient amount of material for the publication so she also forces other peripheral members to participate, including Tsuruya and the computer club. As Kyon struggles to put pen to paper and come up with a romance story that would fit Haruhi's stringent requirements he wonders if the entire thing is even worth anyones time since Haruhi herself has been more calm than when he met her almost one year earlier. Koizumi feels otherwise and will do what he deems necessary to stop closed space from appearing anymore.
The final think the SOS Brigade tackles in the first year of its existence is a second client request for help exploring a super natural mystery. The first one was at the hands of a gild names Kimidori, who also happens to currently be the student council treasurer...and in Kyon's eyes, connected with Nagato. At that time she had contracted them to investigate the disappearance on her boyfriend, the head of the computer club. The resolution of the incident left more questions than answers and Kyon was quite surprised and suspicious of a second request from the student body. This new request for help was coming from one of Kyons own classmates, a semi-forgettable girl named Sakanaka. She wants the Brigade to investigate a strange occurrence in her neighborhood that is affecting peoples dogs. In the past few days all of the dogs that are taken for walks do everything in their power to avoid an area of town, an area that Sakanaka had previously been walking her pure bred dog until it started to actively resist going into. Rumors began to appear among the neighbors about there being some disturbance of a supernatural nature, potentially a ghost. She isn't sure if she believes it being a case of a haunting, but is desperate to have the Brigade look into it and find a solution, remembering flyers passed out in the beginning of the year offering such services. Haruhi eagerly agrees but remains skeptical about it being a haunting and mobilizes the other members to begin the investigation right away.
The Brigade is stunned when they go to their new clients home, her parents are quite well off and the modern splendor draws a sharp contrast to the traditional wealth and luxury they have experienced at Tsuruya's estate. Sakanaka readies her dog for his evening walk and everyone heads out to begin the investigation, with Haruhi and Asahnia focusing more on the dog than anything else. Once the reach a certain point on the usual route, the dog abruptly refuses to go any further and whimpers with worry. Instead of turning back or forcing it onward, they go around the neighborhood finding other points the dog stops in it's tracks. Through roughly pinpointing the different locations on a map they can speculate that there is a roughly central location and a circular area around it that the dog refuses to approach. But that doesn't answer the question or why? The center point appears to be located near the river that the Brigade is all too familiar with. It seems to be close by the point that Kyon was supposed to toss the unlucky turtle into earlier in the year. With not much more to go on the group ends the investigation for the day and heads home. Things go from strange to bad when Sakanaka's dog becomes unexplainably ill, refusing to eat, drink or move very much. The Brigade has to re-double their efforts and quickly before its too late to save the little dog they have fallen in love with. But what is really behind this zone of avoidance and the inexplicable illness that has not only struck Sakanaka's dog but at least one more in her neighborhood. Is this a new threat or an attack from a rival faction or another plot cooked up to keep Haruhi occupied?
It took me quite a while to get through this volume. The first half detailing the plight of the Brigade's meeting space and their attempt at putting together a literary anthology was rather...disappointing. It was peppered with excerpts from the other members attempts at story writing but seemed more like the authors only way of playing with different ideas for plot lines and oddity in a way that didn't require much commitment. The only saving grace was the introduction of an actual antagonist in the student council president and the return of Kimidori and increased background on her place in the story. The introduction of these two can lead to more interesting narrations in future volumes but only time will tell if it amounts to anything. The second part, the 'ghost' hunt was more interesting an easier to read as it had a plot trajectory. Unfortunately it didn't stray too far from the basic concepts of the first SOS Brigade investigation into the disappearance of the computer club president. Though they didn't face off against an ancient manifestation of a virus in this version...well, sort of. Anyways, even though the second part was way easier to read through out of interest, this volume was pretty disappointing. I only hope my assumption about the student council president will come to fruition.
Next up; volume nine, The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya.
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