The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの分裂) is the ninth volume in the Haruhi light novel series. It was written by Tanigawa Nagaru with illustrations by Ito Noizi. This ninth volume was originally released in Japan in 2011 and in English in 2013.
Click here to read the synopsis of the eighth volume, The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya. This series is 20 years old at this point, but spoilers follow.
The new year has begun and Kyon is settling into being a second year student. Not much has changed for his environment and circumstances though. He is still in the same class as Haruhi and the SOS Brigade is carrying on as if nothing changed. The group can't officially recruit new members from the incoming first years, but that isn't stopping Haruhi from doing just that, under the guise of recruiting for the literary club. While the brigade chief is distracted, Koizumi informs Kyon that his people are again dealing with Haruhi's unstable emotions in the form of closed space. He can't understand what has changed in the unruly girl to lead to the reversal of the past years calming events, even after its spelled out to him, he refuses to admit it. The root of her current internal imbalance is jealousy. Jealousy over a girl that accompanied Kyon as he met up with the others for a club outing on the final day of Spring break. The girl, Sasaki, was a close friend of his during middle school and one that Haruhi views as a potential rival for Kyon's attention.
Though Haruhi's reaction isn't wrong, it's just not for the correct reason. On the morning of another planned SOS Brigade outing, Kyon wakes up early, hoping to finally beat her to the meet up. He succeeds, but he wishes he would have slept in. Instead of finding their normal stop devoid of other Brigade members he finds three girls, two he knows, one of which he has severe animosity towards. In front of him, as if they were anticipating his arrival, are Sasaki, the rival ESPer that had kidnapped Asahina and a strange girl. He quickly deduces that the mystery girl may be another artificial human interface, similar to Nagato, but likley from a rival faction of alien beings. He is very uneasy about this as the enemies seem to bee gathering for something and are using his old friend. The ESPer is introduced as Kyoko Tachibana and the strange girl is Kuyou Suou. Kyon suspects that the rival time traveler he has higher levels for disdain for is nearby. He learns that they have approached Sasaki and are on friendly terms with her. Before he can learn any further details the other members of the SOS Brigade arrive...staring down their understood rivals. Sasaki breaks the stale mate by ushering her group towards the train, giving Kyon and his group some space to calm down...but that may take more than just leaving for the time being. After the days outing Kyon struggles with how to proceed. But he wouldn't have to worry about that too much, given his reality is about to break off into two parallel versions of it's self. Concurrently he would meet up with Sasaki's group in secret or not. The Brigade would be awash with new members or it wouldn't and Haruhi would be coming up with a test for future prospects. What could be going on and was this formed alliance of rival factions be the cause of the duality of events?
This was a fun volume even if it was all set up for the next two volumes. The past few stories have been building to the arrival of rival factions to work against the Brigade. We know have the culmination and the basic understanding of their intentions. They have rallied together under the concept that Sasaki is the one who should be in charge of modifying reality, not Haruhi. They recognize Haruhi's ability and want to see it transferred to Sasaki, who is, in their opinion, far less likely to drastically change everything around them. It is a self preservation situation for them, along with a conflicting ideology of godhood. At the basic level it is a conflict of who's prophet is more deserving of their god like status...but with the caveat of one god not yet being of equal standing. They have decided to approach Kyon, given his connection with Haruhi and his general unaffiliated status with any agency. Yet can they overcome his devotion to his strange club mates? Kyon, particularly after the incident before Christmas, has stated his intentions to maintain the status quo for as long as possible and is vocally resistant to their attempts to change his mind. Yet he doesn't understand why they believe he has the ability to get Haruhi's abilities to transfer to Sasaki.
Readers may get annoyed with the back and forth telling of the same time period in concurrent chapters in the second half of the book, but I was amused and entertained by it. It broke up the monotony of linear story telling, bringing a new dimension to the series that it seems to have lost for a while. This volume really makes me yearn for a return of the anime adaptation to see how Kyoto Animation would handle this, 'cus lets be honest, you cant have a Haruhi anime without KyoAni. And given that Haruhi's voice actor, Hirano Ayo, has returned to acting following some pretty intense attacks by her 'fans'. Plus given the live concert event that is taking place in early 2024, with Hirano in attendance....maybe this is a tease for a renewed series? More than likely that is purely wishful thinking on my end, but I can dream can't I? In any case, this volume returned the series to something that was fun and fresh, putting different twists on the way it tells the story. Something that seems to have been lacking for quite a few volumes now. Again though this volume was nothing but set up for the next two volumes, which will hopefully be entertaining.
Next up, The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya part 1.
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