The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, part 1 (涼宮ハルヒの驚愕 (前)) is the tenth volume in the Haruhi light novel series. It was written by Tanigawa Nagaru with illustrations by Ito Noizi. This tenth volume was originally released in Japan in 2011 and in English in 2013.
Click here to read the synopsis of the ninth volume, The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya. This series is 20 years old at this point, but spoilers follow.
Unknown to him, Kyon and everyone else is existing in two parallel worlds. In one of them Kyon's best friend from middle school, Sasaki, has her own ESPer, time traveler and alien representative. The have joined up with the strange girl to attempt to transfer the godlike powers Haruhi possess to her, to ensure a safer future under a more reasonable deity. Sasaki isn't so sure she is the right person to carry that burden or even wants it in the first place. Everything hinges on Kyon, much to his bewilderment. He and Sasaki are both resistant to the request and force the hand of the anti-SOS Brigade. The attack comes in the form of causing Nagato to succumb to flu like conditions. Haruhi jumps into action and takes it upon herself to nurse the alien back to health, wrangling Asahina into the task. Meanwhile she tasks the two male members of the group to hold down the fort at the club room, in anticipation of any new members from the current freshmen. Kyon knows that no amount of will power or home remedies via Haruhi will bring Nagato back to her normal operational mode Instead he recognizes this being an attack, most likely from the rival alien interface and confronts Sasaki's group about the attack. But what leverage does he really have to convince three people of extraordinary abilities to listen to him? Aren't they just tying to back him into a corner until he will relent to agree to their wild demands?
At the same time, in the other reality, the Brigade is fielding a dozen or so potential candidates for new members. Kyon is astonished at the level of interest their strange illegal club has drawn. He is also leery of what strange rites of passage Haruhi has in store for the unprepared applicants. Sasaki and her weird clique have stayed away and don't seem to be preparing for any sort of return. Yet he is still uneasy, for an unknown reason. One of the girls who is part of the applicants clicks something inside of him, a sense of familiarity. He is quite sure he does not know her and has never met her, but that doesn't stop the tickle at the back of his mind. Just to be safe he checks with the other members to see if there is anything unusual about her but to his relief none of the applicants are presenting as anything more than normal high school students. All he has to content with is the absurdities that the fearless Brigade Chief will unleash in her random selection processes. A process he suspects will result in everyone being rejects and the club going back to its standard five member status while the wile away the time before the next hiccup to her personality fires off.
This, the second part of a potentially three part arc, followed the pacing of the last volume and burned slow and thought out. It was really quite enjoyable over all and brings a new level of satisfaction to the world as a whole. The two story lines, which switch off with each chapter, present a view point of how things could be different if given a change of behavior revolving around one point in time. Where we saw the entirely different world in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, where Kyon was the only one how remembered the other world, this time we see both worlds independent of each other. There are occasional hints that thinks may not be as they seem, particularly with some off side comments when Kyon and Koizumi converse. Little hints that the world in which the Brigade is fielding a dozen new prospective members might not be real...more like a Matrix situation. :Perhaps they are in a simulation.
it will be very interesting how everything plays out in the second part. These past two volumes have also been the strongest writing/story telling this series has seen in quite a while. Tanigawa-san seems to have finally hit his stride with a cohesive and long range narrative, instead of going through various random story styles he fancies testing out. I don't think this narrative will continue into volume twelve so this may be the last hurrah of the series from a really enjoyable perspective. I'll have to enjoy the next volume for what it represents, possibly the last solid writing for the series for now. I can't guarantee that the final volume will be as enjoyable as these past two were and the next one will probably be. But, there is always hope for the apparent thirteenth volume?
Next up, the continuation of the Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya part 2 and possibly the resolution of this story line.
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