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Throughout all of human history, we have been searching for the an answer. Who created us, why, when, and how? These are the questions that have pushed scientific discovery, religious fanatics, and Nagaru Tanigawa. These questions have pushed him so far as to create an alright anime about our beloved creator, a high school girl. This is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Story
The story, if you’ll call it that, is about our wonderful Nick Caraway character, Kyon, and his trip though high school as he is accompanied by a miss Haruhi Suzumiya (Who we will refer to as HZ). The main meat and potatoes of ... this anime is that HZ makes a club to find and meet otherworldly beings, time travelers, and espers. Little does she know, the 3 other members of her club are an otherworldly being, a time traveler, and an esper. It is also revealed that HZ herself is some kind of god/temporal anomaly/secret to the universe, but she doesn’t know it. It’s up to Kyon to keep it a secret from her, because hes chosen by her or something, and help keep HZ from destroying the world with her explosive attitude. Thats only for the first 6 episodes though. The first 6 are known as the story episodes while the rest are your average slice-of-life episodes, BUT with the whole time traveler, esper, alien thing to make situations. My one complaint for the story is that their isn’t enough of it. This is a great setup that, if handled properly, could have made a great scifi romantic comedy, but we have to play to the slice-of-life-rules. The story almost feels wasted, because it is never fully explored. So many more interesting ideas and story arcs could be created if they continued it, but I digress.

Characters
Colorful cast, aren’t they? Not really. The characters in this anime are ok. The main characters, Kyon and HZ, are fleshed out and well rounded. They can develop and change, as characters should. The sides however, ehhhhhhhhhh, no real development. The other characters, even with the new introduction of their powers or the reveal of their interesting lives, they don’t change their base personalities or change their cardboard cutout stereotypes the quite moe stays the quite moe, the silent one stays the silent one and so on. they never seem to break character boundaries and evolve past their stereotypes other than interesting backstories.
Music & Voices
This anime doesn’t have any standouts when it comes to music. My only gripe is the overly sugary sweet opening. My lord, its like a lollypop dipped in caramel, covered in powdered sugar, then wrapped in a bush of cotton candy, finally being chopped up and baked into a apple pie. I watched this anime dubbed, so I can’t say much for the sub, but the dub is fantastic. Crispin Freeman is a wonderful Kyon, and Wendee Lee makes a great HZ, although, you may have to get use to her when she goes from serious HZ to frantic, spontaneous, and air headed HZ. All and all, the dub is the way i’d go.

Visuals
The anime itself is a standard sort of animations. Sometimes still frames, sometimes overly bubbly animation to increases the wackiness of the situations, but all in all, a standard animation. Nothing special, except the opening. Its the perfect thing to go with the music, but its so overly sweet and bubbly. Its too bubbly.
Comedy/Action/Drama
The comedy is a standerd sort of funny. The show is littered with crazy and ineresting things that our Nick Caraway Kyon must react to and deal with. This makes a very good juxtaposition between the insanity of HZ world, and the straight guy Kyon. Their individual personalities also bring a few good laughs to the mix. However, this show is a SoL, so it has to have sexual comedy. Weird groping, panty shots, embarrassed characters with their loud shrieks, the whole package. This has the standerd sexual jokes & situations package that they flaunt whenever possible. Problem? The sexual situations are pretty much the same joke over and over, and some of Kyon’s reactions are repeats as well, But for a SoL, the comedy is great.

Final Veridic
Story 8/10, Good the first 6, but has wasted potential in the story sense.
Characters 8/10, Great development of main, but sides fall flat.
Music & Voices 9/10, Fantastic Dubbed, Opening is too sugary sweet .
Visuals 6/10, Very standerd, nothing spectacular, except the opening, MY GOD.
Comedy 9/10, Kyon’s reaction to things makes it funny, HZ personalty is over the top, but too many sexual situations for comfort (Basically reusing the same joke).
Overall this anime gets a: 8/10
This anime is available on Crunchyroll for Subs and YouTube for Dubbs.
Thanks for reading!
Toad64